Man may therefore in himself be called a total failure after all his trials, for not even the presence of "the Second Man, the Lord from heaven," will bring about an answer to the prayer which stands at the head of this paper.

I have said that Jesus taught his disciples to pray to their Father: "our Father,"-"my Father, and your Father,"*-and to ask of him, "Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven;" i.e., perfectly, heartily, and, above all, satisfactorily, and acceptably to the Father, God.

I have shown that the answer to this prayer will not be fully given in this present dispensation, nor in the millennial reign of the Lord. Jesus; but would our Saviour have put words into the lips of his disciples that were not intended to be answered ?-to mock them? Nay, verily.

Then how and when will this petition meet with its fulfilment ? I will try to explain :

In 1 Cor. xv. 23, we find, "Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming "† (this is the first resurrection, Rev. xx. 5); "then the end, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father: when he shall have put down all rule and authority and power," &c.‡

Now, Peter (2 Pet. iii. 7) tells us, "The heavens and earth that are now are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Also, in Rev. xxi. 1, we read: "I saw a new heaven, and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city coming down from God out of heaven" (to earth); and then we have the promise of no more tears, no more curse, no more death (this will not be the case in the millennium), nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. The former things will have passed away-and then follows a description of that beautiful city so transcendently grand and gorgeous that many Christians (literalists in nearly everything) seem afraid to believe it, and forget that with God all things are possible, and that this precious last book is a revelation of things that shall shortly come to pass and when the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb the light thereof,— no sun, no moon required; - no night there, and when defilement, abomination, and lies are unknown, and the only inhabitants of that city those who are written in the Lamb's book of life; the water of life flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb-also the tree of life:

* John xx. 17.

See to end of verse 28.

† 1 Cor. xv. 51-57; 1 Thess. iv. 13-18.

man no longer debarred from either: no more curse; but God's servants shall serve him for ever and ever. Then shall be brought to pass the entire fulfilment of the answer to that beautiful petition, "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

Z. B. G.

SPES RESURRECTIONIS.
(Continued from page 383.)

WALK into a Catholic cemetery, and you will observe printed tickets

stuck up, in and about the church porch, soliciting your prayers for the repose of the souls of such as have recently deceased; concerning whom it is occasionally added that they have "departed this life fortified by all the rites of holy church." After all this fortification, one might suppose that further prayer were useless. But then there is Scripture quoted in support of the supplementary process,-apocryphal Scripture, if you will, but presented to your notice nevertheless in chapter and verse. The story of Judas and his company, in the 12th chapter of the second Maccabees, it is which does duty on this occasion, in the concluding verses of which chapter it is undoubtedly declared to be a good and holy thing to pray for our dead friends "in order that they may be loosed from their sins." The Romanist version of that passage differs somewhat from our own authorised version; but the pervading sentiment is the same, viz., that intercessory action for the dead is worth paying for, and is to be purchased at the priest's hand. But here the value of this valueless quotation ceases, so far as the practice of the Romanists is concerned, and a little closer inspection into the recorded narrative immediately brings out into fresh light the incurable tendency of that party to falsify and misconstrue. Prayers for the dead, according to Rome, are always assumed and understood to have an influence on the purgatorial scenery of the intermediate state; they exert an ameliorating influence, that is to say, on sufferings immediately following death. The money transferred from the pocket of surviving relatives to that of the priest, if lavished in sufficient quantity, might even have the effect of procuring instant release from all further penalty; in accordance with the well-known formula of the renowned Tetzel, that so soon as the coin was heard to clink at the bottom of his subscription-box, a soul leaped up from purgatory and entered Paradise. The actual and prospective gains of Pontifex were thus secured as long as the insatiable maw of Hades should remain unfilled.

But the action of the Maccabean Judas went on no such assumption as this. He knew that his dead comrades would remain dead until the morning of the resurrection, and that the only warrant for intercessory action on his part lay in the fact, not that they were still alive and

suffering, but that they would eventually rise again. His misguided benevolence looked forward across the dreary interval where death reigns, and indulged the hope of enhancing the ultimate triumph of his brethren. Let us now briefly refer to the legend in question.

Judas and his company, we are told, when they went to bury the bodies of their slain brethren, discovered that these latter had concealed under their coats things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites; and as this was strictly prohibited by the Jewish law, it was concluded to be the judicial cause of their death. The survivors thereupon praised the Lord, who had thus brought hidden things to light; and they prayed him that the sins committed might be wholly put out of his remembrance. Judas, moreover, having exhorted them all to keep themselves from a form of transgression of which the results were so manifestly before their eyes, made a gathering to the amount of two thousand drachms of silver, which he sent to Jerusalem to procure a sin-offering,-" doing therein," we are assured, "very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection; for if he had not expected these slain men to rise again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for them. And inasmuch as he was aware of the grace laid up for the righteous dead, it was a holy and good thought thus to make reconciliation for the dead, that they might be loosed from their sins." ASPIRATOR.

1.

TESTS

EXPOSITORY NOTES.

ESTS OF FAITH.-1 John ii. 5; iii. 14, 18, 19, 23, 24. The legitimate use of tests will be seen, if we remember that the Spirit prescribes them not to those who doubt, but to those who already believe that they are the children of God. Accordingly, they are to be employed not to determine our assurance in the first instance, but to confirm that assurance. In other words, they are not prior conditions to our rejoicing in the blessing of reconciliation, but corroborating evidences that we have received it. Believing the Gospel, and realising that we are accepted simply because God says it, comes first; then we can bear the application of whatever practical criteria. But to apply these before there is a sense of reconciliation is premature. It is to look for fruit before the truth, which alone can produce it, has taken root; and is like the hypochondriac feeling his pulse while his circulation is disordered by his morbid fears. It is the man in health consciously enjoying it, or rather enjoying it in happy unconsciousness of any symptoms, who can best engage in self-examination touching its functions; and the same may be observed in regard to spiritual health. Its laws, as in physiology, ever bid us beware of disturbing the action of any organ by unduly watching it.

2. THE GOSPEL.-The truth that saves is the revelation of the holy love of God, which centres in the sacrificial death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is all important to lay emphasis upon this, and not merely to dilate upon the moral beauty of the life of Jesus, terminating with his sufferings at the hands of man. For his life was in order to (as one of its ends)-his death; and that not necessarily at the hands of man, who herein was guilty of his murder; but rather at the hand of the righteous Jehovah. With wicked hands men crucified and slew the Holy One. (Acts ii. 23.) But underlying his death, thus inflicted, were the sufferings of the precious victim Godward; and these constitute the atonement-God "making his soul an offering for sin," (Isa. liii. 10,) “making him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor. v. 21.) In putting the gospel before the sinner, in order to his enjoyment of peace, this grand theme ought never to be omitted; in this the essence of the gospel consists.

3. ASSURANCE. We read of "the full assurance" of faith (Heb. x. 22); "the full assurance of understanding (Col. ii. 2); and "the full assurance" of hope (Heb. vi. 11). But the term in all these places is λnpopopia which simply means affluence or abounding; not at all what is popularly understood by the term "assurance "---namely, a sense of reconciliation with God, which is an elementary enjoyment of spiritual life, and ought ever to accompany reconciliation. This accordingly is pre-supposed in the several texts in question; but the specific exhortation of the Spirit is that believers should abound in the graces mentioned-in "faith," that is in reliance on the object of faith; in "understanding," that is in clear apprehension of such object of faith; and in "hope," that is in anticipation of the glory that is coming. For hope is never associated with forgiveness of sin as its object, forgiveness being the present blessing of the believer-but always with the future. For example: "hope of the glory of God," "hope of salvation," that is, consummated salvation. It is, in fact, the expression for future unseen good; and we can conceive of believers-indeed, they are too many—who are very deficient under this head, by reason of their not taking knowledge of the future, as God reveals it in His word; just as other believers are deficient in their apprehension and religion on those truths which are the objects of faith.

4. TRUE RITUALISM.-The genuine fire in the typical offerings of old, was taken from off the altar of burnt offering, whereon the atoning sacrifices had been consumed. And so all our worship in the Christian Sanctuary ought to be redolent of what that altar signified, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." But, Christian! the record :-"Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron . . . offered fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not; and there

went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before. the Lord." (Lev. x. 1, 2.) What was the strange fire?

5. PREACHING CHRIST.-Of course the grand topic of all true preaching is CHRIST-His glorious person and work revealing God as the God of salvation. He is the magnet to lift up before men, whereby to draw their hearts to God. He interprets God to us. He interprets us to ourselves. Confronted with him-the Fountain and End of their being -men must own in the depths of their innermost selves-however struggling like the demoniac to deny it-that they have "to do with him," that they were made for him, and only in him can find rest for their spirits; that not the round world can fill the triangle of their hearts, but only the triune God revealed in Jesus! And in him how complete is found the adaptation to all our need, the satisfaction to all our aspirations! The exaggerated sentiment, that till a man meets the friend ordained for him, he lies fallow even to himself, but is then broached, as it were, into the consciousness and development of his various powers and capacities, finds its complete application here to the Divine Friend-the God-man, the Redeemer; and so the believer realises with the apostle that "to live is Christ." For to live is to love; and of love Christ is the only satisfying object, all creature-love being but a long drawn sigh. Thus to come to HIM, is to have rest. "Out of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things; to whom be glory for ever. Amen."

I.

I

PHILOLOGUS.

"THE DEAD KNOW NOT ANYTHING."

HAVE to thank Mr. Warleigh for the kind and courteous manner in which he has spoken of me in his review of my work on Hades in the RAINBOW of last month. In my reply to his observations, I will endeavour to imitate the manner and the spirit which he has displayed.

II. Mr. Warleigh agrees with me fully on most of the points on which I have treated. He agrees with me that Hades means the grave: that in death the body and soul of all men, believers and unbelievers alike, perish until the resurrection: that the spirit or breath of life is in truth God's own Spirit, the source of all life whatsoever, whether of the life of man, or of the lower creatures; and that the believer is not complete either in the integrity of his nature or in his happiness until after the resurrection (492-8). These are most important points of agreement, and I hope much that Mr. Warleigh may yet be led to agree in every respect with me. The matter on which we differ is one of fully equal importance with any of those on which we are agreed, and I can only say that, after reading Mr. Warleigh's article over very carefully several times, the reading of it has but confirmed me in my sense of the truth of my position; and of its vital importance in the great question of life and death.