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less nights because of my grief, but now I could not sleep for the tumultuous joy that filled my breast. I would not have given that experience for a hundred thousand fortunes.

All burdens we can thus roll upon Christ, for Christ is by our side. So perfect is the communion between the believer and the Christian, that no one can tell where the man ends and Christ begins. It is a marriage of souls. The Church is the bride. We converse with Christ as perfectly as did Mary sitting at his feet. Christ I will be with us in death, and through death, blessed be His name. Eternity will not be sufficient to unfold the full meaning of the text, "I am the life"; that our life is in Christ, on Christ, for Christ, with Christ.

God grant that we may all experience what the life is which Christ can give to man.

J. A. M. CHAPMAN, D.D.

The Peace of the Saints.
ISAIAH Xxvi. 3.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee."

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THE word "keep seems tame and suggestive. But it means in this passage to "keep as with a garrison." The picture which the word but dimly outlines is the human soul as a citadel with battlements, towers, inhabitants. It is beleaguered by a hostile army. All the force and skill of the enemy are directed to the demolition of the fortress and the destruction of its occupants. But there is a powerful Ally, an omnipotent Friend, who has come at the urgent call of those in distress, and is, with consummate skill and irresistible strength, repelling every assault. Consider

I. THE FOES THAT WAR AGAINST OUR PEACE.

Spiritual disquietude is a uni

versal experience of humanity. There are various degrees of unrest; and there are times in the history of some of the saints of God when every trace of anxiety is removed. But in greater or less degree, at some time or other in their lives, all rational, human creatures have felt the gnawings of spiritual disquietude.

1. The consciousness of guilt. Along with the knowledge of Divine relationship and duty, there is always a sense of shortcoming. "I am not what I ought be." And as an immediate result there is necessarily a feeling of unrest that depresses the soul. Peace takes its flight from the heart that is oppressed with a sense of unforgiven sin.

2. The consciousness of antagonism to God and holiness. This is more than guilt; it is a habit of thought, and feeling, and action, which is essentially evil and progressively vile. So long as a consciousness of this disorder continues, there can be no peace in the soul. We are so constituted that complete satisfaction of heart can never be realized except through the knowledge that we are in harmony with God and His unfallen universe. Why this is so, we may not be able to explain; but the fact itself is Unrest is born of perfectly clear. spiritual disease.

3. The ordinary troubles of life. All human experience is more or less characterized by unpleasant circumstances and events. Childhood has its peculiar sorrows, which, though short-lived, are real and bitter to the childish heart. Youth is not exempt from grief. Pain and privation often becloud the brow where the sunlight of young hope and joy is wont to linger. Middle life is full of trial, and labour, and anguish. Poverty is a well-known form of trouble. Sickness, in all its multifarious forms and various degrees, is a common species of human trouble.

Bereavement is a sombre visitor whose knock has jarred at almost every door, and whose coming always bruises and lacerates the heart. Besides these forms of trouble, there are hosts of others. Now, these troubles are everpresent and relentless foes to our peace of mind. They besiege the citadel of the soul from morning light to evening shade, and even our dreams bear the impress of their influence. At times they fill the heart with utter wretchedness; and, even when our joyful experiences predominate, still the shadow of evil is near at hand, and soon it falls athwart our path.

4. The dread of Death. "Some through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage." This fear fills more hearts than ever quaked before Sesostris or Alexander, Charlemagne or Napoleon. For, whatever else may be uncertain, death is sure to come. Upon whatever other points men may be sceptical, they are firm believers in the dissolution of soul and body. What lies beyond it? Death thus becomes a destroyer of our peace. That very fear is the opposite of peace, and the two are incompatible with each other.

II. THE POSSIBILITY OF PEACE IN SPITE OF THESE FOES.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace." Keep whom? A man

compassed about with infirmities, and subject naturally to all these interruptions of peace. Not merely a transitory and half-developed peace, but perfect, complete, abiding, satisfying peace. In spite of all the harassments of life, the Spirit of Inspiration heartily and constantly affirms that perfect peace may be attained and enjoyed.

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This peace does not come to the child of God by any exemption from the ordinary lot of human beings.

Nor is this peace insensibility to the ills of life. The faculty of feeling is not taken away.

This peace comes in spite of past guilt and disorder; in spite of all weakness and temptations; in spite of the grave; and in spite of the keen sensitiveness of the soul to all its surroundings. We speak of the wild and stormy ocean as if all its secret depths were stirred by storms. We forget that it is only a surface agitation. The great heart of the ocean is always calm and peaceful. So a believer's outer life may be full of trouble and distress, and yet the heart be full of comfort in the enjoyment of that Divine peace which passeth all understanding.

III. THE DIVINE ALLY WHO GAR RISONS OUR HEARTS.

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"Thou wilt keep." Almighty God is called " the God of peace," Here the mystery is explained by the presence in the fortress of the Omnipotent God as an Ally. He is not an indifferent spectator of our struggles. He comes with all, the comforts of His love, and all the resources of His infinite power. As light radiates from the sun, and delicious odours exhale from flowers, so sweet influences of peace flow out from the presence of God while He abides as the welcome guest of the heart.

IV. THE CONDITION UPON WHICH GOD KEEPS THE SOUL IN PERFECT PEACE.

It is the man "whose mind is stayed on God-who "trusteth in" God-that He will keep in perfect peace. Faith, trust in God, is the one indispensable condition of peace.

1. Faith in a complete atonement brings perfect peace, as opposed to that disquietude which arises from a consciousness of guilt.

2. Faith in the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit brings perfect peace, as opposed to that unrest which is born of a con

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THIS not а few consider equivalent to Sterne's famous apothegm, "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." But most critics give the whole verse a different rendering. The animated questions of verse 7 mean that God does not smite His people as He did their oppressors, but far otherwise. Then, in the following verse, the moderation of His chastisements is positively set forth, thus:

In measure, when thou puttest her away, dost thou contend with her;

He removeth her with his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

That is, instead of a sweeping calamity, He sends one that is carefully measured, so as not to exceed proper bounds; and instead of a continuous course of correction, He takes advantage of a tempestuous east wind to effect removal, which, however, will be no more permanent than is the direction of the wind.

ISAIAH XXviii. 10.

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"Precept must be upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little."

MANY readers understand this as suggesting the abundance of divine revelations, and the persistency with which they should be enforced. But all later writers consider this verse and the preceding as the utterance of wicked scoffers

J. T. WHITLEY.

Texts.

at the prophet. These men express contempt for him as fit only to instruct children, thus:

Whom will he teach knowledge,

And whom will he make to understand the message?

Them that are weaned from the milk,
And drawn from the breasts.

To these babes and sucklings his works are adapted by their perpetual repetition of elementary truths. (All the Hebrew words are monosyllables, and this fact should guide the translation.)

PROVERBS ix. 7.

"He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame."

THE word rendered scorner is better expressed according to modern usage by the term scoffer, i.e., one who not only feels contempt for a person or thing, but expresses it by word or act. But a more important correction is required in the case of the last word of the sentence. One who reproves on just cause never has occasion to feel ashamed, no matter what may be the result, for he has simply done his duty. Nor does the original text say so, for the word translated "shame" is not the one usually so rendered, but another, signifying not what a man feels himself, but what others do to him; and the true rendering here is dishonour or reproach. We all know that a reprover, however wise, often gets only reviling for his pains.

ISAIAH xxvi. 19.

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THIS is a beautiful reference to the doctrine of the resurrection, "Thy dead men shall live: together with my dead body shall they arise." But the words supplied in the Authorized Version, besides their gratuitous character, point a reference to a doctrine of the New Testament, which there is no reason to believe was in the prophet's mind. It is better to render literally: Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise." The phrase, then, is a figurative statement of the return from exile. Just as Paul speaks of Israel's restoration to favour as life from the dead, so here Isaiah sets forth the deliverance from Babylon as a resurrection. The earth feels the dew of heaven and casts forth its dead because they are God's. Of course, the use of such a figure would imply a more or less vivid

conception of some such general awakening one day to befall all that sleep in the dust.

PROVERBS vi. 22.

SOLOMON Sets forth very strongly the helplessness of the silly youth who is enticed by the fair speech of the strange woman: "He goeth after her straightway as an OX goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks." But the last clause is made more forcible by a correct rendering, viz., "as a man in fetters to the correction of the fool." The chained convict on his way to the place of punishment, and the ox driven by superior force to the shambles, are lively emblems of the slavish bondage in which the victim of sensuality is held. He has resigned the control of reason, and is handcuffed by vice.

Life Lessons in the Acts of the Apostles.

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KING AGRIPPA, in his scornful outburst-rejecting the idea that he should be thought of as a believer. ---used the term "a Christian." "Lightly and easily thou art persuading thyself to make me a Christian." The apostle here neither accepts nor uses such a phrase. The king indeed had forgotten himself, as much even as Festus, when he condescended to its use.

"The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." But the disciples never so called themselves. They rather, indeed, resented the petty joke which affixed this stigma to their fellowship. They

were a hated class, following a detestable superstition, upholding the honour of the Carpenter who had made such an impression upon the poor, and outcast, and suffering in Judea and Galilee, and who had been crucified. They had no learning, no ritual, no philosophy, no sweet or honied speech, no voluptuous charms; and Rome, with her haughty insolence and her pride of power; and Greece, with her mysteries, and philosophic speculations, and moralisings, and decorated lusts, and beautiful impiety; and Judaism, with its pride of patriarchal descent, and its strength of blind prejudice, and its priestly hate, were delighted to be able to cast their ineffable contempt upon the new religion and its professors by the use of a new-coined piece of "slang," so smart, and clever, and expressive "Christians!" The word of

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opprobrium has been strangely glorified in the most marvellous conquests ever achieved since the world was. "The reproach of Christ" has become more honourable than the brightest diadem which adorns the brow of any earthly potentate. Christian, is greater, and mightier, and more noble than Greek, Roman, Jew, or the proudest name of honour on the roll of fame.

But if Paul did not accept the name of contempt, even from the king, he knew what innermost meaning might be couched beneath the phrase. He was not ashamed of the Master he served; he was not afraid to confess the Christ he loved. He would not for a moment shirk the full avowal of his identity with those who were thus scorned and gibed. His soul was stirred with the mightiest emotion which can throb the heart of humanity; and, rising to a height of majestic passion, such as no other religion ever did or could inspire, with the pathos of a divine love, yearning for human salvation, he exclaimed, as he lifted the right arm to which hung the chain which attached him to the left arm of the soldier who had him in charge, “I would pray to God that, whether with little effort, or with great, not only thou, but all who hear me to-day, might become such as I am, except these bonds."

"Such as I am " is no expression of over-developed self consciousness; is no egotistic boast; is no over-weening vanity. It is a reproof addressed to the king for the use of the term of opprobrium; but it is an avowal of the apostle's identity of sentiment, and feeling, and life with those whom he had thus designated. We do not press the words unduly when we use them, therefore, to help to a full and adequate conception of what is involved in the designation "altogether a Christian."

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Some human lives are all poetry, and some all prose.' Some flash with the lights of genius and crea

tive power, and some are merely commonplace and humdrum. Some march like an army to conflictthey are the forces which determine national and immortal destinies; and some are songs without words, sweet, and shallow, and meaningless, and uninfluential. Paul was a mighty creative force in the world of men. Amid the thoughts and passions out of which come to be welded into new forms molten masses of living metal, he was supreme. His mark is cut most deeply into the very heart of the world's new life. He is more to us than imperial Cæsar, than Alexander, than Plato, than Zoroaster, than Mahomet, than any other teacher who has ever touched the problems of human history, or lighted up the darkness of its ignorance and its sin. He speaks the language of the common human heart, and yet has heights of knowledge to which only a few adventurous spirits can approach, and depths so profound that but few lines can reach so far. He has interpreted man; he has interpreted the heart of God in Christ; the passion of the cross, divine and human; the whole wonder of incarnate love-as none other ever did, as none other can. This life ennobles not one nation, but humanity. The Apostle of the Gentiles, he is the Apostle of the world, unlimited in his influence by any narrow nationalities or sectarianisms; and here, absorbed in the passion in which he ever lost himself, and great in Him whose lustre irradiates and beautifies his own and all other life, he points us to the new character he had attained, the new experience he had felt; and, with whatever ease or with whatever difficulty, he prays to the most high God that we may become what he already was.

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Altogether a Christian." question is an important one: What does this designation really cover, and what does it imply and express?

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