sinners from the dominion of the law. Death, which is the penal sanction of the law, can alone (grace having provided a substitute) become the delivering power.

It is of this substitutional deliverance of his people by dying in their stead, that the apostle speaks in Rom. vii. 1-6. The passage is one frequently misunderstood; let us briefly consider it.

"Know ye not brethren (for I speak to them that know the law) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth."

Here is the principle which is to explain the believer's deliverance from the law's dominion. The difficulty, however, seems to be in its applicability, for the believer is not dead, of whom it has been asserted (chapter vi.) that he is not under the law.

Then comes in the illustration of the woman's deliverance from the marriage law, not by her own death, but by her husband's death, and this being at the same time an instance where the principle referred to holds good, the illustration is as exact as it is pertinent.

"For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband," &c.

the case

Now the exact bearing of this illustration upon in point is very remarkable, and yet, strange to say, no commentator ever seems to have noticed it. Alford says, "In the example, the liberated person is the survivor; in the thing treated, the liberated person is the dead person.' Thus showing that he wholly fails to see how exactly parallel are the cases.

The fact is, in the example the liberated person (though the survivor) is liberated by her husband's death being legally her death. In the eye of the law, man and wife are one. The death of either is the legal death of the bipartite individual to whom the marriage law applies. It is thus that the example or illustration of the wife's free

dom from the marriage law through her husband's death comes under the principle of "The law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth." The dominion of the marriage law only ceases through the legal death of the wife in the person of her husband.

Exactly parallel to this is the thing to be illustrated, "Wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law (not in your own persons, but) in the person of Christ." Moreover, the oneness existing between husband and wife is but a faint type (Ephes. v. 32) of that which exists between Christ and the Church, in virtue of which, his death is her death; his glory, her glory.

The parallelism between the illustration and the matter illustrated may thus be drawn, with more correctness than Dean Alford has done :

In the illustration, the liberated person is the survivorthe wife.

In the matter illustrated, the liberated person is the survivor also the believer.

In the illustration, liberation is effected by death; so also in the matter treated of.

In the illustration, the death of the husband is the death which liberates the wife.

In the matter treated, the death of Christ is that which liberates the believer.

In both cases, owing to the legal oneness betwixt husband and wife, Christ and his Church, the death of the former (in each case) is virtually the death of the latter, and therefore the principle has its fulfilment in both cases substitutionally: "The law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth."

Reader, have you "become dead to the law by the body of Christ"? Are you one with him? If not, should you be found out of Christ, the law must have everlasting dominion over you even to your never-ending condemna

tion. Should death overtake you before you have found refuge in Him, remember that "the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law." Oh, do not delay! to-day, while it is called to-day harden not your hearts, but fly for refuge to Jesus. Once "in Him you may smile at death, and sing, "Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

H. E. B.

]

THE TRESPASS OFFERING.-(LEV. v.)

CANNOT offend any of my fellow-creatures without offending God. Every offence committed against man is primarily to be considered an offence against God. Our soliciting and conferring forgiveness of and upon each other, is ofttimes little more than collusion amongst thieves. God is forgotten altogether, and there is often a vast deal of hypocrisy, and deceit, and malice, and envy inhabiting the bosom, while we are lying with our tongues to God and to each other.

If we were in the habit of tracing all sins, in their malignity, as committed against God in the first instance, we should not err. We sometimes hear of two individuals being under one roof who cannot agree; at length we hear of their being reconciled. It requires but half an eye to see that they hate each other profoundly, notwithstanding their professed reconciliation. Do any of you know what this is? Are you such hypocrites in mercy? Let me advise you lose sight of each other immediately, and consider yourselves but as dust and ashes, and whatever offences you may have committed against each other, consider them primarily as offences against God.

HOWELS.

June 1, 1962

KING'S HIGHWAY

JEHOVAH-JIREH.

death

HIS was the divine impression made upon Abraham's mind after God's wonderful interposition in the matter of Isaac's deliverance from (Gen. xxii.) It was the continued exercise of a previous faith (verse 9) which led him to select this title, as a fitting memorial of a past transaction, as well as an earnest of greater and better things to come. Abraham had endured trial to the extent which God intended, and was thereby led to a new experience of God's character. New thoughts pervaded his mind, new hopes animated his soul, and these found expression in the significant name JehovahJireh-The Lord will provide.

Many since the days of the patriarch have found the preciousness of this trait in Jehovah's character. The sinner, looking from himself to the cross of Jesus, has beheld therein the elements of salvation, for God has indeed provided a lamb for sacrifice in the person of his own dear Son (John i. 29). The saint, renouncing his own merit and sufficiency, and looking to a risen Saviour, views therein the essentials of strength, for the Lord Jehovah has become his salvation, and is all-sufficient for his need (Phil. iv. 19). Though the promise was special to Abraham-like a similar one to Paul (2 Cor. xii. 9)—it has now become the common property of all who believe. Yes, brethren, the Lord Jesus can fill up the deepest want of your heart, administer comfort in the severest sorrow of your soul, bring deliverance in the time of your heaviest trial in life; your extremity is God's opportunity.

"When his hour strikes for relieving,

Help breaks forth amazingly;

And to shame your anxious grieving,
Often unexpectedly."

Blessed thought! The Lord will provide! He will "give us this day our daily bread" (Psa. xxxiv. 10). He will see to it that his children have support in their varied trials (1 Cor. x. 13), He will take care that all things, though apparently adverse, shall contribute to their growth in grace, and to their meetness for the kingdom of heaven. For "hath he said, and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

"Though dark be their way, since He is their guide,
'Tis theirs to obey, 'tis his to provide."

The natural world, in the constant succession of seedtime and harvest, bears witness to Jehovah's truth-speaking character (Gen. viii. 22). And shall his church, his newcreation in Christ Jesus, be less the object of his care, and the verifier of his faithfulness? (2 Cor. i. 20). Truly the Lord has provided all things pertaining to life and godliness (2 Pet. i. 3). Truly the believer can humbly yet confidently say: I shall not want, for He who is my Shepherd is Jehovah-Jireh. I shall not want life, even eternal life, for it was this He came to give, and is empowered to bestow. I shall not want nourishment, for He has given me his Word and his Spirit, the green pastures and the still waters (Psa. xxiii. 2). As to the future, I can leave it in his hands, and can hope to the end for the grace that is to be revealed at the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ.

Reader! is this thy experience? If not, behold the Lamb of God! Look and live! There's life in a look at the Crucified One. Behold God's great and free provision for perishing sinners. God has now provided a Lamb. He has been seen putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Are yours put away? Have you brought them to Jesus, and by faith laid them on Him, to be borne away and remembered no more against you? "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of