But we shall serve Him and bear His name upon our foreheads. Love and loving and inseparable from lovedivine and heavenly love." How feebly, at best, can we speak of these things; and yet they stand in their own eternal excellency to act upon, and fill our souls with, delight. In conclusion, let no one mistake what I have said about "the Lamb," as though I gave not the full tribute of praise to Him, and Him alone who shed His blood that all my sin might be forgiven; and who has, through faith given to me, enabled me to know myself already pardoned and accepted. But the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, has a value besides that of pardon and acceptance to a sinner; it is to a saint separation, through faith, unto God; his freedom and liberty: it has, too, and that quite apart from atonement, a value in the mind of God (as marked in Phil. ii.). Where atonement is not named as the prominent object; obedient unto death, the death of the cross. Now it seems to me, that, in this sense, the account of the Lamb in the Revelation is a divine commentary upon Phil. ii. 6-8; a commentary far more full of blessed details than that found in Phil. ii. 9-11. If I owe pardon and acceptance as a sinner; liberty as a saint; and hope to God through Christ Jesus;-I would not forget that I have therefore, and on that very account, a debt to pay daily to God in the new nature, and that my only power to say "to me to live is Christ" is found in God's revealed estimation of the value of the humiliation of His Son. His Son is my pattern and forerunner, and this I would never forget in such a body of sin and death, and surrounded by such a world h The first and the last displays of any subject in Scripture are, often, in a certain sense, characteristic. It is, so I think, as to the Lamb, in the Revelation. The first SHOW of Him is as hidden in the throne of the Lord God Almighty; His first ACT is the taking of the book to open it. The last TIME He is shown is in the New Jerusalem His position there in heaven, is ever to be the living link of association between the Lord God Almighty and the now saved and sinless people. In neither the first nor the last displays is He seen, save as between a God that has a saved people that serve Him, and themselves the already saved ones. as I am. In His humiliation I get the path and standard of my life: it is fellowship with GOD. And, moreover, it must never be forgotten that all our blessings have come from God-and that because He is God and not man, therefore there is mercy. The blood of Christ is forgiveness for sins, but that forgiveness is on God's side only part of the expression of His character as Redeemer. The whole of that character, as I judge, finds its expression in the history of the Lamb that was slain, as presented in Revelation, and in Phil. ii. Now I, for one, do not desire to confound forgiveness, which is a fruit of Divine love, an expression of the value, through faith, of the death of the Lord, with the root of all blessing, viz., the character of God, the only true God, as made manifest by Jesus Christ, whom He sent. The revelation of the glory of God; the excellency of the Lord; the open door for the gift of the Holy Ghost; the utter condemnation of Satan; the salvation of God's people; the pattern of their walk to glory,-the mind that became them,-all, all were found in that wondrous obedience unto death, the death of the Cross-of Christ Jesus. Yet, when we read Phil. ii.,-it is the mind of Christ, and that mind, as displayed in His course alone, which is directly set before us; the leading feature and object in the picture. Just so, I judge, is it in Rev. v. as to the Lamb as it had been slain. The Lamb, then, as it had been slain, is THE specimen, the only perfect expression, of that in which the Lord God Almighty delights, and heaven too. The Apocalypse has, as its running title: "Taking forth the precious from the vile." Only, instead of this being presented merely as an exhortation to a servant on earth (Jer. xv. 19, 20), with the promise so "thou shalt be as my mouth,"-it presents this principle, as carried out by God and the Lamb, in their dealings with what is on the earth. In this book He takes forth him that hath an ear to hear; He takes forth 144,000 of Israel, and some from among the nations; then again he takes out Israel from under the nations, and separates the four nations of Daniel from the mass of nations; and when the blessing to the earth comes, it is a new thing; nct an old one mended, but a clean thing altogether, brought forth, where nothing but uncleanness had been before it: a work of Divine power. And I may remark this as being a principle of immense, present, practical value to us in this present moment. God is not restoring churches now, but is calling forth Him that has the ear to hear. The practical difference between attempting to be a restorer of churches, on the one hand; and a cultivator of implicit individual obedience, myself, to the word, on the other, may be easily conceived. Come what may, I must obey God rather than man. This puts self down at zero: subject to the word, I must keep myself unspotted from the world; the perfect strength, of realized weakness and nothingness, follows. When I a:n weak then am I strong. On the other hand, the setter to rights of churches soon makes manifest how all his strength and power is vanity. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that "reformations" have always, thus, made shipwreck. The soul of a Luther, a Calvin, etc., was awakened and formed at first by the word bearing upon itself: when they began to act, not on souls, but on circumstances (in churches, kingdoms, etc.,) they failed. May we hold fast that which we have, and walk in the strength of the realized weakness of absolute dependence upon the living God and the word of His grace. EDITOR'S NOTE.-Though it does not affect the main point of the foregoing paper, I would remark (on the first new paragraph on page 233) that it overlooks the fact that the word apŋy occurs in the SEPTUAGINT about twenty-four times. It is rendered "kid" in Ex. xxiii. 19; xxxiv. 26; and Deut. xiv. 21. “Lamb," in Lev. iii. 7; Deut. xxxii. 14; 1 Sam. vii. 9; 2 K. iii. 4; 1 Chr. xxix. 21. Pro. xxvii. 26. Is. v. 17; xi. 6; xl. 11; lxv. 25. Jer. li. 40. "Fatlings," 2 Sa. vi. 13. "Fat cattle," 1 K. i. 9; xix. 25. "Fed beasts," 1 Sa. i. 11. "Sheep," Gen. xxx. 32, 33, 35; Lev. i. 10. 66 Showers," Mic. v. 7. THE PSALMS.* I. 1. Blessed [is] the man who has not walked in the counsel of [the] wicked, and has not stood in the path of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of scorners. 2. But [has] his delight in the law of Jehovah, and meditates in His law day and night. 3. And he shall be as a tree planted by brooks of water, which gives its fruit in its season, and its leaf withers not, and all which he doeth prospers. 4. [It is] not so [with] the wicked: but they are as chaff, which the wind scatters. Wherefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of [the] righteous. 6. For Jehovah knows [the] way of [the] righteous; and [the] way of wicked [men] shall perish. II. 1. Why are the heathen in tumultuous agitation, and [why] do the tribes of men meditate vanity? 2. The kings of the earth stand up, and the chiefs plot together against Jehovah, and against His anointed. 3. Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us! 4. He that dwells in the heavens shall laugh: Adonai shall mock at them. 5. Then will He speak to them in His wrath, and in the heat of His anger will He confound them. 6. "And I have anointed my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness." 7. I will tell of the decree: Jehovah has said unto me, "Thou [art] my son; I this day have begotten thee. 8. Ask of me, and I will give nations [for] thine inheritance, and [for] thy possession, This new translation from the Hebrew of the first eight Psalms has been carefully compared with the New German Psalter. Elberfeld. 1859. The rest of the Psalms will, it is hope, follow in due course.-Ed. It is not desirable to confound the plural and singular of wicked; when I use it alone, it is to be considered plural. When singular, I purpose saying wicked one, or man. So of righteous. Alone it is to be considered plural. the ends of the earth. 9. Thou shalt crushd them with a sceptre of iron, as vessels of a potter shalt thou dash them in pieces." 10. And now kings, be ye wise: be admonished ye judges of the earth! 11. Serve Jehovah with fear, and exult with trembling. 12. Kiss the son lest he be in wrath, and ye perish [in] the way, if His wrath burn but a little: blessed are all who have their trust in Him. Although the translator is in no way assured that the titles form an inspired part of the book, but the contrary, and the sense of many is quite uncertain (in the Septuagint Vulgate and Syriac, we have many others and different ones), yet as they are in the Hebrew, they are given. At the utmost, they give the occasion, not the divine purpose of the psalms. III. *[A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.] 1. Jehovah, how many are they that press upon me! Many rise up against me. 2. Many say of my soul, [there is] no deliverance for him in God." Selah. 3. But thou, Ŏ Jehovah, art my shield around me, my glory, and the lifter up of my head. 4. [With] my voice to Jehovah will I cry, and He will hear me from the mountain of His holiness. Selah. 5. I laid me down and slept; I awoke up, for Jehovah sustains me. 6. I will not fear for myriads of the peoples which have set themselves against me round about. 7. Arise, Jehovah: save me, O my God. For thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone; thou hast broken the teeth of wicked men. 8. With Jehovah is salvation, upon thy people is thy blessing. Selah. d Some take it as from to rule or shepherd. The root is chastening, raidev. fThough the meaning of Selah, and even if the letters be not initials of words to guide the song, be uncertain, yet, as there is always a break in the sense, I insert it. This word must not be confounded in the plural. I shall put it in the plural when it is so. longer Israel. *See Note p. 247. Editor. singular and It is then no |