some power foreign to yourself? Do not think that then you will conflict with Satan, overcome him, and deliver yourself: you cannot do it. None but God in Christ can do that. He did do it, and for you. Then look to Him for deliverance now, for the forgiveness of all your sins now, for salvation now, and He will not forsake you then. The old enemy may watch about the dying bed; but the JEHOVAH, Saviour, Redeemer, God, will be about the dying pillow, to receive the soul into eternal rest. The name written in His book of life will never have been blotted out, grace will reign triumphant, and the Omnipotent proclamation will be heard. The still small voice of the Spirit will whisper in the lonely ear: "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." And the believer will fall asleep in peace, and "they that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him."

And thus did the apostle close this sublime chapter on the resurrection, his comments on "the sting of death" "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our JEHOVAH Jesus Christ." The relative name of God will come home to us in the hour of death; He is then our Father and our God. We can be no nearer heaven than this on this side the grave: one more step, "the gates of death passed, and all is glory."

In the twenty-eighth verse of this chapter the apostle says: "When all things shall be subdued unto Him"- Satan, death, and the grave" then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that

put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." That is, the humanity of Christ will still be inferior to the Godhead; but it was God in Christ who wrought all the work of our redemption. Thus in every way did he draw forth and proclaim the Deity of Christ.

The second Epistle to the Corinthians was written from Philippi, one of the chief cities of Macedonia, within a year after the first epistle. I shall only notice in it the same doctrine of Christ overarching our world, and bringing peace to all.

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our JEHOVAH Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. . . . All the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen" (2 Cor. i. 3, 20).

In the fifth chapter of the first epistle we read of a most grievous sin that had been committed, and the apostle's command had been: "Deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the JEHOVAH Jesus." But now he says: "Ye ought to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him" (2 Cor. ii. 7-11). This was worthy of the servant of the Redeemer of mankind, worthy of the man who could write the fifth chapter of this epistle. Would I could extract the whole volume of the word of God, but I must be content with small gleanings, with a few handfuls of the choicest of the grain.

"All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

"For He hath made Him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Thus we see the man's sin, heinous and revolting as it was, was not beyond the grace of God, the forgiveness of God. No stain, no depth of sin, no unclean nature, is beyond the power of God the Holy Ghost to extirpate, and then to fill the void. The man's salvation was in Christ, and not in himself; God was then reconciled to him in Christ; He had accepted Christ in His infinite satisfaction, and He looked only upon Him, and not upon the sinner. God was in Him reconciling the world unto Himself, the outlying world, not imputing their trespasses unto them. "For He hath made Him sin for us;" that is, made Him to bear, or to take upon Himself the body of sin, to be a sin-offering, for its expiation. "That the body of sin might be destroyed" (Rom. vi. 6). The word is the same in the reversion: "That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him;" that is, that we might have put upon us the righteousness of God. The exchange is of grace, absolute and free. We have nothing to do with "our old man," or old nature: it was crucified with Christ, and is gone. And in its place we have nothing less, and we could have nothing more than "the righteousness of God."

66

The apostle was very fond of this expression; nothing less than the holiness of God satisfied him. He saw it in Christ, and by Him, as a pure sin-offering, made revertible to all. And thus upon maturer reflection he could bring the most guilty within the pale of grace. He knew by true repentance, by faith, and by supplication to God for His Holy Spirit, the man, "the man of sin," might be saved. Oh, the latitude of grace! who can compass it? "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

"Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward Him. . . . Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices" (2 Cor. ii. 8, 11).

The apostle knew that his ministry of the Word of life “was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." This we see in the third chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians. He had sent Titus to Corinth with his first epistle, and having had from him a good report of his converts there, he could write to them boldly"Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Written

not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God." It was in this agency he exulted. As I have said, no religion but the religion of JEHOVAH can boast of it, and His apostles have no power without it: the doctrine of the Spirit is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible (Zech. iv. 6). "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, we faint not " (2 Cor. iv. 1).

"Though Christ was crucified through weakness,

yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God.

"The grace of the JEHOVAH Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen” (2 Cor. xiii. 4, 14). These are the great arteries of revelation.

The arterial blood of the body, the Church, who can trace it throughout the system, and back again through its ten thousand veins to the seat of life?to pour forth again volumes of life, for ever and for ever, throughout all generations. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three Persons and One God. JEHOVAH, Eternal Spirit, flow on from the Fountain Head to the utmost bound of the family of man. "The Word that liveth."