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illustrates his argument by reference to the baptism by the Holy Ghost, who is said to have been "shed forth" and "poured out." (Acts ii.) But let Scripture speak about this baptism; "and suddenly "there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing "mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they "were sitting." Can we have immersion more complete than when we are surrounded and swallowed up of a "rushing mighty wind," and which fills "all the house" where we are sitting? Complete immersion that. If Mr Boardman thinks pouring sufficient, let such pouring be analogous in degree to that in his illustrations.

(4) In the case of our blessed Lord and Saviour, (to whom be glory for ever and ever,) Mr Boardman first assumes as proved, that the rite was administered by pouring water on his sacred head, while he stood in or on the brink of Jordan, (the river of death or judgment,) and then sees in the rite, so administered, a typifying of "the wrath of God that would be poured forth upon him as the sin-bearer on the cross." At first sight, this may seem plausible enough; but where is the Scripture to justify the phrase or the figure-"wrath of God that would be poured forth upon him"? If he sees it in the fire which descended and consumed Abel's offering, surely that was immersion, and the burnt-offerings under the Law were surely completely surrounded and covered over by that which consumed them-a baptism of fire. Our Lord did indeed say-"I have a baptism to be baptised with;" and we see it approaching in Gethsemane, when his "sweat was as it were great drops of blood "falling down to the ground," and hear him exclaiming, in the 69th Psalm, "I am come into deep "waters, where the floods overflow me." Surely such language will no more justify pouring than sprinkling, in relation to baptism.

But viewing our Lord's baptism in Jordan, as indeed an immersion into the river of death or judgment, we see a vivid figure of his subsequent descent into the grave-indeed, a figure of his death, burial, and resurrection. Bapto and Baptizo are rendered by all lexicographers-"immerse "; and metonymically "wash," and "dye," but never "pour."

Passing from a consideration of our author's illustrations, let us endeavour to weigh his arguments respecting probabilities. These may be ranged under two heads: 1, Considerations of decency; 2; The possibilities of the case.

(5) Mr Boardman says

"Aaron was washed or baptised by Moses on his entrance to the priesthood, as well as anointed with oil. God is the God of order and decency, as he says, 'Let all things be done decently and in order. We cannot, then, imagine Aaron standing naked before the congregation by God's order, though he might be unclothed in the sense of being divested of his upper garments. And we can easily imagine Moses pouring some water upon him, in the presence of the people, and thus Aaron was washed or baptised with water. (Exod. xxix.)"

We agree with our brother with respect to the laying aside by Aaron of his outer garments, and his having only some light clothing about the loins. Thus clad, how would "pouring "be more decent than "bathing"? Indeed, the word in the original

has but to be known, in order to see the fancifulness of Mr Boardman's supposition. While our brother would give the English word "wash" the significance of "wet," the originals do positively mean "bathe." The Greek is louo and the Hebrew rachatz, and the exact meaning of both these words is most clearly fixed by the Holy Ghost in 2 Kings v. 10-14. Elisha tells Naaman to go and wash (Hebrew, rachatz; Greek, louo)-in Jordan seven times. What then? Was water poured on him?

"Then went he down, and dipped [Heb. tabal, to dip in; Gr. bapto, to dip] himself in Jordan seven times."

Thus, the word, in both the Hebrew and Septuagint, which describes the action of Moses in washing Aaron, is understood by Naaman to mean "bathe," and he went and dipped himself in Jordan seven times. The Word of God interprets itself.

Besides this fixation of the meaning of "wash," we know, as a fact, that Aaron's sons, during their periods of temple service, washed all over, as the first duty, every morning, like their progenitor. All of our readers are perhaps not aware that "the washing of regeneration" is literally "the bath of regeneration."

(6) Again, Mr Boardman says on page 7

“Would men and women strip themselves, or change their wet garments on the banks of the Jordan? Would this be acting decently and in order?"

Here, again, we repeat, there was no necessity for completely stripping in such a climate, where evaporation is so speedy that walking with slight under clothing recently wetted would be exhilarating, rather than unpleasant. Dr Thompson, in "The Land and the Book," writes thus

"After a two hours' ride over an uneven plain, we reached

the Jordan, as the sun rose above the mountains of Moab. Immediately the pilgrims rushed headlong into the streammen, women, and children. . . The pilgrims were highly delighted with their bath. The men dipped the women, while the little children were carried and plunged under water, trembling like lambs."

This is a common spectacle every Easter.

Concerning the climate at Bethabara, which was near Jericho, but on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing, Dr Thompson says

"The valley at Jericho is 1,300 feet below the level of the ocean, is sheltered on all sides by mountains of great height, basin of the Dead Sea. It has, therefore, the climate of the and is open to the warm southorn breezes from the deeper tropics, though in the latitude of Jerusalem."

East.

When will Englishmen learn the essential difference between our climate and that of the While cold is with us the rule, and heat the exception, heat is with them the rule and cold the exception. Hence the speciality of the promises :"The sun shall not smite thee by day."-Ps. cxxi. 6. "Neither shall the heat nor sun smite them."-Isa. xlix. 10.

Who has not read of shipwrecked mariners, in open boats, wetting their clothes with the sea water in order to slake thirst by absorption through the skin?

The following is an extract from a letter from an oriental traveller, with whom we are acquainted, and to whom he wrote on the subject:

"In the East-in the Holy Land, very little clothing is necessary, unless you desire to keep the heat of the sun from your body. Evaporation is astonishingly rapid. For some months I was accustomed to rise in the morning before sunrise, (living in tents,) and find my clothes saturated with the dew that had fallen in the night. I put them on, and they were quickly dry. I never have felt any ill effects resulting from the practice. In fact, I never, under any circumstances, dreamed of taking cold.....Two or three minutes in the sun would remove all moisture [supposing clothes wetted by dipping.] We cannot judge of things in the East by what we do and experience here."

(To be continued, D. V.)

UNION WITH CHRIST.

In the dispensations which went before, and that which will follow after the present, many great and happy privileges were, and will be, conferred on those who trust in God. But the amazing truth about true christians is, they are one with Christ.

"Members of His body, of his flesh, and of his bones." (Eph. v. 30.) Comparatively few, even of those who realise salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus, have any practical knowledge of this unspeakably sublime revelation. By many, the Epistle to the Ephesians is treated as an unfathomable mystery, instead of being recognised as itself an unveiling of the great mystery namely, the union of Christ and the Church. Of course, the mere reasoner esteems the statements of that epistle foolishness, or at best but figures of speech; but every christian ought to know that he is actually a member of the body of Christ, already united to Him by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Believe the fact, and you will know the blessing which accompanies it. It is this

"No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church: for we are members of His body, of his flesh, and of his bones." (Eph. v. 29, 30.) Who would not wish to realise what it is to be nourished and cherished by the Lord Jesus Christ? Let us accept the declarations of the divine word in simple faith, and act in accordance therewith-then "we shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." (John vii. 17.)

How difficult it often is to induce Christians who have been brought up under the teaching which most prevails, to realize their glorious standing in Christ Jesus. For instance, how common for believers to thank God for his "sparing mercies," and "that they are spared to meet again at his footstool." Let us realize the statement-"Now are we the sons of God." Well, then, if our sons and daughters were to come to us and express thankfulness that we still allowed them to live, we should be grieved at their low estimate of our love for them, should we not? Thus, may dear souls (though unwittingly) grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Though it is indeed a thing to be thankful for, if we remain in this world, as is all the will of God concerning us, yet we fear such Christians would say very feebly "For me to depart and be with Christ is far better." During our pilgrimage, health is indeed a blessing to be thankful for, but thankfulness "for being spared" is not a fit expression for a child-from one having the gift of everlasting life, who knows that his "life is hid with Christ in God." We have heard believers thank God in prayer that they are still out of hell!" Such is the awful bondage in which much of the teaching of the day leaves children of God.

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST,

IN HIS VARIED CHARACTERS IN THE FOUR GOSPELS.

[The following is extracted from a volume entitled "The Evangelists, "a book of great value, breathing a sweet spirit throughout. The writer, we hear, is with Him on whose moral glories he descants.]

What is the Holy Ghost's work in the Apostles, whether speaking to sinners by preaching, or teaching saints by epistles, but unfolding the Jesus whom the Evangelists have, under Him, already given to us? Surely, Jesus is every thing. "Christ is all." And by different persuasives and reasonings we are challenged to make every thing of Him. Nothing is left for our own speculations-absolutely nothing.

We have God Himself revealed in our own nature, in our own world, in our own circumstances. Well might kings and prophets have longed for such a privilege. But they had it not. It is ours, and it is knowledge of God from description; we see and hear beyond all price. We are not left to gather our and learn for ourselves, through personal manifestation, who and what he is. We sit before His image, Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God." Scripture, His likeness, in the Lord Jesus. The Gospel is "the as I may speak, lets God shew Himself by His acts, and does not take the method of describing Him. He has not committed the revelation of Himself to the pen of even inspired description. He has graciously chosen to be His own Revealer, in personal, living action, by His own sayings and doings, that simplest and surest way of making Himself known, the way in which the way-faring man may not err, and in which the child need not mistake his lesson.

And in accordance with this, we see the Lord during His life, in constant activity. For there is deep meaning in that activity. He was, by it, ever pressing God or the Father upon the notice of sinners -and this constant diligence in doing and in speaking tells us that He would have us learn much of God. It seems to tell us, that we are to acquaint ourselves largely with Him-in all that, at least, in which such knowledge is good and sweet and profitable, suited to us in our necessities and for our blessing.

It is not by treatises or discourses, but by personal activities in our own ordinary circumstances, we learn Him; and, therefore, the simpler we are, the more like children (who learn their lesson rather than discuss it) we carry ourselves,-the more surely shall we find Him, and reach Him, and know Him.

The divine nature was found in His person, the divine character in His life. And this gives us an interest in every passage of His life, however small and occasional or ordinary it may be. For he who traces the life and death of Jesus reads God, or the characteristics of the divine moral glory.

And I ask, beloved, did this image, this glory, as it shone in the face of Jesus, alarm? Had sinners to treat it, as Israel treated the glory which shone in the

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face of Moses? Did the poor convicted one need that the Lord should put a veil on His face as Aaron and the children of Israel required Moses to do? The Samaritan was convicted as deeply and as thoroughly as ever Sinai would have convicted her. Jesus had all the secrets of her conscience out. But did she withdraw herself? The sinner in the temple is before Jesus as one whom the law would have stonedbut does she hide herself? Does she find that light oppressive or overpowering, which was then filling the place, and which had emptied it of her accusers? And I ask again, did disciples, who walked with Him every day, tremble before Him? Did they wish Him away, as though they felt his presence too much for them? Nothing of this. They had sorrow when He talked of leaving them; and when they had indeed lost Him, as they judged, they were found by the angels weeping. They never walked with Him as though they wished that a veil had been on His face. And His rebukes made no difference. To their spirits such rebukes, though they were sharp at times, were never the thunders of Mount Sinai. They felt the holiness of His presence, and were ashamed to let out the secret of their heart; but they never desired his absence.

What privilege, what consolation!

His thoughts, and His ways, His sympathies, and
considerateness, and all His affections, that in another
sense they might know that it was He Himself.
I would not stop to offer the evidence of this from
the Evangelists; it so abounds, addressing us on
every occasion in which we see the Lord in resurrec-
tion, if we do but duly heed it. But if I might for a
moment pass the bounds of the Evangelists, and
look at the ascended Jesus in the Book of the Acts,
there we find the same identity. Jesus here in
ministry, Jesus in resurrection, Jesus in heaven, is the
same Jesus. For, from the heavens he seems to
delight in knowing Himself by the name He had
acquired among us and for us, the name which makes
Him ours by the bond of a common nature, and by
the bond of accomplished grace and salvation. "I am
Jesus," was His answer, as from the highest place in
heaven, when Saul, on the road to Damascus demanded
of Him, "who art thou, Lord ?"

What shall we say, beloved, of the condescendings, the faithfulness, the greatness, the simplicity, the glory and the grace together, that form and mark His path before us! We know what He is this moment, and what He will be for ever, from what He has already been, as we see Him in the four Gospels. And we may pass into His world in all ease and naturalness, when we think of this.

"There no stranger God shall meet thee,
Stranger thou in courts above."

He is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,"
in His own proper glory. With Him "there is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning," according
to His essential divine nature. But so, in His know-
ledge of us, His relationships to us, His affections
for us, and His
with us.

way
(To be continued, D.V.)

ANSWERS TO CORRSPONDNETS. These are unavoidably postponed. We ask accordingly the the kind indulgence of dear brethren.-Commentary on Gospel by John also postponed.

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We can well understand the greater ease with which we could receive a person of distinction at our house, than go and visit him at his. But a visit from him would be the surest way of preparing us to pay a visit to him, and see him in those conditions and circumstances which are properly his, and more than ours. And after this manner is it between the Lord and us. Who can tell it in its blessedness! He has been here, in the midst of our circumstances, as the Son of man who came eating and drinking, shewing Himself in the gracious freedom of one that would gain our confidence. He walked and talked with us, as a man would with his friend. He knew us face to face. He was in our house. And after he rose, He returned to us, if not to our house, to our world-for the resurrection-scenes were all laid there. He was then on His way to His own place, but again He tarried in ours, that the links between us might be strengthened. For then, after He had risen, He was the same to us as He had been before. Change of condition had no effect upon Him-blessed to tell it. Kindred instances of grace and character, before He suffered and after he rose, shew us this abundantly. Late events had put the Lord and the disciples at a greater distance than companions had ever known. They had betrayed their unfaithful hearts, forsaking Him, and fleeing in the hour of His weakness and PRECIOUS danger, while He, for their sake, had gone through death, tasting the judgment of God upon sin. And they were still poor Galileans, and He was glorified with all power in heaven and on earth. But all this wrought no change in Him. "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature," as an Apostle says, could do that. He returns to them the very Jesus they had known before. He shewed them His hands and His side, that they might know that it was He Himself. Yea, we may add, He showed them His heart, and

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This is said on behalf of all believers in Jesus, even they who are yet in bodies of sin and corruption down here. Dear brother, dear sister-it is said of you. I earnestly desire that you will take it to yourself, that you may know your calling to kingship and priesthood, although you have yet to wait for the manifestation of the kingdom. Before that display, we must be changed.

"Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The trumpet shall sound, and the dead [in Christ] shall be raised incorruptible, and we [if alive at that moment] shall be changed. For this corruptible [body] must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."

All who are in the Faith must wait for this, until "the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout." But "whether we live or die, we are the Lord's," and he will come for us, according to his word. Immortality, glory, and the kingdom, are before us, sealed, settled, and certain, according to the sure promises of God, which are all Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Observe, Beloved, that the note of triumph and praise, quoted at the commencement of this letter, from Rev. i. 5, 6, and given you by the Holy Ghost to rejoice in now, is that which we shall sing in heaven. (See Rev. v. 9, 10.)

Dear child of God, I have spoken to you, of his wondrous purposes respecting yourself. Now, I desire to call your attention to what He has said of others. But I am anxious that you should be fully established in grace, before I invite your attention to the solemn revelations of the King of kings, regarding those "who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Remember, beloved, these words of Jesus,

"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord saith: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." (John xi. 15.)

This is the second proof our gracious Lord gives us of his friendship. He had previously expressed His tender regard towards us, thus— "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Having done this having laid down his life for us; now he makes us his

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confidants. He tells us-(you and me)—that which the Father has revealed to him. This is what comes out so sweetly in the first verse of the book of the "Revelation." We are told it is

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant

John."

It is true we are here spoken of as servants, because we are in the place of service, but the revelation comes from the same Lord who has before told us we are his friends, giving this as evidence of that truth, namely, that he tells us what God has revealed to him. Stand, then, beloved, in that attitude of confidential servant and friend, and attend to what our Lord has to say about the world. We are not of it, though left in it for a little while; and we shall better understand this glorious fact, if we receive our Redeemer's declarations respecting it.

It is helpful to a right understanding of the Lord's purposes in making known to us the world's doom, if Abraham. He, also, was called the friend of God; we call to mind God's dealings in a like case with and the Lord God made a confidant of Abraham.

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And He proceeded to reveal to Abraham his purposed judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, Abraham was not personally interested in the doom of Sodom. He and his household were in perfect safety, for we read that after Abraham had entreated God that the city should be spared, if only ten righteous persons should be found there

"The Lord went his way, as soon as he had left off communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned unto his place."

He was sure the Judge of all the earth would do right. He had pleaded the cause of the righteous, and could calmly wait the result.

"And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: and he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and towards all the land of the plain; and behold, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace."

What is to be the portion of this sin-stricken and Scripture-human society as it exists under the reign unbelieving world? (The word 'world' means in of Satan.) What hath the Lord said?

days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they did drink, they "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them

all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." (Luke xvii. 26-30.

I would fain multiply Scriptures, but cannot in the compass of this letter. From Deuteronomy to Revelation passages abound, foretelling the fearful days of tribulation soon to overtake the world, which judgments will be consummated by the coming of the Lord as Judge of all the earth.

"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and all their hard speeches which ungodly, sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 14, 15.)

Let me commend to your most serious reflection 2 Peter iii.; read the whole chapter, but dwell upon Here is the practical result of the revelation given us from heaven,

verse 12.

"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness ?"

Beloved, may you and I answer this in all faithfulness to the Lord, by living in practical separation from evil, and by testifying unceasingly that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh-testifying, not in the zeal of the flesh, but in calmness yet earnestness of spirit. Be not yourself disturbed, dear brother, dear sister; our Lord will first call us, (and all who trust in Him during these days of his rejection,) home to himself. Then shall the hearts of men begin to fail for fear, and for looking for those things which are coming upon the earth.

Oh, how awful it is to know all this! Yet, oh! how blessed to feel assured that we ourselves are, by faith, delivered already. May we be found waiting for that gracious Lord who has gone to prepare mansions for us in his Father's house; How often he has repeated for us that assurance-"Behold, I come quickly!"

Yours ever,

In Christ Jesus our Lord,

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL BY

ST. JOHN.

BY THE EDITOR OF "PRECIOUS TRUTH."

CHAPTER II.

"After this he [Jesus went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days." (v. 12.)

or

"Capernaum" means "The Field of Repentance" All the loved ones "the Village of Consolation."

of Jesus go there in spirit. It is one aspect of the scene which all believers pass through down here, but they do not continue in it many days. Our time here is brief. Thanks be to the Lord, He soon removes us to the heavenly country.

"And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting; and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables, and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." (v. 13-16.)

What an awful scene of iniquity is presented in these few verses! these few verses! Here were the called people of God-those who boasted their descent from faithful Abraham-making the very temple of God a market place, and the sacrifices he had ordained, an excuse for pandering to their lust after gain! And are Christians blameless when judged in the light of this Scripture?— What shall we say of those who make merchandise of the pastoral office? How do they stand who buy and sell sittings to hear prayers and preaching, as if at an entertainment for the gratification of Mammon? We say nothing of grosser forms of the same evil, which abound in Christendom.

The Lord Jesus drove them out, and scattered their wretched pelf. It was a solemn judgment, though a mild one compared with their guilt. Such was Jesus, such he is-full of grace and truth. He delights in mercy; but this provocation roused the gracious one to anger and violence. It is the only instance recorded of his infliction of chastisement. Even then, he made

The EDITOR of PRECIOUS TRUTH. his scourge of small cords. Moreover, his indignation

QUERIES.

(To the Editor of "PRECIOUS TRUTH.") DEAR SIR, Please answer in your next the following questions, as you may be enabled by the light of "the word "

1. St. Paul says the "Rock which followed" the Israelites through the desert was Christ. We read of two rocks being smitten (see Exod. xvii. and Numb. xx.), or perhaps it was the same rock, as it receives the same name, they having returned to the same place in the wilderness ?

2. Do the Iraelites wandering in the wilderness represent the true Church-spiritual Israel, or professing Christendom-the "kingdom"?

E.

[Question No. 1 we hope to answer in our next Number. The water which flowed out from the rock is typical of that living water which streamed forth when Christ, the Antitype of the rock in Horeb, was smitten. He, "the Truth," followed the Israelites in all their journeys. Much of the History of Israel doubtless sets forth in type, the experience of the Church on earth, and also of the individual Christian. We do not see Christendom mirrored in the wilderness wanderings of the Children of Israel. ED. P. T.]

was measured-He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables. To them that sold doves he made a difference-He said unto them, "Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." Doves were the offerings made by the poor. Such a sacrifice was made for the meek and lowly Jesus when he was circumcised, (see Luke ii. 24.) He was ever gentle to the poor-he came to preach the gospel to them. So those who sold doves for the use of the poor in the service of God were dealt with, though among the herd of offenders, with an extra measure of grace.

But, oh! the solemn significance of this visitation! How dreadful the character of the guilt which could thus provoke the Lord Jesus! The Jews might persecute Him, revile Him, seek to stone Him, buffet and mock Him, and finally hand Him over to be crucified!

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