The Precious Blood of Christ

II.

(Continued from p. 363).

IN the teaching of the Lord Jesus we find Him saying: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John, vi. 53-54). It is not our intention to discuss the great truths set forth in these divine words: we content ourselves meantime with quoting Prof. Smeaton when he says: “These figurative terms imply that men are to believe on Him as giving His flesh for the life of the world, and that they are to receive the atonement with the same eagerness with which a hungry man partakes of food. The doctrine of Christ’s sacrifice is the principal matter in the way of procuring the donation of spiritual life; and it is never ignored in any of those inward blessings of renovation, love, growth, zeal, and strength, which are comprehended in the spiritual life, and go to make up our idea of this life” (Our Lord’s Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 279). Another utterance of vital importance in connection with His blood is the statement made by Him at the institution of the Supper: “This cup is the new testament [covenant] in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke, xxii. 20). This is one of the greatest of the New Testament utterances in connection with the precious blood of Christ, and we take the liberty of again quoting Dr Smeaton, as his words are worthy of attention coming as they do from a theologian of the first rank and an exegete with exceptional spiritual insight and sanity of judgment.

“Of all the sayings which our Lord uttered,” writes Dr Smeaton, “on the subject of His death, there is none which can be regarded as either more important or more express than that testimony which He uttered at the institution of the Supper. He had previously called His death ‘a ransom’; He had called His crucified flesh ‘meat indeed’; and in the present passage He calls His blood ‘a covenant.’ This phraseology may be considered as a key to all those passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as well as elsewhere, which speak of a covenant people as separated and sanctified, as saints and holy ones, or speak of the Church of God according to the new covenant relation in which believers stand” (Our Lord’s Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 207). The words used by the Lord recall to the mind the blood of the sacrifices shed at the dedication of the Sinaitic Covenant when Moses sprinkled both the book and all the people. But as this Covenant was ratified by blood so, also, is the new Covenant, and the words used by the Lord Jesus describe His blood (1) as shed for his disciples; (2) as the procuring cause of the remission of sins; (3) as the fundamental condition of the new Covenant. A covenant cannot be constituted without sacrifice, and the New Covenant was no exception. The sacrifices were no accidental part in the vast system of the Old Testament Dispensation. The priesthood was a divine institution, and through it, with its manifold activities in the service of God, there were proclaimed these truths: (1) Man is alienated from God; (2) that God has a purpose of reconciliation: (3) that this reconciliation is to be effected through sacrifice—the shedding of blood—and by no other way. On the most solemn of all the Jewish feasts—the day of Atonement—the whole functions of the priesthood were concentrated in the person of the High Priest and the solemn significance of the sacrificial blood was specially emphasised as the High Priest entered the holiest of all with the blood of others. Take away the shed blood from the institution in which the priesthood played such an important part and you rob it of its meaning and the day of Atonement of its solemn significance, and all that is left is an empty shell as it is with the Jews to-day. Take away the shed blood from the Gospel Dispensation and what have we?—no doubt, there are mighty signs and wonders and marvellous things brought to pass, but the way into the holiest of all is not opened, and the sinner is still without. It is in connection with the momentous action on the part of the Son of God that the

Apostle writes: “Almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was, therefore, necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebs. ix. 22-26). Is it any wonder that the means which made it possible for sinners to draw nigh to God should, in the eyes of those so privileged, be regarded as a priceless blessing and that the blood of Christ should be precious in their estimation? The great truth set forth in the passage quoted is that the reconciliation God purposed has been brought about by the means that Infinite Wisdom found. It is by the blood of the Cross that this reconciliation has been effected—sinners have peace through the blood of His Cross, the peace of God which passeth all understanding. Sin was not simply passed by: it was punished to the uttermost in the death of the sinless Sin-bearer, and divine justice found satisfaction in the price paid and the conscience of the guilty sinner who, by grace, was enabled to look to the Lord Jesus, found the truest satisfaction ever it knew as it saw for the first time Heaven’s wonderful plan of salvation—sin being duly punished and yet the guilty one who believed in Jesus having a legal right through the infinite merits of the Sin-bearer to the priceless blessings of pardon and peace. It is through His blood that the guilty were justified (Roms. v. 9). It is also through His blood believers have obtained eternal redemption (Ephes. i. 7).

There are a number of passages which ascribe cleansing to the blood of Christ which merit attention. In I. John, i. 7—”The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” The blood that cleanses is here described as the blood of God’s Son; this, no doubt, is intended to emphasise its infinite efficacy. Dr Smeaton, commenting on the passage, says: “Though the blood belongs to Him as Son of Mary, yet in virtue of the hypostatic union it is the blood of God’s Son, and, therefore, possessed of all the value that the divine

nature lends to it, and adequate to the expiation of human sin laid in the scales against it” (‘The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 450). The meaning of the term “cleansing” is indicated by the words: “On that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord” (Levit. xvi. 30). Evidently the expression “to cleanse” does not mean, as Dr Smeaton points out, to inwardly amend and renew but to free from punishment incurred by sin: to obtain remission was the great design of the sacrificial blood, and it is in this sense John uses the expression. The phrase used by him in Revelation i. 5, “washed us from our sins in His own blood,” is to be explained in the same way. These phrases “to cleanse” and “to wash” from sin are borrowed from the Mosaic ceremonies, and have a sacrificial import. The words—”the blood of Christ”—therefore directs our thoughts to God’s great sacrifice—to the Cross of Calvary—and what took place there when by the death of the Lord of Glory He obtained eternal redemption for His inheritance. It is no wonder, therefore, that God’s redeemed on earth should see in the blood of Christ something worthy of being regarded as precious. That it shall never cease to be so in their eyes is evident from the words of the heavenly new song:—”Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever” (Rev. v. 9-13).

Great grace and small gifts are better than great gifts and no grace.—Bunyan’s Grace Abounding.

Notes of a Sermon

PREACHED BY THE LATE REV. D. MACFARLANE,
DINGWALL.

“For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. One shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel” (Isaiah, xlv. 3-5″).

IN the end of the preceding chapter the Lord charges the people addressed, with sin, and reminds them of how He dealt with their ancestors for their transgressions—Thy first father hath sinned and thy teachers have transgressed against Me. Therefore, I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary and have given Jacob to the curse and Israel to reproaches (verses 27-28), and now He is to deal favourably with them. He introduces the subject of discourse by the word ‘Yet,’ as if He had said: ‘Notwithstanding all this I will do you good.’ He calls their attention to what He is now to declare to them for their comfort: ‘Yet, now hear O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen: thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb which will help thee. Fear not O Jacob, my servant, and thou Jesurun whom I have chosen.’ The reason of these encouraging words is declared in our text, which may be divided into the following heads:—

I. The objects of the promise.

II. The promise itself.

III. The effect of the promise.

I. The objects of the promise. There are two classes included in the objects of the promise. The first is described as thirsty, the Lord’s people who were quickened to life by the Holy Spirit. It is living men that thirst, not the dead. The Lord’s people were by nature spiritually dead like others, but God quickened them (Eph. ii. 1). The first indication of life was that they became conscious of their sinful and lost condition, and that they began to thirst for salvation. “What must I do to be saved” (Acts, xvi., 30) was the earnest cry of each of them. But having believed in the Lord

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Jesus Christ, as the jailor did, they tasted that the Lord is gracious (I. Peter, ii., 3). Their thirst now rose a step higher. They thirst for the living God (Ps. xlii., 1-2). They thirst after His fellowship and communion and conformity to His holy image which they, in common with all the fallen race of Adam, lost by sin and the fall. They thirst for spiritual nourishment; for now, as living, they cannot do without food and drink for their souls. They thirst for the coming of the Kingdom of God in the world and for the destruction of the Kingdom of Satan and for this end they labour according to their ability in gifts and opportunities, for they believe that although it is God that can do these things He effects them through the means and instruments He has appointed and prescribed in His Word. By the dry ground we understand sinners in a state of nature, who are to be brought out of that state in God’s good time, and brought into a state of grace. These are like the dry ground, upon which no shower of rain ever came. Such ground must be dry indeed. But sinners in a state of nature are even drier and harder for they are as possessed of a heart of stone (Ez., xi., 19). Although it is true that the Lord’s people are often in their own experience like the “dry ground” yet we shall show when we come to speak of the effect of the promise that it is not they that are meant here but sinners in a state of nature who are to be converted in due time.

II. The promise—”I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.” That it is the Spirit that is signified by water is evident by the latter part of the promise—”I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy offspring.” In Scripture water is often used as an emblem of the Holy Spirit (John iv., 19). As it is the Spirit that communicates the blessings of salvation to believers it is added: “and my blessing upon thine offspring.” It is to be observed that the promise is entailed—made sure to the heirs of promise and limited to them. As an earthly inheritance that is entailed belongs according to the law of entail, to the first born son during his life time and then descends by right to the next and so on from generation to generation; so it is spiritually. As all believers are reckoned as first born (Heb. xii., 23) the heavenly inheritance belongs to them equally, to the new born babe as well as to the matured Christian—”The promise is to you and your children.” And so it is in our text—”I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing

upon thy offspring.” We may see from God’s Word that this was fulfilled in the past. Abraham received the Spirit and the blessing, and the blessing descended to his seed and offspring—to Isaac, Jacob, and many others. This entail continued in the line of Abraham till the coming of the Messiah, who was according to the flesh of the seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the world were to be blessed and the entail is still going on unbroken, and on a larger scale as it extends to the Gentiles, and will go on without a break to the end of the world, till all the spiritual Israel are saved. Although grace does not run in the blood, yet it runs in tribes and families. It has been observed that in the land of the Gospel in New Testament times a succession of godly people, some of whom were eminent ministers of Christ, sprang from godly parents and that unto the third and fourth generation according to the promise (Ex. xx., 6). While on the other hand the seed and offspring of unbelievers and ungodly parents who were born and brought up in the land of the Bible continued in spiritual darkness and become either atheists or idolaters. The former are characterised as “loving God and keeping His commands,” the latter as hating Him and no doubt disregarding His commandments. It is to be noted that these things are spoken of in Scripture in connection with the command: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image of any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children [who follow the evil example of their fathers] unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments” (Ex. xx., 4-6).

It is evident that the most of professing Christians in our day who have repudiated the doctrines of God’s Word and adopted instead “the commandments of men,” are in the category of those whose iniquity shall be visited by God unto the third and fourth generation for there is no appearance of them returning to these doctrines. Ah, how many shall perish for eternity out of this generation! But as there is in the worst of ages a small remnant who love God and keep His commandments, the entail continues intact.

We shall now consider the promise in relation to the dry ground—”And floods on the dry ground.” We have already pointed out that by the dry ground we are to understand sinners in a state of nature. These require a greater measure of the work of the Spirit than the Lord’s people who are in a state of grace. Therefore the promise runs thus: “I will pour,” not showers, but “floods upon them.” It requires more power to restore a dead man to life than to feed and nourish him when he is living. Sinners are quickened by the same almighty power that raised Christ from the dead (Eph. ii., 1). They are made a new creation in Christ, they are given a new spiritual being, which they had not before. All this together with conviction of sin and its misery, which is the work of the Spirit, accounts for the form of the promise: “I will pour floods upon the dry ground.”

III. The effect of the promise. (1) Its effect on the Lord’s people—”And they shall spring up as among the grass.” Growth is the effect when water is poured upon them. When the Spirit is poured upon them they grow up. They are already planted and rooted in Christ, but as they are not yet perfect they need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (II. Peter, iii., 18). In order to their growing the Spirit, like water or rain, is to be poured upon them and before the Spirit is poured upon them they thirst—they ask that they may receive, and the Spirit is poured upon them in answer to prayer. “They shall grow”—this growth is compared to the growth of grass, “And they shall spring up as among the grass,” or like the grass. The grass grows quickly when the rain comes upon it. It grows plentifully also. So do believers when the Spirit is poured upon them. They grow quickly, and in all the graces. Their growth is also compared to the growth of the willow. “As willows by the water-courses.” Perhaps there is no tree that grows so quickly as the willow. It grows best when planted near water or a river. The water-courses are the means of grace. Believer, if you would grow, and you must grow before you can get to heaven, be often at the Bible, at secret and public prayer, at family worship or at the preaching of the Gospel, and at Communions to which the Lord’s people gather from various parts of the country, and where many of them had to say: “Master, it is good for us to be here.” You are not like the heath—the dead sinner—that does not know when the

blessing comes. (2) Its effect on sinners in a state of nature when they are called effectually. The Gospel is preached not only that the flock of God might be fed and edified, but also that sinners might be converted. The Lord was adding to the Church such as should be saved, and He will continue to do so to the end of time. Sinners added to the Church are the effect of floods poured upon the dry ground. This is good news—”One shall say I am the Lord’s.” Whose were you before? I was Satan’s. I was the world’s. I was by nature a child of wrath even as others, but now, by grace, I am the Lord’s. Here is one convert and others will follow. “And another shall call himself by the name of Jacob.” “Thy Kingdom come,” yea, His Kingdom will come, for it is a growing Kingdom. “And another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel.” Here are three representing many others — added to the Church as the effect of pouring floods upon the dry, very dry, ground. It was observing the different effects of the promise on the thirsty and the dry ground that convinced me that the thirsty and the dry ground signified two classes of men as already pointed out, although it is true that the Lord’s people often feel themselves like the dry ground, a dry parched land in which there is no water.

It is to be observed that there is some difference in degree but not in kind in the faith of the new converts added to the Church. The first said: “I am the Lord’s.” Here is the assurance of faith as the Church said: “My beloved is mine and I am His” (Song ii. 16). The second could not speak with such assurance, but although he could not say, “Thy God is my God,” he could sincerely say, “Thy people are my people.” He called himself by “the name of Jacob.” The third went further than the second, though he did not come up to the first. He subscribed with his hand unto the Lord and called himself by the name of “Israel.” Israel was Jacob before he was called by the name Israel. It was when Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Covenant and prevailed that his name was changed to Israel—a prince with God. We may observe from these cases the order of Church membership. We must first give ourselves to the Lord—”I am the Lord’s” before we offer ourselves to the Church as members. This is in accord with what Paul said about believers: “They first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us [or to the Church] by the will of God” (II. Cor. viii. 5). In the Church of

Rome this order is reversed. In their opinion, to be members of the Church is necessary in order to be members of Christ’s mystical body. In other Churches, too, of which better things might be expected, this order is reversed. Church membership is the general rule in these Churches, without examining applicants as to whether they give evidence of union with Christ by faith or not.

In conclusion, the end for which the Gospel is preached is twofold, namely, the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints, which end is spoken of in our text. Not only that the Lord’s people grow in grace under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but some others are added to the Church by pouring floods upon the dry ground. In the days of the Apostles the Lord was adding to the Church daily such as should be saved. If we saw, even, one sinner added to the Church yearly, it would be a great comfort to us, but in this evil age few conversions take place, though we believe that the Lord’s people are fed with the best of the wheat and with the honey from the rock when the Gospel is preached to them, so that the Lord would continue the preaching of the Gospel in a congregation so long as there was one of His own people there. The fewer there are of these the more they are like the weeping willow, whose branches bow down towards the earth. It was this that caused the prophet Micah to utter the following lamentation:—”Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit. The good man is perished from the earth: and there is none upright among men,” etc. Where he could at one time see clusters of the Lord’s people, he sees now so few that he is indeed like the weeping willow, and this must be the experience of the Lord’s people now. But there is a time coming when they shall be very numerous throughout the world, and then the weeping willow shall rejoice when they meet the godly in large numbers in families, congregations, and kingdoms. Then Christ’s Kingdom shall come and His will shall be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Amen, so let it be.

We have right thoughts of God when we think that He knows us better than we know ourselves, and can see sin in us where and when we can see none in ourselves.—Pilgrim’s Progress.

Letter on the Bible

BY REV. W. ROMAINE.

I HAVE good news to tell you from a far country, as refreshing as cold water to a thirsty soul. God has spared me to read over my Bible once more. O what a treasure—what unsearchable riches are there in this golden mine! I never dug deeper, nor found more precious jewels than upon this last perusal. You know it is my constant custom, as soon as St Dunstan’s lectures are over, to begin the Bible, and without stopping or interruption, to go on from Genesis to the end of the Revelation. This exercise is always begun with prayer, and carried on with settled dependence on the Spirit of prayer, and I am always wishing to ascribe all profit (and it has been very, very great) to the praise of the glory of His grace. At present I am not reading my Bible in order to find out some new truth, but to be established in what I do know, and to attain more confirmation of it. This I would chiefly seek for, that I may get growing experience of the wisdom of God, and of the power of God in His Word, and may thereby enjoy the blessings of His love promised in it. With this view, I send you some of my observations on the reading of the Bible in the year 1783. I am happy in believing that your heart harmonizes with me in them. One of the first things to be noticed and expected is the actual fulfilling of the promises to this day—namely, that the Holy Spirit is still in the Word. He works in it, and by it. He makes it at present, as much as ever He did, the great ordinance of God unto salvation, as you may observe in Isa. lix. 20, 21; hence it is called the ministration of the Spirit, because in it He holds forth Jesus Christ to be the Almighty Saviour; and whomsoever He calls by it to come to the Saviour, He makes His call to them effectual. They receive the Spirit by the hearing of the Word, as Gal. iii. 2. This, my good friend, is what you and I should above all things seek. We should be always praying for the Spirit to accompany His own Word. It is our duty to hear and read; but we should always do it with the fixed dependence of our hearts upon His divine teaching; without which the Word itself will profit us nothing, as we read, Heb. iv. 2: “The Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them who

heard it.” May the good Spirit keep us in the use of means, but entirely dependent upon Him in the use of them! Thanks be to Him that in this frame of mind I have once more gone through His Word, settled and grounded more steadfastly than ever before, but the Word of God can be made useful to me only by the Spirit of God.

The next thing that engaged my attention was the divine and infallible truth of the Holy Scriptures, of which I have been convinced with all the riches of the full assurance of understanding. Our Lord said in His last prayer, “Father, Thy Word is truth.” And I say the same. I have set my seal to it on this last reading: every line, every word, is according to the mind of the infinitely wise God. It is His revealed will, and it discovers to us objects in God’s light, as He sees them, whereby the Holy Spirit renews us in true knowledge after the image of Him that created us. He brings our understanding to submit to be informed by His unerring Word. Whatever it reveals of Jehovah, of the Three Persons in Jehovah, of the God-Man, of His salvation, of the way of receiving the benefit of it in time and in eternity; He has made me willing to live in entire subjection to its teaching. My constant enquiry is—What it reveals. Not why? I study to know it, not as a metaphysician, but as a Christian. I seek, not so much to comprehend it as to believe it. Nothing appears to me more reasonable than that my reason should submit to God’s reason; and therefore I am kept praying for divine grace, to make His Word, like the light of the sun, clear in my head, and fruitful in my heart.

My dear friend, let me recommend to you this method of reading your Bible. Ever take it up as the oracles of God—the infallible standard of truth. The abiding persuasion of this will save you a great deal of trouble, and will bring you in vast profit. You will not have much occasion to consult authors, or to spend your time in perusing many books. If you take up your Bible with a settled conviction that it is the truth of God, and that it has the stamp of Divine authority, this will be the means of your understanding more of the Scriptures than all the comments in the world could give you; because your mind, having received the impression of Divine truth, is now disposed to receive the impression of Divine power; which is another matchless excellency of the Word of God.

The Spirit of God still works in it and by it; as in the first creation, so in the new creation, He does all by His Almighty fiat. He speaks, and it is done: He commands, and is obeyed. He is a creating Word; He calls, and the dead hear. It is a life-giving Word. He follows the call, and the quickened sinner believes—faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God; and this faith is as great a demonstration of Divine power as raising Christ from the dead was; as you may see, Ephes. i. 19, 20, etc. Then He puts His Word into the inward parts, and the believer is enabled to feed upon it, and to be nourished thereby, even up unto life everlasting, so that he often says to his Lord—”Jesus, to whom should I go? Thou only hast the words of eternal life.” This Divine efficacy of the Scriptures is the principal thing by which God magnifies His Word, above all His Name. He has made it His ordinance, like the fixed laws of nature—by which He still keeps up intercourse and communion between Himself and His people, and gives them to see and to enjoy His perfections. His Spirit makes it effectual to begin and to carry on fellowship with the Father and the Son. And thus He is daily magnifying it, by realising the promises, and putting believers into possession of the graces and blessings promised in it. So that it is to this hour, the mighty power of God, as truly as when He spake the world into being; as effectual as when He said, “Lazarus, come forth.” My dear friend, may you and I feel it more, still more: may we live happy partakers of its influence; and whenever we hear it, read it, or meditate upon it, may we get fresh experience of the power of God in His Word; which will bring us another blessing peculiar to the Scriptures; by acknowledging them to be the truth of God, and finding them to be the power of God, we shall come to experience their divine sweetness.

It is by continual dependence on the teaching of the Spirit in and by the Word, and by mixing faith with it, that we come to find its value, and to taste its pleasures; for it then opens a new world to us, a spiritual and eternal world—it reveals to us the God of that world—our Father loving us in His Son. It makes known the Son’s wonderful Person and His heavenly work in salvation, with all the blessings of it, which faith brings into present enjoyment. The believer is made alive to them, and then has his spiritual senses exercised upon them; and each sense has its proper object and its

peculiar delight, as we read—O come, taste and see how gracious the Lord is—hear His voice, for it is sweet—smell the good odour of His perfume, for His name is as ointment poured forth—come and handle the Word of God. What a paradise is here! as real, but more blessed, than Adam’s. Believe me, sir, I know you do. In my last reading God has thus blessed me; what the Word reports, the Spirit has realised. In the way of believing the promises, I have found the fulfilling of them. I speak for God, and for His glorious Word. Away self. The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, does by it, at this day, make good His name and His office. “He shall take of mine,” says Jesus, “and shall show it (manifest it) unto you;” the spiritual world, all the graces, all the glories of it—He will not only manifest them to you clearly but He will also enable you to believe them with a pleasing earnest, and to enjoy them with many a sweet foretaste of the glory that it is to be revealed.

There is a very delightful account of this in the 19th Psalm. What if I should set my seal to it, and say that I know what is spoken in the first part concerning the light of this world to be matter of fact, as well as what is spoken in the second part concerning the light of the spiritual world would not you allow me, sir, to be a competent judge of both? And when the same prophet adds—”O, what love have I unto Thy law! I rejoice in it as one that findeth great spoil! yea; it is dearer to me than thousands of gold and silver!” Blessed be God, I find it so. Indeed, upon every reading of the Bible it grows more precious to me, as it did to David; because it is not only the discovery, but it is become also the conveyance of the unseaschable riches of Christ: these are revealed in the Word and applied by the Word. Faith is the lawful key which opens the infinite treasury and hears the proclamation of grace: “O ye that are seeking durable riches—these, all these are yours. Come, take all you want—use all you wish. You cannot do the free Giver a greater favour than to enrich yourselves daily out of His boundless store. Read His promises—how exceeding great, how exceeding precious they are: read His faithfulness to them. Only trust, take, use—all that is in the promises shall be yours in time, yea, yours in eternity.” This proclamation of grace I have heard. I believe it. Blessed be a promise-keeping God! I enjoy it. And I can assure you, sir, there is more to be had out of Christ’s fulness than any one upon earth has yet enjoyed. For He not

only giveth fresh grace, but also more grace. I have never been more thoroughly convinced of this than upon my last reading. God has humbled me, and has made me feel more of my own poverty, and has thereby led me to live more upon Christ’s everlasting treasury. You do suspect me of boasting: O no, I would glorify the Word and work of the Almighty. A beggar would not be reckoned proud for saying, “When I was just starving I met with a charitable person, who not only fed me but also feasted me, and then most generously provided for me all the rest of my days.” Should not such a one acknowledge his benefactor, and bless him? So do I. Thanks be to Him who realised to me His Word—who opened mine eyes to see wondrous things out of His law—who often made me look up and say, “O, how sweet are Thy words unto my taste; yea, sweeter than honey unto my mouth.” Blessed be God for His good Word: it is really manna; it is angels’ food; it comes from Heaven; it tastes of Heaven!

When I sat down to write, I little thought my pen would run so fast, and that it would hold out so long. Will you excuse this long scribble You will. I am writing to a friend who knows that I have still much more to say of my last reading. I bespeak your candour, while I am mentioning one thing more; and that is, the great end and design of the Scriptures, which is to conform us to it. This is the completing work of God the Spirit by His Word; all the rest were to lead to this. When the Word is understood, and believed, and lived upon, then He makes it the means of conforming the whole man to it. The believer is cast into the mould of it; he takes the impression—every feature. It is so assimilating, every tint is to be seen upon him. He lives the Word; it is to be read in his looks, visible in his walk, manifest in his tempers. See him. study him: he is the lively picture of a Bible Christian; let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ. By this rule he orders it; he seeks to be a pattern of the truth as it is in Jesus, and does not seek in vain. The Spirit by faith makes Jesus very precious. The heart loves Him, loves to be like Him; much fellowship with Him endears Him more to the heart, and it becomes true liberty. It is real happiness to have constant communion with Him, especially to feel the influence of His cross and the power of His resurrection.

My much beloved, may this be your experience. Outstrip me as far as you can; may your sentiments, your

affections, your life and conduct, all of them be conformed to the rule of God’s Word. I shall pray for it, for you and for yours, that you may live by Gospel motives, and do all to Gospel ends. And may the Bible be made good, and fulfilled to you in earth and in Heaven!

I stop, but not because my subject is exhausted. I have daily fresh matter of praise. Still I am reading and admiring. New beauties spring up. Yearly, daily, I shall have praises to give for this most blessed book; and if I live to walk with you on Heckfield Heath, I may continue the subject. May your Lord and mine open our understandings, that we may understand the Scriptures!