that we have "Life" in Christ. For here are two perfectly distinct truths, though they are invariably conjoined in the New Testament. For that Jesus is the Christ is one truth, that you or I have Life in him is another. We must believe in Christ before we can have life in Him, and a man may think he has life in Christ, who yet does not believe in the Christ of the New Testament. With you I believe every believer in Christ has "Life in him;" and this much, or something like it, the multitude profess to believe of every true believer as they speak. But the query is, what is a true believer, what is that truth he believes, and with which salvation in the Scriptures is inseparably connected? For whatever that truth means, it is, undoubtedly, "the way of salvation," "the word of eternal life." "Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we have believed and know that thou art the Holy One of God." John vi. 68, 69.

This being so, I know not a more important question for consideration, than what our Lord and his apostles mean by believing in him; nor with the meaning of which is more intimately connected the salvation, peace, and the hope of every sinner. My object simply was, to elicit your explanation and, perhaps, raise some discussion upon my query, the more as I do not think these words are generally understood as our Lord and his disciples understood them. From your reply I see you do not consider the assent or admission that Jesus is the Christ is what either our Lord or his apostles meant by believing in him; that the multitude believe this much; but when one further believes he has "life in Christ," that his assent or admission becomes saving faith. In this thought I do not agree with you. That Jesus

of Nazareth was the promised Messiah, the Son of God-the Saviour, Lord over all, I hold was, "the glad tidings of great joy" declared to all people, for their belief that they might be saved; in a word, the Gospel. This Gospel is true, whether we believe it or not, but the belief that you or I have "Life" in believing in this Gospel is not the Gospel; for it is neither what is or could be revealed, and our belief of which might be true or untrue. The Gospel of Life is a testimony entirely and exclusively concerning Christ; the belief that you or I have Life in him is a declaration concerning our state, circumstances, and relation to Christ, and is conditional on our believing in him. It is not then our believing we have "Life" in Christ, that turns our belief that he is the Christ into saving faith; but our now believing that he is the Christ, in place of what we have, perhaps, been alone doing-merely professing a belief in him.

What the multitude mean by their profession, assent, or admission that Jesus is the Christ I do not know. I only know that the majority of Christian professors, with no better belief in Christ than they now seem to have, would have ranked with the scribes and pharisees in rejecting Him. Every Jew believed in a Christ to come; just as every professing Christian believes that a Christ has come. We know what happened when their promised Messiah did come, and for my part, I do not think the profession of the multitudes in our day is any better. I have said it is one truth that "Jesus is the Christ," and another "that we have Life in him," and I would hold that one may-and I believe many do-believe in Christ who yet do not know they have Life in him; and the rea

son why is not far to seek; for we are constantly told that the belief of any one truth or of any number of truths, will not and cannot save any one; that is, salvation is conditional on works, on something very difficult to define, coupled with our realising a certain character, not even attempted by most, and, as I believe, unattainable by any who are supposed to be as yet in some middle state, neither a believer nor unbeliever.

My mind, then, on "the way of salvation," as I understand it, was declared by our Lord himself, and by his apostles, was this;-that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah; the Son of God; the Saviour; Lord over all. These different titles belong to Jesus of Nazareth exclusively, and each or any of them implies his title to the others. These titles are divinely recorded or testified, and are the subject of the Gospel-which is a declaration or a proclamation of who Jesus of Nazareth was, and proved by his resurrection from the dead. This is that "Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation" of every one who believes what it declares. It is not an offer; nor a proposal; nor a law of works to be obeyed or kept; nor an exposition of the atonement, or work of Christ upon the cross, but a Record or Testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth. And being a Record or Testimony, and therefore unconditional, it is equally addressed to all, free to all, suited to all and it is good news to every man whether he believe it or no. It involves no questions beyond this-Is it true? He that believeth this Record has "Life," but he that believeth not-no matter what else he may believe or think-has not "Life."

It is true we are told, "This is

the record that God hath given to us everlasting life, and this life is in him;" but it is immediately added, "he that hath the Son hath the Life, and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not the Life" (1 John v. 12), and how this Life in the Son is attained, we are told in ver. 20, "We know that the Son of God is come," we know the true one," and we are in the true One."

Now what is the state of the professing

Christian Church? There is notoriously in it neither union nor communion. The majority, if asked, cannot tell with any distinctness what is the Gospel, and no two agree in what it is they are invited to believe unto salvation. Can we wonder, then, that the multitudes are walking as to this salvation in the dark? Why is this so? In the end, no doubt, we are ourselves responsible for our unbelief. But at the same time I have no hesitation in saying that the Gospel usually preached is a way of salvation by works, and that this is so is in consequence of what they are taught. It was for these reasons I felt my anxiety to draw the attention of the RAINBOW to the subject, and I still think some of your writers might do worse than turn their attention to the all-important question-What are sinners to believe in order to their salvation?-Believe me, with much esteem, yours sincerely,

W. HAMILTON. M.D. Marlton, Wicklow. [Do not the closing words of John XX. entirely meet this case?

The

words are: "Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name."-EDITOR.]

LIFE.

DEAR SIR," To define life you must specify what it is that is possessed in common by the Creator and a blade of grass, but is not possessed by a stone.”

The above sentence appeared in Mr. Minton's paper in your July issue of the Rainbow. Without attempting to define life, I would suggest the following common characteristic, i.e., a selecting, appropriating, and assimilating principle.

Life in every form chooses from the compound bodies it lives upon those elements suitable to its particular wants, and rejects the others. As is seen in the oxidation of the blood, and the renewal of tissue, as well as in the results produced by the absorption of nourishment by the roots and leaves of plants. They all select: they all appropriate they all assimilate.

In mortal man and the lower forms of animal creation this takes place to supply waste, and to renew and increase the life. But with him who is life there can be no need for this. May there not, however, be a beautiful truth contained in the application of this very principle to our God? May it not be said that he, in selecting, appropriating, and assimilating, is still acting under the common law of life? He chooses the good and refuses the evil. "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." Is not this selecting? "Your life is hid with Christ in God." Is not this

appropriating? appropriating?"For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Here is assimilation.

So that life in every form, from the highest to the lowest, may be considered to manifest in common the selecting, appropriating, and assimilating principle.

Yours faithfully,

W. H. PORTER.

MATTHEW XXV 46. DEAR SIR,-An article in the March number of RAINBOW, entitled "The Assize of the Nations," concludes with these words. "The whole scene in the passage before us, is suggestive of many important considerations."

Will the editor kindly give place in his pages to the following important considerations drawn from Matt. xxv. 46. Subject: The living nations on the earth at the time" when the Son of Man shall come in his glory." "These shall go away into everlasting (age-lasting) punishment, but the righteous into life eternal" (age-lasting).

Query: What life? It is not their life that is predicated of, but the scene, place, condition, and circumstances into which they are ushered. Psalm xxxvii. and Psalm lxxii. vividly present this very scene, full of abundance of life. But the question to be considered is this: Are these favoured ones transmuted into immortals? Are they not rather, as living persons in natural bodies, the nucleus of the population of Messiah's kingdom? They have not been" changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Neither have they passed through death and resurrection. Why are they so generally supposed to enjoy immunity from that which is "appointed unto men;once to die?" And further: does not the scene of the great white throne, with the opening of the books, lead to the expectation that these are among the host that appear there for judgment: having lived an ordinary, or perhaps, prolonged term of life in their circumstances, and passed away as the generations from Adam to the present time?

It is maintained by some teachers of divine things, that when the "Book of Life" (Rev. xx. 12, 15)

is opened, no name is to be found there. (Lectures on Revelation, by Wm. Kelly, p. 608.) This would be correct if the millennial period did not add its quota to the "rest of the dead" who were left for judgment at the beginning of that period.

Would it be too much to assume that the state into which the "righteous" (as living persons in natural bodies) are admitted is probationary: whilst that into which those pronounced "accursed' are dismissed, is disciplinary? But if the "blessed," as a sequence of being made participators of the life of joy and gladness that flow from the presence of the Great King, are not thereby immortalised, but stand among the resurrected dead, small and great, before the great white throne, either to hear their names called from the book of life, or the dire alternative, to be cast into the lake of fire; then, by parity of reasoning, that assembly on the left hand dismissed into everlasting (age-lasting) punishment, must be regarded as living persons in natural bodies, capable of enduring punishment according to the normal signification of that word.

Again: If the thirty-seventh and seventy-second Psalms afford a picture of the "inheritance" into which the righteous enter, it clearly represents that inheritance as on the face of the earth. Then, once more, by parity of reasoning, the place of punishment must be assumed to be also on the face of the earth, and not within it.

It is certain only one hemisphere can be illumined by the heavenly city, the abode of the glorified saints (the raised dead, and the "changed" living,), as that city remains stationary over the earthly Jerusalem during the millennium. The opposite hemisphere might

well be conceived of as the place of banishment ("shall go away") and age-lasting punishment: exclusion from the glory of the kingdom. Well may there be anguish and sorrow; "weeping, and wail

ing, and gnashing of teeth" in this outer darkness. (Not total of course, but in relation to the glory.) "The nations of them that are saved, walk in the light of it." C. L.

Erratum.-In page 353, last number, line 7 from top, for push, read crush.

"E. S. D." says:-"I cannot believe the earth a globe. I keep close to Psalm xix. O, the magnificent simplicity of Holy Scripture ! Your work is marvellous for developing deep thoughts."

B. G. O. MATTHEWS, and J. M. TOZIER; received with thanks.

ROBERT REEVES, and C. G. DARVELL.-The motive of your letters is appreciated; but we knew all this many years ago, and can answer it easily. Wait, and you will thank us for TRUTH instead of "theory," and prize the Rainbow more than ever.

"B. B."-Our answer is, "The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." Every believer in the coming kingdom of our blessed LORD should be glad to get as much light as he can about the world in which that kingdom is to be established, and such light is found only in the Bible."

"H. G." writes: "If men of an orthodox school were susceptible of the conviction that the Bible is the fountain of all truth, whether of science or theology, they would certainly feel a qualm of conscience on reading your article on The Astronomy of the Bible.' It is clear and thorough. Howbeit if such are not to be gained, it will surely serve to establish and strengthen the believer in the Word, and also to confirm the wavering. GOD grant it, for his name's sake!"

JAMES MUIR.-Job xxvi. 7, so far from suggesting that the earth is "a globe," proves it a plane, at rest. As Adam Clarke supposes, it refers" to the opinion that the earth was a vast extended plain, and the heavens poised upon it, resting on this plain all round the horizon." Hangeth the earth upon nothing, is rendered by the Chaldee, "He lays the earth upon the waters, nothing sustaining it." Your learned townsman, Dr. RORERT YOUNG, reads, "Stretching out the north over deso

lation, hanging the earth upon nothing." Hanging, or suspending, absolutely excludes the idea of motion. As to its "never being stated it is a flat," there is abundant evidence for the fact in the absence of the word.

Longer than the earth and broader than the sea," are terms applicable to a plane, but not to a sphere. "He stretched out the earth above the waters" (Ps. cxxxvi. 6), necessitates the thought of a flat or plane. Spreading the earth over the waters-true or not, there are the words! We believe them, and will believe them, though all men forsake us. "Spreading, or stretching out the heavens over the earth," gives the same thought. Stretching out the heavens over a globe would be utterly unintelligible. We thank our correspondent for his good wishes. He also says, "I have read your article in this month's Rainbow, on the Astronomy of the Bible,' with great interest."

"H. S." says:-"Once more you have fearlessly vindicated the truth of the Bible. You have my fervent thanks-all that I have to give. But you will be abundantly rewarded some day, for it is written, Them that honour me I will honour.' He whom you serve will raise up friends and helpers. Fear not!"

"O P."-On the theory of universal gravitation, we refer you to a masterly paper read before the Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society of Great Britain, entitled "On Current Physical Astronomy," by JAMES REDDIE, Esq., Hon. Mem. Dial. Soc. Edin. Univ., Hon. Sec. Vict. Inst. We go much farther in our dissent from Corpernicus and Newton than Mr. Reddie does; but it is very suggestive to find a learned scientific astronomer disputing the theory on which modern astronomy rests. "For more now than a quarter of a century," he says, "I have known practically what it is to be a scientific heretic,' and how it fares with any who will venture to throw doubt