III. A place of CONSUMING HEAT. And in all it seems to me it is Deity that is shadowed forth; GOD HIMSELF would be our Abiding Place; He is The Light who dwells in light "that no man can approach unto," and He is the "consuming Fire" which purifies and burns up all that is not brought into union with Himself. In the Word we find the flame in these three aspects, sometimes all, sometimes one or the other specially dwelt upon. "The voice of the Lord DIVIDETH the flames of fire" (Ps. xxix. 7). We will glance at I.,we cannot press every detail, but may we draw out the preciousness of the reality given us in symbol. ". . . a point of coolness and repoзe Within the centre of a Flame!" 66 who enemy, nor the enemy 'as a roaring lion" (which fears the fire)" walketh about seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet. v. 8), "That wicked one toucheth him not" (1 John v. 18) who is kept of God, "lest any hurt it I will keep it day and night.” And surrounded by that wall of fire "we walk in the light as He is in the light" (1 John i. 7). We walk in Him, the Light, and men see not us but the light burning as it shines. For III. "the Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and His Holy One for a flum, and it shall burn" (Isa. x. 17) "with the flame of a devouring fire" (Isa. xxx. 30), setting the mountains on fire (Ps. lxxxiii. 14) and devouring every "green tree in thee" Ezek. xx. 47), everything that hath life, that the cry may be "unto the Lord" (Joeli. 19), who is purifying thus the dross of humanity by the fire of Deity, purifying it from His own redeemed, that they may be a people "for His own possession." That He may make them also a power in the earth. "As He is." He maketh "His ministers a flame of fire (Heb. i. 7), so dwelling in the hidden centre, that nought but the burning, enlighting, heating flame is To be so covered by fire is to be a power (Joel ii. 3 and Obad. 18). Let us not shrink from taking that wondrous central place He has made ready for us-a very king's pavilion of perfect rest; let us lie down there, and dwell there with the King; letting His glorious light shine, and submitting and permitting our whole being to pass through the fire of His love, that that only may be retained which He suffers to dwell with Him in the "secret place." Let it be even so, for all that does not pass into the fire will hinder the light; there will be smoke, but no brightness. It is the place where the Lord is "in a flame of fire" (Ex. iii. 2; Ps. xviii. 12; Ezek. i. 4, 27; Dan. vii. 9; Rev. i. 14, 15, &c.). This place of flaming fire. He who "did wondrously ""ascended in the flame" (Judges xiii. 19, 20; Isa. ix. 6). It is a place, into which nothing, not the finest particle can penetrate from outside,-filled by an invisible vapour, shut in by fire. I would like to say a seen! word about that vapour. We are told that a man, | if he plunges his hand into water, can, while it remains damp, thrust it harmlessly into molten metal or boiling lava; the only sensation of which he is conscious being that of touching a soft velvety substance. The heat turns the moisture into vapour; and the only thing with which his hand comes in contact, in that burning furnace, is the enveloping protecting vapour which causes the softness he experiences. Such a "habitation" has our Lord prepared for us where He would have us dwell. "He uttereth His voice . . . and causeth the vapours to ascend" (Jer. x. 13). "In the secret of IIis presence" He shall cover thee. All that touches us must touch us through God if we are there. In that blessed" secret place of the Most High," we are safe, guarded from all pestilence, physical and moral, in the midst of which we stand day by day; "It shall not come nigh thee." Unshadowed thus we dare only view it from afar off. Thy Refuge must be thy Habitation (Ps. xci. 9), O Church of God, if thou wouldst be able to accomplish that for which thou art still a sojourner and a stranger! II. Outside this inner circle is the barrier of fire. "For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about" (Zech. ii. 5), through which no Let yourself burn with fire. He will not let you be consumed. A paradox as ever, yet true (Dan. iii. 27). "When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isa. xliii. 2). There will be a change of elements; the human yielding to the Divine, the earthly giving place to the heavenly, till, abiding in the light, beholding His glory, "we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Cor. iii. 18). B. G. L. H. ABUNDANCE OF HOPE.* RY REV. E. W. MOORE. ALL men hope. To blot hope out of our horizon would be like blotting the sun out of the sky. Where is there any human enterprise that is not stimulated by hope? It is in hope that the ploughman ploughs the field. It is in hope that the sailor ploughs the main. Every enterprise undertaken is entered upon in the hope of some fruit, some reward, some harvest. To say "There is no hope," is to sound the death-knell of human effort. When the physicians round a bed of sickness pronounce the words, "There is no hope," we feel at once that the time for exertion has passed away. If we may not hope we cannot work. It would be strange indeed if a motive which has so potent an influence in temporal concerns should have no proper sphere of exercise in spiritual things. The fact is that hope occupies a most important niche in the temple of truth, and exercises a mighty influence upon the soul that surrenders itself to its power. Here we have the Apostle Peter speaking of it. Peter has been called the Apostle of hope, Paul the Apostle of faith, and John the Apostle of love. Peter is the Apostle of a suffering Church, and he encourages them to endure by placing before them the proper objects of their hope. He points out to them the connection between suffering and glory, and, indeed, sums up the teach. ing of the prophets as a testimony to the suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow. Let us examine for a few moments this principle of Christian hope, and observe (1), the objects to which it is directed; (2), the grounds on which it rests; and (3) the influence which it is intended to exert, an influence which will enable us to test our own spiritual condition, and inquire how far we ourselves are abounding in hope to-day. I ask you to observe that nowhere is a happy death-bed presented as an object of hope. Forgiveness of sins is not an object of hope, it is an object of faith. Our creed is right. "Brother Martin," said an old monk to Luther when, still in darkness, he was struggling with the burden of his sins, "Don't you know your 'Credo,' 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins'? Forgiveness of sins is received through faith, not through hope. Misplaced truth * The substance of an Address delivered at the Crayford Conference. is the worst error." In Rom. v. 2 we see the place for hope, "Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," &c.," and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." When we are justified by faith we can begin to hope for the glory that is yet to be revealed. And this is again a test; hope can only be exercised upon something we really desire. The one great object of hope is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but what effect would the announcement of the second coming of Christ have upon some of you? Would it be a source of joy unspeakable, or of anxiety and alarm? Just now there is a revival of interest in the pro phetic Word. Thank God for it. It is one of the signs of the times. There are many diverse and sometimes conflicting theories of interpretation. But the question is not so much whether you accept this view or that, but have you a heart for the coming ONE? Oh! are you longing to hear His chariot wheels? Will it be the best and brightest news to you to hear that Christ is coming? to see the signs of the coming of the Son of Man? Then the resurrection body is an object of hope for us, as it was an object of hope for the Lord Jesus. It is He who says in the 16th Psalm, "My flesh also shall rest in hope." It is not sufficiently remembered that the life of the Lord Jesus was throughout a life of faith, and that in uttering the words, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit," He closed His life by an act of faith. Recollect everything depended upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He went down into death under a cloud, by reason of our sins and guilt (which were imputed to Him), and He left it in the Father's hands to raise Him from the dead. Although He said, "No man taketh My life from ME. I have power to lay it down and to take it up again," immediately He adds, "This commandment I have received of My Father," &c. Yes. The Lord Jesus lived a life of faith, and His last act was an act of faith; though His Godhead was never, and could never, be absent, yet its mighty attributes were held in abeyance, and He lived a life of faith upon His Father. Again, eternal life is an object of hope (Titus i. 2), (although it begins on this side the grave), and that because amongst other blessings is included perfect likeness to Christ. "I shall be satisfied when I awake up in His likeness." "We know that when Him as He is." And yet again an object of hope He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see is the inheritance mentioned in the passage we have read (1 Pet. i. 3, 4). We see then that the Christian's hope starts from resurrection-ground, and that it is linked with resur These are some of the objects upon which the rection-life. But something more may yet be said Christian's hope is exercised. But let us turn to the grounds upon which it rests. This is all important. Men may have a strong hope and yet rest on a wrong foundation. We read in "Pilgrim's Progress" of one named Ignorance, who companied with Christian and Hopeful for a time. He had much to say on his own behalf, and was confident of acceptance at the end of his journey. When at length Christian and Hopeful came to the river, they had their conflicts and their fears; but when Ignorance reached the bank a ferryman named Vainhope was there with his boat, and helped him over without any difficulty. So he came up the ascent to the city and knocked for admittance, but when asked for his certificate had none to show, and presently was bound hand and foot and taken away. "Then," says Bunyan, "I saw there was a way to hell from the gates of heaven as well as from the City of Destruction." May God deliver us from vain hopes. You know the names of many of them-the good opinion of others, our own religiousness, our moral character and uprightness, the general mercy of God, a fancied ability to turn to God at a dying hour. These and such as these prove the ruin of thousands? But what are the grounds of the Christian's hope? The first and most important is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection is the keystone of the Christian Arch. Disprove it and our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins. "But now is Christ risen and become the first-fruits of them that slept." His resurrection is not only God's sign manual to our pardon, it is also the example and the pledge of ours. Nay, more, when Christ rose from the dead He did not rise alone. You know how Adam's sleep gave him his bride, and so the death sleep of our Emmanuel, the Second Adam, gave Him His bride the Church. Already we are "raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places' in Him, and if we know this, not merely as a judicial position, but as an actual experience, we shall have no difficulty in abounding in hope. It will be the most natural thing in the world to long for the time when "Christ, who is our life, shall appear," and when "we shall appear with Him in glory." about it. There is a wonderful passage (Col. i. 27), in which Christ in us is declared to be the hope of glory. This is the truth which will make us hope for heaven; for it will give us the foretaste of it. Let it never be forgotten, "if Heaven does not enter you, you will never enter Heaven." Some years ago, in my wanderings abroad, I fell in with two French pastors, who told me of the difficulties they had in their work among Roman Catholics. "We often," said one of them, "have Roman Catholic priests who come and say to us, 'We should like to enter your religion;' but I always reply, 'Oh, that is not the right way of looking at it. It is of no use for you to enter our religion; our religion must enter you." Thank God for the movement for the promotion of holiness which is stirring the churches. But let us learn the lesson of the French pastor, and take care before we enter the movement that the movement enters us. I remember very well when first the momentous truths of the indwelling Christ and the purity His presence ensures were pressed on my attention, that I was much perplexed and troubled by the conflicting opinions and arguments that I heard on all sides, until at last I wrote to a dear friend, who is not far off me in this Conference to-day, and said, "Some tell me this theory is wrong, and others that; but one thing I know, Colossians i. 27 is a glorious reality in my soul as it never was before." Thank God no one could rob me of that; and I am here to testify to-day that the living Christ revealed within the soul by the Holy Ghost is the secret of a holy life (Gal. ii. 20) and of abounding hope. III. But let us hasten on to note the influence hope exerts upon those who exercise it. And first, hope will have a sobering and separating influence. If we are to have much by-and-by, we shall be content, like Patience in the Allegory, with a little here. If our affections are set on things above, we shall be content with a moderate share of things below. In Heb. xi. we read of the men of faith that God was not ashamed to be called their God. Why? Because they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims upon earth. Does it not follow that if they had forgotten their pilgrim condition He would have been ashamed of them. The Lord give us to be "unworldly because we are other-worldly." May He give us to know the separating power of hope! Again, hope has a purifying influence. "Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure" (1 John iii. 3). If we were called to the court of an earthly sovereign, we should find it necessary to make proper preparation. If we are looking forward to an abode in the palace of the King of kings we shall feel our need, not merely of a title to enter His Presence, but a character to enjoy it when we are there. A title without a character would be a curse, and not a blessing. To see God, we must be pure in heart. To enjoy Him, we must be like Him. To say we are hoping for His appearing, and not purifying our souls, is to make it manifest that we are deceiving ourselves and endangering our souls. Thanks be to God, He is not a hard master; He does not reap where He has not sown, nor gather where He has not strawed. "All His biddings are enablings." He makes provision for heart purity. If He tells us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, it is only after He has said, "I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be your God." It is His dwelling and walking within that will cleanse and keep us clean. "The king, sitting upon the throne of His glory, scattereth away all evil with His eyes" (Prov. xx. 8). The effect of Christ's entrance into the heart is purification. You may compare it to the effect of a lamp or light brought into a dark room. Let the room be as dark as you please, but bring in the lamp, or light the gas, so far as the light prevails so far is the darkness driven away. But if anyone were to say, "I do not want the light," and tried to do without it, what would the effect be? Darkness would return. Christ is the light of the world. Let Him possess the soul, and the darkness of sin will flee before Him. Yet if anyone supposes that he has any purity or holiness of his own, or that he can do without the blessed Master for a moment, he will soon discover his mistake. Finally. Hope has a stimulating and sustaining power. As the anchor enables the vessel to ride out the storm, so, when hope is in lively exercise, we shall be able to sing- "In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the vail." May the Lord help us to exercise hope, and abound in it. It is the sure hope, the steadfast hope, the good hope, the hope that maketh not ashamed-" a hope laid up in heaven for us." God grant it for Christ's sake. Amen. FRAGMENTS FROM LYONS. I THINK We feel in Lyons, this week, something of what Luther must have felt after Staupitz had brought a new light and liberty into his life. Though in a different age, and on another level perhaps, it has been the same thing. God has sent us a message -a stronger ray of light to awake and arouse, and to illuminate a path of freedom to those who are bound. And those who saw can never be as though it had not come, whether they avail themselves of the way of escape or not! The message, too, came by a true messenger, one sent of God, one whom we all know-Pastor Stockmayer; and it has been beautiful to hear in this great city, burdened with its sin and woe, and deluded with its false peace, the strong words of truth going forth and piercing the darkness; and to see the spiritual discernment which beheld the evils where they lay, and brought them fearlessly forth to the light, that they might be reproved; and that healing might follow. It was ploughing in a hard ground, but the furrows were deeply laid. And for ourselves, too, they have been days of blessing and of taking fresh courage. Help has come to understand the battle-field, and where we are in the battle. "The first notice you may have of anything being done, may be an increase of the force opposing you. When the enemy is attacked he sends out auxiliaries, and God will send you auxiliaries in helpers or by prayer. . . . Serve on in faith, with no power, and every real act of faith will bring down power, whether you are conscious of it or not." I wish I could tell you all that the Lord gave us day by day; but I can only send such fragments of the words spoken as I remember them, very freely translated. May they come to you with the unction with which they came to us! The first subject was Jacob's Well, and in it, as in others, seemingly disconnected contexts were shown to be but a part of one mighty train of thought in the Great Master's mind. John iv. "What a treasure this woman had beside her; what a response to all her need-the Water of Life was before her! But to have exchange of life with Jesus we must pass again among the ruins of our life. When the Lord asks you anything, do not be afraid of what He asks. "If Thou hast anything to give me, give it me" (ver. 15). Go, call thy husband," was the answer. What had that to do 66 with this Water of Life? Nothing outwardly; everything in the Saviour's plan of dealing with that soul. It was the natural sequence of what had gone before. She had understood nothing, and He would have lost His time had He continued thus. There was "something between." He must cut short the exposition to come at the hindrance. He would make her understand, and He could not until He touched her conscience and put His hand upon the wound. "Go call thy husband,"-a religion where one imagines one can adore and yet live on in sin, is no religion. He wills that we should deliver ourselves up to Him: open out to Him our lives, our relationships, our habits, and hold nothing in reserve. He can never have too much of us. You have a disorder at home; never imagine you can adore. "Go call thy husband." You will only know Him as a Saviour when you have accepted Him as a Prophet. I heard one say "those who shut the mouth of John the Baptist will never hear Jesus." Christians shrink back when He would take them apart. Yes, we have sorrowful moments by the well of Jacob, but we thank Him for them all our life; they do not last long. It is better to be judged now than weighed by-and-by and found wanting. He judges us only that He may deliver us completely. It is good to be judged of the Lord, for when He judges us He will not let us fall into the hands of men, and we shall have power as soon as we let Him take away all that weakens. He who has delivered me can deliver you. Do not be afraid of the light: He knows how to measure all things to our need, give your selves up, and let your hands hang down no more in sight of the misery which surrounds you; He waits for a people who will believe in the compassions of God. Let us pass by the well of Jacob, then our witness shall no longer be fruitless, we shall have power, and then it will be worth while to live! Luke xiii. 34, 35.-" Ye would not; behold your house is left unto you desolate." Living to rob God of His own, stealing from our Creator, arranging our lives, our time, everything for ourselves, we shall not profit. Everywhere the Christ has passed by, and the house where there is no place for Him is left unto you desolate. Open your door wide-you are afraid, if you do, your life will be ruined: you will be as a tree spoiled of its leaves! Jerusalem thought so. "If we let Him thus alone, all will believe on Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation;" but when they rejected their Lord that which they feared came upon them. Let Him be your Lord: it is desolation, a desert, where we refuse Jesus Christ His place your joys become unto you a desolation, but with Jesus there is no desert, but Life. Oh the folly to believe we can make ourselves happy to think that we are masters of the soil, we are our own dupes, our own slaves! I remember once seeing a sculpture of a man whose face bore the impress of anguish and remorse; he was leaning on a spade, and looking back yearning after what he had lost. It was our first father-Adam-as he came out of Paradise. He knew what he had left; and do you think that that man would have thought twice had the door been opened and he had been told to come back? Jesus Christ has opened that door that we may go back to the Father's home. John xviii. 33-40, and xix. 1-12: "Thou sayest that I am a king. . . . Jesus gave him no answer." Pilate knew the way-knew what he had to do; but he was not true to his convictions. He tried to find out if there was a way of escape, but there was no other. After that Jesus gave him no answer -never a word. When we know the will of God, and will not take the path He marks out for us, if we seek another way He will not answer us, because there is no other we must obey,—but if we choose to follow His way, do you think He will leave us?... What foolishness it must have seemed for that prisoner to stand before His judge, and declare. "I am a king?" What a confession of what He was; when every outward thing contradicted His words. Yet He had fear of none; it was the judge who feared in that court-he feared the people; he was false to what he knew was true; he played into the hands of that people who soon after cast him out; he received what he thought to avoid; and we who think to arrange everything to please all, and to wound none, believe we shall so escape. They will turn again, and rend you; and who then shall protect you, and gather you? Jesus did not fear His judge; but He did not boast as Satan boasted when he gloried in the kingdoms of this world, "I am a king;"--that was all. None could hinder Him speaking, as none could force Him to speak. We are Satan's prisoners only when |