“Hold Fast the Form of Sound Words.”

THE Apostle Paul, in his inspired letters to Timothy, a young minister of Christ, and his own “son in the faith,” makes very special reference to men in the Apostolic Church, who had departed from the true faith of the Gospel. He warns Timothy against the erroneous tenets which these men of unstable minds had adopted, and gives him many directions as to how he ought to behave himself in “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” He insists much on faithful adherence to the doctrine of Christ, and a brief sum of his exhortations on this head is to be found in the verse before us: “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”

The Apostle speaks here with the tone and language of authority. He is fully assured that he was an inspired messenger of Christ, and that he was infallibly directed by the Holy Ghost to deliver sound words to the Church or God. He does not speak as one who is uncertain as to the value of his message, or who regards it as of subordinate importance whether it is accepted or rejected. No; he speaks in unwavering and authoritative accents, as one who is the mouthpiece of the unerring Spirit of God: “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me.”

A subtle but very common error at the present day is that the teaching of the apostles is not of equal value with the personal teaching of Christ Himself, as recorded in the Gospels; and that therefore the Epistles are not to be put on the same level of authority with the Gospels. The idea is utterly erroneous and subversive of the faith. The Epistles, in a special measure, supply us with the continuation of Christ’s teaching after His ascension to glory. In the days of His flesh, He said to His disciples, “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” He also promised to send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to lead them into all truth. The Spirit descended in abundant measure at Pentecost, and the Apostles were anointed with His influences to a

degree far beyond their previous experience. Thus Christ, under this dispensation, spoke by the Spirit to Peter, John, Paul, and others, and they recorded His doctrine “not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth.” The Apostle Paul declares over and over again under a variety of expressions that he has the infallible mind of Christ, and there is everything that divine light and wisdom can supply to support his claims, both in his remarkable call to the apostleship and in the heavenly matter and spirit of his teaching. It is only the cavilling of a benighted unbelief, though garnished with the tinsel of learning, that challenges the divine authority of the Apostle’s message. It is the voice of the Wisdom of God that is heard in the sound words of this highly-endowed and richly illuminated servant of Christ. Christ lived and spoke in him, and truly they are spiritually blind who cannot see this.

The Apostle exhorts Timothy to “hold fast the form of sound words.” The word “form” may also be translated sketch or pattern. He refers to the outline or system of sound doctrine which Timothy had learned of him as his teacher in the faith of the Gospel, and he urges Timothy to keep fast hold of it, whatever temptations might assail him to the contrary. The Apostle was evidently convinced of the great importance of adhering closely to the pattern of sound words which had been given by the Holy Ghost, and did not think, as many do nowadays, that the form, in which the doctrines of the Gospel are stated, is a mere minor or secondary matter. In the measure in which we let go the pattern shown in the mount of divine revelation, in that same measure we part company with the truth itself.

It is of special interest to notice the emphasis the Apostle lays upon “sound words.” He says in effect: “Hold fast the words as well as the substance of my doctrine.” His words were inspired, as well as the thoughts they embodied, for he spake and wrote “the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” Thus also did the other inspired writers. Christ Himself attaches the highest importance to the words of divine revelation, for He says in His wonderful intercessory prayer recorded in the 17th chapter of John: “For I have given them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.” Many preachers at the present day, that profess adherence to the substance of the Bible—and it is only a profession—disclaim the doctrine of verbal inspiration. They refuse to believe that the very words of Scripture are given by the Spirit, and think it is not essential to a sound creed to believe that they are. They are evidently wiser than the Apostle Paul or the Lord Jesus Christ; but the wisdom of men is foolishness with God. Not only is it clear from express statements of Scripture that it is absolutely essential to hold fast the sound words which the Spirit has given, but also from the general doctrine of it.

The word of truth is the seed of the new birth. The children of God are born again of the “incorruptible seed” of “the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever. It is the sustenance of their new life. They are exhorted thus: “Desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.” It is their comfort in the time of trouble: “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction; for thy word hath quickened me.” It is the sword of their defence and victory in the Christian warfare: “Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;” “And they overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” The glorious Head of the Church Himself in the days of humiliation made use of the words of truth and promise, given by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, for the sustenance of His holy soul in His life of obedience, and in His conflicts with the devil. The record of His temptation in the wilderness gives abundant proof of this. He employs the very words of Scripture, not the substance of them merely. Let us part company with the words of Scripture, and we lose hold of these instruments which the Holy Spirit uses for the conversion of sinners, the edification of believers, the overthrow of the prince and power of darkness, and the extension of Christ’s kingdom in the world.

We hope to continue the subject in next issue.

Sketches of Religion in the Highlands.—Mr. M’Neilage has republished a little booklet, now long out of print, entitled “Sketches of Religion and Revivals of Religion in the North Highlands during the Eighteenth Century,” by the late Rev. Angus Macgillivray, of Dairsie. Mr. Macgillivray in his first chapter gives interesting accounts of spiritual awakenings that took place in the 18th century in the parish of Uigg, Ross-shire, and in Golspie, Strathnaver, and Tongue, Sutherlandshire, many of the fruits of which survived to the early decades of the 19th century. In a second chapter he estimates the results of these true revivals in the bright Christian piety of many of the “men” who then flourished, and in the effects of divine grace even upon whole communities, one striking example of which was Strathnaver. In a third and concluding chapter he gives a few well-written sketches of individuals eminent for godliness, “two of them private Christians and two of them ministers.” The former are Hugh Mackenzie, of Creich, and Jane Mackay, of Armadale, while the latter are the Rev. William Mackenzie, of Tongue, and Dr. Angus Macintosh, of Tain. Mr. Macgillivray makes a point of showing throughout his booklet that the religion of the Highlands is not that dark, gloomy thing which Lowlanders have been sometimes apt to think, but has been characterised by Christian cheerfulness, assurance, and hope. The booklet is in neat form, and the print is excellent.

J. S. S.

Notes of a Sermon.

By the Rev. JOHN MACLEOD, M.A., Kames.

“Men and brethren; children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.”—Acts xiii. 26.

THESE words occur in the course of the apostle’s address in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia. Wherever the Jews were scattered within or without the bounds of the Roman Empire, it was their desire to cleave fast to one another, and so, wherever they were sufficiently numerous to have a public place of worship, they had it, and met there on the Sabbath day for the reading of the law. From among the nations there were those that joined themselves to them—laying hold of the skirt of him that was a Jew, saying, “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” These were by the Jews distinguished from the other Gentiles as those that feared God, and we find that in this synagogue there were present such proselytes from among the Gentiles, along with those that were Jews by descent. To both classes the apostle addresses himself, and to each class he declares the good news of salvation.

In this address we see that he touched on certain outstanding features of the history of Israel, until he makes mention of David, and, after mentioning him, he says, Of this man’s seed hath God, according to His promise, raised up a Saviour unto Israel, even Jesus. The burden of his message is that the promised salvation has come, has been revealed, that the promise made of old unto the fathers has at length found fulfilment. Jesus, raised up of the seed of David, having John as His forerunner, to herald His approach and to prepare His way, is the Saviour promised. The apostle’s message is that God has unveiled His salvation, and in “this man” forgiveness of sin is proclaimed, such forgiveness as that all that believe in Him are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. With this as the burden of his message, the apostle addresses his hearers, saying, “to you is the word of this salvation sent.”

We may briefly consider :—

• I. The salvation ;
• II. The word of salvation ;
• III. The obligation under which the word of salvation lays every one to whom it comes.

I. The salvation. However much ungodly sinners may scoff at the idea of salvation, may scout the thought, God’s salvation is the greatest thing under the sun. He who has it has everything he absolutely needs for time and for eternity, however base his portion of what this world esteems good may be. He, who needing it, as a sinner, is without it, have he what he may, is poor. God’s

salvation is needed by a curse-stricken world, for the alternatives are either that sinners have it, or that they be lost forever. Seeing this is so, it might well repay us to consider various aspects of this salvation, as we may do by answering some questions about it, such as :—

1. Salvation—from what ?
2. Salvation—to what ?
3. Salvation—on what terms ?

4. Salvation—in whom ?

5. The very word “salvation” tells us that there is something to be saved from. The whole word of God makes plain what that something is, for its testimony and man’s condition, character, and prospects are uniform.

(a) Ever since, as a race, we fell away from God, we have, as sinners, been exposed to condemnation. Hand in hand with condemnation go wrath, curse, and death. Because the desert of sin is death, death is its wages. Sin that draws with it death does so because it brings down the curse. The curse takes the form of death, and the curse is brought down because wrath is called forth by sin. Sin exposes thus to wrath. It demands at the hands of God’s punitive justice and holy jealousy that wrath should be shown. There is a necessary connection between sin and wrath, for wrath is the displeasure of the Holy one of Israel directed against that which cannot but be abominable in His eyes. There is an impurity, a loathsomeness in sin that calls out this displeasure, and thus these things are bound together, and mankind as sinners are exposed to condemnation, and all that that involves. This, we may say, is the judicial aspect of the salvation as a salvation from something—it is a salvation from wrath.

(b) The same word that makes clear the condemnation to which mankind are exposed, exposes their character. It describes their death in trespasses and in sin. It shows them as alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them by reason of the hardness of their heart. It assures us that they that are in the flesh cannot please God, and that the mind of the flesh is enmity against Him. It shows how darkness has usurped the place of light in man’s understanding—how his judgment, perverted, puts sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet. It shows how his affections, instead of being pure and holy, are degraded and grovelling, securing the result that he looks not on things unseen and eternal but on things seen and temporal—the world and the things that are in the world. It shows how his will is rebellious, how his heart is hard, how his whole faculties are polluted, and how, instead of bearing the spiritual image of God, he bears the likeness in his heart and life of him whose child he is—”Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” Surely, when the light of God’s word exposes such leprous features as these, we may well say, “Surely man is far sunk. He is lost indeed. He needs to be saved. While he continues to be what

he is, he cannot have any happiness worthy of the name, he cannot hold loving intimate conversation with God. He cannot glorify God his Maker, he cannot fulfil the end of his creation. Surely, man with such a character needs salvation.”

(c) Man needs to be saved not only from what he is, but also from what he must be. He is, as far as his prospects are concerned, exposed to all the awfulness of the curse—to all its blighting, devastating power—to misery here and misery hereafter. Body and soul, he has earned hell for himself; and unless he is saved, hell must of necessity be his abode in the ages to come. He is already under condemnation. His character is such that it is vain to expect aught from his hand to avert the doom already impending. Nay, let him but continue till the end, sowing as he has begun, and the result is inevitable. He need not distinguish himself among his fellows as a sinner and rebel beyond his neighbours; it is enough that he continue impenitent; it is enough that he live after the flesh; it is enough that he bring forth no good fruit; it is enough that he go on to the end as he has begun and continued. This is enough to secure that the blackness of darkness should be his portion. Sin calls for wrath. It fits for wrath, and when the vessel of wrath is fitted for destruction, destruction shall have him. He shall have destruction, for it is an unfailing law in the administration of God that man shall reap as he has sowed. He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, and he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Thus we see that alike as regards the sinner’s condition, and character, and prospects, he needs salvation. The message of salvation is no impertinent intrusion on the good order of an ideal world. Let men but look at life, with its woes and sorrows, with its meannesses and hypocrisies, with its sins and crimes, with its curses that come not causeless, and they may well see in what a plight this world of ours is. God in His word lets in light. He hides not the real state of things, and when He speaks, He tells His creatures in plain, unmistakeable language, how utter and absolute their need of salvation is. Friend, God’s word tells you what you are, and what you need. You have to face the facts, and they are plainly told you.

1. Salvation—what to? There is no intermediate position between condemnation and acceptance, between wrath and favour, between death and life, between grace and nature, between shame and glory, between hell and heaven. If salvation is a delivering from something, it is also a bringing to something. Let us, then, look at the condition to which it brings. We have spoken of the judicial aspect of salvation as deliverance from wrath, and curse, and death. Is it nothing more than freedom from past condemnation, with a possibility of achieving personal acceptance in some way or other?

(a) Ah! it is more; there is freely bestowed upon the sinner, when his sins are forgiven, a right to the inheritance of glory, as he freely receives freedom for his past. The judicial aspect of salvation has more than the negative side of no condemnation: it has the positive side of free justification. Iniquities are pardoned, and the person is accepted—yes, accepted—and the adoption of sons is given. Salvation is thus deliverance from wrath in order to the attainment of life and blessedness. It does not pause short of this bestowal. Whenever sin is forgiven, then is the title of the inheritance of light and glory freely given.

(b) What, however, about deliverance from man’s sinful habit of soul? Is salvation to something here? Undoubtedly. There is in God’s salvation a new life; there is the knowledge and fear and love of God. The law of God is written in the heart. The heart now delights in the law of God. The dead is now alive, and thus the very saving from death involves the bestowal of something positive. Where once there was but darkness, there is now light; where once there was but ignorance, there is now knowledge; where once there was but hatred, there is now love; where once there was but unbelief, there is now faith; where once there was but impenitence, there is now godly sorrow. If the poets say that the footprints of spring cause flowers to spring up and blossom, the springtime of a new life causes the flowers of heaven to bloom in the once barren wilderness of man’s soul. Life has come, and death reigns no longer without a rival. The stronger than the strong man hath come. There is an Isaac in the household as well as an Ishmael, and the elder shall serve the younger, as Esau, Jacob. Grace has come, and grace will conquer: where it hath come, it so far prevails that there is a sowing unto the Spirit. There is a lusting of the Spirit against the flesh: there is a conflict begun and maintained, the issue of which is by no means doubtful, for stronger is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Salvation here carries with it judicially a title to life: actually, the earnest of life: for as many as are in Christ are new creatures. The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells within them.

(c) Does this salvation then not affect their prospects? Without doubt it does. The earnest is already given, because the title is bestowed, and where the earnest is, there will yet be full possession. The salvation is salvation to heaven. The blessedness of heaven, the purity of heaven, the repose of heaven, the active service of heaven—this is what the salvation is to. Those that go to hell are fitted for the company they shall keep by their forgetfulness of God, their neglect of His honour and service, their heart atheism and worldliness. They are fitted for destruction. Those that go to heaven have below on earth the title freely given, and an inward preparedness for the glory that awaits them. There is no enjoyment of the standing of children but on the part of those that have given unto them the nature of children. There is no omis-

sion in the divine plan of procedure. If children of disobedience are appointed to an inheritance as children of God, it is also appointed that they shall, in order to the enjoyment of their appointed inheritance, have inward preparedness given them. They sow unto the Spirit, and as they sow they shall reap. They groan in this tabernacle, being burdened, desiring that mortality may be swallowed up of life, and they shall have their heart’s wish. Mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and thus, as regards their prospects, those that share in God’s salvation have not only grace below to keep them, but glory before them to allure them. These are their prospects as sharing in God’s salvation. It is a salvation from wrath to favour, from alienation to friendship, from death to life, from hell to heaven. Surely such a salvation is to be sought for by rational, accountable creatures. It should never become a by-word, and any slang use of the word to find salvation shows on the part of them that indulge in it but a mean idea of the glorious truth that God’s word brings to us His salvation.

1. On what terms? is the third question that faces us, and calls for an answer, with regard to salvation. On what terms? The wrath that salvation frees from is a righteous wrath. It is richly deserved. It is called forth by man’s sin from the holy Lord God, and it is their righteous desert. They have earned it, and they do earn it for themselves. Even so with mankind sinners. They are rebels against God; they have thrown off His yoke; they have thrown down the gauntlet. In life and conversation they bid him defiance. “Who,” they seem to say, “is the Lord that we should serve Him? Our tongues are ours: who is Lord over us?” Men esteem themselves their own masters, and they are bent on doing their own pleasure. Is not then the God, who has shut up the angels who kept not their first estate under chains of darkness, just in causing His wrath and curse to descend and rest on our race? He is just, and justice can be only on one side at once. What calls for punishment and deserves it must be punished. There can be no escape. When justice finds what calls for its sword, its sword will descend. Though hand join in hand, the guilty shall not escape unpunished. On what terms then can salvation be enjoyed? On what terms can it be bestowed? If there is to be deliverance from wrath, there must be righteousness forthcoming to meet the demands of a broken law. Can this come from the side of fallen man? Ever since sin entered into the world, and death by sin, all mankind have been smitten with a natural impotence that leaves them utterly unable to produce the spiritual obedience and righteousness that the law of their original creation calls for. There is none righteous, no, not one, and as there is not even one that is righteous, the united exertions of the race, should they all put their shoulders to the work, must needs fail to secure the salvation of one sinner. From the side of human nature and its powers no hope need be cherished. Help is vain so far as the fallen race is concerned. Equally vain is it for any of those that are thus

involved in ruin to expect that any combination of mere creatures can deliver them. Should all the fallen hosts of hell, with all the apostate race of Adam, co-operate in an endeavour of bold rebellion their endeavours must prove vain. Their rebellion exposes them to the wrath of God. It cannot break His power ; it cannot overturn His throne ; it cannot loose the bands of His curse, and thus neither by obedience nor disobedience can man prosper or save himself. Neither resistance nor feigned submission can avail. Let the sinner resist and fight, and he but makes clear what he is earning for himself. Let him feign submission and go about to establish his own righteousness and he must fail again. Whence then comes righteousness, the righteousness that will deliver from condemnation ? It must come from without ; it must come from above, and in coming to the guilty, the undeserving, it must come of grace. It must be freely bestowed if it is to be had at all. This leads us to our fourth question about the gospel salvation.

1. In whom is it to be found ? Righteousness meets the claims of the law, and the law presses its claims on persons that are under it. So we may at once say in whomsoever this righteousness is to be found he must have been under the law so that it could press its claims upon him. Again, we may say, when we consider the claims that have to be met, guilt must be borne, punishment endured, death undergone, the cup exhausted, if there is to be in this righteousness the satisfaction that offended justice calls for. Again, we may say, the obedience must be spotless, the suffering voluntary and loving, the perfection nothing less than divine, if there is to be satisfaction and actually secured redemption from everlasting death. Where then is such righteousness to be found ? We must, in order to its existence, have a divine person in human nature and divine glory in human satisfaction. God must in very truth dwell with men on the earth if this problem is to be solved, and the problem we find solved in the person of Christ the Mediator, the Son of God, and the Son of Man, who is “the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.” In His obedience unto death the righteousness has been provided ; in Him the righteousness is to be found. That it may be mine, that it may be yours, we must be in Him. We must receive Him ; we must close in with Him. The grace of faith must be ours, and in its exercise, as needy sinners, we must go forth to his fulness, to draw from it grace for grace. Salvation is free ; it is through righteousness ; the righteousness is in Christ ; and that it may be ours, a union must be effected between us and Him. Where is He to be found ? How can faith be exercised ? Where can we meet with Him ? Shall we look within that we may find Christ there ? We shall never find Him in the grave of spiritual pollution that is within. Shall we climb up to heaven to find Him ? He is there, but can we find Him there ? By digging into the earth shall we find Him ? Nay, in none of these ways. Faith that unites to Christ is divine in its origin, and it bases its conflict

ever on a divine record. “The word is nigh thee.” This brings us to consider—

II. The word of salvation. The increase of faith is not something that is blind and haphazard. It is the exercise of an intelligent agent in the full possession and activity of his intelligence. The man that receives the Saviour of sinners receives Him as a sinner needing salvation. Christ came to save the lost, and those that rejoice in His coming realise themselves to be lost. Whence comes this realisation? It is the fruit of divine testimony bearing record of these things, and brought home by the power of God the Spirit. Divine testimony, I say, for it is on a divine record that a divine faith will rest. Salvation is through faith, and faith is the exercise of a sinner convinced of his need of Christ and of the suitableness of Christ to his case. The faith that receives Christ, and the faith that assents to our need of Christ, alike rest on the same word of God, and we see thus how closely the word and salvation stand related to one another.

The word is the word of salvation, because it exposes man’s need and ruin. It is the word of salvation because it reveals God’s remedy. In revealing the remedy, it shows it in its fulness, in its suitableness, and in its freeness, and seeing it does this, when a sinner responds to it, and embraces a full, a suitable, and a free Saviour, surely it cannot be said that he takes a leap in the dark. No such thing; nay, he now comes into the light, and takes the course of action that most beseems a rational, accountable agent in his journey to the eternal world. The word, when it testifies of man’s sin and guilt and ruin, does this, not to torment before the time: but in the faithfulness of truest friendship, it exposes the sinner’s lurking refuges of lies, that the hail and flood shall sweep away, so that, while yet there is hope, he may be shut in to the life that the gospel reveals. It is thus a word that wounds in order to heal. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, and faithful indeed is the surgery of heaven when the flesh is opened up that the gnawing cancer of reigning enmity may be laid bare. The law, as written, is written in a dispensation of mercy, and is given as the schoolmaster to bring to Christ. Should it reveal nothing but the need that exists, does it not fulfil a high office in connection with a sinner’s salvation? It testifies of God’s claims, of their breadth and their intensity. It testifies of our accountability and our sin; it testifies of our guilt and our misery; it testifies of our present impotence, and of our impending ruin. That man may flee from the wrath to come, these things are spoken of, and when its message is taken in, the sinner comes to see, from the extent and the nature of God’s claims, and his own wretchedness, something of the salvation that he so absolutely needs.

But the word is the word of salvation especially because it brings before us the divine record of the divine remedy. As written, it is that record; as spoken, preached, declared, it brings the record before the hearer. Christ crucified is the burden of the gospel.

Christ as the Lamb, as the Sacrifice, as the Priest, as the Saviour by price and by power, as Prophet and King, is the sum of the salvation. He was promised ; He came ; and He comes again ; and in this we have the fulness of salvation brought before us. His power to save is adequate to the task of saving the chief of sinners. There is fulness of power and of merit and of mercy with Him. He is held forth as the dwelling-place of all the fulness of God. Fulness of grace for earth, and of glory for heaven are in Him. All, that all the saints need, and shall have, is stored up in Him, and of His fulness they all receive, and grace for grace. The word that brings to us the message of One full of grace and of truth, is surely the word of salvation.

It is also the word of salvation when it testifies to His condescension to individuals ; He is not only able to save all that come unto God through Him, but He is also suited to the case of each. Take the case of any individual sinner to whom the word comes, and be he who or what he may, there is in Christ a suitableness to his need. Granted that he is dark, and blind, and ignorant, and wayward, and foolish. As the Prophet of the Church Christ is able to remove his ignorance, and his folly, and his blindness. Take him on the side of stubbornness and stout-hearted rebellion, conscious, painfully conscious of his unconquered aversion to everything spiritual and holy ; let him but ask himself, “Is not the power of Christ able to remove, in its sovereign over-ruling, all the stubbornness and the alienation?” “Yes,” he will have to answer, “He can subdue these.” Thus, in His fulness of power there is a suitableness to each individual case, and to its requirements. Take the sinner again on the side of guilt and death-worthiness. He has broken the law and earned its curse ; he cannot meet its claims or satisfy its demands. He has dug out a bottomless hell for himself. But yet there is in the obedience of the Son of God in our nature, obedience that was unto death, and that embraced death, something that is suited to the law’s claims, and fitted to clothe the nakedness of that sinner, whoever he may be, that closes in with the Saviour of sinners. There is in His death and in His life, in His two natures united in His person as Mediator, in His suffering and in His triumph, something infinitely suited to the situation we occupy as members of an apostate race, exposed to wrath and ruin. The word opens up this suitableness, and draws our attention to it, so that we may say, “Here is the very Saviour, here is the very salvation, fitted for me.”

Is this Saviour, however, available? Is it permissible to apply to Him? Is this question answered? It is, and the word that opens up the way of salvation, not only in its suitableness and its fulness, but also in its freeness, is surely on this account also entitled to be called the word of salvation. The word brings salvation near, for where it is Christ is. It is His word, and where it goes He goes. He will never go back on His word. He reveals

a free salvation, open to the chief of sinners, and so open that, whosoever believeth, shall be saved, and “whosoever will” may take of the water of life freely. Ruin on the one hand, remedy on the other, are the burden of the word; and when one of these casts light on the other, each has its place in the message of salvation that has to be proclaimed to mankind. The word is then the word of salvation, because it shows these two sides; and further, when a sinner receives it in love and submissiveness, it is the word that is able to save, and does save, his soul. Faith is needed that we may win Christ, and the word is needed that we may have faith, and the word is not the word of man but the word of God. Let us then consider—

III. What obligation the word of salvation lays on every one to whom it comes. The word of salvation is the word of God, and it calls for the place that God’s word deserves. The message of salvation is sent from God. It tells of His saving character. It tells of the Saviour He has provided, and it calls those to whom it comes to betake themselves to this Saviour. “To you is the word of this salvation sent.” The Apostle Paul was a messenger. He was commissioned to declare the word; he did not run unsent, nor did he speak of his own initiative. He was sent with the word, and the word was sent with him. The authority that lay behind his mission lay also behind his message. Those that rejected his message denied his mission, and refused to bow to the authority of God. His message was entrusted him to declare to all that came within the sound of his voice as a teacher, or the sphere of his influence as a Christian. We thus see him addressing his audience indiscriminately. He did not stumble at the secret purpose of God with respect to his hearers. Whether they should listen or shut their ears, hear or forbear, he announced that to them the word of salvation was sent. We see in the event that some evidenced by receiving his message that they were of the elect of God; others again would have nothing to do with it; and yet to them also the word of salvation was sent. It had a bearing on their case, as well as on the case of their neighbours. It spoke to each class alike and under the same character. They were alike addressed as sinners needing salvation. They each had the message of a salvation, suited to their need, and free to them, declared in their hearing. This message thus conveyed a certain obligation to its hearers. They must face the matter—accept or reject. There is no room for indifference.

When God’s word tells a sinner of the evil of his ways, and calls upon him to turn, he is bound to give heed to it. He is bound to receive it, and with it a conviction of his lost estate. It will not suffice for one barely to acknowledge that the Scriptures make plain that all men by nature are ruined. There must be the warmth of personal conviction in the matter as affecting one’s own highest interests, if the Scripture declarations on this subject are to be worthily treated. This then is the claim that the word of salva-

tion makes on its hearers. Let them be persuaded of this point, and deeply convinced of its overmastering importance. They are lost, ruined, doomed. But it makes a further claim. It tells them of Christ in His suitalbleness as Saviour, and it calls for a cordial approval from them of this way of salvation. It calls on them to see and to acknowledge the glory of the Son of God, and the grace of the gospel of God. It calls upon them to consider the suitalbleness of the gospel for their need, and to examine and see whether, when it is so suited to their very case, it is possible for them to be interested in it.

It presses on their notice not only its suitalbleness and fulness, but also its freeness. No sinner need perish for want of a Saviour, if he has heard of the gospel. For Christ in the gospel is freely declared to the chief of sinners, freely held forth, freely offered. Thus, on the part of any sinner that hears the good tidings an approach is warranted to the throne of grace, an approach is warranted to the King of grace. The graciousness of the privilege calls for a corresponding return from those to whom it is extended. They are called upon to fall in with this way of life: but the claim assumes also the direct form of command. An obligation is imposed on sinners that can be got rid of only by rebellion, and refusal to give up the arms of rebellion. “God commands all men everywhere to repent.” He commands all sinners to bow to the yoke of Christ. It is not a case of take if you please, or leave if you please. No; it is only at the peril of his everlasting damnation that a sinner who hears the gospel will dare to reject it. In rejecting it, there is a deliberate choice made of death rather than life, of curse rather than favour, of hell rather than heaven.

He who has received God’s testimony once is called upon to continue to receive it. So saint and sinner alike have the obligation lying upon them to fall in with God’s way of saving those that are lost.

— Church Notes.

Communions.—Oban and Kames, 1st Sabbath of this month; 2nd, Greenock and Lochinver; 3rd, Glendale, Skye; 1st Sabbath of June, Bonar Bridge.

Deputy to Canada.—We understand that the Rev. Alexander Macrae, Portree, expects (D. V.) to leave on the 7th inst. as the Church’s deputy to Canada.

Call to Tain.—The Rev. D. S. Cameron, of Halkirk and Helmsdale, received a call from the Tain congregation on the 14th April. The Northern Presbytery met at Helmsdale on Tuesday, the 26th, to dispose of the call, when Mr. Cameron declared his acceptance of the same. The induction was fixed to take place (D. V.) at Tain on the 10th May. The call had 163 signatures.