BY CHAS, M. WHITTELSEY.

God's words about the person of His Son, the personal indwelling of His Spirit, and the glor ious coming of theLord, I believe to be especially present truth.” If I speak from my own per sonal experience of the grace of God, I must testify that it is not enough for one to have “cor rect views” on these themes. Instructed from a child in the opinion that Jesus was the Son of God, and never having disputed the doctrine, I yet needed the living word of God, in order to be taught what it meant to me, a sinner. Only when through the Word I believed that Jesus was “God manifest in the flesh, " did I begin an understanding of the riches of God's grace. And to - day, still a learner experimentally concerning the person of Christ, it is in the measure that my heart grasps the Biblical significance of his person, that I learn my own place in the bosom of the Father and my own privileges as a child of God. See 1 Cor. xii. 3; 11 Cor. iii. 18; John xv. 9-11; xvii. 20–26; i John iv. 18; Eph. i. 3-7, 11, 12, 18-23; iv. 13; etc. Indeed I hardly know how to write briefly of the vital necessity of knowing Jesus to be God. The distinguishing feature of God's gospel is that our Redeemer is not a creature but our Creator, God. It is by self-sacrifice, not by some sacrifice of what He has made or possesses, that we are saved. Read Heb. i. Herein is love and its revelation. Read 1 John iv. and note verses 9, 10. It is plain, from even these few passages that have asserted themselves in my heart as I write, that not only the gospel but all true knowledge of God hinges here. This truth, that is vital to salvation, is as essential in order to lay hold of all that, for which God has taken hold of us in Christ Jesus. May the Holy Spirit accompany the Scripture concerning God's Son, that it may enter with living power into the hearts of all who read.

But (2) if the truth about God's Son has been neglected by the heart of God's people, even while inserted in their creeds, is it not because the church has practically dishonored the indwelling of God by His Spirit? Compare John xiv. 16-27 and xvi. 12-15. He, the Holy Ghost, has been accounted only an influence. He has been grieved because not recognized as present, not listened to as Teacher and not yielded to as our Seal and Anointing. No wonder so many of God's redeemed have failed to say “Abba, Father," with the assurance of children (Rom. viii. and Gal. iv.) and have been powerless as servants (Luke xxiv. 49). I must testify, whether from my own experience as a Christian, or my observation as a servant of Christ, that there is advance in spiritual vitality, in true knowledge of the Scriptures and in spiritual power, exactly as there is advance in the heart's knowledge of the Spirit of God as a person, recognition of His indwelling and abiding presence, and subjection to His teaching and leadership.

The (3) co-ordinate truth, only in these later days lost out of the hearts of Christians, in whose creeds it still remains, then supplanted by a theory foretold in Scripture, (Matt. xxiv. 48; 11 Peter iii. 3, 4.) and now resisted by many with argument rather than God's Word, and often with intemperate zeal and manifest wresting of Scripture, is the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ as the immediate hope of the Church and the imminent warning for the world.

As for myself, I never made rapid progress in the understanding of the Scriptures, nor found myself much loosened from the world, nor thoroughly set apart to Christ in the life for the world to come, and in the service of winning souls, till my eyes were opened to the Hope set before us in the Gospel. But in the waiting expectation of God's Son from heaven, I have found a moderation (Phil. iii. 20.-iv. 7.) that delivers from the fancies and tangents of my own human nature, an unflagging inspiration to steadfastness and service, the real source of a pilgrim life with the affections set on things where Christ is, and a joy that pulses all the quicker in the midst of trial; and all this “according to the Scriptures. " See i Cor. xv. 58; 1 Thess. i. 9, 10; Col. iii. 1-6; 1 Thess. iii. 12, 13; iv. 13-18; 11 Thess. i; 1 John iii. 1-3. etc., etc. Moreover the truth of the Second Coming of our Lord is declared to be for saints “the present truth” in u Peter i. 12, and is emphasized as such, even for scoffers of the last days, in 1 Peter iii.

I conclude this threefold introduction, which has become rather a personal testimony, with the unquestionable fact of Scripture, that the gospel finds its central and fundamental truth in the person of the Lamb of God as God's Son, its practical vitality and source of communion in the doctrine of the life-giving and indwelling Spirit; and both to the Christian its prime incentives and hope and unworldliness, and to the world its chief warnings, in the doctrine of Christ's Second Coming. Search and see, for this is bare fact, not interpretation. And so the three go hand in hand. Any one of them omitted from the heart's appreciation, so far mars the Christian's character, hinders his communion and palsies his service. Most affectionately would I commend believers “to God and the word of His grace,” while I ask His blessing upon the accompanying endeavors to set forth His truth.

CHAS. M. WHITTELSEY.