He gave a dreadful list of some of the dark brood which nest in the soul. In the present day we see the pastor taking the place of the priest of olden times. A judge of the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania said recently in the trial of a case before him that.
The Old Bottle is in the way of the world's progress; and it also prevents the salvation of the nations.
CHRIST THE ALTAR
Now the altar in the Jewish economy was as prominent an object as the lamb or priest. Truly we are finding today that, while we are made to see the Lamb and the Priest in the Temple, yet to come to the Altar which sanctifies we have to go outside the camp, and find reproach in doing so. Let the reader remember that the Old Testament says the Jew had an altar, and that Paul in the New Testament says the Christian has one.
There is no need to speculate here, for the Bible says, "He trod the wine press alone." He stood in the breach alone. We are convinced that the sunrise feature of this scriptural occurrence belongs to sanctification as something inherent as well as declarative; and that it is felt not only in the ushering in of the glorious triumphant life, but something that should and does abide. It is wonderful how hard it is to convince some of these glory stripped children of light that the charm and power of holiness is gone, when their sun is beheld in the western instead of the eastern sky.
The soul must come into an experience of isolation and loneliness before the divine wrestler appears, and that real prayer begins which is to mean so much for the individual and so much to many more in the years that are to follow. And still others borrowing candles from individuals met in the many meetings which they restlessly and feverishly frequent. The only reply to be given is, that the same price paid to secure in the first instance is necessary to recover the blessing when it is lost.
RELIGIOUS SINGING
Let the reader look at the departments of Wesley's hymn books, and the narrow jollification line of the Issues of today. With some there is not a single solemn opening piece of the Being and attributes of God. She said that the preacher dwelt in a most effective way upon the last three words of the second and fourth lines in the first two stanzas.
But the Divine monopoly to which we allude in the caption of this chapter refers not to our attempted capture of the Almighty, but to his appropriation and possession of us. This very truth was brought out by the Saviour in the parable of the unjust steward. Our answer is that all such cases are most happily covered in the history of the woman whom Christ saw throw two mites of copper in the treasury.
Labor in his service shall be re-beheld in the shining of the resurrected body, and souls saved shall be numbered like glittering stars in a crown. Very strict and faithful account is kept in the upper world of the good works, and the various classes of such labors rendered by the godly in the name of the Lord Jesus. But in addition it is equally true that the more we abound in the work of the Lord the greater treasure we are laying up in heaven, and the vaster the spiritual fortune that will be there to astonish and delight us on our arrival.
DISAPPOINTMENT
Viewed in the light of the first class, this body of people, in the judgment of some, would be pronounced better off spiritually than the others. Infidelity that has made the sayings and commands of the Father in the Old Testament to be pronunciations of folly and cruelty, belong to the second division of the assembly of which we are writing. As in the case of the blind man under a first touch of the Saviour's hand, they see, but not clearly and perfectly.
Then in one, a life is coming in, and in the other a life is going out of the world. Still again, with the birth of the child the suffering is mainly with the mother. Because of these grave perversions of the lips, preachers have much to say in the pulpit against unruly speech.
And yet there is another organ of the body located very close to the tongue, called the. There are heart victories of the most tremendous nature that the world never knows anything about. A second message of the comet is in regard to the greatness of God who made the universe.
The Bible says that when the kings of the earth took counsel together against Him and His Anointed, He that sat in the heavens laughed. That we had to be emptied of the soul by death, drop this heavy physical body in the grave, before we could ever dream of being holy.
THE FORTY
The vanity and impotency of the oath of the Forty is seen in the easy, simple way in which God brought it to naught. The Bible says He that sitteth in the heavens laughs, even when the kings of the earth take counsel against Himself and His Anointed. David was driven to the sanctuary to understand as well as to endure the reign and prosperity of the wicked.
The reign of the oppressor in church, state, social circle, business office, and the home, is over forever. It is the Day of the Wrath of the Lamb and the Justice and Judgment of God. Some idea of the coming shock to him on the Day of Judgment can be easily seen.
Recently an evangelist was prohibited from holding a meeting in Texas by the pastor of the M. We were once in the city of Cologne on the banks of the River Rhine. That the first individuals are arc burners, while the commonplace followers of the Lord are only candles.
THE SICK ROOM
The student with his desk which is placed in the corner or pulled out into the middle of the apartment, must have perfect stillness around him. The water pours in, and the hole that the child thought would be left after the pulling away of the finger is as instantly gone. They appear to be holding up the main structure and the bent position of the forms, the deep lines on the stony faces would indicate that the load and pressure were tremendous, and but for them, all would topple in the dust, walls, pillars, dome and all.
A second lesson was the helplessness, and if we might be allowed to say it, the secondariness of the body. Numbers see the person smitten with disease rise up, leave the ranks of the well in body, and disappear in the sick room, but do not follow him. When the spirit leaves the body we see that the inhabitant of the tenement of clay is gone.
Perhaps the helplessness of the dead may be the great reason for the tender, pitiful feeling which it invariably inspires. Surely a man never pleads his sorrows, wrongs and unfortunate life so well as when he is silent in the coffin. How thankful we are to see others even in the first anguish of their grief, and all the pain of the after loneliness; go at once to the Son of God; cling to Him; leave all with Him; and by His power and love and grace get comforted while the tears are dripping.
DYING FLASHES
Repeatedly we have beheld the same strange happenings in the lives of Christians who have gone or are going astray. A most remarkable prayer, or a most wonderful sermon has been known again and again to fall from lips that had already been untrue to Christ, and false and sinful in the gravest way. But it was the last glance as well as gasp of an ended day; and night with a sable mantle of grief came softly forward, and with glistening starlike tears on its robe, bent over the casket in the west, and gazed silently and mournfully upon the departed form.
It is possible, however, to invest the last gleaming of the day with another and happier meaning. The dying flash in the west of one land is a morning flash of glory on another shore. This is not always the case in the spiritual life, but it may be so.
The tearful, melting, kindling hope, new resolution, a strange, unexpected energy, and sudden burst of power, short-lived and evanescent as all may be, can only come from the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. If he insists on regarding them as the final flare of the exhausted candle, then his own despair will hasten the coming utter darkness and ruin. That which he and others considered a sunset, can be a glorious sunrise on the remaining years of the life, and making a more beautiful day in the spiritual sense than was beheld in the other that may have ended in evening shadows and gloom.
