we are safe, and then to sow to the flesh. It does not require any very lengthened experience to prove to the Christian how every attempt to sow to the flesh has issued in disappointment, if not in disaster and corruption. But there is a peculiar form of "the flesh" to which the Christian is liable to sow, and that is to religious flesh in some shape or other. There is the tendency in us all, as in the Galatians, to get off from the true doctrine of the Cross, to turn to ordinances, or to try to please the imagination, or to puff up the intellect; and when this kind of sowing takes place, what a harvest of corruption do Christians reap. And, oh! what a mercy, however smart the discipline, if all their works are now burnt up, and they, stript of every thing, are led to the Cross only to be saved by that, and nothing else. But there is an everlastingness in all that is sown in the Spirit. Where the Gospel is received it is everlasting in its effects; and there is an everlastingness in the cup of cold water given in the name of Christ. It is well for us to look to this our sowing time, for whatsoever we sow, that shall we assuredly reap.

Ver. 9, 10. The Lord's ministry seemed to be in vain; but only seemed-it was His sowing time, and what an abundant harvest shall be gathered in from His death-that one corn of wheat fallen into the earth. The ministry of Paul seemed to end in failure, but his labour in the Lord was not in vain, as we are witnesses this day, getting strength, comfort, and refreshment from his instruction. "Let us then not be weary in well doing." This is our time of "opportunity." There are no such "opportunities" in heaven as we

have here; no sick to visit, no fatherless, no widows, no ignorant to instruct, no vicious to reclaim. Alas! on a retrospect, how many lost opportunities present themselves to our view.

Ver. 11-13. This appears to be the only Epistle which the Apostle wrote with his own hand. In others we find, another wrote at his dictation, as Tertius the Epistle to the Romans, and the Apostle closed with his benediction and signature. The Apostle's spirit was stirred. Everything seemed to be at stake, by the tendency to fleshly religion which might distinguish man from man, without at all bringing his conscience into contact with God; but all fleshly religion, whether it consists in ordinances, or sentiment, or philanthrophy, has one object, and that is to nullify the Cross of Christ. The true doctrine of the Cross can never become fashionable or palateable to the tastes of men, because it is unsparing in its declaration of not only the worthlessness of the flesh, but also of its hatred to God. Hence our danger of turning aside from the Cross to other things, which makes ourselves prominent rather than the Cross. The offence of the Cross has not ceased. Various are the devices to supersede or overlay the true doctrine of the Cross; and as it was in the Apostle's day, so is it in our own, a busy activity in social improvement is used to conceal the glory of the gospel, which sets man as a sinner in a new and happy relation to God, the only basis of practical godliness. The prominent spirit of the age is glorying in the flesh.

Ver. 14-17. But the Apostle would only glory in the Cross of Christ. At the close of the second chap

ter, the Apostle propounds the doctrine of the Cross, as separating between himself and himself-"I, yet not I."

In the fifth chapter he propounds the doctrine of the Cross in its great practical bearing. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts."

But in closing, the Apostle presents to us the doctrine of the Cross in its mighty moral power of separating from the world, its religion, its glory, and its judgment. The world crucified the Lord of Glory; and the place maintained by the early Christians, in relation to the world, was as a crucified thing. And the real power of the doctrine of the Cross is to shew the world in its true light as a judged world, out of which the believer has, in God's amazing grace, been rescued (see chap. i. 4), so that if he be true to the doctrine of the Cross, he must be crucified unto the world; not only one who cannot help on its interests and objects, but one who stands in the way of its interests and objects. It may be said, "Christians are not so, the world both accepts their help, and gives them help in return." And, why? because Christians They do not look

are not true to the Cross of Christ. at the world through the medium of the Cross. They do not see the world, and all that is in it, to be "not of the Father," and consequently as much arrayed against Jesus as Judas when he betrayed him with a kiss. The experiment is easy. What place has Jesus and His Cross in the busy interests of men? But better to make the experiment closer. Is the world to ourselves a crucified thing, because we glory in the Cross of

Christ, and from the Cross see into a glory, which makes all the glory of this world fall into the shade?

A new creation bursts upon us when we take our stand by the Cross, and see in it the judgment of God on the old creation, and we in Christ Jesus are of the new creation; and this is the rule of our walk. They alone who see the end of the old creation in the Cross, and Jesus as Head of the new creation in resurrection, can take the place of the Israel of God. They have power with God and man, because the flesh is broken and set aside, and life in the Spirit meeting its supplies out of the fulness which is in Christ Jesus. They walk after the Spirit-peace and mercy be on them.

The false teachers insisted on the outward mark of circumcision; but, says the Apostle, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Scourgings, imprisonments, cold and nakedness, sufferings in preaching the gospel of the grace of God to sinners, have left their marks on my body. Let no man, therefore, trouble me with things indifferent in themselves.

COLOSSIANS III.

IN the fifth verse, "therefore" is connected with what goes before; because risen with Christ, because we are dead with Him, and our life hid with Christ in God, and because we shall appear with Him in glory when He appears, therefore mortify your members. In ver. 12, 13, the very infirmities of our brethren are the means of bringing out our patience and longsuffering-we should not be irritated by them, but act as

the elect of God; neither should we irritate our brethren, but be patient. In ver. 18, it is needful that the wife should be subject, otherwise the family will not go on well; and it is equally needful that the husband should walk in that love toward the wife, that the subjection be one of love, like that of the heavenly Bridegroom, who is never bitter toward the Church, His Bride; and so in proper order the children are addressed. Supposing the husband and wife to be walking in the fear of the Lord, they are to bring up their children in the fear of the Lord. In this case the will of the parent is supreme, for it would be God's will. The child is to be obedient: the parent should seek this from the very first; not yielding to the selfwill of the child-indulging it at one time, and then being severe-and so provoking it to wrath; but at all times making obedience the rule.

And in ver. 22, the servant may not get the affection of the wife, or the kiss of the parent; but he is taught to look for reward from the Lord. There is much which servants do which is not noticed; let them look for reward from the Lord, and let them learn the privilege of having communion with the Lord in their service, for He was a servant in this world.

TRUTH.

"Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth." TRUTH is valuable only as it is practical. All truth is practical; let us beware of playing with God's truth with the intellect; may we rather submit ourselves to the teaching of the Spirit through it.