That we may hear the final and most solemnly authoritative utterances of the Great Teacher, our Divine Lord, let us pay a visit to yon upper-room-ever memorable, ever sacred-at Jerusalem, and see Him in the midst of His surprised and sorrowing disciples, for the last time. He had already accomplished His mission in our world. He had humbled Himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He had offered up Himself as the Great Propitiation. He had undergone the baptism of blood. He had been in the most sacred sense" baptized for the dead." He had bruised the head of Satan. He had opened the Kingdom of Heaven. He had redeemed man from the curse. His foot had trodden, and His head had rested on, and His blood had bedewed, this accursed earth, and the curse disappeared. Triumphant even in the grave, He vanquished death, achieved a glorious resurrection, and so guaranteed the redemption of our bodies, and became the first-fruits of them that slept. Then for forty days He sojourned on earth in His resurrection body. Once more He visited His favourite resort, the beautiful Sea of Galilee, whose storms were hushed at His command, whose waves obedient couched beneath His feet, and whose shores were resplendent with His miracles. One memorable evening He spent with two anxious disciples at Emmaus. On several interesting occasions He appeared unto the apostolic band, and to the holy women. Sweetly. strange words of love and mystery fell from His lips as He spake to penitent Peter. And now, on this His last day on earth, He appeared in the midst of them again; but though He accosted them with the usual salutation, "Peace be unto you," so sudden was His appearance that they were affrighted. quieted their fears by showing them His hands and His feet, and speaking to them words of tenderest sympathy. Their bosoms were agitated with a conflict of delicious emotions; faith, joy, and wonder, struggling for the mastery. Oh!

He

what a blessed thing it is for Jesus to exercise this direct action upon our hearts, and for our whole nature to vibrate with tremulous joy to His touch! Having partaken of food with them, and their minds being sweetly composed, He entered upon His last discourse to them. It was a solemn occasion: the close of His wonderful career, the last utterances of His Divine ministry in the flesh. These parting words were full of tenderest love and weightiest truth.

And what saith our Lord on this His last day on earth, aad in this His farewell discourse? He reviews all His teachings, and sums up all in this notable declaration, "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me" (Luke xxiv. 44). One of His latest acts, therefore, was to assure them most solemnly of the truth of the Sacred Writings, and the certainty of the Messianic prophecies being fulfilled. His whole life was an attestation of the truth of the Scriptures, an interpretation of their contents, a vital paraphrase of their teachings, and His final, authoritative testimony would secure for them the unhesitant and permanent reverence of His disciples. Surely Jesus could not deceive His elect, and indeed the Church in all ages, at so critical a moment as the closing scene in His life on earth. The very thought, if cherished, would be blasphemy. If He could, either through ignorance, or imposture, or untruthful" accommodation," to popular phrase or prejudice, mislead us, then He cinnot be Divine, and we are robbed of our Saviour; but, Hallelujah! we do not follow cunningly devised fables when we rest on the word of our glorified Lord!

The testimony of Jesus is remarkably full. It embraces the whole of the Sacred Canon. The law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. It obviously recognizes a threefold division, a Trinity of Sacred Literature. This was in accordance with Jewish practice. THE LAW, com

prising Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. THE PROPHETS, comprising Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and all the Prophets, except Daniel. THE HAGGIOGRAPHA, comprising the Psalms and all the rest of the Canonical books, Daniel, Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah being reckoned as one book, and the Chronicles closing the Holy Volume.*

Mark well this momentous fact! Our adorable Lord, after His resurrection and immediately prior to His ascension, solemnly recognized THE WHOLE of the books of the Old Testament, just as we have them, as of Divine authority. Surely this is a rock upon which we may set our feet firmly amidst the dashing billows of controversy: my Lord believed, accepted, reverenced all, why should not I?

It is an appeal to fact,-to His life-long ministrations, and it is singularly expressed. "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you." Strange language this! as though He were not now with them. He speaks as a resident in another world; as one who had left them actually, and was now merely on a transient visit. And so it was! His work on earth was done. Angels were waiting His reception into the skies. The heavenly gates had lifted up their heads. The golden throne and universal sceptre were ready in expectance of His arrival. The royal banquet was prepared. The grand Hallelujah of Welcome was already in rehearsal by the seraphim. The bosom of the Everlasting Father heaved with joyous anticipation of the return of His well-beloved Son. Standing, therefore, on the threshold of His own Eternity; illuming, like the setting sun, both earth and heaven with His parting radiance, He flung back one omniscient glance upon His whole career, and said,

while I was yet with you," "the Holy Scriptures were the basis of all my teachings; and the grand central idea in those Scripturesas well in the Law, the Prophets, as in the Psalms-is the Atonement See Kitto, Horne, Angus, &c., &c.

for the world in My person!" Read the history of Christ, and we find it crowded with proof of His farewell declaration.

When only twelve years old we see Him disputing with the Rabbis and Jewish doctors in the Temple. Doubtless His appeal was to the Scriptures. When tempted of Satan in the wilderness He repulsed every fresh attack with weapons from this sacred arsenal. Thus it is written" discomfited His adversary. And so on, all through His eventful life. He furnished innumerable testimonies to the authority of the Scriptures. Testimonies in words and acts, vocal and silent, distinct and mystic, doetrinal, typical, miraculous; and His farewell declaration, already quoted, furnishes the last link in this unbroken chain of Divine testimony.

But Christ's testimony is as explicit as it is full. In proof of this, consider our Lord's frequent references to the Books of Moses. Does John William Colenso say that the facts or narrations of the Pentateuch are not worthy of credence, palpably false, incontrover tibly unhistorical? Let us see what Jesus thought about them.

THE FALL.-See John viii. 44. where our Lord says to the wicked Jews, Ye are of your father the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it." Here is an evident reference to the Lie which ruined our world.

THE MURDER OF ABEL - (See Matthew xxiii. 35.) "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, &c."

THE DELUGE.-(See Luke xvii. 26, 27.) "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all."

DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH.-(See Luke xvii. 29.) "But

the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all."

ABRAHAM.-See John viii. 56, 58. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." "Before Abraham was, I

am.

Then the Exodus from Egypt, the leadership of Moses, the priesthood of Aaron, the marvellous history of the Children of Israel, and the miracles wrought on their behalf during their passage through the wilderness, are all referred to by the Redeemer, not as Sinaitic legends but as sacred verities. For instance (John iii. 14), "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, &c." On another occasion He refers to the smitten rock, and speaks of Himself as the living water; and again, "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness," and tells us that that heavenly food was symbolical of Himself, for saith He, "I am the bread of life." But we need not multiply quotations. The fact is incontrovertible that Jesus believed in the genuineness of the Mosaic narrative.

But our Lord not only refers to the facts of the Pentateuch, He also teaches the Divine authority of the record. He says, "I am not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil." Again,

Whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandments and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew v. 17, 19). In reasoning with the unbelieving Jews our Lord says, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me" And then He proposes a question, which is specially pertinent in this controversy, "If ye believe not Moses' writings, how shall ye believe my words?" (John v. 46, 47, Further, in Luke xvi. 31, we read, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." Can anything be more explicit and solemn than these Divine authorisations of the Pentateuch and Prophets? If we receive

the teachings of Jesus, our Divine Lord, we shall at once see the futility and absurdity of all the arithmetical difficulties which have recently made so much noise in the world. It is sheer trifling so to treat the Word of God.

This whole question is one of authority with thousands. They say, here is a man of high erudition who has brought his great powers to the investigation of this grave question and has decided against the historical verity of the Pentateuch; here is a bishop, in spite of all the prejudices of education and position, who risks everything in the brave and conscientious attempt to explode hoary and sacred superstitions ; we accept conclusions pronounced by such high authority. But the humble Christian, if asked why he rejects Colenso and believes in Moses, at once appeals to the authority of our Lord. Believing in the veracity of the Pentateuch, believing in the miracles there recorded, believing in the predictions of the prophets, believing in the Divine inspiration of the Psalms, believing in the whole Bible, I can claim the verdict of Infinite Wisdom in my favour, and the authority of the Lord Jesus as my guarantee for ever.

"Should all the forms that men devise
Assault my faith with treacherous art,
I'd call them vanity and lies,
And bind the Bible to my heart.

GOD LOVES THE HUMBLE. Ir thou art a vessel of gold, and thy brother but of wood, be not highminded, it is God maketh thee differ; the more bounty God shows, the more humility He requires. Those

mines that are richest are deepest; those stars that are highest seem smallest; the goodliest buildings have the lowest foundations; the more God honoureth men, the more they should humble themselves; the more the fruit, the lower the branch on which it grows. Pride is ever the companion of emptiness. All that man is, he is by Divine grace.

THE WORK OF GOD AT

HOME AND ABROAD. DURING the month of October several important gatherings took place, in connexion with different sections of the Church of Christ, for the consideration and discussion of matters pertaining to the progress and prosperity of the work of God. Amid the indifference, apathy, and worldliness too generally prevalent among professors at the present moment, it is refreshing and gratifying to find that there are men, both in the ministry and out of it, who are in right good earnest-men in whose hearts there is a burning zeal for the maintenance of the truth, the promotion of the Divine glory, and the salvation of the multitudes of the ungodly.

The English Synod of the United Presbyterians held its sittings in Albion Chapel, Moorfields. It was only the second meeting of the kind held in England, the first taking place last year in Liverpool. Α considerable number of ministers and laymen assembled, and the proceedings having been inaugurated with a suitable sermon by Dr. Hugh Crighton, the retiring Moderator, the Rev. Robert Redpath, M.A., of Albany Chapel, London, was unanimously elected as Moderator for the ensuing year. Church extension in England was one of the first subjects that engaged the attention of the Synod. Mr. Stitt, of Claughton, who first addressed the meeting on the subject, remarked that a very large measure of success had already attended the efforts made in this direction, particularly in London and Lancashire. The number of congregations in the London Presbytery used to be only three, and now there were eight or nine, and each in a more flourishing state than the three were formerly. Similar statements might be made with respect to other large towns. What had thus been done in particular districts might, it was contended, be

accomplished in England generally, and upon a larger scale. The question was as to the mode in which it should be effected. It was thought by some of the ministers and elders of the Churches in England that this extension work should not depend quite so much as at present upon the sole action of the Home Mission Board in Scotland; and after a long and animated discussion, a committee was appointed to consider the propriety of placing a considerable number of English representatives upon the Scottish Board. The propriety of inquiring into the state of vital religion in the United Presbyterian Churches formed another topic of earnest discussion, and a schedule of questions was adopted for transmission to the various congregations, which it was thought would elicit valuable information, and form the basis of a useful report. A paper is also to be read on the subject at the next Synod. Following the example of the Independents, a public meeting was held for the special exposition and advocacy of Presbyterian principles. The meeting was well attended, and eloquent speeches were delivered by Dr. Cairns, of Berwick; Dr. Skinner, of Blackburn, and others. Another public meeting was devoted to giving information respecting the missions of the body, and to the advocacy of their claims. During the proceedings of the Synod the question of Union between the different Presbyterian bodies was favourably considered, and kindly references were made to other communities. The entire proceedings are said to have been pervaded by a truly catholic spirit.

The Autumnal Meeting of the Congregational Union was this year held at Hull, and was of more than usual interest. Upwards of four hundred ministers and delegates were present, who were welcomed with true Yorkshire hospitality, some of the guests, in the absence