Does He not

Yes, He will

the world's trial, but from it. know what His words mean? come quickly, and take us, all who are His, to meet Him in the air, and so shall we ever be with Him. If He is coming quickly, how would you desire to be found when He comes? Say, if it is to-day-for He quickly comes-how would you be found? Oh, what a purifying hope His words give: "Behold I come quickly."

He now says, "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." What have you got to hold fast? If you are only hoping to be saved, then plainly you have nothing to hold fast. Have you really the certainty that your sins are forgiven, for Christ's sake; that you are justified from all things; that you have peace with God; that you are brought into favour in the Beloved; that you are the object of the everlasting love of God; that you have the knowledge of His blessed will, in the midst of all the dark confusion of the last days; and all this, and much more, made known to you by the Holy Ghost dwelling in you? Then hold fast what God has given you, in His own sovereign love. Let no man take thy crown.

And again, it is not the assembly that overcometh, but "him that overcometh." We can only overcome as we lean on God, in these days of ever-increasing difficulty. But how suited the promises to the day in which we live. Do

you say, Everything seems going to pieces, and

the believer who would overcome seems shut out in isolation? He says, "Him . . . . will I make a pillar in the temple of my God." Do you say, My heart is so deeply grieved with putting out and going out? He says, " and he shall go no more out." How precious to the weary heart! No more excommunications, and no more evil, from which to separate.

Blessed scenes of everlasting purity-and so near. Oh, awake, my soul, and wait to see Him. All will be well.

SHORT PAPERS ON THE OFFERINGS

IV.

THE BURNT-OFFERING..

LEVITICUS I.

THE offerer may bring a bullock, or a sheep, or goat, or a fowl, a turtledove, or young pigeon. But in either case there must be death. Cain's offering, without the death of the atoning victim, cannot be accepted. However great or small our apprehension of Christ, there must be the recognised fact of the absolute need of His atonement.

Verse 5. The bullock must be killed before the Lord. The blood must be shed and sprinkled. There can be no approach to God but by the blood of Jesus. Let no man forget this. The

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blood gives us boldness to enter the holiest. seek to enter in by any other way will surely be to be rejected, like Cain. Now mark the particulars that the Holy Ghost brings before us. The burntoffering is prepared. "And he shall flay the burnt-offering, and cut it into his pieces." What a night was that, the night before Jesus was led to the cross! What sufferings known, and unknown to us! How He felt the parting; how He felt the betrayal; how He felt the denying and forsaking the brutal mockery of the soldiers, and the intense hatred of devils and men! Oh, blessed Jesus, what a night was that to Thee!

But what was all this to the fire on the altar, the searching judgment of God, and yet to find all of a sweet savour unto the Lord"! The victim had to be washed, to be a fit type of the Holy One of God. "His inwards and his legs shall he wash in water." The inmost thoughts of His heart, as well as every step of His outward walk, all was divinely pure. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The head with all the parts were laid in order on the wood, that is, on the fire which is upon the altar. Yes, the ead, all the majesty and glory of Immanuel laid on the wood, and the fire. What a sacrifice for a sweet savour. Thus we have the preciousness of the Person of Christ offered up on the altar, a sweet savour to God.

But what is the meaning of all this? It will

surely again help us to remember, that all this is not redemption from Egypt, but God's provision for a redeemed people. When this is clearly understood, the offerings become intensely interesting and most helpful. You say, When I first believed the gospel I knew I had redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; but when I think of all my failures since, how can I continue in the favour of God?

Now the very law of the burnt-offering meets this question of continuance. "This is the law of the burnt-offering: It is the burnt-offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. . . . . The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out." (Lev. vi. 9-13.) Thus is our God teaching us, that He would make a provision for us, that our acceptance should be continuous in all the sweet savour of Christ. And we must not confound this with resurrection, for it is atonement; and the resurrection of Christ is not for atonement, but our complete justification. The hand was laid on the head of the burnt-offering for acceptance. It is our identification with Christ, in the sweet savour of his offering; and this continuous.

Oh, what amazing grace! not that it reaches to our blessings in the heavenlies in Christ; but here on this earth, all through this dark night

until the morning break without a cloud, here we learn how we, from our redemption until we see His face, have become identified with Him continuously, in all His sweet savour.

Now if we turn to Hebrews x. we shall see this most clearly. We learn that these ever repeated and continuous offerings could never in themselves perfect the worshipper. For if they could, they would have ceased to be offered. The Israelites were redeemed; they had crossed the Red Sea, but still there was ever the remembrance of sins, and the conscience was never perfected. These shadows could never satisfy the heart of God, nor perfect the worshipper. They served to point forward to One who came to accomplish the will of God. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once." This is not our redemption nor new birth, nor conversion, but our entire separation to God in all the sweet savour of the offering of Christ to God-all through that one same offering.

Now the offerings of the law could never give continued perfection. "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God." The sacrifices of the law are put in contrast, for nothing finite could be the image of that which is infinite. The work of the priests was never done. The work of Jesus is done: He is set down on the right hand of God. "For by one offering he hath