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by delusions, "believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Do any wish to learn the doom of Gentile greatness, in its last forms of crisis, let them listen and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war with him ?" The practical value of these lessons, when viewed in the light of God's word, is immense, to the soul which seizes them and holds them fast. The contradictions between the wisdom of the age, with its flattering prospects, and the gathering clouds of divine vengeance upon the ripening grapes of the vine of the earth, are of giant growth! But let no soul hesitate a moment; 66 at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it: because it will surely come. Neither the world, nor men in it, would be what they are if the light of divine truth were accepted; on the contrary, "the prince of the power of the air" would be detected and exposed; and the vaunted spirit of this age would be discovered in its character, and shunned.

Who is bold enough in these last days to challenge the course of this present world? Who dares take a place outside the ranks, with a sling and a stone, to defy the uncircumcised Philistine, this antitypical Goliath? Let not such an one be discouraged, even though Abner, the captain of the panic-stricken host, knows not the youth, and though the king may command him to enquire whose son the stripling is? Then, the armies of the living God were defied-but now, the man of sin, son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, is on the scene. Much that perplexes, and terrifies the heart, on its first discovery of the wide departure of man, and Israel, the Gentiles, and the professing Church, from God and His word-is explained, as we learn that Satan is the grand actor, in the midst of mankind, and the corrupter of whatever God gives. Indeed, as the grace of God is to the sinner-so is light to the great enemy of souls-and if that light be turned into darkness, how great is that darkness, for the devil's use. What else

can he do so well, as corrupt and change the truth of God into a lie-so that the Lord, in separating Himself from the lie, must judge His people. What is the history of Judaism but this-and why the coming judgment on Christendom, but for the same reason?

The working of the enemy with man is awful-take, as examples, Judas, and Satan entering into him-or the closing up of the age in the coming Anti-christ, to whom "the dragon gives his power, and his seat, and great authority." What a place does man occupy, in his three score years and ten, so close to the devil and his wiles and stratagems-and, on the other hand, so close to God, by the testimony of the gospel of salvation, through His Son.

Oh! the deliverance to stand outside the whole scene at the cross with Jesus, and to take the place of rejection with the cast out Lord and King. What an elevation to be one with Him, as an heir of God, and joint heir through Christ, and to look on to the dignity that awaits us in the coming day of His glory, for which we are now sealed by the Holy Ghost! Occupied as men are by power, riches, and glory, skilled as Satan is, in their bestowment and use-they and the devil alike know, that the Son of Man refused them at his hands, and said, "Get thee hence." Full well does Satan realise the fact, that the Lord Jesus is the rightful possessor of them all, by the sovereign decree of the Father-and that the angels of God worship Him as the rightful heir, before the day comes, when every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess it on earth.

"The

dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan," knows too that his time is very short; and that the bottomless pit awaits him, when the morning without a cloud dawns, which ushers in the second Man, the Lord of glory, with ten thousand times ten thousand round about Him. How graciously has God turned all round, and will yet do so, to His praise and glory, and for the blessing of His own people, who by faith in Christ Jesus have come out to Him, and thus set to their seal that God is true. "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven," introduces us to a power, VOL. I.-New Series.

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that will establish that kingdom which cannot be moved.

It is a sad thought, in the midst of the world's swellings and strivings, that man is doing nothing for himself in his relation to God-and therefore only earning a heavier title to judgment, by scattering abroad, and bringing on the delusions of the wicked one, and thus gathering fast for the burning. "For Tophet is ordained of old, yea for the king it is prepared-he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."

The power that shakes, and the power that binds and destroys, is the power that will build up and bless. "And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." B.

No. XXVI.

"ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD."

IT is a well known fact, that Satan, when he cannot entirely set aside any truth of God, seeks to pervert it; and the most advanced saint has need to watch, and be prepared, for such perversion. Nay, so subtle is the nature of it that invariably the most effectual instrument, in the hand of Satan, is the one who hitherto has progressed furthest in truth; for the higher one has reached, and the more one has learnt, the more extensive the injury he perpetrates, if he be perverted. The higher, and the larger the building, the greater the crash when it falls. A small one might be unnoticed, but a great one necessarily involves great damage.

In every day it has been according to the vigour in which truth was presented, that there was opposition to it; but the opposition most successful, and the one most difficult to counteract, has always been that which comes

within a shade of the truth. The greatest lie is that which is nearest to that truth which it seeks to supplant, and to be accepted instead of. And often the line of

difference is so fine that to give a definition of it is difficult; and it can only be determined by the eye set on God, and not on man; for it will be found that the perversion of the most dangerous and injurious order takes its rise from having the eye turned to man, and seeking to make the truth suit him, and not to conform man to the truth; so that the way to resolve this almost invisible line of difference is by the simple question, Is it God-ward I am looking, or man-ward? When Satan turns Eve's eye to herself and her own advantages, God gets no place in her mind; but on the contrary, His will is refused, and His nature denied. Cain thinks only of man, and what suits the creature as such, without any reference to what God, in His nature, may require of the creature now under judgment, because of sin. Lot thinks of himself, and of what suits his own interests: he does not leave Canaan; but while remaining in it, he thinks of things entirely in relation to himself. God is not thought of; and thus, His object, and purpose, in calling Abram out of Mesopotamia, is entirely overlooked. This is a sample of the most dangerous and effectual order of opposition; and that to which the people of God so continually fall victims. Lot does not depart from the call of God; but while acceding to the letter of the truth, he thinks only of himself; and is eventually found in Sodom; his righteous soul vexed from day to day with their ungodly deeds. Jacob, in the same way, thinks only of his own interests and what suits himself (and that, too, after he had been taught in the wrestling that God is supreme, and that man is set aside in His presence, as his halt ever after declared) and settles down at Shalem. He might say that as within the land, he was within the territory of God, the limits of divine call; but yet he was thinking only of what suited himself. God was not in his thoughts, but with reference to himself, his altar, El-Elohe-Israel, and hence, not only, like Lot, does he personally suffer, but he and his family become an offence instead of a testi

mony to the world. If God had been simply before his eyes, how differently would he have acted! It appears very small at the beginning; but with what grave, and singular consequences, is this, almost imperceptible departure, attended. Moses in another way, is an example of how the most earnest and devoted may be turned aside, by having self before the mind more than God. He in the zeal and freshness of his heart attempts to deliver his brethren by his own hand. He rests on his own strength, fails, and has to retire discomfited and helpless into the land of Midian. And forty years afterwards he is as slow to stand for God, where he had failed before, as he was, in the former instance, rash. Why? Because his eye was on the failing Moses again, and not on God, where it ought always to be set.

I need not multiply examples. For 490 years, even during David's time, Israel neglected the observance of the sabbatical year; which was the most distinct and blessed opportunity and call to them to declare their dependence on God, and how He was for them; for, though apparently God's kingdom, they, at the very time, refused to confess Him in an act of the greatest moment and significance; and which more than any. thing would have marked them on the earth, as His people. What a testimony to all around for those three years, and to their own souls too, that all things were of God! If God had been before their eye, and not what suited themselves, how His favour, and blessing, would have enriched them! In one year they would have received from Him a supply for three years. They could have rested without care on the sabbatical year, and have said daily and hourly to themselves, in the joy of their hearts, all things are of God." The brightest glory of the kingdom; the chief brilliant of the crown, is surrendered thoughtlessly, almost imperceptibly, and without an expression of regret; just because man is thought of and not God. I do not speak of the gross evil into which the people of God fall, but of the indifference to which the most advanced are exposed, and into which they fall, while apparently on the right ground, and going on in the line of His counsels. I do