now, beloved, amid all the wreck and ruin of poor fallen humanity, with sin in us and suffering and sorrow around us, what will it be by-and-bye when, "delivered from the burden of the flesh," we "see Him as He is, no more as through a glass darkly, but face to face?" In the anticipation of such a blessed state of things, well might the immortal TOPLADY sing

"If such the sweetness of the streams,

What must the fountain be

Where saints and angels draw their bliss
Immediately from Thee ?”

Further, He teaches conclusively. We read in the epistle to the Ephesians the Apostle Paul writing thus: "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ" (Eph. iv. 14, 15). Now, in marked contrast to this being "tossed to and fro, and being carried about with every wind of doctrine," when the Lord teaches, and what the Lord teaches, is so directly from Himself, that there is not the least room whatever for doubt or uncertainty in the matter. It comes with a dignity and a power and a conclusiveness that establishes and confirms the soul in the teaching and the verities thus communicated. It is no mere hearsay; no views or opinions of this man or that man; no human conceptions or fleshly fancies; but a divinely-inwrought, powerful, irresistible conviction from the Fountain-head, Source, and Spring of all true life, light, and blessedness, such as led the Apostle John to say, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John i. 3). And the conclusiveness of, or the being thoroughly at a point about, this teaching arises in great measure from the facts and the circumstances connected with the teaching. It is a teaching that is almost invariably associated-and that most closely, too--with trial or temptation. When Hezekiah was in the very depths, in consequence of the message that he had received about "setting his house in order," for he was "to die and not live;" when he "turned his face unto the wall, and prayed unto the Lord," was it the mere testimony or reasoning or suggestion of his poor frail fellow-man that brought him relief? Would ten thousand arguments or suppositions, "ifs" or "may be's" of the creature have availed against that direct "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live?" Would aught less than a second "THUS SAITH THE LORD" have proved a match for the first? But when that second "THUS SAITH THE LORD," accompanied as it was, condescendingly and compassionately, with a sign or token likewise from the Lord, it brought with it a power, a conviction, a conclusiveness, that infinitely surpassed all the laboured attempts of man to convince or console. And

thus it is, beloved, with what the Lord says and with what the Lord does; it is so God-like, so mighty, so powerful, that it in one moment confirms and establishes the soul, dispelling the darkness, and chasing away the fears. It causes the poor timid and trembling one to "take the wings of the morning," and in sweet and blessed anticipation gives it to realize that after which the Psalmist longed when he exclaimed, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove: for then would I flee away and be at rest" (Psalm lv. 6).

Ah, dear reader, have you not found it so again and again? you, we mean, who have personally been called to wade through the deep waters of affliction, trial, or soul-conflict, wherein the Lord alone could sustain and from which the Lord only could deliver? You have found, under such circumstances, that "vain is the help of man;" at the same time, when the Lord has manifestively drawn nigh, and when He has spoken, you have blessedly realized that "the voice of the Lord is (margin) in power, that the voice of the Lord is (margin) in majesty" (Psalm xxix. 4). "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast" (Psalm xxxiii. 9). This voice was heard and apprehended by faith; and the thing promised, whether it applied to soul or body, was regarded by you as already accomplished; and why? Because the Lord was the Speaker. "You knew His voice," as Jesus said in the 10th of John, and you "followed Him," in faith, love, and adoring wonder and admiration. You were brought in a moment, under that voice thus sovereignly and personally spoken, to a blessed conclusiveness. For the time being you had neither doubt nor fear about the accomplishment, no more than had Abraham with respect to the promise of a seed in whom he and all the families of the earth should be blessed. "He believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." So, in like manner, under the then present power of the voice, you believed. Yea; and, although the things spoken of have not even yet been fulfilled, still neither the season nor the word can you forget. It is locked up in faith's little love-cabinet; and, at the fitting moment, in God's time-not yours-it shall be brought forth to be richly and blessedly fulfilled to the very letter.

Again, with regard to this teaching as to its power and its conclusiveness, think you that the woman of Samaria would not have been the first to exclaim, "Who teacheth like Him ?" when she it was who "left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a Man which told me all things ever I did. Is not this the Christ?" Was not that conclusiveness with a witness? and was not the like conclusiveness exhibited when " many more believed because of His own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world?" It is then, dear reader, for this distinctive teaching, even that of the Lord the Spirit Himself, for which we plead; and out of which, we contend, none can persuade or argue. But what is simply imparted

by man can as easily be removed by a similar agency, especially when the great enemy takes advantage of that which has not been, as it were, burnt into the soul by "line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little." Learning obtained at such a cost leads the possessor to give heed to that solemn Scriptural injunction, “Buy the truth, and sell it not." What we learn in the furnace of affliction, and save from the fire, we not only value, but it abides with us; whereas that which "costs us nothing" proves, in time of test and trial, to be of little worth. It is only the pure gold that is fire-proof, and, sooner or later, "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is" (1 Cor. iii. 13).

But again, He teaches contemplatively. By which we mean, all the Lord's lessons lead the mind onward and homeward. In various ways those in the school of Christ are reminded, day by day, that "this is not their rest; it is polluted." In connexion with passing circumstances of some kind or other, they are taught the great fact of which Moses spake to Israel when he said, "For ye are not as yet come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you. Yea, so forcible and so significant are the Lord's teachings, that He will not allow His children to settle upon their lees, or to "make their rest" here. He loves them too well, and His gracious, tender heart is too deeply set upon having them home with Himself to allow them to make the creature a substitute for Himself, or the world their home, in lieu of those mansions which He has gone on to prepare and make ready for them. Hence, whatever the comforts, attainments, privileges with which His loved ones may be indulged, the great Writing Master ever keeps one copy-slip near His pupils, and then again and again and again they are bidden to write out, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth I desire [in comparison with] Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the Strength of my heart, and my Portion for ever" (Psalm lxxiii. 25, 26). Whilst His dear children realize the great fact that He is "their Arm every morning," and daily and hourly their "Salvation also in the time of trouble," yet withal there is that underlying, secret, prompting upward, onward, and homeward. Let their comforts or experiences be what they may, there is the daily personal recognition of the great fact of which the Apostle testified when he said, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. iii. 13, 14). In further proof that the Lord does teach contemplatively, we read, at the close of the same chapter, "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself."

Oh, blessed contemplation! Glorious prospect! The laying down

of this poor frail sinful tabernacle; the din of battle heard no more; hell's artillery silenced for ever; the world eternally overcome; the stormy ocean crossed; the fair haven reached; pain and languishing, sin and death, all things of the past, never again for a single moment to be either felt or feared.

Lastly, with respect to the momentous question, "Who teacheth like Him?" we may add, He teaches contentment. It may appear contradictory that where there is the ardent "looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," of which the Apostle speaks in his epistle to Titus, or as the Psalmist expressed it in much earlier day, "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness," there should, at the same time, be contentment. Yet such is the case, and we believe it be one of the last lessons the Lord teaches His dear children down here. The Apostle Paul had well nigh done learning upon earth when he could say, as he did say, in immediate connexion with what he had just before testified about his conversation (or his citizenship) being in heaven, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Phil. iii. 12). It was a blessed-yea, a most enviable-state to be brought to-to have a oneness of heart and will with God; to be enabled emphatically to say, as Job, even under his bitter anguish and dreadful sufferings, exclaimed, "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come" (Job xiv. 14). We are persuaded that the Lord brings His dear people to this blessed submission-this holy contentment-before He takes them to Himself. Their wills are completely absorbed in His. It is emphatically "Not my will, but Thine be done.” Whatever their previous self-will or opposition, they are at length so brought down as not to turn a straw to have aught changed. As long as there is fretfulness, peevishness, rebellion, they have more to learn. Other and perhaps very, very bitter-lessons are in waiting. Poor fidgetty, fretful, repining Martha, "cumbered," as she was, "about much serving," had a terrible ordeal to pass through before, at hearing that Jesus was coming," she went and met Him." The Lord knew how to cure her; He was at no loss as to the manner in which He should fix that great truth about "the

one thing needful" upon her heart. He takes her brother; and, when the Lord took him, He took also her carefulness about the cumbersome trumpery of house and home. She no longer frets and fumes about the trivials of time-things. The greater had been taken, the less left. The jewel was gone, the casket only remained. She was beside herself before; prodigal-like, although by a very different course, she "comes to herself" now. When previously so "cumbered about much serving," she had but one Guest-a great and a glorious One, we admit—but now she has many, for we read that "many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother." Had, however, any spoken to Martha about "serving," under present circumstances, what indifference would she have exhibited. Now that her beloved Lazarus was gone, how small the hold house and home had upon her heart; how little she thought about the way and manner of entertaining her visitors. In plain language, had she spoken, she would have said, "Take things as you find them. Make the best of it. I see my folly now in that over-thought and care and painstaking I have bestowed upon matters which neither needed nor merited such all-engrossing thought. I have neglected 'the one thing needful,' about which my dear Lord and Master spoke, in the intensity of my anxiety about things which, after all, are but most transitory."

Ah, reader, depend upon it we are verily guilty here, as well as in numberless other respects. We have reason, many of us at least, to be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves on account of our want of contentment with such things as we have." When we think of who we once were, where we once were, and what we once feared, well may we take shame to ourselves. Who were we? Why, poor Satan-possessed sinners, dead in trespasses and sins! Where were we? In the world, and bent upon having our fill of it, at all risks and hazards! What afterwards did we fear? That hell and damnation would be our irremediable and everlasting portion! And now, brought nigh by the precious blood of Christ, believing that He hath in very deed put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself; having a good hope through grace that in Him we are eternally freed from all condemnation; and believing that because He lives we shall live also ; and that we shall one day see Him as He is, and be like Him, and dwell with Him through a glorious and never-ending eternity; and yet-and yet-alas! alas! in ourselves and of ourselves thankless! thoughtless! trustless! Reader, personally we often wonder, with respect to ourselves, that Jehovah does not say of such a dry, rotten, fruitless thing, "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" And rely upon it, reader, if He were man, and not God, He would say

so.

Contentment! why, we are quite sure that, had the Most High put it into the heart of some servant of His, the other day, to have said with convincing power to the Czar, or the Emperor of all the Russias, "I am commissioned from above to tender you, in exchange for all