"Let them alone", said our Lord to His disciples (Matt 15.14). Of whom was He speaking? Those who not only taught false doctrine, but who also took offence at Christ. Clearly they were weeds in God's garden. He had not planted them; therefore in due time He would root them out. As for the disciples, they were to "let them alone." From this solemn command David Dickson infers that such "obstinate maintainers of false doctrine and of corrupt traditions, enemies of Christ and his disciples, are given over of God, and are worthy also to be given over and let alone by men; that is, fellowship is not to be kept with them."

To apply this injunction to open enemies of our most holy faith is, while not entirely painless, comparatively easy. God has already placed us at a great distance from adherents of cults, false religions and popery. Since we never had fellowship with them, it is no problem to let them alone.

But regarding those who once walked with us, but who now show themselves to be not of us (1 John 2.19), to obey this command is far more painful and difficult. For years we may have gone to the house of God together, sat at the same communion table and ministered alongside each other in the service of the Gospel. But now such worship, communion and service are no longer possible, because they teach false doctrine and refuse to make Christ all in all.

Let us not be high-minded at this, but fear. Who made us to differ? Who kept our feet from falling? What have we except what we have received?

Yet after much prayerful pleading with them, we were shown very clearly that we are now to "let them alone." There came a time when we had to obey the commands, "Pray not thou for this people" (Jer 7.16), and "Thou...shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house." (Ezek 3.26) And we have been left with nothing regarding them but the anguished memory of those awe-some words: "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Prov 29.1).

Only our Lord can show us when such a time comes, and we should refuse to dis-fellowship or un-church others until He shows us. But when He does show us, we would be living in sin--guilt by association--if we did not "let them alone." May He who is the Wisdom and Power of God guide and strengthen us to act righteously in this matter.

A True Sense of Sin

A much-loved elder of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ in Scotland was often overheard saying: "We need a true sense of sin." This brief but crucial phrase appears in the Westminster Shorter Catechism's definition of repentance. It is out of this true sense of sin, say the Catechism's framers, along with a believing view of the mercy of God in Christ, that we are said to repent. Indeed, turning from sin to God can spring only from a true sense of sin. Let us then examine the phrase.

We shall try to answer three questions about it. First, why does the Catechism include the phrase at all? Second, what does it mean? Third, what do we know in our own experience of this true sense of sin?

Perhaps Thomas Vincent offers the best reason for its inclusion. We need a true sense of sin, he says, because without it "sinners will not forsake sin, nor apply themselves unto the Lord Jesus for pardon and healing."

This point calls for our serious consideration. Merely to acknowledge that we are sinners or that we have sinned will never lead us either to forsake sin or apply to the Lord Jesus for pardon and healing. Pharaoh, King Saul and Judas Iscariot are only three out of millions who, under the power of remorse, had a confession of sin forced out of them. Such a confession is not the spontaneous cry of a broken and contrite heart. Some of the most Gospel-hardened people we know have said without a pang of regret that they know they are sinners. This is why the Westminster divines include the crucial word "true"--"a true sense of sin." They realize that our deceitful hearts can devise many "false" senses of sin that never lead us to forsake it or flee to Christ. Which of us has not caught himself hanging his head with shame at some particular sin without having the least intention of forsaking it or striving for "new obedience"? The framers of the Catechism were wise men, taught by God. They knew that we are all capable of deceiving ourselves with a "false" sense of sin while remaining wholly under its guilt and dominion. Hence their inclusion of this crucial phrase, "a true sense of sin."

What, then, do they mean by the phrase? Three points, at least, seem to be intended by it.

1. A true sense of sin will never spring up in our hearts without a true sight of sin. Not until we see our sin as King David did when he cried out, "My sin is ever before me" (Psa 51.3) shall we know what an evil and bitter thing it is to sin against God. John 'Rabbi' Duncan expresses this well in his moving self-analysis: "And the Lord...shewed me a heart. 'There are seven abominations in a man's heart'--seven being the number for completeness. And my eye was fixed on that with horror. I speak not now of godly sorrow or repentance, but of horror; and with something that is surely worse, with shame. For it was not simply my eye fixed on the heart, but God showing me His own eye looking on it. 'See thy sin under my eye; see, my eye sees that.' God be merciful to me, a sinner!" Such a sight of sin is always coupled with a sense of shame at having sinned against God. When Joseph was tempted to commit fornication, he replied: "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Gen 39.9) Convicted of his adultery and murder, David too cried out in anguish: "Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight" (Psa 51.4). It is seeing our sin, not primarily against our own well-being, nor even against that of our neighbour, but against God, that constitutes a true sense of its sinfulness.

2. Seeing our sin in this light leads next to an inward feeling of pain, misery and distress at knowing that God's wrath lies on us because of our sin, and that we deserve to be cast into hell because of it. The sin that sat so lightly on us before now becomes an intolerable burden. The alarm that made the Philippian jailor cry out, "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16.30) now gives us such anxiety that our spirits can find no rest till we are delivered. Augustine well exemplifies this pain over the "deadly pleasure" which had lured him away from God, especially his love of the theatre. Recalling his infatuation while watching the play of Dido and Aeneas, he reflects: "For what more miserable than a miserable being who commiserates not himself; weeping the death of Dido for love to Aeneas, but weeping not his own death for lack of love to Thee, O God!" His deep grief for the sin of not loving God is inseparable from his sense of the justice of God, "sitting silent on high and by an unwearied law dispensing penal blindness to" his "lawless desires." A true sense of sin will always include this element of distress coupled with the conviction that God would be perfectly just in destroying us for our sin.

3. It also includes a believing sight of the mercy of God in Christ. When we see that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Cor 5.19); that He is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness" (Joel 2.13); that for the sake of Christ "there is forgiveness with Him" (Psa 130.4); and that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1.9); then we are melted "with kindly and godly sorrow for sin" (Vincent), and are encouraged to forsake our sin and turn to Him. This is as essential as the other ingredients, for without it we are left with nothing but despair.

As for the third question--Do we know in our own experience what it is to repent "out of a true sense of sin"?--only our own self-knowledge can answer. Here, more than anywhere else, we need to be aware of the deceitfulness of our own hearts and our absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the Scriptures. Prayer against self-deception and for divine confirmation of our true spiritual state are essential here. Perhaps the experience of the pre-Reformation martyr Savonarola sheds some light on where we stand in relation to this momentous issue. "What art Thou", he prays to God, "but mercy itself? And what am I but true misery? Behold, therefore, O God who art mercy, behold, misery is before Thee... Therefore have mercy on me, O God, God, I say, who art mercy, take away my misery, take away my sins, for they are my chief misery... The abyss of misery calls upon the abyss of mercy; the abyss of sins calls upon the abyss of grace. Greater is the abyss of mercy than the abyss of misery. Let therefore deep swallow up deep. Let the deep of mercy swallow up the deep of misery. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy; not according to the mercy of men, but according to Thine own mercy, which is great, immeasurable, incomprehensible, which infinitely surpasses all sins; according to that great mercy with which Thou didst so love the world as to give Thine Only-begotten Son. What forgiveness can be greater? What love greater? Who can despair? Who should not have confidence? God was made man and for men was crucified. Have mercy therefore on me, O God, according to this Thy mercy, by which Thou didst deliver up Thy Son for us... Even so, O Lord, pity me according to this Thy great mercy, that Thou mayest convert me to Thyself, that Thou mayest blot out my sins, that Thou mayest justify me by Thy grace." May Savonarola's God grant us all such a true sense of sin.

Christ All In All

"Names, and sects, and parties fall;
Thou, O Christ, art All in All."

It was such a sentiment as this that made A.E.W.Tozer write: "Christians do not tell lies: they sing them." In Christian circles we know of no truth more consistently denied than this: that "the Lord Jesus Christ is all things in and to all persons that have a true saving interest in Him." (Ralph Robinson) Have you ever been assailed over a Lord's Day with the great virtues of Presbyterianism (or over a Scottish Sabbath with the glories of Gaelic) without a word being spoken of your Saviour? Or have you spent an entire train journey being battered with the question: "Why have you not been baptized by immersion?" with no mention of the union with Christ which baptism signifies? Or have you been dis-owned for not being a Pre-millenialist, without even a hint of joyful anticipation at Christ's glorious appearing, when we shall see Him as He is? Or have you been startled by the opening conversational gambit: "How's your supra-lapsarianism getting on?" without any sense of awareness of the unspeakable privilege of being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world? Such samples of mis-placed priority are not only pastorally insensitive: they are an insult to Christ.

How so? Because when those in the Colossian church were glorying in the superiority of the Jew, or the advantages of circumcision, or the liberty of the politically free, or despising the abject state of slaves, God Himself levelled all these proud thoughts to the ground with the comprehensive assertion: "Christ is all, and in all" (Col 3.11). In other words, in uniting sinners to Himself and making them acceptable to God, Christ pays no regard at all to such outward distinctions: "He will neither...reject the poor for their poverty, nor [respect] the great for their dignity; 'He is all, and in all.'" (James Fergusson) Possession of Christ as our Saviour and Portion annihilates all such distinctions in believers' relationship both to God and to each other. To make anything of them at all, says Calvin, is to dishonour Christ, "as though it were necessary to call in those helps for making up His deficiencies." Rather, he continues, "if we seek salvation, we are taught by the name of JESUS that it is in Him...If we seek redemption, it will be found in His sufferings; absolution, in His condemnation; remission of the curse, in His cross; satisfaction, in His sacrifice; purification, in His blood...newness of life and immortality, in His resurrection...protection, security, abundance and enjoyment of all blessings, in His kingdom; a fearless expectation of the judgment, in the judicial authority committed to Him." In short, "Christ is the beginning, middle and end...nothing is, or can be found, apart from Him." So, he exhorts: "Let us draw from His treasury, and from no other source." What applied to the Colossians then applies equally to those who exalt names, and sects, and parties now.

Where our priorities are right, the Saviour will always be given His pre-eminent place: in our thoughts, our conversation, our worship and our daily conduct. Not surprisingly, those who have known Christ as all have given moving expression to their desire to honour Him above all others and all else. This desire appears in all types of believer, coming from all kinds of background. Take, for example, Martin Luther's dying words: "Thee, O Christ, have I known, Thee have I loved, Thee have I taught, Thee have I trusted." Or take Octavius Winslow's response to the text, 'Unto you therefore which believe He is precious' (1 Pet 2.7): "Precious Jesus! All in all to me Thou art!" Or take Samuel Rutherford's counsel to one of his correspondents: "Convene all your lovers before your soul, and give them their leave; and strike hands with Christ, that thereafter there may be no happiness to you but Christ, no hunting for anything but Christ, no bed at night, when death cometh, but Christ. Christ, Christ, who but Christ!" Or take the dying words of the martyr John Lambert: "None but Christ! None but Christ!"

Perhaps even more expressive is this truth couched in poetic form. Here are several examples:

"O Jesus, nothing may I see,
Nothing desire, or seek, but Thee." (Paul Gerhardt)

"Jesus, my all in all Thou art,
My rest in toil, my ease in pain,
The medicine of my broken heart,
In war my peace, in loss my gain,
My smile beneath the tyrant's frown,
In shame my glory and my crown.
In want my plentiful supply,
In weakness my almighty power,
In bonds my perfect liberty,
My light in Satan's darkest hour,
My help and stay whene'er I call,
My life in death, my heaven, my all."
(Charles Wesley)

"Though all the world my choice deride,
Yet Jesus shall my portion be;
For I am pleased with none beside;
The fairest of the fair is He."
(Gerhard Tersteegen)

"Object of my first desire,
Jesus crucified for me;
All to happiness aspire,
Only to be found in Thee.
Let me but Thyself possess,
Total sum of happiness:
Perfect peace I then shall prove,
Heaven below and heaven above."
(Augustus Toplady)

Examples could be multiplied. Are they not all the product of the same Spirit who caused David to sing: 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.' (Psa 27.4)? and who taught Asaph to pray: 'Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.' (Psa 73.25)?

Let us then seek grace to relegate everything and everyone to their proper place beneath Christ, and to make Him all. To this end the following quotes from Christ-centred writers may serve to apply the truth of His all-sufficient pre-eminence to us in our present circumstances:

1. "Have ye renounced all other things for your all, and have ye received Him to be your all?" (Philip Henry)

2. "He that desires anything above Him, equally with Him, or without Him, shall never obtain Him." (Samuel Ward)

3. "The saints...would rather lose all than Christ; they are contented to part with liberty, estate, life, rather than with Christ." (Ralph Robinson)

4. "If Christ is all in all, then let us bless God that ever we knew Christ, and that the great mystery of the Gospel has been revealed to us." (Jeremiah Burroughs)

5. "In all you enjoy, look how much you see of Christ in it. So far let your delight and esteem be carried out towards it, and no farther." (Jeremiah Burroughs)

6. "Do not satisfy yourself with anything without Christ." (Jeremiah Burroughs)

7. "The believer can say: Christ is mine, and I have all things in one, even in Christ, who is my all and in all." (Octavius Winslow)

8. "Christ in His Godhead, Christ in His humanity, Christ in His great and finished work, Christ in His mediatorial fulness, must be all in all to the sinner." (Octavius Winslow)

9. "'Christ is all and in all' (Col 3.11). He who knows this knows what fully satisfies and cheers. He who knows this best has the deepest and truest peace: for he has learned the secret of being always a sinner yet always righteous, always incomplete yet always complete, always empty and yet always full, always poor and yet always rich." (Horatius Bonar)

10. "I wish it were in my power...to cry down all love but the love of Christ, and to cry down all gods but Christ, all saviours but Christ, all well-beloveds but Christ, and all soul-suitors and love-beggars but Christ." (Samuel Rutherford)

11. "Our world is crossed and re-crossed by barriers of one kind and another, and our life is scarred by the animosities cherished by one side against the other. But in Christ these barriers must come down--iron curtains, colour bars, class distinctions, national and cultural divisions, political and sectarian partisanship...In the unity of that body [1 Cor 12.13] there is no room for the old cleavages: Christ is all, and in all." (F.F.Bruce)

12. "Hold fast to Christ, and you will never be lost." (Martin Luther)

Faith Glorifying God

[Those of us who desire to glorify God could not do better than ponder the following extract by Robert Traill, who shows us how the grace of faith brings more glory to Him than anything else. Ed.]

"The reason why faith is said to give glory to God is because faith answers God's faithfulness. Great faith is said to give glory to God: one of the special commendations of Abraham's faith is: 'He was strong in faith, giving glory to God' (Rom 4.20). God magnifies His faithfulness above all His name; the believer magnifies His faithfulness by his believing; therefore he gives glory to God.

Faith gives glory to God because it brings nothing to Him but poverty, want and emptiness. All graces bring something to God, but faith brings nothing. Love brings a flaming, burning heart to God; repentance brings a bleeding, broken heart to God; obedience brings a working hand to God; patience brings...a broad back to God, let Him lay on what He will; poor faith brings just nothing but the poor man's bare hand and empty dish. The poorer man comes to God the more glory [he gives] to God. It is remarkable that in those cases wherein we bring something to God we are very apt to carry away something of the glory that belongs to Him: faith brings nothing at all to God; it brings no more than broken bones and sores to the great Physician (Rom 3.27).

Faith glorifies God for it seeks all in Him and from Him: as it brings nothing to Him, so it expects everything from Him...and from the single warrant of His Word (John 3.33).

Faith always glorifies God, for it ventures its all upon His Word. The believer is still in this frame in the exercise of faith: 'Now, here I have God's faithful promise, and if it should fail me I should certainly sink for ever... All my concerns whatever are all laid upon the faithfulness of God; they are all put in that bottom of the ship; if I miscarry I am gone for ever.' Who is there...that believes this, that a bare adventuring of thy eternal salvation upon the Son of God, by virtue of the promise of God, brings more glory to God than all things else can do? (1 Cor 1.30,31)."

Election and Humility

The same apostle who commands believers to make their calling and election sure (2 Pet 1.10) and addresses them as a chosen generation (1 Pet 2.9) also commands them to be clothed with humility (1 Pet 5.5). This is not surprising, since election ought above all else to produce humility in the elect, since they did and can do nothing to merit their election. Gazing in wonder at the eternal decree or purpose by which God freely chose them in Christ out of the mass of fallen descendants of Adam to enjoy eternal life, they should be filled with a humble sense of their unworthiness and of His rich and incomprehensible distinguishing grace.

Sadly, however, many who consider themselves as among the elect are anything but humble. On the contrary, they are very "puffed up" with pride, regarding themselves as far superior to other professing Christians. As an old believer once described them, they are guilty of either "pride of race" or "pride of place" or "pride of face" or "pride of grace", or of all these combined. Spiritual pride can take many forms, whether spiritual, moral, national, ecclesiastical, political, intellectual, emotional or cultural. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall, or perhaps has already fallen. There are some who evidently begin in the Spirit but who strive to continue in the flesh (Gal 3.3).

With several clear marks of election before us (1 Thess 1.3-10), coupled with a sense of amazement that God should have chosen us while passing by many others, we may, by God's grace, become truly humble. The Puritan Christopher Love is right to state that assurance of our election, "wherever it is, makes the heart more humble towards God and man, and more vile in its own eyes." He frequently cites the apostle Paul as an example. When Paul wrote that he was crucified with Christ, that he lived by the faith of the Son of God, and that Christ loved him and had given Himself for him, was he puffed up with pride? "No," says Love, "it makes him marvel." When he was "most full" of the comfort of knowing his election, "he was most filled with humility." So, he concludes: "Assured Christians must be humble Christians... The more full they are of this fruit of the Spirit, assurance [of their election], the more low do they, and should they, hang down their heads."

Here is one of many reasons why we should beware of spiritual pride. If the Holy Spirit has not applied this high and holy truth of election to us, we shall be left with something in which to boast before God. If we retain the least notion that God chose us to salvation because He foresaw that we would believe, or repent, or live a good life, or abstain from all evil, or read the Bible, or pray, or sit under a faithful ministry, or partake of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, or devote ourselves to kind deeds to others, or do nobody the least harm, then we shall not say: "I thank Thee, O Lord, for calling me, not according to my own works, but according to Thine own purpose and grace, which was given me in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim 1.9), but rather: "I thank myself, my repenting, believing and my good works, for these were the reasons why God chose me to glory." Seen in this light, such glorying is blasphemous! Instead of boasting in our God, we would be boasting against Him. Such glorying, says Warfield truly, is glorying in auto-soterism, or self-salvation.

There is, besides the more personal relevance, a broader aspect to the link between election and humility. Worldly men cannot fail to observe, in the terms of John Galsworthy's gentle jibe, that Americans and Britons "both...consider our respective nations the chosen people of the earth." 'God's Englishman' and 'America's Righteous Cause' both express this belief.

With reference to America, such a belief comes to light in notable literary works. In White Jacket Herman Melville states the conviction that the Old Testament history of Israel, God's chosen people, prefigures a divine plan to make America's history the story of the 'new elect.' Melville expressly says as much: "We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people--the Israel of our time; we bare the ark of the liberties of the world." His Dutch Protestant Reformed Church background may well be the harbinger of recent 'covenantal' developments in that quarter, not to mention certain presidential announcements to this effect. Even the earliest Pilgrim settlers held that just as God had delivered Israel from Egypt into Canaan, so now He was gathering His elect from every nation into the new land of milk and honey across the Atlantic. Let us beware of misapplying the Biblical doctrine of election to salvation. It is not the same as that of election to be the providential leaders in seeking to bring peace and liberty to the world.

In England, we are on the whole more skeptical. This is due to our keen awareness of religious cant and hypocrisy among those who view themselves as the elect of God. This awareness has also found expression in literature. It is not only Spurgeon who warns us against those who, in the chapel prayer meeting, inform the all-seeing God that they are His dust, and their children are His dust's dust, and their grandchildren are His dust's dust's dust, they themselves being "the proudest people in the church." Charles Dickens too reminds us how a mistaken belief in our election can produce the most vicious forms of hatred and self-righteousness. In Little Dorrit a certain Mrs Clennam's presumption that she is full of the "grace and favour to be elected" [observe Dickens' perversion of the true doctrine] justifies to her own mind the most obsessive desire for revenge. In her jealous hatred of an old rival for her husband's love she calmly asserts: "it was appointed to me to lay the hand of punishment upon that creature of perdition." Such self-appointed 'chosen ones' who are anything but made humble by the doctrine of election crop up in almost every church. Perhaps there is no more solemn thought demanding our immediate attention today than that of the shrewd Augustinian observer Blaise Pascal: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."

In conclusion, let us remind ourselves that, impressed on us by the Holy Spirit, and so rightly understood and applied, the glorious doctrine of election always produces humility. The Westminster divines accordingly caution us concerning it in the most appropriate terms. "The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination," they say, [of which election is the major part] "is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God revealed in His Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence and admiration of God, and of humility, diligence and abundant consolation, to all that sincerely obey the Gospel." May we heed the warning.

A Reformer's Counsel

[Because the Protestant Reformers addressed burning issues of their day from the Word of God, their counsel is as relevant today as when it was first given. Perhaps no-one speaks to our present Godless society more incisively than Martin Luther, who had to face many of the problems we are facing. May God bless his counsel to us. Ed.]

Children

Children are the most delightful pledges of a loving marriage. They are the best wool on the sheep.

The Jews highly esteemed children. Our women almost detest them. The reason: one does not want the burden of bearing and educating children; women only want leisure.

The first destroyers of their own children are those who neglect them and knowingly permit them to grow up without the training and admonition of the Lord. Even if they do not harm them by a bad example, they still destroy them by yielding to them. They love them too much according to the flesh and pamper them, saying: 'They are children, they do not understand what they are doing.' And they are speaking the truth. But neither does a dog or a horse or a mule understand what it is doing. However, see how they learn to go, to come, to obey, to do and leave undone what they do not understand... These parents will therefore bear the sins of their children because they make these sins their own.

A father can perform no act that is more unfatherly than sparing the rod and allowing the little child to have its own wanton way. For by such foolish love he finally raises a son for the executioner, who will later on be obliged to raise him in a different way--with the rope on the gallows.

Children...are to be chastised in love; but parents are not to vent their furious temper on them, unconcerned about the way to correct the error of their children. For when the spirit has been cowed, one is of no use for anything and despairs of everything.

Nothing can more easily earn hell for a man than the improper training of his own children, and parents can perform no more damaging bit of work than to neglect their offspring, to let them curse, swear, learn indecent words and songs, and permit them to live as they please... Therefore it is highly necessary that every married person regard the soul of his child with greater care and concern than the flesh which has come from him, that he consider the child nothing less than a precious eternal treasure, entrusted to his protection by God, so that the devil, the world and the flesh may not steal and destroy it. For the child will be required from the parent at death and on Judgment Day in a very strict reckoning.

Chastise them when they deserve it, but accompany the correction with affectionate words, so that they do not become disheartened and expect nothing good from you.

A father should handle his children in the manner in which we observe God handling us. God at times afflicts and chastises us, but He does not kill us; and in the midst of the affliction He consoles, strengthens, confirms, nourishes and favours us. And when we have committed any sin against Him, He does not punish us according to the rigour of the Law, but tempers the punishments. Moreover, when we have repented, He instantly remits the sins as well as the punishments. In the same manner parents ought to handle their children.

Sexual Purity

If no other work were commanded than chastity, we would all have enough to do, so dangerous and raging a vice is sexual impurity. It is furiously active in all our members: in the thinking of our heart, in the seeing of our eyes, in the hearing of our ears, in the speaking of our mouth, in the acting of our hands, our feet and our entire body... Among all the conflicts of Christians the struggle for chastity is the hardest, for the sole reason that it continues daily, without ceasing.

Many intend to escape marriage by deliberately sowing wild oats for a while and promising to become good later on. But, my friend, hardly one out of a thousand turns out well. He who is to live a chaste life must begin betimes and must not achieve it by fornication, but without it, by the grace of God, or through marriage.

My dear boy, do not be ashamed of the fact that you desire a girl and that a girl desires a boy. Only let the desire result in marriage, not in fornication; then it is no more a shame to you than eating and drinking.

Adolescents should avoid satisfying their evil desires in irregular ways. In order to maintain their chastity they should strengthen their hearts against the fury of the flesh by reading and meditating on the Psalms and the Word of God. When you feel the flame, take a Psalm or a chapter or two from the Bible and read. When the flame has been quieted, pray. But if it is not promptly checked, bear it patiently and courageously for a year or two or more, and continue with your prayer. But if you can no longer bear and overcome the ardent desires of the flesh, then pray to God to give you a wife, with whom you may live in delight and true love. I have observed many who have given free rein to their evil lusts and have fallen into shameful acts of wantonness. But finally miserable penalties cling to them. Or if they rushed into marriage in blind haste, they found unfit and contrary wives; and it served them right.

There have been those who have tried to withstand unchastity by their own powers, by fasting and labour. But they have broken down their bodies in the attempt and yet have accomplished nothing; for evil desire is extinguished by nothing but the heavenly dew and rain of God's grace. Fasting, labouring and watching must accompany it, but they are not sufficient.

The cure must come from within outward, not from without inward... Little is achieved by trying to quench lust with an external remedy... Yet faith can subdue and check it so that it must give place to the Spirit.

Since Paul says (1 Cor 6.9) that fornicators and adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God, it is astounding to find people to this day who ask whether simple fornication is a mortal sin. To such inquirers I say that they should read what has been written. If they want me to be the judge, I certainly cannot judge any differently from what Scripture says.

Those who want to re-introduce houses of prostitution should first deny the name of Christ and confess that they are not Christians but heathen who know nothing of God. If we want to be Christians we have a clear directive in God's Word when St Paul says: "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." (Heb 13.4) He will punish those much more who further, protect and help these folk with word and deed. How can one publicly teach against fornication and censure it if one is expected to praise the government which tolerates and permits it?... By the grace of God a good remedy for fornication is marriage.

The vice of the Sodomites is an unparalleled enormity. It departs from the natural passion and desire planted into nature by God... Sodomy craves what is entirely contrary to nature. Whence comes this perversion? Without a doubt it comes from the devil. After a man has once turned aside from the fear of God, the devil puts such great pressure on his nature that he extinguishes the fire of natural desire and stirs up another, which is contrary to nature.

The strongest defence [against sexual impurity] is prayer and the Word of God, so that when evil lust stirs, a man flees to prayer, calls on God's grace and help, reads and meditates on the Gospel, and in it considers Christ's suffering.

Material Wealth

Wealth is the most insignificant thing on earth, the smallest gift that God can give a man. What is it in comparison with the Word of God? Indeed, what is it in comparison with the gifts of the body, such as beauty? What is it in comparison with the gifts of the soul? And yet people rush after it so madly... God usually gives riches to coarse fools, whom He grants nothing besides.

The world still lets itself be deceived by this delusion: because it observes that it has good fortune, wealth and health, it holds that it has a gracious God... Yet God does not bestow riches on you for you to conclude that He is gracious... He wants to test you to see whether you will remain in His fear, will humble yourself before Him and will render Him due obedience... This is why the Psalm gives the admonition: "If riches increase, set not your heart upon them." (Psa 62.11)

Our Lord does not bestow more on one than on another only to have us misuse it for purposes of arrogance and luxury, but to have us more willingly help others who need it, and to save for them and for ourselves.

Wealth is God's gift. One should not discard it; one should thank God for it and use it in a Christian manner.

Where there is plenty, there is not much grace; but people in somewhat straitened circumstances fare best. So we observe. But when people have their fill and suffer no lack, no-one looks at God... So the world does nothing but anger God with possessions and wealth.

Shameful mammon is the greatest god on earth... The people who have wealth and possessions usually rely on them; those who do not have them scheme day and night, and are anxious to win something.

A man who has devoted himself to the wealth and honour of the world, meanwhile forgetting his soul and his God, resembles a little child which holds in its hand a beautifully-shaped and coloured apple, and imagines it has something good. But on the inside the apple is rotten and full of worms.

No-one is rich, be he emperor or pope, except the man who is rich in God.

Selfishness

Cursed and condemned is every kind of life lived and sought for selfish profit and good; cursed are all works not done in love. But they are done in love when they are directed wholeheartedly, not towards selfish pleasure, profit, honour, ease and welfare, but toward the profit, hobour and welfare of others.

[Selfishness] seeks its own, takes from God what is His, from men what is theirs, and gives neither God nor men anything of what it has, is and can do.

Man can seek only his own interests and love himself above all things. This is the essence of all his faults.

What the world busies itself with is clear. Everybody is intent on promoting his own interests. Let others stay where they will and suffer what they will; this means nothing to the world.

No-one is willing to grant his fellow man as much as he grants himself. Everyone acquires as much as he can; the other person may prosper to the best of his ability. But despite this they want to be considered godly.

These men [the religiously selfish] are mere parasites and hirelings; slaves, not sons; aliens, not heirs. They turn themselves into idols whom God is to love and praise, and for whom He is to do the very thing they ought to do for Him. They have no Spirit, nor is God their Saviour. His good gifts are their saviour, and with them God must serve them as their lackey.

A person does not live for himself alone... he lives for all men on earth.

The greatest of all services is to free him [my fellow man] from sins, to liberate him from the devil and hell. But how is this done? Through the Gospel, by preaching it to him and telling him that he should cling to the works of Christ and firmly believe that Christ's righteousness is his and his sins are Christ's.

See, in this way the love of God flows from faith, and from love flows a free, willing and joyful life of freely-given service to our neighbour. For just as our neighbour suffers want and is in need of our surplus, so we have suffered want before God and were in need of His grace. Therefore as God has helped us freely through Christ, so we should devote our body and its activities to helping our neighbour. Thus we see what a high and noble life a Christian life really is.

Faith receives the good works of Christ; love does good works for our neighbour.

The Conversion of an Octogenarian

This is the testimony of how the Lord worked in the life of an eighty-year-old man who departed this life in August 1969.

R.H.K. would have been the first to acknowledge what the Lord had done for him since he knew it was something he could never have done for himself.

A number of Scriptures describe his experience, but John 5.24 summarizes it best: "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."

From physical birth this man was spiritually dead, but did not know it. Born in 1884 of Methodist parents, he attended the Methodist Church throughout his life. At the age of fourteen at a chapel 'mission' he made a 'decision' to follow Christ; but sadly, though he was mentally sincere in making it, there was no change in his heart and so he had not become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Yet he lived a morally 'honest' life, and did not drink, smoke, dance, gamble, go to the cinema or cheat his fellow men.

In his twenties he 'took office' in the local Methodist church and became a steward and a trustee. He read the Bible regularly and was familiar with much of its contents. Married at the age of twenty-four, he lost his first wife through cancer ten years later, but married again.

By his seventieth year he realized that he had reached the 'allotted span' and began to wonder why he was being spared. At the same time the Bible became more meaningful to him, as did certain Christian books, especially the Life of Frances Ridley Havergal, Merle d'Aubigne's History of the Reformation in England and Brownlow North's Rich Man and Lazarus. In the latter, references to the rich man's torments and cry for water to cool his burning tongue particularly affected him, as we shall hear later. [See Luke 16.24]

As the weeks passed he began to have an uneasy conscience and a sense of being unprepared for what lay beyond this life. A sense of sinfulness developed into a definite conviction of sin and awareness that he was not ready to face God. His previous morally upright life sank away under the realization that in the sight of God he was a sinner by nature, in thought, word and deed.

Towards the close of 1964 this sense of sin grew so intense that he felt just like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, bearing a load too heavy for him, but which had to be borne. His daughter, who had been a Christian for twenty years and who was caring for him, tried to remind him of God's promises, such as "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1.9); "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1.7); and "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." (John 6.37) She explained to him that God is faithful, and that if He did not keep His promises He would not be God; but also that the promises have to be believed, appropriated and acted on; and that saving faith is the gift of God.

But Satan was not willing to release his captive easily. He kept whispering in his ear: "You are far too great a sinner ever to be forgiven. God will never forgive you." And so a terrible spiritual battle raged in the old man's heart, from November 1964 till March 1965. What a state he was in! Indescribable! How true these words became in his case: "Not what these hands have done can save this guilty soul; not what I feel or do can give me peace with God." During these distressing months, although he felt on three occasions that God was smiling on him, it was as if the heavens were brass and there was no-One there to hear or answer his cries.

Just at this crucial time the Holy Spirit brought home with great power the passage where the rich man, now in hell, cried out to Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue! He thought: "If only ONE DROP of water was so important to the rich man in torments, how terrible must my torture be, and I am heading for hell!"

But God, who is always Master of the situation, did not leave him in this dreadful state. Early in the morning of March 25, 1965, the Lord appeared to him and said: "What wilt thou have me to do?" The burdened man replied: "Lord, that ALL my sin may be taken away." The Lord replied: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." (Acts 16.31)

Notice: the Lord did not say: "What are you so worried about? You have lived a good life." Neither did He gloss over the old man's sin. But in a note of tender compassion He simply said: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Here was a definite statement, a definite promise, not a 'maybe' or a 'can be.' Truly, "he that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, HATH everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but IS PASSED from death unto life." (John 5.24) "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.""(Eph 2.4-5)

Two or three days passed and the eighty-year-old kept repeating the words: "It is only a matter of believing", till assurance came to him that he had passed from death to life and that none could pluck him out of the Saviour's hand. How he praised the Lord for His great salvation! He often said: "I can't praise Him enough for all He has done for me!" The dark shadow that had hung over his face completely disappeared, to be replaced by a radiance that did not fade.

This radiance was not all that showed the change of heart he had undergone. From then on he was eager to talk about the Lord and hear anything about Him from other Christians. He was never without his Bible, which he read as long as his strength allowed. He read it because it delighted his heart and was food for his soul. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." (Matt 5.6) What a transformation had taken place--from death to life!

Graciously the Lord spared him for a further five years, during which he sought to witness to his family and show them the way of salvation. All this time he was a complete invalid, with arthritis, a weak heart and an incurable disease, yet not one word of complaint escaped his lips. When the pain was very severe his only comment was: "It is nothing compared with what my Saviour suffered for me."

Towards the end of his earthly journey he became so weak that he could hardly speak at all, except to praise God, then smile. As he neared the valley of the shadow of death his daughter offered him the comfort of a human hand, but his lack of response showed that his hand was already being held by the One who had caused him to pass from death to life. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." (Psa 116.15) This dear godly man was my earthly father. [Miss M.A. Kingdon]

Death Swallowed Up In Victory

[The Apostle Paul winds up his wonderful defence of the resurrection in a shout of praise: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor 15.54-57) Comments Charles Hodge: "When once the resurrection has taken place, then, according to the language of Scripture, death shall be completely conquered. Not only shall those over whom he had triumphed, and who he had so long detained in the prison of the grave, be delivered from his power, but there shall be no more death... The victory over death is to be complete and final."

It was in view of this glorious truth that Ebenezer Erskine wrote: "Christ Himself is risen from the dead, and has carried the keys of hell and of death with Him, by which He is become victorious over hell and death." It was also in view of it that his brother Ralph gave the shout: "Victory! Victory!" at the very point of death. It was no less before the mind of Samuel Eyres Pierce when he penned the following words. We trust they shall be made a comfort to the fearful people of God. Ed.]

'Beloved Reader, I am now in the seventieth year of my age; it cannot therefore be expected by me to continue long in this my present tabernacle, especially as I have most certainly passed through the first stage of the breaking up of nature. I have been for four years past in deaths often. Many a time I have expected every moment to expire. How my mind at such seasons was employed, and in what manner sustained, I have written, and given the paper into the hand of a friend, with a positive charge that it be showed to none till after I am actually deceased; then it is to be published.

What is felt when nature begins first to break is only known to such as have had the experience of it. The Lord has, within these two months past, most wonderfully revived me. I think I know all about death, except the act of dying. I know Christ, and am fully persuaded He is every way all-sufficient for His beloved ones, both in life and death. I have had some very peculiar dealings with Him, and accesses unto Him, in various cases and circumstances, in the course of my journey through life; and some very interesting accesses to Him, when, in my own views just at the moment of departure. I conceive I am left to live, to experience further the efficacy of the knowledge of Christ, in keeping up the mind in the free and full exercise of it on Him, in the most immediate views of Him in death and dying circumstances.

In the course of my time, I have been called upon to visit sinners and saints in their drawings near to the house appointed for all living. I have found what the excellent Mr. Toplady expresses to be a truth: "It is very difficult to know how to perform this service." The last time I was called upon to visit a sick friend was since I myself have received a very severe crush, as it respects nature's failing. The person in my view was one with Christ. She received what I said concerning Him with great satisfaction; and this was what gave occasion first of my conceiving I would, if permitted, write a small treatise suited to put into the chambers and hands of such of the Lord's people as might either through sickness or old age, be drawing downwards to the grave, the house appointed for all living. [This 'small treatise' is published in booklet form, bearing the title Death. Ed.]

I reflected thus with myself, while I doubted not of the person I had visited concerning her eternal state, yet I considered her very great weakness of body, such that she could not bear much talk. This I had done in many, very many instances, in the course of visiting such as I really looked on as saints, and many scores of time. I thought, could any short matter be drawn up, so as for such to pursue, or for others to read to them, it might serve in the hand of the Lord the Spirit, to draw out their minds to such subjects as are particularly suited to such circumstances.

These were my thoughts, and as I have declared the original from where my first conception of these sprung, so I will secondly declare the nature, end, and design of this work. It is to take off all fears from the minds of the Lord's believing people concerning death and dying, by pointing our Christ as an all-sufficient antidote against the fears of dissolution.

Some express their fears of death as arising from what may be felt at that time, and when the parting stroke is given which separates body and soul.

Others, their entrance hereby into a state they were never in before fills them with perplexity and dread.

Others, that they must by this means be in the immediate presence of the Lord, and having their minds too much and too deeply exercised on these, forget those glorious subjects which alone can carry their minds beyond all perplexity.

My end and design, therefore, in this work, is to bring forth Christ, and those everlasting consolations which the Gospel reveals as hid in Him for His people, so that the hands of feeble saints which hang down may be lifted up and strengthened. My design is so to set forth Christ as most exactly suited to His weak, sick and beloved ones, who are in dying circumstances, and are actually in the very article of death, as may serve to comfort them, seeing our Lord is a Friend who loves at all times, and [is] that Friend which sticks closer than a brother...

Death is universal. It reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Some die unborn, others as soon as they are born, some die babes, some infants, some youths, some in the very prime of manhood, some in middle age, some in old age... Only two have ever yet escaped the stroke of death...Enoch and Elijah... The saints who will be found alive in their bodies at the Second Coming of Christ will not die; yet they will undergo such a change as Enoch and Elijah did, or they could not enter heaven; and it will be to them as great a change as death is to us--it will be in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. (1 Cor 15.52)...

I conceive the act of dying must be in all alike: that there is not much felt in the immediate article of dissolution; that it cannot take place before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken...This, I conceive, comes on gradually, by which means the body loses its senses (it becomes insensible), the pulse stops, the body expires (which is no more than to fall asleep, only that the soul has left it.) I conceive that everyone is alike in this; one feels no more than another in it. The body is passive; it is breathless. I am not speaking of what goes before this takes place; I here speak simply of the act of dissolution. Our Lord Jesus Christ went out of His body in the same way, or He could not have been a breathless corpse; and by the same means we must...

I would look on sickness, disease and old age as prognostics of death; while at the same time I would look on death as distinct from them. I would consider myself under the sentence of death, and also as having it inherent in my constitution [ie. since the Fall. Ed.] and be living every moment in the certain expectation of the same. Yet I would also live as though it had no existence in me, as though it was passed, as though I should never see it or be brought under it, by living on these words of Christ, who says: "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11.25); "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." (John 8.51)

I would be looking unto and living on Christ thus: I would consider His Person as God-Man, and contemplate Him and my one-ness with Him as the Father chose me in Him before the foundation of the world.

I would consider Him in His incarnation, by which He became flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone, my Near-Kinsman, my Brother and Redeemer.

I would consider the holiness of His human nature, and consider that He sanctified it by taking the same into union with His Person. "He who sanctifies, and they who are sanctified, are all of one (partakers of one and the same nature), for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." (Heb 2.11) Here I would behold my antidote against all the unholiness of my fallen nature and all the inherent sinfulness of the same.

I would look at Christ the Lord my Righteousness and on my person in Him, and [would] receive this truth into my mind from the everlasting Gospel of the blessed God, that He made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5.21), and consider this to be my complete salvation, perfection and glory.

I would look at Christ's death as the conquest of death, at His lying a cold corpse in the grave as sanctifying and perfuming the grave for me to lie where He did. I would consider His passage out of time into eternity to be all-sufficient to remove all fears concerning this in my own particular case. I would consider the change this made on Him as giving proof of what I am to expect, and which will take place in me as one of His members.

I would meditate on His life in glory and receive these sweet words of His into my mind: "Because I live, ye shall live also." (John 14.19) "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I." (John 14.28)

I call this living on Christ, and am fully persuaded that so far as these important realities prevail in the spiritual mind, it is raised up to some real and blessed views of what is contained in glory and immortality.'

Books

Banner of Truth

Let's Study John--Mark Johnston. 302pp. Pbk. £6.95.

In this beautifully-written 'narrative' commentary the author relates the profound themes of John's Gospel to his readers at every point. We are given a guided tour through it, much as visitors to an art gallery are shown one key exhibit after another, the guide making us aware of the beauty of each painting. It is not easy to combine continuous narrative with perceptive application without interrupting flow. That Mr. Johnson does so is a measure of the value of his commentary. We trust that the Saviour, so winsomely portrayed here, will use it to bring many to Himself.

Let's Study Revelation--Derek Thomas. 203pp. Pbk. £5.95.

Commentaries on the Apocalypse are now as common as they were once rare. Yet the author brings to this once distant and enigmatic book a practical simplicity that brings its glorious message right home. Adopting the same view of the book as Hendriksen--that the seven visions are cyclic--Dr. Thomas has the happy gift of reducing all relevant comments on each passage to a minimum. This aspect makes his commentary ideal for home and group study.

Jonathan Edwards--Iain Murray. 503pp. Pbk. £10.95.

This laminated paperback edition of the original needs no commendation. Its author is highly respected as a perceptive and reliable church historian with a most readable style. The skilful way in which he interweaves Edwards' theological thinking with his personal movements and family relationships is admirable. Few Christian biographers bring their subjects so warmly and sympathetically near to their readers without falling into hagiography as Mr. Murray.

Letters from the South Seas--Margaret Paton, 320pp. Hdbk.£11.95.

The wives of eminent men in Church History often remain little known, mainly because their greatest service has been in supporting their husbands and nurturing their children. Here, in this lovely book, we have a glimpse of one such wife, a remarkable Christian woman, Margaret Paton, whose personal letters printed here, show us, not only a gifted writer but give us "as clear and vivid descriptions of the inner and more personal side of life among the heathen as has ever been written".

She writes with infectious humour, natural fluency and tender affection to her friends and family, describing graphically their life on Aniwa, in the New Hebrides in 1860-90s. Joys and sorrows of church and family life; trials and personal loss; earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, disease, death, dangers and spiritual realities; are all woven into these personal letters. Written with sanctified common sense, faith, devotion and "white hot love", the letters reveal a woman who was not only a winsome Christian but also a true helpmeet for her husband John G Paton. A book that will enthrall, challenge and give you a new perspective on missionary life.

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Evangelical Press

Lives Turned Upside Down--Faith Cook. 154pp. Pbk. £7.95.

This collection of brief narratives about 'ordinary people' with 'extra-ordinary faith' is most attractively written. Marked by a graphic and memorable style, it moves easily through each account of God's triumphant grace at just the right speed. Names either unfamiliar or barely known--Joan Waste, John Vanderkemp, Marion Veitch and William Tennent, for example--pass before us in a most engaging way. Very suited to adults with little reading time or children who can read their own bed-time stories.

Lights Shining in the Darkness- Peter Jeffery. 128pp. Pbk. £5.95.

This similar collection contains accounts of notable believers already familiar in booklet form--Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Cromwell, etc. Useful rather than vivid or winsome, it at least keeps us in touch with our Christian heritage.

Mining for Wisdom--Derek Thomas. 192pp. Pbk. £7.95.

These 28 Daily Readings from Job contain gems found by one who himself has mined in the depths of God's dealings with Job for years. It is so good to see God's wisdom and goodness glorified for afflicting His people in order to purify their faith and strengthen their patience.

No Turning Back--Philip Arthur. 240pp. Pbk. £8.95.

This sensitively-applied exposition sweeps away any initial reservations about 'yet another book on Hebrews.' As well as by keeping the only Saviour before our eyes, the author keeps us glued to the page through a lively style based on crisp sentences and many surprises. It is also encouraging to find him drawing on personal experience to illustrate and confirm the points he makes.

The Reign of Grace--Abraham Booth. 256pp. Hdbk. £11.95.

This old Calvinistic classic, sensitively edited by Richard Inns, is worth its weight in gold. Tracing the reign of grace in every aspect of our salvation--election, calling, pardon, justification, adoption, sanctification and glory, culminating in an uplifting view of the One through whose Person and Work God's grace reigns, it thoroughly deserves Prof. John Murray's description as "one of the most eloquent and moving expositions of the subject of divine grace in the English language." Every reader of Peace and Truth should be thoroughly acquainted with it.

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Christian Focus Publications

The Practical Calvinist--ed Peter Lillback. 583pp. Hdbk. N.P.

These fine studies in Historical Theology, compiled in honour of Clair Davis of Westminster Theological Seminary, cover a vast field, ranging from Eastern Orthodoxy's reverence for the Church Fathers to 'Contemporary Christian Counselling.' In addition to several outstanding essays expounding Reformed teaching and criticizing certain modern heresies, we are treated to a rare gem by Calvin himself: Christ the End of the Law. We are thankful that God has given His Church today some accomplished scholars who can present the fruit of their studies in palatable form and remind us what a rich heritage we have from the Reformation.

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We regret that we are unable at present to review many other titles sent us by Evangelical and Reformed publishing houses. The Committee would appreciate an offer from any regular subscriber who feels able to help in sharing the burden of reviewing books.

Letter

[The following extract is taken from a letter to her brothers and sisters from the New Hebrides by Margaret Paton, wife of the missionary John G. Paton. Ed.]

Aniwa
New Hebrides
2 November 1874

Oh, how intensely we are interested in all accounts of the blessed work going on at home! Dear Mrs. Milne was writing me that it seems to her that a great deal of the Revival has been in the hearts of God's own people, getting a more exalted view of the Lord Jesus Christ, and seeing everything in Him--all the fulness of the Godhead, all their salvation and all their desire... It is pitiable to read of 'a tendency to that Unitarianism which virtually excludes the Father and the Holy Spirit'. It has been the joy of my life, since I found that it was impossible to have Christ without having the Father and the Spirit, for 'in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily'. A sinner can't even come to Christ without the Father and the Spirit being engaged in it: 'No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.' 'No man can say Jesus Christ is Lord but by the Holy Ghost.' How I wish I had known, or felt, all this years ago; for it is just in proportion as I dig in Christ, as Traill puts it, that I can know anything of God ...

John and I were reading such a precious sermon lately, showing that it is only when the glory of God is revealed 'in the face of Jesus Christ' that Satan is up in arms. He'll let you alone as long as you talk vaguely about God or good works; he'll even let you 'denounce sin'. and talk about 'the church' or 'the Bible'--anything but the Lord Jesus Christ, for therein lies danger!...

From your loving sister,
MAGGIE WHITECROSS PATON

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