sons of men; this mystery being, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs of the same body."

These passages show enough the way in which Paul presents the Church as an essential doctrine of truth, but as a mystery which had never been revealed under the Old Testament, and which never had any accomplishment before the death of Jesus had closed all the relations of God with Israel which had reference to the prophecies and promises, so far as their accomplishment depended upon the faith and faithfulness of man. They show, that blindness having come upon them for a time, God, who will fulfil his promises to His earthly people, has found in the period of their blindness the occasion of manifesting this admirable fruit of His eternal counsels, viz., the Church, who, when Israel is restored, through grace, to the enjoyment of the promises made to them, will shine as the bride of the Lord in the brightness in which He will Himself be manifested.

Such is her destiny! Whilst waiting, what is her place what is her calling? We have said, that the Holy Ghost come down from heaven gathers her upon earthif the Bridegroom delays His coming, and if souls go to wait with him for the moment of the reunion of all his own raised or changed in His presence in the air, those of the redeemed who remain gathered down here, where the Holy Ghost the Comforter abides, always form the Church. There may be ignorance-the members may be scattered here and there-the Church may have been unfaithful and stripped of her ornaments; but it remains equally true that until Christ calls her to meet him in heaven, she is always the Church, always the bride of Christ. She has been espoused as a chaste virgin to Him; but it is to a heavenly Christ-Israel is His people upon earth. Whilst Christ is in heaven, the Holy Ghost is gathering the Church to be His up there. However, she has not only a heavenly calling, she is also His bride and His body. When all the thoughts of God have been

" In the Epistles, it is Paul only who speaks of the Church; and as we see (Eph. iii. 3), as of a truth which he had received by a particular revelation. He alone even employs the word in its application to the whole body. John speaks twice of a particular Church.

fulfilled, she will, as a fact, be with him. Her thoughts and her character are (ought to be at least) formed after her portion according to God. Thus she is already united to Christ by the Spirit. She is one, and can only be one. But she is characterised by yet other traits. When the world rejected Christ, it passed judgment and condemnation upon itself. "Now," said the Lord, when Judas had gone out, "is the Judgment of this world." The Church was set up in grace when the relations of God with the word on the footing of the responsibility of man were ended for ever by the rejection of Christ. Thus she has been called to come out of the world to be received of God. She is Christ's alone; "Come out from among them," says the Word, "and I will receive you,” a peculiar people belonging only to Him. "You are not of the world," says Jesus, "as I am not of the world." And this is true, not only as regards individuals, but "that they may be one," says the Lord, "that the world may believe." It is a unity perceptible to the world outside itself. "What have I to do," says the Apostle, "to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? Them that are without, God judgeth." The Holy Ghost was upon earth, to establish the closest and most formal union between the members of the body; they were members one of another. This unity was recognised among them. All knew that a Christian was not of the world, because he was of the Church. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with him. This unity was truly and distinctly manifested in each locality. It was the Church of the place, as the very addresses of several epistles show. But this local unity, proved the universal unity-any one member of it was thereby a member of the universal unity.

Teachers, evangelists,-apostles, Timothy, Titus, Pauldid not belong to one Church more than another. The gifts were members of the body, the idea of a member of a Church is not found in the Bible: the thought there is very different, it is that of members of the body of Christ. But these joints and bands," which might exercise their activity in local churches proved the unity of the whole body, and made it visible and perfectly perceptible to the world.

Christians acknowledged one another, and were acknow. ledged as one body-a sole well known and well defined body, having common interests, and the most intimate ties as a body apart from the world. The Holy Ghost cannot unite the Church with that world out of the midst of which He has taken her. Persons might come in unawares into the formal body, but it was a distinct body into which they came as false brethren. It is plain that if the Church be one in the midst of the world, her duty is to glorify the Lord in that unity, and by that unity, and as a whole. For this responsibility cannot be separated from every position whatsoever in which we are placed by God.

And the motives are so much the more powerful as the grace of that position is excellent. We are the salt of the earth-the light of the world-a city set on a hill- the epistle of Christ-an epistle which ought to be read and known of all men. The body of Christ ought to reproduce, by the power of the Spirit, the character of its Head and thus glorify Him on the earth; and that power of the Holy Ghost which overcomes all the separative principles which selfishness and sin have introduced into the world;-the bride should manifest her attachment to the Bridegroom-that she is wholly and exclusively His! People talk about an invisible Church: the word says nothing about it; it is a notion which denies the force of the passages we have just quoted. The scattering of the children of God has hid them; but no one would venture to deny that individuals should not be invisible, that is, that they should not conceal their Christianity:-" Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven," it is clear then that individuals should not be invisible: now, if that be true, to say that the Church may be invisible means nothing short of this, that these individuals ought not to be united. Now it is certain that the Lord says that

• It is not said " 'epistles." It was the whole of the Church of Corinth which was "the epistle."

they ought to have been one, that the world might believe.

If there be divisions, they are carnal and walk as men. If the duty of all individuals be to let their light shine before men, and all these individuals are closely united and form a separate body, outside the world, making every where a profession of their union, as it was undeniably the case at the beginning, to say that that body is invisible has no sense. Now this body

is the Church.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid,-but this in passing.

The question I am now treating, is not how far the Church realises this position.-I am speaking of the Church such as it is presented in the word.

But if the Church be the bride of Jesus, she ought to desire, as such, to glorify Him during His absence; her heart must be given to Him;-she must receive her directions from Him alone.

If she be the house of God, she must seek to keep herself pure on account of the holiness of the Spirit who dwells therein. If she be the pillar and ground of the truth, she will not be able to endure any thing but the truth, which is the basis of her existence;-for the glorious revelation of Christ, who has accomplished her redemption: God manifested in the flesh, preached to the Gentiles, received up into glory has given her being, as she is the witness of it.

Conscious of being the bride of the Lamb, she will have the affections proper to such a relationship: she will long for the coming of the bridegroom to receive her to Himself. She will understand that she belongs to Him in heaven, and consequently will not mix herself up with the world, nor confound her expectation with the coming of Jesus to judge the world; she knows that when He appears, she will appear with Him in glory. Thus separated from the world by the Spirit who is the power and earnest of this hope, she will seek to realise it as much as possible upon the earth. He that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as He is pure. That is also the force of the teaching of Phil. iii.; which, however,

has an individual for its object. I quote it, because I speak of the normal effect of this truth in the heart of the Christian. He who hath learnt it will have the conscience that the Church is one-can only be one. He will have the conscience that she belongs to Christ and can belong to none other. He will have the conscience that she ought to manifest this unity, and render a constant and practical testimony that she is His alone. The presence in her of the Holy Ghost who gathers the members in one body will be the power and life of this testimony. The path will be the path of faith; and the path of faith will be the path of sufferings; but they will be the sufferings of Christ for His body, that we may be glorified together. J.N.D.

DIVINE TITLES; their meanings.—It has pleased God to instruct man concerning Himself, by the record put into man's hand of things done, or being done, or to be done by God. God thus presents Himself, as it were, in action before man-that man, standing in the position of subjection and dependance, may learn and know the God that made, upholds, blesses, and redeems. The way, I am persuaded, in which we ought to study the Divine titles, is by studying the Scriptures of truth, which present God in the various actings and glories proper to those titles. The simplest saint might thus learn to profit, and learn with certainty, The wisest would learn with humility and deference, for God would be his study. Man likes not a way so open to all, so calculated to humble and abase himself. We accordingly find, that most works on the Divine names and titles are founded upon the etymological meanings of these titles and names: the learned differ upon these; the mass make no pretension to the learning which can enable them to tread that field, or form a judgment even upon the gleanings of their more erudite brethren. I propose, God willing, to say a little upon this most interesting subject, and would speak first on the title, Elohim-God.

Y.