Sept. 1, 1865.

Unto Adam God said, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return into the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Thus a dark cloud of sin and sorrow rests on this earth, and the wrath of God abides upon men in it. But there is the promise of restitution! In what particulars do we expect this restitution or restoration ?

I. God's creation restored. The apostle says, "the earnest expectation of the creature [or creation] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God... because the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." God says by the prophet Hosea, "In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely." Isaiah also says, "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed--their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

II. Man shall be restored to his original dominion, that is, in the person of the man Jesus and in His reign along with His Church. Another writer has said of this, and his words deserve our utmost attention:

"The reign spoken of here is so distinct and so positive, that those who are in heaven say, 'And we shall reign on the earth.' (Rev. v. 10.) Their power is from heaven; they shall reign over the earth according to that power. The glory of Jesus is the object of the counsels of God. .. This glory, which God has given to Christ, God has manifested in Jesus as man. Already, in the creation, the divine glory of the Son has been manifested, and his right of possessing all things established. Jesus created everything. He has title over creation, which can only be blessed under Him and during His reign. God has willed that everything should be made subject to man. Adam was the head of the creation; he failed, and all failed in him and with him. Satan having gained the victory over Adam, all has fallen under the dominion of Satan, who fills the world with evil, and rules over it through the passions of men. The question in God's counsels is not merely about salvation, but of the restoration of all things, God re-establishes everything, and man too (the family or species, not, of course, all men, but mun) in introducing into the world Jesus, the second Adam. God does not restore the first Adam; he introduces a second, the spring of life to all those who are redeemed. The Word was made flesh. God became a man, in order that all things might be made subject to man, and this man is Jesus."

Sept 1, 1865. There will be

III. In a certain sense Paradise will be restored. two centres of blessing- the heavenly and the earthly. As there are two callings, and the Church has the heavenly calling and Israel the earthly; so there is during the kingdom and reign of Jesus Christ; heaven the abode of Christ and His Church, and the restored earth, with Jerusalem for its centre, the abode of men in the flesh. These are restored Israel and outlying nations who shall be spared from the judgments on Antichrist, and afterwards brought in to this earthly blessing. Heaven is the seat of dominion, Christ and His risen people possessing the reigning power; and the earth is reigned over, its inhabitants being all brought into subjection.

IV. Through Jesus, the reigning King, the intercourse between God and His creatures will be restored; and especially at the close of the thousand years, when Jesus, having finished His reign as man, shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father (1 Cor. xv. 24), for it is then that it can be fully said, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God."

Thus the Scriptures appear to make it very plain that this kingdom of Christ shall consist of two portions, a heavenly and an earthly; one which is reigned over, and the other which reigns. Christ is King, and His bride reigns with Him. The inheritance was purchased by Christ, and He constituted His Church joint-heir with Him. It seems, therefore, to be placed beyond doubt that Christ's dealings with His people at the time of His coming, and "the judgment upon works" can affect only our places in the kingdom, and not our admission or rejection from it.

THE FORTY DAYS AFTER THE RESURRECTION.

By T. RYAN.

PART II. ST. MARK.

No. 9.-THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF CHRIST'S LOVE.

"But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him as he said unto you."-Mark xvi. 7.

PROCEEDING to notice those incidents in the forty days peculiar to St. Mark's Gospel, we are at first struck with this message from the angel, "Tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee : there shall ye see him as he said unto you."

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This was reassuring beyond all expression, and who announced it? A heavenly messenger, a young man" (5), an angel! But what are the angels? "Ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation." For this reason the angel gave it not as his own message, or as of his own motion, so to speak, but from Him who was now in resurrection their Lord also. It was Jesus, then risen who sent this message through His angel.

Sept. 1, 1865.

And well might the angels themselves be astonished at it, for the Lord here calls back and restores and turns His hand upon the little ones. Those disciples who had forsaken Him, for "they all forsook Him and fled" (Mark xiv. 50), and Peter who denied Him-" before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice" (Mark xiv. 30). These are all now reassured, reassured from Himself by His angel, and Peter called by name. The only ones whom the Lord calls by name after His resurrection are Peter, and Mary (Magdelene), and Thomas, but they are notable samples and representatives of believing sinners and unbelieving saints to the end of time, for Mary was a sinner, the chiefest of sinners, but she loved much, as all chief sinners do when forgiven much.

And Peter and Thomas may well be called chiefest of backsliding and unbelieving saints. O, dear reader, how many of us are of this kind! Although our words are big and often sincere, few of us have come to the end of self so as to have no confidence in the flesh. Such was the lesson which Peter had to learn, and he learnt it. Of Thomas we shall speak after, but whether it were Peter or Thomas, the Lord was the good shepherd who turned His hand on the little ones, and restored their soul (Ps. xxiii. 3).

In prophecy Peter and Thomas represent Israel at the first and second coming of Christ, Mary of Magdala the Gentile portion of the Church which now exists-Magdala was in Galilee. In the first twelve chapters of the Acts, the church was almost exclusively Jewish, and "the remnant according to grace' was represented by Peter. Hereafter also there will be "6. a remnant according to grace," represented by Thomas, who comes in at the end of seven days and believes by looking on Him whom they had pierced, whilst the Gentiles have the adoption revealed to them like Mary in the interval. (John xx.)

No. 10.-THE FIRST REBUKE.

"Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen."-Mark xvi. 14.

This word of the Lord is a word of reproach. He upbraids the disciples; not, however, for the past, neither for having forsaken him, nor for having denied him in the hour of distress, but for unbelief and hardness of heart, in not believing those who had seen him after his resurrection, And if we want to grieve the heart of Christ now in His glory, it is done in no way more effectually than by harbouring unbelief and hardness of heart in the face of all the assurances of His word daily repeated unto us. Alas! how we do greive Him by our daily unbelief and hardness of heart!

Of the apparent discrepancy between this passage and Luke xxiv. 33, 34, we hope to speak when we come to the gospel of St. Luke.

No. 11.-THE WHOLE CREATION.

"And he said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."-Mark xvi. 15.

This commission is far wider and more extensive than what we think at first sight; more so even than that in Matthew, which takes in all the nations.

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How so? it will be asked. Because it contemplates not only the subjection of nations to Christ our Lord, but of "the whole creation," for the words rendered above, "to every creature,' "* should be "to the whole creation," and this refers as Dean Alford justly observes, "not to men only, although men only can hear the preaching of the Gospel; all creation is redeemed by Christ." It refers to the great subject of which St. Paul speaks in the Epistle to the Romans, where he says, that "the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." (Rom. viii. 21, 22.) That is, Christianity will hereafter confer blessing on the inferior and superior spheres of creation, and bring them into a new condition and state, and the sound of the gospel under this commission goes forth into all the earth and its words to the end of the world. Its requirements will only be satisfied when all creation is in subjection to God.

St. Paul tells us that he also was a minister of the Gospel under this commission, (Col. i. 23,) which, says he, "ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature under heaven, (or in the whole creation which is under heaven,) whereof I Paul am made a minister," and he shows how all things in heaven and in earth as well as believing sinners have part in the reconciliation. (Col. i. 20, 21.) Of course he is not speaking of the unbelieving, but of creation as such.

And such a commission is quite in keeping with the Gospel of Mark, for St. Mark presents our Lord to us as the official Son of God, that is, the Son of God in office, Jehovah's "righteous servant," and everything must be brought into subjectship consequent upon this combination, "things in heaven and things in earth and you," a grand economy styled in Scripture "The mystery of God," and different from "The mystery of Christ," of which St. Paul likewise was the minister (Col. i. 25); but of this latter we cannot now speak particularly.

No. 12.-NATURE OF BAPTISM.

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."-Mark xvi. 16.

Wide and grand as the Gospel is it comes to the individual and addresses him as if he were alone in the world. It singles out the man and speaks to him as if he only and the Lord were in the universe. We are not saved in masses, nor judged in masses, so to speak, but we are saved as individuals and judged as individuals; "every one must give account of himself to God." Not at all denying that whether saved or unsaved we form part of a unity, for there is a unity in death as well as in life.

But observe here Divine wisdom. The Lord does not speak on the negative side of the case in the same terms as on the positive side. He does not say, he that believeth not, and is not baptized, shall be damned;" but simply, "he that believeth not shall be damned." Had the Lord added the word, "and is not baptized," then it would imply that virtue was in the ordinance of baptism as an ordinance. In the

early days of Christianity it cost all a man was worth, and perhaps his life also, to be baptized; it was a mark of discipleship and a bold confession before men. Here it is of that character, viz., a test of the sincerity of the profession. But, then, there might be circumstances under which baptism did not and could not take place, and hence, whilst it remained as a test of sincerity, it is not a sine qua non to salvation, or a thing without which salvation cannot be, and, therefore, it is omitted by the Lord in speaking of the negative side of the matter. In these days, for instance, and in England, there is no particular test in the ordinance as in the early days of Christianity, and one is not more a disciple of Christ than another apparently from having gone through this ceremonial, for all profess to be Christians and to have been baptized. Yet we do not say that baptism has not other and deeper significations; but the test of sincerity in these days is, how far we in our life, walk, and conversation, actualize and realize what it is to be dead unto sin with Christ and alive unto things above that is, how far the spiritual import of the ordinance is expressed by us, for herein is tho true obedience, and not in merely going through the ceremonial, as every true Christian must admit.

St. Paul likewise says, "For Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel," &c., a sentence which could hardly have fallen from him if baptism of water carried in it salvation on the one hand or was an absolute test of genuine Christianity on the other. However, in so saying, St. Paul chiefly alludes to the twelve apostles under whose commission baptism played an important part and took a most prominent place, as we have seen in St. Matthew.

With St. Paul baptism of water was subsidiary and selective; with the twelve it was prominent and collective, see i. Cor. i. 14-18, both of which were beautifully in keeping with their respective commissions.

No 13.- SIGNS AND WONDERS.

"And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with these signs following."-Mark xvi. 17—20.

The reader will observe the translation of the last words-not merely "signs following," but "these signs following," which refers of course to the signs spoken of-the article in the original obliges this change. These were the signs and they were especially given for a definite end, and with marked emphasis, more so than anywhere else in the New Testament, but this also is in keeping with the nature of the commission above referred to, for we have seen that the disciples here were sent forth not only to disciple nations as in Matthew, but to redeem the whole creation and bring about a state of things that would necessitate and precipitate the coming of the Lord. Hence St. Peter says elsewhere, "hastening the coming of the day of God."*

* σπευδοντας τλν περουσίαν του θεου.—ii. Peter iii. 12.

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