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Los diogremmes suivants iilustrent le mOthodo. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MMCROCOrY RKOUITION TBT CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 1.1 1.25 |4S 1^ ta Li 13^ |3j6 l£ 111 ta 12.0 HM 1.8 i /1PPLIED IIVMGE Inc 16S3 East Main Street Rochester, New York 14609 USA (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone (716) 288-5989 -Fox Till': m;\\ (,'j\i:nani- A i.osr si:(:Ri<:r i',\ ANNA ROSS /lu/Aor of " Beirs Story ^ and " The Man with the Book; or. Memoirs of [ohn Ross, of Bruce/ield." ?Y W*/^ . ►> k /- TORONTO WILLIAM IJklGLi.S 1 90 1 &T155 c- 2. Emtrrku acconlir - to Act o( the l-Mliament of CanMla, in lh« year one thousand nine hundred and one, by Anna Row, at the Depart- ment of AKriculture. 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 a 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. Ui 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. # f CONTENTS. CHAFTBR I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. 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 V ▼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. i " 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. iz 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. xi 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 zu 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 18 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. 16 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. 17 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 18 now HAS THE CHURCH LOST SECRET? 19 I 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, I 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. 21 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