He comes for His own people, "and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Heb. ix. 28), He comes to fulfil his own promise made in John v. 24, as quoted above. In this resurrection there is no question of the merits of man, but only of the free gift of God, working on account of His estimate of Christ's merits. Now the first resurrection takes place in man's day, in time, from the earth as it is, and out from among the dead, one thousand years before the close of earth's history. And a body fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself (Phil. iii. 21), one fit to go into the Father's house in, to see God in, and to share His glory in, the being like Him, when we see Him as He is, are gifts of His love. Gifts surely not natural to the position of Adam the first as placed in Eden, though natural enough for the last Adam to give to those whom He has so associated with Himself that they can know that Christ Himself is their life (Col. iii. 3, 4). And this is our present blessing, according to John xiv. 19, 20, "Yet a little time and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." But the resurrection of those who are to be judged, and judged according to their works-that does not take place in man's day of possessing this world, it is in God's eternity. None but the wicked rise then. They are raised by the power of One whom they knew not. Those who have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam, and perished in the gainsaying of Core, with every doer of unrighteousness, and the fearful, and the unbelieving, will then be raised without their consent, and against their every desire, raised in eternity, when time is no more, in God's eternity, and then the judgment will take place and the sentence be pronounced. And now let me observe, that the language of the Bible is strictly the language of man in every-day life. It means what it says. Man with man makes himself understood very well without any school-master's over accuracy, and no mistakes arise to the simple mind as to what he means. Is God the only one who cannot use language so as to correctly awaken man's mind to His meaning? I will take as an illustration of what I mean the words "for ever." Who in every-day life, in the things of men, gets into any mistake about the words for ever, or supposes that "for ever," always means the same duration? No; the context always decides the sense. A father gave to a child a plaything. The child (but of five years old) asked "How long is this to be mine?" The father replied "for ever." And the child said "Then it is my own, my very own; and I may burn it, if I like, or give it to my sister." Land is sold in Devonshire on leases of one, two, and four thousand years, but not "for ever." A child was run over on the car-line; the judgment of the doctors at the hospital was that the child would be a cripple " for ever." In all these, and in innumerable other cases which occur, there is no ambiguity, no mistake in the hearer's mind of what is meant; and is there to the simple man who, taught of God to be as a little child, takes the Scripture as it is written, any difficulty when God speaks? I speak as a fool; not as a wise man, nor as a learned man, but as a fool, who asks God to teach him, and who desires to let Scripture speak to him whatever it means-without vain reasonings or quibblings. If I say, God is "for ever," how long does this "for ever" last? He who calls himself a Christian and hesitates to say "'tis an endless for ever, the life of God," is a fool. And if, when the earth and time are passed, God, in God's endless for ever, declares something is to be "for ever," 'tis an endless for ever, which God so pronounces, and will make good too. The bliss and blessedness of those who love the Lord Jesus Christ is as endless as is He who has loved them, and whom they love; and the woe of those brought up for judgment after man's for evers have ceased, and sent into torment, is too an endless for ever: where their worm dieth not, and where their fire is not quenched (Mark ix. 44). God's word does use the words " for ever," in the same way as do men for durations which have an end; but then it is said of something in man's day, and not when man's day, with all its subdivisions of time, is past. Ever and for ever, etc., are so used-I give instances from Cruden's concordance Ever. Lev. vi. 13, fire shall ever be burning on the altar. For ever. Gen. xliii. 9, then let me bear the blame for ever. Exod. xii. 14, a feast for an ordinance for ever. 17. (said of the passover, a type until Christ came). Exod. xxi. 6, bore his ear, and he shall serve him for ever. Exod. xxxii. 13, give this land, and they shall inherit it for ever. Lev. xxv. 30, the house shall be established for ever to him. The "for ever" of the Mosaic economy, with its mediatorship, priesthood, sanctuary, nation, etc., seeing that it all pointed on to another, the Lord Jesus Christ, was necessarily limited to the duration of that economy. Just as the "for ever" of a man's service to another was limited to his life. So again 1 Kings ix. 3, this house built, to put my name there for ever. 2 Kings v. 27, leprosy cleave to thee and to thy seed for ever. Ps. xxx. 12, I will give thanks to thee for ever. Is. xxxv. 6, Jonadab said, Ye shall drink no wine for ever. How different is the "for ever" in the above cases to its sense, where it is used either of God himself, or of the truth of His word, or of the blessedness which awaits His own people. That of which when time is done, and it is in God's eternity, the weal or the woe is "for ever," is surely an endless portion; whether of the good, bound up in one bundle of life with the Christ of God, or of the wicked raised up in the day of God, still haters of Him and of His Son. Rom. i. 25, the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Rom. ix. 5, Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. ever. 1 Pet. i. 23, the word of God, which liveth for ever. 1 Pet. i. 25, the word of the Lord endureth for ever. Gal. i. 5, God to whom be glory for ever and ever. Phil. iv. 20; 1 Tim. i. 17; 2 Tim. iv. 18; Heb. xiii. 21. Rev. iv. 9, to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever. 10. v. 14; x. 6; xv. 7. Rev. xx. 10, tormented day and night for ever and ever. Any one can follow out this as to the terms everlasting, eternal, evermore, etc. My statement is plain, and, I trust, distinct. The words "for ever," "ever," etc., if they are applied to any thing or person, in man's day, may be a duration limited by the context, short or long. But if presented to us as being said of God, or of anything found in His presence, when man's day is passed, then they are as much for perpetuity as is the God who announces them; their "for ever" is as long as His. Reader! may God grant unto you, and unto me also, to receive His word as a little child, and to bow to it. No. XXIV. THE FEASTS OF PASSOVER AND TABERNACLES. "THREE times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God" was the announcement made to Israel at Sinai. How far they entered into the spirit of these solemn feasts, how long they continued, without any intermission, to go up year by year to appear before the Lord, is not revealed. That there were breaks in the period between their entrance into the land under Joshua, and their leaving it as captives for Babylon, during which they neglected this command we must suppose. At times we have indications that these feasts were not forgotten. David appointed the Levites "to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at even; and to offer (rather at the offering of) all burnt sacrifices unto the Lord, in the sabbaths, in the new moons, and on the set feasts" (1 Chron. xxiii. 30, 31). Solomon wrote to Huram that he desired to build a house to the name of the Lord his God, to dedicate it to Him, and to burn before Him sweet incense, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord his God (2 Chron. ii. 4). Hezekiah restored the worship of God, appointed the courses of the priests and of the Levites to minister, and appointed also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the Lord." (2 Chron. xxxi. 2, 3). The returned remnant set up again the altar, on which they offered the burnt offerings on all the set feasts of the Lord (Ezra iii. 5). At these epochs of their history, and doubtless at other periods also, they did observe the feasts in their regular order, though, from other Scriptures we learn, that the manner in which they kept them was not uniformly the same. Between the days of Solomon and Hezekiah there was no such Passover as the one mentioned in the reign of the latter. Between the days of Samuel and Josiah there was no such Passover as the one the king kept. Between the days of Joshua and Nehemiah the people had not kept the feast of Tabernacles aright by dwelling in booths. At times neglected, and again at times kept with different degrees of spirituality and gladness of heart, how is it, it may be asked, that we have mention made of the Passover and Tabernacles only at certain eventful epochs in their history? Of the observance of the feast of Weeks we have no mention in the Bible, till the accomplishment of that which it foreshadowed commenced. Then it first comes before us as a feast which had been kept, but to the celebration of which, during all the period of Israel's history whilst owned of God as His earthly people, no allusion had been made. The reason of this is apparent. Though appointed to be kept in its order along with the other feasts of the year, because in common with them it looked forward to what God would accomplish on earth, it had respect to what was properly speaking outside Israel, regarded as the accepted earthly people. It looked on to that day when the Lord would begin a |