in the Assembly, it will bring in weakness, and may end in death. Nothing can compensate for it—no ministry. The Assembly is not the place where man should be honoured, but God. Observe, I am not speaking of mere fleshly liberty, but of the true acknowledgement of the Spirit. There is enough to sober the flesh in 1 Cor. iii. 12 to end. Experience may have warned us of this, that in every failure of faith or truth, there will be also a break-down of this. It is, I apprehend, a chosen jewel of God, if rightly, graciously used. The "manifold grace, manifold wisdom of God," exhibited on earth; God Himself manifested (1 Cor. xii. 6, 28). In answer to the objection-"I do not see it. I do not see gift in the Church now." One might remark, That is scarcely the ground of faith. It is better to question our own perception, than the faithfulness of God. There is, however, a blessed faculty imparted to the saint, which would enable him to discern it, I believe, though it might be mixed up and obscured. "Ye have an unction," says John, "from the Holy One, and know all things. The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you." And let me ask, What is the object, the subject of gift, the best gift? Is it not the knowledge of God, and of Christ? And is there less fulness now in God, or in Christ, for the Church? Is there less of spiritual blessing (Greek) in heavenly places in Christ? less treasures of wisdom and knowledge? Has, or can apostasy change our relations to Christ (John xv. 15); or the boundless store which the Spirit has to unfold? (xvi. 14, 15). Therefore, I suppose, I might fairly ask, why gift, the best gift (1 Cor. xiv. 2, 3, 5), should not be the same now, though modified by circumstances? If God is the same, and the Agent of instruction, the Spirit (1 Cor. ii. 10) the same, why should gift be changed? O no! it is ever God's word to His own: "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." With regard to the external gifts, miracles, etc., we might perhaps make this observation, that whilst God's principle abides the same, it remains with Him to apply that principle. He cannot, perhaps, own us in apostasy in testimony by power before the world; but He must always own Himself in love to the Church in Christ Jesus (Eph. iv. 12, 13). For himself, the writer can record, that, in his own experience, every attempt at outward power has, to his apprehension, been decidedly counter-met by God; and this, I judge, according to His own principle in wisdom: for why should we exalt ourselves out of the ruin which we have made, and thus, perhaps, forget the very God from whom we have received it, instead of sinking low before Him in the consciousness of the entire ruin we have made; and there, in that position, receive from Him every blessing that a loving hand can give? (John xiii. 8, 5). And let me say here, that there is perhaps no more advantageous game that Satan can start, than to set saints looking out for external power and gifts. The fleshly mind is excited, the enthusiasm wrought up in looking out for the outward power; whilst Satan, unperceived, brings in any desperate delusion he may. There is something very solemn, I think, in the teaching of Ex. xxx. 38, respecting the holy perfume, the "sweet incense," as I suppose, for the altar of incense, etc.: "Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people." It is very possible to get intoxicated with God's incense. Yea, I think these last times have shewn us awful specimens of it, using the praises and excitement connected with God's truth and service for ourselves, until the law, the truth of God, is rejected and what wisdom is in them? Compare Ezek. xxviii. 14, 15. Especially I would say, there would be the danger of being diverted thereby from that which is our immediate and special hope, the return of the blessed Bridegroom Himself. We know the tendency there has been in the Church to rest in the Spirit, if I may so speak, instead of in Christ; and great danger would there be now for the Church, sunken, but not sufficiently humbled, to rest in its own endowments, instead of awaiting the return of its Lord. Not without reason, I think, has that blessed testimony of John Baptist been given us: "He that hath the Bride is the BRIDEGROOM.' We are too apt to mistake the friend of the Bridegroom for the Bridegroom Himself. It may be self in another shape. I only suggest, further, when Israel returned from Babylon, was it with outward power in testimony, or God's almighty power and grace, supporting, helping, and cheering them in weakness? G. WRITTEN AS A SECOND PART TO THE HYMN GIVEN 6. O Thou, who this earth as a lone pilgrim trod, 8. Now, moment by moment, to answer our needs, 9. We see Thee, Lord Jesus, with great glory crown'd; G. "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."-James v. 7, 8. NÓ. VI. BAPTISM OVER THE DEAD. 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 29. "O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Cor. xv. 55). "MAN being in honour abideth not; he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave for He shall receive me" (Psalm xlix. 12-15). Such is the doom of the wicked: they go down to the grave: their memorial perishes with them. And hereafter, when the bright and beautiful morn of the kingdom shall break, they shall be ashes under the soles of the feet of the righteous (see Malachi iv. 3). In the words of the above-cited psalm, "The upright shall have dominion over them" then. The rest of the dead (that is, the wicked distinguished from those who will have part in the first resurrection) we read, "shall not live again until the thousand years shall be finished"; while others are reigning in life, they, and many of them kings of the earth in their day, will lie forgotten and uncrowned in the dust. While the righteous are feeding on the hidden manna above, death, the mighty destroyer, will be feeding on them. They shall be raised, it is true, but raised only for judgment-to be cast, after the millennium has ended, into the lake of fire for ever. How different this from our hope! "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me," says the believer, in the above-cited passage, as he contrasts his own happy lot with the fearful condition of those who live and die without hope. "O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?" Such is his song, even now, in the midst of this death-stricken world. Thus then, in accordance with this, standing, as it were, encircled by a vast cemetery, where the unregenerate dead of past ages lie mouldering beneath—the very soil under his feet being almost composed, we might say, of their ashes-the saint (an exception himself to the general order of men), by a simple act on his part, declares himself to be a child of resurrection, to have passed from death unto life; expresses his union with, and, at the same time, his hope in Him who is "the resurrection and the life." This act is that of passing through the waters of baptism. Others around him are dead, yea "twice dead," as the Apostle declares, dead both as to body and soul; and the day, as we have said, is at hand, when he shall have dominion over these lost ones. Hence, now, even now, in the anticipation of full triumph at last (while he mourns their fate, it is true, not willing, in one sense, to share such a victory), he stands over their graves as a conqueror: knowing that though death is their portion, and that they shall never see light, he himself has passed from the kingdom of darkness into the very regions of life, of light, and of glory. And there, as I have said, he is baptised-baptised in His name who has given him the victory. This seems to me to be a solution of that difficult passage, "Else what shall they do which are baptised over the dead (ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν), if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptised over the dead?” (1 Cor. xv. 29). As an illustration of this, we may say of the elect in the days of Noah, that as the ark wherein they were sheltered floated in safety over the nations of those that were lost, that they were baptised over the dead. We have, I believe, sufficient warrant for this, inasmuch as the baptism of the Spirit is the anti-type (avTITUTOS) of both; namely, of the ordinance as we have it, and also according to 1 Peter iii. 20, 21, of God's deliverance of Noah. Again, the In the passage here referred to, instead of the "like figure whereunto, etc., it should be as follows: "The anti-type (avríTUTOV) whereunto (referring to the salvation of Noah and his |