as Divine, is clear from the words spoken by our Lord Himself. At the very time when He was a man on earth, come," as He said of Himself, in direct contrast with St. John the Baptist, "eating and drinking

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that is, not separating Himself from man's ordinary life or happiness, but joining in it all-He spoke of Himself as "the Son of Man which is in Heaven" (St. John iii. 13). And in the same way St. Paul, speaking of himself and other Christians, says that "God hath raised us up together, and hath made us (not "will" only make us) "sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. ii. 6). Christ, then, as the Son of the Divine Maker and Governor of the world, came into it, not to destroy, but to fulfil; to glorify, not to condemn, that wondrous creation of God, human life in all its breadth.

*

It is true that in the Sermon on the Mount, and elsewhere, He used the strongest language to teach that every disciple of His must totally give up the service of the world, or of anything in it; but that does not mean its use. "He did not say," as Jerome puts it, "he who has riches, but he who serves riches; the servant of riches keeps them as a servant; he who has cast off the yoke of servitude distributes them as their master." Thus, while the Lord takes the world sternly and altogether away from us as our master, He restores it as completely to us as our servant. He takes it away from

our selfishness, but He gives it back to our love; He denies it absolutely to the "old man in us," with his lusts and selfwill, but allows it as fully to the use and service of the "new man," the "Christ in us." He had rich disciples whom He did not command to become poor. Penitent Zaccheus was left with a blessing in his great house at Jericho, while still retaining the half of his goods. Joseph of Arimathea

* See Bishop Wordsworth on St. Matt. vi. 22.

was a rich man, and allowed to continue such. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha still lived in the home He had blessed and glorified by His gracious presence at Bethany. "Mary, the mother of Mark," retained her house in Jerusalem, which was large enough to hold large meetings of the disciples. And so must the rich men have retained their riches whom St. Paul warned, not to give them up, but to use them aright. "Give alms," said our Lord, "of such things as ye have” (or “as ye are able,” тà ěvovтa) “and behold all things are clean unto you." “All things are ours "if "we are Christ's, as Christ is God's." But this "being Christ's" implies the heart in Heaven.

"We know," it has been nobly said, "that every man here upon earth stands between two worlds; above him is the light, and love, and glory of God —this is the heaven of heavens; beneath him is pride and ignorance, and despair, and atheism—this is the pit of hell. And 'as any man may ascend up, and see that love and glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, so any man may sink down into the pit, and God may be shrouded from His eyes, and he may be able to see nothing but himself; and sin, and death.” *

According to this view, then, the belief that the whole of our present life, in all its activities, is to be considered as God's own training school, in which man, as His redeemed child, is to be prepared for, and actually to practise for, Heaven, is not in the least inconsistent with the most unreserved obedience to the Divine precepts on " renouncing the world," and on the duty of setting the affections on "things above." By moral nearness to Christ, whether in this world or in any other, we rise; by moral unlikeness to Him, we sink towards perdition. "This is life eternal," He said Himself—not "to leave the earth "--but "to know

* "Christmas Day, and other Sermons," by F. D. Maurice, p. 368.

Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (St. John xvii. 3). And that may be done here, as well as far away. "The kingdom of God," said the Divine Master, "cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for behold the kingdom of God is within you" (St. Luke xvii. 20, 21).

NOTE C.

ON THE USE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN HOLY SCRIPTURE WITH REGARD ΤΟ THE FUTURE

LIFE.

"It doth not yet appear what we shall be."-1 JOHN iii. 2.

O shining City of our God!

And shall we see thee here?

Thy pearly gates and golden streets?

"It doth not yet appear,"

O healing tree of twelve-fold fruit!

O river pure and clear!

And shall we touch, and shall we taste?—

'It doth not yet appear.'

O crowned and white-robed choir on high,

Our elder brothers dear!

And shall we blend our songs with yours?

'It doth not yet appear.'

O rainbow throne! O court of Heaven!

And are ye truly so?

Or signs of things we cannot yet

In faintest semblance know?

For Thine appearing, Lord, I wait;

Be this enough for me,

If I may see Thee as Thou art,

And then be like to Thee!"

Christian Knowledge Society's Hymn Book, 457

[There are many excellent Christians, who scruple to interpret any words of inspiration in any but that which may seem to them the most literal sense. This, it is believed, is often a very misleading habit of mind. It is to any readers who may entertain such views that the following remarks are earnestly and respectfully addressed.]

ΤΗ

HERE are, it would seem, as has been said above, some truths with reference to the Future Life, the End of the World, and, still more, to the nature

and manner of being of ALMIGHTY GOD, of which the knowledge cannot be conveyed to us, in our present state, completely, but only approximatively; or, to use the language of a late eminent writer, Dean Mansel (in his Bampton Lectures, "On the Limits of Religious Thought"), not "speculatively," but only "regulatively."

By doctrines "speculatively " true, he means such as, we may believe, convey to our minds a conception and apprehension of the very truth and "image" (Heb. x. 1) of the things spoken of, as they are in themselves; but by doctrines, on the other hand, which are to be taken as only "regulatively" true, he means such as, though they cannot, on account of the weakness and limitations of our faculties in our present life, reveal to us the truth as it is in itself, yet do "regulate," shape, and guide our thoughts, as we look towards the divine facts, as nearly right as is possible with our present faculties. And, that some divine revelations must be thus "regulative," rather than "speculative," is clear from the words of Scripture. If, as St. Paul tells us, we can only see some of the things of Eternity as by means of a reflection in a looking-glass, it is evident that the truth of that reflection must be relative to the perfection of the mirror; and that just so far as the mirror (that of our human speech and human ideas in this life) is either too small or too much discoloured to render a perfect image of the divine realities, the idea it will convey to us must be inadequate. Again, if the truths are conveyed "in a riddle," there will be room, and there must be intended to be room, for some width and variety of conjecture as to its solution.

It is important to show that the Scripture revelations of Heaven and Hell are intended to be understood, in some respects, "regulatively" rather than "speculatively," since the due apprehension of this fact would remove some difficulties of faith which might otherwise trouble thought