selves. It is to the proofs of this in the Word of God that I would now call attention.

"All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" (Matt. xi. 27). The connection in which this passage stands is deeply interesting. The message from John the Baptist by two of his disciples, gives our Lord occasion to speak to the multitude of John and his mission. From this the transition is easy, to the results of both John's mission and His own. He compares the men of that generation to children sitting in the market-place, and calling to their fellows, "We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented." Nothing would suit them. John had come in all the austerity of a witness for God's righteousness against a sinful people. He came neither eating nor drinking. This was too strict for them; and they said, "He hath a devil." The son of man came in full grace, not requiring what man owed to God, but proclaiming and manifesting the riches of God's love to man. He, in consequence, was free from those austerities which marked the conduct of his forerunner. In the freedom of social intercourse, He mixed with people of all classes, eating and drinking with them, whether they were Pharisees or Publicans. This was too wide, and left no place for any of those distinctions on which they prided themselves; and they said, "Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." But while such was the general rejection of every testimony from God, whether a testimony of righteousness or a testimony of grace, there were some who received God's word; and of them He says, "But Wisdom is justified of her children." How does our blessed Lord account for the difference between them and the mass? Is it that by dint of greater industry, or as the reward of greater faithfulness, they had become acquainted with the truth? Or is it that they had some natural capacity for the reception of it of which others were destitute? No;

after pouring out a strain of holy lamentation over Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, He turns to His Father, and says, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight." It was not that the wise and prudent had discovered who Jesus was; the Father had revealed Him, and that to babes-to those most ignorant and incapable. He proceeds, "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." It was not that the proof was lacking in any wise, of the glory of Jesus as the Son of God. His works made manifest who He was. But what use are light and colours to a man who is utterly blind? There was the total want of capacity on man's part to appreciate the evidence which was presented to him. No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. If, therefore, any knew the Son, it was because he was one of the babes to whom it had pleased the Father to reveal Him. If any knew the Father, it was because he was one of those to whom the Son had revealed Him. Is there, however, a poor broken-hearted sinner, conscious of his helplessness and utter ruin, and feeling that he can neither enlighten nor save himself? Does the eye of such an one rest on these words, and is he asking, Can I hope to be one of those to whom the Son will reveal the Father? Let him hear the voice of Jesus. "All things are delivered to me of the Father," we have heard Him say already. It belongs to Him to reveal the Father to whomsoever He will. And who are they to whom He will reveal the Father? "Come unto me," are His blessed words, "all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." May some poor burdened spirit receive this gift of perfect rest-rest in the Father's bosom-while listening to those words of grace and consolation from the lips of Him who spake as never man spake.

The next passage I would refer to is Matt. xvi. 13-17.

Our Lord proposes to His disciples the inquiry, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" The various and conflicting thoughts and conjectures of men, are reported by the disciples to their Lord. He then asks, "But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And what is the reply of Jesus? "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Nothing can be more explicit or decisive than the testimony of this passage. Of all the various thoughts of man's mind concerning Jesus, there was not one really according to truth. Peter discerns and acknowledges who He really is. And what does our Lord immediately declare? That it was by revelation of His Father in heaven that he knew this-"flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."

Should it be objected that Peter's was an individual case, and for aught we know an exceptional one, we have only to turn to John, chapter i. for a full and decisive answer. There we find, indeed, that "the light shineth in darkness;" but alas! "the darkness comprehended it not" (ver. 5). There was no lack of testimony, if there had only been in any the heart to appreciate and receive it. John "came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (ver. 7-9). But though the Light thus shines on all, every avenue to man's heart is closed against it. "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not" (ver. 10). Even Israel, His own nation, have no heart to welcome Him. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" (ver. 11). It is true, that in the next verse we read of some who do receive Him; and we are told that " as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." But how came they to receive him-to believe on his name? Mark the answer:"Which were

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born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Peter's was no exceptional case. It was universally true then, and it is universally true now, that whosoever receives Christ, whosoever believes on his name, flesh and blood has not revealed" him to such an one, but his Father which is in heaven. All such have been born, not of bloodi. e. of natural descent; nor of the will of the flesh-any choice or decision of the person himself; nor of the will of man-any act which another chooses to perform upon him; but of God. Those who are thus born of God, and those only, receive Christ or believe on his name in truth. Any believing on His name which stops short of this-any faith which is the mere result of the exercise of our natural faculties, is nothing worth. A remarkable proof of this we have in the next chapter.

"Now when He was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man" (ii. 23-25). Here were personsto all appearance believing just the same things as those which the true disciples of Jesus believed. But their belief was a mere natural thing. They saw his miracles; and by the exercise of their reasoning faculties upon the facts before their eyes, they came to the conclusion that Jesus had come from God. But He did not trust them. He did not commit himself unto them? And why? Because he knew all men. He knew what was in man, and that there was nothing in man that he could trust. He knew moreover that the faith of these people was a mere human thing; and because merely human, not to be trusted. Hence when Nicodemus comes to Him professing just this kind of faith, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him," instead of owning it at all, he urges on Nicodemus the necessity of the new birth. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus marvels

at this, and asks how a man can be born when he is old? "Whether he can enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" How solemn is Lord's reply. He again declares how indispensable it is to be born again; but now adds "of water and of the Spirit." It is a new nature produced by the Spirit and word of God, not any exercise of the faculties of the old nature, that is absolutely necessary. It is as though he said, "What if a man could enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? A second birth in nature would be of no more avail than the first. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and it is because the nature you received at your birth contains nothing, and is capable of nothing, pleasing to God, that you need to be born again." The faith of Nicodemus and of the persons mentioned in (chap. ii. 23), could not be trusted by our Lord, because it was just the fruit of something that was in man; it was not produced by this new, this second birth. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh [and so incapable in its very fairest forms, of pleasing God; while] that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." "Marvel not," says our Lord, "that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." What does all this amount to, but a formal contradiction of the thought, that any reception of the truth by the mere natural mind of man, is saving faith? There must be a birth from above, a birth by the word and Spirit of God.

The fourth of John beautifully exemplifies both the need of this new birth, and the way in which it is brought about by the revelation to the poor sinner (utterly dark and ignorant in himself) of Jesus the Saviour. But as there is no formal statement on the subject, I pass it by. In the fifth we have the declaration from the lips of our Lord Himself, that "as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will" (verse 21). And that this is not the quickening of bodies merely, in order to their resurrection, but the quickening of souls also, is evident from verses 24, 25.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and