have taken the place of the children of Israel, whose "table became their snare;" their manifest outward privileges leading them to reject Jesus. So now the many privileges, "much every way," which the professing body in this land possess, lead them to rest satisfied with "their table." The Gospel is a rejected Gospel, even as Jesus was personally rejected. And it is only when under "the manifold grace of our God,” who is excellent in working, that one and another is constrained to say, "Truth, Lord;" I am a sinner, I am lost, that the rejected Gospel is really received; and that wonderful crumb, even the doctrine of Christ crucified, becomes to the soul "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." To the burdened, weary, empty, craving sinner, the crumb is proffered; and wherever it is received, the gracious word is added, "Be it unto thee even as thou wilt."

REMEMBER JESUS.-Did you ever consider the common sin of which we are reminded, and for which we ought with deep sorrow to sorrow before God, when these words are brought to mind, "YET NO MAN REMEMBERED THAT SAME POOR MAN?" Who, "though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor," &c. He partook of flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death-that is, the devil; and deliver the city against which the bulwarks were built: Yet no man remembered that same poor Man"-His wisdom despised, His words not heard. "THEN said I, Wisdom is better than strength.... better than weapons of war (Eccl. ix. 14—18). Our wisdom, safety, joy, peace, is to remember HIM.

THE WILDERNESS.

Matt. iv. 1-11; Mark i. 12, 13; Luke iv. 1—13.

Is not the wilderness a figure of the world—this present evil world,-which, though shone upon and watered from above, brings forth nothing but briers and thorns; bears no fruit for God? The waste, howling, terrible wilderness, in which were pits and scorpions, through which Israel of old passed, and in which they wandered forty years, was surely to them a figure of the world: in it no rest for the sole of the foot could be found; and water out of the smitten rock in Horeb, and manna from heaven must be given, or they would perish. In the wilderness, alas! they tempted God, asking meat for their lust, and, despising the good land, did so provoke God, that He sware in His wrath, "They shall not enter into My rest." They forgat The Rock that begat them, and corrupted themselves--a solemn lesson to the saints. Israel became a wilderness; Israel became the world,-" Ye are from beneath;" "Ye are of your father the devil;" "Ye are of this world." Israel had become as the nations: the vineyard of the Lord, a wilderness. "Lo Ammi," not My people, was truly written upon them. But for a very little remnant, they were become as Sodom and Gomorrah. Unclean spirits, deaf and dumb spirits, legion in name, inhabited Jacob, the lot of God's inheritance. Fallen and turned away from Jehovah, Satan had got his throne amongst them. The Holy One of God is led up of the Spirit into the wilderness (the literal a figure of the spiritual) to be tempted. Surely the wild beasts have another signification, and not that of lions and bears merely.

Is not fallen human nature bestial? (Rom. i.) Is not the position of the saint in the world very similar to that of our Lord in the wilderness? Does he not find the world a wilderness, the scene of Satan's power, and where he is assaulted with temptations, according to the pattern of Him who is the Captain of our salvation? but does he overcome, as Jesus did; or fall, after the example of the unbelief and disobedience of Israel of old? Jesus says, "I have overcome the world," its prince, and its god. Can you, in My victory, withstand, overcome, and stand? Do you realize your position in the world to be such as Mine in the wilderness? What was there for Me there, save temptation; or for God, but dishonour, and not glory? The wilderness produced nothing for Me or for God. What do you find for yourself in it? Surely the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life make up the wilderness now-the world which lieth in the Wickedone, incapable of ministering aught to the saint: in it he must hunger, and learn that he lives "not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, for He was not of this world. His prayer for us to the Father is, "Not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Satan, that roaring lion, may indeed desire to have the weakest and most exposed saint as a prey, but Jesus has prayed for such a one that his faith fail not; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, the wilderness, its weary journeys and watchings; its hungerings, through inability to supply aught

that is good according to God; its trials and temptations-even our faith. Doubtless there is more in the passage, but I have only sought to make a spiritual and practical application of it.

THE PRAYERS IN EPH. I. & III. CONTRASTED. IN chapter i. the Apostle had been speaking of that unto which the Church was predestinated-of the dispensation of the fulness of times-of the inheritance, and the redemption of the purchased possession.

Therefore, in the prayer which follows, he addresses God as the Father of GLORY; his petition is for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that their understandings might be enlightened, that they might know the glory of this inheritance, and the greatness of that power which wrought in them-even that power which raised up Christ from the dead, and put Him far above every name which is named, either in this world or in that which is to come.

But in chapter iii. the Apostle had been speaking of tribulation, desiring that they should not faint. He was himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ for them (verse 1); but it was their glory (verse 13): yet was it glory in the form of SUFFERING; not that which had occupied chapter i. Therefore his prayer now is to the FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ, not for "the spirit of wisdom," but "to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." The wilderness way was in his thought, not so much the future glory; and he does not take them far above principality and power, where Christ is set, but prays that down here" Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith," that they may know,

not the exceeding greatness of His power, but the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of His LOVE, which yet "passeth knowledge." Their PRESENT NEED was upon the Apostle's heart, and the assurance is, "God is able to do above all we ask or think: " but their condition was one of necessity, and although God. be able to do for them exceeding abundantly, the word which belongs to the wilderness condition is, “ask," "think."

Another point of contrast may be marked in the words (chapter i.), "His body, the fulness of HIM that filleth all in all;" and in chapter iii., "That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." In chapter i. we are beholding Christ, the knowledge of Him, His calling, His inheritance, the power that wrought in Him, and made Him head over all; the Church coming in as His fulness. But in chap. iii. the Apostle seeks to pour all of grace, glory, or love, into that empty vessel the Church, to fill up their hearts to the brim, even that they "might be filled with all the fulness of God."

LEVITICUS XXV. 1-25.

THE ordinances of God in the time of the law will be found, in their materials, to have been very homely, such as had to do with the commonest transactions of human life; and yet, in their meaning, to have disclosed or shadowed forth the deepest mysteries of Christ. For instance, the ordinance of the servant with the bored ear. The material there was the common matter of hiring a domestic-a thing, we will all allow, of the most homely nature; and yet in it was involved, and