that for a Christian to live is Christ, but to die is gain. And so confident was the apostle of this sanctifying truth that he expresses a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better (Philippians, i, 23); and again in 2nd Corinthians, v, 8, affirming that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. It is hardly possible to conceive that such language could be made use of if the earthly body on death was not renewed by a spiritual body: a mere conscious state of existence, without form, shape, or body, could not be what Paul craved after; and of this we are assured by his asserting that "if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; for in this we groan, longing to clothe ourselves with our house which is from heaven, for we desire not to be unclothed but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up in life" (2nd Corinthians, v, 1-8). This house from heaven cannot be our disembodied state while awaiting in heaven the resurrection of the body; it is the resurrection body itself; the consciousness of being clothed in glory, that mortality may be swallowed up in life; and this is the hope implied by our Saviour's remark to the penitent thief. It was not only a pledge of redemption through faith in Christ, but a promise that he should actually that day enter into his resurrection state, and be clothed upon with a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, -for resurrection, not death, is the believer's hope (see 1st Corinthians, xv).

LUKE, XVII, 20, 21.

"And when he was demanded of the pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, Lo, here or lo, there! for behold the kingdom of God is within you."

There is no reason why "within" should be employed. Dean Alford translates it " among you," and in Jeremiah, i, 1; John, i, 14; Luke, vii, 16, where the Greek word is essentially the same, the latter rendering is used. The passage really means that the kingdom, in the person of the

king, was among them. Our Lord evidently never intended to employ the word as significant of the kingdom of God being in the hearts of the Jews, for he had told these same Pharisees that outwardly they appeared righteous unto man, but that within they were full of iniquity and hypocrisy (Matthew, xxiii, 28). These two diametrically opposite statements could not have proceeded out of the mouth of the Saviour, except in the sense contended for; nor could his hearers have understood the expressions otherwise than here represented. The whole Jewish nation were at that time and some time previous to it in full expectancy of the Messiah, who was to reign over them in Jerusalem, as a great and mighty sovereign, and who, as the Branch and of the seed of David, was to rule all nations with a rod of iron (Psalms, ii, 9), and to restore to His people the grandeur, power, and magnificence they formerly possessed under David and Solomon. Their eyes were blinded-that is, they were so puffed up with self-arrogance and pride; so convinced of their superiority over every other nation in the world, notwithstanding their debased and prostrate condition, that when the Messiah did come, and scrupulously fulfilled every prophecy indicated in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke, xxiv, 44) concerning his low estate, sufferings and death-they refused to receive or believe him. They would not acknowledge as the Messiah a carpenter's son, one born in a manger, associating with publicans and sinners, selecting as his friends and companions men of despised occupations, men poor in this world's riches, ignorant of this world's wisdom, and devoid of every advantage which by the rulers of the people was alone prized and honoured. Well might the inspired prophet exclaim, "Who hath believed our report? for He hath no form or comeliness; and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not" (Isaiah, liii, 1-9). Should not the Christian in reading this and similar passages where God's infinite, inexhaustible, and abounding love is so heartlessly rejected and contemned, pray, with Jeremiah, that his head were waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might weep for the ingratitude of the people, and the superhuman sorrows of this "man of grief."

No mind yet formed, or that may be in the womb of time, can ever faintly conceive, comprehend, or encompass the vastness and intensity of God's love to man; it is beyond all thought-all imagination; we can only humbly fall on our knees and "praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men." God's love is inexhaustible, for we see him in the agonies of death, suffering the martyrdom of the cross, and every indignity which the malice of his enemies-those whom he came to save-could devise, still praying and pleading for his executioners, and crying out, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke, xxiii, 34); and even after He had ascended up above, He returns, and decrees, "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," even then He would have pardoned and received them; "if they had stood in my counsel they should have been turned from their evil ways, and from the evil of their doings" (Jeremiah, xxiii, 22). "Turn ye to me, saith the Lord, with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart and not your garment, and turn unto the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil" (Joel, ii, 12, 13). "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways. I would have fed them with the finest of wheat, and with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied them" (Psalms lxxxi, 13-16); and even after the descent of the Comforter we find Jesus, by the mouth of Peter, extenuating their crime, saying, “ And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance ye did it, as did also yours rulers" (Acts iii, 17). It was only after their cruel martyrdom of Stephen, that God gave them up to their own devices, took away their kingdom, destroyed their nationality, abandoned them till such time as again in the anguish of their hearts they may seek their God, and mourn over Him whom they pierced and crucified; God only waits to be gracious: when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, and when the cries of the believing Jewish remnant shall ascend to Heaven, then will Christ manifestly appear amongst them, and the kingdom of God, which in the days of Christ's sufferings they were, from the hardness of their heart, incapable of receiving, will be within them and among them, and the crucified Saviour will indeed and

in truth reign over them in the new Jerusalem, and shall be known as Emmanuel-God is with us, and the name of the city from that day shall be "The Lord is there" (Ezekiel xlviii, 35). I do not here pursue the subject further, as the kingdom of God, or Christ's reign on earth during the Millennium age, forms so large a portion of these remarks.

2ND CORINTHIANS, V, 10.

"For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, whether it were good or bad."

The word used here for judgment-seat is "Beema," in other passages "Krisis"-judgment or condemnation (John iii, 19; Matthew xii, 18), and "Thronos"-a royal or judicial seat (Revelation xx, 11). We thus see that there exists differences of judgment. The first, the one under review, is a judgment on the works of believers as servants when in their bodies of flesh and blood, for there are, it would seem, gradations of honour. Believers once received into union with Christ are one with him, as the Father is one with Christ (John, xvii, 21), and have been quickened together with him, and made to sit in heavenly places with him (Ephesians, ii, 5, 6), and presented as children to the Father, or joint heirs with Christ (Romans, viii, 14—17), cannot in their persons come into judgment, but their works can, and according as they have been good or bad, so will their position be in the kingdom of God.

If any

In the Father's house are many mansions (John xiv, 1-3), some of greater honour than others, those whose works are of gold, silver, or precious stones will be more highly honoured than those whose works are of wood, hay and straw (1st Corinthians, iii, 9-15). Every believer's work shall be made manifest, and shall be tried by fire. man's works shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire. This seems distinctly to point out that there are degrees of reward. Christ, speaking of John the Baptist, says "he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he " (Luke, vii, 28). And again, the Lord says, "He that receiveth a prophet in

the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward" (Matthew, x, 41). Unless there was a difference of reward in these two cases, it seems impossible to comprehend the distinction here specified. St. Paul also, in 1st Corinthians, xv, 41, seems to allude to grades of honour, when he says, the sun, moon and stars differ from each other in glory (see Luke, xii, 47, 48; Matthew, v, 12-26; vii, 2, &c.)

MATTHEW, XXIII, 13.

"Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees; hypocrites; because ye shut up the kingdom of heaven in men's faces; for ye go not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."

At the period of our Lord's first advent, the Jewish nation was in expectation of the promised Messiah (see Deuteronomy, 18—15; Isaiah, ix, 6-7; Malachi, iv, 5, 6; John, i, 25). The disciples hoped that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. Zachariah, Anna, Simeon, Nathaniel, and many others, the ever existing remnant, were waiting for the consolation of Israel (Luke, ii, 25-38. The wise men also, princes of the East, seeing his star came to Jerusalem to worship the king of the Jews (Matthew, ii, 2). And the shepherds watching their flocks by night, were told by angels that unto them was born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord (Luke, ii, 11.) And our Lord before Pilate, when asked if he were king, answered, thou sayest, for I am a king, and to this end came I unto the world (John, xviii, 37); and on his cross was written "King of the Jews." Yet notwithstanding all these accumulative evidences to the Old Testament prophecies, the scribes and Pharisees, as also the Sadducees, in short, the rulers of the people that sat in Moses's seat, utterly refused to acknowledge him, and did their utmost to prevent the people listening to or receiving him.

Manifold passages might be quoted, showing in almost every instance how these rulers studied to prevent the people from hearing the doctrines of our Lord. They (the people) would gladly have received him, seeing the miracles He performed and the blessings they derived therefrom ;