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ANNA ROSS

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PREFACE.

The best preface to this littb book may be a
brief statement of its argument, that the reader
may know what to expect, and so may be able
to watch, as chapter follows chapter, whether
the different points of the position are proved
or not.

That arjfument may be stated as follows : 1st.
That we, as Christ's, have fallen heir to a cove-
nant with God, which gives us legal right before
Him t the privileges covered by the three
terms of that covenant. 2nd. That the failure
to utilize this tremendous fact is the cause of
the feebleness and failure of the Chuivh of
Christ. 3rd. That the way to actual power and
victory in Christian life and sorvice is to appre-
hend and utilize this covenant.
1

PREFACE.

Are the«e thin^ true, or are they not ? These
arc weighty questions

The situation is illustrated by the case of a
man holding a cheque for a million pounds on
the Bank of England, but who, either because
he has forgotten its existence, or is unbelieving
as to its value, or ignorant as to how to present
it, or because he rather likes poverty and its
associations, leaves his precious cheque a bit of
unused paper in his vest pocket, and consequently
lives a pauper and dies a failure, leaving a gen-
eration of failures behind him.

Does this illustration fit, or does it not ? These
are most practical questions.

If. in following the lines of this little book,
the reader should meet with any truth that is
not familiar, let me whisper a word of counsel
as to how to treat it. Be very careful first
that it 18 a truth; and, if it is. let it in at the
first reading, and take a little time to see that
it is kindly accommodated, with room enough
to breathe and work in.

If, according to * -. /ailing custom, you recog-
nize it, but, instead of taking time to welcome

PREFACS.

it into its place at once, you !et it stand wait-
ing until you read further on, and see if there
is something elne interesting, then it is almost
a certainty that that first truth will never knock
eflectively at your door again.

Jesus Christ has given the same counsel
very often, and very briefly : " He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear."

Anna Ross.

Ottawa, 8epteinL> 1 15th, 1901.

CONTENTS.

CHAFTBR

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

XI.

XII.
XIII.
XIV.

XV.

PAfll

Preface i

Introduction vii

The New Covenant a Forgotten Secret - - 13

How has the Church Lost this Secret ? - • 18
God's Purpose in Giving a Covenant— to Make

Faith Triumphant 21

What is this Forgotten Covenant ? - - - 27

Terms of the Covenant (a) Cleansing - • 31

«« " " (6) Teaching, or Life - 42

'« '« •« (c) Infilling, or Power - 61

The Blood of the Everlasting Covenant - - 57

The Mediator of the Better Covenant - - 63
How Any Promise May Become a Special

Covenant 66

A Study of Jacob 76

The Story of Ebenezer 97

Covenant Prayer for Covenant People - - 111

Covenant Prayer for the Wilderness - - 119
Does the Possession of a Covenant with God

Ensure the Fulfilment of the Same ? • 134

▼1

CONTENTS.

CHAFTBB

XVI. The Treaty of Ararat a Forgotten Weapon
Against Famine . . . . .
XVII. God's Covenant with the Gibeonites-a Forgot-
ten Weapon Against Saul
XVIII. The New Covenant-a Forgotten Weapon
Against Sin and Satan ....

SupPLmiNTABT.

XIX. Baptism and the Shorter Catechism
XX. Baptism and the Covenant ....
XXI. Ralph Erskine and the Covenant -

PAGE

138
145
162

161
168
181

INTRODUCTION.

" The secret of the Lord is with them that
fear him, and he will shew them his covenant."
From the laws of Hebrew parallelism it can be
inferred that a knowledge of that covenant is
" the secret of the Lord." May we go a step
further and infer that a Christian who is trying
to live a Christian life without a knowledge of
this " secret " is like a baker who is spending
himself trying to make bread, while he knows
not the secret of its manufacture? or like a
tailor who toils from dawn to dusk working
away at suits while still in ignorance as to the
secret of making a fit ? Miserable failure, we
know, must be the constant experience of the
tradesman. How about the Christian ?

That the knowledge of God's covenant really

Vll

•••

VUI

INTRODUCTION.

does occupy this relation to the Christian life
has been a growing conviction with the writer
for some years.

As, perhaps, the best "Introduction" to the
following papers on the subject, I would like to
record the steps by means of which I have been
myself " introduced " to this Magna Charta of
our Christian rights and privileges.

About thirty years ago, in days of early per-
plexity and failure, I was much touched and
encouraged in studying and appropriating the
143rd Psalm. It seemed positively written for
me. Each clause was fitted to my case. But it
was from the first verse that the possibility of
taking a covenant hold upon God shined out.
" Hear my prayer, O Lord, in thy faithfulness
answer me, and in thy righteousness."

" What bold words these are to take before
God." These were my thoughts. " Does David
mean to imply that for God not to answer him
would be unfaithfulness, would be positive un-
righteousness?" At first it seemed wrong even to
think such a thought. But the plea was written
out in the Bible, and a glimpse was given of the

INTRODUCTION.

f^lorious power of it. That was my first lesson
concerning " the secret of the Lord."

The second was like unto it. 1 John, 1-9,
had been familiar from childhood. " If we con-
fess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright-
eousness." Merciful to forgive — that was the old
thought. Faithful and just to forgive, and to
cleanse — these were two new thoughts that
came together out of that verse. First, that
Qod could be taken hold of for cleansing as
truly as for forgiveness, and, second, that His
faithfulness and justice could be taken hold of
for both, not merely His mercy. When He had
given His word of promise, it would be unfaith-
ful and unjust if He were to refuse to fulfil it.
Tread reverently, for this is holy ground, but
enter boldly, for it is the place of power. It is
standing on this holy ground that Amen can be
said as explained in our own shorter catechism,
" And in testimony of our desire and assurance
to be heard, we say Amen." It was a new idea
of prayer. It was a new vista of possibilities in
the Christian life. It, was another glimpse of

* INTRODUCTION.

"the secret of the Lord "—of the lawfulness and
power of taking a covenant hold upon him.

A few years later the covenant itself, in its
magnificent crowning promise, was made the
text of another lesson.

Being, a& usual, in a weary wrestle after a
Christian life that was worthy of the name, I
came upon Heb. 8, 10. " / will put my laws into
their mind, and write them in their heart, and I
will be to them a God. and they shall be to me
a people." In a moment I saw the glorious fact
that God has undertaken to do the whole work
himself, and that He really means what He has
said. The next moment my heart went up to
Him in the response, " Do it Lord.do it in me ; do
as thou hast said." It was the covenant prayer,
and it got the covenant answer. For some
weeks there seemed to be no limit to the spiri-
tual supplies that kept pouring out of that
verse. I had fallen unawares upon the veritable
" pearl of grert price," " the secret of the Lord,"
" the mystery that hath been hid from ages and
from generations." But as yet there was no
intelligent apprehension of what had been

INTRODUCTION.

received. It slipped through my careless fingers,
and I was back to my old po\ erty again.

It was not until the last few years that the
new covenant, as a well-defined reality, has be-
come an actual intellectual possession.

The manner of its " shewing " was this. It
became a part of my duty to teach a Missionary
Bible Class. The difficulty that has often arisen
on the foreign field concerning the subject of
infant baptism, led to a study of the beautifully
solid Scriptural basis on which that doctrine
rests. I knew that spiritually it was a rich line,
for I had wrought some of its mines in connec-
tion with the baptism of my own children ; but
I had no idea at tli-i beginning what were the
riches to be disclosed during the course.

The Shorter Catechism had already given the
key to the situation in its definition, — " Baptism
is a sacrament wherein the washing with water
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our
ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the
henejits of the covenant of grace, and our engage-
ment to be the Lord's." God's covenant dealings

INTRODUCTION.

with His people lay at the very heart of the
doctrine of baptism. So, in order to master that
subject, we began to study the covenants. Some
of the results of these studies will be found in
the following pages.

THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET

CHAPTER I.
THE NEW COVENANT A FORGOTTEN SECRET.

" The Lord Jesus, the same night in which he
was betrayed . . . took the cup, when he
had supped, saying, ' This cup is the New Testa-
ment in my blood ; drink ye all of it.' "

So there is a New Covenant, which is also a
New Testament, the bequest of our dying
Redeemer, purchased for us at the price of His
blood, and surely worth a good deal.

What is it, and what is the use of it ? Ask
ten ordinarily intelligent Christians what are the
terms of the New Covenant. Will any one
interested make the experiment ? If his experi-
ence is at all like mine, nine out of the ten will

H THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

answer pretty much in the words of the
Epheaians, "We have not so much as heard
whether there be any new covenant."

The Church was not always ignorant on this
subject. Young Enzinas, the Spanish reformer,
wanted to call his translation of the New Testa-
ment by the name of the " New Covenant of our
Redeemer," because, as he said, he had noticed
that the word Testament was not well under-
stood. " One day. before he had sent the copy
to the printer, an old Dominican monk presented
himself at his door. He took up the first page,
which lay on the table in manuscript and con-
tained the title and an epistle to the Emperor.

* Covenant; said the monk. ' The word Covenant
gvL 98 upon my ears ; it is a completely Lutheran
phrase.' ' No, it is not a phrase of Luther's,' said
Enzinas, 'but of the prophets and apostles.'

• This is intolerable,' resumed the monk ; ' a youth
born yesterday or the day before claims to teach
the oldest and wisest men what they have taught
all their life long. I swear by my sacred cowl
that your design is to administer to men's souls
the poisonous beverages of Luther, craftily mix-

A FORGOTTEN SECRET.

ing them with the most holy words of the New
Testament.'"*

Rutherford fed upon the Covenant and knew
how to plead it. " Tf my fire and the Devil's
wate.' make crackling like thunder in the air, I
am the less feared ; for where there is fire it is
Christ's part, which I lay and hind upon Him
to keep in the coal."f This is covenant grip,
with no uncertainty in it. It reminds one of
the strong man rejoicing to run the race.

There was a time when there was a " Covenant
Theology," and " there were giants in the earth
in those days." Small wonder; they y< v^re fed
with the strongest food, they were " fed with
the heritage of Jacob their father," and there is
no other food like that.

The words Covenant and Testament were the
precious property of the ordinary Christian in
the earlier days, as the following story illus-
trates.

Claverhouse was abroad. There was to be a

• D'Aubign^'s History of the Reformation.
Vol. VIII., p. 63.

+ Rutherford's Letters, p. 322.
2

II. Series.

16 THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

communion among the hills, and news of it had
gpi to the dragoons, but exactly where it was to
be held could not be ascertained. The soldiers
were scouring the country early that Sabbath
morning seeking for traces of its whereabouts.
They met a peasant servant maid running bare-
foot over the heath. " Where are you going, my
lass ? " sung out the captain of the band. The
girl stopped. " She could not tell a lie." To tell
the plain truth meant — she knew too well what.
Her knowledge of the " secret of the Lord " gave
her a ready answer. "My brother has died,
sir," she said, " and I am going to hear his will
read, and to get my share." Her story and her
appearance pleased the captain. " Well, well,
lass," he answered, " you will run better with a
pair of shoes on your feet," and, opening his
purse, he handed her half a crown. Where no-
will you find a young communicant giving such
an account of a communion service, or of his
object in going to it ?

Toplady had learned this " secret of the Lord."
Rock of Ages is instinct with the thought of
it. In his beautiful hymn for a sick-bed, " When

A FOROOTTEN SECRET.

languor And disease invade," he sings it out in
unmistakable English.

*« Sweet in Hie foithfulneae to rest,
Whoee love can never end ;
Sweet on His covenant of grace
For all things to depend."

The Covenant and its 8ignificance are part of
the creed of the Church still. It is not a repu-
diated secret ; it is only a forgotten one. The
secret of the Lord has dropped out of the modern
Church, and so the power of the Lord has
almost disappeared too. Thus it is that we have
huge organizations, and expensive machinery,
and small results. Is this any wonder when the
New Covenant, or the dearly-bought terms on
which God's omnipotence has now undertaken
to work through man's insigni^cance, has been
lost ? So, having lost sight of the terms of the
great partnership, the insignificance is left to
work out results like itself, not like the omnipo-
tence with which it still supposes itself linked.

CHAPTER II.

HOW HAS THE CHURCH LOST THIS SECRET?

A VERY serious explanation of this loss has
lately become clear. The knowledge of this secret
is not ensured by merely having it stated in the
Church standards. If that would have kept it,
Presbyterians could not have lost it. It evident-
ly depends directly upon the " shewing" of God
Himself. " The secret of the Lord is with them
that fear Him, and He will shew them His
covenant." In Isa. 58 : 13, 14, we are distinctly
told who it is that is to receive this special
" shewing "— this " feeding with the heritage of
Jacob our father." It is undeniably true that
the birthright Jacob craved and the blessing he
secured meant neither more nor less than this —
the covenant of God with Abraham to be his
own heritage for ever. To be fed with the

now HAS THE CHURCH LOST SECRET? 19

heritage of Jacob is to have God so " shew " us
His covenant that we shall enter into the joy
and power of it as our own inheritance.

In the light of that thought let us read the
passage and see how it is and why it is that
the Church has lost the knowledge of the
covenant. " If thou turn away thy foot from
the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my
holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the
holy of the Lord honorable, not doing thine
own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor
speaking thine own words; then shalt thou
delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause
thee to ride upon the high places of the earth,
and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy
Father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken
it." The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it ; he
that hath ears let him hear it.

Take notice, it is only to him who so honors
His Sabbath that He undertakes to shew His
covenant. Perhaps it is only to him who so
honors the Sabbath that God can shew it.

Is it possible for a lover to let out to his
bride-elect the deeper secrets of his love for her,

20 THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

while she, during his own appointed trysting
times, is dallying with other admirers ? And is
it possible for God to shew His richest secret of
love to one who is spending the hours of His
Holy Day " doing his own ways and finding his
own pleasure, and speaking his own words " ?
Because His people have ceased to keep God's
Sabbath as a tryst. He has had to cease shewing
them the secret of His covenant.

If there is any one reading this page who
knows in his own heart that he does not spend
the Sabbath sitting at Christ's feet watching for
His secret teaching, then my poor friend, you
had better shut the book at once, for I do not
think you will get anything out of it.

CHAPTER III.

GOD'S PURPOSE IN GIVING A COVENANT-
TO MAKE FAITH TRIUMPHANT.

Andrew Murray has said, " The covenant is
God's cure for unbelief."

There is neither honor nor profit to the Lord
in the unbelief that answers every large promise
given, in the words of Joram's nobleman, " If the
Lord would open windows in heaven might such
a thing be." He has Himself planned an actual
cure for unbelief — the giving His people cove-
nant hold upon Him for the ialfilment of His
promises, that, by " two immutable things in
which it was impossible for God to lie," the heirs
of promise might have " strong consolation."

That this is exactly His purpose in giving a
covenant is beautifully plain in following the
story of Gen. 15.

22 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

God spoke, "Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield
and thy exceeding great reward."

Abram'a answer reveals the yearning after an
unfulfilled promise. " Lord God, what wilt thou
give me, seeing I go childless, and one bom in
my house is mine heir ? "

" And behold, the word of the Lord came unto
him, This shall not be thine heir. And he
brought him forth abroad and said. Look now
toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be
able to number them, and he said unto him, so
shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord,
and he counted it to him for righteousness."

He considered not the difficulties ; these were
God's. He staggered not at the promise ; that
was his, and the full glory of it. " He was
strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was able also to perform."

Here was faith that gave glory to God, and
required no covenant solemnity to establish it.
God's promise had been given, and that was
enough. One of the immutable things was held
sufficient security this time.

OOD'S PURPOSE IN 01 VINO A CO VEX A NT. 23

One promise had been received. God was
ready with another. His next word was, " I am
the Lord thy God, whi^h brou^rJit tliee out of
Ur of the Chaldees, to gim thee this land to
inherit it."

Abram was n<A merely to have a family; that
family was to have an inheritance; and the
good land before his eyes was to be that inherit-
ance.

God had said it, but Abram could not take it
in. His answer is running over with unbelief.
" Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall
inherit it ? "

How did he know that he was to have a
family ? God had said it. How could he know
that that family should yet have strength to
displace the present inhabitants and inlierit that
good land as their own ? God had said it. Was
not that enough ? But here we find Abram,
the father of the believing, doing exactly what
believing people have been guilty of ever since.
We find him discriminatin;r among God's pro-
mises. One he will believe, for it is credible, but
another he cannot believe, for it is incredible.

24 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

il!

He can believe that he shall have a family.
God can give life if He will. But he cannot
believe that that unborn family shall yet have
prowess enough to conquer the present mighty
inhabitants of the land. He sees far greater
difficulties in the way of God's working wonders
through his children than when He simply
undertakes to work a wonder through His own
direct energy. And unbelief answers, not faith,
" Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall
inherit it ? "

God does not find fault with Abram. He
does not reason with him. But He goes to
work at once to make a covenant with him,
that by two immutable things, the promise and
the covenant, the word and the oath, Abram 's
faith may be made to triumph over unbelief once
and forever. Thank God, when He did it, His
heart was upon us as well as upon Abraham, for
" God, willing to show to the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by
an oath, that . . . ive might have strong
consolation."

God did not find fault with Abram, but He
said to him, " Take me an heifer of three years

OOD'8 PURPOSE m OiriNO A COVENANT. 25

old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram
of three years old and a turtle dove, and a
young pigeon."

How did Abram feel as he went to do God's
bidding ? He knew what God meant He had
doubted His word, and now the living God was
going to give His oath.

He took all these creatures and divided them
in the midst, and laid them in proper form, with
a path between the pieces, according to the cus-
tom of the times when a solemn oath was to be
sworn.

He waited and watched till the sun went
down, and then a horror of great darkness fell
upon him, and he saw a smoking furnace and a
burning lamp pass up and down between those
pieces. Seeing God could swear by no greater.
He swear by Himself saying, " Surely, blessing
I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multi-
ply thee, and^unto thy seed have I given this
land to inherit it, from the river of Egypt unto
the great river, the river Euphrates."

Why did the Lord so turn His promise into a
solemn covenant? He did it that Abram's faith
might become a triumphant faith — that it should

26 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST S'-uCHET.

never stagger any more. And there was, besides
a wider purpose in the great heart of the 1'
God. He did it that the heirs of promise
through all time might have the strong consola-
tion of Abram, and see every promise a cove-
nant, and every covenant secured by the solemn
oath of Jehovah, that, by two immutable things,
in which it was impossible for God to lie, faith
might become triumphant, and unbelief an ever-
increasing impossibility as the knowledge of
God grows.

What is God's purpose in giving the new
covenant? Is it not to make faith specially
triumphant concerning these three special pro-
mises of this very special document ? Even if
Christians, in spite of Heb. 6, should fail to
apprehend the covenant force that inheres in
every promise, shining from every corner of the
Word of God, peculiar pains must be taken that
the covenant force of the three peculiar promises
constituting the new terms of the new partner-
ship, must not be lost sight of,

" What more could he say than to us he hath said,"

that our faith may be triumphant indeed.

■■

CHAPTER IV.

IVHAT IS THIS FORGOTTEN COVENANT?

It is first a Testament or will. It is a Testa-
ment, because it is the beJiuest of our dying
Redeemer to His people. But the thing He
bequeathed to us was a new covenant of part-
nership between us and God.

" The Lord Jesus, the same night in which He
was betrayed, . . . took the cup, when he
had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testa-
ment in my blood. Drink ye all of it."

He had not spoken to them of His will before,
for He was with them. But now, as He had
them gathered round Him for that last feast of
fellowship, He put the symbol of His dying
bequest to their lips, and said, " Drink ye all
of it."

He was not afraid that the provision He thus

28 THE NSW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

! I
' I

made would prove inadequate, for He added,
" Peace I leave with you, my peace give I uuto
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid."

The scene suggests a dying father whispering
to his children, "I leave you amply provided
for, do not be anxious."

Christ made a will before He went away.
That is plain.

He considered that will such ample provision
for His people that He told them they were to
have nothing to do with fear or trouble of
heart, but that peace. His peace, was to be their
continual portion, in the midst of the tribula-
tion and tasks He bequeathed to them as well
as the inheritance.

What is this inheritance, the thought of which
enabled our Redeemer to leave His disciples
with the parting admonition, "Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

The inheritance Christ left to us was a new
covenant of partnership with God. It was a
document ordered in all things and sure, drawn
out by God Himself hundreds of years before.

WHAT IS THIS FORGOTTEN COVENANT? 29

signed by His name, attested by His oath. This
dccumentset forth a covenant of partnership
between God and His people constituting com-
pletely new terms, made out in three promises.

But this document, though made out for so
many centuries, was a Testament. It was a
will. It had been a dead letter all those years,
for " a Testament is of no strength at all while
the Testator liveth." Now Jesus Christ knew
that the Testator was just going forth to meet
the death which would turn that hitherto inop-
erative letter into a living covenant. Now He
handed it to His people in symbol when He
passed them the cup, saying, "Drink ye all of it.
My dying bequest to yoxx is a new covenant of
partnership with God. Take hold of it, every
one of you. Thus only you will show the Lord's
death, not merely the pain of it, nor the love
of it, but the glory of it and the power of it, till
He come."

This cup is the crowning glory of the Lord's
Supper, as what it symbolizes is the crowning
glory of Christ's salvation. The cup symbol-
izes the blood. Yes, and the remission which

30 THE ^W COVENANT A LOST 8ECHET.

it haF . .^ught. But it stands for unspeakably
more than that, even the new covenant of
actual cleansing, inshininj; of the knowledge of
Qui, and inHlling with the Spirit of Christ.
Not only remission, but victory.

Our Lord has willed to us a new covenant of
partnership with Qod, and its terms are so un-
speakably generous, that those who have fallen
heir to it are described as being " heirs if God
and joint heirs with Christ." In the following
chapters we shall take up the thr^e covenant
promises whiih constitute the new terms to
which each disciple of Jesus Christ has become
entitled through the death of the Testator.
We shall be like «he peasant girl in Scotland.
Our Elder Brother has died, and we are going
to study His will, and see what is our share.

CHAFTER V.

TERMS OF THE COVENANT OF PARTNER-
SHIP.— (n) CLEANSING.

The New Covenant which Jesus Christ handed
to His disciples in His last will and testament
is not a hidden thing. It is all written out in
intelligible human words in Jer. 31 : 33, 34. It
is also quoted in Heb. 8: 10, 11, as that of
which our Lord is now appointed Mediator or
Administrator. It m made up of three terms,
plainly worded and most explicit in meaning.

These three terms are also given in Ezek. 36 :
25-27. Here they are arranged in the reverse
order, but they are the same terms. It is well
to study them as they are expressed in both
places.

1st. " I will put my laws into their mind and
write them in their hearts; and I will be to
8 31

32 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

them a God, and they shall be to me a people."
(Hebrews.)

" I will put my Spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep
my judgments and do them." (Ezekiel.)

This, though given first in Hebrews and Jere-
miah, is given last in Ezekiel. This is the
crowning promise of the covenant. This is
power — power to do God's will as it is done in
heaven.

2nd. "They shall not teach every man his
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord : for all shall know me, from
the least to the greatest." (Hebrews.)

" A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you ; and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and
give you an heart of flesh." (Ezekiel.)

This is the central or efficient promise in both
forms of the covenant. The effectual teaching
of the knowledge of God by God Himself — this
is life. This is that which shall ever pro^ e the
only and the adequate power to turn hearts of
stone into hearts of flesh. " We love Him
because He first loved us."

TERMS OF THE COVENANT.

3rd. " I will be merciful to their unrighteous-
ness, and 'heir sins and their iniquities will I
remeb'ber no nior! ," (Hebrews.)

" T er, will I sprinkle clean water upon
you, and y\. shall be clean : from all your
filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse
you." (Ezekiel.)

This, though given last in Hebrews, is
evidently the initial promise of the Covenant.
This is cleansing. This double promise unmis-
takably undertakes for an actual and an ade-
quate dealing with the hitherto unconquerable
difficulty — sin.

Actual cleansing, effectual life, and infinite
because Divine power — these are the terms of
this covenant of partnership with God to which
we, as believers in Jesus Christ, have fallen
heir.

About ten years ago, toward the close of a
Christian Endeavor meeting, a young man rose,
and, in a very few words, drew attention to the
statement, " Truly our fellowship is with the
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." He
explained that the fellowship here spoken of is

34 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

not merely that of friendship — that it is the
fellowship of 'partnership. We who are mem-
bers of Christ's body are actually taken into
the position of partners with God. Our work
in this world is henceforth to be about our Part-
ner's business, and, in doing so, we have a part-
ner's right to draw upon the resources of the
Trinity itself in all their fulness as they are
treasured up in Christ toward the work of God
in the world.

The name and even the countenance of the
young speaker have faded out of memory, but I
have many a time been glad of the word he
then gave.

Partnership ? Yes ; there is a covenant of
partnership between those in whom, that is
in whose flesh, "dwelleth no good thing," and
Him who is " of purer eyes than to behold evil,
and can not look on iniquity." Well might the
question be asked, " What concord, what part-
nership, hath Christ with Belial ? " Unless this
covenant makes adequate provision for the
actual cleansing and conquering of sin, it would
carry a lie— a moral and philosophical lie — on
the face of it.

TERMS OF THE COVENANT.

Thank God, the initial promise makes full
and reiterated provision for this.

" I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no
more." That the mercy covenanted is to be
adequate to deal successfully with this intri-
cate question of iniquity is made plain in
the second clause of the promise. It is to be
mercy so full and efficacious that God under-
take? to blot the whole matter from His mem-
ory. For God to forget sin in one of His people
while it is still only partially under control, is
like a physician forgetting an ailment while his
remedies have only half-done their work; or
for " brigade captain to forget the fire be-
caus 18 been subdued into glowing coals

instead of flames ; or because it has been con-
quered in one room, while it is still raging in
the rest of the house.

That it is adequate, victorious mercy — mercy
with the Divine quality in it — is put past doubt
in the -ording of the same promise in Ezekiel,
"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,
and ye shall he clean : from all your filthineas
and from all your idols vMl I cleanse you."

36 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

■ I

There can be no partnership between sin and
God. " If we say we have partnership with Him
and walk in darkness, we lie."

But if we walk in the light as He is in the
light, we have partnership, and the blood
cleanseth — cleanseth from all sin — is a continual,
ever-fresh cleansing from all sin. This is not
sinless perfection, for it is only sin in us that
requires this ever-fresh cleansing. But it is, or
ought to be, continual victory.

That this cleansing is not something we can
do for ourselves, but that it is a covenant right
that can be claimed as the foundation term of
the partnership into which we have been taken,
appears unmistakably in the ninth verse of
1 John 1. " If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness."

Cleansing is a necessity if there is to be the
fellowship of partnership between us and God —
cleansing such that it can be said of us, we
" walk in the light as he is in the light." There
is something real and radical about this cleans-
ing. It is not the approximate and comparative

TERMS OF THE COVENANT.

cleansing that looks pretty well as we merely
compare ourselves amongst ourselves. It is
cleansing that will stand God's inspection.

Which of us has not been w* aried out with
the fruitless efforts to obtain such a cleansing ?
Here is the secret of continual failure. We have
been trying to do for ourselves (with t^ little
help here and there from God) what He has
emphatically announced to be His peculiar work,
what he has, moreover, given us in Christ a
covenant right to claim from Him. We can
come before Him and plead, " In thy faithful-
ness and in thy righteousness, cleanse me from
this sin." We can rise from our kneeh and
sing, "As sure as He is faithful, and as sure as
He is just. He will cleanse me. He has given
me in Christ a covenant right to this cleansing.
For Him to fail to respond to this plea would be
a breach of covenant."

This is the liberty wherewith Christ makes
His people free : " Whosoever committeth sin,
the same is the servant of sin." But, "if the
Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

This is the Gospel of idter helplessness. O

38 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

what a rest it is, linked with the glorious Gospel
of a covenant right in Christ Jesus — a right not
to ask merely, but to claim, cleansing from aU
unrighteousness — to ask it not as a mercy, but
as, in Christ, our right, His right. Humbly, but
very boldly, let us take this position. Humbly,
because of our own utter unworthiness, but
very boldly, because of ou» actual title,
which is notliing short of the blood and right-
eousness of Him who has taken our place before
God and given us His. Thus we have the key
that unlocks the unsearchable riches of Christ,
just as the properly signed cheque unlocks the
treasures of a bank.

What can be done to help inexperienced
fingers to use this key ? Take one special sin,
self-conceit, for instance. Who that has de-
tected this contemptible sin in his own heart
but has despised himself for it. He has striven,
but, surely I speak wittingly, he has striven
vainly to overcome it. If seen quickly enough,
he can check the conceited word. He can even
require himself to say humble words. He can
firmly pass the praise on to somebody else that

TERMS OF THE COVENANT.

he knows from the bottom of his heart he wants
for himself. He can turn his eye upon his own
faults till he knows with the certainty of a
demonstration that he has nothing whatever to
be proud of. But there, untouched by all these
laudable efforts— there as real and living as
ever, lies that thirst for the approbation of
others, which was the very sin that brought the
curse of Heaven upon the orator Herod. He
despises himself for the sin that seems the most
despicable and unreasonable of the whole long
list of sins. But there it is still, a part of his
very being.

What is the covenant method of fighting this
sin ? Whenever conscious of its existence,
simply tell God about it. Confess the sin to
Him, and then tell him it is now His work, not
yours, to cleanse you from that unrighteousness
as well as to forgive it. You can then leave the
matter in His hands, or, if necessary, hold Him
to it, that it is in His hands according to con-
tract. He is faithful and just to do what He has
covenanted to do. He will not break covenant
while the rainbow halo encircles His throne.

40 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

You are on sure ground here. It is His work
to cleanse, and you can trust Him to do it, and
to do it gloriously.

This you will clearly perceive is not merely a
prayer for mercy which may or may not be
answered. It is a covenant prayer, which
effectually takes hold upon God for whatever
mercy and power may be needed adequately to
deal with that sin, and it takes hold upon God's
faithfulness and justice for a complete answer.
It was glorious mercy that gave such a coven-
ant. But now it is given it is faithfulness that
fulfils it. It would be wonderful mercy for our
King to present a condemned criminal with a
full pardon and a cheque for a thousand pounds.
But onee he has done so, it is faithfulness, not
mercy, that is called into exercise when the
cheque is presented. God is well pleased when
His people, Ixdd in Christ, take this strong
ground before Him, and tell Him in all serious-
ness, as Jacob did, " I will not let thee go except
Thou do it for me." So we become " princes,"
pr«fy«ling with God and man.

A w^.^'d further upon God's method of dealing

TERMS OF THE COVENANT.

with the sin spoken of. I think I see His
method. He does not proceed to humiliate you.
That would hurt and reveal the trouble, as
stepping on a corn emphasizes its presence.
But it has no curative power. His wonderful
and most philosophical method is to let in upon
your soul a further knowledge of His own love
and His own glory. He humbles you by lifting
you up closer to Himself. As you see His face
and the unsearchable riches which are yours in
Christ, self-conceit wilts. It is not the know-
ledge of your own littleness and sin tliat takes
the pride out of you. It is the apprehension of
God's everlasting and overwhelming grace to
you in Christ that goes to the very root of
pride. He knows how to do the thing He
has covenanted to do.

Wl.y, then, do unbelief, and selfishness, and
worldliness, and pride defile and cripple the
people who hold such a covenant? Is it not
because the Church has forgotten that she holds
such a covenant ? She does not know it. She
does not claim it, and she does not enjoy it.
Individuals here and there have learned this
secret, but the Church has lost it.

■M

CHAPITER VI.

TERMS OF THE COVENANT OF PARTNERSHIP.
—(b) TEACHING, OR LIFE.

"They shall not teach every man his neighbor
and every man his brother, saying. Know the
Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to
thegrea-^." (Heb.)

" A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you ; and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I
will give you an heart of flesh." (Ezek.)

These two promises are one and the same.
They are the central or efficient promise of this
new covenant of partnership with God.

Thef>3 two promises are one and the same.
The one in Hebrews reveals the adequate power
to be employed. The one in Ezekiel announces
the radical results that are to follow.

TERMS OF THE COVENANT.

The only possible method of introducing life
into dead hearts is to communicate what at the
fall we lost, the true knowledge of the living
God. "This is life eternal, that they might
know Thee, the only true God."

From the earliest days men have wearied
themselves to communicate this knowledge to
their neighbors and their brothers. God now
announces that in the glad Messiah days His
covenant people shall cease from attempting that
work which, in merely human hands, can never
be anything but failure.* Yet the work shall be
done. The knowledge of God shall be so
taught that God Himself shall look upon His
people and shall say of them. They know Me.

* An objection maybe raised by some. Are we, then, not to
try to teach the ignorant ? Christ has said, "All power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth, Oo ye, therf/ore, and
teach all nations." The commission to teach is as wide as the
world. But His disciples were also told not to begin to teach
until the Divine Power to teach should come upon them.
Before that the Apostles themselves were utterly unable to
do the work. After that, it was not they who taught, it
was the Spirit of Christ who was in them. Then their words
were effectual teaching ; they were in demonstration of the

44 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

V '■

He sweeps away all human teachers, and yet He
says they shall be taught. This can mean no-
thing else but that He undertakes to be the
teacher. He undertakes so to manifest Himself
to them that all shall know Him from the least to
the greatest.

This is the covenant, but what are the facta ?
The people who do know their God shall do ex-
ploits. How many of G(xl's people are doing
exploits in His name ? How many of them are
more than conquerors through Him who loves
them i. These are they who do know their Go<l.
Those who are continually mourning defeat have
only learned to know God with the blear-eyed
knowledge of him who .saw " men as trees walk-

Spirit and of power. In the work of teaching others the
knowledge of (Jod, Clirist and the believer go out yoked to-
gether. Utter impotence is joined with " all power in hea-
ven and in earth." " The Spirit and the bride say. Come."
When the bride, apart from the Spirit, tries to do so, nobody
listens. We have, apart from the Spirit of God, absolutely
no power in that direction.

When a call comes to teach, let us not answer, " I will try.
Help me. Lord." But let us look up in His face and say,
" Lord, teach Thou by me and they shall know Thee."

TERMS OF THE COVt'^AST.

ing." A partial knowletlge leads only to partial
victory, and partial victory ia really defeat.
The knowledge that God covenantn to give is a
whole, rounded-out knowledge — " The light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
JesuH Christ."

This is the covenant, but :vhat are the facta ?
There are real believers who know so little of
the love of God that they are continually afraid
that He will do them harm — so little of His
truth that they cannot get rid of the idea that
His promises are larger than His purposes — so
little of His faithfulness that they have no
assurance that He can be relied on to keep Lis
promises at all — so little of His wisdom, His
prudence, that they are constantly afraid He is
making blunders in His management of them-
selves — so little of His holiness that sin seems —
the pity and shame of it ! — that sin seems a
rafter small thing. Is that the kind of know-
ledge of Himself that God has covenanted to
give to His people, from the least to the great-
est ?

That is old covenant knowledge of God.

46 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

That is wilderness knowledge of God, quite com-
patible with endless murmurings and failure.
God would not own that as His new covenant
work.

If, then, He has covenanted to do the teaching
Himself, and to give such knowledge that He
shall look well pleased upon His people and say :
They know Me, how comes it that they do not
know Him ? Is it not because the Church has
forgotten that she holds such a covenant pro-
uiise ? She does not know it, she does not claim
it, and it lies a dead letter in her hands.

She is a hungry pauper with a cheque for
measureless wealth hidden among her rags. But
she has either forgotten that it is there, or does
not believe that there is any power in it, or does
not know how to present it. So she goes about
asking alms when she might be drawing her
millions.

This is the central, efficient promise. The
knowledge of God is life. The Spirit-taught
knowledge of God is tli^ power that does every-
thing in us and through us. The knowledge of
His love conquers fear, and fills with love and

TERMS OF THE COVENANT.

■

4«l

joy and gratefulness. The knowledge of His
truth conquers doubt, and fills with quiet confi-
dence. The knowledge of His unfailing wisdom :
conquers f retf ulness, and leads to spelling disap- '•
pointment with an Y^—Hia appointment, and so
has the marvellous power of turning bitter into
sweet. The knowledge of His power conquers
discouragement, and puts into our mouth the
song, "Jesus Christ my Lord is God the Creator.
What have I to do with discouragement ? " The
knowledge of His holiness conquers sloth, for it
illuminates the words, " Be ye holy, for I am
holy." The knowledge of God as He is con-
quers sin, and transforms to the very image of
Christ. " Beholding as in a glass the glory of
the Lord, we are changed into the same image,
from glory to glory." " We shall be like him
for we shall see him as he is."

One thing has often been a puzzle. The
Shorter Catechism says, " The souls of believers
are at their death made perfect in holiness," and
I think most Christians believe the statement to
be true. How is it that at the moment of death
sin loses its hold upon God's people ? Christ
4

48 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

has told us plainly that the seat of sin is the
heart, not the body. How is it, then, that the
moment of severance from the body is to be the
moment of complete severance from sin ?

But the mystery seems clear now. The
knowledge of God, even the fullest knowledge
we can enjoy here, must be dim. It can be
complete, rounded-out. Spirit-given knowledge*
but it must be dim. It can be ample for the
conquering of sin and keeping it under our feet,
but there is nothing but the undimmed glory of
God that can destroy it. But to see the undim-
med glory of God's character is more than mor-
tal flesh can bear. It is easy to see, on reading
Rutherford's letters, that God had to do with
him as He did with Moses, " lay his hand over
him," lest the glory should be too great for him.
That His servants here on earth may be fitted
for service. He will show them much of His
glory ; but that they may be left on earth for
the service needed, that glory Tnuat be seen
" through a glass, darkly," through " windows of
agates," as we look at the sun through smoked
glasses.

TERMS OF THE COVENANT.

But when our work on earth is done, and this
frail body that can stand so little is left for a
rest, or changed to match the redeemed spirit,
then we shall see Him actually as He is. At
that moment every atom of sin that is in us
will wither into nothing. It could not live for
one moment then. But the Christ in us, the
new, glad, redeemed nature, will leap into His
presence to live and develop and serve in the
light of His countenance, growing ever nearer,
throughout eternity, to the ' measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ," " that he may
be the first-born among many brethren," each so
conformed to His image as to be recognized as a
brother by the likeness.

Yes, there is power in the knowledge of God.
The whole covenant is given in one promise in
Jer. 24 : 7 : "I will give them an heart to know
me that I am the Lord ; and they shall be my
people and I will be their God." The God-given
knowledge of God accomplishes the cleansing of
the initial promise, and leads up to the infilling
of the culminating promise. The covenant is
like Him who gave it ; it is a Trinity— One in
Three and Three in One.

60 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

How shall we secure this effectual manifesta-
tion of God to us ? Shall we ask for it ? Yes,
but far more than ask for it. Let us claim it as
our covenant-right in Christ. Tread reverently,
for this is holy ground ; but step boldly, for this
is our God-given place of power. Here we can
say with Jacob, " I will not let thee go except
thou shew me thyself." And God will call us
by the name of Israel, for, as a prince, we shall
have power with God and with men, and shall
prevail.

Once we have learned this secret we shall
know something of what God means when He
says, "Ye that make mention of the name of
the Lord, give him no rest until he make Jeru-
salem a praise in the earth ; " and when He says,
" Put me in remembrance, let us plead together,"
and " Concerning the work of my hands, com-
mand ye me."

O, it is a bold place He has given us ; but it is
the place secured by the matchless " blood of the
everlasting covenant," and that is enough.

CHAPTER VII.

.£BMa OF THIS COVENANT.— (c) INFILLING
OR POWER.

A FEW years ago, Dr. McKay, of Formosa
spent a hurried two hours in our home. Before
leaving, he kneeled down with us. One petition
of that prayer has ever since seemed like an
open door into the larger treasures of the king-
dom. He asked that the Spirit of God might
take possession of us — might so take possession
of us, that He should fill and animate and control
our human spirit as our human spirit fills and
animates and controls our mortal body.

It was a vast petition; yet it was simply
asking what God has covenanted to give in this
third, this crowning promise of the new cove-
nant: "I will put my Spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall

62 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

keep my judgments and do them." I will put
my Spirit within you, and He shall so fill and
animate and control your human spirit that you
shall work out His will as your mortal body
now works out the will of your human spirit.
Thus the Lord's Prayer shall be answered, and
Qod's will shall " be done in earth as it is in
heaven." Truly we are not straitened in Him ;
we are straitened in ourselves, because we will
not forsake our own thoughts — our miserably
small and meagre thoughts — of what Qod's
salvation is.

The form of this crowning promise, given in
Hebrews, is just as full and glorious : " I will put
my laws into their mind, and write them in
their hearts ; and I will be to them a God, and
they shall be to me a people."

The laws of God are two. First, " Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all the soul, with
all heart, with all thy mind and with all thy
strength." The second is like unto it, "Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." These two
laws, by the energy of the indwelling Spirit of
Christ, are to be so put into our mind and

TERMS OP THIS COVENANT.

written in our hearts that our daily life shall be
the living out of them. So He shall cause us to
walk in His statutes, and we shall keep his
judgments and do them. The two forms of
this crowning promise are identical in meaning.

But there is a further clause in Hebrews, " I
will be to them a God, and they shall be to me
a people."

This covenant is a covenant of partnership,
and this clause announces that, with this cleans-
ing and teaching and infilling, the partnership
shall be a real and operating thing. He shall
occup; to them the full relation of their Ood,
and they shall occupy to Him the full relation
of his people. When this is actually the case,
He shall have an army, be it small or large, by
whom He shall be able to conquer this rebellious
world to Himself — it may be in a shorter time
than most people think. Then the evangeliza-
tion of the world in this generation may seem
slow progress.

One day, while thinking over this clause of
this third covenant promise, I became conscious
of wishing to alter the wording of it Would it

THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

not have been sweeter if it had read—" I will be
to them a Father, and they shall be to me my
children." But very soon I saw my folly.

I saw that God, in His matchless word, has
been at great pains to spell out to us the glory
of that expression, " I will be to them a God."
He has laid before us many precious things, and
put them all together that He might enable us
to reach out toward the full glory of that word,
" I will be to them a God." Father, though so
near and full and sweet, only gives a part of
what there is in that one word God. We must
add to it all that is peculiar to the words brother,
lover, friend, physician, advocate, shepherd,
prophet, priest, king. That no element of ten-
derness may be wanting. He has added this to
them all, " As one whom his mother comforteth,
so will I comfort thee." Take the peculiar glory
of each of these and put them all together and
you will be simply spelling out, according to
God's moral phonetics, the incomparable name of

GOD.
"I will be to them a God "—I will be to them
all that these terms taken together can expresa

TERMS OF THIS COVENANT.

" They shall be to me a people " — they shall be
enjoying in me all that these terms can unitedly
contain. The great partnership shall be a busi-
ness reality, and God shall have bands of men
and women sanctified and meet for the Master's
use. When this becomes the actual condition of
Christ's Church, then the visions of the 19th of
Revelation and of the 1 lOth Psalm shall be trans-
ferred from the region of prophecy to that of
history, and the kingdoms of this world shall
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Christ.

This is the culminating promise of the cove-
nant purchased for us by the precious blood of
our Redeemer. We have handed to us at every
communion the appointed symbol of our covenant
right to this promise as well as the other two —
that the Spirit of Qod shall be so put within us,
and the laws of God so written in our hearts,
that our life shall be the doing of His will on
earth as it is done in heaven.

If these are our covenant rights in Christ,
why are they not universally fulfilled in Christian
experience ? Is it not because the Church has

THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

forgotten that she has fallen heir to them ? She
does not know them, she does not claim them,
and she does not enjoy them, and so she is still a
failure and the world a desert.

She sees the sacramental wine poured out at
the communion feast She hears the words,
" This cup is the new testament in my blood ;
drink ye all of it." She takes the symbol into
her hands and puts it to her lips, but forgets
that it means a covenant — not merely forgive-
ness ; a covenant of partnership with Qod— not
merely protection from His wrath; that it means
cleansing and life and power for victorious
service. Because she has forgotten that the
wine means a whole covenant, the Church is still
a failure and the world is still a desert

Let her lay hold on this covenant ar .aith
shall become triumphant and victoric j; and
she shall be exactly like her faith, triumphant
and victorious, too.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVE-
NANT; OB, THE GROUND ON WHICH IT
RESTS.

Andrew Murray says: "When we come
before God in prayer, let us expect an answer to
be measured out to us according to tJte value of
the blood of Christ in Gods sight"

The blood once shed on Calvary and now pre-
sented for us continually by our great High
Priest, is the only ground on which the prayer
of a sinner can be graciously answered. But
that is strong and gloriously ample ground, and
should lead us out to large petitions and abun-
dant expectations.

A laborer, coming home from his work, saw a
child looking longingly into a bake-shop win-
dow. Something in her attitude touched the

M THE yi'W COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

kingly heart iintK r the worn coat, and he took
hold of her he . ' saying, "Come in with me,
child." Thei h.; ov med an old leathern pouch in
which his ^,',4'<i ^cant wages had just been
placed, and .wl t v*. cents on the counter, with
the words, Olv3 iu% chi^d what she wants."

It was a p , . »e]y ,r • ,. ^ne little white coin
on the baker' rou . nd not afford an ample
ground for k-go r , .ts. A cheese-cake pie
swept the whole capitui. and, after a few deli-
cious mouthfuls, it was all gone.

The blood of Christ shed for our cleansing
and enrichment is not going to be so exhausted,
It is measureless value that has been laid down
to our credit, and we may ask boldly on, right
up to its unattainable limit If we ask from our
God according to the value of that blood in our
own sight, we surely shall get boldness to ask
great things. Then if we look up into the face
of the Father, and expect an answer to be
measured out according to the value of that
blood in His sight, what may we not expect ?
Do you not feel faith expanding and stretching
up as you think of it ?

THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT.

The value of the blood of Christ is the capi-
tal set down to our credit. The New Covenant
is the document in which that whole capital is
legally made over to us and put within our
reach. Covenant prayer is the intelligent and
purposeful draft upon these unsearchable riches
that are all legally ours in Christ.

Here are two specimens of Paul's petitions.
They are worth studying clause by clause to see
what we may ank.

• Now the God of peace that brought again
f r< tm the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shep-
herd of the sheep, through the blood of the ever-
lasting covenant, make you perfect in every
good work to do His will, working in you that
which is well-pleasing in His sight through
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and
ever. Amen." And it is only \>y such large
prayers beings asked and answered that the j^'iory
of Jesus Christ and His salvation can shine out
upon the world.

" For this cause I bow my knees unto the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named,

60 THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

that Ha would grant you, according to the riches
of His glory (the blood has bought those riches
for us, and the covenant is the legal expression
of them), to be strengthened with might by His
Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all saints, what is the breadth and length
and depth and height, and to know the love
of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye
might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us, unto
Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
It is by such large prayers being asked and
answered through, and according to the " blood
of the everlasting covenant," that the know-
ledge of the glory of the Lord shall yet, per-
haps very soon, cover the earth as the waters
cover the sea.

Since writing the above I have come in con-
tact where it should not have been, with that

THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT.

theory of the love of Qod and the life of Christ
which eliminates the blood as the efficacious
factor in God's scheme of salvation.

Oh, the madness of it ! the blindness, the
utter weakness of it !

When the earth shall be covered with the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord, then it
shall be vocal with praise. But the song shall
be the one John sings, " Unto him that loved
us, and washed us from our sins in his ovm
hloodf and hath made us kings and priests unto
God and his Father." Love, and blood, and
power — these thice — but the blood shall forever
be in the very heart of it.

When heaven itself shall open upon our view
we shall see, as John did, " in the midst of the
throne a Lamb as it had been slain." And we
shall join with full hearts in the song of the
saints, " Thou art worthy, for thou was slain,
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, and
hast made us kings and priests." Love and
blood and power, but the blood shall still be in
the very heart of the song. Then we shall hear
the chorus to our own anthem taken up by

62 THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

"ten thousand times ten thousand, and thou-
sands of thousands" of the inhabitants of
heaven. " W(yrthy ia the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches, and wisdom aud
strength, and honor and glory and blessing."
Then a wider chorus still from every creature in
God's wide universe, beginning with the closing
note of the heavenly chorus, "Blessing and
honor and glory and power be unto Him
that sitteth upon the throne and unto the
Lamb" (the propitiatory sacrifice) "for ever
and ever." And the four living creatures will
say " Amen." And the four and twenty elders
will fall down and worship. No dissentient
voice that day. The Lamb that was slain and
His blood (not His beautiful life) are the heart
of the song. Will it not be well to tune our
harps now to this key ? or we may find them
unfit for service when that day comes.

CHAPTER IX.

JESUS CHRIST, MEDIATOR OF A BETTER

COVENANT, OR THE EXECUTOR OF

HIS OWN WILL.

The New CSovenant is, as we have seen, first
a Testament. It is the legacy which our dying
Redeemer willed us before He went away.
Who is the executor of this last will and testa-
ment ? Who but the risen Redeemer Himself ?

This is the oflace He has gone to His Father's
right hand to fulfil — to be administrator of His
own will, mediator of the new and better
covenant.

Do we need cleansing ? Let us go to Him
with the first covenant promise. "Sprinkle
clean water upon me, and I shall be clean." All
power is given unto Him at His Father's right
hand to put us into actual possession of the

64 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

contents of this promise. He is a competent
mediator of the better covenant.

Is our knowledge of God feeble and partial ?
and our hearts, in consequence, unbelieving, cold
and selfish ? Let us go to Him with the second
covenant promise, "Make thy face to shine
upon thy servant," "That I may know thee,"
whom to know is life eternal.

"All power is given unto Him in heaven and
in earth " on purpose that He may be able to
communicate this otherwise incommunicable
knowledge. He is able to teach where neighbor
and brother and father and mother and minister
and professor have utterly failed. He is able
to put us in possession of the contents of His
own will. He has not bequeathed to us an
imaginary property, or undertaken to adminis-
ter what He cannot handle.

Does the quickened heart grieve over its help-
lessness to fulfil God's will or do His work ?
Does it reach out with a great yearning for
service— for power to work out His will on earth
as it is done in heaven ? Let us go to Him on
His mediatorial throne with the third promise.

MEDIATOR OF A BETTER COVENANT. 65

"Put thy spirit within me, and cause roe to
walk in thy statutes." " Put thy laws into my
mind and write th3m in my heari)." " Do as
thou hast said."

" All power is given unto him in heaven and
earth " to fulfil the mighty contract. " What
he hath promised he is able also to perform."
What He hath bequeathed, He is able also to
administer.

Our Brother has died, and left us a truly
magnificent property, and now lives to put us
in possession of it. Is it not time for us, like
the Scotch lassie, to study His will and put in
a claim for our share ?

CHAPTER X.

HOW ANT PROMISE MAY BECOME A SPECIAL
COVENANT.

It is not by accident that God's promises con-
stitute unfailing channels of living water to
some, while the very bountifulness of their
wording remains a tantalizing aggravation of
spiritual poverty in the case of others. The
simple fact of appropriating faith makes all the
diflPerence. But as in arithmetic, so in grace,
the simplicity of a principle will shine out
through examples better than through mere
explanation.

The Lord said to Abram, " Look now towards
heaven, and tell the stars if thou be able to
number them;" and He said unto him, "So
shall thy seed be." Abram laid hold upon the
promise, and, without the need for any oath,

A SPECIAL COVENANT.

there was established an everlasting covenant
between them.

The Lord sent word to David, saying, " I will
build thee an house, and I will establish it for-
ever." David laid hold on the promise. He
went and sat down before God, and answered,
" And now, Lord Qod, do as thou hast said."
He took it all in, and his dying song was, " The
Lord hath made with me an everlasting cove-
nant, ordered in all things and sure ; for this is
all my salvation and all my desire, although He
make it not to grow." God had given a prom-
ise, and he had taken it. There was a covenant
at once.

The Lord sent a message to the people of
Samaria : " To-morrow, about this time, shall a
measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel in the
gate of Samaria." The promise was for the
nobleman upon whom the king leaned as truly
as for all the rest of the people. But he laid no
hold on it. He answered the Divine promise :
" If the Jjord would make windows in heaven
might such a thing be ? " Unbelief sealed his
covenant with death. He entered into no cove-

THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

nant with God. Had he answered as David
did, "Lord, do as thou hast said," he would at
once have had covenant hold upon God to the
whole extent of the promise.

So any promise God has given may be trans-
formed into a peculiar covenant between Him
and any individual soul.

A little girl was seeking salvation in Christ
The word was brought before her, "Him that
Cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out."
That was good news to her. She simply be-
lieved it, and answered, "This word is Christ's,
and I may trust it He has not cast me out
He will not cast me out He will in no wise
cast me out I am Hia forever." Christ gave
His word, and she believed it So an everlast-
ing covenant was formed between them, even
the sure mercies of David, secured in exactly the
same way.

" Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth." These were the words that fell
on the ears of a sin-burdened student

" Look ! " answered the sinner, " He does not
say. '8e^.r I can look to Him, and I have His

A SPECIAL COVENANT.

word for the rest." Such, in brief, was the
initial covenant sealed between young Spurgeon
and His Qod. He hearkened to the Lord. He
took at His invitation the word that was sweet
to his taste. He let his soul delight itself in its
fatness, and an everlasting covenant, even the
sure mercies of David, was established forever
between them.

The fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah explains how
any soul, even one who is spending his money
and his life in a mad race after the world, may
turn round and at once secure this highest privi-
lege of direct covenant relation with God.

" Ho, every one that thirsteth ! " The call is
first to the thirsty.

The second call is to the worldly, " spending
money for that which is not bread, and their
labor for that which satisfieth not."

Those two classes are alike called to Christ's
feast — those who are anxiously thirsting for the
living water, and those who, not knowing what
ails them, are spending themselves trying to
draw water out of empty cisterns.

What is the feast to which our Lord is here

THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

inviting ? It is nothing less than a banquet of
His own words : " Wherefore do ye spend your
labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken
diligently unto me, and eat ye that which ia
good."

What a ray of heavenly light flashed into the
life of the writer when the force of this call
was first made apparent! "Hearken unto me.
My words and promises are the better feast to
which I call you. Eat ye that which is good.
I bid you the host's welcome to the sweetest and
best of them. Pick and choose. They are all
spread out for you. Take what you like the
best. My son, eat thou honey because it is
good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to thy
taste. Do not say any of it is too good. Let
your soul delight itself in fatnesa Eat, O
friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, be-
loved."

The figure is one familiar to us all. A cor-
dial host at the head of his own table talking to
little children that he wants to make happy.
"What shall I pass you? What would you
like ? Take some of this. Do not be afraid."

A SPECIAL COVENANT.

f.i J

And the more we took, the more was our enter-
tainer pleased.

So our Lord lovingly presses us to appropriate
His promises. He cannot be done with it.
"Incline your ear and come unto me. Hear,
and your soul shall live." Hearken, and take ;
listen, and live.

" What shall be the outcome to me. Lord, if I
accept thine invitation, and help myself to a
promise from thy spread table ? "

" It shall happen unto thee with thine appro-
priated promise as it happened unto David with
his appropriated promise. The result of it shall
be that there shall be an everlasting covenant
between us, even the sure mercies of David.
The promise you have taken is yours ; the ful-
filling, it is mine. It shall be a covenant be-
tween us. Rest in your covenant right up to
the whole value of the promise."

In this way may any promise in the Word of
God become an actual, individual covenant
between the soul and the Promiser, by simple
appropriating faith on the strength of an une-
quivocal invitation.

-I
in

72 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

It is wonderful to see the beautiful and imme-
diate results that flow from the acting out of
this very simple principle; the immediate re-
sults being a joy and confidence that the world
does not understand, and the more remote de-
pending upon the extent of the promise grasped.
Deep trouble visited a Christian household;
there seemed to be no help and no hope.

This promise was lying on Christ's table of
dainties, " Call upon me in the day of trouble, I
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."
They took it unitedly ; they called upon God in
the day of their trouble, and took His promise
as their own. From that time there has been
an everlasting covenant established between
them, that He shall deliver them, and so deliver
them that they shall be abundantly satisfied,
and shall from the heart glorify Him in the
matter. It shall not be a half-deliverance, but
one like God Himself. That is the substance of
the promise, and they hold it as a cheque upon
God's omnipotent faithfulness. If the outcome
of the whole thing is to be praise, is it not well
to begin the thanksgiving at once ? God's cove-

A SPECIAL COVENANT.

nant is as sure as the fact, and it is sweet to
begin the thanksgiving before the fulfilment
comes.

The effect of this covenant hold upon the atti-
tude of the believer is well illustrated in the
story of the old Scotchwoman.

She was dying, and she knew it, but she had
no fear. Uer unruffled confidence puzzled the
young minister w) > was waiting upon her. In
short, he warcely tliouijht ii quite consistent
with proper humility.

" Nannie," he said to her «me day, "are ye no
too sure ? What if ye should Ije lost after a' ? "

" Hech, mon," replied the dying woman, " that
wad be a sair thing. But," she added, clasping
her hands, and lifting her dim eyes to heaven,
" the Lord wad be the greater loser o* the twa o'
us. Nannie wad lose her soul, and that wad be
a sair loss; but He wad lose His honor, an'
that's no to be thocht upon."

A perplexed Christian laid hold upon the
word, " In all thy ways acknowledge him, and
he shall direct thy paths." Still light did not
come. But decision must be reached. Delay

74 THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

was impossible. In these circumstances he took
hold of another " word of wisdom which was
sweet to his taste"— that is. suited to his need,
"I will cause thee to hear a voice behind thee
saying unto thee, 'This is the way, walk ye in
it,' when ye turn to the right hand or when ye
turn to the left"

"That wUl do," he said. "I shall go ahead ac-
cording to my own best judgment, and I have
His word for it that, if I am going wrong. He
will pull me back."

He took God at His word, and immediately
there was an everlasting covenant formed be-
tween them, and he knew it He could go
boldly on now, even in the dark.

In this way, on no authority but Christ's
invitation, any of God's promises can be taken
and " eaten," and so made our very own. That
moment an everlasting covenant is formed be-
tween the believer and the Promiser to the full
extent of the promise believed. In this way
the blessed covenant hold is often intelligently
taken and enjoyed by those who know little of
the breadth, and length, and depth and height

A SPECIAL COVENANT.

of the complete covenant of grace. Thetie minor
promises are all " Tea and Amen " in Christ, for
they are all included in the New Testament
made over to us by our Bedeemer at His death.
They are irrigating channels carrying precious
streams out of the new covenant fulness to many
a comer of our little life plots, and to many an
otherwise barren place in the wilderness round
about.

But before the whole world shall be brought
to own the sway of our Redeemer, " the temple
of Qod shall be opened in heaven, and the ark
of His Testament " (the new covenant and its
fulness) shall be seen by the people of Qod.
Then there shall be " lightnings, and voices, and
thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail."
(Rev. 11. 19.)

Then there shall be results, " Then the king-
doms of this world shall become the kingdoms
of our Lord and of His Christ." (Rev. 11. 15.)

Then " nothing shall be impossible," because
God's people shall again learn "the forgotten
secret of world-wide, prevailing prayer."

CHAPTER XL

A STUDY OF JACOB; OR, THE COVENANT IN
INTEKCESSION.

Abraham received a covenant with God, and
he rested on it. Jacob obtained the same cove-
nant and he not only rested on it: he wrestled
on it Therefore he received a new name,
because, as a prince, he had power with God and
men, and prevailed.

It is a great thing to rest on God's covenant.
It is a greater thing to study the breadth and
length and depth and height of it, to lay hold
on the Giver of it, to wrestle for its contents,
and to prevail.

That this may shine out, let us study Jacob in
his attitude towards the covenant inheritance of
the Abrahamic family.

" I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob

A STUDY OF JACOB.

thy father " — the heritage he craved, the heri-
tage he got, the heritage he utilized.

The heritage Jacob craved was, a covenant
interest in the God of Abraham.

Every swallow on the wing has a sweet inter-
est in the love and care of the great Creator.
Jacob wanted more than that.

Every descendant of Noah, as he " considers
the heavens, the work of Qod's fingers," has or
ought to have a deep and intelligent interest in
Him whose handiwork they are. Jacob wanted
more than that.

All the descendants of Abraham had a family
interest in the God of their father. Jacob
wanted more than that.

He had set his heart on an individual interest
in the covenant of God with Abraham, the
interest Abraham himself had, the sort of inter-
est that would justify him saying, I know that
in me. and in my seed, all the families of the
earth shall be blessed.

With what singleness of heart he set his affec-
tions upon this covenant relation with God !

The buying of the birthright is far more

78 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST lECRET.

decidedly an exhibition of enthusiastic Qodward-
ness than of contemptible selfishness, as it is so
often unnecessarily described. Esau knew as
well as he the eternal si^ificance of the thing
he was asked to sell. He also knew the value
of the red pottage quite as well as he who
offered it But Esau said, " My life on earth is
short: what benefit shall these faraway pro-
mises be to me ?"* He set light by the covenant
heritage God had given into the family of his
father, while that covenant heritage was the
one thing the younger brother yearned for.
Would it be selfish to buy for a sixpence an
alabaster box of ointment, very precious, whereof
the owner was making a football ? Just as
unnecessary is it to characterize as selfish
Jacob's offer for the birthright.

The birthright was lawfully bought, and
certainly with it the inheritance that belonged
to it. That was settled. But Isaac still pro-
posed to pass the family blessing on to Esau.
Now Jacob knew, and so did his mother, that

* "Behold, I am at the point to die ; and what profit
Bhall this birthright do to me ! " (Gen. 25. 32. )

A STUDY OF JACOB.

that blessing lawfully belonged to him. In
seeking to secure it they were seeking only
what was right. Their failure was, yielding to
the miserable unbelief that whispered, " God is
going to allow the blessing to go to the wrong
brother." He who sitteth upon the circle of tfie
earth did not need their lie to help Him to keep
things right. But let him that is without sin
amongst us first cast a stone at Jacob for this.
Was it not the same unbelief that led Sarah to
give Hagar to her husband, that she might
thereby help God to keep His promise of a son ?
She might have known that the Most High
required no such questionable assistance as she
was rendeiing to enable Him to keep His word.
But this is a woefully common form of unbelief
in our own day. How many a father has
worked and worried himself into an early grave
lest God might otherwise fail to keep His
promises about food and raiment. He has
broken the sixth commandment because he
feared God Himself would break the ninth.
Every form of doing a little wrong to secure a
great right is simply Jacob and Rebekah over
6

80 THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

again. Jacob was surely wrong, both in the
unbelief and in the deception ; but it would be
well for us to look carefully around at home
before we cast a stone at him for thai

And have we glowing in our souls, as Jacob
had, that jewel which is in Qod's sight of great
price, a burning desire for personal covenant
relations with Him who "hath measured the
waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out
heaven with the span ? " Jacob's sin looks
small beside the heavenly radiance of his one
ambition. Truly, one thing is needful, and
Jacob chose that good thing which shall never
be taken away from him.

Jacob yearned for this inheritance of covenant
promise, and he got it. If I were a painter — a
great painter — I would like to draw him as he
stretched himself down on his stony bed in the
wilderness, that night after receiving his heart's
desire. Broken consciousness of his sin would
be in his countenance, for the Spirit of God was
in him, and God had marked that unbelief and
that lie, and did not leave him untaught on
either score. Tender sorrow at parting from a

A STUDY OF JACOB.

home, where his whole intense heart had been
centred— that would be there. But deeper than
either of these, glorifying every softened linea-
ment, must have shined the joy of fulfilled hope,
the gladness of that faith which is the having
of things hoped for, the seeing of things not
seen. Where is the artist who could work all
this into one human face lying in tiie dim star-
light, looking up into the heavens ?

But God saw it, and He answered it with a
vision, that was the glory of his covenant
heritage, in one illuminated picture. In that
Heaven-sent vision we can read the thoughts
and searchings that had filled the heart of the
wanderer that night before God gave to His
beloved sleep. Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar,
" As for thee, O King, thy thoughts come unto
thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to
pass hereafter; and he that revealeth secrets
maketh known to thee what shall come to pass."
If Nebuchadnezzar's dream was given in answer
to his kingly searchings before he went to
sleep, after the developments to come in the
world's history, what must have been the mid-

82 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

nifjrht meditations of this lonely fugitive, reach-
ing out after the secrets of the covenant heritage
that was now his own, that led to the rearing of
that heavenly ladder between him and God,
claimed in later days by Jesus Christ as a
picture of Himself. (John 1, 5-1.)

Jacob had yearned after that heritage of
promise ; he had obtained it. What use did he
make of it ?

This is the most important part of the story
of Jacob. There are many who know soane-
thing of the overflowing joy of first poasea-
sion who never develop purpose or intelligeroe
in utilizing what they have received.

Esau was coming against him with four
hundred armed men, to sweep him and his
family from off the face of the earth. He knew
his brother. " I fear him," he said, " lest he
come and smite me, and the mother with tlie
children." He knew that, apart from omnipo-
tent intervention, his hopes, which had been so
high, were all to be blotted out in blood at
once.

A STVDY OP JACOB.

What could he do ?

First of all, he went to God in prayer. He
had learned how to pray, and consequently he
believed in it as an actual means of defence.

What arguments did he use with the Lord ?
Jacob believed in arguments in prayer, for he
really meant to secure an answer.

He did not plead his own righteousness. That
was out of sight. On the contrary, he owned
that he was " not worthy of the least of all the
mercies and of all the truth " that God had
already showed to him. But Jacob had one
argument, and a double one. He began his
prayer by reminding the Lord of the command
and promise that had started him out on the
journey. '' Return unto thy country, and I will
deal well with thee." Jacob had a strong grip
upon everlasting faithfulness here, and bo knew
it. The expedition, started in response to God's
own word of command and promise, could not
end disastrously without a blot upon the honor
of Him who had spoken them. He closed by
reminding the Lord of the Abrahamie promise,
which was his by purchased birthright, his by

8* THE NEW COVENANT A LOST 3BCRET.

his father's blessing, and his by the ample reit-
eration uf the One whu stood at the top of the
ladder while he lay at its foot. "And Thou
saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy
seed as the sand of the «ea, wliich cannot be
numbered for multitude." liow could these
children now in peril fall under the sword of
Esau without a breach of this sacred covenant of
the Lord ? Jacob was on the strongest ground
conceivable here, and he seems to have felt it.
For his prayer was not prolonged. He had said
what he meant. He had strengthened his case
by arguments which could not be set aside.
Then he went to work.

He took all the precautions which a most
shrewd and statesmanlike intellect could sug-
gest. He sent on his present to meet Esau ar-
ranged with an eye to cumulative effect. He
removed his family to the other side of the Jab-
bok, and all his stuff. Then, when all was
completed, he went back in the darkness to the
now empty camp, " entering into his closet," to
have it out with God.

His prayer in the daytime may surely be

A STUDY OF JACOB.

taken as a sample of the wrestling that went on
that night The peculiarity of that recorded
prayer is the double grip it takes upon the
faithfulness of God to His own word and
covenant. "Thou hast said, 'I will deal well
with thee'" (Shall we, then, be destroyed?)
"Thou hast said, 'I will multiply thy seed as
the sand of the sea.' " (Shall they, then, be cut
off ?) The strength of his position is this taking
hold upon God to do as He hath said and keep
His covenant. This was strong ground. This
was holy ground, and it was undeniably his.
On this he could plant his feet and be omnipo-
tent with God. O the vigor that the covenant
heritage put into the wrestling of Jacob ! What
God had promised his business-like mind saw he
had a covenant right to obtain, and he laid hu-
man hands on the Divine Personality, and said
what he meant, " I will not let thee go except
thou bless me."

It was not the human strength put into his
wrestling that con(iuered his mysterious com-
panion. That Jacob himself and all succeeding
generations might understand this, the mighty

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86 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST 8ECBET.

hand waa put forth, and touched the hollow of
Jacob's thigh, and in a moment it was out of
joint as he wrestled with Him. The touch of
that hand was enough, had the will behind it so
determined, to have withered Jacob's natural
strength into nothingness.

But the halting wrestler, though a worm of
the dust, having that covenant grip upon the
honor of his God, had a hold upon Him which,
according to the very essence of His nature. He
was everlastingly powerless to shake off. Shake
off! He couM7i'< shake it off. Could a mother
unclasp the arms of her little child that has
clung to her neck for safety from a terror ?
Far sooner could any mother do that than that
the everlasting God the Lord could shake off a
human soul that has clasped its confidence about
the simple truthfulness of His word. Is there
any other way a human being can give such joy
to the heart of God as by taking such a hold
upon His sim^lQ faithfulTieas ?

The heart of the mysterious stranger towards
the halting wrestler comes out after that m-
ingly cruel touch.

A STUDY OP JACOB.

" What is thy name ? "

And he said " Jacob."

And he said, "Thy name shall be no more
called Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast
thou power with God and with men." And he
blessed him there.

Is it not the same heart and the same mouth,
that said to the woman of Canaan, " O woman,
great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt."

Years before, Jacob, the Supplanter, had pre-
vailed to obtain the covenant blessing from his
father. Now Israel, the Prince, through the
vantage then gained, had prevailed to obtain the
covenant blessing direct from Jehovah Himself.
What deeper hold was now given for further
conquests we are not told, but Jacob himself
refers to them when he says to Joseph, " The
blessings of thy father have prevailed above the
blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost
bound of the everlasting hills."

What artist could throw upon the canvas the
face of the halting patriarch as he left Peniel to
go and meet Esau ? Weariness must have shown

88 THE NEW COVEyANT A LOST SECRET

in his countenance-probably pain, for the thigh
out of joint meant physical damage. But it was
the chastened face of a conqueror-of one who
has again prevailed to receive his heart's desire
with the "exceeding abundantly above" that
comes from a glimpse into the heart and pur-
poses of God. Fear of Esau? Not a shadow of
It ! He went to meet Esau with the yearning
love of a penitent brother, and the simple con-
fidence that the angry soldier had not an atom
of power to go one hair'sbreadth beyond the
purposes of the God of Peniel. It may have
been nothing else than the brothe .hrist shin-
mg out of the face of Jacob that melted the
heart of the angry Esau. We read of no halo
round his head, or need of a veil, as in Moses'
case. The glory that shined from Jacob's face
IS a glory that the world needs. It is better not
veiled. It is the glory that comes from covenant
fellowship with God. It is the only Bible that
the world can understand. It is the Bible that
IS yet going to "fill the earth with the know-
ledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters
cover the sea."

A STUDY OF JACOB.

From this period Jacob's life is a succession of
sorrows. The cruelty of Simeon and Levi, the
death ol' his beloved Rachel, the loss of Joseph,
the wickedness of his sons, and the heavy
anxieties of the time of famine, give an ample
foundation for his own account of it : — " Few
and evil have the days of the years of my life
been."

Did this Prince in prevailing prayer win no
more victories? Was that Peniel night the
culminating point of his life of faith ?

One question has deeply interested me lately.
Is not Jacob's the first instance on record of a
whole family being converted to God ?

Twelve sons, ten of them evidently well
started on the downward track, become men of
humility, men of filial and brotherly love, men
fitted in God's sight to become founders of the
twelve tribes of His sacred people, and to have
their names kept in everlasting remembrance,
written on the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem
itself. This would be looked upon as a Gospel
wonder in our own better days. How is it to
be accounted for in those days of no churches,

THE NEW C'L VENANT A LOST SECRET.

no Bibles, no Christian society, and only dim
Old Testament light ? Here are results ; where
and what are the causes ?

Is not this the evident explanation of the
moral wonder? Planting his feet upon the
covenant blessing received from his father
Jacob had prevailed to obtain the deliverance of
his family from the threatened physical destruc
tions of Esau. Planting his feet next upon the
covenant blessing received from his Peniel com-
panion. he prevailed to obtain the deliverance of
his family from the moral destructions threat-
ened by the Prince of Darkness.

It is not to be conceived the blessing given
h.m on that eariy morning wa« merely a repe-
tition of that received from Isaac. Jacob himself
declares that it was "beyond the blessing of his
progenitors." and reached to the "utmost bound
of the everlasting hills." It could not be really
richer than the covenant with Abraham, but with
that blessing came an insight into its riches that
few have attained. From that time this Israel
pnest began to know how to pray down New
Testament blessings in OJd Testament times

A STUDY OF JACOB.

x*hus he was able to pass on the covenant
blessinjT to his twelve sons, instead of merely to
one, as with Abraham and Isaac

That Jacob saw farther into the Gospel glories
of the Abrahamic covenant than either Abraham
or Isaac would appear from the clearness of his
statements in his parting benedictions. He spoke
of the coming Messiah as the Shepherd, as the
Stone of Israel, as Shiloh, unto whom the
gathering of the people shall be. Jacob walked
through this world, in it, but not of it. The
key-note of his life is given in the interjected
expression of his death-bed, " I have waited for
thy salvation, O Lord."

Jacob was of quick understanding in the fear
of the Lord. " The secret of the Lord was with"
him, and He, even in those far-off, dim days, had
shewn him Hia covenant.

In the light of the preceding story, two
passages in Isaiah become full of meaning. 1st.
" I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy
father," and 2nd, The three steps in consecration,
"One shall say I am tl .? Lord's; and another shall
call himself by the na^e o£ Jacob ; and another

92 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

Shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and
swniame himself by the name of Israel."

One thing has often made my spirit bum
withm me on reading disquisitions on Jacob's
character and doings. He has been called mer-
cenary, tricky, selfish, naturally of meaner
quahties than his more generous-hearted bro-
ther. On what foundation does all this rest ?

Jacob was certainly of an intensely acquisi-
tive turn; but his desires were all after the
things of heaven, not the things of earth

When he left his father's tent, which was the
home of a wealthy man, he left it with only his
staff. His heart was full with the newly-
received blessing; but of the wealth of this
worid he carried away nothing at all.

This need not have been so, had he been
mercenary. There wa^ wealth in Isaac's tent
His mother was with him. She could easily
have filled his pockets with valuables. Had she
even slipped in among her motherly providings
the two golden bracelets that Eliezer had
clasped upon her own arms in her maiden-

A HTUDY OF JACOB.

hood— they would have been something to start
with. But he does not seem ever to have
thought of such a thing. There was in Jacob's
heart the exclusive power of another affection.
It did not need the " expulsive power," for tlie
love of the world had no place there.

When he entered the service of Laban, there
was not a word about wages, except the hand of
the girl he loved. It is not hard to suppose
that, if he had asked for it, he might have
received that hand without any seven years of
service. No such purchase price was demanded
of Isaac for Rebekah. But Laban was keen-
witted. It was no shrewd, business-like Eliezer
he had to deal with this time, and he demanded
and got the seven years of whole-hearted service.

When the wrong sister was given to Jacob,
and seven years more of service was asked for
the right one, any man who wanted to get on in
the world would naturally have answered, " No ;
I have served seven years for the wife I want.
As I have Leah, I will keep her, but I will not
serve for her. Give me my wife." It really
looks something like rank simplicity for Jacob

9* THE NEW CO\ENANT A LOST SECRET,

patiently to measure out seven more years for
Rachel, fiut he did it

But by the time the second seven years was
over, circumstances were most naturally planting
some new ideas in Jacob's unworldly head. A
family was gathering around him, and he began
to realize that it was time for him to begin to
"provide for his own house also." Still, he
never suggests wages to Laban. All he pro-
pose, is that he may be allowed to go away and
work for himself.

Up to this point the whole tenor of Jacob's
life forbids the first ide^ of a mercenary spirit
But just here, for the next six years, something
wakes up in him which is never seen either
before or after.

Laban proposes wages. Jacob is . j fool
after all. He knows by this time the man he
has to deal with. If there is going to be wages,
he will arrange things so that Laban shall no
longer have the chance to think him a simpleton.
Ten times Laban changes his wages, but every
time the fool is answered according to his folly —
the sharper is met by a sharpness that is too

A STUDY OF JACOB.

many for him. Lrban is beaten at his own
weapons.

• What u-oused this sudden exhibition of world-
ly policy ?

Ist. The necessities of a rising family.
2nd. Jacob's nature was an intense one. What
he did, he did with all his might. Is he seeking
the covenant blessing ? He lives for it. Is he
seeking Rachel's love ? He knows how to work
for it, and to wait for it (a harder test), and to
do both with such joy of heart that the seven
years seem like seven days to him. Is he
seeking the blessing of the heavenly stranger ?
He wrestles all night, and wins it. When such
a man, with God in his favor, wakes up to
conquer this world's riches, he will do it.

3rd. God meant to pass over much of Laban'a
wealth to Jacob. It was His fulfilling before-
hand this word of Christ's mountain sermon,
" Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth." He meant Jacob to spoil Laban as he
meant Israel to spoi' the Egyptians.

H\i. But I cannot help thinking that, what
stirred this unworldly man so to measure his
7

96 TBB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

wit with his uncle's was, probably, mainly the
character of Laban himself, when his eyes were
clearly open to see it For these dosing yeara
in Padan-Aram, he set himself to outwit the
sharper, and he did it

Once he has seen tho last of Laban, there is
not another trace of the worldly spirit He
moves through this world, in it but not of it,
for he is " looking for a city which hath founda-
tions, whose builder and maker is God."

Surely Jacob has been much misunderstood,
and, consequently, the Church has failed to get
the power out of his story that it was meant to
convey. The secret of his life has been missed.
Many have taken selfishness as the key-note and
then the whole life makes miserable discord. If
we take the desirableness and the power of
covenant relations with God as the key-note,
such expressions as these become full of meaning:
" I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy
father." " Another shall subscribe with his hand
unto the ^^rd, and surname himself by the name
of Israel." " Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed." " I, the God of Israel, will not for-
sake them."

CHAPTER XII.

TEB STORY OF BBENEZER; OR, THE 8ACR
FICIAL BLOOD IN INTBRCE88I0N.

The story of Jacob illustrates the power of
the covenant in intercession. The story of
Ebenezer illustrates the power of sacrificial
blood in intercession. These two, the covenant
and the blood that underlies it, are arguments
for faith in prayer, and for response from God
to r^ayer, that shall yet nerve to the interces-
sion that shall win the world Christ "Ask
of me and I will give thi:'e the aeathen for thine
inheritance, and the ^ii.termost parts of the
earth for thy ^Mih session. '

Let us study the story of Ebenezer.

At the call of Samuel, all Israel gathered
together to Mizpeh to seek God. There they
confessed their sins and entered freely into
covenant with Him to be His people.

THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

The Philistines, jealous of any exhibition of
national life in the people they were trampling
under their feet, quickly assembled themselves
in an ominous counter-gathering against the
Mizpeh congregation of worshippers. As for
these worshippers, they knew right well from
years of bitter experience that they were not
able themselves to meet these terrible Philistines
ia battle. How could they, seeing now their
disloyalty as they had not seen it before— how
could they expect the God of Joshua to make
bare His holy arm in their behalf ? But in Him
was their only hope of victory, and their part-
ing petition to Samuel as they set their faces
toward their enemies, was : " Cease not to cry
unto the Lord our God for us."

How could Samuel pray down victory from a
holy God upon a people laden with iniquity,
and whose present repentance he knew only too
well was both partial and superficial? That
was the task laid upon him — to pray down
victory from a holy God upon an army that
was full of sin, an army most of whom did not
even know the God to whom they were looking.

THE STORY OF EBENEZER.

Does not the same task often make Christian
faith stagger ? And is it not well to make a
serious study of Samuel's method and its

success ?

The prophet had an equation to solve with
two unknowns in it: x, Israel's present need,
and y, Israel's demerit. Now, it is plain that x
could not be worked out in positive value so
long as that indeterminate, but awfully nega-
tive, y hampered operations. Every High
School boy knows that that otherwise hopeless
y can be eliminated by the addition of another
equation in which y appears as a positive quan-
tity. This Samuel did, according to God's own
marvollous moral algebraics. He introduced the
sacrificial equation, in which the blood of the
dying lamb represented the blood and righteous-
ness of the coming Christ. The positive merit
of the sacrifice cancelled the negative merit of
Israel, so that Samuel's equation appeared with
the y completely cancelled, and x stood out in
its beautiful, solid value in a sweeping victory
for Israel, and an Ebenezer for all subsequent
students of the story.

( I

100 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

Dropping the figure— when Samuel under-
took to pray down victory upon a sinful people,
he knew he must first settle the matter of sin,
or there could be no gracious answer. So, ac-
cording to God's published Levitical Gospel, he
took a sucking lamb, laid his hand on its head,
confessing Israel's sinfulness and laying it all
on the lamb. Then he slew the lamb and
offered it up on the altar. Now sin was settled.
Now Samuel could pray for Israel exactly aa if
th£y were a holy people. And the holy God
could give victory exactly as if they were a holy
people, because of that little lamb burning on
the altar, which was accepted to make atone-
ment for them— at-one-ment for them, all that
alienated put away.

These two prayer studies, Jacob and Samuel,
give the double foundation on which effectual
prayer rests. If we would prevail in prayer, we
need to know that the thing we ask for is ac-
cording to His will. If it is according to His
promise, it is according to His will, for He has
never promised what He has not a mind to per-
form. It is our privilege, then, to seek for a

THE ST0R7 OF EBENEZER.

101

promise, as Jacob did, in which God has under-
taken to do the very thing we want Him to do.
Having found our promise, let us go back to God
with it, as Jacob did, and tell Him plainly, as
Jacob did, " Thou hast said this ; now do for me
as thmi hast said." Here we can take fast hold,
and give Him no rest till He does as He hath said.
God cannot " rest " under prayer like this, for it
touches His honor every time, as well as the
fountain of love that is in His heart.

But in attempting to pray this prevailing
prayer, how constantly we are met, as Samuel
was, by that awful unknown quantity, sin, in
ourselves and those for whom we want to pre-
vail. This is what makes it so hard to pray with
anything like a triumphant faith. For our
moral nature realizes that it is vain to expect to
pray dowi. victory and blessing from a holy God
upon sinful people. There is at most only a
hope which struggles vainly to become con-
fidence.

Just here is the place to study Samuel's meth-
od with his slain lamb. Just here is the place
to turn our own eye and God's upon the blood

102 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

shed on Calvary, to rest in the value of that
blood as entirely adequate to meet the sin of the
case we have in hand, and to expect an answer
to our covenant prayer as if sin were not in the
way at all.

This is what is done in the 130th Psalm, which
is such a model of humble, triumphant prayer
as only the Holy Spirit could have given. It is
well worth the minutest study, under God's own
peculiar teaching, of anyone who wants to under-
stand this matter of prevailing prayer.

In strong contrast with the boldness and vic-
tory of Jacob, wrestling with his feet on a
promise, and the boldness and victory of Samuel
pleading the efficacy of redeeming blood, is the
timidity and failure of Abraham, pleading with-
out reference to either for the inhabitants of
Sodom.

It has been said that Abraham was really ask-
ing for the life of Lot, and that he got the
answer to his prayer in Lot's deliverance. But
there does not seem to be any foundation for
that idea in the narrative. "Wilt thou not
spare the place ? " was Abraham's petition.

THE STORY OF EBENEZER.

103

It is not surprising that Abraham's heart
yearned over Sodom. He had, in the extremity
of the city, thrown himself into the breach for
Lot's sake. He faced five victorious kings with
a band of household servants, and rescued, not
only his nephew, but the whole population of
the city from slavery. He had refused the
wealth which was poured into his lap by the
grateful king.

He had once, through the intercession of the
Royal Priest of Salem, been mighty for the de-
liverance of that city, and his heart was still
warm toward those whom he had so befriended.
He set himself novy to serve them again, not this
time by weapons of war, but by prayer.

And his intercession was accepted as far as it
went. There was real communion between him
and God in the matter. Every advance he
made God met. Yet it was not a prevailing
prayer. "It wrought no deliverance in the
earth." It could not be effective. There was no
bottom to it except the supposed rigliteousne;
of ten supposed righteous men.

Abraham pleaded no promise as Jacob did.

104 TffS NEW COVENANT A LOST SEORBT.

He did not say, as he might have done, " Thou
hast said, 'In thee and in thy seed si. all all
families of the earth be blessed,' " pleading that
the sinful families of poor Sodom might know
the fulfilment of that unlimited promise. There
would have been power in that plea.

He offered no sacrifice for the sinful city.
Had he brought a lamb, and laid their sins upon
its head, and offered it up as God's own appoint-
ed atonement, the sweet savor of the sacrifice
would have been an unanswerable argument
with Him.

But the prayer that had for its only founda-
tion righteousness among the inhabitants of
Sodom, had no bottom at all, and no power at
all. Even though accepted, it had no results.

Are there not now prayers very much like
Abraham's ? Eager breathings after mercy and
blessing for ourselves and others that have no
'x)ttom either in the pledged efficacy of re-
deeming blood, nor in the definite assurance of a
blood-bought promise. Instead of the holy
boldness that comes from the double argument
of the blood and the promise, there is the trem-

THE STORY OF EBENEZER.

105

bling timidity that is afraid of cominfi^ too near
or asking too much. " Let not that man think
that he shall receive anything of the Lord,"
even if he be Abraham himself.*

This chapter may, perhaps, be most appropri-
ately closed with a list of measures given to me
some time ago.

After a season of prayer, the question was
suggested, " Now, what may I expect to receive
in answer?" One after another these measures

came.

Ist. I should expect to receive according to
the merits o". Jesus Christ, not according to my

*I have been strongly tempted to omit this illustration of
Abraham's prayer for Sodom as liable to annoy those who
have been accustomed to consider it almost a model prayer.
But the more I think of it, the more I see that it perfectly
applies, and I dare not pass it by. There is no fault found
with Abraham — that were presumptuous indeed. He is the
father of them that believe, but he had not mastered the
double secret of prevailing intercession. It was left to Jacob
to be the father of them that prevail. Abraham was a be-
liever, but Jacob was an intercessor. What the world wants
now is men who have mastered Jacob's secret.

}
^ j

i !"

106 rjSTjp ^r^ipr COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

own. He has taken mine, and fared accordingly,
even unto death. He has transferred His merits
to me, and I am to fare accordingly, even to a
share in His own place in the very heart of His
Father. If I am to receive according to the
merits of Jesus Christ, it is not humility to ex-
pect little.

2nd. I may expect to receive according to the
purchasing power of the blood of Christ in
God's sight. What that blood has purchased, I
have, in Christ, a business right to draw upon.
Seeing it is the Father who puts the value on
that blood, it must be something very like dis-
honoring both the Father and the Son for me to
expect little in answer to my prayer.

3rd. I may expect an answer according to the
efficient power of the Holy Ghost—" according
to the power that worketh in us." What God the
Son hath purchased, what God the Father hath
promised, that, God the Holy Ghost is able to
work out. The unbelief that expects little in
answer to prayer does definite dishonor to each
Person of the Trinity. We may "abound in
hope because of the power of the Holy Ghost,"

THE STORY OF BBBNEZSR.

107

expecting large things according to His omni-
potence in achievement.

4th. A new class of measurements. Let me
expect an answer to be measured out to me
according to my need in Qod's sight, not merely
according to my need in my own sight. If
Laodicea gets out of the unsearchable riches of
Christ simply according to her own estimate of
her needs, she will get very little ; but Jesus
Christ advises her to put in a claim upon Him,
having as its basis Hia estimate of her needs.
Faith for large things grows as we let go our
own thoughts about our needs, and let ourselves
be led into God's thoughts on that subject.

5th. But it is not only our own personal needs
that are to be supplied out of the fulness trea-
sured up in Christ. His cause in this world
needs from us at every point where it touches
us, a living testimony to the preciousness and
power of His salvation. We must be witnesses
for Christ, either true or false ones, wherever
we go. Are there not Christian men and
women, even real ones, so poor withal, so dis-

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108 THB NEW COVBNANT A LOST SECRET.

contented, so un-Christlike, that thoee round
about thein can never believe that their heritage
is a "goodly" one? Their daily life in con-
tinually bearing witness that what He hath
promised, He is not able to perform. There are
false witnesses among Christ's true followers
who blacken His honor far more than any
suborned men before the Jewish sanhedrim
could do. Does not the cause— the honor— of
our Lord in this worid require overflowing
grace to be measured out to us? When we
think of the need of Christ's cause as it touches
us, when we think of the illimitable, blood-
bought supplies, when we think of Omnipotence
ready to work in us and by us, slwll it be diffi-
cult to expect in answer to prayer, grace enough
at every step to make us ringing witnesses to
the honor of our Redeemer ? " What He hath
promised He ia able to perform."

6th. But there is a wider measure stiii. Think
of the measureless need of Christless souls
weeping and withering all over this sin-dark-
ened worid. Think of the hundreds of thou-

THE 8T0RT OF EBEXEZER.

109

sands who know not Christ, in every corner
of Christendom. Think of the hundreds of'
thoneands in Mohamme<l*n and Papal lands.
Think of the »uou8and million.* more of yearn-
ing, weary, blighted, hopeless lives in the outer
darkness where even Christ's name is unknown.
Shall we be content with anything short of the
measure of the 67th Psalm : " Ood be merciful
(«o merciful) and bless us (so bless), and cause
thy face to bhine upoki us (so to shine) that thy
way may be known upon earth, thy saving
health among all nations " ?

7th. But there is a wider measure yet. The
needs of the world, though measureless, are not
infinite. Let us expect an answer according to
the measure of the terms of the Covenant of
Grace. Adequate cleansing out of the infinite
fountain opened. Adequate life through the in-
finite light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. Adequate
power through the infilling of the infinite Spirit
of the infinite God Himself. The terms o' the
new covenant are like the love of which it is

"0 Tat SKW COrMlfAUT A LOST SKHtT.

" W te«h «. to pr,y - not only for o»r-
"^v.. but for th. Ch«„,h of Ch/., giving

pr»ue and • power in the earth.

CHAPTER XIII.

COVBNAyT PRAYBH FOR COVENANT
tBOPLB.

Ood's promises are the great teachers to guide
us in prayer. When we find a promise, we
know that it is His will to fulfil that promise,
and we may present, in simplest confidence and
perseverance, the covenant prayer for its fulfil-
ment.

If we would intercede fjr Qod s covenant
people, let us first find a pron . lo that has been
made to them. Take Isa. *3. 21 — 44. 8.

These sixteen verses are a highway for inter-
cession. They may be taken as applying to the
whole Israel of God, or to myself, as one of His
people, or to any part of His Church that may
be laid upon my heart or upon my care.

" This people have I formed for myself ; they
shall show forth my praise."
8 111

i V

112 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

Suppose it is my Sabbath School class I am
bringing before God, let me put it inside that
verse, and hear Him say, " This people have I
formed for myself: they shall shew forth my
praise."

This is strong consolation, if I may really
believe that the speaker means what He says.
We shall not follow that "if." It is placed
there simply that unbelief may see her own
face.

This is strong consolation. This class has the
Lord formed for Himself. His declared purpose
is, They shall show forth His praise.

But is there not some mistake ? There must
be some reference to character. It must be to
Philadelphia classes that this applies, not to
Laodicean ones.

There certainly is some reference to character.
The " people " in question are very particularly
described. Let me see if the description fits m'
class.

1. They are a people who are restraining
prayer. " But thou hast not called upon Me, O
Jacob." This fits Laodicea. "The rich and

COVENANT PRAYER.

113

increased with goods " do not call much upon
God. It is the poor and needy who do that.
Does this fit my class ? Then they may be the
people.

2. As to love, this is God's description of
them, which could not well be worse. " Thou
hast been weary of me, O Israel." Does this fit
my poor class ? Have I ever been painfully
conscious that they are weary of instruction,
weary of even the sweetest invitations, weary
of the choicest dainties on Christ's table ?
Surely this does fit my class. Surely they must
be the people.

3. Those God is describing are slack as to
service. Their offerings are conspicuous either
by their absence or their smallness. "Thou hast
not honored me with thy sacrifices ; thou hast
not filled me with thy sacrifices." Does this fit
my class ? Are their collections small ? Does
their self-denial in the cause of Christ require
a microscope to discover it ? This must be the
very people God is speaking of.

4. But there is another mark yet. They are
not only slack in prayer, and slack in love, and

114 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

slack in service. They are laden with positive
sin besides. " Thou hast made me to serve with
thy sins ; thou hast wearied me with thine
iniquities." Does this fit my class ? Do I see
sin among them that makes my heart faint ?
Verily, there can be no doubt now. This class
of mine is the very people God is speaking of,
and He says, " I have formed them for myself,
they shall shew forth my praise."

Surely this is a mystery ! such a statement
concerning such a people ! No, it is not a mys-
tery. We are told plainly in the next verse
after this description just how it is going to be
done.

Thank God, He does not lay the work on us.
He does not say, "Go and teach them to be
better." That would plunge us into a mystery
at once, for most of us have learned already that
we have no power at all to fulfil such a task.

But He does not say that, He says something
quite different. He says, " I, even /, am He that
blotteth out thy trangressions for mine own
sake."

What are we specially taught by these words,
"even /" in this promise ?

COVENANT PRAYER.

115

These words, " even I" in this promise, teach
us that God, who knoweth the heart of man,
taketh notice of and is much grieved with, the
mistake of looking to anyone else to do this
work but Himself.

Let these words, even I, be written out in
large capital, illuminated letters. Let them be
written out so that no reader can miss them.
For God has announced ^hat He is going to do
this thing, but nobody else needs to try it.

Now let me look at this Laodicean class of
mine. He has undertaken adequately to meet
its sinfulness — to blot out its prayerlessness, its
weariness, its selfishness, its positive iniquity,
and to do it for His own sake, so that, instead
of being a blot on the glory of His salvation,
they shall be a " praise en ihe earth."

Is not this good news ? He does not tell me
to do it. He does not say they must do it them-
selves. He says He will do it. Is not this
good news ?

Why does He not do it, then ? is the weary
response of many a discouraged worker.

If He is not doing it in my class, it must be
from one of two reasons.

116 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

It may be I have been very earnestly trying
to do myself that which He has announced to
be His peculiar work. He has said, " They shall
not teach every man his neighbor, and every
man his brother, saying. Know the Lord." He
will do that, and it shall he done. Perhaps,
forgetting that emphatic statement, I have been
trying to teach that class myself to " know the
Lord." If that is the case, then God cannot get
at it. His glory He will not give to ar* *-her.
2nd. It may be that I have forgotten to read and
act on the next verse, " Put me in remembrance."
God has promised todo the work, but He has given
us as our part to "put Him in remembrance " of
what He has undertaken to do. If I have been
trying to do the work myself, instead of humbly
and expectantly taking my place as His re-
membrancer, as He has appointed, is it any
wonder that my class remains prayerless, and
weary, and selfish, and defiled ?

Now it is plain that the whole purpose of
God relative to promise and prayer would be
frustrated if the promises were to be fulfilled
apart from intelligence or appropriation in

COVENANT PRAYER.

117

prayer on the part of those to whom they are
made. A promise that is not underatood, not
appropriated, and not pre^nted, lie? a dead
letter, exactly like a cheque that may be carried
about in the pocket but is never presented to the
bank teller. No one can fatten on bank cheques,
but oneself and the poor all around may fatten
on what bank cheques shall procure when
properly presented.

Each clause of the 26th verse is worthy of
close ttudy. " Put me in remembrance," with
its emphatic double, "Let us plead together."
These are best studied l)y taking them up and
doing it regarding some specific portion of God's
Israel, be it a Sunday School class, a family, or
any other that may be lying on our heart.

" Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified."
For years these two clauses meant nothing to
I could not see the force of them. Now

me:

they mean, " Plead guilty, that you may
receive the effectual blotting-out promised."
Plead guilty to the prayerlessness, the luke-
warmness, the selfishness, the sin, of which I am
accusing my people. Take your place, you and

mmmm

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118 THJB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

yours, as in direful netd of this eflFectual " blot-
tin^-out," thxit you may be justified, that the
promise may be fulfilled in your case.

The sin and misery of the people to whom
this promise is made are amplified in the last
two verses of the 43rd chapter. The Divine
power and fulness of the cure are amplified in
the first eight verses of the 44th chapter. There
is no need to explain these. The Spirit-taught
will understand them better by deciphering
them under His own direct teaching. Those who
are not Spirit-taught will fail to get their force
from the most lucid explanation. But they are
rich and glorious. They are " God's full flood,"
such a fountain of living water for Christian
parents.

These sixteen verses constitute what I like to
think of as one of the Isaiah forms of the new
covenant. They are a highway for intercession
in behalf of the whole Israel of God, literal or
spiritual, or both.

We can best reach the needy wilderness by
giving God no rest till He fulfil these promises,
—till He establish, till He make Jerusalem a
praise on the earth.

CHAPTER XIV.

COVENANT PRAYER FOR THE WILDERNESS.

Can we use the new covenant promises as a
basis of intercession for those who are unmis-
takably "aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of
promise " ?

They are certainly not included in its terms,
and it is a matter worthy of the most careful
study whether there is any way whereby this
" children's bread " can be lawfully laid hold of
for the "dogs."

Whatever answer may be given to that ques-
tion, there is no need to postpone definite, pre-
vailing intercession for these "aliens" to its
affirmative settlement. Here is a " wilderness "
promise which the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken. It is therefore exactly as solid a basis

119

120 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

for covenant prayer as any oovenar aiise

that ever was written.

"The wilderness and' the solitary place ahall
be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice
and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom
abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and sing-
ing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto
it ; the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They
shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excel-
lency of our God."

There are three parties spoken of in this
promise. 1st The wilderness workers, to whom
the promise is made. 2nd. The wilderness itself,
for which the promise is made. 3rd. The out-
shining of the glory of the Lord, hy means of
which the promise shall be fulfilled.

1st. This promise, like all the rest, is made to
the " heirs of promise." It belongs especially to
those members of God's covenant household
who have taken as their field of labor, or their
field of intercession, the outside wilderness,
wherever it may be found, among our own
neglected and lapsed masses, or in the wild
stretches of heathenism itself. It belongs in-

COVENANT PRAYER.

121

deed equally to all Qod's people, but, according
to the nature He has given us, it will be appro-
priated and turned into reality only by those
who have an appetite for it — only by those
whose hearts are going out in yearning desire
for blessing to the wilderness. Those who are
content with blessing 'or themselves will leave
it a dead letter in Qod's book.

To you, dear wilderness worker and wilder-
ness intercessor, this promise is made. Read it,
study its separate clauses, and see the breadth
and length and depth and height of it, for tru}y
it is like the love of Him who gave it — there is
no limit to it.

The wilderness is to be glad because of you ;
it is to rejoice and blossom as the rose through
you. It is to blossom abundantly because you
have lived and labored ; it is to rejoice even with
joy and singing because you have believed and
prayed and prevailed.

What sort of results are here promised ? and
shall we be content with less ?

These are glorious promises, and shall yet
reverberate in echoes from the Andes to the

122 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

Himalayas and the Mountains of the Moon.
But there is an explicitness about the next
clauses that will awaken glad echoes in the
heart of Christ's workers beyond even the noise
of the singing. Let us study the bold descrip-
tion given of the results this promise warrants
us to claim from Him whose zeal is waiting to
perform.

The glory of Lebanon "shall be given" unto the
wilderness. The thorns and briers shall be
turned into forests of cedars of Lebanon. What
a prospect ! Converts whose vigor and stability
suggest to the eye of God, who is drawing the
picture, the very monarch of the mountain !
These are not weaklings. Instead of the thorn
shall come up the fir-tree, even the cedar-tree,
and it shall be to the Lord for a name. What
arguments to bring before our God for converts
that shall be " to the praise of the glory of His
grace." He is able to give them to those who,
upon His word of promise, are able to expect
them. But He cannot give them to those who
cannot expect them. He is then actually
straitened, a fountain without a channel, or with

COVENANT PRAYER.

a channel like a straw, where he has riven
promised and all ready to pour forth.

"The excellency o' Carmel" shall be given
unto tlie wilderness. Carmel fruitfulness, vine-
yard reproductiveness. The woman of Samaria
was a Carmel Christian. "Many believed c
Him for the saying of the woman." The "little
maid " in Syria was of the Carmel type. She
" so spake" that Naam&n " believed."

"The excellency of Sharon" shall be given
unto the wilderness. Beauty and fragrance.
" I am the Rose of Sharon," says our Lord. The
excellency of Sharon is the "beauty of the
Ix)rd " — the very character of Christ over again.
Joseph exhibits the Sharon type, beautiful and
fragrant, spotless and beneficent, a rose of God's
own gardening.

This is one of God's peculiar climaxes.
Through cedar converts the heart is made glad ;
through Carmel converts Christ's kingdom
comes ; but through Sharon converts God him-
self is made known to men. It is through the
prevalence and power of the Sharon Christians
that the earth shall be covered with the know-

THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

; !

ledge of the glory of the Lord m the waters
cover the sea.

These are the converts promised to Christ's
wildemeoB workers. Not weaklings, not feeble
specimens that must be put up with for a
generation or two till they begin to evolve
Christian characteristics, but converts after the
noblest patterns What argur^ents to bring
before Ood for converts who shall prove their
origin, and be to the Lord for a name, an ever-
lasting sign that shall not be cut off! He is
waiting to give them to those who, upon His
word of promise, are able to expect them ; but
He cannot give them to those who cannot expect
them.

2nd. Though this marvellous promise is mani-
festly made to the people of God. it is quite as
manifestly full charged with blessing /or the
wilderness. Blessing of largest measure to every
kindred and people and tongue and nation is
bound up in the heart of our God. But Kow can
it reach the outlying wilderness except through
His be?ieving people as a channel ?

Some one has said what the curse which had

COVENANT PRAYER.

135

to be pronounced on sinful man, directed by the
hand that loved man, " fell slant." and descended
on the ground instead, and the earth became a
wilderness of thorns and bricm. Now, when
the same heart of love does its congenial work
and aims blessing for the moral wilderness, that,
too, must " fall slant " in a promise to His own
people, for it is only through them that blessing
can reach the region of the curse.

What is wanted in order that the covenant
riches treasured up in Christ should leap out
and cover the world's wilderness with glory, is
channels — those who, already in covenant with
God, will look at the promise, will believe it and
claim it, and " obtain " it in actual fulfilment.

But how can oruinary, staggering Christian
faith be strengthened to believe and obtain such
large promises as these? The promise itself
explains it, for it states —

3rd. The means by which it is going to be
fulfilled. It is by the outshining of the glory
of the Lord. They all shall know Him, from thf;
least of them to the greatest of them. " They
shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excel-
lency of our God."

126

THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

•*

K
't

•A
•J
if

In studying this promise, it will be readily
seen that there are two pronouns used, they and it.
It will also be easily seen that when " they " is
used Christ's workers are spoken of, and when
"it" is mentioned the wilderness is denoted.
" They shall see the glory of the Lord." They—
the wilderness workers— " they have seen the
glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our
God," and therefore they have had faith to be-
lieve and obtain the promise and so to turn the
wilderness into a garden of the Lord. They
have been able to do it in this way. The glori-
ous Lord has promised it. They have so appre-
hended the glory of that glorious Lord that
they have believed He meant what He said.
They have taken hold for the fulfilment and
received it. Those who do not see the glory of
the Lord 8tagger at the largeness of the promise
and fail.

This is the right end of the promise to take
hold of first. " Show me, Lord, according to thy
word, thy glory, that I may be able to grasp
the breadth and length and depth and height of
this promise."

COVENANT PRATER.

127

that men would see the connection there is
Vntweiiu tb?se two. The worker that knows
ittle of the ^^lory of the Lord can believe but a
l'»tle of th<j promise, and so can pass but a
meagre share of blessing to the wilderness. But
the soul that knows much of the glory of the
Lord, the excellency of our God, he can believe
anything God has said, and he can be a channel
full to overflowing of life and power to all
around him. ''They that dwell under his
shadow shall return; they shall revive as the
com and grow as the vine, and the scent thereof
shall be as the wine of Lebanon."

What is this glory of the Lord that must be
manifested to all effective wilderness workers ?

In its amplest meaning, it is the name, the
character of the Lord. When Moses pressed
close to his Divine Friend with the petition,
"I beseech thee, show me thy glory," God
proclaimed His name before him. This was
His glory. And the name proclaimed was
simply a Divine setting forth of His own char-
acter. "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in
9

...

128 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thou-
sands, forgiving iniquity and transgresfiion and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty ;
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation."

This is the Lord's own way of showing His
glory, just allowing His divine character in all
its attributes to shine out into the intelligence
and soul of the worshipper, so that he shall
know his God. So to see the glory of the Lord
is to be changed into the same image from glory
to glory, and the wilderness worker that has so
seen the glory of the Lord, and so been trans-
formed into the very image of Christ, shall
surely do the work of Christ with the power of
Christ.

But I think I see a definiteness in this expres-
sion which, to me, greatly increases the power
of it.

Though the amplest meaning of "the glory
of the Lord " is undoubtedly His full, glorious
character in all its attributes, have we any
foundation in Scripture for setting up any one
of His attributes as being, in a special sense, the

COVENANT PRAYER.

129

glory of the Lord. The knowledge of the cove-
nant is the secret ; is there any attribute which
God himself has placed as the glory ?

In the 138th Psalm we find the expression,
" Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy
name." The name of the Lord is the glory of
the Lord, and here it is expressly stated that He
has magnified His word above the whole of it.
That certainly looks as if, as far as this world is
concerned, He sets His truth, His faithfulness,
as the highest attribute of all.

Years ago I complained to a friend that, though
I found it easy and sweet to trvM God, my love
for Him was coldness itself. The answer was,
What God wants from His people now, more
than anything else, is that they shall put faith
in Him. Love will come as we know Him
better. When we shall see Him as He is, we
shall love Him with all our heart. But there is
nothing He wants from us now as He wants
faith."

Now, faith in God is the soul's response to
apprehended faithfulness. If, then, God has made
faith the requisite in a Christian life, He must

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130 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

have set His own faithfulness, which alone can
inspire faith, as the glory of His revealed
character.

Again, in the Apocalyptic vision of the ever-
lasting glory, the one ornament round about the
throne is the rainbow halo. God has Himself
put it past doubt what that means, as tho rain-
bow must forever stand as a symbol of His
covenant faithfulness. By this marvellous
touch of His divine pencil has He not written
in illuminated letters under His own faithful-
ness, " The glory of the Lord, the excellency of
our God?"

But there is a crowning proof that the glory
of the Lord is His faithfulness. In Rev. 11, 15,
there is a song sung in heaven, " The kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our
Lord and of his Christ." The next three verses
give the Amen to that song given by the four
and twenty elders. The next verse is, " And
the temple of God was opened in heaven, and
there was seen in his temple the ark of his
Testament, and there were lightnings and voices
and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great
hail." Then there were results.

COVENANT PRAYER.

131

Is it fanciful to infer from this pspssage that
the sight of the Testament, the apprehension of
God's faithfulness and that to which it is pledged,
the sight of " the glory of the Lord, and the ex-
cellency of our God" — that that vision is the
cause, and the conquest of the kingdoms for
Christ is the result ?

If this passage stood alone, it might be deemed
insufficient warrant for such a conclusion. But
it does not stand alone. Compare with it the
triumphant vision in the 19th of Revelations,
beginning at the 11th veree. Here again we
have heaven opened. This time it is not the
ark of the Testament that is seen, it is the Tes-
tator Himself. "And, behold, a white horse,
and He that sat upon him was called Faithful
and True. . . . And He had a name written
that no man knew but He Himself. . . . And
His name is called the Word of God." To the
armies that followed, the conspicuous double
name of their Captain is but one, it is the ap-
prehended faithfulness, pledging the apprehend-
ed promise, the faithfulness and truth of tne
living God backing the whole Word of God. It

! \\\

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132 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

I {

is well to notice that this Rider has a further
name, beyond the double title written in plain
lettera But the breadth and length and depth
and height of that name " no man knoweth but
He Himself." Enough for the armies that follow
Him to see Him as Faithful and True, and to
see the Word of God as identical with Himself,
even His very Name. Truly as the Captain of
the finally- victorious hosts He has "magnified
his word above all His name." These hosts
have all had their eyes opened to see in very
deed " the glory of the Lord, and the excellency
of our God," and " the kingdoms of this world
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Christ."

So the wilderness waits in its death and mis-
ery until Christ's people have their eyes opened
to see the faithfulness of God pledging every
word of God, so that, in following a promise
they are following Himself. Dr. Mackay, of
Formosa, saw the glory of that Rider upon the
white horse. "I cannot be discouraged," he
said, " because Jesus Christ my Lord is God the
Creator, and because Ood means every word He

COVENANT PRAYER.

133

saya." Those who so ree the glory of the Lord
have power through Him to conquer, because
their heart is enlarged to claim His largest
promises and to " obtain " them.

What we "want is simply to see that God
means every word He says, and that the blood of
Jesus Christ is gloriously ample ground for the
claiming a^ our own the richest promises He
has written. What channels of blessing will
open for the wilderness when Christ's workers
learn these two things ! Then the rod of His
power shall go forth out of Zion, and the world
shall become His own.

" Lord, that our eyes may be opened, accord-
ing to Thy Word."

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1 1

:l '

CHAPTER XV.

DOES THE F08SE8SI0N OF A COVENANT WITH

GOD ENSURE THE FULFILMENT OF

THE SAME?

Facts will best answer this question.

Esau was in legal possession of the covenant
heritage of the sa^reti family. But he despised
it. and sold his interest in it for a mess of pot-
tage.

The people who marched out of Egypt after
the pillar of cloud were in full possession of the
covenant sworn to Abraham. God Himself fed
them with it, wh^n they "were broken with
anguish of heart and cruel bondage." " Say to
the children of Israel. I am the LORD, and I
will bring you out from under the bondage, and
I will redeem you, and I will take you unto me
for a people, and I will bring you in unto the

134

POSSESSION OF A COVENANT.

135

land concerninff which I sware to give it to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give
it you for an heritage. I am the LORD."

" Moses so spake unto the children of Israel,
hui they hearkened not" There is the key-note
of their whole wilderness conduct Instead of
welcoming the covenant promise, twice over
signed with the Jehovah signature, and rejoicing
in it, and meeting all their diflBculties with it, as
abundant security for them against every threat-
ened disaster, they hearkened not, they be-
lieved not, they rejoiced not, and they entered
not. Thus they dishonored God's covenant until
the oath that had been their title to the land of
promise became the impassable bar against their
ever entering it, for " He sware in His wrath.
They shall not enter into my rest."

They entered not because of unbelief. They
did not, they could not, forget the covenant God
had made to bring them into the good land, but
they never seriously believed that He stood
pledged to tax all His divine resources to do it
for them. As soon as they realized that they
could not conquer the land by their own might,

136 THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET
they at once gave up hope of ever getting it
doing thereby deepest dishonor to the God who'
had given His word and His oath that He would
put them in possession.

To this day many fall short of their full cove-
nant inheritance for exactly the same reason
They really do not believe that God intends to
do for them what He has promised, and " they
enter not because of their unbelief."

But is there not a vast number who fail for a
different reason? They do not actively dis-
believe the covenant, for they have never known
that they are in possession of one. They do
aot know it, they do not claim it. and ho they
cannot enter into the fulfilment of it. You can-
not speak of that as unbelief. It is only for-
getfulness, or simple ignorance. But a cheque
forgotten will be as inoperative for blessing as
a cheque distrusted.

There is a point here that needs definite
attention and discrimination. Many fall into
the mistake of speaking of God's promises as
sure of fulfilment because of their utter reliabil-
ity. The cheque illustrates this point perfectly.

POSSESSION OF A COVENANT. 137

It may be in full legal poeaeasion. It may be as
reliable as the Bank of England, and conceiv-
ably as rich. But if it is either distrusted or
forgotten, so that it is never presented, it yields
not a farthing to the possessor. As regards the
promises, in veritable dead earnest, "accord-
ing to your faith be it unto you." He who
believes only a little of their infinite fulness
gets only a little, while he who is ever seeking
to reach out after God's great thoughts in His
great words, will be able to comprehend, and to
apprehend the breadth and length and depth
and height of the fulness of God treasured up
for him in these promises, though it forever
passes knowledge.

The following three chapters exhibit the tre-
mendous consequences of this forgetfulness
concerning the existence of covenant hold upon
God. They occupy a unique position to the rest
of this volume. They are really the germ out
of which the book has sprung.

{

msBasm

CHAPTER XVI.

THE TREATY OF ABABAT A FOBOOTTEN
WEAPON AGAINST FAMINE.

Famine in Eaat Africa! Famine in China I
Famine in Central India ! It makes one afraid
to thmk. What must be the prolonged com-
plication of miseries when it can be said that
hundreds, thousands, even millions of parents
and little children have died of starvation, and
the ulcers and fevers which it breeds ? War is
terrible, but famine is worse.

What weapons have we to wield against this
monster misery ? Money may do much. Wise
legislation may do more. But unless some
more powerful weapon than either of these is
found, famine will yet many times over slay his
tens of thousands.

Is there a more effective weapon than these ?

138

THE TREATY // ARARAT.

1S»

For the last three years the writer has been
deeply impressed by the thought that there lies
an article— a long forgotten article— in the
Treaty of Ararat, which, if called to remem-
brance, and honestly claimed in terms of the
Treaty, would effectufkUy protect from famine
any part of this earth inliAoited by the descend-
ants of Noah.

Before passing this over as a delusion or a
joke, will the reader first carefully consider the
Scripture account of that Treaty of Ararat, or
God's covenant with Noah.

As Noah stepped out of the ark upon the
smiling, but depopulated earth, he gathered his
family about him for a most remarkable act of
worship.

His heart, as the father of all the human
tribes that should ever re-inhabit the earth, was
loaded with fears that could find no relief but
in a sacrifice, and that the completest sacrifice
that it was in the power of man to present.
Every clean beast and every clean bird was
represented upon that altar. What could he do
more to secure a sacrifice worthy of the occa-

■Mf

140 THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

sion ? In that judiciously elaborate sacrifice it
is easy to see the intelligent worshipper reach-
ing out toward a sacrifice that should be
adequate indeed-the heart awakened to the
sinfulness and danger of sin in himself and in
his household through all their coming genera-
tions, reaching out, perhaps blindly, to the
perfect and all-suflScient sacrifice of Christ

The "Ame principle is to be seen in God's own
arrangements for the great Day of Atonement.
A bullock, a ram, and a slain and a living goat
—all these enter into the expiatory ordinances
of the day, each doing its own part in fore-
shadowing the complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
This is not Solomon's plan of ostentatiously
multiplying the number of victims. It is Noah's,
presenting a representative of each of the'
animals appointed for sacrifice.

The same principle appears in the variety of
animals whose shed blood lies at the foundation
of the covenant made with Abraham— a heifer,
a she-goat, a ram, a turtle dove, and a young
pigeon. (Gen. 15. 9.)
As the oflferer was thus reaching out toward

THE TREATY OF ARARAT.

141

the blood of Christ m the offering, God smelled
a sweet savor in it, and gave a most marvellous
covenant on account of it. The blood of the
sacrifice is the " blood of the covenant" : that is,
it is the ground on which it was given, and
upon which it stands, and upon which it can
be claimed. The rainbow in the clouds is its
token.

With such a foundation for this covenant, no
surprise need be felt if the blessings contained
in it for the descendants of Noah should be sur-
passing great. With such a seal set to it as the
many-colored arc of the circle of glory surround-
ing the very throne of God (Rev. 4. 3 ; Ezek.
1. 28), we are meant to understand that these
blessings are secured to us with a certainty for
which that very throne itself is given us as
surety. When God says to Noah and his sons,
" I will look upon the bow that I may remember
the everlasting covenant." He indicates that
there is continuous blessing in it for all genera-
tions of men, that He wants them to remember
this, and is continually summoning them to
remember it every time He sets His bow in the
clouds.

■H

142 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

The general impression seems to be that the
only benefit deeded to the race by this rainbow-
sealed covenant is protection from another uni-
versal deluge. Man has forgotten that there is
vastly more in it than this. Here is one of the
promises it contains : " While the earth remain-
eth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, and
summer and winter, and day and night, shall
not cease."

If this is a covenant promise to Noah and his
seed, then the fulfilling of it is a treaty right,
and can be claimed and obtained by the descend-
ants of Noah in any part of the earth. But this
claim must be grounded upon the sacrificial
blood, on account of which at first the covenant
was given, and through which alone it can be
validly claimed.

When the showers are withheld, and there is
no seed-time, as has been the case in both India
and China, it is time for those who believe in
the God of Noah to gather together to remind
Him of His promise, and claim, as a blessed cove-
nant right, the fulfilling of it. Then He will
look upon the bow (He need wait for no showers

THE TREATY OF ARARAT.

143

or clouds for that look, for the rainbow is the
one ornament round about His throne continu-
ally,) and remember His covenant, and this
special term of it, — " Seed-time and harvest shall
not cease."

The sinfulness or holiness of the people
to be benefited does not, it seems to me,
enter into the question. The covenant is made
out to the descendants of the man who offered
that complete sacrifice on Mount Ararat. It can
be claimed by or for any of Noah's seed. The
righteousness of Noah or his seed was not the
ground on which the covenant was given. The
blood of that Christ-foreshadowing sacrifice
was God's ground for giving it, and that must
be the simple and all-sufiicient ground for claim-
ing it and the fulfilment of any one of its
promises.

If these things are so, then, when rain is
needed for a proper seed-time, it is not mere
prayer that is wanted, in the ordinary meaning
of that word, it is the bold putting in of a cove-
nant claim to a precious covenant right, to be
claimed a8c2«8cenc^anfoo/i\roaA,and on the ground

of aacrifieial blood. For the abundant answer
io

144 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

"of such covenant prayer in the signal fulfilment
of such covenant promise, we are to take the rain-
bow in the clouds as our covenant pledge, and
be as sure of the answer before it comes as we
are after. So shall we honor God's covenant
and enjoy it, and famine shall be baffled at
every turn he makes. Besides that, the Bible
shall take its place in simplicity as the Word of
God in the earth.

If these things are so, is it not true that the
Treaty of Ararat should be exhumed from the
archives of the past ? Is it not time that its
terms should be made a matter of study and of
honest experiment ? May it not be that God,
who yearns over the human race with a pity
that is Divine and infinite, has found it neces-
sary to send famine after famine upon the
world, that His people, long dead to the gentle
reminders of the ever-recurring rainbow, may
at last be waked up by these thundering calls,
to remember His covenant, which has lain in
the Bible a dead letter for so many generations?
"Awake! awake! put on thy strength, O
Zion ; put on thy beautiful garments, Jeru-
salem."

CHAPTER XVII.

GOD'S COVENANT WITH THE GIBEONITES
-A FORGOTTEN WEAPON AGAINST SAUL.

If God's covenant with Noah is still in force
(and it must be, so long as the rainbow bedecks
the clouds), then the one reason why famine
gets hold upon any part of this earth is that
Noah's sons have forgotten it. Forgetfulness
is a fruitful source of loss in every direction ;
but when it comes to forgetfulness of such a
covenant promise as this, " Seed-time and har-
vest shall not cease," and the consequent loss of
the fulfilment of the same, it is surely time
that stupid memories should be stirred up into
activity.

It is no new thing for man thus to forget his
covenant opportunities with God. A sorrowful
instance of just such forgetfulness, preceded by

145

146 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

a signal instance of the opposite conduct, is to
be found in the story of the Gibeonites.

The inhabitants of Gibeon, in the days of
Joshua's conquests, in spite of difficulties that
seemed insuraountable, had succeeded in secur-
ing a covenant or league with the people of
Israel and the God of Israel.

It was a narrow affair, securing only their
lives, not their liberties, for it left them bond-
men to the sacred people. But it was like all
God's covenants with men. it was sure.

As soon as it was known in Canaan that
Gibeon had gone over to Israel, all the kings of
the hills, and of the valleys, gathered together

against them.

What could the Gibeonites do ?

They knew right well what to do. They had
a (tenant, and they promptly claimed it. It
was no vague cry for mercy that was sent to
Gilgal. It was the bold, almost imperative,
covenant claim. " Slack not thy hand from thy
servants; come up to us quickly, and save us
and help us : for all the kings of the Amorites
are gathered together against us."

COVENANT WITH THE OIBEONJTES. H7

The answer to this covenant-prayer was just
what you would expect when the covenant-
faithfulness of the living God was involved.
Joshua, with the ringing assurances of his God
in his ears, marched all night In the morning
he came upon Gibeon's enemies suddenly. " And
the Lord discomfited them before Israel. . . .
And the Lord cast down great stones from
heaven upon them. . . . Then Joshua spake,
Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou,
moon, in the valley of Aijalon. And the sun
stood still, and the moon stayed." All this was
G^^'i's answer to the cry of the people, who
remembered in their time of need that they had
a covenant, and put in their claim for its fulfil-
ment

But these poor Gibeonites were not always so
wise. Years went by. Generation after gener-
ation lived and died, and the covenant at first
so eagerl/ sought and so dearly prized, came to
be only an old story amongst them. Israel
asked a kin/:', and God gave Saul. This warrior
king was full of crooked blunders. He was
slack in dealing with the Amalekites, whom

U8 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

Qod had doomed wi^h a sentence of death ; and
he was cruel in his dealings with the Oibeonites,
whom Qod had fenced round with a covenant of
life.

But what did he care for the covenant made
with the cities of Canaan five hundred years
before ? Perhaps he cared just about as much
as the Salisbury Qovemment to-day would care
for a treaty made with the gipsies by Richard II.
one hundred years before the discovery of
America, especially if the treaty was one which
the gipsies themselves had forgotten. How
much attention would the politicians of to-day
pay to such a treaty ? Just about as much did
Saul pay to the covenant with the Oibeonites.
If some warning voices were raised amongst his
people, he paid no heed. He looked only to the
(supposed) interests of his own people, and
turned his murderous might against the stran-
gers.

What should Gibeon have done the moment
she saw Saul's evil eye upon her ? Just exactly
what she did in Joshua's days. Right up into
the ears of Jehovah she should have sent the

COVENANT WITH THE 0IBE0NITE8. U9

old covenant cry, " Slack not thy hand from thy
servants: come up to us quickly, and save us
and help us, for the king of Israel himself has
gathered his armies together against us." The
Lord's hand was not shortened, neither was His
ear heavy; but He listened in vain for that
covenant cry, and Saul did his deadly work
unhindered— deadly work for the Gibeonites,
for their blood reddened the land, and deadly
work for Israel, for that shed blood cried aloud
to heaven for judgment, and got it.

Saul's reign ended under the thunderstorms
of defeat and disaster. But all these calamities
did not settle for the blood of the Gibeonites.
David's reign ushered in victory and prosperity,
but the blood of the slaughtered Gibeonites was
not brought to mind. Year after year was
given to David, and his now peaceful kingdom,
to call to remembrance the violated covenant.
David had forgotten, and Israel had forgotten,
as well as the Gibeonites, all about that old
covenant. They all forgot that it was still in

force.

But God had not forgotten. His judgments

160 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

visited the land in the days of David three
years, year after year. And David enquired of
the Lord, and the Lord answered, "It is for
Saul, because he %lew the Oibeonites."

God had not forgotten, though Israel had
done so, and Qibeon too. Had the harassed
people remembered this covenant they could
have laughed at Saul's malice, as they had in
olden days defied the combined wrath of the
Canaanitish kings. But they foigot their cove-
nant, put in no covenant claim, and suffered to
the death in consequence. Truly, it is a serious
thing to forget a covenant It is as though
Englishmen were to forget their Magna Charta,
and so lose the liberties it had deeded over to
them.

Is not this latter story of the ibeonites a
perfect picture of the position of the whole
human race relative to the ravages of famine ?
They have forgotten the treaty of Ararat. Four
thousand years have buried it out of sight, and
out of mind The rainbow is still hung in the
skv ; God still looks on it and remembers His
CO jnant ; but man looks on it, and only says,

COVENANT WITH THE OIBEONtTES. IBl

" How pretty ! " When the rains are withheld,
God listens in vain for the covenant cry. Noah's
descendants have forgotten the treaty made
with their father in their behalf. They do not
know its terms, they put in no claim on the
strength of it, and famine works his will in the
earth as Saul worked his will among the
Qibeonites.

CdAPTER XVIII.

2 .;; . !>• COVBNANT-A FORGOTTEN
WE2 f'O ' AGAINST SIN AND SATAN.

In the two preceding chapters, two other for-
gotten covenants have been touched upon — the
covenant with Noah, a forgotten weapon againnt
famine, and the covenant with the Gibeonites,
a forgotten weapon against Saul. Here is a
third, the breadth and length and depth and
height of which is like the love of Him who
gave it, it " passeth knowledge." The terms of
it are exceeding broad, the security for it is the
faithfulness of the everlasting God Himself,
committed in the two immutable things in which
it is impossible that God should lie. His word
backed by His oath. The pledge of this security
is the rainbow in the clouds, symbol of the
throne itself, referred to in the expression, " thy

152

THE NEW COVENANT.

163

faithfulness round about thee." The peculiar
seal of this covenant is the accepting of the
wine at the communion feast. When Christ
gave the wine to His disciples that Passover
night He said of it, "This cup is the new
covenant in my blood; drink ye all of it"
Those who intelligently accept that cup do, at
the same time accept that covenant in all the
breadth of its terms and the security of their
fulfilment.

But what multitudes of believers could ex-
press their ignorance of these things as the
Ephesian Christians did concerning the Holy
Ghost ? "We have not heard whether there be
any new covenant." The covenant is forgotten,
its term9 are not understood, its absolute reli-
ability is not even a matter of thought, and so
the fulness of blessing and power s. < ured in it
to the followers of Jesus Christ is not enjoyed.

This is not too strong a statement. The ful-
ness of blessing and pow^r deeded over to us in
that new covenant ir- no ev joyed in the Church.
Anyone who cares enough about these things to
study the three great cov^-isant promises), as they

184 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

are expressed in Jer. 31. 32, 34, quoted in Heb. 8.
10-12, or in Ezek. 36. 25-27, can easily see that
there is a completeness, a radicalness, a power, in
these promises that is seldom to be met with as
fulfilled in the actual life of actual, present-day
Christiana

Has God promised more than He is able to
perform ? That is not the explanation of the
failure of seed-time and harvest, but man has
forgotten the covenant in which these things are
deeded over to him. That is not the explanation
of Saul's destructive power over the Gibeonitea
They had forgo^/»n the covenant in which the
faithfulness and power of Jehovah were com-
mitted for their protection. That is not the
reason either that sin and Satan are too strong
for the Church, and for the individual believer.
They, too, have forgotten that they have a
covenant — that they have covenant right to all
the mercy and all the grace necessary to make
them more than conquerors through Him.

Let us see what God covenants to do for us in
His three great covenant promises, as they are
expressed in Ezek. 30. 26-27.

THE NEW COVENANT.

155

1st. He undertakes Himself thoroughly to
deal with aU our undeanness. " Then will /
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall he
clean. From aU your filthiness and from all
your idols will I cleanse you." Why, then, are
we not cleansed ? Has Qod undertaken to do
what He is not able to do ? Or have we forgot-
ten that He has undertaken to do it ?

2nd. He has undertaken Himself thoroughly
to deal with our hearts. " A new heart also will
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within
you ; and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of
flesh." Why, then, are so many true Christians
mourning hearts of stone ? — hearts that will not
love Qod and that do not know how to melt to-
ward our neighbor ? Has God undertaken to do
what is too much even for Him ? Or have we for-
gotten that He has undertaken to accomplish
this thing in us ?

3rd. He has undertaken to fill us with the
very Spirit of Jesus Christ Himself. " And I
will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my

166 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

judgments and do them." In this promise He
covenants that our spirit shall be the very Spirit
of Christ, that our walk shall be step h^ step, in
His statutes, that our actions shall be the doing
or acting out of His judgments. Why is not all
this fulfilled in our daily life and experience ?
Has God undertaken to do what He is unable to
do ? Or have we again forgotten that He has
undertaken to do it ?

Is not this the woeful mistake that is being
made? We are continually trying to cleanse
ourselves, and of course we fail. We are work-
ing away to soften our own hearts, and they
remain as hard and cold and dead as ever. We
are wearily trying to live out the life of Jesus
Christ, while our own spirit is prompting every
action. Is it not time that we should remember
that all those matters are undertaken for us by the
everlasting God the Lord, who has pledged His
covenant honor that He will do them for us and
in us ?

Sin has the mastery over us as Saul had the
mastery over the Gibeonites, because we have
forgotten, as they did, that there is a covenant

THE NEW COVENANT.

167

of the Lord between us, and thai oar business is
continuously and joyfully to hold Him to His
covenant.

Sin and Satan have the mastery over our
children for the same reason. We have forgot-
ten that this covenant is like all God's cove-
nants with men, it is "to us and to our children."
Do they need cleansing? Let us confess
their sins and our own, especially our own as
they concern the children. Let us next lay our
finger upon His covenant promise. *' Then will
I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall
be clean." Let us look up in His face and say,
" Do it for us. Lord, Do <X8 Thou hast said."
It is a bold position, but it is the one He has
given us. When He gave us a covenant. He
gave a covenant right to the blessings promised,
and when we ask for them we ask for what is
already ours in covenant. For Him to with-
hold would be to break covenant obligation. So
we can press for them, and give Him no rest
until He give them in their fulness, saying
boldly, " In thy faithfulness answer me, and in
thy righteousness." And so, resting in His

158 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

glorious covenant faithfulness, we can sing His
praises for the answer before it comes, as the
psalfuist does in the 130th Psalm.

Some may object that this way of resting the
salvation of our household upon Qod's covenant
faithfulness will lead to carelessness in bringing
up the children. It is also supposed that resting
our sanctification upon God alone may lead to a
carelesfl and inert style of life. It is well known
that the same objection has always been urged
against resting our justification upon Qod alone.
Facts and phil(»9ophy both tell dead against such
an objection. It is those who shoulder their
own burdens and try to fight their own battles
who are continually sinking into discouragement
and sloth. It is little wonder. They are con-
tinually conscious of defeat, and there is nothing
takes the energy out of a soldier like that. Such
fighting will become slack.

Those who rest the responsibility where God
has placed it — on His own power and faithful-
ness—can rejoice with the joy of victory before
it comes, even in the midst of seeming defeat.
Victory that is theirr in covenant can be taken
hold of as theirs in fact

THE NEW COVENANT.

169

Such is the lawful portion of those who send
up the covenant cry against their enemies. They
may rejoice in faith as the Gibcooites did in fact
while they were watching the prolonged victory
of that double day — the sun standing still upon
Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Aijalon.

But to those who forget their covenant hold,
there may be, as to the Gibeonites in the days
of David, only some sorrowful testimony or
vindication of God's faithfulness — that He had
been remembering all the time, that He had
watched and waited in vain for the covenant cry
which would have made a highway for His love
and power to leap out for their deliverance.

It is a glorious thing to have a covenant hold
upon God and His resources ; but it is a most
calamitous thing to forget the fact in time of
need, and so to have to meet the foe in our own
strength, which is weakness.

SUPPLEMENTARY.

The following chapters are not an integral
part of this book, but are so related to it as to
render their presence important.

160

CHAPTER XIX.

BAPTISM AND TEE SHORTER CATECHISM.

Question 94. What is baptism ?

Answer. Baptism is a sacrament wherein the
washing with water, in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth
signify and seal our engrafting into Christ, and
partaking of the benefits of the covenant of
grace, and our engagement to be the Lord'a

Question 95. To whom is baptism to be ad-
ministered ?

Answer. Baptism is not to be administered to
any that are out of the visible Church till they
profess their faith in Christ and obedience to
Him ; but the infants of such as are members of
the visible Church are to be baptized.

Baptism is here declared to signify and seal
three things. It is also stated that the infants

161

162 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

of those who are members of the visible Church
are to be baptized. And there is not a note in
the whole explanation of the subject to indicate
that the ordinance in the case of infants, signi-
fies or seals less than in the case of adults.

May I here ask a question which each reader
will answer according to his own judgment on
the facts of his experience ? Is it usual amongst
us for a parent, as he presents his child for
baptism, to count that ordinance to signify and
seal its engrafting into Christ, its partaking of
the benefits of the covenant of grace, and its
engagement to be the Lord's ? If he fails to do
so, then either he or the catechism must be
wrong. It is a position very dear to the heart
of the writer that in this particular point our
catechism is right.

Baptism, in the case of an adult, ought to be
a real transaction between earth and heaven, in
which there is active faith in the word of God
on the part of the receiver of the ordinance,
and certain, responsive grace on the part of God,
If the faith be wanting, the baptism i mere
form, though a significant one. In the case of

BAPTISM AND SHORTER CATECHISM. 163

the infant, it ought still to be a real transaction
between earth and heaven, in which there is
active faith upon the word of God on the part
of the parent, and certain, responsive grace on
the part of God. If the faith be wanting, the
baptism is a mere form, though a significant one.
In the case of the infant it ought still to be a
real transaction between earth and heaven, in
which there is active faith upon the word of
God on the part of the parent, and certain re-
sponsive grace on the part of God. If the faith
be wanting, the baptism is a mere form, though
a significant one.

The efficacy of the ordinance in either case
depends upon faith in the word of God.

Here is a promise, " Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house."

Notice, there are two parts in this promise,
but they are equally true.

Individual faith in the first half of that
promise engrafts the believer into Christ, gives
him a right to all the benefits of the covenant
of grace, and implies his engagement to be the
Lord's, baptism which signifies and seals these
three is the right thing.

164 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

Parental faith in the laat half of that prom-
ise binds Qod's faithfulness to engraft the whole
household into Christ, giving that whole house-
hold a right to all the benefits of the covenant
of grace, and the making of them willing in the
day of His power to yield themselves wholly
over to be the Lord'a Is not baptism, which sig-
nifies and seals these three things, appropriate
in the case of such a household, and does it not
mean for the household exactly what it meant
for the individual ?

If the ordinance is administered in either case
without faith taking hold of Qod's faithfulness,
it is merely a form.

A parent so laying hold upon €k>d'8 promise
for his house has the same right to count the
Divine faithfulness pledged to engraft that
whole house into Christ that he has to count
himself engrafted into Christ The only differ-
ence is this : His faith for himself engrafts him
instantaneously, whereas his faith fo' his house-
hold may still leave the matter of time in Qod's
hand. He may be kept waiting for the fulfil-
ment of the promise as " those that watch for

BAPTISM AND SHORTER CATECHISM. 165

the morning." But he has a right to do his
watching as the night-watchers do theirs, in the
glad confidence that it is coming, and not one
moment behind time either. All the time he is
watching, he can in faith count it his already,
deeded over to him in the word of promise,
sealed to the child in the ordinance of baptism.
He can mingle prayer with heartfelt thanksgiv-
ing for the answer which has not yet come, and
so his joy and confidence will hallow Qod's name
while he is watching.

Another most precious truth is this : A parent
so laying hold of God's promise for his house-
hold has the same right to lay hold upon the
covenant of grace for them that he has for him-
self. Does he see sin in his child, sin that
perhaps covers his face with shame ? He can
put in his covenant claim for that child, not
only that it shall be forgiven, but deansedfrom
all unrighteousness.

Does he find himself helpless to communicate
the knowledge of God to the young souls com-
mitted to his care ? He can put in his covenant
claim that God Himself shall do that, until the

■

166 THB NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

whole household shall "kiiovi- Him," from the
least of thorn to the greatest of them. Then the
hearts of stone shall be hwrts of flesh.

Does he yearn over his children, that they may
have power to do Christ's work in this needy
world ? He can pat in his covenant claim for
the crowning promise, that Ood shall put His
laws into their mind, and write them in their
hearts." Then He shall be to them a Ood, and
they shall he to Him a people — an army — aUe
and eager to do His will in earth as it is done in
heaven.

What, then, is the attitude of the believing
parent in presenting his child in baptism ? This
is the attitude he has a right to take. He can
look upon that ordinance as signifying and seal-
ing to his child exactly what it signifies and
seals to himself. He not only gives over his
child to God. as Hannah did, to be His in life
and in death, but he accepts far the child, on
God's promise, its engrafting into Christ, its
right to all the benefits of the covenant of grace,
and its own future self -yielding to be the Lord's.

BAPTISM AND 8H0HTER CATECHISM. 167

The writer has deep renpeet for the attitude
of the Baptiits concerning infant baptism, and
also for those amongst ourselves who, in timidity
and tenderness, refrain from presenting their
children in baptiRm because they realize tl^eir
own lack of faith in the matter, and perplexity
as to the foundations of faith. Let such study
the covenant hold given by God to parents, and
th ay may find the foundatioua they have been
missing.

CHAPTER XX.

BAPTISM AND THE COVENANT.

Recent studies concerning Qod's covenant
dealings with men have led to three conclusions,
which, as far as the writer is concerned, have
placed the Shorter Catechism view of baptism
upon the broadest possible f oundatioa

I. — God has Always Dealt With Man by
Means op Covenant.

Bible students will promptly recall the cove-
nant made with Adam, the covenant of sacrifice
established immediately after the fall, and hold-
ing clear through to Christ's own day ; and the
peculiar covenant with Abraham, adding, for the
peculiar people, both privileges and responsibil-
ities, to the simple covenant of sacrifice. These,
along with the new covenant secured by the

BAPTISM AND THE COVENANT.

169

blood of Calvary, have afforded covenant oppor-
tunity to the human race from the beginning
until now.

II. — Odd's Covenant with Man has in Every

Instance Been Made Available for

THE Family.

Every sin and sorrow on this blighted earth
is evidence that the covenant was " made with
Adam, not only for himself, but for his pos-
terity."

That the covenant of atonement by means of
sacrifice was available and adequate for parental
hold, is proved by the cases of Noah and Job.

When Noah was about to take possession of
the emptied earth, we see him gathering his
family about him, and offering to God the most
complete sacrifice it was in his power to offer.
Not one lamb, nor seven lambs, but one repre-
sentative of each of the clean beasts. (That
must have meant one of each of the animals
allowed of God for sacrifice, for animals were
not heretofore given to man for food.) This
was evidently meant to be the most complete
sacrifice possible.

170 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

! ■

What was the burden of the prayer that went

up with the ascending smoke, that carried a

"sweet savor" up to God ? From the shape of

the answer we can certainly discover the shape

of the prayer. Noah knew his sons. He knew

by this time some of the characteristics of Ham.

He knew that sin was in the blood of these

young men, and he feared that there might be

in the case of his own descendants another

wholesale declension from Qod, and then another

Deluge. Is it any wonder that he "fled for

refuge " to the completest sacrifice it was possible

for him to offer, and sent up such a prayer of

faith with the asc^iding smoke that God

" smelled a sweet savor " ? God honored that

covenant prayer for a household, and gave an

answer as complete as the sacrifice— even a fresh

covenant of protection and blessing, sealed by

the beautiful token of perpetual faithfulness, the

bow in the clouds.

Job took hold of the covenant of atonement
through the bloody sacrifice in behalf of his
children. He feared sin among those happy
young f casters, and so he " fled for refuge to lay

BAPTISM AND THE COVENANT.

171

hold of the hope set before him," the covenant of
sacrifice, where he saw adequate hold for paren-
tal faith. Job said, " It may be my sons have
sinned, and cursed Qod in their hearts." There-
fore, he "offered burnt offerings, according to
the number of them all" " Thus did Job con-
tinually." It is plain that he rested in that
covenant as adequate to the occasion, for when
all his children were suddenly swept into eter-
nity there was no wailing and no fear. " The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ;
blessed be the name of the Lord."

That the covenant made with Noah was
available for the family requires no proof, be-
yond the unmistakable wording of its announce-
ment, " I establish my covenant with you, and
with your seed after you, and with every living
creature that is with you."

That the covenant made with Abraham was
available for the family, again requires no proof.
Every Bible student could pile up proof on this
point. This is indeed the very core of the cove-
nant made with Abraham. That which as re-
garded the simpler sacrificial covenant of patri-

172 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

archal days, may have been alinoet an undiscov-
ered truth, was taken up by Qod Himself and
made the pre-eminent glory of the covenant
with Abraham. (Qen. 17. 7.)

Is the new covenant, secured, not in answer
to the smoke from any earthly altar but " by
the precious blood of Christ " shed on Calvary
and continually presented by the great High
Priest, who has passed into the heavens for us —
is this covenant narrower than any that had
gone before it ? Such a thing is scarcely con-
ceivable, but this is the point in the whole dis-
cussion, and no proof can be accepted but proof
from the Word of God.

Notice first, that each of the three great Old
Testament covenants is a God-arranged type of
that covenant which was yet to be the glory of
the Church of Christ Now, if, when these
earlier covenants are all available for the family,
the new covenant is not so available, then these
types, in this their common feature, do not
represent the anti-type; they over-present it.
They are strong where it is weak. They
give covenant hold to parental faith, while it

BAPTISM AND THE COVENANT. 173

does not. Thiu is not like God's artistic work,
for the anti-type in any respect to fall sluNrt of
the type.

2. But we have it distinctly stated (Heb. 8. 6)
that Jesus Christ, at His Father's right hand, is
Mediator of a " better covenant," which is estab-
lished upon " better promises." If the new cove-
nant is not available for the children, then there
is one point which may seem in a parent's eye
the most in^rtant point of all, in which it is not
" better " than the old, but deplorably inferior.

3. If the new covenant is available for the
family, we would expect that a matter so em-
phatically made plain concerning the Abrahamic
covenant, would not be left out of the propheti-
cal exhibitions of the Covenant of Grace.

So far as I am aware, there is no place in the
Old Testament where the terms of the new cove-
nant and the conditions of life under its ad-
ministration are more distinctly foretold than in
the 30th and 31st chapters of Jeremiah. In
chapter 30, 20th verse, in the midst of a strain
that is full of Messiah and His reign, there are
these words : " Their children shall be as afore-

174 THE NSW COVENANT A LOST SECRET,

time." If this means what it seems to mean,
that the children in these days of spiritual bless-
ing, shall occupy their old place as fellow-mem-
bers with their parents in the househeld of Qod,
then the word is most aptly and beautifully
placed. What else it can mean in that connec-
tion is not apparent.

Chap. 31, verse 1 runs thus: "At that same
time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the
families of Israel, and they shall be my people."
Here is the very crowning promise of the new
covenant broadly announced in favor of "all the
families of Israel."

Then, in the 34th verse, the promise at the
very heart of the new covenant contains these
words : " For they shall all know me, from the
least of them to the greatest of them." Is it
hard for a parent to find all his children, great
and small, placed wittingly by God Himself in
this, the heart of our great spiritual Magna
Charta? These words may include the rich and
the poor, the exalted and the lowly ; but first
and most naturally, they signify the big and the
little, me and all my children. From these pro-

iAm

BAPTISM AND THE COVENANT.

175

phetical Btatements it is easy to understand what
Peter meant when he said : " For the promise is
unto you and to your children."

4. Let us now look to see if this family prin-
ciple, so prominent in Old Testament history
and in prophetical forecasts of New Testament
times, is also the actual working principle of the
New Testament Church.

When Christ says, " Suffer the little children,
and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of
such is the kingdom of heaven," does He not in
general terms really announce as a fact, that
little children have a recognized name and place
in the kingdom of Qod upon earth ? This may
not be counted proof that the new covenant is
available for parental faith, but it is broadly in
keeping with that view.

When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, was
asked the question, " Men and brethren, what
shall we do ? " his answer is remarkable in its
explicitness, " Repent and be baptized, every one
of you, . . . for the promise is unto you and to
your children." He tells plainly who are to be
baptized into the new kingdom; it is "every

176 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

one of you" who repent, and, lest that word
should be limited so as to exclude the little chil-
dren of these believers, he makes jjain its mean-
ing by the added word, "For the promise is
unto you and to your children."

From the mouth of Paul we have repeatedly
the announcement of the same family principle.
When the Philippian jailor asks, " Sirs, what
must I do to be saved," so full is the apostle of
the household character of the faith thai he can-
not answer so simple a question without intro-
ducing it. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved and thy house." The
jailor took him at his word, and he and a'l his
were baptized straightway. Lydia's household
also was baptized. So was the household of
Stephanus.

In beautiful keeping with the foreg->ing is
Paul's word of encouragement given in cases
where there was one believing parent and one
unbelieving. Surely the children in such a
household must be counted a mongrel flock, and
must be considered outside the pale of the visible
Church? Not at all. The words are as clear as

BAPTISM AXD THE CO r EX A XT.

177

words can be. "The unbelieving husband is
sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife
is sanctified by the husband, else were your chil-
dren unclean but now are they holy."

Is there not. abundant Scriptural ground for
conclusion No. 2. That God's covenant with
man has in every instance been made available
for the family, the new covenant not one whit
less than the older ones, and so much " better,"
because established upon " better promises,"
even chained with life everlasting.

But there is a third conclusion that needs to
be rew^nized as true before the Shorter Cate-
chism view of baptism can be intelligently ac-
cepted.

III. If we have a covenant with Ood avail-
able for our children, then we have in that cove-
nant ground of absolute covfdence (not vfurely
hope in the ordinary sense of that term, but con-
fidence,) of securing for our children the blessings
covenanted to them, to the extent to which we
laivfuUy lay hold of that covenant for them.

Surely this proposition needs only to be stated
to be accepted. If God has covenanted to do

178 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

It. i

certain thinga for our children, and we have law-
fully laid hold of that covenant, what shall we
next do but watch for the fulfilment ' as tttoee
that watch for tlu> morning," sure of lis coming
as of the rising of thf^ sun.

To a parent who lia^ so laid hold of God's three
covenant promises for his little child, baptism for
it is emphatically the right thing in the right
place. To him it signifies and seals iho engraft-
ing of that child info Christ, its partaking of the
benefits of the Covenant of Grace and its engage-
ment to be the Lord's. Baptism for the child is
then a visible token and seal of an actual tran-
saction of faith between Qod and the parent
This transaction of faith may be as real a thing
as that which took place in Jerusalem when
David took back Qod's promise to himself and
sealed it with the words, " Do as thou hast said,"
us real a transaction of faith as that which took
place in the hill country of Nazareth, when Mary
sealed the marvellous message of the angel with
iixe words, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
Be it unto me according to thy word."

Some may object to Huch confidence as sure to

smsmi

BAPTISM AND THE COVENANT. 179

lead to carelessness in doing the parent's pari
The same danger has been apprehended from the
assurance of faith concerning our own salvation.
But facts tell against the objection. It will be
found that parents who rest upon God's cove-
nant for their children and who have learned to
draw from its fulness will have grace to train
their little ones as no others can.

Some will object that such a view means that
all children of all believers shall be saved, and
there are unmistakable facts that speak power-
fully in a different direction. If, first, all Chris-
tian parents knew that they have a covenant ; if,
second, they also knew that all the three glorious
promises of that covenant are available for their
children ; if, third, they were all to take time to
know the content of these promises ; if, fourth,
they were to master and continuously practise
the art of drawing upon the wealth they contain
for the spiritual poverty of themselves and their
children — then, hut not till then, shall all the
children of all believers be saved.

The sorrowful thing is that, in the case of
moat Christians, this Covenant of Grace lies in

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180 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

their hands actually as a dead letter. It is like
a cheque for untold wealth which an ignorant
man might carry about with him all his life
without knowing either its meaning or its use,
and so losing altogether its value. But for the
ShorterCatechism,many Christians wouldhardly
know of the existence of the new covenant.
They do not know its terms, or the fact that it
is a veritable charter of rights, which they have
in Christ — rights which, through the blood that
has secured them, they may boldly and gladly
claim for themselves and for their children.
This *' secret of the Lord is with them that fear
Him, and He will show them His covenant."
" The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform
this."

CHAPTER XXI.

RALPH ERSKINE AND THE COVENANT.

What this mighty Scottish preacher thought
of the covenant, and how he made use of it, can
be seen in the following extracts. They are
taken from a noted sermon, entitled, " Faith's
Plea upon God's Word and Covenant." The
text is the plea put up in the 74th Psalm,
" Have respect unto the covenant."

III. Let us shew what it is in the covenant
that God hath respect to, or that we should
plead.

1. " Have respect to the covenant," that is,
to the Mediator of the covenant. Though thou
owest no respect to me, yet hast thou not a great
respect to the Mediator of the covenant; to
Christ, whom thou hast " given to be a cove-
nant of the people." . . . It is a strong plea

181

182 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

to urge with God, the respect He bears to Christ :
God cannot get over such a plea as that

2. Have respect to the covenant by having
respect to the blood of the covenant.

Now, Lord, have respect to that blood that
sealed the covenant. Since the condition is ful-
filled to thine infinite satisfaction, let the pro-
mised good be conferred on me.

3. Have respect to the covenant by having
respect to the oath of the covenant. The pro-
mise is confirmed with the oath of God, " that
by two immutable things, in which it was im-
possible for God to lie, we might have strong
consolation." Now, Lord, wilt Thou not have
respect unto Thine own oath ?

4. Have respect to the covenant by having
a respect to the properties of the covenant.
Lord, have respect to the fulness of the cove-
nant, and let me be supplied, for there is enough
there. Have' respect to the freedom of the
covenant, and let me, however unworthy, share
of the grace that runs freely thence. Have
respect to the stability of the covenant, and let
me be pitied, though unstable as water and in-

SA LPH ERSKINE A ND THE CO VENA NT. 183

firm, yet Thy covenant stands fast. Have
respect to the order of the covenant. Though
my house be out of order, and heart out of
order, and my frame out of order, and all be in
confusion with me, yet, according to thy cove-
nant, order all things well.

V. We shall shew why God will have respect
to His covenant ; and, consequently, whence it
is such a suitable plea and argument for us.

1. When He has respect to the covenant He
has respect to Himself, the framer of it. . . .
Why then the strength of the plea is, " Have
respect to the covenant," and so have respect to
Thyself, and thine own glorious name and attri-
butes, »\nd let them be glorified in shewing
regard to the covenant.

2. When He hath respect to the covenant, He
hath respect to His Son, Christ, the centre of it,
and in whom it stands fast, as He owns. " My
covenant shall stand fast with Him." Why,
the pie . " Have respect to the covenant," and
HO shew respe;.t to Thy Son. . . . Oh, strong
plea!

3. When He hath respect to the covenant, He

!il

{^"j

184 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

hath respect to His Spirit, the great applier
of the covenant blessing, and executor of the
testament. Why then the strength of the plea
is, " Have respect to the covenant " ; that is,
have respect to Thme own Spirit that He may
get the glory of applying, by His power, what
Christ hath purchased by His blood.

VI. We shall make some application of this
subject.

1.. Hence, see a mark and character of true
believers. They are of God's mind. He hath a
respect to the covenant, and they have a respect
unto the covenant, and hence they know what
it is to plead with God upon the respect He
hath to the covenant. They could not do so if
they had not a high respect for it themselves.
They have such a respect to it in kind as God
hath. . . . They have such an everlasting
respect to the covenant, that when they have
nothing in the world to hold to, they will hang
by the covenant, and hold fast such a promise,
and plead upon it, saying, " Have respect to the
covenant."

2. Hence we see the misery of those that are

■

RALPH ERSKINE AND THE COVENANT. 185

unbelievers and rnmain " strangers to the cove-
nants of promise," and have no respect to the
covenant. It is misery enougii that Qod has no
respect to you ; no respect to your person or
your prayers, as it is said, " To Cain and his
offering God had no respect" . . . You have
no respect to God while you have no respect to
that which He respects so highly.

3. Hence wc may see the happiness of be-
lievers, that have such a respect to the covenant
as I was speaking of : a great, dear, full and
perpetual respect to it, and to the Mediator of
it ; who have taken hold of the covenant through
grace, and who know what it is to take hold of
God in the covenant, to take hold of God in
a promise, and hold Him by His word, and hang
upon Him in it, saying, ' Lord, have respect to
the covenant." This is your great happiness,
God hath respect to you. . . . God hath a
respect to you. ... He hath made you
"kings and priests to your God." Jacob was
crowned prince on the field of battle, the fi M
of prayer, when he wrestled with the an el
and prevailed as a prince. The poor, wrestling

186 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

man is a prince, and the poor, wrestling woman
is a princess, in God's sight. "This is the
honor of all the saints." They have power with
God, and therefore, no wonder that they have
" power over the nations to rule them with a rod
of iron." . . . God hath a respect to you,
and He will shew it in due time, because He
hath a respect to the covenant, and fills your
heart with a respect to it also.

4. Hence, see the duty incumbent upon us in
pleading with God for His favor, presence and
blessing. Let us go to Him crying, "Lord,
have respect to the covenant."

I know not a case you can be in but the
covenant exhibits a cure, and you are allowed to
plead it. After many new covenant promises,
it is said, "For this will I be enquired of by
the house of Israel, to do it for them," and how
are we to enquire except by pleading the respect
He hath to the covenant ? Have you a polluted
heart with the filth of sin ?— a polluted con-
science with the guilt of sin ? Why, here is an
article of the covenant : " I will sprinkle clean
water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from all

RALPH ERSKINE AND THE COVENANT. 187

your filthiness, and from all your idols will I
cleanse you." then go to God for cleansing,
and plead, saying, " O, have respect to the
covenant ! "

Have you the old, hard, stony heart still within
you ? Here is an article of the covenant : " A
new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will
I put within you : I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and give you an heart
of flesh." O, then, go to God and plead it,
saying, " Have respect to the covenant."

Are you destitute of the Spirit, sensual, not
having the spirit ? Do you find such a want of
the Spirit that you cannot walk in God's way ?
Well, ther- « tn article of the covenant here,
" I will p« V j)irit within you, and cause you

to walk n statutes." Oh, plead for this

great blessing, and say, " Lord, have respect to
the covenant."

In a word, when you consider what kind of a
sinner you are, consider also what kind of a
covenant this is ; it is enough to say it is a
covenant of grace, of all sorts of grace, for all
sorts of sinners that are out of hell. . . .

188 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

Are you in darkness and ignorance, having
no knowledge of God ? Here is a covenant of
enlightening grace, saying, " They bhall be all
taught of Qod." O, then, plead it, saying,
" Have respect to the covenant"

Are you under deadness, and like dead, dry
bones ? O, here is a covenant of quickening
grace, saying, " I am come to give life, and to
give it more abundantly. The hour cometh,
and now is when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of Qod, and they that hear shall
live." O, then, plead that He may " have
respect unto the covenant."

Are you in confusion, and know not what
way to take ? O here is a covenant of direct-
ing grace, saying, " I will bring the blind by a
way that they know not, I will lead them in
paths that they have not known, I will make
darkness light before them, and crooked things
straight." Are you under sad plagues and soul
diseases, overrun with sores from the crown of the
head to the sole of the foot ? O here is a cove-
nant of healing grace, saying, " The Sun of
Righteousness shall arise with healing in His

RALPH ERSKIXK AND THE COVENANT. 189

viXTififi. I am the Lord that healeth thee. I
will heal thy backslidings." O, ;hrn plead, say-
ing, " Have respect unto the covenant."

Are you in extreme fear of hell and damna-
tion, because of your sin and guilt ? O here is
a covenant of delivering grace! "Deliver his
soul from going down to the pit, for I have
found a ransom." O, then, plead it and say,
•* Lord, have respect unto the covenant."

Are you in bondage unto sin, Satan and the
world — a captive unto lusts, and shut up in un-
belief as in a prison ? 0, here is a covenant of
liberating grace, proclaiming liberty to the cap-
tives, and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound. Are vou a stupid soul that
cannot move towards x, nor stir heavenward,
by reason of a backward will, like a brazen
gate that resists all force of moving means ?
Well, but here is a covenant of drawing grace,
saying, " When I am lifted up I will draw all
men unto Me." As the virtue of the loadstone
draws the iron, so the v?-tue of an exalted
Chirst draws the iron bar of the will. " Thy
people shall be willing in the day of Thy

190 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

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power." O, then, plead it, uy'mg, " H»ve
respect unto the covenant"

What other concerns have you ? Are you
concerned for your children, that they may be
partakers of covenant blessing, and be saved of
the Lord ? O here is a covenant of extensive
grace, entailing blessings on us and our off-
spring, saying, " I will be thy God, and the God
of thy seed. O, then, look to God in behalf of
your children, 8a3ring, " Lord, have respect un-
to the covenant" ...

Are you concerned about inward enemies,
spiritual enemies, and molested with the powers
of darkness ? Is your heart full of the habita-
tions of cruelty, and fearfully inhabited with
cruel devils, cruel lusts, cruel corruptions, that
master and conquer, and prevail against you, so
that you lie many a time wounded and dead at
the enemy's feet ? O here is a covenant of sin-
conquering grace, not only a covenant of mercy
to your soul, but of vengeance to ^ our lusts,
saying, "The day of vengeance is in mine
heart, the year of my redeemed is come." O,
then, cry down the promised vengeance on all

RALPH KHSKIXE AXD THE iOVEXAXT. W

your cruel soul onemies, saying, " Lord, have
respect unto the covenant."

Are you concerned about your soul-poverty
and indigence, not only oppressed with enemies
without and within, but oppressed with wants
and necessities, being absolutely poor and needy,
and destitute of all good ? O here is a cove-
nant of soul-supplying grace, ^. i of all need-
ful provision, saying, " When the poor and
needy seek water, and there is none, and their
tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will h^ar
them, I the Qod of Israel will not forsake
them. I will pour water upon him that is
thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." O,
then, plead as the psalmist does in the verse
following the text : " O, let not the oppressed
return ashamed, let the poor and needy prais->
Thy name." " Have respect to the eoven^'nt."

In a word, let your case be the worst c ^^ out

of hell ; this covenant contains all salvation as a

covenant of grace, of all sorts of grace for all

sorts of sinners, and of all sorts of cures for all

sorts of cases ; and if you can get yourself

wrapped within the bond of this covenant by
13

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i-

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192 THE NEW COVENANT A LOST SECRET.

believing and pleading it, then you draw God
upon your interest, so that your concern is His
concern, your interest is His interest, your cause
is His cause, as the psalmist shews here, " Arise,
O Lord, plead Thine own cause." It stands
upon His honor, and He will do His own work
in His own time, for He will rather work mar-
vellously and create new worlds, rather turn all
things to nothing, than quit His concerns in or
give up with His " respect unto the covenant."

Here is what God has said about His word :
" For as the rain cometh down, and the snow
from heaven, and returneth not thither, but
watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth
and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and
bread to the eater, so shall My word be that
goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not
return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it."

Here is what He says about the messengers
who carry His word out into the world, and
may it not be as true of a book as of a preacher ?

RALPH ERSKINE AND THE COVENANT. 193

" Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with
peace, the mountains and the hills shall break
forth before you into singing, and all the trees
of the field shall clap their hands."

And here is what He says about the results
to be seen along the track of the messenger :
" Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,
and instead of the brier shall come up the
myrtle tree : and it shall be to the Lord for a
name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be
cut off."

" By their fruits ye shall know them." The
fruits shall shew whether there is a real message
from God in this little book or not.