So when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, DEATH IS SWALLOWED IN VICTORY (Isa. xxv. 8). THE SONG OF VICTORY, ETC. (VERSES 55—58). O DEATH, where is thy sting? O GRAVE (or Hades, ådn), where is thy victory? And the strength of sin is the law (see Rom. iv. 15). But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. UP Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. E.D. **THE PRESENT TESTIMONY: What is it? * Not so much the testimony of good entrusted to man's responsibility (like seed in sowing-time); nor so much the testimony (consequent thereupon) of exhortation, encouragement, and warning (as in the time of growing, or while men slept, and an enemy was sowing tares); nor again the testimony against evil in man as failed: but rather the testimony for God-the living God; as to what is true of and in Him, spite of all that Satan has done, by man's flesh, in this world,—the salvation of the lost and ruined who own Him;— the destruction (when the acceptable time has passed, being despised) of all that know Him not. It is the testimony, as I take it, of the interval between the entire failure in principle, and the judgment consequent upon the development in action of that failure. And this present testimony of what God is in Christ, it is which, I conceive, the Spirit will use to right the people of God, and to make the wrong of the world exceedingly wrongful. "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Jude 20-25. No. XXIX. "SALVATION IS OF THE LORD." "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.” Ps. cxv. 1. ONE special object of the attacks of Satan in the present day, is the truth of the quickening operations of God, the Holy Ghost. I refer not to the doctrine of His indwelling, and sovereign rule and authority in the body, the church; though, of course, the distinctly seeing the latter is a great preservative against what would undermine, or deny the former doctrine. Still, it is well for saints to be fortified with the direct testimony of scripture against error, by which Satan is really working; though, as to ourselves, no danger with regard to it may seem to be immediately impending. Even if we were individually safe, charity to others would lead us to search the word for that whereby error, in which many are entangled, may be met. And as to ourselves, a very small amount of observation would satisfy us that usually saints are preserved from error by the blessing of God on the truth which has already got a place in their souls, rather than delivered from the entanglements of error by truth newly presented to the soul. He, to whose keeping and guidance the church is entrusted during the absence of her Lord, does deliver as well as preserve. Still, to be enabled to say with Paul, "I have kept the faith," is more blessed than to have turned from it, even though sovereign grace should rescue and re store us. The indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the body, the church, is one thing; the operations of the Spirit by which the individual believer becomes such, and so a member of the body, is another thing; and it is this latter point of which I speak as being the object of Satan's vigorous attacks in certain quarters. Be it observed too, that it is not a defective statement of the truth correct, as far as it goes, though defective-such as would be commonly made by a large class of Christians; but the active and assiduous denial of it, and the maintaining, with great earnestness and zeal, that the faith which saves is a mere act of the mind of man an act of which all men are by nature capable. This is connected, too, with a very bold, and often a very full presentation of the work of Christ, much more full and scriptural than in the ordinary evangelical preaching of the day. The love of God to sinners to the world— descanted on in the most glowing terms; the atoning work of Jesus presented with great clearness, the only exception here being the application to the world of some things which are true only of believers; the whole being urged upon sinners as that which they are quite competent to receive—not merely that they are responsible for the rejection of it; these constitute the main features of a work which, in certain districts, is proceeding with uncommon energy, and the results of which are just such as might be anticipated. Doubtless, there are many whose hearts have been previously ploughed up by the Spirit of God, who get real peace by His blessing on the measure of truth which is presented as to the love of God and the work of Jesus. But even where this is the case, along with the gospel which thus brings peace to the soul, there are thoughts imbibed of the adequacy of man's mind to receive and to deal with the things of God, which cannot fail to nourish a spirit of self-sufficiency most alien from, and adverse to, the life of God in the soul. Then, besides, numbers suppose that they are converted, who are really self-deceived. The heart of man will not always refuse assent even to God's truth about Christ, if it may have the credit of receiving this truth by its own native capacity, and if such assent to it, such reception of it may pass for the faith that saves. Hence, numbers imagine themselves to be believers, with hearts entirely unbroken, and without any sense of what sin is, as viewed in the light of God's holy presence, or of what their nature is as utterly opposed to God. They are acted upon by rousing appeals to the affections, and taught that there is nothing in their nature to prevent their reception there and then of the truth that saves. They are taught that they need no new power, no further operation, or even help from the Spirit of God to enable them to believe; and their hearts, flattered by what ministers so largely to their self-complacency, drink in the terrible delusion that they have passed from death unto life, while the only proof of this they can afford, is the zeal and earnestness with which they assert these pernicious doctrines, and urge them upon others as the highroad to peace of conscience and certainty of salvation. These errors (in the special form spoken of here) have not been working long enough for all their fruits to be manifest. Some results, however, sufficiently sad, are plainly enough developed. Censoriousness, bitter zeal, love of disputation, and intense aversion to doctrines which really humble man and exalt and magnify_the grace of God, are amongst the most conspicuous. But, as in every case of self-deception, the only persons unconscious of the existence of these unlovely traits, are the persons thoroughly imbued with them, and manifesting them at every turn. One point I would notice, before turning to the direct and copious testimony of Scripture on the subject before us; that is, the distinction between capacity to receive a testimony, and responsibility for rejecting it. A person who is, in fact, every way trust-worthy, asserts that he has witnessed a certain transaction. I immediately exclaim, "I cannot believe a word he says." Now this may be quite true; and yet I may be altogether culpable for my incapacity. I may have hearkened to false reports of this person-I may have suffered my mind. to be prejudiced against him-I may have got such thoughts of him, and such feelings towards him, that as a simple matter of fact, I am incapable of believing a word he says. But does all this exonerate me if he be really a credible witness, and if, in this particular instance, his testimony be true? No, nor does it shield me from the consequences of my unbelief, supposing that my life depends in some way upon the reception of his testimony. I am incapable of receiving it, and yet I am responsible for rejecting it. I am responsible for the state of heart which incapacitates me for receiving it. Now this is precisely our natural state as it respects God. The melancholy fact, as largely and uniformly taught in Scripture, is, that Satan has so poisoned all the springs of thought and feeling in our nature-that we have so hearkened to his lying representations of the character of God, that by nature we do not believe a word he says. His word goes with us for nothing. We prefer believing Satan's lies to receiving the truth of God. And this is the natural state of all men since the fall. Does this destroy our responsibility? Not in the least. That for which we are responsible, that for which we are condemned, is, that we have such thoughts and feelings towards God, as render us incapable of receiving His testimony; that our hearts are so blinded and hardened, that our own imaginations and Satan's lies seem to us more credible than the truth of God. Can it be any excuse for giving God the lie, to urge that we have such injurious, unworthy thoughts of Him, that we can do nothing else? No, this is not our excuse, but our condemnation. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." If any should urge that we cannot be responsible for doing what is beyond our power, the plain reply is, you contradict God's word. Nothing can be more plainly stated, than that the law was given on purpose to prove that men could not keep it, and that men could not be saved by keeping it. And yet who will assert that men were not responsible for obeying God's law? What is the consequence of all this? Why, plainly, that by nature we are lost. This is what the Word of God declares; and that our only resource is, not any capacity in ourselves of any kind-not any capacity we possess in our unconverted state, but the power of God to quicken those who are dead in trespasses and sins. It is by the Word that He does this; and the way in which he does it is, leading us by the Word to believe on Jesus. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Still it is HE who does it, not our |