Spirit indwelling was not yet given, John vii. 39) to the remnant in an earthly dispensation at its close, shall it be less true in a heavenly spiritual one, when "the Spirit abiding" (John xiv. 16) is one of the great glories of the dispensation? Shall God be more faithful to the covenant of Moses than of Christ? respect more the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob than those "Yea and Amen" in Him? The Spirit, therefore, remaineth with the faithful remnant of God's people, to guide them, to lead on, to give them wisdom and strength amidst difficulties and enemies. "Yea," says the Lord, "I will shake great kingdoms for your sake." For when the Lord takes up the cause of His people; He lets nothing stand in the way. "Since thou wast precious in my sight thou wast honourable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life" (Isaiah xliii. 4).

"When He His people's cause defends,

Who then can do them harm?"

"And the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with my glory."

Remark, how beautiful the hope of God's people in apostasy, and the close of their dispensation is, not in their temple becoming equal to the former temple (though seeking themselves to stand in all God's will), but in the blessed better hope of the coming of Him, who is Himself the temple and glory. Then shall all be put straight.

"The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former." If inclined to murmur now about small things, I would say it shews we are out of communion with the Lord's mind. It is out of the small things that He brings His greater glory. Is not this the principle enunciated by Christ in 2 Cor. xii. 9.-" My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness;" and so blessedly accepted by Paul in the same verse. "Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory," etc. If, therefore, we despise small things, we are judging after the flesh, the outward appearance, not in communion with the Lord's mind about it.

The word of the Lord comes further upon the matter in ver. 10. It seems to speak of man's inability by himself to good, and of his ability only to evil; they could not sanctify anything indifferent in itself by their touch according to the law, but could only. defile it; showing that man defileth, by his own corruption, even the work of the Lord that is in his hands:" So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord; and so is every work of their hands: And that which they offer there is unclean." But why is this said? Is it to degrade? Oh no, it is only to humble; it is only that in the deep consciousness of our own insufficiency, of our own defilement of such holy work, we may carry on the Lord's service. Yet, thus carried on, God can and will accept it. It is that, like Paul, we may serve the Lord in all humility of mind, with many tears, etc. (Acts xx. 12). And this, I fear, we much fail in. Yet, as was said, grace can accept the sincere, though feeble desire of obedience. There had been nothing but leanness before leanness, because they had departed from the living God, with whom alone is the riches and fatness of the olive-tree;-and the harvest was not yet brought into the barn: the vine, the fig tree, and the pomegranate had not yet brought forth their fruit: Yet, from this day will I bless you, saith the Lord. Peace and are both here recorded for them (verses 9 to 19). Yet again the Lord has another word for them; for as I said-and the great point that I think is brought out in this prophet is that God's almighty strength is connected even with the weakness of His people: "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying," etc. Lord said He would overthrow even "the throne of kingdoms" for their sake, to deliver them: He would "destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations:" He would "overthrow the chariots, and those that rode in them; and the horses and riders should come down, every one by the side of his brother" (see what was noticed on verse 6).

blessing

The

Let this thought therefore dwell on our hearts, dear brethren, that the least remnant of God's people, as more

especially standing in the communion of His mind, is connected with all His power; in the day of their greatest weakness they stand as a connecting link with all His mighty purposes, which are soon to be manifested: God could not, so to speak, do without that link: He could not in His grace do without a remnant according to the election of grace. And they have only to know His mind in faithfulness, in order to stand connected with that power soon to be revealed. It may be said, perhaps, that all this dispensation has been a connecting link, a final dispensation as to the consummation of all thingsUpon us the ends of the ages have come” (τὰ τέλη τῶν alwvwv, 1 Cor. x. 11). How much more upon us who stand even in the end of such an age; upon us, to whom more especially the cry has gone forth, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh; go ye forth to meet him."

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May we indeed, dear brethren, stand "having our loins girded about, and our lamps burning." The much entering into that truth, will indeed, under the Lord's blessing, give power to our souls: it will connect us with all the power and blessing of that day (Malachi iii. 10, etc.), will tell us, whether the Lord, even in the last closing days of a dispensation, when failure, and nothing but failure, has been proved to the uttermost, will be deficient, or less than ever He was (compare verse 6) in real blessing to His people: "I will give you a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." The next verse (23) of this chapter of Haggai, tells us, I think, of blessed nearness to the faithful nearness in that day. 'I will make thee as a signet" (Cant. viii. 6); even as Rev. iii. 20, tells us of the same even in Laodicea.

Can apostasy, then, rob us of nearness to Christ, that chiefest of all things? Oh no; it should only drive us nearer. The Lord give us hearts to value such blessings: grace, and faithfulness to seek them in His appointed way (Mal. iii. 7).

G.

2 Cor. xii. 9.-"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."-Ed.

No. V.

GIFT INALIENABLE FROM THE CHURCH.

IN the controversy that arose respecting the abiding of gift, properly so called, in the Church now, I do not know that I saw the Scripture truth put in the same naked, singularly simple light, in which it appears to me to stand in the Word. Scripturally speaking, we may say that the existence of gift in the Church rests on the basis of another truth, which can never be altered; viz., "that there is one body, and many members." If you can shake the one, you may shake the other; but with it it will stand.

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The scriptural evidence of this we shall find, I think, remarkably distinct. In Romans xii. 4, etc., we first find it. For, as in one body we have many members, and all the members have not the same office, so, we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having, THEN, gifts (xapio pатα) μara) differing according to the grace that is given us whether," etc. Here, I think, we might say with truth, speaking in a general way (though strictly it would not, I judge, admit of being carried out), that gift was the pages, the action of the different members of the body. In 1 Cor. xii., you have it just on the same footing, equally plain: "But all these worketh that one, and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." (That is, dividing gifts (xapiopara), see verse 9, gifts of healing.") "FOR, as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. FOR by one Spirit have we all been baptised into one body; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. FOR the body is not one member, but many." In Ephes. iv. we get just the same teaching in spirit. First, we get the one body-one in its common privileges, 4 to 6; then the different gifts as necessary for the welfare of that one

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body: "But unto every one of us (perhaps the nearest English translation would be, "to us individually," évi de ἑκαστῳ ἡμῶν) is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." And the word prophets, ver. 11, would clearly identify the thought here as the same with 1 Cor. xii., where, verse 10, "prophecy;" in one case it being spoken of as the gift (Sopa) of Christ, in the other the Xapiopa of the Spirit; both for the same object, in part, "the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. iv. 12, 16). And I might ask here, if we see "pastors and teachers" (verse 11) now, to take the lowest view, which unquestionably we do in different bodies of Christians, where does it come from? I say, from the gift of Christ now as much as ever, though that gift be much dishonoured by human additions.

"Till we all come (the passage proceeds in Eph.) unto the unity of the faith,.... unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," which I would say is clearly not the mere filling up of revelation, or the written word, no more than 1 Cor. xiii. 10, which is degraded thus (see verse 12); but rather, I judge, the Church formed even here on earth, in principle, into fitness for Christ (Philip iii. 14, 15, 13; Ephes. v. 26, the that at the commencement of verse 27 showing the connexion of the two) (John xv. 15; Rev. xix. 7).

1 Peter iv. 10, I think, conveys the same thought: "Stewards of the manifold grace of God." Xaptopa is Χαρισμα there used. These are, I think, quite the leading passages of the Word.

And from these passages it is quite clear to my own mind, that gift abiding in the Church stands on a most sure footing, which can never be shaken; it is connected with the very nature of the Church.

It might perhaps appear to some, "Why revert to a past thing? the thing is pretty clear to us.' But I would remark, that the question of gift is a vital one to the Church; a vital one. And why? It is, in other words, the question of the SPIRIT acting in the Church. And strongly am I persuaded, that, where it is not maintained, the question really acted on of the Spirit in the Church,