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H 
 
 . 3. 
 
 GRACE 
 
 AND 
 
 TRUTH 
 
 (ABRIDGED EDITION.) 
 
 BY 
 
 Ti. P. MACKAY, M. A. 
 
 TORONTO WILLAHl) TRACT I)KPOSIT(^RY, 
 
 TORONTO, ONT. 
 
 A. 0. Watson, Manager. 
 
 
m 
 
 m 
 
 \,f 
 
 J 
 

 :i: Ml. 
 
 
 v/ 
 
 ABRIDGED EDITION 
 
 O F 
 
 GRACEIMTRUTH' 
 
 H Y 
 
 W.F. MACK AY. M. A.. 
 
 HUL.L. 
 
 'Graoe ami Truth camo by Jlhtb CuniST.'— Ju/im's Oo.^im. 
 
 TORONTO WILLAUD TliACT DKI'OSITUHV, 
 
 TOKONTO, ON r. 
 
 A. (ji. Watson, - Miiiiaijer. 
 
CDNTENTS. 
 
 There is no Difference ' 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Our Condemnation 1 
 
 Would You Like to be Saved? Our Justification 20 
 
 * Ye Must re Born Again ' 
 Do You Feel. Forgiven? 
 Work of the Holy Spirit 
 Triumph and Conflict - 
 
 Ou» Heqeneration 85 
 
 Our Assurance 
 
 62 
 
 Our Comforter - 75 
 Our State - • - 92 
 
* There is no Differenced 
 
 Our Condemnation. 
 
 I OU are always preaching and writing tblt 
 the vilest and most unworthy are wel- 
 come to come to Christ, bat what of 
 those that do not feel so very vile ? ' a 
 sister in the Lord once said to me. This is a most 
 important ^question, in regard to a class cf people 
 very difficult to reach. 
 
 She told me that a friend, after having heard a 
 preacher of the gospel describing the awful state of 
 unsaved people, and giving a solemn exhortation to 
 be saved immediately, said, with great surprise, 
 ' But what is it all about ? I feel as happy as a bird.* 
 She really could not understand that anything the 
 man had been saying had any reference to her. 
 
 Such people never did anything very bad. They 
 have been trained up under all the influences of a 
 Christianized society. They never knew vico in its 
 open nakedness. They never felt anything at all 
 very evil in their hearts. They have never been 
 hce to face with God, nor taken God's idea of sin. 
 h) short, they know not the God revealed in Scrip- 
 ture, I do not mean that they are idolaters or 
 infidcis in the popular sense of these words. They 
 
 A 
 
• ORACSAlfD truth: 
 
 know a Kod that is a sort of being for pulpit use i 
 t°l .l,!ris to be addressed as a matter of course 
 andfeSou u.J at times of particular solemn^ 
 They ha,e a few ideas, derived from ^'om^^IS2 
 ageing called God, but of *e God of Ho^ 
 
 Scripture fhey ha,e no »"f P"""' .^I'^^.f °^J, " 
 judges sinners they do not know ; of God s estimate 
 of sin thev have never heard. 
 
 But let me be distinctly understood as to this 
 
 • „,,,nt matter Let us imagine a man wan- 
 most important matter, i-ei u" 6 
 
 dering on the top of some high cliffs. A br gM 
 wTrm sun is overhead, and a soft green carpet of 
 grasT is beneath his feet. He feels very happy and 
 ^ ,v hnt he is Eoing nearer to an awful precipice I 
 hI is happy but he is WW. We call, we shout to 
 uL'loZ: He turns round and says,^n*- " ^ 
 all about? I feel as happy as a bird; but onward 
 St 11 he goes. Would it not be love on our part to 
 go and fake hold of him, and earnestly te 1 him that 
 a fearful precipice lies a yard before h.m I 
 
 Dear friend, this is where we see you. I have in 
 my mind at this moment an accomplished young lady, 
 liable, kind, and dutiful, -""-"^f^^'^y ^ "j^^J 
 can makeUfe happy; one who has her neat Bible 
 ^Prayer-book, iid who is seen most regulariy and 
 ?Iligiously in her ^t in church or chapel every 
 Lord's-day, who takes great interest in deeds of 
 charity, vis ts the poor, and is very happy. No one 
 ever Led to say to such an one ' You are on 
 the broad road that leadeth to deslruction. It 
 would be considered highly improper so to do. 
 Perhaps thi.« siUm page may be before your eye. 
 
• THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.' 
 
 )it use, 1 
 >f course 
 Dlemnity. 
 5 sources, 
 of Holy 
 God who 
 ; estimate 
 
 s to this 
 man wan- 
 A bright 
 carpet of 
 lappy and 
 precipice I 
 e shout to 
 What is it 
 It onward 
 lur part to 
 
 1 him that 
 
 I 
 
 I have in 
 oung lady, 
 >y all that 
 neat Bible 
 rularly and 
 apel every 
 I deeds of 
 No one 
 'ou are on 
 uction.' It 
 so to do. 
 ; your eye, 
 
 and now it would say to you, what has been 90 
 long unsaid, 'Stopl are you ready to meet God? 
 where shall you spend eternity? If you were 
 separated this moment from all the dear friends 
 around you, and all those happy scenes, and that 
 comfortable home, and standing before God, what 
 have you to say ? I wish to w ' . - a little of what He 
 thinks of you. I am not to w.ite about what your 
 parents, your friends, your pastor, or spiritual 
 adviser think of you. They may chink most 
 highly of you, and most justly too, as you may be 
 everything that could be desired from a human point 
 of view. But I wish to place before you what God 
 your Maker thinks of you ; yes, of you yourself, 
 whoever you may be : the more refined, cultivated, 
 educated, and wealthy, the more would I be in 
 earnest to get your attention. You may be a 
 princess or an empress, but one word expresses 
 God's estimate of you, and that word is—' sinner.' 
 A rich hidy one day, when she heard a person 
 speaking of all as sinners, said with great surprise — 
 
 * But ladies are not sinners!' 
 
 ' Then who are ? ' she was asked. 
 
 • Just young men in their foolish days.' 
 
 I have not the slightest doubt but that this is a 
 very common idea, though seldom expressed. A 
 lady who had heard some one preaching this kind 
 of truth called on him and said, — 
 
 ' Do you mean to say that I must be saved just 
 as my footman ? * 
 
 ' Most certainly.' 
 
 ' Then I shan't be saved.' Poor lady ! that wai 
 
• GRACE AND TRUTH.* 
 
 her business, and this was her fatal decision. My 
 reader, I not only wish to tell you that you are a 
 sinmr— you, educated, amiable lady— but that in 
 God's sight you are just the same as the vilest 
 profligate; just the same as that man you heard 
 about who was hanged for murdering his wife. This 
 is most terrible, but it is true. I remember once 
 saying it to a young man who was not like you, but 
 who knew that he was very bad ; and he said — 
 
 < I believe all are sinners, but I don't believe that 
 all are the same/ 
 
 ' Well, we have only one authority to refer to, and 
 it is within your reach ; will you take your Bible, 
 and remember one thing, that it is God who speaks. 
 Turn now to Romans, the 3rd chapter and 22 d verse, 
 and at the last clause we read, " For there is no 
 difference ; for all have sinned, and come short of 
 the glory of God." This is what God has said.' 
 « Wcli; said my friend, 'I never saw that before.' 
 * But it was there although you never saw it.' 
 And now, dear reader, you who are happy and 
 amiable, this is the one thing I wish to tell you from 
 God, 'There is no diference.' This is what you 
 never could and never can feel : it is a thing for 
 which you must believe God. As it is God with 
 whom you have to do, I beseech you do not listen 
 one moment to any that would take you from His 
 truth. He says 'there is no difference,' He has 
 proved that the lawless Gentile or heathen and the 
 lawbreaking Jew or religious person are equally 
 guilty, and that not one among either the outwardly 
 profane or tlie outwardly decent is found righteoui 
 
THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.* 
 
 ision. My 
 : you jure a 
 )ut that in 
 ; the vilest 
 you heard 
 wife. This 
 ^mber once 
 ke you, but 
 e said — 
 believe that 
 
 refer to, and 
 your Bible, 
 who speaks, 
 d 22d verse, 
 
 there is no 
 me short of 
 lias said.' 
 that before.' 
 r saw it.* 
 ? happy and 
 ell you fi-om 
 s what you 
 ; a thing for 
 is God with 
 do not listen 
 ou from His 
 ce,' He has 
 hen and the 
 
 are equally 
 he outwardly 
 nd righteous 
 
 differ- 
 
 or good before Him. Of course there are 
 ences in heinousness or degradation of sins. I need 
 not stop to speak of this ; we all know it. I wish 
 to tell you what you and I do not by nature know ; 
 namely, that there is no difference as to where we 
 stand before God. The one question is, guilty or 
 not guilty. There are no degrees as to the fact of 
 guilt. ' He that offends in one point is guilty of all,' 
 and nothing less. He that offends in all points, is 
 guilty of all, and nothing more. Therefore, while 
 there are differences among offences, there is no 
 difference as to guilt. Therefore, all men in the 
 world (and you included), have been brought in 
 guilty before God. 
 
 Look at the story of the Prodigal Son in the 
 15th of Luke. The moment he crossed his father's 
 threshold with his pockets full of money and a 
 respectable dress on, he was as really guiUy, as 
 really a sinner, as when he was among the swine 
 in his rags. He was more degraded when keeping 
 swine, but not more guiJty. In fact, his degradation 
 and husks were his greatest mercies, for these led 
 him to see his guilt. A full pocket and a respect- 
 able appearance are the worst things a guilty sinner 
 can have, as these lead him to think that he is rich 
 and increased with goods, and has need of nothing, 
 when in God's sight he is wretched, and miserable, 
 and poor, and blind, and naked. I do not ask you, 
 Are you a sinner in the common use of that word? 
 because you for whom I write are not. You mean by 
 sinner, one who is very wild, profane, disobedient, 
 aod lawless. This is as *u«. n speak of sinners. God, 
 
• GRA CE A ND TR UTIl ' 
 
 however, says that there is no difference. The 
 only thing I ask you is this, Have you offended in 
 ONE point — not one point of open sin, but one 
 point in thought or word ? You confess to at least 
 one point. God asks no more. If you have 
 offended in one point you are guilty of all. Man 
 would never think this nor say it. But God says it 
 Suppose that your life were like a book that you 
 have written, and there was only one small blot just 
 like a pin's-point in it, whilst all the other leaves were 
 perfectly clean, and you came and presented it before 
 God ; He would put it beside all the blackest lives 
 that were ever lived, the blackest histories of the 
 vilest murderers, and thieves, and harlots, and over 
 this collection would be written these words, ' There 
 is no difference.* 
 
 You have offended in one point. It is not a 
 question of being a great sinner — it is this question, 
 ' Are you perfect as the Christ of God, the perfect 
 man?' If you had lived for fifty years without 
 committing one sin, or having one wrong v'ish or 
 thought, and just then you had an evil thought, and 
 afterwards lived another fifty years and died, aged one 
 hundred, with only this one evil thought (not even 
 a word or an action), when you came to stand before 
 God in judgment, He would put you beside all the 
 offscourings of the earth, men who for a hundred 
 years never had a good thought, and He would say, 
 ' There is no difference.^ 
 
 Of course you think this is very hard, but it is 
 true. God will never ask your opinion whether 
 it ought to be ^o or not. He has in grace told 
 
 
THERE JS NO DIFFERENCE.' 
 
 ince. The 
 offended in 
 n, but one 
 s to at least 
 F you have 
 * a/l. Man 
 God says it 
 )k that you 
 lall blot just 
 leaves were 
 ed it before 
 lackest lives 
 Dries of the 
 ts, and over 
 Drds, ' There 
 
 It is not a 
 
 his questiop, 
 the perfect 
 ^ars without 
 ong v.'ish or 
 ■bought, and 
 ied, aged one 
 ht (not even 
 stand before 
 ?side all the 
 r a hundred 
 e would say, 
 
 rd, but It is 
 ion whether 
 n grace told 
 
 us already what He will do. You and I not 
 knowing absolute holiness, cannot understand or 
 appreciate such a judgment. We cou d never feel 
 that every one is the same in God s sight as regards 
 guilt But God says it, and tliere the matter ends. 
 If you wish to go on, risking your chance of escapmg 
 hell on the possibility that God has told lies, and 
 that these words are not perhaps quite true, that 
 ^ there is no difference; then the judgmeiu-day will 
 declare it to you. I would rather advise you to 
 believe God, against your own ideas and opinions, 
 and simply because He has said it, to proceed as it in 
 His sight ' there is no difference ' between those we 
 call great and little sinners. 
 
 « / cannot believe that all are so bad, said one, after 
 I had been saying ' there is no difference. 
 
 *But,' I added, *the Bible says, 'there u fu 
 
 difference.^ . , 
 
 ' But there must be greater sinners than others. 
 
 * Oh yes. Most certainly. Great olTcnders are 
 recognised in the Bible ; he that owed fifty and he 
 that owed five hundred pence ; but as to guilt, God 
 says, " there is no difference." ' . c- a 
 
 * Well I cannot see it,' still continued my triend. ^ 
 ^But it is in God's Word, whether you sct'itormt; 
 
 and it is sufficient that God has said it, for His Word 
 is truth. Let me give an illustration. Let us sup- 
 pose that a bill had been stuck up in this town, say- 
 ing that recruits were wanted for Her Majesty s Lite 
 Guards, and that none would be enlisted but those 
 who were tall and measured not under six feet m 
 height. Let us suppose that many of the young men lo 
 
^ GRACE AND TRUTH : 
 
 the town were anxious to serve in this regiment, and 
 John meets James, and says to him, 'Well, I've more 
 chance than you, for I am taller than you ;' and they 
 put back to back and measure themselves with one 
 another, and indeed John is taller than James. And 
 there continues to be much measuring in the town 
 before the day that the recruiting-sergeant comes. 
 
 They measure themselves by themselves, and 
 compare themselves among themselves, but they 
 forget one thing — that not only tall men, but 
 men not under six feet are wanted. One man 
 at last says, ' Well, I've measured myself with every 
 man in the town, and I'm the tallest man in it,' and 
 it might be quite true. But will even he be found 
 qualified ? 
 
 The trial day comes. Each is measured, from the 
 man five feet six inches, to the very tallest. Sup- 
 pose he is five feet eleven inches and three-quarters. 
 The sergeant cannot let him pass. He is short. He 
 must take his place among the very shortest as to 
 getting into the Life Guards. He is the tallest 
 man in the town, but he is short of the standard, 
 and ' there is no difference ' from the very shortest 
 as to his exclusion from the I '"e Guards. 'There 
 is a difference ' in height, but not in qualification. 
 
 Thus it is with every sinner. He may be good, or 
 bad, in the sight of men, but ' there is no difference, 
 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of 
 God.' If any man could say, I have come up to 
 God's standard, and this is true, then there would be 
 a difference ; but * come short ' is written on every 
 man's brow, therefore th^re is no difference. 
 
^ THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.* 
 
 regiment, and 
 'ell, I've more 
 )u ; ' and they 
 ves with one 
 Jiimes. And 
 
 in the town 
 :ant comes, 
 mselves, and 
 es, but they 
 ill men, but 
 I. One man 
 slf with every 
 lan in it,' and 
 
 he be found 
 
 ired, from the 
 tallest. Sup- 
 hree-quiirters. 
 
 is short. He 
 shortest as to 
 is the tallest 
 the standard, 
 
 very shortest 
 rds. ' There 
 ualification. 
 ly be good, or 
 no difference, 
 
 the glory of 
 I come up to 
 liere would be 
 tten on every 
 'ence. 
 
 Whether was Adam or Eve the more to blame ? 
 This might afford material for a long discussion, and, 
 at the end, the heinousness of their crime would be 
 to us a matter of opmion. I have no doubt there 
 might be some shade of degree as to heinoiwness ; 
 but one thing is sure — if their offences were not 
 \ equally heinous, they were equally driven out. The 
 cherubim that turned every way with the flaming 
 sword, separated both equally from the tree of life ; 
 there was no difference. 
 I When the rain began to fall and the waters to 
 
 ' rise, after Noah had entered the ark, the people who 
 had their houses high up might have been pitying 
 the poor people who built low down in the valley, 
 as they heard the screams of the drowning. By and 
 by the water sweeps above the little hills, and then 
 ^ those on the high hills, in turn, congratulate them 
 selves upon their high-built villas. But the watei 
 still rises ; it enters their ground floors ; they rush 
 . out of their grand mansions or hovels — for there was 
 no difference— 2iTid flee to the tops of the very high- 
 est mountains; but only find respite for a few 
 moments, for ' all the high hills, under the whole 
 heaven, were covered ; fifteen cubits upward did the 
 § waters prevail, and the mountains were covered, and 
 all flesh died that moved upon the earth .... and 
 every man; all in whose nostrils was the breath of 
 life, of all that was in the dry land, died, and every 
 living substance was destroyed which was upon the 
 fece of the ground.' Under that judgment-flood 
 there was no difference. Look across the wide level 
 •ea, and consider the thousands of caves and 
 
 I 
 
lO 
 
 GRACE AND TRUTH. 
 
 Stupendous mountain chains that it hides, the plains 
 and valleys, the dens of seaweed and the fortresses 
 of rock ; and the level sea rolls equally over all, and 
 there is no difference. Drunkard and respectable 
 iady the hoary-haired sinner and the infant at the 
 mother's breast— all were under that fearful flood, 
 for there was no dfference. If you had been there, 
 do you think you would have been made an excep- 
 tion of? You may be able just now to get anything 
 that money can buy. Could money have saved you 
 then ? Prince and beggar, strong men and weak, bad 
 and good, were all equally swept away. There was 
 no dfference. It has happened already, you see, and 
 it will happen again— not with water, but with fire. 
 *When Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon 
 Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out o\ 
 heaven,' there was no dfference. All were equally 
 destroyed ; very bad and very good shared the same 
 fate. This fearful, unprecedented shower falling out 
 of heaven— brimstone and fire— took every one by 
 surprise, and destroyed every dweller there. 'He 
 overthrew those cities and all the plain, and all the 
 inhabitants of the cities.' There was no dfference. 
 
 When Israel was sheltered in the house of bondage 
 from the destroying angel's hand, Mt came to pass 
 that at midnight Jehovah smote all the first-born m 
 the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh 
 that sat on his throne, unto the first-born of the 
 captive that was in the dungeon.' Judge and 
 prisoner alike found themselves face to fece with 
 death. In the palace and in the hovel the voice ot 
 mourning was heard ; not one of all the doomed 
 
• THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE/ 
 
 II 
 
 ^s, the plains 
 the fortresses 
 
 over all, and 
 d respectable 
 infant at the 
 fearful flood, 
 d been there, 
 ade an excep- 
 > get anything 
 ave saved you 
 and weak, bad 
 . There was 
 ', you see, and 
 , but with fire, 
 om and upon 
 'ehovah out of 
 
 were equally 
 lared the same 
 iwer falling out 
 L every one by 
 r there. 'He 
 in, and all the 
 ; no difference. 
 )use of bondage 
 
 came to pass 
 he first-born in 
 rn of Pharaoh 
 rst-born of the 
 ' Judge and 
 e to fiace with 
 vel the voice ot 
 ill the doomed 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 first-bom escaped. These first-born might hare 
 been beautiful, amiable, educated, and accomplished, 
 or they miglu have been vile, degraded, ignorant, 
 and hardened ; but there was no difference. It is 
 with this God you and I have to do. 
 
 When Jericho's walls fell flat before the appoint- 
 ment, the ordinance of God, in righteous judgment 
 ' they (the Israelites) utterly destroyed ^// that was in 
 the city, both man and woman, young and old.' The 
 strong man and the feeble woman, the active young 
 man and the decrepid old, were equally slain by the 
 edge of the sword. There was no difference. 
 
 The flaming sword of the cherubim, the flood of 
 waters, the deluge of fire, the angel of death, and 
 Joshua's sword, all preach to you and me with calm, 
 decided voice, 'There is no difference.' These things 
 were written for us, that wc might know what we 
 may expect so that we might not leap in the dark. 
 Notliing will happen which has not been told us. 
 
 A brother in the Lord could never get a young 
 lady to think about eternity until he quoted this text, 
 ' The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the 
 nations thdt forget God.* That word ^forget' seemed 
 to haunt her. May it haunt you, dear reader ! You 
 do not require to deny God's existence, to mock at 
 Him, to despise Him, to reject Him, to neglect Him; 
 all you have to do is to forget God. Do you know 
 the God who says, * There is no difference f Have 
 you forf^otten that he identifies you with all descended 
 from Adam.? Have you forgotten the God driving our 
 parents out of Eden, and placi a sword cryi*^? for 
 blood .? Our brother Cain soon forgot, our brotha 
 
12 
 
 * GRACE AND TliUTIV 
 
 Abel remembered. Have you forgotten tlie God who 
 swept away all in the days of Noah ? 
 
 Have you forgotten that i ^e is the Judge of quick 
 and dead, and as there was nc difference, so there is 
 a day coming when there will be no difference. In 
 the judgment of the quick, all the goats are equally 
 on the left hand — ^ there is no difference.' In the 
 judgment of the dead, * the dead, small and great, 
 stand before God '—small and great sinners, young 
 and old, king and serf, peer and peasant — * and 
 whosoever was not found written in the book of life 
 was cast into the lake of fire,' for ' ihere^ is no differ- 
 ence' Your name may have been written on the 
 communion-roll of any or all the churches, or it may 
 have been written in the sheets of the Newgate 
 conviction-book for murderers, but 'there is no 
 difference' The lake of fire levels all distinctions. 
 There may be, there are, many and few stripes; 
 there may be, there are, great and small cups full 
 of wrath, but every cup, be it great or small, \^ full. 
 The lake of fire — fearful thought— rolls its hideous 
 sea of wrath and torment in one surging wave 
 over all that have not been enrolled in the one book 
 of life. In hell, and perhaps only there, for the 
 first time, you will believe that 'there is no difference: 
 Every one believes it there. 
 
 Let me ask you to look at another picture. Three 
 men are hung on three crosses. If you look at theM, 
 you will see that * there is no difference.' If you 
 listen to what they are saying, you will hear one 
 at the one side mocking Him in the centre; and 
 the one on the other side saying, ' Dost not thoo 
 
 i 
 
' THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.' 
 
 13 
 
 the God who 
 
 idge of quick 
 ?, so there is 
 Hfference. In 
 s are equally 
 nee' In the 
 // and greaty 
 inners, young 
 easant — * and 
 s book of life 
 re is no differ- 
 written on the 
 hes, or it may 
 the Newgate 
 ' there is no 
 1 distinctions, 
 few stripes; 
 nail cups full 
 • small, \sfulL 
 lis its hideous 
 surging wave 
 I the one book 
 there, foi the 
 J no difference.* 
 
 icture. Three 
 1 look at theM, 
 •ence.' If you 
 will hear one 
 e centre ; and 
 Dost not thoQ 
 
 fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation ? 
 And we indeedyttJ/Zy, but this man hath done nothing 
 amiss.' The one in the centre is saying, ' Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do/ 
 Those suffering 'justly,' and He that did 'nothing 
 amiss,' equally suffer, for ' there is no dfftrenw.'' 
 Those needing forgiveness, and He praying for their 
 forgiveness, are under the same doom, for ' there is 
 no difference.' Who are they? Those on cither 
 hand are two malefactors, or thieves, who die by 
 the condemnation of their law. He in the centre was 
 proved innocent, and He is the judge of quick and 
 dead. He has taken of his own free-will 'he load 
 of sin upon Him, and, under sin. He cannot be 
 cleared. Spotiess, pure, holy though He was, He 
 cannot escape. God can by no means clear the 
 guilty. ' He hath made Him sin for us, who knew no 
 sin.' He is under our guilt, and 'there is no differ- 
 ence ' between Him and the thief — He must suffer. 
 Dear reader, does net this explain iill difficulty aboat 
 an innocent, amiable, virtuous, accomplished lady 
 being on the same level before God as a drunliard and 
 a murderer ? Here is God's perfect Son — yea, the 
 very God-man — on the same level with malefactors, 
 not for Himself, but for us. God became man, and 
 gave Himself for our sins. This satisfaction that the 
 innocent made for the guilty is offered to yovj, and 
 you may freely have it, for ' there is no difference.' 
 
 If the eye of the vilest sinner in this world 
 should perchance rest on this — an outcast from all 
 
 society, one 
 
 who has lost all friends and all self- 
 
 respect, the tottering drunkard coming out of hit 
 
H 
 
 'GRACE AND TRUTH.* 
 
 delirium tremens— I tell you as from C.ckI, this 
 Christ is oaired to you as God's love-gift. You i ui> 
 reckon llim yours, and proceed upon it as if He- 
 were yours as truly as 1 or any other person m this 
 world do so. You have as much right to^claim Him 
 as we, for ' there is no difference * in God's sight— 
 
 ♦His blood can make the foulest clean, 
 HU blood avails for me.' 
 
 Tlnis, my friend, for whom especially I wrivo 
 this you have to take the lost sinner's place, for 
 God says, ' there is no difference: As I have said 
 before, I could know this only from God's Word. 
 You have been as happy as a bird all your life, but 
 you forget to find out what God thinks aliout you. I 
 have tried to show you this from the Bible. I do not 
 ask you if you feel it, for I am sure you never could, 
 neither could any one feel all the catalogue of sins m 
 Romans i. and iii. true against him i-dividually; but 
 God knows us bL^er than we knov. uai^elves, ani 
 this is His estimate of us. 
 
 From the sann? word, and therefore on the same 
 authority, and on none other, I tell you that God 
 has given you Christ. 'For God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only-begotten Son.' I do 
 -: t say that you are to feel that Christ is yours, any 
 ^Tiore th;\i. i asked you to feel all the indictment true 
 against you. You are to believe that Christ is yours, 
 as you believe the black accusation against you is 
 yours, only on the autlioiity of God. 
 
 I once asked a woman, * Do you feel that you are 
 condemned ? ' 
 
YHERi': IS NO diffeuicnce: 
 
 IS 
 
 rom Ciod, this 
 Tift. You I ia> 
 Ml it as if He 
 • person in this 
 It to claim Him 
 God's sight — 
 
 leaii) 
 
 ecially I wrive 
 ner's place, for 
 A.S I have said 
 1 God's Word. 
 ,11 your life, but 
 ks aliout you. I 
 Bible. I do not 
 ^ou never could, 
 alogue of sins in 
 ndividually; but 
 ^ uaii'^lves, ani 
 
 )re on the same 
 1 you that God 
 1 so loved the 
 ten Son.' I do 
 rist is yours, any 
 I indictment true 
 Lt Christ is yours, 
 )n against you is 
 1. 
 feel that you are 
 
 * fes,* she said. 
 
 * Now,' I answered, * that is absurd. You may 
 know and feel you are guilty, but you can only 
 believe you are condemned, because you know you 
 are condemned on the authority of the judge who 
 has pronounced the sentence.' 
 
 So on God's authority, and on it alone, I know 
 1 am 'condemned already.' And on the same 
 authority alone I know that ' Christ is for me,' me 
 individually. Just because I accept God's estimate 
 of myself, I have a right to accept God's estimate of 
 His Son for me. I believe the record that (lod 
 gave of His Son to lost sinners. It looks very 
 humble to say I am too great a sinner, or some- 
 thing similar, thus comparing myself with other 
 sinners ; but the humbling bit is that ' there is no 
 difference.'' 
 
 All are ' condemned already,' but only those who 
 believe it reap the advantage of this. Advantage 1 
 What advantage can there be in knowing I am 
 condemned already ? Much, because only they who 
 believe themselves condemned can claim a Saviour. 
 And now the ' righteousness of God is by faith of 
 Jesus Christ unto ^//,' that is to say, it is offered, 
 in the person of Christ, equally unto every person in 
 this world, but is only 'upon all them that believe; 
 for there is no difference, for all have sinned.' ' All,' 
 in Rom. iii. 9, are said to be ' under sii ' So in 
 ver. 22, all believing ones are under rightc .usness. 
 It is '■upon all them that believe.' Righteousnes* 
 is altogether and for ever outside of every man'i 
 attainment, for it must be perfect, and all haf« 
 
i6 
 
 • GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 sinned. Read Rom. Hi. 19 to 26. ♦Where sin 
 abounded grace did much more abound.' God has 
 proved us all equally by nature and practice * under 
 sin ; He now has placed all of us who believe * under 
 
 grace.' 
 
 Thanks be unto God, my dear friend, though 
 you began this paper not knowing yourself as God 
 knows you, you may now, on God's authority, where 
 you are, without moving, claim Christ 'the righteous- 
 ness of God ' as yours, and may rise to tell others 
 like yourself what God thinks of us and what God 
 has provided for us. It is in love that He will not let 
 you alone. If we are to be ' before Him ' for^ever, 
 we must be ' holy and without blame in love ;' and 
 if so, it is only ' in His Son ' that this can be. 
 
 Virtuous or vile, decent or indecent, rich or pooi, 
 receive and rest upon God's Christ now as He is so 
 freely offered you, and then you may believe (not 
 feel) that your sins are in the depths of the sea, 
 that the shoreless ocean of the love of God flowing 
 through a crucified Saviour has rolled over your 
 millions of sins, and you can triumphantly say, as 
 you look at that ocean covering all that is against 
 you, ♦ there is no difference.' 
 
 If any one is to be kept out of heaven for the 
 believer's sins, that must be Christ, as 'He bore 
 our sins.' God laid on Him our iniquities. 
 
 Clad in the skins of God's own making (type ok 
 the righteousness of God), Adam and Eve were 
 equally clothed, there was no difference. 
 
 Shut in by God's hand into the ark of gopher 
 wood, *Noah only remained alive, and they that 
 
• THERE IS NO DIFFERENCK* 
 
 i: 
 
 * Where sin 
 
 ind.* God has 
 
 practice * under 
 
 believe ^ under 
 
 friend, though 
 ourself as God 
 uthority, where 
 ; 'the righteous- 
 i to tell others 
 
 and what God 
 t He will not let 
 Him' for ever, 
 le in love ;* and 
 is can be. 
 It, rich or pooi, 
 now as He is so 
 lay believe (not 
 ths of the sea, 
 of God flowing 
 Dlled over your 
 iphantly say, as 
 
 that is against 
 
 F heaven for the 
 ;t, as ' He bore 
 iquities. 
 
 making (type oi 
 I and Eve were 
 'nee. 
 
 e ark of gopher 
 ;, and they that 
 
 were with him in the ark,' but they all, great and 
 small, man and beast, bird and creeping thing, lion 
 and worm were equally saved floating nearer and 
 nearer heaven the higher the judgment waters 
 rolled, for there was no difference. 
 
 Under shelter of the sprinkled blood every house 
 of Israel was safe even in Egypt, and all equally 
 rejoiced around the roasted lamb, for there was no 
 difference. 
 
 Under protection of the scarlet line all found 
 in Rahab's house were equally safe when all in 
 Jericho were destroyed, for there was no diff'ere77ce. 
 
 None of all those enrolled in the Lamb's book of 
 life can be cast into the lake of fire. They shall 
 never see the second death, for in that book there is 
 no diffperence\ once there, perfectly safe for ever. 
 God's salvation to lost sinners roust always be 
 through judgment. We must accept His ordinance. 
 What was there in skins of beasts, an ark of gopher 
 wood, a few drops of blood, a red cord, or in 
 a certain book ? They are God's ordinance, God's 
 perfect way. It will matter little what we think will 
 condemn or save, let us acceptGod's thoughts for both. 
 God iias written out our character. Read Rom. i. 
 29, *Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, 
 wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, 
 murder, debate, deceit, malignity. Whisperers, 
 backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, 
 inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 
 without understanding, covenant-breakers, without 
 Datural affection, implacable, unmerciful.' Gal. v. 19. 
 'adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivtousness, 
 
■% 
 
 i8 
 
 • ORACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 idolatry, witchcraft. Hatred, variance, emulations, 
 wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
 drunkenness, revellings, and such like.' 
 
 But I hear some one say, 
 
 ' That is the character of a heathen.* 
 
 ' Yea, friend, it is thine — these are what thy heart 
 is made of. They may be kept under, but they are 
 all there in germ, though not necessarily developed 
 into transgression.' 
 
 ' Nay, all these are not in my heart.' 
 
 * Well, I'm sorry to hear it.' 
 
 'Why?' 
 
 * Because only this character will be rece^fed at 
 Calvary. Only what God has written about us will 
 be accepted by Him : but coming to Calvary with 
 this in our hands, we shall hear His voice saying, 
 '* I, even I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions 
 for' mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins,' 
 and all are gone for ever.' 
 
 Why does not every one believe that his heart is 
 desperately wicked ? Because it is deceitful above 
 all things, and cannot bear to hear the truth wheni 
 spoken about itself. 
 
 Accept the character God has given to you, and 
 accept the Saviour He has provided for you. 
 
 Thou just and holy God, 
 
 Before Thee who can stand ? 
 Guihy, condemned, all waiting wnUk 
 
 In judgment from Thy hand. 
 
 One sin deserves a hell, 
 
 A death that ne'er shall die ) 
 
THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE,* 
 
 19 
 
 ce, emulations, 
 nngs, murders, 
 
 n. 
 
 what thy heart 
 ir, but they are 
 arily developed 
 
 be rece^Yed at 
 La about us will 
 :o Calvary with 
 [is voice saying, 
 y transgressions 
 imber thy sins,* 
 
 that his heart is 
 deceitful above 
 the truth when> 
 
 ven to yoUf and 
 or you. 
 
 Our not like sands on ocean's shorei 
 In millions 'gaioot us lie. 
 
 Thou God of truth and grace. 
 We praise Thee for Thy way 
 
 By which the guilty may draw near— 
 Their guilt aJl put away. 
 
 Thy Christ who bled and died. 
 Up to Thy Throne has gonef 
 
 Himself Thy love-gift we accept 
 We rest on Him alone. 
 
 We praise Thee as Thy sont 
 
 Before our Father's face, 
 As o'er our every sin now rolb 
 
 The ocean of Thy ffact. 
 
 1? 
 
 g wrath 
 
 jd. 
 
 s» 
 
Would You Like to be Saved ^ 
 
 Our Justification. 
 
 OULD you like to be sared.* 
 'Indeed I would.' 
 
 ' And would you like to be saved in 
 God's way ? ' 
 
 * Oh 1 yes. But I can scarcely see how any poor 
 sinner like me can know that here.' 
 
 'Well, I wish to place before you a sure road to, 
 heaven for the unholiest of us all, and shew you how, 
 by simply believing God, we may know that we are 
 saved.' 
 
 * I read my Bible, and I am sure I believe every 
 word in it.' 
 
 * I know there are few who doubt there is a God, 
 or the leading doctrines of the Bible. But, by the 
 help of the Spirit of God, 1 ^^ould try to tell you 
 some plain truths which you may not know, or things 
 about which you may have wrong notions — truths 
 about God's relation tc you, yourself, personally and 
 individually, and about your seeing, receiving, and 
 taking for yourself God's salvation.' 
 
 * Do you know that God loves you ? * 
 *Ah! yes,' you say, 'He loves us all.' 
 
 * Quite true.' But sit down and ask yourself 
 again, 'Do I believe that God loves mh** To 
 
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SAVEDt 
 
 21 
 
 Saved f 
 
 o be saved in 
 
 how any poor 
 
 a sure road to„ 
 shew you how, 
 )w that we are 
 
 believe every 
 
 :hei-e is a God, 
 But, by the 
 try to tell you 
 :now, or things 
 lotions — truths 
 personally and 
 receiving, and 
 
 u r 
 
 ?• 
 
 all; 
 
 1 ask yourself 
 es MH** To 
 
 convince you of it, He says in His Bible, and one 
 word is enough from Him—' God so loved the world; 
 and you are part of that world. 
 
 But now you say, * If God so loves me, He will 
 be merciful to me a poor, struggling, failing sinner, if 
 I do the best I can, and He will overlook my many 
 Now, this is a point upon which you need 
 
 sms 
 
 to be set right. His name is love; but He is as just 
 as He is merciful, as true as He is gracious, and thus 
 ' can by no means clear the guilty.' He can overlook 
 nothing. You know that Jesus Christ, God Him- 
 self manifest in the flesh, came into our position, our 
 place, under our sin, and died a great many years 
 ago. He had no sin of His own, but put away sin 
 by the sacrifice of Himself. Now, God says that 
 He so loved us that he gave us Jesus, and all that 
 we have to do is to believe in Him. Of course 
 you believe that He came and died ; but did you 
 ever believe that God gave Him to you? 'Ah!' 
 you say, 'I wish I could /^^/ that.* But God does 
 not ask you to feel it. He states what He has 
 given to you, and asks you to believe Him. " God 
 so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
 Son," whether you believe it or not. When you 
 accept God's gift you believe in Him. 
 
 Jesus Himself told us this when on earth ; and 
 surely He did not mean to deceive us. He was speak- 
 ing about the bitten Israelites in the wilderness. 
 They were all bitten, and a serpent of brass was put 
 upon a pole, and every one that looked lived. This 
 serpent was given to the Israelites whether they 
 k>oked or not. Supposing thiit one Israelite had said, 
 
^2 
 
 ' ORA CE A ND TR UTIJ. » 
 
 I wish I could feel that the serpent is for me, wh;u 
 would you have said ? ' Certainly: are you bitten ? " 
 That is all you need. Are you a guilty sinner? 
 then you have a right to believe that Jesus is yours. 
 This is the simplicity of the Gospel, which has 
 stumbled many great men, and which seems so 
 foolish to the wise of this world. 
 
 People, when they are ill, or begin to think they 
 are to die, try to pray, leave off" bad habits, and be 
 good, and do the best they can. Yet, though all 
 these are very proper things to do, they will never 
 save anybody. Supposing these bitten Israelites, in- 
 stead of looking, had begun to put on poultices, and 
 get ointments, and dressings, and mixtures, to counter- 
 act the bites — well, that would have been very sensi- 
 ble, men would say; but God said, look; do as I tell 
 you : — Look to that serpent on the pole. So God's 
 gospel is, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
 thou shalt be saver^,' ' 
 
 But you may say, *I am no worse than my neigh- 
 bours. If I am lost many will run a bad chance ; 
 there are many worse than I am, and I only hope in 
 God's mercy.* Now, this is all a delusion. One 
 sin will damn any man for ever. Sin brought God's 
 Son from heaven to become man and die. It is 
 true many are worse than you, and that they will 
 have a bad chance. That is the very reason I write 
 this for you and for all, because most people are 
 going to hell just now and do not know it. I did 
 not make the calculation. Jesus Christ, who cannot 
 tell a lie, said that there were two roads, a wide 
 and a narrow, that most people go in the wi<ie 
 
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SAVED f 
 
 23 
 
 is for me, whui 
 are you bitten ? ' 
 I guilty sinner? 
 t Jesus is yours. 
 ;pel, which has 
 vhich seems so 
 
 in to think they 
 i habits, and be 
 Yet, though all 
 they will never 
 en Israelites, in- 
 )n poultices, and 
 ures, to counter- 
 been very sensi- 
 ook; do as I tell 
 pole. So God's 
 ;sus Christ and 
 
 than my neigh- 
 a bad chance; 
 d I only hope in 
 delusion. One 
 n brought God's 
 and die. It is 
 i that they will 
 •y reason I write 
 nost people are 
 know it. I did 
 rist, who cannot 
 ) roads, a wide 
 go in the wi(ie 
 
 one, and few go in the narrow one, that the 
 wide one ended in endless misery, and the naiTow 
 one in endless happiness. You have only one chance, 
 which is to believe God who says that one sin will 
 send you to hell. You have committed at least 
 one sin. Now accept Christ as your own and only 
 Saviour. 
 
 Bur the great deceiver of the world, that is the 
 devil, who tries to do all he can against God's truth, 
 if he finds that you will not believe yourself to be 
 worse than other people, or that still you have a 
 rhance, will take another and an opi)osite course, 
 for the devil's statements are like the time of a bad 
 watch, either too fast or too slow, lie tells you 
 that either you are too bad or not bad enough. 
 Now Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost. 
 A man who said of himself that he was the chief of 
 sinners is in heaven long ago. The blackest, vilest, 
 most debased, most debauched, polluted, filthy, un- 
 clean, hard-hearted, evil-tempered, lying, covetous, 
 thieving, murderous, grey-haired sinner that ever 
 tottered on this side of the grave, is reached by Him 
 who hung between two thieves for sin. God says 
 it: that is all. We cannot understand it. Only 
 this. He chose to do it, and now He tells us. His 
 voice, dear sinner, is still deeper than you, ' Come 
 unto me.' A thief that had reviled Christ after the 
 hand of death was on him is in Paradise, we know. 
 Why not you ? And why not be saved now ? If 
 not now it may be never. 
 
 I once met a poor woman in the south of England. 
 I began to speak to her about heaven and Jesus. 
 She did not understand me> I asked her if she had 
 
24 
 
 * GRACE AND TRVTS.* 
 
 ever heard of Jesus ; she said, no (most lamentable 
 in this Christian land, so called). I told her that 
 up above those skies Jesus dwelt, and He had so 
 loved us that He had descended from heaven and 
 had become a man. There was a condemned criminal 
 lying warting execution not far from where we were, 
 and everyone was speaking about him. I said to 
 her, * You have heard about the man that is to be 
 hanged.* 
 
 * Ah yes/ 
 
 * Suppose, as he lay in the jail, a knock the 
 night before the execution was heard at the door, 
 and a gentleman walked in, sat down, and said, — 
 
 * " You have broken the laws." 
 
 * " Yes, yes," the convict would cry. 
 
 * " You have been condemned/* 
 
 * ** Yes, yes, justly too." 
 
 * " You are to be hanged." 
 * " Yes, to-morrow." 
 
 * " I am the Queen's son ; I have come from 
 Windsor at Her Majesty's desire, and this is 
 what I am to do: I will take that prison-dress 
 which you have on and sit iu your place, and you 
 will take my dress and sit in my place." The 
 convict in astonishment exchanges dresses; he 
 wonders if he is dreaming ; the Prince sits down in 
 the convict-dress, and the morning comes ; the 
 executioner walks in; he passes the convict; he 
 takes the Prince dressed in the condemned man's 
 dress ; he leads him out ; he is hanged by the neck 
 till dead ; and the man that was condemned walks 
 out free through the opened prison doors." The 
 poor woman looked in astonishment at this picture 
 
 i 
 
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SAVEDt 
 
 nost lamentable 
 [ told her that 
 ind He had so 
 am heaven and 
 iemned criminal 
 where we were, 
 lim. I said to 
 n that IS to be 
 
 I, a knock the 
 rd at the door, 
 1, and said, — 
 
 ^• 
 
 ave come from 
 
 e, and this is 
 lat prison-dress 
 r place, and you 
 Y place." The 
 ;s dresses ; he 
 nee sits down in 
 ig comes ; the 
 he convict; he 
 mdemned man's 
 Ted by the neck 
 mdemned walks 
 1 doors." The 
 at this oicture 
 
 of what Christ had done for the sinner — defective 
 in many points, still it impressed on her the great 
 iruth of putting the good and innocent one in place 
 of the bad and guilty man. 
 
 ' Now,' I said, ' this is what the God that created 
 you and me tells us of His Son in this book. Can 
 you read ? * 
 
 ' No,' she said. 
 
 ' You will believe what I read from God's Word, 
 this book, the Bible, that God has written for us. 
 " Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the 
 unjust, that He might bring us to God." (i Pet. iii. 
 1 8.) " When we were yet without strength Christ 
 died for the ungodly." " While we were yet sin- 
 ners Christ died for us."' (Rom. v. 6-8.) She gazed 
 in wonder — she knew she was a sinner. ' Will you 
 believe God,' I continued, ' that He loved you and 
 gave you His Son, the glorious Prince of princes, who 
 once died but is now alive again.* She looked 
 amazed, and trembling said, 
 
 'Mayl?' 
 
 ' Not only have I authority to tell you that you 
 may, but God has commanded you to do it, and you 
 will never please God half so much, although you 
 toiled, and wept, and prayed for a million years, as 
 by obeying His voice and taking His gift.' 
 
 This is the substance of our conversation, though 
 by the lapse of time I may have forgotten some 
 things and put ii. others. It seemed to be used by 
 God; for the woman professed at once to be- 
 lieve on Jesus, and to believe God that in Him she 
 had everlasting life. I saw her next evening, and she 
 had a calm joy in iier soul ; she was longing to hgax 
 
26 
 
 GRACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 aboat that glorious Prince who had been sent to die 
 the convict s death, to preach ' liberty to the cap 
 tives, and the opening of the prison to tise bound. 
 She resolved to begin to learn to read,^ so that she 
 might know the truth for herself from the Word of 
 God. 
 
 But you may say, ' I am not so bad as she. 1 
 can read. I know all about Jesus. / have always 
 believed' Yes, you have always believed about 
 Jesus, but have you believed ti.it He is yours ? You 
 have always believed that He is the Saviour of 
 sinners ; but have you believed that He is yours ? 
 If you have not, you are still condeLined, still 
 unsaved, and, in all affection, I would earnestly 
 entreat you, before you read another line, to lay 
 down this book, and take God at His word, never 
 heeding what you feel, nor whatsoever your heart may 
 say (it is a liar) ; hut believe God that He so loved 
 YOU (put in youi liame). that He gave Jesus to yoi' 
 (put in your name — that is faith). You see you 
 have not believed always that Jesus is yours, as 1 
 have said, bnt would repeat again, you have not to 
 feel He is yours, but believe God that He is yours. 
 If you thus believe Him, then all your sin is for ever 
 gone, as between you and God you are justified from 
 all things, your sins are cast mto the depths of the 
 sea, you can never come into condemnation, you are 
 as sure of heaven as if you were there, for God has 
 said it. Certainly your wicked heart within you is 
 not gone. I have often met with poor distressed 
 souls who were unable to make out how people cculd 
 knovtr they were saved, thinking that if they were 
 
'■^. 
 
 TH.' 
 
 id been sent to die 
 iberty to the rap 
 ;on to tise bound. 
 read,^ so that she 
 From the Word ot 
 
 bad as she. 1 
 
 ;. / have always 
 s believed about 
 He is yours ? You 
 ; the Saviour of 
 :hat He is yours ? 
 condcLined, still 
 ! would earnestly 
 lother line, to lay 
 ; His word, never 
 jrer your heart may 
 
 1 that He so loved 
 gave Jesus to yov 
 i). You see you 
 sus is yours, as I 
 , you have not to 
 that He is yours, 
 pur sin is for ever 
 11 are justified from 
 the depths of the 
 iemnation, you are 
 here, for God has 
 eart within you is 
 th poor distressed 
 t how people could 
 
 that if they were 
 
 WOULD YOU LIKE TO fiA' SAVEDf 
 
 27 
 
 saved they should never have any sin in them. God 
 says, if people (that is saved people) say they have 
 no sin they deceive themselves. All the dillerence 
 lies in this, having sin in me, -.md sin on me. I once 
 tried to put the way to be saved before a little girl 
 who was wishing to know about it, and I think it 
 shewed her the gospel to the saving of her soul. 
 
 ' How many })eople were crucified on Calvary .' ' 
 
 'Three,' she replied. 'Two thieves, and Jesus 
 iH'tween.' 
 
 ' Were both the thieves equally bad?* 
 
 ' Yes, they sutfered justly.' 
 
 ' Did both die alike ? ' 
 
 'No.' 
 
 ' What made the difference?' 
 
 ' One believed on Jesus, the other did not. 
 
 ' Now what al)()ut sin with regard to these three? 
 The one thief that did not look to Jesus, had he sin 
 IN him ? ' 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' Had he sin on him?* 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' And Jesus, had He sin in Him ?* 
 
 She thought a little, but she answered rightly, 
 ' No.' (lie was holy, harmless, no speck ever 
 defiled Dim, He could touch lepers and still be clean). 
 
 ' Had He sin on Him ? ' 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 ' His own ? 
 
 ' No.' 
 
 * The thief that looked to Jesus, had he sin in 
 him after he looked ? ' 
 
m 
 
 :8 
 
 ORACE AND TRUTH. 
 
 ' Had he sin on him f 
 
 t No ' <riT 11 
 
 This' Cross still divides the world. We are M 
 sinners, as were both the thieves. «" one su 
 are saved dinners on the °'hej tmsaved .nne- ^„^ 
 the one side are those who bal.eve G.xl '"• Jf^"^ , 
 theirs- on the other, those who do not. On thi 
 one ^e are those who have sin >N <hem, but no s,u 
 ON them, because they have left ,t on the .potles 
 sLbearer; on the other, those who have sm botl. 
 ,N them and on them. And all the people m the 
 wo Id die as those two thieves did. None ever 
 «ed or ever will die, without sm in hem. The 
 name of every man when he dies w>l be mn^r 
 TlTe name of each man was thuf to the very last 
 breatHut one died a saved M.f, the other died an 
 unsaved thief. The one set of men d.e saved s.nners, 
 "he other unsaved sinners. The one d,e w«h s>n 
 ON them, sinking them down to an awful hel ; th^ 
 other die with no sin on the", and are for ever 
 with the Lord.' 
 
 'Now, will you not be saved f 
 'How can I?' 
 
 'Simply LOOK.' . , , , -__ 
 
 'But I have often tried to look, and I have oflen 
 tried to bring before my mind a picture of Jesus 
 haneing on the cross for me.' . • _t 
 
 'Nol, this is not the way at all: a v.s.on of 
 Christ on the cross, or a dream or a thought, is 
 not what God gives. Suppose I was laid on my 
 death-bed to-night, and, as 1 lay, the dev.l came to 
 
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HE SAVED 9 
 
 29 
 
 We are all 
 On one side 
 
 sinners. On 
 id that Jesus is 
 not. On the 
 em, but no sin 
 n die spotless 
 have sin both 
 people in the 
 None ever 
 ^ them. The 
 will be sinner. 
 ) the very last 
 e other died an 
 e saved sinners, 
 le die with sin 
 iwful hell ; the 
 i are 'for e^er 
 
 md I have often 
 licture of Jesus 
 
 all : a vision of 
 or a thought, is 
 was laid on my 
 he devil came to 
 
 me, and told me that I w?s not saved ; suppose I said 
 to him, *'Some time ago I had a vis'-n of Christ 
 hanging on the cross for me." 
 
 "Ah!" he would say, "that was a delusion I 
 brought before your eyes to deceive you." 
 
 ** Well, but I dreamt one night that Jesus came 
 close to me, and said, 'Thou art mine.*" 
 "It was all a delusion." 
 
 " I had a thought one day ; it just flashed across 
 me all at once, that I was saved.*' 
 
 "Only a delusion." And I could not answer 
 the accusing deceiver. But I will tell you what will 
 put him to flight. I take my Bible and I say, 
 "God says that He gave me Jesus." 
 
 " How do you know that Jesus is for you ?" 
 " Because God says that He so loved the world 
 that He gave His only begotten Son." 
 
 " But do you think that so great a sinner as you 
 can be saved by simply believing Jesus is yours?" 
 
 "Yes; for God says, 'He that believeth on the 
 Son HATH everlasting life.'" And the devil could 
 say nothing; for it is written, "They overcame 
 hini by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of 
 their testimony.'* You see I would never dare to 
 bring before him what I felt or what ideas had 
 crossed^ my mind, but simply and solely what God 
 says. This is looking— t\{\s is seeing Jesus in the 
 Word of God.' 
 
 'Will you not be washed in His blood, and be 
 made for ever clean V 
 
 ' But how can 1 .? What do you mean by His 
 blood ? 1 hnvo often hcml about it, and have often 
 
^ GRACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 3^ 
 
 tried, while lying on my bed, to bring before my 
 eves the sight of His blood flowmg from His 
 wounded hands and feet, and from His pierced side. 
 ' Now this is another mistake: blood is a figure tor 
 life taken. Seeing the blood means behevmg God 
 about the death of His Son, instead of your death 
 Being satisfied with Christ's death in the room oi 
 yours, this is being washed in the blood. You see 
 ro real blood, nor vision, nor picture oi blood ; but m 
 that blessed Book of God you read, "He was 
 wounded for our (faith says my) transgressions, He 
 was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of 
 our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we 
 are healed." Isa. liii. 5- This is seeing the blood. 
 ' Will you not come to jesus ? ' , , „ 
 
 ' But how can I ? I have read in the Bible that He 
 said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are 
 heavy laden, and 1 will give you rest; and I have- 
 often wished I had been on earth when He 
 was here ; I wish 1 had seen him pass my door, I 
 would have watched Him, and have run to Him 
 and touched His garment. But He is in heaven 
 and how cm 1 come to Him ?' 
 
 * Now God has most beautifully explained this ; 
 for we have not to go up to heaven (Roni. x. 6) to 
 brinjj Him down, nor to go to the grave to bring Him 
 up ; but He is risen and gone to heaven, and He has 
 le^tHis Word, in which alone He can now be found. 
 This Word maybe in your hands and in your memory, 
 tivAt Word which the Holy Ghost has written and 
 ,s now urging you to believe, that God so loved you 
 a.s to ^ive vou Jesus. He is asking you m that 
 
WOULt> you LIKE TO BE SAVED 1 
 
 31 
 
 •ring before my 
 i^ing from His 
 lis pierced side.' 
 od is a figure for 
 s believing God 
 [ of your death. 
 
 in the room ol 
 )lood. You see 
 of blood ; but in 
 ead, "He was 
 msgressions, He 
 
 chastisement of 
 I His stripes wc 
 eing the blood.' 
 
 be Bible that He 
 labour and are 
 ;st ; " and I have 
 earth when Ht 
 pass my door, 1 
 ave run to Him 
 He is in heaven 
 
 J explained this ; 
 ■n (Rom. X, 6) to 
 rave to bring Him 
 saven, and He has 
 can now be found, 
 d in your memory, 
 has written, and 
 God so loved you 
 iking you in that 
 
 Word to believe that He is yours. This is * coming to 
 Jesus.' Now that He is in heaven, His Spirit and 
 His Word,-— His Word from His lips and His Spirit 
 jr., through, and vAith the Word are all that are left; 
 and will these not satisfy? Have you never thought 
 that if yoa saw your name written in the heavens, 
 or on the sea-shore, and you knew that it had been 
 traced by God's finger, you would then believe that 
 you were saved ; but do you think God will make 
 another and special revelation for you ? No, no — 
 you must just take salvation as all the rest of us poor 
 sinners have taken it, by believing the one Book.' 
 
 ' But have I not to wait God's time ? ' 
 
 * God has only one time — that is, to-day. I read 
 of to-morrow in the Bible. Pharaoh, wished the 
 frogs taken from him but to-morrow. To-morrow 
 is man's time. Now, to-day, is God's. If you 
 came to a stream, would you sit down and say, 
 I will wait till it flows past and when it is dry, then 
 I will cross .? Men are not such fools. God is 
 waiting on you. He is calling you. He is beseech- 
 ing you ; and this is His one request, Take my 
 Son whom I have given. He cries to every ac- 
 countable and rational soul in this world, will you 
 have Him ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, if I could feel a something in me telling me 
 that Christ was mine, I would believe it.* 
 
 ' Qiiite wrong again. It is believing something 
 outside of you, trusting Him at God's right hand, 
 and resting on His sure,, eternal Word.^ 
 
 You will not throw this aside, will you, and say, I 
 like it, or I do oot like it .? The poor sinner, saved 
 
♦ GRACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 by the grace of God who writes to you, cannot saT€ 
 you nor can any man. Tell God what you are to 
 do ; tell God that He loves you ; tell God that you 
 trust Him; tell God that you believe Him; tell God 
 that He has given you Jesus ; tell God that you 
 believe that also; tell God that He laid all your sins 
 upon Jesus ; tell God that you believe they were on 
 Him^ and therefore are not on you ; tell God you have 
 gone astray, but that you believe Him that your 
 iniquity was laid on Jesus. Thank God for a finished 
 salvation in Christ. Tell Him how well-plcascd He 
 is with Jesus instead of you ; tell Him that you are 
 
 * A poor sinner and nothing at all, 
 But Jesus Christ is your all in all.' 
 
 May God Himself shew you, for His name's sake, 
 His simple Gospel of Christ for you. A beloved 
 brother said, when coming out of the darkness of 
 self, 'It is the simplicity that stumbles me. It is 
 too good news to be true.' Yes, if man were in it ; 
 but it is not too good when we consider with what a 
 (xod we have to do. You see God can overlook 
 nothing. He can forgive anything. He can by 
 no means clear the guilty. He can take us out of 
 the guilty Adam-standing, and put us into a new, a 
 resurrection Christ-standing. He can save to the 
 uttermost the blackest, vilest sinner that accepts 
 (simply accepts) His gift, Jesus. Will you not 
 receive Him ? You may be in poverty, in naked- 
 ness, in misery, but God presents you with Jesus. 
 He might have created a world for every one of us ; 
 but that would have been nothing compared with 
 
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SAVED t 
 
 ^^ 
 
 a, cannot saye 
 lat you are to 
 God that you 
 lim; tell God 
 iod that you 
 d all your sins 
 J they were on 
 God you have 
 [im that your 
 1 for 'Ajinisheii 
 ell-plcascd He 
 I that you are 
 
 II, 
 ill.' 
 
 is name's sake, 
 u. A beloved 
 le darkness of 
 lies me. It is 
 lan were in it ; 
 ler with what a 
 I can overlook 
 ;. He can by 
 take us out of 
 5 into a new, a 
 m save to the 
 r that accepts 
 Will you not 
 erty, in naked- 
 rou with Jesus, 
 very one of us ; 
 compared with 
 
 what He has given — Jesus. You may have a hard 
 fight here lo make ends meet, but having Jesus it 
 will be all the hell you will ever be in. You 
 may have every comfort, and be altogether moral 
 and good as far as man can judge, upright and 
 religious, but without Jesus this will be all the 
 heaven you will ever have. Religiousness, goodne^ss, 
 kindness, beneficence, uprightness, amiability, will 
 not save you. Acceptance of God's gift alone will 
 do so. 
 
 Now, what is it to be, ere we part, perhaps 
 never to converse again for ever — God's simple 
 gospel for the meanest, poorest, weakest capacity, so 
 that even a fool may embrace it ; or man's ways, 
 follies, pleasures, religion, world? Jesus is offered 
 to all. Some will accept Him, and some will 
 refuse. You make God a liar if you do not 
 accept. You make yourself a liar, and God true, if 
 you accept Him. Some may know all about G'lrisi 
 the gift of God presented to them, and yet not 
 know Himself. ' Tis eternal life to know Him.' 
 By not receiving Him, they trample under foot 
 the blood of the life giving Prince. Others receive 
 Him and thank God for Him and are saved. 
 
 May the blessed Spirit, the witnesser of Jesus, 
 open the eyes of every reader to see Him, incline 
 every fellow-sinner to believe God, and accept His 
 gift. 
 
 Call your heart a liar^ and believe the record of thi 
 ^ mdj living and true God. 
 
 Nothitag, Lord, I bring before Thee, 
 Nothiog that can meet Thy face ; 
 C 
 
34 
 
 'GRACE AND TRUTW 
 
 But in Jesus I adore Thee, 
 For the riches of Thy grace. 
 
 Jesus came in love from heafcn. 
 By the Father's love was given, 
 From that death He now has rittn, 
 
 Which He died for me. 
 Jesus died for the sinner, 
 Jesus died for the sinner, 
 Jesus died for the sinner, 
 Jesus died for me. 
 
 'Ccrtie to me,' Thy lips have spokflis 
 
 As I am, O Lord, I come; 
 AU Thy laws I oft have broken. 
 
 From Thy side afar did roam. 
 
 Boundless lore hast Thou been showing 
 
 Settling eTery just demand ; 
 Jesus as my own I'm knowing, 
 
 Thus obey Thy great command 
 
 This the work that stands for erei^ 
 AU my works are useless dross ; 
 
 Jesus mine ! yes, nought can sever 
 Me from Him of Calvary's ctxym. 
 
 Precious blood of Him forsaken 
 On that cross, in wrath, by God, 
 
 Cleanses me ; His life was taken. 
 When made sin for me He stood, 
 
 • Look to me,' He said, who's risen, 
 Jesus Christ my Saviour Lord ; 
 
 Mortal eye can't enter heaven. 
 But I see Thee in Thy Word 
 
 Trust Him, claim Him, O believe Hii^ 
 All was done Thy trust to gain ; 
 
 Qb Him rest, and now receive Him, 
 And with Him for ever reign. 
 
TW 
 
 I heaTen* 
 as given, 
 >w lias riK% 
 me. 
 
 r, 
 r. 
 
 • ^ » 
 
 * Ye Must be Born Again. 
 
 Our Regeneration, 
 
 pokes 9 
 
 X^is:^'i- 
 
 m. 
 
 ) showing 
 
 tand 
 
 erer, 
 ros8{ 
 lever 
 croaa. 
 
 en 
 God, 
 
 Lcn, 
 stood. 
 
 8 risen* 
 ord; 
 
 » 
 ord. 
 
 ?lieve Hni^ 
 gain ; 
 e Him, 
 ign. 
 
 ] HOUGH yoo knew all the duties in- 
 cumbent upon a royal Prince, this 
 knowledge would not make you a 
 royal Prince. You must be in a posi- 
 tion before you can act under the laws of that 
 position. This is the natural order admitted by all 
 men in human things, but quite reversed when they 
 begin to speculate on divine things. God's order is 
 this — I make you sons : walk like sons. Man says, 
 try to walk like sons, and after a shorter or longer 
 time you will be made sons. But we must be 
 brouglit out of the kingdom of darkness before we 
 can take the first step in the kingdom of light. 
 Before we can enter this kingdom we must have a 
 , nature capable of enjoying it. A nature can be im- 
 planted only by birth ; therefore we must be bom 
 again. This subject is gone fully into in John iii. 
 
 Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus, 
 and said to Him, * We know,' &c. 
 
 Jesus answered him by saying, 'Except a man 
 
 RE BORN AGAIN,' &C. 
 
 I There is a great difference between what we 
 /^now and what we are ; a great difference betwe**n 
 
3C> 
 
 uA'.lC'A AND THUTB.' 
 
 our aitaimnents, education, talents, knowledge, 
 and our standing before God, and our relation 
 to God. Nicodemus was an inquiring man, who 
 had been convinced of Christ's claims by external 
 evidences, and whose conscience was now seeking 
 after something deeper and more satisfactory. He 
 comes with this profession of knowl Ige, 'Rabbi, 
 we know that thou art a teacher come from God : 
 for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, 
 except God be with him.' (John iii. 2.) Jesus, 
 because He knew all men, and all the thoughts of 
 men, answered not the words but the need of Nico- 
 demus, by shewing that all his knowledge would 
 never save him or any other man ; for ' Except a 
 man be bom again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
 God.' Nicodemus by nature, however well-instructed, 
 could never see God's kingdom. 
 
 i. CHRIST NOT A TEACHER OF THE OLD NATURE. 
 
 HE IS FIRST A SAVIOUR, THEN A TEACHER. 
 
 In the present day, in certain quarters, we hear 
 a good deal about Christ as the perfect man, the 
 perfect example, and the perfect teacher ; but 
 here is the answer of Jesus Himself to all such 
 comoliments. He came not to teach the old nature 
 — not to teach man as sprung from Adam, but to 
 seek and save the lost, to give the new nature, 
 and to teach saved men. The policy of all who 
 have openly, or in thought, denied the divinity of 
 Christ, is to laud His moral teaching and his God- 
 like example. They bring well-known and fondly- 
 
yE MUST BE BOON AGAIN.' 
 
 %1 
 
 \., knowledge, 
 i our relation 
 ing man, who 
 
 15 by external 
 J now seeking 
 is factory. He 
 I Ige, 'Rabbi, 
 ne from God : 
 at thou doest, 
 i. 2.) Jesus, 
 le thoughts of 
 
 need of Nico- 
 )wledge would 
 for 'Except a 
 
 16 kingdom of 
 well-instructed, 
 
 I OLD NATURE. 
 TEACHER. 
 
 arters, we hear 
 jrfect man, the 
 
 teacher ; but 
 ilf to all such 
 
 the old nature 
 \ Adam, but to 
 e new nature, 
 icy of all who 
 the divinity of 
 f and his God- 
 NH and fondly- 
 
 cherished truths forward, as if only they believed 
 ,ind preached these great facts; but at the outset 
 I hey forget this insurmountable barrier to all moral 
 reclamation of the old nature of man, ' Except a 
 man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
 God.' 
 
 We find others, however, who know Christ not 
 merely as a teacher, but who also believe in 
 His divinity, that He is God as well as man. 
 In fact, many in our land know every funda- 
 mental doctrine in the Bible; but a mere knowledge 
 of doctrine, however true, never introduced a son ot 
 Adam into the kingdom of God. Men may have 
 learned what justification, and sanctification, and 
 adoption are; they may be able to distinguish 
 minutely between all the creeds, isms, and heresies, 
 they may be theoretically orthodox, may be able 
 to judge preachers and sermons, may be Tery 
 ready freely to criticise most men they hear, and 
 graciously pay beautiful compliments to their special 
 favourites, as Nicodemus did to Jesus. They may 
 know, moreover, about the new birth, its necewity 
 and divine origin; but notwithstanding all this, 
 they could not dare to say, ?.s before God, 'Whereas 
 we were bhnd, now we see.* The greatest amount 
 of theological education never yet saved a man. 
 Creed, or the belief in a certain amount of doctrine, 
 has made Christendom, but never made a Christian 
 • Ye must be born again.' 
 
 Others again, when their consciences have been 
 reached, try to get this new birth brought about, 
 and begin most zealously to train and trim, to 
 
38 
 
 GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 educate and reform their old nature, quite igr«-raiit 
 of what is meant by * born again' 
 
 ||,.._THE OLD NATUilE UNCHANGED AN« 
 
 UNCHANGEABLE. 
 
 Nkodemus wondered how a tiv.in when old coultl 
 be brought again into this world ; but if it were 
 possible, what better would he be ? lie might have 
 changed his circumstances by this new birth accord 
 ing to the flesh; but would he have changed kingdoms? 
 He would still be in the kingdom of the first Adam ; 
 he would still be llesh; for Josus goes on to say, 'That 
 which is born of the flesh' is flesh,' (ver. 6). Water 
 never rose above its level : that which is produced 
 is of the same nature as that wliich produces. We 
 find people to-day who think that if they were in 
 other circumstances they would have a better 
 chance of getting saved. The rich man thinks that 
 if he were poor, he might have time to think of 
 religion. The poor man, if he could get ends to meet, 
 and liiid a little more money, would have more leisure 
 to think of God. But the difficulty is not so much 
 in what is around us, as in what is within us. 
 
 Again, the aids of religion are called in, in order 
 that the flesh may be improved ; but after all attempts 
 it is found to be only religious flesh. Man may 
 have all varieties of it , but it never rose to see the 
 kingdom of God. . In nature, we speak of the 
 animal kingdom and the vegetable kingdom. If 
 we took a rose from the latter of these king- 
 doms, and cultivated it and trained it, and by our 
 various arts m?de it produce all its varieties, we 
 
*YE MUST BE BORN AOAIN: 
 
 ') 
 
 , quite igr«-rani 
 
 NOED AN» 
 
 when old coulil 
 but if it were 
 He might have 
 ew birth accord- 
 mged kingdoms? 
 ' the first Adam ; 
 ; on to say, 'That 
 jer. 6). Water 
 iiich is produced 
 
 produces. We 
 
 if they were in 
 have a better 
 
 man thinks that 
 time to think of 
 get ends to meet, 
 have more leisure 
 :y is not so much 
 within us. 
 ailed in, in order 
 
 after all attempts 
 ksh. Man may 
 !r rose to see the 
 /e speak of the 
 ble kingdom. If 
 • of these king- 
 id it, and by our 
 
 its varieties, we 
 
 never by these means could bring it into the other 
 kingdom — into the animal kingdom. Or, again, If 
 I take a nettle ft-om the roadside, and bring it 
 into my g. jn or my hothouse, watch over, dress, 
 water, and warm it, I may produce beautiful nettles, 
 and beautiful varieties of nettle, but I never could 
 get apples from it ; that which is produced from the 
 nettle is nettle. We can never gather grapes of 
 thorns, nor figs of thistles } 
 
 Man by nature is in the kingdom of the first 
 Adam : no amount of reformation, amelioration, 
 cultivation, civilisation, or religiousness, can bring 
 one single man into the kingdom of God. Look 
 through Great Britain and Ireland, — what is the 
 object of the great bulk or the religious machinery ? 
 Is it not for cultivating the flesh, in order that, after 
 death, it may see the kingdom of God? This 
 is no guess. It is the sad confession of godly men 
 in all the churches — godly bishops, godly rectors, 
 godly pastors, elders and deacons. All unite in the 
 same complaint, and do their best against it. The 
 majority of respectable religious people, as good as 
 Nicodemus, a master in Israel, do not know the 
 practical power of this truth which stands at the door 
 of God's kingdom. They put salvation at the end 
 of a k)ng series of self-improving processes — God 
 puts the salvation of the soul at the very beginning, 
 and all duties that in their discharge can honour Him, 
 are founded upon this fact. ' Man's chief end is ' 
 (not to get the soul saved, but) ' to glorify God and 
 to enjoy him for ever ' — starting with being saved 
 for nothing as the means to this end. 
 
40 
 
 * GRACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 in.— THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF A NEW 
 NATURE. 
 
 Before I can enter God's kingdom I must have a 
 new nature, that can appreciate, see, live in, and 
 enjoy that kingdom. Ask a blind man what red is. 
 He has no idea of it because he cannot see, because 
 he has not the capacity. Educate him in the mixing 
 of colours. Tell him that blue and yellow mixed 
 make green ; he may soon remember this, and know 
 much more ; by that knowledge he never saw a 
 
 colour. 
 
 The questions therefore of most importance to you 
 iire not, do you know doctrine ? do you know Christ 8 
 teaching ? do you know your Bible ? do you know 
 the evidences of Christianity ? do you know that 
 Christ is God, that Christ is a Saviour ? that He is 
 able and willing to save ? You may know all that, 
 and be lost for ever. But, are you bom again. 
 Are you a partaker of a new nature, a divine nature r 
 Are you an heir of God ? Is your standing now in 
 Christ or in Adam ? 
 
 Before I can see the kingdom of God, I must have 
 the nature implanted that belongs to that kingdom. 
 This is something more than a mere thought of sin 
 forgiven, or righteousness obtained. It is a question 
 of capacity, of fitness to enjoy, of likeness of nature. 
 What an awful thought, that so many religiously- 
 educated people are lost ! What a heU, where the 
 good, decent religious sons of Adam have to be for 
 ever shut up with the profane and the drunkard, and 
 the abominable and the unclean I 
 
• YI-: MUST JU-: BORN AGAIS: 
 
 41 
 
 3F A NEW 
 
 I must ha?e a 
 e, live in, and 
 m what red is. 
 ot see, because 
 1 in the mixing 
 yellow mixed 
 • this, and know 
 ; never saw a 
 
 portance to you 
 u know Christ's 
 do you know 
 you know that 
 ur ? that He is 
 ^ know all that, 
 )u bom again? 
 a divine nature ? 
 standing now in 
 
 fod, I must have 
 ) that kingdom. 
 I thought of sin 
 It is a question 
 eness of nature, 
 lany religiously- 
 hel', where the 
 n have to be for 
 le drunkard, and 
 
 Reader, I entreat of you, think. Think for a 
 moment, did Jesus 8peak truth or tell lies? If He 
 spoke truth, those who have not been born again, 
 however intelligtir,, educated, moral, benevolent, or 
 religious, can never see the kingdom of (iod, and 
 must, therefore, be swept away for ever with the lost, 
 for there are only two places. What a hell I Fre- 
 quenters of cathedrals and frequenters of gin-palaces, 
 tract-distributors and pick-pockets, drawing-room- 
 ineetiug religionists and the offscourings of the 
 streets ! Priests who, with solemn mien, pretended 
 to stand between the people and God, and murderers 
 who have been hung for their crimes 1 Teachers who 
 knew everything in theology, and the profane, the 
 swearer, the blasphemer, the infidel I These things 
 will turn out true, whether you believe them or not. 
 It was seen in the days of Noah. Is it to be your 
 bitter experience? Hell is real. Eternal punish- 
 ment is real. Christ's words are true, although they 
 "nay be doubted, or denied by the majority of men. 
 Tl^e awful fact remams. Stop, therefore, high or low, 
 nich or poor, educated or uneducated, intelligent or 
 ignorant, religious man or blasphemer, respectable 
 or profane, think and ask yourself these questions, 
 Atn I born again ? Have I a new life ? — a life 
 communicated by the Spirit of God through the 
 tnith — born not of flesh, but of water (the word, 
 Eph. V. 26) and the Spirit. Have I been born twice 
 — once into this world of Adam, and again into that 
 of God ? Friend, if you have not this new birth, if 
 were better that you had never been bom ; but now 
 as vou are, and where you are. whenever you art 
 
"W 
 
 'GRACE AND TlWTlV 
 
 42__ 
 
 convinced of the necessity of this new birth look and 
 live; believe and be saved; take God at Uis word: 
 He says ' Ye must be born again ; and in the same 
 chapter it is written, ' A^^ Moses lilted up the serpent 
 in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be 
 lifted up, that whosoever BKLiKViiiu on llim should 
 not perish, but have KTiiRNAL life.— What Uod 
 demands, God provides. 
 
 IV.— HOW THE NEW NATURE 18 IMPLANTED. 
 
 This new nature is not implanted by a process, 
 but received by an act of faith. This new nature 
 never sets aside as to actual fact the old, never 
 amalgamates, never becomes incorporated with it, 
 never improves it, but ' lusts ' against it in the be- 
 liever, war. against it, is ' contrary ' to it. And 
 how is it iiui.lanted ? Reader, this is of the greatest 
 importance to you. Are you to look for the new 
 birth in your own frames or feelings, to an ordinance 
 or an act of man. A mistake here is fatal— le 
 must be born again."— How? 
 
 le.us answers this, and gives us the three things 
 that are divinely and absolutely essential fur the new 
 birth, (John iii. 7,) ^^^^'^ '^''^ kingdom (ver. 3 ) 
 enteAng the kingdom, (ver. 5,) or ^v.wmg <^ternal I fe, 
 (ver 15 ) all these being but different aspects of the 
 same truth. These three essentials are— 
 
 1. Water, (ver. 5.) 
 
 2. The Spirit, (ver. 5 and 8.) 
 
 3. The Son of man lifted up, (ver. 14,) 
 Ler us consider each shortly : — 
 
YE MUST BE BOHN AGAIN: 
 
 4.1 
 
 th, look and 
 
 t llis word: 
 in the same 
 
 ) the serpent 
 of Man hv 
 Www should 
 
 -What God 
 
 PLANTED. 
 
 by a process, 
 s new nature 
 e old, never 
 ated with it, 
 it in the be- 
 to it. And 
 f the greatest 
 for the new 
 ) an ordinance 
 s fatal— "Ye 
 
 e three things 
 al for the new 
 iom, (ver. 3,) 
 ng eternal life, 
 aspects of the 
 ire — 
 
 . 14,) 
 
 I. WATER. 
 
 ' Except ■ man be born of water and of the 
 
 Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God ' (ver. 5.) 
 It cannot in any way refer to baptism by water, 
 the application of literal water to a man externally, as 
 that \vc)ul(i only wash his body and could not touch his 
 iimer man. Some would read the text, ' except a 
 man be born of baptism,' and of course by this doc- 
 trine Old Testament saints could not be in the king- 
 dom of God, as they were nor baptized. Circum 
 cision could not save r? ' u.i ' Neither is that 
 circumcision which is ouiward in the fk'sh. . . . 
 Ginu.ncision is thai o{' the heart in the spirit, and 
 not in the letter.' (Rom. ii. 28, 29.) No change on a 
 man externally c.ui profit. He may apply much 
 nitre and wash iiimself with much soap, but his 
 leopard spots of sin. still remain. Nor will mere 
 education, 1 formation, cultivation, training of the old 
 nature, tui n flesh into sTjirit. ' That which is born of 
 the flesh is flesh ; ' it may be decent or indecent flesh, 
 religious or irreligious, pious or profane, but stillflesh. 
 Some s(\'ing this, and understanding it, have now 
 asked what can the ' water ' mean ? This has been 
 answered in several ways. Some say it is the same 
 as the Spirit, others that it is the same as the blood, 
 but ' there are three that bear witness in earth, the 
 Spirit, and the water, and the blood,' so that if water 
 was only anoihcr way of expressing either the working 
 of the Spirit or the cleansing of the blood, there would 
 be only two bearing testimony — the Spirit and the 
 bkxxi and the water stamiing for either. We can 
 
'GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 solve the question by asking what should have come 
 
 into the mind of Nicodemus when Christ spoke of 
 
 water? He, a master in Israel, knew of a laver where 
 
 every priest had to wash before he could enter mto 
 
 rlie holy place, for no unwashed foot ever trod that 
 
 holy place. He, a master in Israel, knew the book of 
 
 Kzekiel, and the promise to be fulfilled in a commg 
 
 day to Israel. * Then will I sprinkle clean water 
 
 upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your 
 
 iilthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. 
 
 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit 
 
 uill I put within you. ... And I will put my Spirit 
 
 within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes ; 
 
 and ye shall keep My judgments and do them. 
 
 (Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, 27.) 
 
 A teacher in Lrael should have been lookmg tor 
 the antitype of temple and laver, and the true watei 
 of purification sprinkled to cleiuis'^ from defilement. 
 He should have been conversant with the 119th 
 Psalm, which definitely explains what the water is : 
 (ver. 9,) * Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse^ 
 his way ? By taking heed according to Thy word: 
 The water here spoken of by Christ and typified 
 in the Old Testament, is the Word of God, the 
 embodiment, the revelation of God's thoughts. 
 
 Let us search the Scriptures as to this : ' Being 
 born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incor- 
 ruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and 
 abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass. 
 (1 Pet. i. 23.) In our text Mlesh' is contrasted 
 with the ' spirit,' here flesh is contrasted with the 
 ♦Word.' 'The seed is the Word of God' (Iiuke 
 
* YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN.' 
 
 1 have come 
 ist spoke of 
 . laver where 
 Id enter into 
 jer trod that 
 f the book of 
 in a coming 
 clean water 
 am all your 
 cleanse you. 
 a new spirit. 
 3ut my Spirit 
 My statutes ; 
 id do tbem.^ 
 
 n looking for 
 he true watei 
 m defilement, 
 h the 119th 
 the water is : 
 ; man cleanse 
 o Thy word.' 
 t and typified 
 OF God, the 
 loughts. 
 this: 'Being 
 but of incor- 
 ch liveth and 
 is as grass.' 
 is contrasted 
 isted with the 
 'God' (Iwke 
 
 viii. n). *The righteousness which is of ftuth 
 speaketh on this wise, .... The IVord is nigh 
 thee ' (Rom. x. 6-8.) ' Of his own will begat He 
 us with the Word of truth ' (J.tmes i. 1 8). 'Ye are 
 dean through the Word which I have spoken unto 
 ''ou * (John XV. 3). 
 
 These all show that the word is used by God 
 in the new birth in that place where Christ speaks 
 of water to Nicodemus, but we have more direct 
 evidence in Eph. v. 26, ' That He might sanctify 
 and cleanse it (the Church) with the washing of 
 water by the Word.' Thus, from Old Testament 
 type, firom New Testament analogy, and from direct 
 scriptural statement in both Old and New Testa- 
 ments, the water in the new birth is proved to be 
 the 'Word of God.' 
 
 And most important h is to see this. How am I 
 bom again by the word? Water cleanses by dis- 
 placement. Uncleanness and water cannot occupy 
 the same space at the same moment : the water 
 displaces the uncleanness, and thu^ cleanses. The 
 Word of God does not act by teaching ' the flesh,' 
 but by displacing all the thoughts of ' the flesh' and 
 putting in those of God. 
 
 The entrance of God's word gives light, (Psalm cxix. 
 130). Man was los. by hearing Satan, he is saved 
 by hearing God. Man, in his natural Adam-standing, 
 is a chaos — nothing in him can meet or please the 
 eye of God — he is without form and void, darkness 
 brooding over him. When God, therefore, begins 
 to re-create him, (for ' we are His workmanship, 
 created in Christ Jesus unto good works,' Eph. ii. 10.) 
 
* GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 4^ > 
 
 II Jl^ Let light be; and light is ; and it is by the 
 .ntmnce of His word that this is done.^ ^ 
 
 This word of God judges everything in man ; 
 it puts God and His requirements before man. 
 Human opinion is entirely set aside By nature 
 xve are all apt to rest satisfied that there are many 
 worse than we. If I am lost, many will have a bad 
 chance, is sometimes said, and quite true, for God s 
 Word ells us we are all guilty, and, as we saw m a 
 former chapter, ''there is no difference,' all condemned 
 ilreadv, equally condemned. We compare ourselves 
 with one another, or according as men are estimated 
 bad. Rood, or indifferent. God's Word comes like 
 wa?er, and washes out all our thoughts and opinions, 
 'it's my idea,' says one, ; if one tries to ive a 
 good life, this is all he can do.' Of course, this is 
 vour idea, but all our thoughts are evil, and unless 
 God's Word displaces our ideas we are undone. 
 
 'It's my opinion,' says another, 'that we must 
 Uist do the best we can, and trust in the mercy oi 
 God ' Of course this is your opinion-but the 
 uctiJn of God's Word is like water to wash out our 
 opinions. The first thing it tells me about myselt 
 and about us all is that we are lost, depraved, 
 
 ffuiltv, condemned. . - n- v 
 
 ^ But more; the Word of (" - -iugs m Gods 
 mind about Himself instead ^i my own ; it lets God 
 think for me, God speak for me, God act for me; 
 it makes me passive, because I caii be nothmg else 
 
 ^ILnr and your soul shall live (Isa. Iv. 3). 
 Life is on its syllables -man begins to speak, to 
 Dray &c., when he wants to be saved— God says, 
 
• YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN: 
 
 47 
 
 nd it is by the 
 
 • 
 
 ling in man ; 
 before man. 
 \. By nature 
 here are many 
 ^ill have a bad 
 rue, for God's 
 IS we saw in a 
 ' all condemned 
 npare ourselves 
 I are estimated, 
 ord comes hke 
 ts and opinions, 
 tries to live a 
 ■ course, this is 
 2vil, and unless 
 ire undone, 
 'that we must 
 n the mercy ol 
 linion— but the 
 :o wash out our 
 ne about myselt 
 lost, depraved, 
 
 :.imgs in God's 
 wn ; it lets God 
 od act for me ; 
 )e nothing else, 
 e' (Isa. Iv. 3). 
 ns to speak, to 
 Yed — God says, 
 
 Hear I God is praying to us, and should we not 
 answer God's prayer before we begin to pray. He 
 does beseech men by us (2 Cor. v. ^o). His 
 prayer is easily answered. He says, ' Will you have 
 my Son ? ' and the answer is ' Tes ' or ' No.' By thus 
 hearing the Word of God, and understanding it, 
 (Matt. xiii. 23,) we receive a new life from God in 
 which God's thoughts reside, and in which they act. 
 Let us now \rryk at the Spirit's work in regeneration. 
 
 2. THE SPIRIT. 
 
 We must be born of the Spirit — not the Spirit 
 apart from the Word — not the Word apart from the 
 Spirit — not two births — but the one divine new 
 birth. We see Spirit and Word as the living water ; 
 (John vii. 38). ' He that believeth on me, as the 
 Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers 
 of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, 
 which they that believe on Him should receive.* 
 This was seen at Pentecost, when the rivers of 
 living water (read Peter's sermon, a number of Old 
 Testament quotations,) flowed out to the salvation 
 of thousands, the words of God carried home by the 
 Spirit — hence living water ; the Word is the water, 
 but it is stagnant or dead without the Spirit — Spirit 
 and Word make living water. Again, Jesus said, 
 (John vi. 63,) 'the words that I speak unto you they 
 are spirit and they are life.' Mere moral suasion, as it 
 is called, never yet saved a man. This Word only 
 operates as God's Spirit applies it. The vehicle is 
 the Word, but the power is the Spirit. 
 
 If people are famishing in a town, and we intend 
 
GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 48 
 
 tTTend supplies to them, we load the vans and 
 wacKons with bread and corn, and make up a large 
 train The entrance of these waggons will bring 
 life to many a famished family, to many a dying man. 
 Why delay, then? why is the tram lying use- 
 less at this station where there is plenty? We are 
 waiting for that powerf\il engine which w^iU speed it 
 along Screw up the coupling, make all fast ; and 
 now not only is the feast ready but feast and guests 
 are brought together. Christ Himself is the bread, 
 the Word is the waggon, and the Spirit is the engine 
 or power that brings Christ in the Word to us 
 poor perishing sinners. 
 
 G<Jd made a great feast, and bade many (Luke 
 xiv 16) ; none came, and ' none of those men which 
 were bidden shall taste of my supper,' is now what 
 God has said. No merely invited guest ever came. 
 We preach 'Come,' we tell that all things are 
 ready, that the feast is spread, the door open, that 
 'vet there is room ;' but no man by this mere mvi- 
 tation ever came ; as one has said, ^ God has to fill 
 the chairs, as well as the table.' Five yoke of oxen 
 or a piece of ground are of much more value to a 
 natural man than the richest feast of God. God 
 has to provide the guests as well as the teast. U 
 there were no Christ provided, there would be no 
 feast ; if there were no Spirit working, there would 
 
 be no guests. ... 
 
 Te must be born of the Spirit. Like produces 1 ke. 
 ' That which is bom of the flesh' is not merely like 
 * the flesh,' but is ' flesh,' and ' that which is lx)rn of 
 the Spirit' is not Uke the Spiri^ nor is it the Spint, 
 
• YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN: 
 
 49 
 
 the vans and 
 lake up a large 
 ons will bring 
 ly a dying man. 
 ain lying use- 
 nty? We are 
 :h will speed it 
 e all fast; and 
 Feast and guests 
 ?lf is the bread, 
 rit is the engine 
 e Woid to us 
 
 de many (Luke 
 hose men which 
 er,' is now what 
 ruest ever came. 
 ' all things are 
 door open, that 
 y this mere invi- 
 '' God has to fill 
 ive yoke of oxen 
 more value to a 
 : of God. God 
 IS the feast. If 
 ere would be no 
 ;ing, there would 
 
 ,ike produces like, 
 is not merely like 
 t which is bom of 
 )r is it the Spirit^ 
 
 (that would be incarnation,) but * is spirit,' and He 
 
 dwells in that which He begets. 
 
 This is something quite different from ♦ the flesh' 
 being pardoned, then taught, then toned down, per- 
 vaded, and sanctified, by the Spirit. We have the 
 man, the I, the existing person with undivided re- 
 sponsibility, 'born again' by the thoughts of God 
 acting in him in power, and the mind and nature of 
 God communicated to him by the Spirit ; and this 
 now is the man's life, as the 'flesh' was his life 
 before. No Christian can have his standing 'in the 
 flesh.' Alas, that ever any of us should walk in the 
 flesh : ' we are not in the flesh ;' alas, the flesh is in 
 us still. 
 
 A boat has been sailing on the salt ocean, it has 
 come througli many a storm, and half full of the 
 briny water, it is now sailing on the fresh water of 
 the river. It is no longer in the salt water, but the 
 salt water is in it. The Christian has got off the 
 Adam- sea for ever. He is in the (!lhrist river for 
 ever. Adam is still in him, which he is to mortify 
 and to throw out, but he is not in Adam. He has 
 now a power, and a position, and inclination to judge 
 himself. He knows himself. It was at this point 
 that Paul exclaimed, ' I know that in me — that is, 
 in my flesh — dwelleth no good thing.' He is not 
 tv'o persons, but in the one person he has, and will 
 have to his last hour here, two natures diametrically 
 opposite, and actively opposing each other. He now 
 isees that 'the flesh,' lusts against the 'Spirit,' but 
 ftlie Spirit also against the * flesh,' in order that he may 
 [nor walk as he used to walk ; that these are contrary, 
 
so 
 
 * GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 and therefore never can be friends, and that he has 
 in bim, and will have in him, a foe that is neither 
 to be trifled with nor trusted, but watched, warred 
 with, and mortified. . 
 
 But his life is in his new nature. He is now a 
 < partaker of the divine nature,' ' born of God, an 
 heir of God ;' and thus it is with every one who is 
 bom of the Spirit, Jew or Gentile, for God acts 
 here in sovereignty. Connection with Abraham 
 only gave them a fleshly standing, but a new thing 
 is needed by the Jew as well as the Gentile, and is 
 as free to the Gentile as to the Jew. 
 
 The eighth verse of John iii. is a most blessed 
 verse In it we poor sinners of the Gentiles have 
 got in Reader never quarrel with the royal pre- 
 roeatite of God's grace ; read Rom. ix., and see 
 that if we do not let God be absolute we have no 
 chance of salvation, for we are all equally 'con- 
 demned already.' Praise His grace that hath now 
 appeared to every nation under heaven. 
 
 But passing over Christ's testimony of the Father 
 as eiven in verses nine to thirteen— (prophets had 
 prophesied, but here is God Hifnself)-\a us now 
 look at 
 
 3. The Son of Man lifted up. 
 
 This, indeed, is our life. Christ said, 'Ye must 
 be bom again;' but here is another must that He 
 mentions, *As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lit ted 
 up* that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
 
 e 
 
• YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN.' 
 
 51 
 
 d that he has 
 lat is neither 
 tched, warred 
 
 He is now a 
 
 of God,' ' an 
 ry one who is 
 
 for Ood acts 
 /ith Abraham 
 t a new thing 
 Licntile, and is 
 
 1 most blessed 
 
 Gentiles have 
 
 the royal pre- 
 
 1. ix., and see 
 
 te we have no 
 
 equally 'con- 
 
 that hath now 
 
 m. 
 
 y of the Father 
 —(prophets had 
 ^) — let us now 
 
 'ED UP. 
 
 said, * Ye must 
 MUST that He 
 ! serpent in the 
 )f man be lifted 
 Him should not 
 
 en 
 
 sh but have everlasting life.' God says, Yi 
 
 fiiustf but He also says, I must. Your Adam-life is 
 forfeited, and you are under condemnation. The 
 Son of Man lifted up is the answer to the forfeit, 
 Satan, who has the power of death, and has 
 every man in his power (for all have sinned), has 
 been destroyed as to his power, his head having 
 been bruised by Christ on the cross. (Heb. ii. 
 14.) But Christ is now risen, and can communi- 
 cate His life to any one who believes in Him, He 
 huving satisfied every demand of God. The new 
 l)irth is the communication of a new life. Christ 
 beyond the doom of sin is that life j Christ incarnate 
 before His death cannot be ' our life,' because the 
 judgment against the old life can only be met in Jeat/j. 
 
 The 'corn of wheat' ffiust die before the fruit 
 can be produced. The resurrection-life of Christ 
 is therefore the new life preached to the shiner, and 
 implanted in him on his believing — a life that is per- 
 fects impeccable, indestructible, eternal as the Chri.st 
 of God is — a life that has already proved victorious 
 over the cross of shame, over death's strongest 
 power — a life that will ere long sw;\llow up mor- 
 tality. 
 
 The Spirit of God applies the Word that speaks 
 about the lifted-up Christ whom we receive and rest 
 upon for salvation, and this is the new birth. Such 
 a life is offered only to a sinner — what a comfort I 
 No righteous man, no earth wise, no rich man ever 
 entered the kingdom of God as such — only as justi- 
 fied sinners. None but redeemed sinners sing the 
 song of that kingdom — none but those who, guilty, 
 
* GRACE AM) tuvth: 
 
 5'-* __ 
 
 ik^^d, bst, have taken their place with rouse. 
 consciences at the foot of uie cross, and there seen 
 the lifted-up Christ. All in that kingdom arejw^ 
 creatures: clothed in 'the best robe,' with th. 
 < ring,' and the ' shoes,' and ' the fatted calf slam. 
 What perfection is in the Word of God I Iht 
 Word tells me that unless I am born agam I cannoi 
 enter God's kingdom ; but the same Word tells mt 
 that if I am born again (though only a babe now) 
 I am as sure of spending eternity with my Lord a; 
 if I were with Him. No hatred of devils, nc 
 enmity of the world, no power of the flesh, shall 
 keep me out. We enter God's kingdom by being 
 Iwm again. We have eternal life even now. We 
 have the germs of heaven even here. We do not 
 wait for that life ; but ' he that believeth on tht 
 Son HATH everlasting life ' (ver. 36). 
 
 We have tried to shew thus briefly what is meant 
 by being 'born of water and of the Spirit.' Read 
 I John V. 6—' This is He that came by water and r 
 blood, not by water only, but by water and blood, 
 and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, becatise 
 the Spirit is truth. For they that bear witness arc 
 three ; the Spirit, and the ivater^ and the blooa 
 and the three agree in one.' (Correct translation.) 
 The blood is for expiation ; that is, the Son of man 
 lifted up on the cross, and His life taken for ours. 
 'This is He that came by water and blood' (1 John 
 
 V. 6). 
 
 The water is for moral cieansing ; that is, the 
 Word of God applied in power to our consciences. 
 Jesus ' came not by water only' (that is to say, not 
 

 »J^B MUST BE BORN AGAIN.* 
 
 ce with roused 
 and there seen 
 igdom are ^neu 
 •obe,' with th( 
 tted calf slain, 
 of God! The 
 1 again I cannoi 
 ' Word tells me 
 ly a babe now) 
 ith my Lord a; 
 d of devils, nc 
 the flesh, shall 
 igdom by being 
 ?ven now. We 
 e. We do not 
 believeth on the 
 
 i)- 
 
 ly what is meant 
 
 e Spirit.' Read 
 
 nne by water and 
 
 vater and blood, 
 
 witness, bectUse 
 
 bear witness art 
 
 , and the blooa 
 
 •eci translation.) 
 
 3, the Son of man 
 
 ; taken for ours. 
 
 id blood' (i John 
 
 ng ; that is, the 
 ) our consciences, 
 hat is to say, not 
 
 merely a teacher of the word), 'but by water 
 blood' (He came certainly as the great teacher, 
 also as the great sacrifice making atonement for sin). 
 The Spirit is the witness from the throne of God 
 to the value of that blood in the presence of God, 
 and the witness to our spirits by applying the word 
 (water), and thus morally cleansing. He is also 
 the source, the framer, and the power of expression 
 of every new feeling, thought, aflfection, or purpose 
 in the new creation, 'and it is the Spirit that 
 beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 
 
 These three agree in one, meet in one point, 
 work out one thing in their testimony, and this is 
 the testimony, that * God hath given to us eternal 
 life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the 
 Son, hath life' (i John v. ii, 12). 
 
 What any sinner, therefore, has to do in this new 
 birth is to look to Christ on the cross ; and where 
 is he to look to Him now as crucified but in the 
 Word. He is to believe what God says about His 
 Son. God says I have given you Christ (John iii. 
 16). I believe it: therefore I thank God. I do 
 not ask myself do I feel it ? but God says it— I 
 appropriate it as mine — I believe His Word by 
 putting in my name where God puts His ' whoso- 
 ever.' In this Word of God we get the Spirit's 
 witness— that is, God's testimony about His Son. 
 God does the work : we believe the Word. 
 
 Reader, are you born again T You are not satis- 
 fied with yourself. Nor is God satisfied with you. 
 You are not satisfied with your estimate of th^ 
 work of Christ. Are vou satisfied with God* 
 
54 
 
 'GRACE AND Turrir 
 
 estimate of it? The Spirit has come to tell out t. 
 us the value of that blood. F.iitli does not consist 
 m my valuing it, but in my accepting God's value ol 
 it. God says, ' When I see the blood, I will pass 
 
 over you.' , o • • 
 
 If you do not believe God's witness, the Spirit oi 
 God in the Word, about His Son, you simply make- 
 God a liar. Now you must either make yourself a 
 liar or God. Do you not think that it would be 
 the better way to say, * Let God be true and every 
 man a liar '—myself the first liar ? A man does not 
 like to be called a liar, but God says, ' every man.' 
 Until a man calls himself a liar, he makes God one. 
 ' He that believeth not God hath made him a lia;- 
 because he believeth not the record that God gavt- 
 of His Son. And this is the record, that God hatli 
 given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.' 
 As long as you look within yourself for one idea, 
 one opinion, one thought, you are listening to a 
 liar. Call your heart a liar at once and simply take 
 God at His word, receive His Son as He has given 
 Him to you. 
 
 Reader, art tJum born again? There was a 
 moment that every Israelite had between being 
 bitten and dying ; that moment was given him to 
 look and live. That is thy brief moment of life, 
 hast thou looked and lived ? God can do no more 
 than He has done to provide life for thee. He 
 spared not His Son I 
 
 Do not look to thy wounds, to thy sins, and think 
 thus to get peace. Try no longer earth's prayers, 
 or religions, or works of righteousness. They are 
 
• YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN: 
 
 55 
 
 e to tell out t« 
 IOCS not consist 
 ; God's value ol 
 3od, I will pass 
 
 ss, the Spirit of 
 ou simply make 
 nake yourself a 
 lat it would be 
 : true and every 
 A man does not 
 ^s, ' every man,' 
 nakes God one. 
 nade him a lia;- 
 
 that God gave 
 , that God hatli 
 
 is in His Son.' 
 elf for one idea, 
 '. listening to a 
 and simply take 
 IS He has given 
 
 There was a 
 between being 
 LS given him to 
 moment of life, 
 can do no more 
 ? for thee. He 
 
 y sins, and think 
 
 earth's prayers, 
 
 ness. They are 
 
 but ointments to thy sores, that will never heal, bni 
 look away from all to the serpent on the pole. The 
 question is not, whether thou hast great faith or 
 little faith. It did not depend upon the length of the 
 look, nor the earnestness of the look, it was the fact 
 of looking that cured the bitten Israelite. Look 
 and live ! thou hast only one brief yet sufficient 
 moment of time. 
 
 But how are men spending this little moment ? 
 In making money, in indulging the lust of the flesh, 
 the lust of the eye, and the pride of life ! In 
 gathering together the dust of their condemned cell 
 into heaps and calling it riches ! In gathering the 
 straws that lie in their prison, and making crowns, 
 and madman like, playing at k'lgs while death is 
 written as their doom; and the door of escape 
 stands still open I 
 
 God is standing over them with this awful word, 
 •Ye must be born again,' and this other wondrous 
 word, ♦ The Son of man must be lifted up.' 
 He delivered up His Son to death. What a holy 
 God I What a just, righteous, truthful God ' 
 When sin was lying on the sinless Christ, He could 
 I not let it pass. Do you think He will let you pass 
 now after that awful day at Calvary ? It is there 
 that we read the doom of sin. How shall we escape 
 from Him if we neglect His ' so great salvation ?' 
 For it is not with God merely as a judge we have to 
 do ; for it was His love that planned and wrought the 
 whole redemption work. Doubly bitter will be 
 your cup of wrath that you have spurned the sal- 
 vation of such a God who desires to be known by 
 
 i 
 
5^ 
 
 GHACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 you as LOVE ; for in order that any poor sinner 
 might Se born again, ' God so loved the world that 
 He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever 
 behevcth on Him should not perish^ but have tver- 
 lasting life.' (John iii. \6.) 
 
 Let us suppose that you are convinced of these 
 important realities ; that you are lost, that therefore 
 your first need is a Saviour, not a teacher; that 
 you have not a nature capable of enjoying God ; 
 that the new nature is gotten by your being bom ; 
 born again of water (the word) and the Spirit, but 
 you cannot understand how this comes about. You 
 cannot understand what is meant by looking to 
 Christ as the bitten Israelites looked to the serpent 
 on the pole. Let me illustrate it by a conversation 
 I had, one day, with a man who had been hearing' 
 the gospel preached, and with whom I had to '.valk 
 some miles. 
 
 I began by asking, ' Have you ever thought of 
 the great salvation ? 
 
 ' O yes,' he replied ; * 1 have often thought 
 about it.* 
 
 * And are you saved ? ' 
 
 ' Well I could not say that — I don't feel as 
 would like.' 
 
 ' I quite believe that ; but do you think any ol 
 us could ever feel perfectly right in this world r 
 But are you at peace with God ? ' 
 
 ' I never could say that I am satisfied with myself ' 
 
 ' But, my friend, I did not ask if you were. 1 1 
 would be a very bad sign if you were satisfied with 
 yourself. But are you at peace with God ? ' 
 
y poor sinner 
 'f WORLD that 
 
 ' WHOSOEVER 
 
 mi have tver- 
 
 need of these 
 tliat therefore 
 
 teacher; that 
 njoying God ; 
 r being born ; 
 he Spirit, but 
 ; about. You 
 )y looking to 
 to the serpent 
 a c >nversation 
 
 been hearing 
 I had to wa!k 
 
 sr thought of 
 
 often thought 
 
 on't feel as 
 
 1 think any ol 
 1 this world r 
 
 d with myself 
 you were, li 
 I satisfied with 
 God ? ' 
 
 ' TB MUST BE BORN AGAIN: 57 
 
 ♦ Well, I never could feel that T haye peace.' 
 
 ' But I don't ask if you feel ^t peure with your- 
 self ; 1 hope you never will, litve yc « peace with 
 God ? ' 
 
 *To tell you the truth, I am f ■ ::^:,at.' 
 
 ♦ How long is it since you began to think of these 
 things ? ' 
 
 ' About seven or eight years ago, in the north of 
 Ireland, I was first awakened by a minister preach- 
 ing on ' Te must be born again.' And often since 
 that time I have been trying to feel God's Spirit 
 working in me.* 
 
 ' And you never have ? * 
 
 * No ; I could not be sure.* 
 
 * How could ever any one be sure of what was 
 going on within him, especially as our enemy comes 
 as an angel of light/ 
 
 'Well, what am I to do, then?' 
 
 'Jesus was the one, you remember, that said, 
 " Ye must be bom again." " Except a man be bom 
 of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the 
 kingdom of God." Now, at the end of all this 
 conversation Nicodemus did not know how to be 
 saved, but only said, "How can these things be?" 
 even when Jesus Himself was the great Teacher.* 
 
 'That's just where I am.* 
 
 ' Now, what did Jesus do ? He took him away 
 to the picture-book for children, and showed him 
 the picture of a dying man looking away from him- 
 self to a serpent on a pole, and thus obtaining life ; 
 and told him that " as Moses lifted up the ser- 
 pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of 
 
5« 
 
 * GRACE AND TRUTH,* 
 
 man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have eternal life." Now 
 all you have to do is to look and live.' 
 
 ' But that is just what I've been trying to do, 
 and what I don't know how to do :— what is it to 
 
 look t» Christ ? ' 
 
 'Now I can understand your difficulty; you 
 cannot see Christ with the eyes of your body ; you 
 cannot sec Him in vision ; you say that you can- 
 not feel His presence within you ; you cannot feel 
 that you have faith.' 
 
 ' Exactly ; what am I to do ? * 
 
 * Allow me to give you an illustration.' In some 
 such words I spoke with my friend, and gave him 
 the substance of the following illustration, which 
 seemed to clear away his difficulty ; and I trust, by 
 God's blessing, it may enable you to receive God's 
 simple plan, and accept God's salvation for nothing. 
 
 You have a rent — say £io a-year— to pay, 
 having to maintain a large family, and having been 
 recently in distress and out of work, you find it 
 impossible to pay it. Let us suppose that I was 
 able, knew your difficulty, took pity on you, and 
 
 said to you — 
 
 John, 1 hear you have your rent coming on, and 
 having had very hard times, you will never be ablt 
 t pay it. Now I wish you to use your money foi 
 your most pressing wants, to get food and clothiii}; 
 for yo» wife and family, and look to me for ibe refit 
 You, know'ng me, and hence believing me, wouUi 
 go away home with a burden otf your mind and a 
 happy heart. When you came home next Satur- 
 
• Yf! MUST BE BORN AGAIN.* 
 
 59 
 
 lieveth in Him 
 
 t coming on, and 
 
 day with your wages, you would tell your wife to 
 spend all the money in getting food and clothing, 
 
 'But, John,' she would say, 'are we not to lay 
 aside something for the rent ? ' 
 
 ' Oh no,' you would answer ; ' 1 met a man whom 
 I know, and he said, Look to me for the rent, and I 
 believe him.' 
 
 And thus weeks would go on, till shortly before 
 the rent -day a neighbour comes in and says — 
 
 'John, I have only got ^5 gathered for my rent, 
 and I don't know what I'm to do. How much ha?e 
 you ?' 
 
 • None at all.' 
 
 ' What ! have you nothing gathered ? ' 
 
 ' No, for a friend of mine said. Look to me for 
 the rent.* 
 
 ' And are you not getting anxious about it V 
 
 'No.' 
 
 'Why?' 
 
 ' Because I trust him.' 
 
 ' Why r 
 
 ' Because I believe him.* 
 
 ' Why .? ' 
 
 ' Because I know him.* 
 
 By and by the rent-day comes, and even your 
 wife begins to be suspicious and doubtful, but you 
 have implicit trust in what I said — you have no 
 difficulty in understanding what look to me for the 
 rent means ; and so, at the appointed hour, I walk 
 in and make my word good, and am happy to find 
 that, against all your neighbour's doubts, against 
 all your wife's fears, and even against all your own 
 
6o 
 
 'GiiACE amj truth: . 
 
 tremblings, you have trusted my word and looked 
 to me for the rent. , 
 
 This is, of course, just an illustration, as 1 havo 
 no doubt you are at the present quite able and will 
 ing to pay your own rent ; but in the matter ot our 
 salvation, though we might be willing, we are totally 
 unable ; so the Lord now says, ' Look to Me, and 
 
 be ye saved.' . ^ , ^ j, • *• 
 
 Christ on the cross has satisfied Gods justice. 
 He paid the debt for the sinner Men are doing 
 perfectly right things ; praying, living moral lives, 
 and giving money for charitable purposes, but all tor 
 the wrong end. All these will never save. God says, 
 ♦ Look to Me for salvation; and then begin to use 
 your time, talents, money, powers, for their legiti 
 mate end, to glorify God. Do not try to be holy 
 in order to be saved. That would be like the man 
 laying up for a rent which he could never pay. 
 ' Look to Me and be saved,' says God, and then h^ 
 holy, because you are sure of salvation on the 
 author - of God. Religion will never save you— 
 even pure religion. God defines pure religion in 
 James i. 27: 'Pure religion, and undefiled, before 
 God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless 
 and widows in their affliction, and to keep himselt 
 unspotted from the world.' By the deeds of the 
 law we cannot be justified; therefore by doing ail 
 this we cannot be saved. Religion is the lite ot a 
 saved man, not the efforts of an unsaved man to get 
 saved We do not try to do good in order to get a 
 new nature, but we try to do good because we have 
 received a new nature. The work which Goc? ivill 
 
" YE MUST Bh BORN AGAIN. 
 
 6l 
 
 )rd and looked 
 
 Ltion, as 1 havo 
 e able and will 
 e matter of our 
 g^ we are totally 
 ook to Me, and 
 
 I God's justice. 
 Men are doing 
 ing moral lives, 
 poses, but all for 
 save. God says, 
 en begin to use 
 for their legiti- 
 t try to be holy 
 
 be like the man 
 ould never pay. 
 ;od, and then h^ 
 lalvation on the 
 lever save you — 
 pure religion in 
 undefiled, before 
 sit the fatherless 
 
 to keep himself 
 the deeds of the 
 fore by doing all 
 1 is the life of a 
 isaved man to get 
 
 in order to get a 
 1 because we have 
 c which Go<J ivill 
 
 accept from you is not tt thc^ cross, it is fiom the 
 cross to the crown. Jesui dii\ all the saving-work. 
 He brought the cross ^o o «r level. Get saved by 
 looking to Him, and then live to God. Do not 
 look to the feeling of being f Aved — look away from 
 what is being wrought in you fo whit was wrought 
 for you. We are not save^l on account of the 
 Spirit working in us, but by ra*ans of His work — 
 we are saved on account of CIvrist dying for us. 
 We are not saved ^or fiiith but thrf^^h faitk ' Look 
 to me and be ye saved, all the endf of the earth.' 
 
 Lie down as a wounded, helpless, ^ngcdly sinver, 
 and look away from yourself to yesus an^ijffi^ f^ .y> 
 
 Look unto Me and he ye ioned — 
 
 Look, men of nations all; 
 Look rich and poor, look old and youn| ' 
 Look sinners great and small ! 
 
 Looh unto Me and be ye saved— 
 Look now, nor dare delay ; 
 i Look as you are — lost, guilty, dead-* 
 
 Look while 'tis called to-day I 
 
 Look unto Me and be ye saved — 
 
 Look from your doubts and fears | 
 Look from your sins of crimson dye^ 
 
 Look from your prayers and teare I 
 
 Look unto Me and be ye saved-— 
 
 Look to the work all done, 
 liook to tire pietcM Son of Man, 
 
 Look IR your ain all goue ! 
 
Do you feel your Sins Forgiven ? 
 
 Our Assurance. 
 
 O you fid that your sins are all forgiven? 
 ' Indeed I do not ; but I know they 
 
 arc' 
 ' Now, 1 cannot understand that. How 
 
 can any one know it ? 
 
 ' If you had wronged me, and I told you that I 
 forgave you, would you not know it ?' 
 
 ' Most certainly ; but how can you say that God 
 ever told you that He forgave you ? Did you just 
 feel at a certain time something that you thought 
 was God's voice, inwardly telling you that your sins 
 were pardoned?' 
 
 ' I certainly did not.' 
 
 * Then how can it be ? I have tried to get con- 
 verted as hard as any man could ; 1 have prayed for 
 grace, for strength, for the pardon of my sins, and 
 for the Holy Spirit, and I do not yet feel any differ- 
 ence, and I never could feel as I have heard some 
 men say they have.' 
 
 ' I quite understand you ; I was for years in the 
 
 same condition.' 
 
 ' Then how did you get out of it ? 1 know all 
 about the plan of salvation, about the work of Christ, 
 
Forgiven ? 
 
 re all forgiven? 
 It I know they 
 
 and that. How 
 
 told you that 1 
 
 ■?' 
 
 ou say that God 
 ? Did you just 
 lat yoa thought 
 )u that your sins 
 
 tried to get con- 
 have prayed for 
 of my sins, and 
 iX. feel any differ 
 lave heard some 
 
 for years in the 
 
 it ? 1 Imow all 
 e work of Christ, 
 
 •DO YOU FEEL YOUR SINS FOIUJl VENr Gt^ 
 
 and the necessity of the Spirit ; that Wv nust hi 
 justified by grace through faith alone without the 
 works of the law ; that the promises are all most 
 certainly secure to them that are in Christ ; but how 
 am I e\(er to know whether I am in Him or not ? ' 
 
 *I know that you may have heard some Christians 
 say they feci they are pardoned, they fee/ they arc 
 saved ; but this only tends to mislead. It did mis- 
 lead me, and I have no doubt it is misleading you. 
 These Christians may mean a right thing, but they 
 state it wrongly. I fee! happy because I know that 
 my sins are pardoned ; and I will shew you how I 
 know that by and by ; but I do not feel that my 
 sins are pardoned. Let us suppose a case. A 
 poor widow has no money to pay her debts. 
 The creditor comes demanding his righteous due. 
 A friend steps in, and says to the creditor, " I'll 
 pay you the widow's debt ; " he puts down the 
 money, and the creditor hands him a slip of paper 
 on which is written, "Received from Widow Blank 
 the sum due, settled," with the creditor's signature 
 affixed. The receipt is handed to the widow, 
 and she feels very happy because she knows that hrr 
 debt is paid. If you were to call that day, and su ^ 
 to the widow, " Do you /^^/ that your debt is paid?" 
 what would she say \ * 
 
 *Feel it! What do you mean? There is the 
 receipted account. I don't feel that it's paid, but 1 
 feel very happy became it is paid.' 
 
 * Now, do you not see the difference ? The feel- 
 ing is all right, but I do not feel my sin pardoned 
 ' know it, and hence feel happy.' 
 
'mm 
 
 ^GJM^'E AND truth: 
 
 (H__ 
 
 "TBnt does it not say somcvlieic in Scrii^ture tmt 
 (be Spirit Ix.-areth witness with our spir:tt> . 
 
 'I^>w from the very fact that you ^F'^^ s« 
 vaniely.bour " somewhere in Scripture,' I fear to 
 voa I nor know well what Scripture is The 
 Bible h not a number of texts strung ^^^^^ 
 random: it h a perfectly arranged xvhole. Tiuth 
 u, among connexion is the worst kmd of eiTor 
 You find hi Romans .iii. 16, this mo.. Hessed and 
 wondrous revelation from God, that -The Spirit 
 itself beareth witness with our spirits that we are 
 the children of God." Mark carefully, this is not| 
 given as a ground to know that our .ms are tor 
 liven; but comes after the whole revelation ol the 
 uuth concerning what we have done and what we 
 are, and how our responsibilities are niet. It comes 
 after the triumphant assertion oi Romans v. i,l 
 " Beine iustified by faith we have peace with God, 
 and that crowning triumph after every q^^^^^ ^;;l 
 been settled against us, " There is no condemnation. | 
 T^^iii. K) At peace with God, and no conl 
 demnation, we now advance into our peculiar place 
 among the creatures of God. Angels are at peace 
 with God and have no condemnations but they are 
 only servants. Here is something i. 'onal, wt 
 aresov.- of God." Being taVen - -n the swme 
 trough ad getting food and T;iim nt, we woulc 
 theriwith be content, glad t... ' we were in th. 
 house at all, even among the sevxmis. Uut tiignt 
 than servants are we become, even s' i .. We ma^ 
 well pause, and say, is this presuv -.n? Dare 
 ,ay that all things are mine ? that 1 <im a ctuKl, 
 
7/.' 
 
 DO YOU FEEL YOVti SINS FORGIVEN f 
 
 ^>5 
 
 c in Scripture tbat 
 ^r sj^ints ? ' 
 lilt you spf^ak so 
 ipture," I fear that 
 cripture is. The 
 tru'.ig together at 
 ?d vvhole. Truth , 
 rst kind of error, 
 mo^^: blessed and 
 that "The Spirit 
 pirits, that we are 
 refuUy, this is not 
 ; our iins are for- 
 e revelation of the 
 done and what we 
 are met. It comes „;i 
 of Romans v. i,^ 
 e peace with God," .J 
 every question has § 
 s no condemnation.' | 
 I God, and no con- -| 
 ) our peculiar place J 
 \ngels are at peace 
 nations but they are 
 ng ;, '■ ional, " We| 
 reii • n the swine 
 raim-nt, we woulcl 
 iat we were in tht? 
 n'.rats, But highe 
 ven o'lr".. We mii\ 
 jsuv 'in? Dare 
 lat 1 <tm a child, 
 
 .,11, an heir of God? Yes I indeed you may; the 
 S})irit has been sent to dwell with you and to be in 
 you, as coming from the throne revealing to your 
 .spirit (which can now discern spiritual things) that, 
 v\ ithout presumption, you may lay claim to the title, 
 tlie relationship, of son of God, heir of God, and 
 loint-heir with Christ. That Spirit is within every 
 believer, and seals only saved ones. He quickens 
 »he unsaved. God has sent forth this testimony, 
 and he that is a believer has the ' testimony in him- 
 self (i John V. lo). The important point I wish 
 you to see is this, that the Holy Ghost is never said 
 to bear witness to me, by any internal feeling, that 
 I am at peace with God. It is after a man knows 
 he is a saved man that then there is a step further 
 shewn him — namely, that he is a son. He is not 
 only out of prison : he is set at the table of the 
 King whom he calls " Abba," that is, Father.' 
 
 ' I quite understand the distinction, but I never 
 saw it before ; but if I could know that I was at 
 peace with God I would be quite satisfied.* 
 
 ' Yes, but God would not ; however, this is the 
 first point for you to know- -"being justified by 
 fdit/j we have peace with God," not by the feeling 
 of faith.' 
 
 ' But don*t some people feel it while others do 
 not ? ' 
 
 ' Not at all. What I am contending for is, that 
 the forgiveness of sins is a thing that can be felt by 
 no one : and, unless the knowledge of it is founded 
 on the word of God, and that alone, for every 
 one, individually, it will be sinking sand for a 
 
66 
 
 GRACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 deathbed. Scores of anxious people have been 
 deluded into the idea that they knew the gospel when 
 some pleasing emotion passed through their mmds. 
 W^hen Satan sees people awakened, and that he 
 cannot keep them quiet, he takes his stand beside 
 the preacher of the gospel, and while he is mvitmg 
 them to the rock, Satan pushes out planks of feel- 
 ing A drowning man will catch at a straw, and 
 the poor troubled one finds a little relief in resting 
 on some plank of quietness of conscience, till storms 
 rage, and then he finds himself with nothing beneath 
 him. I am therefore suspicious when a person tells 
 me he is "a little better." If he does not believe 
 the gospel, he has no right to be any better, and if 
 he has taken the good news to himself, he is entitled 
 to be at perfect peace.' 
 
 ♦Then you don't allow of any feeling r 
 *Most certainly I do : but what am I warranted 
 to feel? If I could tell you thai; you were saved, 
 .md you believed it, would you not feel happy ?* 
 
 * Of course I would.' 
 
 'This is what I feel — whenever I say to myself, 
 " I'm saved," don't I feel happy ? and the more I 
 realise that my knowledge that I am saved depends 
 only on God's word, the more happy I become.'^^ 
 
 « Is there nothing about this " feeling saved " in 
 
 the Bible.' ., • r 
 
 * Indeed, there is not. You can easily satisty 
 yourself by turning to a concordance. Never once 
 is the word put beside " salvation," " forgiveness, 
 or in fact, anything about a man's peace with God, 
 but we fino, in Luke i. 77, that part of John's com- 
 
 liiili 
 
DO YOU FEEL fOUR SINS FORGIVENI (>7 
 
 mission is declared to be " to give knowledge of 
 salvation," and in many parts of Scripture we find 
 " knowing our sins forgiven," " knowing in whom 
 we have believed," '* knowing we have passed from 
 death to Hfe," " knowing we are born of God." 
 Did Abraham feel he was to have a son when he 
 was so old ? No I but he knew it. And how did 
 he know it ? Because God said it. He felt glad 
 because he knew it, because he believed what God 
 said. It is really because people do not believe that 
 God means exactly what He says, that we see so 
 many intelligent men who cannot say whether Aey 
 are saved or not.' 
 
 ' But I have often thought that I had received 
 Christ and trusted in Him alone ; but I find \\\) 
 faith so incapable of producing effects.' 
 
 ' But did you start saying " I'm saved," before 
 trying to do anything ? ' 
 
 ' O no ! I was always waiting for fruits.' 
 
 ' Fruits of what ? fruits of doubt ? Suppose you 
 had got the right fruits, would you then have be- 
 lieved you were saved ?' 
 
 'Oyesl' 
 
 ' That is to say, you would trust the fruits you 
 brought forth rather than God's word — not for youi 
 salvation, but for ir knowledge of it. But you 
 must be saved, and know you are saved, before one 
 acceptable fruit can be brought forth — else the works 
 are legal. All evangelical obedience is done by a 
 man who is sav d, and who does it because W. 
 knows that he is wed.' 
 
 'Then am I to do nothing ?' 
 
()0 
 
 ^ GRACE A My TllUnV 
 
 ' Absolutely and liierally nothing. You must take 
 •alvation exactly as the thief on the cross did. IK^ 
 could not turn over a new leaf; his last wretchc*! 
 leaf had been turned in reviling his Saviour. IK' 
 could not do any work for God, for there was a nnil 
 through each hand; he could not run in the way of 
 God's commandments, for there was a nail through 
 his feet. And until ^ou stand still and n alize \\[ 
 there is a nail through all your self-righting activity, 
 and a nail through all y -ur carnal agility, and accept 
 salvation for notliing, knowing that you are saved 
 simply on the authority of the bare Word of God, 
 you will never be savcd. We do not look inwai J 
 to what we feel, nor outw nd to what we do — but 
 to the Son f M.in lifted .p, and to God's account 
 of how wel; He is pleased with Jesus.* 
 
 ' Well, I think I see what you mean, and it clears 
 up a real diF.u! y. I am mt to exar-ine to see if 1 
 feel better, feel saved, feel f()rgivcn, or feel hapny ; 
 but here is the next difH ulty — how am I to 
 know it?' 
 
 * I well remember i t hen i began trying to 
 feel converted, I fel" iy.s , becoming worse and 
 worse, and my heart getting further and fu her from 
 peace. Then I began to study this and that theo- 
 logical question. I knew all about what Calvinism 
 and Arminianism were — studied my Bible till I knew 
 its contents pretty well, but at last 1 found I was not 
 on the right track for salvation at all. I was thinking 
 that salvation came intellect-wise^ and wot faith -wise.* 
 
 'But a man caanot be saved apart from hit 
 understanding ?' 
 
DO YOV FEEL YOUR SINS FOROIVENt 69 
 
 'Most certainly not, no more than he can be 
 saved against his will ; but the eyes of his under- 
 standing must be enlightened, that '^e may be made 
 willing to receive the gift of salvation in God's way. 
 You set if God had made His salvation dependent 
 upon education or intellect. He would have left the 
 great mass without the chance of salvation until 
 they weie tutored up to the requisite point ; but as 
 there s one salvation for high and low, rich and poor, 
 educai ' and ignorant, so there is one mtthod of 
 receiving it, and of course that must be according to 
 the stand'ir;] of the most unlearned. Henre the 
 truth of the rerr irk that a friend made to me, " In- 
 tellect never ped me to Christ, but it often 
 hindered me." 
 
 ' I was trying to explain this (which I believe to be 
 of the greatest importance) to some poor people, 
 and I tried to illustrate it in this way. If, in travelling 
 by rail, I had a first-cl.iss ticket, I could travel one 
 part of the journey in a first-class carriage, anothei 
 part in a second, and another in a third, and the 
 railway officials coul J find no fault ; but, if I had 
 only a third-class ticket, I must remain in the third 
 from beginning to end. Thus, in regard to salvation, 
 the educated man can come to the uneducate' man s 
 platform ; the uneducated cannot rise to his : there- 
 fore it is on the common platform on which all 
 men can stand that God treats concerning salvation. 
 
 * This is the great difficulty ; this is why not many 
 great, not many wise, and not many noble, can 
 afford to come low enough among the common run 
 of people, to take a guilty sinner's place, receive a 
 
70 
 
 HORACE AND TliUTir 
 
 lost sinner's Saviour, and rejoice in a rondcmned 
 sinner's pardon. This is why Ciirist taught that 
 men had to become like little children before they 
 could get into the kingdom of heaven.' 
 
 * I see the justice of your remarks ; but tell me, 
 now, how am I to get into the Kingdom ?' 
 
 * As you have said before, you know that it is of 
 grace — that is to say, God is waiting to give it to 
 you alifor mlbing, without a feeling in j)ayment, 
 without a prayer as the condition of it, just as the 
 widow's friend dealt with her debt. That it might 
 be of grace, it was made to be by faiib, not by 
 attainment either in intellect or feeling. This is the 
 impression that has been sometimes left upon my 
 mind, after having heard the gospel stated — that 
 faith is the condition which God has demanded from 
 the sinner, in order that he may be saved — that the 
 great Physician wil! heal the most wretched, sin- 
 burdened soul, but he must receive faith as his fee. 
 Now this, as you have no doubt found, would be the 
 most difficult of all fees to procure. Feeling is hard 
 to get up, but faith is harder. Faith is the mere 
 apprehension of grace — thankfully accepting what 
 God has already freely given. Faith puts God in 
 the chief room as the giver, it being more blessed to 
 give than to receive, and lets him do everything, 
 man being the silent and passive receiver of blessing. 
 Faith has to do, not with what I icel toward God, 
 but what God feels toward me, what He has done 
 for me, and what He has told me. Faith does not 
 look into its own formation — it looks out to God's pro- 
 vided substitute for the sinner. Faith does not 
 
DO YOU I EEL YOUR SINS FORfilVENf 7 I 
 
 ondcmncd 
 Light that 
 fore they 
 
 : tell mc, 
 
 mt it is of 
 give it to 
 jvayment, 
 ast as the 
 Lt it might 
 6, not by 
 rhis is the 
 upon my 
 ited — that 
 mled from 
 —that the 
 tched, sin- 
 as his fee. 
 )uld be the 
 ing is hard 
 s the mere 
 (ting uhat 
 ts God in 
 blessed to 
 ;very thing, 
 )f blessing, 
 ward God, 
 has done 
 I does not 
 God's pro- 
 does not 
 
 tell me x.ofeel that I am converted, but it fixes me 
 down to the Word of God. Faitli tells me to take 
 God at His word. Faith has not to do with what 
 I am thinking of myself, bad or good, but it lets God 
 think for me. 
 
 *Two thi 
 
 ungs are to be distinguished,** salvation " 
 and the ** knowledge of salvation." First, How 
 am I to get saved? and then, How am I to 
 know it? 
 
 * First, then, my salvation depends solely and en- 
 tirely upon the work, the person, of Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. (My salvation is supported by His 
 work ; His work is supported by His person.) 
 
 * Secondly, the knowledge that I am saved depends 
 solely on the record, the word^ the testimony of 
 God. **He that believeth not God, hath made 
 Him a liar, because he b( lieveth not the record 
 (testimony) that God gave of His Son." A man is 
 saved on account of Christ having died in his place, 
 the moment that he accepts Christ ; he knows that 
 he is saved whenever he believes the record that 
 God gave of His Son.' 
 
 * Well now, tell me shortly what " believing in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ is." Of course I believe He 
 is able and willing to save anybody, His atonement 
 is sufficient, and His offer free and full ; but how is 
 He to become mine ? * 
 
 * What is it to believe in a man ? What is it to 
 believe in a bank ? You do not believe in one who 
 is in the black list — but you can look around and say 
 to yourself, '* Well, I believe in so and so," and it is 
 just the same with Christ ; I believe in Him — not 
 
 :^l 
 
72 
 
 • 49RAHE AND TRUTH: 
 
 merely in His historical existence — but 1 trust Him, 
 I receive, I rest upon, Him alone for my salvation.' 
 *In a word, then, what should I do? I am wish- 
 ng to take God's way, and willing now to do it. 
 When I begin to go through trains of thought, I 
 feel I get confused, and I should just like to know 
 in a sentence what my path ought to be.' 
 
 * Take the lost sinner's placCy and claim the lost 
 sinner's Saviour I ' 
 
 ' Will the claim be allowed ? 
 
 * Yea, God commands thee to claim Him.' 
 
 * Cin I claim Him ? ' 
 
 * Only a lost sinner can.' 
 
 * I am allowed, urged, besought, commanded to 
 take Jesus as mine ; surely I have aothing to lose — 
 yea, Lord I believe Thee, Jesus is mine.' 
 
 ' I take comfort from the fact that my sins were 
 laid on Christ — I do not feel they were there, but 
 God says it — " He was wounded for our transgres- 
 sions;" not for those of angels — they had none; 
 noi: for those of devils — they can claim no Saviour ; 
 but for those who take the sinner's place — " The 
 chastisement of our peace was upon Him.'* There- 
 fore it would be unju'^t to lay it on me believing 
 in Him. He is a real Saviour for real sinners. My 
 only qualification for such a saviour is that I am 
 such a sinner. And now I believe my sins are not 
 on me — not because I feel them gone, for 1 do not, 
 but because God says they were laid on Christ.' 
 ((.«(tiah liil 6). 
 
 Robert M'Cheyne says, ' We must not close 
 with Chriiit because we ful Him, but . «cause God 
 
DO YOU FEEL YOUR SL\S FORGIVEN 1 75 
 
 trust Him, 
 salvation.' 
 
 [ am wish- 
 to do it. 
 
 thought, I 
 
 :e to know 
 
 IM the lost 
 
 m.' 
 
 manded to 
 ; to lose — 
 
 r sms were 
 there, but 
 ' transgres- 
 had none ; 
 o Saviour ; 
 ce — " The 
 '* There- 
 e believing 
 iners. My 
 that I am 
 ins are not 
 r 1 do not, 
 3n Christ.' 
 
 not close 
 ecause God 
 
 has said it^ and we must take God's word even in 
 the dark.' We do not feel we have faith. We 
 accept God's way of dealing with sin. 
 
 Man would try to settle God's claims. God 
 Himself has settled the claims, and offers the settled 
 account for nothing. Man would try to make his 
 peace wiih God. God has come and ' made peace^ 
 Christ Himself becoming ' our peace,' and now He 
 ' preached peace ' for the acceptance of all, (Eph. ii. 
 14-17.) Most anxious enquirers seem to think 
 [hat we have to fight against ourselves in order to 
 be saved, whereas we fight against ourselves because 
 we are ^aved. We have a race to run but it is 
 not to the cross, it \%from the cross. Man's way is to 
 belie-Je because we feel: God's way is to feel because 
 u/e believe, and believe because God has said it. Dr 
 Ch;i5'iers says, ' Yet Come the enlargement when it 
 will, it must, I admit. Come after all through the 
 channel of a simple credence given to the sayings of 
 God, accounted true and faithful sayings. And never 
 does light and peace so fill my heart as when like a 
 little child, I take up the lesson, that God hath laid 
 on His own Son the iniquities of us all.* 
 
 Take the lost sinner's place, and claim the lost 
 
 sinner's Saviour. 
 
 No works of lam h«Te we to boast- 
 By nature ruined, guilty, lost, 
 Condemned already ; but Thy haod 
 Provided what Thou didst demand: 
 IVe take tht guilty tmiur's name. 
 The gvihy tinner' t Saviour claim. 
 
 Ho/aith we bring. 'Tig Chri?l Joo^-* 
 Tk what He it, what He h:is done. 
 
 I 
 
r4 
 
 ORtiCE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 He is for us as given by God, 
 It was for us He shed His blood : 
 H^e take the guilty tinner' t namtf 
 The guilty tinner/ Saviour claim. 
 
 We do not feel our sins are gone, 
 But inoiv it from Thy word alone } 
 We know that Thou our sins did V ••• 
 On Him who has put sin away ; 
 IVe take the guilty tinner' t namff 
 The guilty tinner t Saviour claim. 
 
 Because we inow our sins foigiven, 
 We happy feel: our home is Heaveu 
 O liolp us now as sons, our God, 
 To tread the path that Jesus trod : 
 IVe take the guilty tinner t mime. 
 Tbr guilty tinner t Saviour daim. 
 

 The Work of the Holy Spirit 
 
 Our Comforter, 
 
 E are not saved on account of the Holy 
 Ghost's work in us ; we are saved by 
 means of it. We are saved on account of 
 Christ's work for us. The more the Spirit 
 
 svorks within us the more shall we desire that work 
 to go on ; but the work of Christ on Calvary is 
 
 finished, and this is our resting-place, our peace, our 
 security. We never can (or never ought) here 
 below to get satisfied with the work of the Spirit 
 wrought within us, but we are satisfied with the 
 work of Christ done for us, and this is eternal rest, 
 this is faith. Many sadly confuse these two divine 
 works. Anxious inquirers are constantly looking 
 within to see what is go'ng on there, instead of looking 
 outward to what was done on Calvary. I wish to 
 draw the reader's attention to three most precious 
 operations of the Spirit of God as seen in the 
 beginning of John's Gospel — 
 
 First, Born of the Spirit ; chap, iii. 5-8. 
 
 Second, Indwelt by the Spirit ; chap. if. 14. 
 
 Third, Communicating the Spirit; chap. nii. 3 
 
7* 
 
 GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 I. BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 Many think that regeneration, or the new birth 
 or quickening, is a process that goes on subsequent 
 to justification. This is a mistake. Regeneration 
 neither goes before nor comes after justification, but 
 is at the same time and is an instantaneous act per- 
 formed by the Spirit of God, communicating the 
 life of Christ to a man formerly dead in trespasser* 
 and sins and having nothing whatever m him that 
 could be transformed into this new creation which 
 He implants. There are two errors against which 
 
 we must guard: u o • %• 
 
 First, not --cognising or acknowledging the bpirit » 
 
 special work m regeneration ; and .,,,., 
 
 Second, confusing or mixing this with Clinst s 
 
 work dooe for us. 
 
 i8t bu by a special act of absolute grace that we 
 mre horn main by the Spirit. ' The wind bloweth 
 «'We it *steth,' and so the Jewish Pharisee is 
 compelled to allow God to act as a sovereign. 
 What would be the use of Christ coming, living, 
 dying (or sin rising beyond its doom, and His 
 present mtcrcession, unless the H0I7 Spirit were 
 here applying to individuals that work, that lite by 
 the Word It is not His inHuence merely, but 
 Himself, who is now on earth, k is not His Word 
 merely, blessed and essential as it is, but Himseh, 
 who applies that Word. Look at the feast m Luke 
 xif . If Christ had not come and died and risen, 
 there would havf been iio feast to offer, but if t.e 
 
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 77 
 
 ■% 
 'If 
 
 Holy Spirit were not here, none would come to the 
 feast. So the parable tells us, * Compel them to 
 come in;' and the Holy Ghost is the great com- 
 peller, making them willing. This is His special 
 work on individuals, not His general work in the 
 world. His work on the world is not in the way of 
 mercy but of conviction. 
 
 In John xvi. 8, we read, when He is come He 
 will reprove (iXiy^«/, literally, convict by proof to its 
 confusion) the world — 
 
 (i.) ^ Of sin,' because the great sin of which God 
 holds man to be guilty is the crucifixion of His Son ; 
 and the presence of the Holy Ghost is the great 
 proof of man's refusing Christ, for the rejected 
 Christ has sent the Spirit, and His presence is 
 continually crying, * where is thy brother ? ' hence it 
 is said, ' of sin, because they believe not on Me.' 
 
 (2.) * Of righteousness.* If man is an ungrateful 
 sinner, God is a righteous God, and if sinful man 
 gave hit Saviour a cross of shame, a righteous God 
 gave His Son a throne of glory. This is the great 
 act of righteousness between God and the man 
 Christ. ' Sit thou at My right hand until I make 
 thine enemies thy footstool.' Ps. ex. i. The 
 presence of the Holy Ghost on the earth is the proof 
 of the righteousness of God. Christ having per- 
 fectly glorified God, God glorifies Him as a matter 
 of justice, crowns Him with glory and honour; and 
 we see Him, not by the natural eye, for Christ is 
 not yet manifested on His own throne, but in the 
 interval between rejection and triumph, the Father in 
 righteojsness has set Hira down on liis tlu-one, and 
 
78 
 
 « GRACE AND TRUTH.* 
 
 sent down the Holy Ghost to testify that He is 
 Klorified; therefore it is said, 'of righteousness, 
 because I go to my Father, and ye see me no 
 
 "^To * Of judgment,' because, since Satan could not 
 hold Christ ill death, a power stronger than Satan a 
 must have appeared, whose power over death musl 
 therefore have been set aside and himself judged for 
 'through death He destroyed Him that had the 
 power of death, that is, the devil.' The Holy Ghost 
 has come to tell us of this great act of judgment ; 
 because the very fact that he has come proves that 
 Christ is risen and is in glory ; and the fact that 
 Christ has risen proves that Satan has been judged, 
 and since Satan is * the prince of this world th. 
 world has been judged, being set aside in its chosen 
 head; therefore it is said, ' of judgment, because the 
 prince of this world is judged.' 
 
 Such is the action of the holy Ghost on the word 
 to its confusion and shame : but His work in quick- 
 ening is quite a distinct thing. He does not work 
 on 'the old man ' in me and make it better, and 
 thus gradually save. He shews me that it cannot 
 be mended. He shews me that I am * guilty, con 
 demned already,' Most,' 'alienated,' 'evil only,^ 
 • continually evil," without God,' 'without hope, 
 ' without strcnj:^th,* ' dead.* ^ . 
 
 I have heard men speak of a remaining spark in 
 the bosom of the unregenerate that required mcrdy 
 to be fanned into a flame by the influences of ^ the 
 Holy Ghost. This is unscriptural (read Gen. vi. 5, 
 kc). I have heard such speak of a seed of good la 
 

 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 79 
 
 every man which the Holy Ghost cuhivates, and this 
 they call the new birth. This is utter confusion, and 
 an entire misconception of the figure. Man's co- 
 operation in regeneration is not required, because he 
 has no power to co-operate. He is dead. * That 
 which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' The work is 
 altogether of God. As it was God who in His own 
 heart before the foundation of the world, planned 
 redemption, and as it was God in His Son who, 
 eighteen hundred years ago, before we were born, 
 secured our redemption, so it is God by His Spirit 
 who now, without our endeavour, apart from our 
 effort, applies this redemption. In fact, the first 
 thing God does is to make us willing. How entirely 
 is this work of God I He was alone in eternity ; 
 He was alone in creation ; He was alone in redemp- 
 tion ; He is alone in regeneration which is merely 
 redemption applied. God does not find us children; 
 He makes us children. But we must look now at 
 another error. 
 
 2d. Confounding the work of the Spirit in us with 
 Christ's work for us. While the Spirit of God is the 
 sole agent, the truth of God is the sole instrument 
 which He employs. We cannot see the Spirit; we 
 can see the Word. We cannot see His operations : 
 we can read His record about Christ. No doubt 
 it will be merely letters without meaning, until He 
 opens the eyes ; but He works only in His appointed 
 channel. He never tells us to look inward even to 
 His own operations, for peace, but outward to Christ. 
 That is the most Spirit-honouring preaching of the 
 gospel in which you hear most of Christ. Once I 
 
 'A 
 t 
 
8o 
 
 GRACE AND TRUTH* 
 
 heard a very earnest man preaching to anxious 
 inquirers, and he was dwelling continuoii«Iy and 
 exclusively upon the Spirit's work— its signs and 
 characteristics— with the effect of confusing many 
 of his hearers. For who could obtain scriptural peace 
 with God from what he felt? We get a healthful 
 and heaven-bom conflict by marking the Holy 
 Ghost's operations within us, but never peace. This 
 we get by gazing at the Lamb of God on Calvary. 
 I thought as I heard the preacher, *I wonder if the 
 Holy Ghost would preach in that way if He were 
 standing there,' and I immediately remembered, 
 that *He shall not speak of (from) Himself,' 'He 
 shall testify of Me;' that is, He will preach Christ. 
 ♦He shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you.' 
 ♦He shall glorify Me.' This is spiritual preaching, 
 because the preaching of the things of the Spirit, and 
 as He Himself preaches. I believe the more we are 
 depending on the Spirit's worKing, the more we 
 shall preach what the Spirit wishes us to preach 
 about, and look to Him to apply it. When we 
 begin to point the anxious enquirer to the Spirit's 
 work, this is not how the Spirit Himself would 
 Jeai with him. 
 
 If I began to speak to a working man sitting 
 down to his dinner, and said to him, *Do you 
 know the muscles employed in mastication ? ' 
 
 ♦ What's that ?' he would likely say. 
 ♦Well, ineatiig?' 
 
 ♦Indeed, I do not?' 
 
 ♦ And you do not know the nerves that supply 
 them ?' 
 
'lUE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 8i 
 
 * I'm sure I do not.' 
 
 'And the beautiful mechanism and arrangement 
 oy which the food is converted into a bolus, and 
 lAtroduced into the stomach?' 
 
 ' Now you are surely Kiughing at me.* 
 
 ' Oh no, I'm not, but all that is most true and 
 interesting; but tell me what do you know?' 
 
 ' Well, i,ir, I know that I am hungry, and that this 
 is a good dinner.' 
 
 This \vouId be the common-sense and appropriate 
 vinswer. Even the ph^^siologist, when he is hungry, 
 does not think much o\ how he eats. The two 
 j^reat points are, that he b hungry, and that he has 
 u good dinner. Some jure hungry and have not tho 
 oood food, others have the food and are not hungry. 
 But the qualification for evijoying food is not a 
 knowledge of how to eat, bkU the being hungry. 
 We do not need to know hno we are born again in 
 order to be saved. We do not aeed to know all or 
 anything about the Spirit's work within us in order 
 to get peace (there were peoplo, in Acts xix. 2, who 
 were believers and who yet said, * We have not so 
 much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost"), 
 but we must know about Christ's work for us be- 
 fore we can be saved. The greatest physiologist 
 might die of hunger. We might know everything 
 about the Spirit's work and yet be lost for ever, be- 
 cause we had not received and rested upon Christ 
 offered to us in the gospel. 
 
 We are justified by faith j but the expcr. ce of 
 vhat goes on within me is sensation and not faith. 
 
 Some men seem to have a difficulty with anxi»:)iiu 
 
8a 
 
 * GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 souls (believing them to be dead), to know what to, 
 adyise therato do. It is the Spirit that quickened i. 
 Some, therefore, tell sinners at once to pray for the 
 Spirit, thinking thus to simplify matters by reducing 
 it to common-sense — as it seems very plain, since the 
 Spirit quickens, nothing is easier than to cry for that 
 Spirit. But it is not so easy, for a dead man cannot 
 cry. Some, again, tell them to believe the record 
 God gave of His H or; -to believe in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. A dead » liui cannot speak, and of course a 
 dead man canuot believe, so we are in an equal 
 difficulty. Praying and believing are alike impossi- 
 ble with the unregenerate man, without the quick- 
 ening of the Spirit of God. The great point is to 
 find out what we are commanded to do, what our 
 duty to do. It is to tell every man the good news, 
 and press him instantly to believe it. It is the 
 Spirit that is the agent, but He always uses the 
 truth as the instrument, the truth about a crucified 
 and now risen Christ. Faith does not come by 
 feeling, trying, nor praying, but by bearing. The 
 moment I accept Christ as my own individual, per- 
 sonal Saviour who put away my sin, I am warranted 
 to believe that I am born again, and the Spirit in 
 the new man will lust against the flesh in the old 
 man. Peace, indeed, I have with God, that is 
 Christ, but no peace with myself. There is a faith 
 that is human, and a faith that is Spirit-wrought 
 The plan is of God ; the redemption, the truth, 
 and the faith are all of God. Rut how can I know 
 whether I have God-wrought faith ? Does my faith 
 take hold of what is going on within ? That is not 
 
TIIK WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 Hi 
 
 jf God. Does my faith take hold of, is it taken up 
 with, what was done eighteen hundred years ago 
 (Ml Calvary, and with Him wiio .sulTered there? 
 'I'his is God-honouring and saving faith. This is 
 b'.'ing born of the Spirit. The Spirit introduces by 
 the truth, Christ as the life into my dead soul. This 
 is quickening, the renewing of the Holy Ghost. 
 ■J "lie Holy Ghost thus gives a new nature. 
 
 ;■* 
 
 i 
 
 n. INDWILT BY THE SPIRIT. 
 
 hi John iv. 14 we read of the indwelling of the 
 Spirit 'as a well of water springing up into everlast- 
 ing life.' This is said only of Christians. The 
 Spirit of God dwells in none but in those whom He 
 has quickened. And He dwells in all whom He has 
 quickened (Rom. viii. 9). In soine in greater measure 
 than in others; but 'if any man have nor the Spirit 
 of Clnist he is none of His.' Therefore, all who are 
 Christ's have the Spirit dw filing in them. There is 
 a danger here in Siparating Christ and the Sj.irit in 
 ns, as there is in regeneration of /:o ^2/0/ WiV;^ ».'.hrist's 
 work for me with the Spirit's work in me. It is as 
 linked with Christ, a son as Christ is a son, an h;ir 
 as Christ is, that the Spirit dwells in the believer, 
 even as He dwelt in Christ, of course in Him with- 
 out measure. It is thus we have access^ for through 
 Christ we have access by one Spirit to the Father. 
 It is thus that we can worship the Father in spirit 
 and in truth. This lesson he taught the poor con- 
 fessed sinner at Sychar's well. It is thus that we 
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 = (716) 288- 5989 -Fox 
 
'M 
 
 • GRACE AND TRVTW 
 
 from evil, for He is the ^ Holy' Ghost, the * Spirit 
 of holiness.* It is thus we are comforted and guided ; 
 for Jesus said, If I go away I will send the Comforter, 
 (literally paraclete^ which includes much more than 
 comfort). This same word is used in i John li. i, 
 for Christ the advocate (literally />^r^f/(?/<?), one whc 
 looks after all our interests. And thus, as Christ 
 looks after all our interests before God, so the other 
 paraclete looks after all our interests as we are 
 passing through the wilderness, the divine Servant 
 leading us into all truth ; for here again the truth 
 is His channel. 
 
 Thus we live in the Spirit (all Christians being 
 dead and risen with Christ) ; and the exhortation is 
 founded on this, ' Let us also walk in the Spirit ' 
 (Gal. V. 25), principally as being connected with 
 Christ and the members of His body, in every mem- 
 ber of which the Spirit dwells. We are to walk in 
 the Spirit, in the practical exercise of brotherly love, 
 and not be walking as men. Whatl are we not 
 men ? No ; we are sons of God indwelt by the 
 Spirit. Men walk in selfishness. The walk in th( 
 Spirit is each esteeming another better than 
 himself. 
 
 Thus we are 'led of the Spirit ' (Gal. v. 18). All 
 Christians are led. This is not an exhortation, but 
 a privilege, ' For as many as are led by the Spirit 
 of God, they are the Sons of God,' and all believers 
 are sons. But though in each Chrisrian the Spirit 
 dwells, the exhortation is given, * Be filled with the 
 Spirit ' as with the air you breathe, so live in the 
 presence of glory, in the light, in fellowship with 
 
e * Spirit 
 d guided; 
 omforter, 
 lore than 
 ohn ii. I, 
 , onewhc 
 as Christ 
 the other 
 we are 
 ' Servant 
 the truth 
 
 ins being 
 trtation is 
 e Spirit' 
 :ted with 
 ery mem- 
 ◦ walk in 
 erly love, 
 ? we not 
 t by the 
 Ik in the 
 ter than 
 
 1 8). All 
 Ltion, but 
 he Spirit 
 believers 
 he Spirit 
 with the 
 'e in the 
 hip with 
 
 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 85 
 
 Father and Son, and thus the atmosphere will be 
 * the Spirit.' He is spoken of as 
 
 ,. J witness, (I John v. 6.). He bears true 
 witness, He tells the truth concerning Christ, He is 
 a witness to Jesus Christ having come by water and 
 blood ; and every Christian has Him dwelling w.thm 
 him, as we see also in Rom. viii., a witness that we 
 are sons. He is the witness of love and accomplished 
 
 redem^tion^^ As the goods are stamped by the 
 purchaser after they are his own, so ^ft^r w^ be- 
 Heve, we are sealed. Only sons are sealed The 
 oil was put on the blood of the trespass offering. 
 (Lev xiv 2S, 28). In the experience of many 
 hese go^ogether ; but many, especially in Apostolic 
 days though they knew their sins were forgiven^ 
 dtd not know they had eternal life. A quickened 
 soul is not necessarily an emancip^^ted soul. ^ 
 
 I An earnest. He is the earnest of our inhen- 
 tance-that is, part of it that we PO^s^f^^' /^^^^^ 
 UrMplites cot the grapes from Eshcol whle still 
 fth des'ert. In Ro'm. viii. .7, - are children 
 "the Spirit bearing witness), and as -ch -ale^J 
 'but if children, then heirs; heirs of God and 
 idn^h rs with Christ.' Therefore, since He as 
 leir has not taken the inheritance, we do not ha e 
 it but suffer now, having the earnest of the mheri- 
 tancf^^ntil the r^demptbn of the purchased pos- 
 essbn* Ourselves also who have the f^rst fruits 
 of the"Spirit, even we ourselves groan -'thin our- 
 selves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemp- 
 tion of the body' (Rom viii. 23)- 
 
86 
 
 *ORACB AND TRUTB: 
 
 III. COMMUNICATING THE SPIRIT. 
 
 In John vii. 38. we read, ' He that believeth on 
 Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' 
 Thus those who have been quickened, and who are 
 indwelt by the Spirit, are now the channels through 
 which He is ministered to others. The waters once 
 flowed from a smitten rock. The water flowed from 
 Christ's wounded side, and it is only as we are 
 smitten, exercised, subdued, that these rivers wil' 
 flow from us. Only as we come thus to Christ and 
 drink, shall living w"'*»rs flow from us. Alas! how 
 little of the Spirit w flowing from those professing 
 to be quickened by the Spirit. Is it not because 
 we are drawing Iktie from the great fountain-head ? 
 ' Let him come unto Me and drink.' It is truly 
 through saved sinners that God is now to send forth 
 His river of life. * The love of God is shed abroad 
 in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.' And this love of 
 God we are to pour out in rivers in this arid desert 
 as witnesses of God ; first, by carrying the gospel 
 to our fellow-sinners, and telling of that Christ 
 whom we know, and who is offered to them ; and, 
 second, by ministering love to all the saints of God 
 in building up and comforting them. And it is 
 only as our own affections and thoughts, that is, all 
 our inner man, is filled with the pure water from 
 the fountain, that the rivers can flow. 
 
 In connection with the three operations of the 
 Spirit of God which we have been considering, 
 namely, quickened, indwelt^ and commumcaiing, we 
 
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 8? 
 
 may look— ist. At Christ himself; 2d. At the 
 Church corporately; 3d. At each individual be- 
 liever , o • • 
 
 xst. As quickened by the Spirit 
 
 Christ was born of the Spirit. This was His 
 incarnation as we read in the angel's answer to 
 Mary in Luke i. 35. ' That holy thing which shall 
 he born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 
 (Luke i. 35). The meat-offering had to be mingled 
 
 with oil. (Lev. ii. 4.) . 
 
 The Church corporately in the resurrection o\ 
 (^.hrist (Ivom. i. 4 ; 1 I'^^t. i. 3). He was quickened 
 by the Spirit, as the head of the body (i Pet. 111. 18). 
 
 The individual believer; when the Spirit applies 
 the truth to his conscience (James i. 18). 'Of 
 His own will begat He us with the word of truth. 
 
 id. Indwelt by the Spirit. 
 
 Christ we see sealed with the Spirit when, at His 
 baptism, the Spirit, as a dove, rested on Him. The 
 meat-offering had to be anointed with oil. (Lev. 
 ii. 4.) 'Him hath God the Father sealed' (John 
 
 vi 7'7^» 
 
 The Church, we see at Pentecost, not merely 
 quickened, but formed into a temple for God on the 
 earth: the true temple, filled with the true glory. 
 And we see this accomplished in fulfilment of Acts 
 18 'Ye shall receive power after that the Holy 
 Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses 
 unto me, (i) both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, 
 (2.) and in Samaria, (3.) and unto the uttermost 
 part of the earth.' The Holy Ghost thus fell on, 
 I. The Jews, when they were waiting m prayer 
 
88 
 
 * GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 (Acts ii. 4.) in obedience to Jesus' resurrection 
 command, 'wait for the promise of the Father which 
 ye have heard of me.' (Acts i. 4). They had heard 
 of Him in John xiv. to x?i 
 
 2. In Samaria, by the laying on of the apostles' 
 hands (Acts viii. 17). 
 
 3. The Gentiles, in the preaching of the Word 
 (Acts X. 44). And thus is the Spirit now given. 
 In this latter method was the proper Gentile pente- 
 cost our pentecost. Thus it is in the preaching of the 
 Word that we are to expect the blessing of the Spirit. 
 
 The individual^ is seen in his sealing : when by 
 believing the record of the witness he receives his 
 emancipation, his conscious liberty and peace with 
 God, taking his place as a son, with the Holy Ghost 
 as the testifier, and waiting with Him as the earnest 
 of the inheritance. 
 
 3d. Communicating the Spirit. 
 
 Christ in His ministry and prophetic work com 
 municated the Spirit. 
 
 The Church is seen communicating the Spirit, in 
 the preaching of the apostles, at and subsequent to, 
 Pentecost, in the Scriptures they have left, and all 
 collective testimony from their day to this, that has 
 been in accordance with the Word of God. 
 
 Individuals, in the outflow of love in our place, in 
 the wilderness, as evangelists, teachers, pastors, or 
 in any service to God. 
 
 [Each of these words, Born, Indwelt, and 
 Communicating, has its opposite severally in the 
 three words spoken about the Spirit, Resist, 
 GRi£y£, and Clench.] 
 
 
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPlRir. 
 
 «V 
 
 I 
 
 resurrection 
 at her which 
 y had heard 
 
 the apostles' 
 
 f the Word 
 now given, 
 ntile pente- 
 ching of the 
 f the Spirit. 
 :: when by 
 receives his 
 peace with 
 Holy Ghost 
 the earnest 
 
 work com 
 
 e Spirit, in 
 )sequent to, 
 left, and ail 
 lis, that has 
 3d. 
 
 )ur place, in 
 pastors, or 
 
 WELT, and 
 rally in the 
 it, Resist, 
 
 I. The Spirit may be resisted. 
 
 Acts vii. 51: 'Ye stiflF-necked and uncircumciseJ 
 in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy 
 Ghost.' This is addressed to the unconverted who 
 resist Him as a quickener. 
 
 II. The Spirit may be grieved. 
 
 Eph. iv. 30 : ' Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. 
 whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 
 This is addressed only to saved people, who can 
 grieve Him as an indwelling Spirit. This shews what 
 a friend He is to us. If you had committed some 
 great sin, your mother would be grieved, your enemy 
 would be rejoiced. You can grieve only a friend. 
 What a touching appeal, fellow-believer! What 
 will the consequence be ? In love He will reprove. 
 He will rebuke our consciences, until we are con- 
 sciously cleansed, and He can again dwell in us 
 nngrieved. 
 
 III. The Spirit may be quenched. 
 
 1 Thess. V. 19: ' Quench not the Spirit.' Many 
 have been perplexed with this text, thinking that it 
 had reference to the indwelling of the Spirit. You 
 may grieve Him thus, but no believer can quench 
 Him thus ; * For they shall never perish ; * but the 
 next verse, ' Despise not prophesyings,' explains it. 
 A Christian cannot quench the Spirit in himself, 
 but by refusing to allow Him to work from a 
 fellow-Christian, he thus may quench Him. It 
 is thus the Spirit in His communications who may 
 be quenched. 
 
 As He can oe resisted in His testimony which 
 tt His instrument in quickening^ and grieved in Hii 
 
 f 
 
9c 
 
 HORACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 person as indwelling, so he can be quenched in Ili 
 gifts as cnfumimi eating life. If I despise the hum 
 blest channel that God has formed and filled k 
 dispense His streams of life, and put a sluice t\poii 
 their flow, I stop His testimony, I quench the 
 Spirit. It has nothing whatever to do with the 
 indwelling of the Spirit. That can never Ix 
 quenched; for the foundation of God standctli 
 sure. But what a solemn warning in this day of 
 self-seeking and pretensions I Resist is the won! 
 applied to the unconverted. Grieve is that applied 
 to the individual Christian, ^tench is that whieii 
 has reference to the saints when gathered together, 
 waiting on the Spirit. 
 
 The sin against the Holy Ghost has often been 
 spoken about. All sin is against the Holy Ghost 
 What Christ spoke about in such solemn and 
 awful words in Matt, xii., was ' blasphemy against 
 the Holy Ghost,' and if the context is looked at 
 it will be seen that this blasphemy consisted in 
 giving Satan the credit of doing what was known to 
 be God's work. 
 
 Bring your ignorance to the Holy Spirit, the great 
 teacher, who by his precious truth will lead you into 
 all truth. 
 
 No, not the love without the bloo<f ; 
 
 That were to me no love at all ; 
 It could not reach my sinful soul, 
 
 Nor hush the fears which me appal. 
 
 I need the love, I need the blood, 
 
 I need the grace, the cross, the grave, 
 I need the resurrection-power, 
 
 A soul like mine to purge and taTe. 
 
:hed in lli 
 
 ;e the hum 
 id filled t( 
 sluice upon 
 ]ucnch the 
 o with the 
 
 never U 
 d standctli 
 this day of 
 
 the won! 
 hat applied 
 that whieii 
 d together, 
 
 often been 
 loly Ghost 
 olemn and 
 ?my against 
 ; looked at 
 Qnsisted in 
 s known to 
 
 /, the great 
 ad you into 
 
 The lovf I need is righteous love, 
 Inscrihod on the sin-beating tree, 
 
 Lor. U^Ht extct.t the sinner'u deM, 
 Yet, iii exacting, »et« hiin liCc 
 
 Love that condemns the sinner's sin, 
 Yet, in coTiHomning, pardon seals ; 
 
 That saves from righteous wratli. and jft. 
 In saving, righteousness reveals. 
 
 Love boundless as Jehovah's self, 
 Love holy as His righteous law. 
 
 Love unsolicited, unboiight, 
 
 The love pioclainied on Golgotha. 
 
 This is the love that calm« my heart, 
 
 Tliat soothes each conscience-])ang withtB, 
 
 Tint pacifies my guilty dread, 
 
 And trees me From the power of sin. 
 
 The love that blottctli out each stain, 
 That pluckct)> hence each deadly sting, 
 
 That fills me with the peace of God, 
 Unseals my lips and bids me sing. 
 
 The love tliat liberates and saves, 
 
 Thit this poor stiaitened soul expandi, 
 
 That lifts me to the heaven of heavens. 
 The shrine above not made witli handli 
 
 The love that quickens into zeal, 
 
 Tiiat makes me self-deniod and true^ 
 
 That leads me out of whit is old, 
 And brings me mto what is new. 
 
 That purifies and cheers and calms, 
 That knows no change and no dec«f l 
 
 The love that loves for '.vermore. 
 Celestial sunshine, eudless day. 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
fng» y 
 havinj 
 
 still h 
 
 out h 
 
 amon 
 
 stand: 
 
 side, 
 
 expel 
 
 in Sc: 
 
 ance. 
 
 acter 
 
 by lo 
 
 walk 
 
 Old 
 
 thing 
 
 learn 
 
 the 
 
 I. 
 
Triumph and Coji/!ict 
 
 Our Siaie. 
 
 
 S SORROWFUL, YET AIAVAYS REJOICING ' 
 
 — Such was Paul's experience (2 Cor. vi. 
 10). The saved man is a great mystery to 
 the unsaved ; happy yet sad ; triumph- 
 ing, yet troubled ; having no sin on him, and yet 
 having sin in him ; having no condemnation, and 
 utill having fearful conflict. Saved now, yet working 
 out his salvation, and waiting for salvation. Even 
 among saved u.n themselves there is great misunder- 
 standing. Some are engaged more with the triumph 
 side, others with ih., conflict side of a Christian's 
 experience. We find both most fully brought out 
 in Scripture, each having its own place and import- 
 ance. The Christian's conflict takes rise and char- 
 acter from his triumph. We get much instruction 
 by looking at the illustrations of a believer's triumph, 
 walk, and conflict, as contained in the figures of the 
 Old Testament; for we know that * Whatsoever 
 things were written aforetime were written for our 
 learning, that we through patience and comfort oi 
 the Scriptures might have hope' (Rom. xv. 4). 
 L*t us look at Israel's history. We find the Israelites 
 I. Sheltered bv blood from God's hand in judg- 
 
^GRACE AND TRUTHS 
 
 mctit in Egypt and testifying; for God in the midst 
 of j^ndlcssni'ss. 
 
 2. Redeemed by power. Taken throurr.: the Red 
 Sea by thi- power of God's mij^dit and Uving by faltli 
 in the wilderness. 
 
 S. I'.ntered into their possessions and in Canaan 
 fightino the battles of the Lord. Let us Ujok at 
 these in tlctail. 
 
 L— SHELTERED BY BLOOD. 
 
 THE ISRAELITE IN EGYPT. 
 
 The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the 
 land of Iv^Tpt. saying, * This month shall be untt) 
 you the beginning of months : it shall be the hrst 
 month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the 
 congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of 
 this month they shall take to them every man a 
 huTib. . . . Your lamb shall be without blemish, a 
 male of the first year. . . . And they shall take of 
 the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on 
 the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall 
 cat it. . . . For I will pass through the land ol 
 Egypt this night, and will smite all the first born in 
 the land of Eg>'i)t, both man and beast, and against 
 all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment, I am 
 Jehovaii, and the blood shall be to you for a token 
 upon the houses where you ave, and when I see the 
 blood 1 7viJl pass over yon, and the plague shall aot 
 be upon you, to destroy you, when I smite the land 
 of Egypt.' (Exodus xii.^ In Egypt the Israelite 
 had thus a triumph and had also a c^«fliet. 
 
'TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT: 
 
 ;hc midst 
 
 : the Red 
 g by faitli 
 
 n Crinaati 
 s look at 
 
 m In the 
 
 I be untt) 
 the first 
 to all the 
 th day of 
 ry man a 
 jlemish, a 
 ill take of 
 its and on 
 they shall 
 c land of 
 ^t born in 
 id as^^ainst 
 lent, I am 
 3r a token 
 / str the 
 shall .lot 
 I the land 
 ; Israelite 
 
 I. Triumph. — He rejoiced because he trasted to 
 tlie blood on the lintel, and to the word of his 
 jchovah God, who had said, ' when I see the blood 1 
 will pass over you.' So the Christian in this world 
 rejoices, not in the thought that he is pure and sin- 
 less, but in the fact that Christ died for ^ sins. 
 We see this fully explained in the Epistle to the 
 Romans (iii. %\ to ?. ii.) 
 
 God could pass over because the blood was on 
 
 the lintel. 
 
 The Israelite could rejoice because he believed 
 
 God. 
 
 Thus God can now justify the ungodly. 
 
 » When I eee the b'.ood I will ' Being now juatificd by Hii 
 pass over you' (Exod. xii. 1 3 ). blood ' ( Rom. ▼. 9). 
 
 The believer can rejoice being at peace with God. 
 
 'The blood shall be to you for ' Being jistificd by faith we hare 
 a token ' (Exod. xiu 13). peace with God' (Rom.v. i.) 
 
 Sheltered by blood, we feast upon the roasted Lamb, 
 with bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and in tin* 
 pilgrim garb — at perfect peace, for * it is Christ tli.i' 
 
 died.' 
 
 Heirs of salvation* 
 Chosen of God | 
 Past condemnation. 
 Sheltered by blood. 
 Even in Egypt feod ./e on the Lan^ 
 Kctping the statutes of God the I am. 
 In the world aroimd 'tis night 
 Where the feast is spread 'tis bright, 
 Israel's Lord is Israel's light. 
 Tis Jesus, 'tio Jesus, our Saviour from above 
 Tis .Tesus, 'tis Jesus, 'tis Jesus whom w? love 
 
« GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 1. Conflict. — ^There would have been an unscrip 
 tural conjlict in Egypt, if an Israelite had tried by any 
 and every means to put off the hand that was crying 
 for blooJ, except by God's own ordained means, the 
 blood on the lintel ; the acceptance of God's estimate 
 of the value of the blood that 1I(^ himself had 
 appointed. This unscriptural conflict we find in 
 modern times, in man's efforts by prayers and 
 religiousness, and penances, and sorrows, to live a 
 good life^ when God is demanding the death of the 
 sinner for his sins. And how often do we see the 
 sad spectacle of a man in a condemned world trying 
 to get up religion or devotion, or anything else to 
 meet the wratli of God against his sins, when he is 
 condemned already I This is the state of man as 
 depicted in Rom. i. 18, to iii. 20. 
 
 But there is a scriptural conjlict — namely, the 
 conflict against 
 
 THE WORLD. 
 
 The Christian presents a strange anomaly that 
 cannot be seen pcrlectly in the figure of an Israelite 
 sheltered by blood in Egypt. He has been taken 
 entirely out of Egypt, and yet he is sent back to 
 Egypt, as Jesus said to His Father in John xvii. 1 8, 
 concerning His followers, ' As thou hast sent Me 
 into the world, even so have I also sent them into 
 the world.* According to the illustration, every 
 Christian in one aspect, auo ;^ 'Fery practical aspect, 
 i.^ still in Egypt that is the world ' wiiich spiriiuaJiy 
 s called Egypt where also our Lord was crucified : 
 
• TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT: 
 
 n unset! p 
 ied by any 
 vas crying 
 neans, the 
 's estimate 
 Tiself had 
 ^e find in 
 ayers and 
 to live a 
 ath of the 
 ive see the- 
 )rld trying 
 ing else to 
 \'hen he is 
 jf man as 
 
 Linely, the 
 
 )maly that 
 m Israelite 
 )een taken 
 nt back to 
 in xvii. 1 8, 
 t sent Me 
 : them into 
 ion, every 
 c\\\ aspect^ 
 I spiriiuaJiy 
 crucified : 
 
 u- 
 
 (Rev. xi. 8). So Jesus prayed: — *I pray not that 
 thou shouldest take them out of the world, but 
 that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.' 
 (John xvii. 15). Being thus in the world and not 
 of it, with souls saved, but with bodief still liable 
 to disease and death, and all creation under the 
 curse, *We tb-^t are in this tabernacle do groan 
 being burdeneu, .lot for that we would be unclothed 
 but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed 
 up of life,' (2 Cor. v. 4). And ' we know that the 
 whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain 
 together until now. And not only they, but our- 
 selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit, 
 even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting fo'^ 
 the adoption, to wit the redemption of our bcc/.' 
 (Rom.viii. 23). These are groans which should not be 
 stifled, but encouraged. The more that we are in 
 harmony with the mind of God the more will these 
 groanings be heard ; not the groaning of an anxious 
 soul to get peace, which God has already provided 
 and presented, but the groanings of the saint who is 
 waiting for his body to be fashioned like unto 
 Christ's body of glory. This is evidently quite 
 different from fighting against indwelling corruption. 
 We are like the Israelites waiting till all the chosen 
 of the Lord shall have actually had the blood on the 
 lintel, which will be completed only when the Lord, 
 comes. We have been sent into this world to 
 persuade men to come under the protecting power of 
 the blood of Jesus, and thus be sheltered from wrath. 
 Meanwhile our place is described in the 17th chapter 
 rf John where we find that the Christian ii 
 
 
'GRACE AND TildTlV 
 
 Given to Christ out of the world (ver. 6). 
 
 Left in the world (vers. 1 1 and 1 5). 
 
 Not of the world (ver. 14). 
 
 Hated by the world (ver. 14). 
 
 Kept from the evil of the world (ver. 15). 
 
 Sent into the world (ver. 18.) 
 
 Preaching the word to the world (ver. 20), 
 
 * God forbid that I should glory save in the cross 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, by. whom the world is 
 crucified unto me and 1 unto the world' Gal. ?i. 14 
 
 'it— REDEEMED BY POWER. 
 
 THE ISRAELITES IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 I. Triumph. — A quickened soul is first exercised 
 about what he has done^ — that he has sinned ; and 
 then, as we have seen, he gets peace, because for- 
 given through the blood of Christ who died for him. 
 But he very soon finds out a further distress, not 
 arising from what he has done, but from what he is 
 — a sinner. This is described in Rom. v. 12, 'As 
 by one man sin entered into the world.' He has 
 been sheltered from God's hand in judgment, but he 
 finds he requires a new life in which to serve God. 
 The Israelites found themselves after having been 
 delivered from the death of their first-born, with 
 rocks at either side, foes behind, and the sea before. 
 So the Christian was born a sinner ; his own sinful 
 nature is unchanged and unchangeable ; and the lau 
 of God is against him — tt :ee obstacles much more 
 
* TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT: 
 
 ). 
 
 0- 
 
 he cross 
 world is 
 
 »4- 
 
 ?l. 
 
 xerdsed 
 ed ; and 
 use for- 
 for him. 
 ess, not 
 hat be is 
 12, ' As 
 He has 
 :, but he 
 ve God. 
 ng been 
 rn, with 
 t before. 
 rn sinful 
 the /au 
 ich more 
 
 terrible than those of the Israelites. ATany a 
 quickened soul in such a case is ready to cry, ' Hast 
 fhou taken us away to die in the wilderness?' 
 (Exod. xiv. 1 1) 'Who shall deliver me ? ' (Rom. 
 
 ▼ii. 24.) 
 
 But God does not say, * I have taken you away 
 to die,' but He says, "^^/orw^n/," (E.xod. xiv. 15.) 
 God is for us, and His power is exercised tlirough 
 death, through the territory, the last domain of la\y. 
 Man's extremity is God's opportunity. A way is 
 made in the sea. * The Lord saved Israel that day 
 out of the hands of the Egyptians : and Israel saw 
 the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore.' (Exod. 
 xiv. 30). This deliverance points not so much to 
 Christ dying, as to Christ ' raised again for our 
 iustification ;' not to justification by blood, but * to 
 justification of life,' Rom. v. 18 (in Christ as risen 
 from the dead/: *For if when we were enemies we 
 were reconciled to God by the death of Hi? Son, 
 much more being reconciled we shall be saved by 
 His life' that is His life in resurrection. Not only 
 are we out of the house of bondage, but we are out 
 of the land of Egypt. Every Christian has a right 
 to say—' Not only has God sheltered me by blood, 
 but He has saved'my soul by His power; not only 
 have I peace with God, but God is for me ; not 
 only has God's hand been stayed from visiting me 
 for my sins in wrath, but God's hand has been 
 manifested in destroying all my enemies ; not only 
 am 1 not condemned, but there is no condemna- 
 tion ; not only did Christ die for me, but my stand- 
 ing is VI Christ risen from the dead.' (Rom. vni 
 
 l» 
 
'a;:\rE and truth.' 
 
 i). * It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen 
 again.' Koin. viii. 34. 
 
 Pilgtims and strr ngers, 
 
 Captives no more; 
 Wilderness rangers, 
 Sing we on shore, 
 God in His power parted hath the sea. 
 Foes all hare pcrisliod, His people are free. 
 By the pillar safely led, 
 By the manna daily fed, 
 Now the homeward way we tread. 
 'Tis Jesus, 'tis Jesus, our Shepherd here below » 
 'Tis Jesus, 'tis Jesus, 'tis Jesus whom we know. 
 
 2. Cofi/Iict,— There is an unscriptural Conflict here 
 also : — How am I as a sinner in the world, under 
 law, to get out of my old standing in Adam and to 
 get into the wilderness with God ? 
 
 If the Israelites had tried to scale the rocky preci- 
 pices on either^ hand, the barriers of nature, instead 
 of taking God's way by a new and supernatural 
 path altogether, this would have been an illustra- 
 tion of a quickened sinner trying to climb this 
 mighty obstacle ' born in sin,' this mountain of his 
 nature, instead of taking God's way out of it, as 
 seen in Romans v. 19, ' As by one man's disobedi- 
 ence many were made sinners, so by the obedience 
 of one shall many be made righteous.' 
 
 If the Israelites had turned on the foes behind, 
 ;md had tried to fight their way through, instead of 
 standing still to see the salvation of God, this 
 would have been an illustration of a quickened 
 sinner trying to fight against and extirpate his eyH 
 nature, or make it better, and thus try to get de- 
 
TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT. 
 
 livered from the wages of sin, instead of taking 
 God's way in Romans vi. 23, * eternal life through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord.' 
 
 If a quickened sinner were attempting to get de- 
 liverance from the power of the law of God and its 
 righteous demands, by trying to make that which 
 cannot be subject to the law of God a willing ser- 
 vant, he should be as the Egyptians, trying to get 
 through where faith alone could walk, ' which the 
 Egyptians assaying to do were drowned* That is 
 the doom of man's efforts ; but in Christ Jesus we 
 have died, we have risen. Reckon therefore your- 
 self dead indeed unto sin. It is not that we feel 
 dead to it, or are dead to its motions ; but as Christ 
 died to it, so we reckon ourselves dead. Instead of 
 crying therefore when I find such a holy law^ in- 
 operative in bringing my God-hating nature into 
 subjection, 'Who shall deliver me?' (Romans vii. 
 24) and stopping there, I look back on all my foes 
 dead on the shore. Christ's grave is empty now, 
 and God looks at me as in Christ Jesus, and every 
 question of sins and sin is settled for ever. Christ, 
 my sins, and myself, were all nailed to Calvary's 
 cross. I believe this fact, that Christ is risen. I accept 
 God's meaning which He has attached to this fact, 
 that I am now not in my sins. I can now sing, in 
 spirit, the triumph song of Moses on the wilderness 
 shore of the Red Sea, and truly say, in the language 
 of Romans viii., ' There is therefore now no con- 
 demnation to me in Christ Jesus, for the law of the 
 Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from 
 the law of sin and death.' 
 
 H 
 
• GRACE AND TRUTH: 
 
 But also a scriptural coriftict now begins— namely, 
 the conflict against 
 
 THE FLESH. 
 
 This is not a conflict to obtain peace ; not a conflict 
 to get deliverance from condemnation, not even that 
 sympathetic and God-honouring groaning of Romans 
 viii. 18-28, but conflict against myself. It is not 
 the conflict against the world. If we look at Israel 
 as the illustration, we find that there were no 
 F.gyptians in the wilderness, only Jehovah's congre- 
 gation is there. We are now shut in with God : 
 (iod's enemies are our enemies ; we are on His side, 
 even against ourselves. We have been crucified and 
 raised; we have sung the song of victory ; we triumph 
 in Christ Jesus, and now we have conflict in earnest 
 with our own evil natures. The man who realises 
 that he has got once and for ever into the standing 
 described in Rom. viii. i, 'There is therefore now 
 no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,' 
 vvith all his triumph, realises tremendous deadly con- 
 flict, not aroHnd him, but within him, not struggling 
 to get acceptance with God, but keeping his body 
 i.nder, looking at his own unchanged and unchange- 
 ably evil nature within him with something of the 
 abhorrence of G ,d— every day confessing his sin, 
 every day requiring the Advocate. After the 
 Israelites had sung the triumph song on the wilder- 
 ness shore of the Red Sea, after they had received 
 the pillar cloud to guide them, bread from heaven to 
 feed them, and the water from the rock to refresh 
 
TRIUMPH AMf COSPLICT. 
 
 them, * tbtn ame Amalek ind fought with Israel in 
 Rephidim.' Does this not give us an illustration of 
 the lusting between the flesh and the Spirit as seen 
 in Galatians V. 17, 'The flesh lusieth against the 
 Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and ihese are 
 contrary the one to the other ?' This ' Uisting ' or 
 warfare goes on, not that we may cry, ' O wretched 
 man, who shall deliver,' but ' that ye may not do 
 the things that ye would ' (///.). This is a tremen- 
 dous personal reality in every saved man. At the 
 same moment that he is rejoicing in Christ Jesus, he 
 has no confidence in the flesh wliich is still actually 
 within him, and thus he has a warfare e?ery day 
 against himself. 
 
 Read Exodus xvii. 8-16, where we get the 
 account of the conflict : Joshua, the captain of the 
 Lord, fights with Araalek, (son of Eliphaz, eldest 
 sou of Esau) ; Moses is on the hill-top with th(> rod, 
 holding up his hands in intercession to God, supported 
 by Aaron and Hur, one holding up each arm, for as 
 long as his arms were held up Israel prevailed. And 
 Joshua discomfited Amalek with the edge of the 
 sword. An altar is raised, called Jehovah my banner, 
 for the Lord will have war witli Anvl k, not once 
 for all, but from generation to generation. This is 
 all after the Red Sea has been crossed. 
 
 This gives us an illustration ot iuw the 
 Spirit of Jesus fights against the flesh. The 
 Advocate is with the Father on high, and He is Jesus 
 Christ the righteous, the spotless High Priest, 
 making continual intercession for us. The Spirit 
 
'OILiCE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 overcomes the flesh by the Word of God. This 
 is all after we have joyfully sung the victory-anthem 
 recorded in Romans viii. 'There is no condem- 
 nation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' And 
 indeed we have a specimen of the mighty sword 
 we are now to witld by the Spirit in us in the 
 practical exhortations laid down in the last chapters 
 of the epistle to the Romans, commencing with 
 chapter xii. 
 
 As the Israelites found that the sword of Joshua 
 and the prayers of Moses routed the heathen 
 Amalck, so the Christian finds that there is nothing 
 like the truth of God, the authority of God, the 
 sword of the Spirit, accompanied by the intercession 
 of Jesus on high for the unsubject flesh within him. 
 All the wilderness conflict has this character: 
 ' Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord 
 thy God led thee these forty years in the wilder- 
 ness,^ to bumb/e thee and prove thee, to know what 
 was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His 
 commandments or not.' (Deut. viii. 2.) 
 
 Beloved brethren, 'seeing then that ye are risen 
 with Christ, mortify therefore your members which 
 are upon the earth.' 
 
 We have triumph because we are forgiven. Wt 
 have conflict because we sin. 
 
 We have triumph for we are saved. We have 
 conflict because we are sinners although saved. 
 
 We have triumph over our Adam-nature, for we 
 are not in Adam, but in Christ. We have conflict 
 within us, for, alas ! we often ' walk as men.' 
 We *are not in the flesh,' therefore we have 
 
TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT. 
 
 The flesh is in us, therefort we have 
 
 triumph. 
 
 conflict. 
 
 We are 'not under law,' therefore we have 
 triumph. Jesus said, 'If ye love me, keep my com- 
 mandments,' therefore we have conflict. We are 
 not (uTo voiJ.ov)undir law, neiiher are we (avi/io«) law- 
 lessy but we are {tmfioi) inlawed — that is under autho- 
 rity^ or duly subject to Christ. 
 
 Christ has taken charge, not only of our salva- 
 tion, but of our conflict and our walk. Grace saves, 
 but grace also teaches. Neiiher is it by an internal 
 power only that we are guided, but by external 
 authority or commandment. We do not walk in 
 the paths of righteousness, merely because we sec 
 them to be righteous, but because God has ordered 
 them. The former would be self-pleasing, the lat- 
 ter is God-pleasing, and if ever the question should 
 arise between what I feel and see to be right and 
 what God says is right, then I must obey God rather 
 than my own feelings. Abraham did not under- 
 stand how it was right to sacrifice his son, but he be- 
 lieved God, and offered his son because God told him. 
 As long as the Israelites were in the wilderness, 
 they were seen in themselves, as needy and sinful, 
 while God was proving himself bountiful and 
 gracious. We find a wonderful illustration of 
 God's provision for the Christian's need very near 
 the end of the Israelites' march. In Numbers xxi. 
 we have a sad picture of their murmurings, and at 
 verse 6, we read ' The Lord sent fiery serpents 
 among the peop'^, and they bit the people ; and 
 much people of ael died. Th-refore the people 
 
 wmK 
 
^ORACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 came to Moses, and said, we have sinned, for we 
 have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; 
 pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents 
 from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And 
 the Lord said unvo Moses, make thee a fiery ser- 
 pent, and set it upon a pole ; and it shall come to 
 pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh 
 upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of 
 brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, 
 that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he 
 beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.' 
 
 As long as the Christian is in this world, he will 
 have sin in him, and his power against it is Jesus 
 crucified. The Son of Man lifted up on the cross 
 is what withers up practically and daily our rebellion, 
 waywardness and perversity, and in Him God sees 
 no iiiiquity in Jacob and no perverseness in Israel. 
 And if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, 
 and the truth is not in us. 
 
 UI.— SEATED IN HEAVENLY PLACFJ5 IN 
 CHRIST JESUS. 
 
 THE ISRAELITES IN CANAAN. 
 
 I. Triumph. — Israel under Joshua got through 
 cbe Jordan, as Israel under Moses got through the 
 Red Sea. All Canaan was theirs, 'From the wilder- 
 ness and this Lebanon even unto the great r.ver, the 
 river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto 
 the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall 
 be your coast.' (Joshua i. 4.) This was the land 
 
flowing Willi milk and luMu-y ; the land in wbich 
 they were to luive long lite and prosperity ; the land 
 wherein they were to dwell and be fed. ^ Tiie 
 Israelites were blessed with ;dl temporal blessings in 
 earthly ])latcs in Canaan. Of us, as Christians, now 
 it is said: (iod ' ha'.h blessed us with all spiritual 
 blessings in heavenly places in Christ.' Certainly, 
 we have many blessings which we never think of, 
 and never have thought of, but we can tliink of 
 none which we do not have in Christ. Every 
 Christian ha? Christ— nothing less. He may not 
 know all: who does? We strive that we may 
 know llim, that we may grow in grace, and in ' the 
 knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.' In Christ 
 every Christian is blessed with every spiritual bless- 
 ing in heavenly places. 
 
 He is quickened, raised, seated already in heavenly 
 places in Christ. Therefore, according to the^ illus- 
 tration, he is in Canaan as to his triumph ; for as 
 Christ is, so are we in this world. He is dead, 
 riaeD, seated, so are we in Him. (Eph. i., ii., iii.) 
 
 Canaan possi-bsoi s, 
 Safe in till' land, 
 Victors, confessors; 
 Banner in liand. 
 Jordan's deep river evermore behind, 
 Cares of tlie desert no longer in mind. 
 Egypt's stigma rolled away, 
 Canaan's corn our stiengti: a-ic suy, 
 Ttiumph we the live-long day. 
 Tis .?csu8, 'tis Jesus, the Christ of God alone ) 
 I'is Jesue, 'tis Jesus, 'tis Jesus whom we own. 
 
 » Conflict. — There is an unscriptural conflict here, 
 
^miUCE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 »s wc haye seen in Egypt and the wilderness. TI " 
 conflict is said to Iv (Ephesians vi. 12) 'N.i 
 igainst flesh and blood.' There is n^ore in this 
 simple statement than might at first appear. We 
 are in the world ; we are not of it. Our work is 
 ■ot to fight to put the world right. This is the 
 mistake of all who have taken, or may take, the 
 sword to fight the Lord's battles in this dispensa- 
 •ioD. We are here to act in grace as children of 
 the Father, and to sare men from the world. Our 
 enemies are spiritual, not men in the flesh. We 
 are not r, : ctified Jews, praying the 109th Psalm, 
 and slaying men, women, and children. That was 
 the right thing in Canaan ; it is the wrong thing in 
 the places in which we stand, not only as far as 
 bloodshed, but the principle goes down to every 
 wrei»tling with the weapons of this world. Have I 
 been cheated ? what is my remedy ? Go to law ? 
 Najr. But then I shall suffer loss. Very wtll, 
 suffer (i Cor. vi. 7 , i Pet. ii. 20). The believer 
 is done with all * flesh and I ' ()(^ ' crnflict. He may 
 be called a iool, a madman--ou(;' dr has no • v.erest 
 as 2 citizen, as a politiciaii, u person of Utopian 
 ideas and transcendental schemes. He is cont*;nt so 
 to be styled, and moreover is not to retort His 
 life is hid with Christ in God. All contaa with 
 the world's ways can but defile him. ' Flesh and 
 blood * is not the platform on which he wars. World 
 phMTiihropists he may admire; world reformers he 
 may be thankful for ; but he hears his Master say, 
 * Let the dead bury their dead ' Qf decently buried, 
 •o much the more agreeable for us), < foiJow tlicu 
 
TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT. 
 
 me.' But there is a scriptural conjiict, namely, the 
 conflict against 
 
 THE DEVIL. 
 
 All Canaan was given to Joshua ; but we read 
 that they had to enter in and take possession of it 
 personally — ' every place that the sale of y ur foot 
 shall tread upon, that have I given unto you' (Joshua 
 i. 3). They had to fight for every inch ^f the 
 land. First Jericho fell, then Ai, until ^ xshua 
 routed his thirty-one kings. Read Joshua xii. And 
 after we are told that we are already raised and 
 seated in Christ, that we already have been bksst^d 
 with all spiritual blessings in heavenly place in 
 Christ, the conflict is put before us in the very 1 ea- 
 venly places where we are blessed, as Joshua's fight- 
 ing with Canaan's kings was in Canaan. 
 
 This conflict is not against the world nor t le 
 flesh— we have considered these already — but it is 
 against Satan the accuser, wicked spirits ruling t^ e 
 darkness, demons that hate the light (Eph. vi. 12) 
 
 I St. What are they? ' Principalities and power;* 
 They possess strength of evil, strong wills, more 
 powerful than ours. They originally derived strength 
 from God, and their apostate will rises from them- 
 selves. 
 
 id. What do they do ? They have power over 
 the world as governing it ; for it is in darkness, and 
 they are * the rulers of the darkness of this world.' 
 
 3d. Where do they dweh They dwell 'in 
 heavenly places,* and thus ever endeavour to obtain 
 a religious and delusive ascendancy over us, for they 
 
'GRA'i: 
 
 D TRUTH. 
 
 arc 
 
 spiritual wickednesses.' And what do we rv 
 quire for these foes who dispute our possessions ; 
 This is not Pharaoh keeping us in bondage ; not 
 Amalek fighting with us, but the Canaanites dis 
 puting our own possessions. The former two wc 
 were saved from ; the latter we have to meet hi 
 their true attitude, as keeping us from our rightful 
 j)lace as the redeemed of God. We fight, clad in the 
 ar.iiour of God. ' Be strong in the Lord, and in 
 the power of his might. Put on the whole armour 
 of God, that ye may be able to stand against the 
 wiles of i/je clcvil. For we wrestle not against flesh 
 and blood, but against principalities, against powers, 
 against the rulers of the darkness of this world, 
 against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. 
 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, 
 that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, 
 and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, 
 having your loins girt about with truth, and having 
 on the breastplate of righteousness ; and your feet 
 shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ; 
 above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye 
 shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the 
 wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and 
 the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God : 
 praying always with all prayer and supplication in 
 the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perse- 
 verance and supplication for all saints' (Eph, vi. lo- 
 i8). This is neither to 'get peace,' nor to avoid 
 condemnt5tion, nor to get into ' heavenly places.' It. 
 is not with the judgment of God, nor the law of 
 God, nor sin vithin me. This conflict is against 
 
ill 
 
 TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT. 
 
 the wiles of the adversary, who, day and night, tries 
 to deprive me of all that God has given, and all 
 that faith enjoys. 
 
 Let us see how all this bears upon us. borne 
 l.>ok upon a Christian as out of Egypt, now in the 
 Wilderness, and waiting to reach Canaan. This may 
 have some truth in it, but it does not convey the 
 whole truth as to our position. 
 
 Others look upon it thus :— We are m Canaan 
 by faith : we are in the Wilderness in fact; and we 
 may be in Egypt, Wilderness, or Canaan as to ex- 
 perience. Again, there is truth here, but I do not 
 think it is exactly put as subsequent Scripture war- 
 rants. Let us shortly sum up all the above :— 
 
 Heb. xi. 28-30. 
 I --'Through faith he (Moses) kept the passover, and the 
 sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the lirst-bom should 
 
 touch them.' , . 1 1 j 
 
 Exod. xii.— Rom. V. i-i I. Triumph by blood. 
 John xvii.— Rom. viii. 22-28. Conflict with the woRU). 
 
 II _i By faith they passed through tlie Red Sea m by dry 
 land, which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. 
 Exod xiv 15; XV.— Rom. viii. Triumph in power. 
 Exod! xvii. 8.16-GJ. V. 17. Conflict with the flesh. 
 
 I1I.__. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were 
 compassed about seven days.' _ 
 
 Josh i — Eph. i.— Triumph in our inhenunoe. 
 Josh, xii.— Eph. v.— Conflict with the devil. 
 
 ♦ All these things happened unto them for types, 
 and they are written for our admonition ' (i Cor. x. 
 II) By faith, therefore, according to the above 
 parallel, we are in Christ, who is far above all 
 
 
* GRACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 Egyptian judgment, all Wilderness weariness, or 
 even all Canaan conflicts. In actual fact we are 
 still in the world ; and in individual experience we 
 have still clouds and sunshine, joy and sorrow, storm 
 and calm. Thus there are three things the Chris- 
 tian has to distinguish: ist, his Standing; 2nd, 
 his State; 3rd, his Experience, — His sta.ding be- 
 fore God, his state in this world, and his own ex- 
 perience as he passes through this world 
 
 I. THE christian's STANDING. 
 
 All Christians are by faith in the eternal calm of 
 God, having everything that the work of Christ 
 has secured. We are far above all principalities 
 and powers in Him who is alive for evermore, who 
 is the Living One, and was once dead. We are as 
 near to God as Christ is, for we are made nigh by 
 His blood ; and we are as dear to God as Christ is, 
 for Jesus, speaking to His Father, says, ' Thou hast 
 loved them as Thou hast loved me ' (John xvii. 23). 
 In Him we possess all the fulness of God. But as 
 to fact, we find another side of the truth, which is — 
 
 a. THE christian's state. 
 
 According as we look at it, all Christians are still 
 in Egypt. Not an enemy is really destroyed. The 
 world is around us and against us. We are shel- 
 tered by blood, and still we are in a condemned 
 worid. We are eternally justified, and by grace 
 we are saved persons; still, in plain English, in 
 
TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT. 
 
 Scripture language, we are just where we were as 
 to our surrounding?. 
 
 Again we are, as to fact, still in the Wilderness, 
 requiring guidance by the eye of our Father every 
 day. As the Israelites of old had no sign-posts 
 nor highways in the trackless desert, and were 
 guided by the pillar-cloud, so human wisdom and 
 human advice can never direct the Christian in his 
 heavenward journey. God's word is His light. As 
 the Israelites had to get their bread daily from 
 heaven, marching through a barren wilderness, so 
 the Christian gets no food for his new nature in 
 that which his fellow-men all around him enjoy. 
 He says, ' The life which I now live in the flesh, 
 I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved 
 me and gave Himself for me' (Gal. ii. 20). Every 
 day the Israelites required the water from the Rock 
 in the dry and parched land, so the Christian daily 
 drinks the truth of God. Christ is his daily re- 
 freshment. These are for our weariness. The Israel- 
 ites likewise had Joshua to fight, and Moses to pray, 
 against their foe Amalek ; so we have the Spirit to 
 war against the flesh, and our advocate with the 
 Father. Jesus presents the blood for us on high, 
 and daily we require our feet to be washed from 
 all earthly defilement. These are God's provisions 
 
 tor our sin. 
 
 Again, as to fact, we are in the Canaan conflict, 
 following our Joshua through all his wars, which 
 are our wars. Every Christian is really, as to feet, 
 in Egypt, in the Wilderness, and in Canaan, at one 
 and the same time. Different aspects may be more 
 
GRACS AlTD TROTS,' 
 
 prominently ours at one time than at another, and 
 this constitutes experience. The experience of 
 Christians is not always Christian experience. 
 
 3. THE christian's EXPERIENCE. 
 
 What do we find the every-day experience of 
 Christians to be? According as a Christian under- 
 stands what his standing is and what his state is, 
 so will be his experience. But every Christian's 
 experience must be ' a walking with God.' He may 
 be, as to experience, sheltered by blood, and hardly 
 knowing it, like an Israelite in Egypt not realizing 
 the .safety that there was under the blood sprinkled 
 lintel. He may be consciously at peace with God 
 by the blood, but still trembling under the fear of 
 coming into condemnation, like an Israelite not 
 seeing the path through the sea, and trembling lest 
 Pharaoh*? host destroy him ; but he will be walk- 
 ing with God up to the light that he has. He may 
 be rejoicing on the solid ground of Christ risen, 
 having for ever done with all against him, and 
 having God now for him consciously, and he thus 
 walks with God, like an Israelite passed through 
 the Red Sea, and entered upon the wilderness 
 journey. And, finally, he may be walking as in 
 heavenly places, like an Israelite through the Jordan 
 and settled in Canaan. He is God's workmanship, 
 and is now getting into the mystery of His will 
 (Eph. i. 9), having lost sight of the thought of his 
 own salvation, and beine absorbed in God — as the 
 aged pil^DM have told us. that for years they had 
 
TRIUMPH Ayi) CONFLICT, 
 
 IS, 
 
 never had a thought about their own saWation— a;; 
 the aged Bengel said, ' The same old terms. And 
 it is only when in conscious experience we hate been 
 taken thus far, that we can study God for his own 
 sake and for what He is. This is the furthest 
 
 we can reach here, r>^ • 
 
 The standing of every believer before God m 
 Christ Jesus, 'known only by faith here, is the 
 same, and is independent of his realising it or en- 
 joying it. 
 
 The actual state of every Christian upon the 
 earth is likewise the same. What an anomaly any 
 Christian is in the world ! A son of God walking 
 through a God4iating world, with a God-hating 
 devil tts head, and having within him a God-hating 
 nature ; the fact being that every Christian, as to 
 conflict down here, is in Egypt, in the Wilderness, 
 and in Canaan. 
 
 The experience of every Christian is not the same, 
 but varies in different people, and in the same per- 
 son ai different times, according as he knows his 
 standing before God, knows his state and walks in 
 the Spirit. Thus we find the reason of so much 
 seeming contradiction in Scripture, and in the writings 
 of God-taught men. I am sometimes confronted 
 with a passage in a man's writings, and asked, 'Do 
 you believe that?' 
 
 ' Yes,' I answer; 'and do you believe that f —a 
 directly 'opposite statement (seemingly), and again 
 
 I say — 
 
 ' Yes ' because 1 find the same expres&ioni in 
 
 God's Word. 
 
'GlijiCE AM) TRUTH.' 
 
 They all reconcile themselves in our own con 
 sciousness, if we are submissive enough to wait and 
 learn God's mind, I wish that you, my Christian 
 reader, may distinctly see the difference between 
 what^ the Christian is in God's sight, and what he is 
 in this world, and also why there is so much differ- 
 ence in different Christians. There is one path, 
 and but one path, in which our God and Father 
 would have us walk • Hiat is the path of His own 
 Son here in conscious ^onship witnessing for Him ?.i 
 if we were in Egypt, the Wilderness, and Canaan, 
 taking sides with liim against the world, against 
 ourselves, and against the devil. This is Christian 
 experience ; but, alas I this is not always the ex- 
 perience of Christians. This may depend upon 
 their not rightly dividing the word of truth, or their 
 not seeing the trutli in its many aspects. If we 
 draw up a few seeming contradictions from God's 
 word concerning the Christian in parallel columns, 
 if we read down one of them we shall find the ex- 
 perience of some Christians ; if again we read down 
 the other we shall find the experience of another 
 class of Christians— but Christian experience is the 
 hrj-monious and scriptural blending of both. (I 
 wonder what angels think as they see such sons of 
 Sod here .J) Did not Paul know this strange con- 
 tradiction? I saw an infidel tract the other day 
 meant to prove the Bible to be false, by drawing up 
 in parallel columns about a dozen contradictions 
 found in Scripture, such as. * Whosoever is bom of 
 God smneiti not,' and, * if we say we have no sin, 
 we deceive ourselves,* &c.; and I thought, 'Are the 
 
•I 
 
 TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT. 
 
 infidels really so for back?" So I commend tlv. 
 following four dozen, instead of one, to their notice, 
 and promise more when these are understood. The 
 poor infidel never heard of a new creation and an 
 old in the same man. He knows only the old, and 
 patches it. 
 
 Yet unknown. 
 Dying. 
 
 Yet sorrowful. 
 Yet poor. 
 Having nothing. 
 Put off all these. 
 Put on therefore. 
 World, devil, and flesh. 
 The Accuser accusesthe breth- 
 ren day and night. 
 We judge ourselves. 
 If wf say that we have no sin 
 
 we deceive ourselves. 
 As long as we are in the flesh. 
 Keep my commandments. 
 We live if ye sund fast in thv 
 
 Lord. 
 Christ's slaves. 
 Blood cleanseth (not has 
 
 cleansed) us from all sin. 
 We labour to be accepted (in 
 
 service). 
 The flesh lusts against the 
 spirit, and the spirit against 
 flesh. 
 
 Well-known. 
 
 Behold we live. 
 
 Always rejoicing. 
 
 Making many rich. 
 
 Possessing all things. 
 
 Ye have put off the old man. 
 
 Ye have put on the new man. 
 
 Who can be against us ? 
 
 Who shall lay anything to our 
 
 charge ? 
 Who is he that condemneth ? 
 He that is born of God sinneth 
 not. 
 
 We are not in the flesh. 
 
 Not under law. 
 
 He that believeth in the Son 
 hath everlasting life. 
 
 The Lord's freemen. 
 
 Being made free from sin. 
 
 Accepted in the Beloved. 
 
 We are not in the flesh, but in 
 the Spirit. 
 
 the 
 God who always causeth us to What great conflict I have for 
 
 triumph. y"u. 
 
 We are already saved. We are working out our salva- 
 
 tion. 
 We are waiting for salvation. 
 Let us therefore u many .-w be Not as though I were already 
 perfect. ttrfuU 
 
OMACE AND TRUTH.* 
 
 Ye are Mmflete in Him. 
 
 Seeing ye have puriHed your 
 souls. 
 
 Ye are unleavened. 
 
 Father who hath made us meet 
 to be partakers of the inheri- 
 tance of the saints in light. 
 
 Always confident. 
 
 Through death He destroyed 
 Him that had the power of 
 death. 
 
 Everywhere and in all things — 
 
 To be full, and 
 
 To abound, and 
 
 Dead to sin. 
 
 Risen with Christ 
 
 1 am strong. 
 
 We have an anchor sure and 
 
 steadfast. 
 They shall never perish. 
 Why as though living in the 
 
 world. 
 I am dead. 
 We arc sanctified, justified; 
 
 Christ our santification. 
 Seated in heavenly places in 
 
 Christ. 
 Bear ye one another's burdens. 
 
 Your bodies are the temples of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Saved from sin. 
 
 Justified by faith. 
 
 Sanctified by blood and will of 
 
 God. 
 Sainu by call. 
 
 We pray that we may stand com- 
 plete m all the will of God. 
 
 Let every one that hath this 
 hope in Him purify himself. 
 
 Purge out the old leaven. 
 
 When He shall appear we shall 
 be like Him. 
 
 With fear and trembling. 
 The last enemy that shall be 
 destroyed is death. 
 
 To be hungry. 
 
 To suffer need (Phil. it. la). 
 
 Let not sin therefore reign. 
 
 Mortify therefore your mem- 
 bers which are upon the 
 earth. 
 
 When I am weak. 
 
 Make your calling and election 
 sure. 
 
 Lest I should be a castaway, 
 
 The life which we now live in 
 the flesh. 
 
 Nevertheless I live. 
 
 We pray that we may be sane 
 tified wholly. 
 
 We are in the world. 
 
 Every man shall bear his owri 
 
 burden. 
 I know that in me (that is, in 
 
 my flesh) dwelkth no good 
 
 thing. 
 Chief of sinners. 
 Justified by works. 
 Sanctified by the word and 
 
 Spirit. 
 Purified by progress. 
 
TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT. 
 
 shall 
 
 We (Christians) shall not come We (Chridtians) mutt all appear 
 into judgment. before the judgment Mat of 
 
 ^ Christ. 
 
 All these seeming contradictions are thoroughly 
 explained when one sees the dilKrcnce between our 
 standing and our state. If I reckon my standing 
 according to my state, I am in a low and God-dis- 
 honouring experience. If I bring the power and 
 character of my standing to mould my state, then I 
 shall have a happy and God-honouring experience. 
 
 The Lamb on the cross has 
 purchased all. 
 
 [n Egypt it is the blood of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 In Amalek's fight it is the blood 
 of the Lamb who is the 
 advocate on high, that is 
 presented. 
 
 It is by the blood of the Lamb 
 that the accuser of the breth- 
 ren is overcome. Clad in 
 God's armour we fight. 
 
 Soon feith will be fact. May our blessed Lord 
 grant it. Not at death will this be true of the 
 whole Church of God, but when He returns. Our 
 experience will then be both what feith and fact are; 
 our state shall then be as our standing ; our standing 
 shall be our state. We shall then be ' like Him,' 
 soul and body. Do we not long for the time when 
 the last of the bride shall be under the shelter of 
 the blood-sprinkled lintel, and we shall be caught up 
 
 The Lamb from the throne, 
 wlu-n He returns in power 
 shall claim all, and actually 
 take all. 
 
 Romans and Galatians shew 'i» 
 the power tliat brought us 
 out and keeps us in Egypt. 
 
 Hebrews look at die Christian 
 as always in the Wilderoesst 
 
 Ephesians is the book of 
 
 Canaan. 
 
'GRACE AND TRUTH.' 
 
 together from a doomed worlds — when the last con- 
 flict with Amalek shall have been fought, and his 
 remembrance blotted out for ever; \\\l' Jitsh for ever 
 left ; ' sins and iniquities remembe -jd no more for 
 ever ; ' when the accuser of the brethren shall have 
 been cast out of the heavenly place, and eveij 
 opposing spiritual wickedness shall have been routed; 
 when our Joshua, by His judgment-warfare (Rev. 
 iv. to xxii.), shall have cleared the inheritance? 
 Then, in the splendour of the Lamb on the throne, 
 we shall be manifested as the sons of God, the body 
 of Christ, the bride of the Lamb. 
 
 Fellow Christian, are you making your experience 
 the standard for your walk ? This i.' wrong. 
 
 Are you making your state your standard ? This 
 also is wrong. 
 
 But God would have us make our standing our 
 standard. This honours Him. This gives conquer- 
 ing power. 
 
 Our attitude now is to wait calmly for the hour 
 when rill will be ours, in fact and also in experience, 
 which is now ours in faith only ; when our standing 
 shall be our state. Even the Apostle Paul has not 
 yet all ; he is waiting with the Lord for what he 
 was waiting for while here, — 'not to be unclothed, 
 but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed 
 up of life.' (2 Cor. v.) This is why resurrection, 
 not death, is our hope — why we wait for the Lord*s 
 coming for us, and not for oui going to Him. We 
 do not wait for happiness merely, we wait for what 
 will bring to a close this great paradox between 
 standing and strntCy and also terminate that unseen 
 
TRIUMPH AND CONFLICT. 
 
 state ot disembodied souls with the Lord in Para- 
 dise. *Even so, come, Lord Jesus.' 'Beloved, 
 uow are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet 
 appear what we shall be : but we know that when 
 He shall appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall 
 see Him ab He is. And every one that hath this 
 hope in Him purificth himself, even as He is pure.' 
 
 (I John iii. 2) 
 
 The world, the devil, and the fiesh give wh con- 
 flict. The Father, the Son, and the HUy Ghost give 
 you triumph. 
 
 Praise the Lord with hearts and voicet, 
 
 Gathered in His holy name ; 
 Every quicken'd soul rejoices, 
 
 Heaj iiig of the Saviour'.^ tame. 
 
 ?raise the living God who give ul 
 
 Lost and ruin'd as we lay, 
 His beloved Sow to save us. 
 
 Bearing all ou^ an away- 
 
 Praiie the Lord for all H» ^^i'ding. 
 
 Snares so thickly round uf lie • 
 We in His own light abidin/j. 
 
 A.re directed by His eye. 
 
 Praise Him for His long forlxaranoe, 
 How our sin His heart must |>aio| 
 
 Righteous is His loving-kindness. 
 Cleansing us from every stain. 
 
 Praise Him, enemies assail us, 
 
 As we tlirough the desert go { 
 But His sword can never fail ut, 
 
 It r'.viU si!>Micc evei-v ff' 
 
( : 
 
 'GRACE AND TliUTI 
 
 Praiae Hira for the manna given, 
 
 Falling freshly every diy ; 
 Ji:<u8 Christ our Lord from Heaven, 
 
 It our food tlirough all the way. 
 
 Praise Him for 'he water flowin;», 
 Freely in its boundless tide ; 
 
 Christ the smitten Rock we're knowing, 
 Pierced for us His wounded si*.!'.-. 
 
 Praise Him through the desert iiiurchian, 
 Onward to the golden shore ; 
 
 for our Saviour we are watciiing 
 And we'll pi aise Him everoioi n 
 
 ^."^4^