our beauty, our only confidence, and only plea. It is there, in the presence of the Father, that we learn His preciousness to the Father, and can in our measure have fellowship with the Father in His delight in the Son. It is there that we justify God in His counselled wisdom in the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. It is there that we learn our constant need, and constant dependence on His grace, and that He who is "our God is the God of salvations." God is continually a Saviour-God; and, happy for us, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." He is a God who "hath delivered, doth deliver, and will deliver." It is in the closet that we find the needs-be of living by faith. Vague generalities will not suit the closet; there we are as individuals, and learn to say with the apostle, "The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." We cannot forget in the closet, that we are sinners saved by grace alone through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. We could not say there, “God, I thank thee I am not as other men are;" for, in the sacred enclosure of the closet, there is none to compare ourselves with save Him in whose presence we are. But especially in the closet with the Father who seeth in secret, the exercised soul learns the blessedness of the hope set before it-for the hope is personal. It is not the vague thought of being exempt from trial, nor the equally vague thought of being in glory; but the thought of being with Jesus, seeing Him as He is, delighting in Him as well as adoring Him, without any hindrance or interruption. It is "looking for the blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of

our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works."

To come forth from the closet into the private household, would, without effort, exercise a wholesome influence there. Surely, the principle laid down by the apostle, that the believing husband sanctifies the unbelieving wife, may be extended more widely. And the private household would afford a sphere for manifesting that "to live is Christ; " that every act of a believer is, in popular language, a religious act. "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." "Piety at home" will ensure the behaviour which becomes the "house of God, the Church of the living God." It is the same principle in the one and the other, subjection and mutual dependence. And according to this order, the end proposed by the apostle might be reached. "Do all things without murmurings and disputings; that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life" (Phil. ii. 14—16).

If our aim reach no farther than to meet the expectations of men of the world, or even of real Christians, we may "have our reward," but we are not approved to the Father who seeth in secret. He requires truth in the inward parts; and if the essence of Pharisaism is to appear before men, what we are not before God, the essence of a Christian is that he is of the truth, a doer of truth, one in whose spirit there is no guile,

who learns in the closet the two most opposite things, the depth of his degradation and hopelessness of his condition as a sinner before God, and yet the height of his exaltation as well as the security of salvation in Christ. He will there learn that he is nothing, and there alone learn to be content that others should esteem him to be nothing, because God has made him all that he can desire to be in Christ. The Christian who is most familiar with the security, life, and honour which he has in Christ, will find humility to be his most fitting garb. He will be "clothed with humility."

One special privilege of the closet is, that it is open to all, so that all stand on equally privileged ground when there; the weakest believer is there on an equal footing with the most honoured apostle. The apostles felt their need of the closet when they made provision for others "to serve tables," that they might give themselves "to the word of God and to prayer.” And it is well for those who publicly minister to see that "the study" does not lead them to neglect "the closet." But the closet is the place of effectual service to others, for those who are not called into publicity in the Church. Surely, if those who esteem themselves the meanest and weakest Christians were more in their closets, praying to the Father who seeth in secret, there would be many an open answer to their prayers in manifested blessing. The apostle Paul knew the value of the closet, when he spoke to the Ephesian Christians, not only of their defensive armour, but of their offensive weapons, "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all

saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel."

It is indeed truly comforting to our souls to know that we have the sympathy of others in their prayers for us. And if the Apostle could tell the Philippians, that they were constantly remembered by him in his prayers, was there no recompense, no return of prayer for him on their part, that he might be assured of their sympathy?

The corruption of the great professing body is marked in this very respect. They have sanctioned an official class to pray for them, and then gone another step downward to look to this class to pray instead of them. What is the remedy? Let each member of the body of Christ know that he is of use to his fellow-members of the same body; and know that the most honoured sphere of service is that in which he realizes his highest relationship. "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

REMARKS ON 1 COR. III.

THIS chapter teaches us that God is the true source of blessing, and that there is no other. "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?"

"And

ye

are

Christ's; and Christ is God's." Well might the apostle inquire of the Corinthians, "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?" Well might he say, "Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours." Paul could not speak to the Corinthians " as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." His letter finds them in the same state," For ye are yet carnal."

When the glory filled the Tabernacle and the Temple there was no room for any thing else (Ex. xl. 34; 2 Chron. v. 14); no place for the flesh; no room for glorying, save in the glory that filled the place. The Corinthians, by setting up man and human headships, delighting in elements foreign to the Cross, became carnal. To be spiritual is to be a debtor to God for everything, to hold all in subjection to Him. Then the bondage and terror of man cease, and those fleshly elements of his, that captivate the senses, lose their enticing power. This is our high calling, to honour the Cross at any cost. To acknowledge no teaching but that of the Spirit of God; and no other source of divine power but that of the Living God.

Such is the substance of the Apostle's teaching in the three first chapters of this epistle; and such is the instruction needed now, as well as then, to save the Saints from those things which charm their senses and exclude God. Our only safeguard is to keep our eyes so fixed on Jesus as to be able to say with godlike liberty of soul,

"We ask not, need not, ought beside;

So safe, so calm, so satisfied!"