under this rising Beam of Light and Life from Christ the Sun of Righteousness, the first godly sorrow working repentance to salvation (2 Cor. vii. 10), the first unutterable feeling of the Love of God that passeth knowledge. To have passed from Death unto Life, and that Life Everlasting; to find that Life hid in Him from whom no thief could steal and destroy it; to be nearer to the Eternal Father than ever, because brought nigh by the Blood that foreshadowed the Love stronger than Death! All this, and depths and heights far beyond it, lay open to the eye of Faith, so far as it may have pleased God to illumine that sight.

We cannot trace the newborn Life in its upward, onward course; each heart that lives in that new life must read, by its own experience, the dawn within the soul of Immortality that brightens to the perfect Day. Yet once the living rill gleams on our sight, when Adam, rising from the Death of Sin in himself to the blessed Promise of Life in another, and that the Woman's Seed, 'called his wife's name Eve, the Mother of all living.' Life in the Woman's wondrous Seed had chased the Darkness of Death away. However dimly and afar, it was still looking unto God's Promise in Christ Jesus, who is the Life of them that believe, and the Resurrection of the dead.

The Sinner's first utterance to God had been, I heard Thy voice in the Garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.' God's first

recorded act for the Sinner is, Unto Adam also, and his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.' Man never feels a need, a want, that God in His infinite mercy and love is not ready and waiting to meet and supply. The reason why the Blessing is not given is because the real need is not felt. A Voice is speaking, and it says, 'Because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent.' (Rev. iii. 17-19.)

Far dearer to Man than unconscious Innocence, must have been the Clothing made for them to hide their shame and calm their fear, by Him against whom they had sinned. Then first to find that though they had fallen indeed from Innocence, fallen from God, they had not fallen from His Love, that it embraced them even while they fell, and raised them up, never to stand in themselves again, but in Another, in One who could not fall, in One who would give His Life a Ransom for them, in One whose precious Life - Blood should be the cleansing fountain opened by God for their sin and uncleanness (Zech. xiii. 1), and whose spotless, per

fect Righteousness should be their garment of salvation, their covering robe before God and His created Universe.

A little further and we see that God had taught sinful man to draw near to Him by the life-blood of the offered Lamb, showing forth the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sin of the World,' ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World.' The coats made by the Lord God to clothe His fallen but restored children, may have been made of the skins of the animals slain in the sacrifices, that set forth that One, full, perfect Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by which the Sinner who believes and receives the Atonement is not only cleansed, but clothed Whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.' (Rom. viii. 30.) Then what was said of Israel, is absolutely and for ever fulfilled in those whom God hath saved and called with an holy calling. Thy beauty was perfect, through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.' (Zech. xvi. 14.) For this Isaiah raises his triumph song, 'I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of Salvation, He hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness, as a Bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a Bride adorneth herself with her jewels.' (Isa. lxi. 10.) It may have pleased God, who at all times has deigned to teach by outward signs as well as inward pre

cept, in this way to bring home with affecting reality the great truths afterwards to be more fully revealed by the Spirit.

Man must wander forth from Eden. The Garden of God was planted for Innocence; it was not there the sinful could be trained in the discipline that would, by heavenly grace, prepare the soul for higher blessedness than Eden knew. In Eden there was but one possible inlet to evil; it entered, it prevailed, and Innocence and Eden were lost for ever. The order must now be reversed. Man must inhabit a world in which there is but one entrance to Good, one way unto God, and that a Living way which God hath opened through His beloved Son. 'Jesus said, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.' (John, xiv. 16.) And evermore, above the toil, the weariness, the want of earth, that voice is saying, 'Come unto Me, and I will give you rest' (Matt. xi. 28); 'Look unto Me, and be ye saved' (Isa. xlv. 22); 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink' (John, vii. 27); He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst' (John, vi. 35); Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die believest thou this?' (John, xi. 26.) 'Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me' (John, vi. 45); And him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.' (John, vi. 37.)

Man in Innocence had eaten freely of the Tree

of Life. To eat of it now would be, not his blessing, but his bane. Life for ever in himself would have been a curse, now that his nature was defiled with Sin. The Tempter in his blasphemy had said, 'God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.' The lie was whispered in secret in the ear of the woman. Now all Creation heard the Tempter's lie, proclaimed in derision by the Lord God. And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever! therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man, and He placed at the East of the Garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way the Tree of Life.'

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From the Garden of God, to a World that brought forth thorns and thistles unto them; from the happy work of dressing and keeping the Garden which God made to grow, to the toil of barren heights and sterile wastes; from calm within and around, to storms and tempests of the world without and the world within the soul-man was driven-compelled to go.-How otherwise could his reluctant feet have borne him from the Garden of God? But he went as the much forgiven, and therefore as the loving much; clothed by the Hand that he had broken