kindred works, were written in a zeal without knowledge, and earnestness without love, a higher truth sacrificed in defence of a lower-how it could be that one so well acquainted with his Bible could so completely overlook 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5-how far Edward Irving was anointed for a special work, and did it well, and for it became cast out as evil, and died of a broken heart, who was to blame for it, and to what extent his errors were real or supposed :how far he and his Master will agree in recognising the work of the "Twelve Apostles Restored," and their Catholic Apostolic institution as human or divine :-how far another distinguished servant of Christ succeeded Edward Irving in testimony to the coming Bridegroom for some fifteen years, and then failed, although he lived on other thirty years in comparative silence and obscurity; many wait the decisions of that day for an explanation of all this-how far the Brethren, popularly known as the Plymouth Brethren, started fairly, stood well a while, promised great things for the true Church of Christ in their coming out of the Babylon of sectarianism in obedience to the Spirit's guidance as a witness much needed for the time-(by the way, since we spoke of this section of the Church in one of our earliest pages, we have learned that our esteemed brother, Benjamin Wills Newton, has not been connected with Brethren of late years, but has been rather ignored by them, as giving countenance to the one-manministry, by ministering statedly himself to a gathering of believers who value his teaching) :—who has been to blame for these divisions, and why the question should be asked by some, Whether J. N. Darby has wrought most good or most harm in the Church of Christ the last forty years? we shall then and there learn from the Master's own lips :—whether the Council of Eight of recent times, in dealing with a supposed erring brother, performed the wise and loving part of brethren in healing a cruel wound, or helped to further crush one already crushed :—whether the error in judgment was most his or theirs shall then appear: how far the spirit of the New Testament has been best understood, confessed, and obeyed by those who have multiplied forms and ceremonies, pleaded apostolic succession, and the power of a priesthood to consecrate persons, places, and things, or by the Society of Friends, which, since the days of George Fox, of blessed memory, has borne earnest, consistent, and persevering testimony against all such :-and lastly, how far our own work, including even the writing of these suggestions, shall have been the fruit of our own fancy, or the result of a divine teaching. Failure will doubtless be found upon us all, more or less. How those failures will be regarded and dealt with--as it seems to us imperative they should be dealt with-ere he can present unto himself the Church glorious, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, is the question raised by these suggestions.

But when all are crowned and rewarded according to their work,

and in one bright company sit down with him in his throne, he having crowned them, they shall cast all their crowns at his feet, confessing, "Thou, O God, hast wrought all our works in us; we are unprofitable servants, for we have only done what we were bound to do." “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." (Isa. xxvi. 12; Luke xvii. 10; Rev. iv. 11.)

But sterner work awaits, and must be considered. For the light of the same presence which has tested and approved the work of some, must test and disapprove the work of others. Wood, hay, and stubble are mentioned among the building materials, and these are all combustible. What then do we read? "If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

It is important here and now to discriminate between works and works as severally noted in the Scriptures of truth, 1st. The works of the flesh which are manifest; 2nd. The works of refined Old Adam; and 3rd. Works which are the fruit of a living faith. Concerning those works whereof it is a shame even to speak, we need say no more than that those who have not been purged from them are not likely to appear before the tribunal now under consideration. The man that hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sin, and hath turned again to folly, will prove to be the dog or the swine returned to his former estate. The works of refined Old Adam are those deprecated by Paul, "the deeds of the law whereby no flesh shall be justified," "the commandments and doctrines of men ;"-"having a show of wisdom in will worship and humility, and neglecting of the body;"—"meats and drinks, divers washings and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." But the works that especially engage our attention here are those advocated by James, such as visiting the fatherless and widows in affliction, and keeping himself unspotted from the world; giving those things that are needful to the body of the brother or sister, naked and destitute of daily food," the fruits of a faith alive and lively.

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For lack of distinguishing these, many have stumbled. At one time Luther doubted the canonical authority of the Epistle of James for its seeming contradiction to the Epistle of Paul to the Romans upon this subject. Paul to the Romans said, "If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory." James said, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect ?" and yet these two are in perfect harmony, while in seeming contradiction. Paul to the Ephesians in one passage, both deprecates.the one and advocates the other order of work, where it is written, "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is

the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them " (Ephes. ii. 8-10). Thus it is clear that the two Apostles viewed Abraham from two distinct stand-points, yet were they both in perfect harmony. Abraham's faith was counted to him for righteousness the moment he rose at God's bidding to quit Ur of the Chaldees; and again, when at the same bidding he rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass for Mount Moriah, but in the act of offering up Isaac, his faith became perfected. Had Abraham offered up Isaac without command, and upon that ground had pleaded acceptance with God, his work would have been of quite another order, and as earnestly deprecated by James as by Paul. In truth, these two are as distinct as the fruit of the old stock which is wild by nature, and the fruit of the graft which the care and culture of the husbandman has engrafted; the one fit only to please children, the other fit for the table of a king. Whether or not, good fruit can come from the old stock which is wild by nature, and if so, what account God will make of it, are questions upon. which Arminians and Calvinists will disagree until they meet at this judgment seat.

It was this order of works which James advocates, that the Son of Man with eyes as a flame of fire came down to inspect, when walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks we hear him saying in each of the churches, "I know thy works," commending some and condemning others. For we must insist that it was individual work here inspected and not the church or churches in the aggregate. And hence we read, "Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles,-be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life,—behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me,"—and in each of the churches we find it said, "He that hath an ear let him hear, He that overcometh, or, to him that overcometh." The scrutiny hereby declared calls for great personal searching of heart.

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We have the same order of works noted in Rev. xiv. 13. Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." And that bad works follow us as well as good, is manifest in that we meet both at the judgment-seat, where they must be tried of what sort they are, and for them receive reward, or suffer loss; whatever "receiving the things done in the body according to that he hath done may mean. For now "there shall be nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hid that shall not be known and come abroad; that which hath been spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed on the house-tops," for now," he shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart "-the motives from which

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actions have sprung. What secrets in relation to Church appointments must then come abroad! from the princes of the Roman Church in solemn conclave assembled at the Vatican, down to the Wesleyan Conference held with closed doors! How much of God, how much of man, and how much of God's and man's enemy there has been in them all, must then appear.

Personally accepted in Christ are all here found, and as members of the household of faith long since passed from death to life, they shall not personally come into condemnation. "Being now justified by his blood they are saved from wrath through him." Concerning their old sins before conversion, and their failures and shortcomings that have since been repented of and confessed he has said, "I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgression, and as a cloud thy sins;" but the question here and now is one of works, and bad works and bad workmen must here and now be judged, and the wood and stubble building, of which it may be the builders have been unaware themselves, must then to their surprise and consternation be consumed. All who have been building without God, daubing with untempered mortar, must here and now discover the true nature of their work, which before they would not believe, although the more discerning of their brethren have seen it, and it may be earned their censure for reproving it; but as bad workmen, their bad works must here and now be judged, and condemned, and consumed.

Right Reverend Fathers in God who have not shrunk from the flattering title of "My lord Bishop," seeing that it gave them rank among the peers of the realm, must then face their Master, who all along has said to them through the book adopted by them as their text book, "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not, mind not high things, but condescend to be contented with mean things" (see margin). How far this has been the spirit of some, whose gifts and parts and persons have been held in admiration because of advantage, while seeking to foist upon their admirers the figment of apostolic succession, the Lord will be judge himself.

Ministers too, who have come to their fellow men with excellency of speech and of wisdom, their speech and their preaching having been with enticing words of man's wisdom as eloquent preachers, earnest debaters, clever lecturers, feeding their flocks with husks instead of grain; stones instead of bread; polished pebbles it may be, but not clean provender which hath been winnowed with the shovel and the fan; mistaking the food of the intellect for the food of the spiritual life. Sound doctrinal ministry ("sixteen ounces to the pound," we deprecate the levity of the term although we quote it as expressive cf a certain class of teaching), wherein the five points are clearly defined, and hair splitting in orthodoxy is cleverly performed, may yet have no Christ in it, and therefore no food for spiritual life. Christ in his history, his miracles, his parables, his words and his ways adopted as themes for discoursing upon, but

Christ preached about is not Christ preached. Christian experience is a fort with some ministers. The believer's experience, not his experience of Christ indwelling, but his experience of himself, and the exceptional experience of Job and Jeremiah, wherein they cursed the day of their birth, and the exceptional experience of David, out of which he cried, "Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me," is quoted as consolation to the believer, who by loose walk and conversation in the world has cause to cry," My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!" Special doctrines of revealed truth are special forts with other ministers, so that whatever subject is handled, the minister reveals his bias rather to ventilate his special doctrine than to quicken or to cultivate spiritual life in souls. All such daubing with untempered mortar, all such building with wood, hay, and stubble, including the raising of stately churches and temples, with towers and spires, all the preaching and publishing of clever lectures upon sensational subjects, all bazaars and fancy fairs got up "for the good of the cause" as professed work for God, must go through the fire, and so become manifested of what sort it is, how much durable, and how much combustible, how much of the creature, and how much of Christ. And when thus it shall be that a minister's work is all or well nigh all consumed, and he has nothing or next to nothing left to show for a twenty, thirty, or forty years' ministry, it is with difficulty we attempt to conjecture the state of that minister's mind, whatever his church dignity may have been.

Elders and deacons too, whose work has seemed to be to rule God's heritage, both minister and people, in such sort as to create revolt and secession, must meet their Master at length, and hear from him his estimate of their work. With seniority of years, or office, or force of character, or somewhat more of this world's good than their fellows, they have dared to crush their minister's spirit, to criticise his ministry, and to cow their fellow deacons after the manner of Diotrephes of old, and justifying only too well the saying of modern times, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you; but resist a deacon, and he will fly at you." All this must be duly weighed and measured, and the merited reproof given and received.

That shame in some sort, and after some manner, will be the experience of some we gather from Luke xxi. 36; 1 John ii. 28, and iv. 17. That full reward, partial reward, reward gained prospectively but lost eventually, are among the possibilities of that day we learn from 2 John viii. What it will be for another man to take our crown (see Rev. iii. 11), we wonder with great amazement; but there it is in the book, and its warning should not go unheeded. For now it must be shown how brother has wronged brother, presuming upon well-known acquaintance with the admonition, "do good and lend, hoping for nothing again," to make a prey of the brother; how it has been that in commercial life Christian men have found