natural intellect, would not only receive him to usurp the place, and assume the honours of Messiah, who alone is the rightful "Heir of all things," but it would welcome him as the true Christ, the Messiah of its choice, under whose shadow they would delight to dwell. For as one has said, it is not in mere negatives, that the world will give utterance to its last rejection; it is in the direct and positive preference of another. It was so in the Jewish church, when the Word was made flesh. There was first the negative, and then the positive expression of their unbelief. At first it was the former,— being simply "not this man," but as the crisis came, and a choice was forced upon them, it became at last, "not this man, but Barabbas" So shall it be with the apostate Gentile church, whatever may have been the character of its past unbelief, its last form will be that of open rejection of the Christ, and daring preference of Anti-christ. Satan is leading on to this and smoothing the way for the introduction of his own king. His first aim is to fill man with proud thoughts of himself, man's rights,-not man's duties he brings into view; man's liberty,-not man's obedience; man's power,not man's helplessness; man's independence,-not man's dependence; man's enlightenment, not man's darkness; he is persuading men that they can do without a propitiation,-without a Saviour,-without a Messiah; that they can be prophet, priest, and king to themselves; that they can regenerate themselves by their improvements in education, and discoveries in art; that they can govern the world by their wise statesmanship, and far reaching diplomacy; that they can renew the face of the earth, extract the curse, and uproot the thorn and briar, by their superior skill in the culture of the ground; that they can restore peace and order to the warring kingdoms, by congresses and leagues; that they can spread liberty over the globe, by reforms, and constitutions, and republics; that they can reunite their broken race by reorganizing themselves into their original families and tribes, annihilating all barriers of oceans, mountains, and kingdoms; and when he has fully leavened them with these ideas (the developement of his original lie, "ye shall be as gods") he shall then with cunning stealth, introduce his own representative, the false Messiah,-the Anti-christ, the man of sin,—the mixture of popery in all its multifarious forms, and infidelity, the embodiment of man's religion and man's irreligion; of man's superstition, and man's atheism; of man's morality, and man's licentiousness; and arraying him in all the excellence in which the carnal eye delights, he will present to an intoxicated world as their true Messiah, their own anointed king, whose yoke is far easier, whose burden is far lighter, whose law is far freer, whose rule is far more blessed than those of God's Eternal Son.

Thus he shall persuade them; and the world duped and befooled, shall wander after, and worship the Beast; God shall suffer it to be so, yea, “He shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie !" and they that would not do homage to the Son of God, shall in righteous retribution, be allowed to fall before a lying impostor-the son of pride-the son of perdition, "that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." See 2 Thess. ii. 7-12. Can ye not then discern the "Signs of the Times," and whither they are tending, and who is the Master Spirit of this age,-the god of this world. 2 Cor. iv. 4.

To a certain extent we have already said, the positive as well as the negative rejection of Christ has been exhibited. "Not this man" was at first the cry at Pagan Rome; but as the struggle went on, that cry assumed

more of the positive, not this man, but Jupiter; not this man, but our hero gods. In like manner after Paganism had sunk, and Popery was shooting up and ripening, it was for a long time simply, "Not this man ;" but when the strife arose, and the battle was waged, it came to be,-Not this man, but the church,-Not this man, but the priest,-Not this man, but the Virgin. So, for a century past, during which infidelity has been upspringing, the cry has been simply negative," Not this man." But now we may already see it changing, and passing over into the more positive form, as the crisis is making haste,-Not this man, but science,-Not this man, but philosophy, Not this man, but liberty; till it shall, ere long, merge yet more distinctly in the bold acclamation in behalf of Satan's representative. Not this man, but Antichrist,—" Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber."

Thus all past rejections are to end in a yet darker, more direct, more daring rejection of the Christ of God-the rightful heir-the world's true king. A rejection through the positive preference of man for Satan's Messiah, whom he is now maturing; raising up a fitting temple, and by the adroit mixture of the truth and the lie, the truth to allure and ensnare, and the lie to deceive, "if it were possible the very elect," to attract yet more universally the world's wondering crowds, the learned and the unlearned, the rich and the poor, the bigot and the liberalist, the despot and the anarchist, to worship this full-grown Antichrist, this embodiment of man's perfection, this radiant substitute for the eternal Son of the Father.

And in what is this rejection to end, this preference of Barabbas to Christ? In judgments-fiery overwhelming judgments, "When the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 2 Thess. i. 7-9. These we judge are a few of the portentous "Signs of the Times," as seen in the Gentiles, with their fearful end. Let us now turn to those which are seen in the Church.

(To be concluded in our next.)

ON HEBREWS xi. 27-28.

To the Editor of the Christian Advocate,

Dear Sir and Brother,-You have already given in the Christian Advocate, two different interpretations of Heb. ix. 27-28. How far these interpretations may satisfy your original querist J. M. B., I cannot say, I confess they do not satisfy me; and for this reason, that they both seem to be wanting as to the main point in the passage, viz., its connexion with what precedes and follows it.

May I request you and your correspondents to consider how far the following is the true interpretation of the passage.

The apostle is proving the superiority of Christ's priesthood and sacrifice over those of the Aaronic order. In chapter vii. he proves the first of these, viz., the superiority of Christ's priesthood. One of his proofs is that the Aaronic priests, because only dying men, "were many priests;" whereas our

priest, "because he continueth ever," is but one and the same. In chapter ix. the apostle brings the same argument to the question of the superiority of Christ's sacrifice. The Levitical service had many sacrifices,—we but one ; and that one but "once" offered.

But this statement might be open to an objection. A Jew might answer,— I can see how the priesthood of one undying priest would be greater than the priesthood of many dying men; but how can one sacrifice, offered so many years ago, meet the continually recurring sins of God's people, generation after generation; for you say, Christ was only to suffer and die "once." To this objection the 27th and 28th verses of the 9th of Hebrews are the answer. And, as is very common with him, the apostle answers the objection without stating it. The whole passage, (v. 26-28) as I understand it, might be paraphrased thus:

:

Verse 26. Christ's single sacrifice was to put away all sin. (If it be asked, How this can be, I answer thus ;) verse 27, As there was a single appointment that men should die; and as a period, varying in different individuals, had to elapse, "after this," before the threatened judgment, viz., death, took effect on Adam's seed. verse 28: So is there a single appointment for the removing of sin, followed, in like manner, after a similar period, by the carrying of that atonement into effect.

The whole argument turns on the word "once," which occurs in all the verses, and its bearing is very similar to the apostle's reasoning in Romans

V.

And the misapprehension, so common in many minds in reference to these verses, arises simply from reading the passage as if it were written, "after death the judgment," whereas it is "after that;" viz., “after that appointment," which is maintained at the beginning of the verse. The "judgment," in verse 27, it is evident to me, signifies the execution of the appointment to die, spoken of in the preceding member of the sentence.

I cannot conclude this note without expressing the satisfaction which I have derived from several of the papers in the Advocate. May you have increasing wisdom and grace to conduct it, according to your wishes, to the Lord's glory and his people's good.—Ever yours,

A. J.

ON THE ASPECT WHICH A CHRISTIAN CHURCH OUGHT TO BEAR TO THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

WHEN Juvenis was brought to the knowledge of the truth, his first desire was to join himself to the church of Christ, and to attend to his commandments. In order to do this he scrutinized the various sects which compose the religious world, endeavouring to find out which was the true church. He read their confessions of faith, and listened to their respective defences; but the more he studied, the more he became perplexed, and at last sat down completely bewildered.

He continued to read his bible, and in reading he alighted on this passage "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples when ye have love one to another." This caused him to rejoice, exultingly he exclaims, "now I have found it! I have found the test!"

He again went round the different parties, determined to make a more

rigid scrutiny than before, and resolved to apply this test to them all. With great diligence and patience he prosecuted his inquiries, and, when he had finished, it was with feelings of grief mingled with joy. He said I have found several bodies which carry out this principle partially, and I cannot find any that carry it out any otherwise than partially. I do not know which to join.

At last, however, he fixed on one. There was something about it which recommended itself to his attention. What they did he highly approved of, but the manner in which they did it was by no means pleasing; it appeared cold and lifeless. They were not very zealous, and they could not be compared to a city set on a hill, for very few knew anything about them. A city set upon a hill cannot be hid, but this body was hid, and they had little wish to be otherwise. Brotherly love they spake very much about, and Juvenis thought that they understood and practised it more than any others whom he had seen. He concluded his search by saying, this does not come up to the standard altogether, but it is the nearest I can find, here will I rest. But his difficulties were not yet over. They were only shifted, not removed. They re-appeared in a new form; and this was the manner in which they presented themselves.

In the days of the apostles there was only one church, or, more properly speaking, there were churches in different places, separated from each other by distance, but by nothing more. They were not split into sects. They were not divided by different views of doctrine or practice. Whatever differences existed among them, they were yet sufficiently united to join together in the worship and service of Christ's house. All who separated from them were schismatics.

But can any religious body in the present day occupy such high ground as the apostolic churches did? Is there any church now in the world that can speak of itself as the church, and treat all who do not join with them as schismatics? Certainly not. There is indeed one who calls herself the infallible church, that lays claim to this character; and there are some other sects who imitate her in this respect on a humble scale, but the proof for pretensions of both is defective. If there be any bodies existing in the present day, who are in all respects followers of those churches which in Judea were in Christ Jesus, those are the true churches; and all who do not join with them are guilty of schism. On this supposition, the course to be pursued is very plain, namely, that the churches of Christ should stand altogether aloof from all other religious bodies, and refuse to acknowledge anything they do as proceeding from Christian principle, because they do not join themselves with the churches of Christ. There are some bodies who affect to carry out this principle, but if they were to scrutinize themselves with the same rigour as they scrutinize others, it might somewhat modify their opinion.

Juvenis could not view the matter in this absolute way. He could not consider his own body a model of a Christian church, and treat all others as synagogues of Satan. He saw faults in his own body, and he saw excellences in others, which it would be well to imitate. Instead therefore of considering his own body as a perfect representation of an apostolic church, he only considered it upon the whole as a nearer approximation than others. Many of the disciples of Christ hold the same modified view. The question then presents itself in this form, "if there be any religious assemblies in the

present day which approximate closely to the apostolic churches, what aspect ought they to bear to all other religious bodies?

In one shape or another this question forces itself upon the attention of the disciples of Christ. It is answered variously, according to the views entertained concerning the religious world. One person says, "let us form an evangelical alliance." Another says, "let us give ourselves no concern about the different sects;" while a primitive Christian would perhaps say they were both wrong. The bulk of professors would advocate an alliance,

and others would advocate seclusion. But the New Testament sanctions neither. The true position of the Christian is, "in the world, yet not of the world." Yet the history of the church in all ages shews the constant tendency to depart from one or other of these features, sometimes indeed departing from both at the same time. The modern Christian says alliance, the old fashioned Christian says seclusion; but the primitive Christian says, a strict separation, but not seclusion. This is the most difficult task of all, because it is the proper place for the disciple of Christ.

There have been, and perhaps are yet, persons who indulge fancies of all sects of professing Christians being united. We need make no remark on this, as it manifests extreme folly even to harbour such an idea. The more modern attempt is to have an Evangelical Alliance, rather than a general union. Instead of a union of all the sects in Christendom, the proposal is restricted to an alliance of a few, those who may be thought to come under the appellation of evangelical. Alliances to a greater or less extent have been common for the last fifty years. There is something of this kind both in Missionary, and Bible Societies; and when there is a specific object in view, it may be in some respects carried on with safety. In general however, it is a dangerous practice. Men are thereby induced to sink what are called their minor differences for the sake of concord; and to parade the smooth speeches of alliance meetings before the world, as instances of brotherly love. By these means the minds of many are deluded as to wherein brotherly love and Christian union really consist. Discarding therefore the idea of a general union and even an Evangelical Alliance, or any other sort of alliance, let us look more closely at the aspect which a Christian church ought to bear to the religious world.

The first question which presents itself to our attention, is, what is the religious world composed of? Some would very readily say, "The religious world of the present day has greatly improved to what it once was. Old prejudicies have greatly diminished, and there is more attention paid to the scriptures as to the only rule of faith than there used to be." Others would as readily answer that "there never was a time when the religious world paid less attention to the scriptures than they do now." To those who prefer the present time to the past, we would say, point out any signs of the bulk of professing Christians coming to an agreement about faith and its obedience, and carrying it into practice. To those who prefer the former times to the present, we would say, look into any past history of the professing world, and see what evidence there is that the simple truth was ever understood and obeyed by a large proportion of those who love the Christian name. Perhaps therefore we may be safe in affirming that the religious world of the present day is pretty much similar to what it has been for the last sixteen hundred years, that is to say, chiefly evil, but not without some mixture of good.