imputed defilement and pollution, the word sanctify as used metaphorically in the Epistle to the Hebrews, is comprehensive both of justification and sanctification in our common use of the words.

Dear brother, dost thou know by thine own happy experience, the truth of all this? What an evidence is this which the world cannot have of the truth of Christianity, and of the sureness of all its promises, and the reality of all its joys in time and eternity! You have been set apart for God, "not in word only but in power," and so the disqualifications of a guilty conscience, of an impure heart, have both been removed together.

EPH. III. 18, 19. "That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

This passage contains thoughts too vast for utterance, perhaps, except in a metaphorical way.

The bliss of Paradise was crowned by the personal presence of God; and the effect of the propitiation for the sin of the world, through "his tender mercy," is to restore once more that personal presence. "Not that any man hath seen God at any time.” But God does not need to be seen in order to make his presence known. "If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him," is one of the "great and precious promises." And so great a favour as this, while it was prophetically announced in such language as "I will dwell in them and walk in them," must also manifestly have been set forth in the Levitical institutions, and, indeed, in the chief of them.

Solomon, when he built that glorious house or temple, representing Christ's natural and mystical body, built it for the HOUSE OF GOD; and so he asks, in the genuine gratitude of his heart, "Will God indeed dwell with man? Behold the heaven, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built." The house, however, was no sooner finished, and the consecration prayer ended, than the presence of the Lord "filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister, because of the cloud," 1 Kings viii. 11.

It was an imposing structure that Temple: within, the lofty roof and the retreating walls gave an overpowering sense of vastness; there was "a length, and breadth, and depth, and height" that could not fail to be impressive in the magnitude of the space enclosed. And when, as upon the occasion recorded, in the sixth of Isaiah, the Symbol of his Presence took the mercy seat or throne, canopied by the spreading wings of the emblematical cherubim, and the house

was "filled with his train," the effect must have been too much for unsupported human nature: and words like those in this passage are wanted to describe it," the height, and depth, and length, and breadth" was "filled with all the fulness of God," which yet the earthly walls "comprehended" and enclosed.

Now, let us turn this description to the elucidation of the passage above.

FIRST, let us contemplate the natural body of our blessed Lord, now glorified. In that earthly tabernacle, "the Life, even that eternal Life which was with the Father" (Life in the abstract), became incarnate. That body while on earth was the temple, as He Himself said, of his divine nature; and though "great the mystery of godliness," God was there "manifest in flesh;" and flesh, somehow inscrutably to us, comprehended the incomprehensible, therein He dwelt,

"Whom th' heav'n could not contain,

Nor the immeasurable plain

Of vast infinity

Enclose and circle round!"

But even "the priests of the Lord" cannot, may not, look

within the "cloud" here.

NEXT, there is the body mystical, the true Church, "the company of the faithful," as the article of the reformed religion defines it. These, individually, are "the lively stones," 1 Pet. ii. 5; collectively, the shining walls of the spiritual temple, for. they are "builded together." And when the Ephesian converts, with “all saints" of every age, are thus united, they become "a habitation of God, through the Spirit," and so "comprehend" the incomprehensible. And in the plenitude of his gifts and graces, more especially manifested in the Pentecostal times, are "filled with all the fulness of God." Such is the second aspect of this mystery.

Then, LASTLY, there is the true believer in his individual capacity. Though weak and unworthy, every private believer is taught (1 Cor. vi. 16-19) that his "body is the temple of the Holy Ghost;" and he knows, by experience, what this means. He remembers how once he listened to the glad tidings of salvation by Christ, and as he listened and believed, how he received "the promise of the Spirit through faith," "the Spirit of adoption." And so, because he became a child of God, he learned, for the first time, to cry, "Abba Father!" Now, this enjoyment and fellowship with God he has never lost; or if he have, it has been restored, or he could have no part in the heavenly experience described and invoked on behalf of the Ephesians here.

It may be questioned by some whether it is given to Christians now-a-days to realise the "fulness" of this description. To which we answer, that although this prayer of the Apostle implies that it is a state the Ephesians might rather desire as a daily consummation of their wishes, than possess as a test of their conversion; yet, notwithstanding, it is certain that the touchstone of a vital interest in the salvation which is by Jesus Christ, is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Rom. viik 9, 10, 11. The manifestation may not always be so satisfying. the PRESENCE may, as of old, ordinarily dwell in "the cloud," but it is no less certainly there than when "the train” which Isaiah describes as "the glory" and "the smoke," and which is again so described (Rev. xv. S), diffuses itself through "the height, and depth, and length and breadth;" and though the frail earthy walls of this body may be all but unable to endure, they still "comprehend" the incomprehensible.

The Life of Flavel, as a proof of what a humble and holy man may be given to enjoy, is well worth reading and copying. He knew "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge," and was "filled, more than most, with all the fulness of God."

The following are a few other examples of Levitical metaphor that occur to us as we write.

HEB, XIII. 10. "We have an altar, of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle."

ROM. XV. 16. "That I should be a minister of Jesus Christ and the Gentiles, ministering as a priest in the Gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable." (Our own translation.)

ROM. XII. 1. "That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Tenby.

G. . S.

A PRACTICAL PAPER ON PREPARATION.

"It is easy enough when you know how to do it.' "How to do it" is the object of the present paper. I have seen in the columns of different Magazines published by the Church of England Sunday School Institute, lessons which have been elaborately prepared (indeed so elaborate have many of them been, that I have not unfrequently felt an undefined longing in my breast

to know who is the author of the lesson, that I may fall at his feet, like Antisthenes and Euclid at the feet of Socrates, and by some erotetic method learn how he did it, that I may "go and do likewise") but I do not remember seeing or reading a lesson "being" prepared. It is very well to tell us what can be done, we want Geniuses to tell us how to do it, or rather how they did it. Results are very telling, the query is, how were they arrived at? Lord Elgin surprised us by the results of his diplomacy at China; how many God-loving hearts, rejoicing at the opening made for missionaries and spiritual ambassadors from the King of kings to labour, wondered how the noble lord met with his success.

Before commencing the preparation of my lesson, allow me to make one observation; as with preachers, so with teachers, more efforts are made to make good sermons or lessons, than to save dead souls. We thank God if questions and answers flow rapidly, and the morning slips along swiftly, almost imperceptibly, and think our work is then done well. If, however, our notes are exhausted before the time for closing, or an unusually close day, or a bitter cold day, prevents the usual current of spiritual air from passing through both teacher and taught, we mourn over our failings, and one's nature feels inclined to believe that our Heavenly Father is unfaithful, and that his ear is not ever open to hear, and his arm to bless; when we should rather rejoice, and trust to the Lord to send down the dew of his Holy Spirit on our feeble labours, instead of trusting to our might, knowing and believing that it is "not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of Hosts ;" and that the "WEAKNESS of God is stronger than men."

I am about to prepare a lesson suitable for a class of boys, whose ages average from about nine to thirteen, the subject being Uzziah, king of Judah, from 2 Chron xxvi. 1-21. I have first to cut a slip of paper, about six inches long by about two and a half wide; that being done, I now have to resort to my old plan,-which I am vain enough to believe the best the wide world o'er,-namely, of noting the places, the writer, the date, and the characters mentioned in my lesson. The places, Judah, Gath, Ashdod, and Carmel; the writer, Isaiah, see verse 22; the date, 800 B.C., and the characters, the people of Judah, Uzziah, Jecoliah, Zechariah, Ammonites, Jeiel, Maaseiah, Hananiah, Azariah, Isaiah. Then to note the facts contained in the lesson in connection with my subject. Uzziah is king of Judah,does that which is right in the sight of the Lord,-wars against the Philistines,-conquers,-has a large and a strong army,-prosperity becomes his ruin,-he breaks God's law,-is wroth with his reprovers, becomes a leper, and dies. The parallel passages and marginal renderings have now to be referred to. I note the following as import

tant, 2 Kings xv. 1,-"In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, began Azariah, son of Amaziah, king of Judah, to reign :" inasmuch as the first verse of our lesson tells me that it was Uzziah whom the people of Judah "made king in the room of his father Amaziah." I gather that Uzziah was also called Azariah, 2 Kings xiv. 22. "He built Elath, and restored it to Judah," from which passage I gather that Eloth was also called Elath. Gen. xli. 15, and Dan. i. 17. "And Pharoah said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it; and I have heard say of thee that thou canst understand a dream and interpret it.” "Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams." These verses name two other persons who, like Zechariah, verse 5, had understanding in the visions of God, while Dan. ii. 19, "Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision," throws some light on the way in which these visions were revealed. Neh. iii. 13,-The valley gate, repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof." This tells us something more respecting the valley gate which Uzziah built, verse 9. Deut. viii. 14, 19,-" Thine heart be lifted up," and "thou forget the Lord thy God. "And it shall be if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God,... I testify against you this day, that ye shall surely perish." In these verses we have the danger of prosperity pointed out to us. 2 Chron. xxv. 17, 19, 21, 22,-" Then Amaziah, king of Judah... sent to Joash, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us see one another in the face. And Joash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, Lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites; and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast; abide now at home; why shouldst thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou and Judah with thee... Joash, the king of Israel, went up, and they saw one another in the face, both he and Amaziah, king of Judah, at Bethshemesh, which belongeth to Judah. And Judah was put to the worse before Israel, and they fled every man to his tent;" from which we see that the same sin which killed the father was the stepping-stone to the ruin of the son. Num. iii. 10,-" And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their priest's office: and the stranger which cometh nigh shall be put to death." The law which reserved to Aaron and his sons the right to execute the priest's office. Ex. xxx. 5, 6, 7, 10,-" And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once a year, with the blood of the sin offering of atonement: once in the year shall he make atonement

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