tation of God through the Spirit." "As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them." Can any person conceive of God dwelling in any other than a holy temple? Nay, "the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 3:17. Neither can a few unholy ones pass under cover of the géneral holiness of others. Had there been a thousand holy men in Eden, they would have intensified rather than decreased the fire of God's holy presence and would have made the place all the more unendurable to the sinner. So no hypocrite can smuggle himself into the awful temple of God's presence. To the unholy "God is a consuming fire." "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." Psa. 1:5. There never was nor ever can be a sinner or unholy person in the church, which is the body of Christ. Such characters may and do assemble with the church, and may seek to pass for members of the body, and where the church is deficient in discerning, such may actually pass undetected, but they are not in the church.

The foregoing is apparent when we consider what constitutes membership in any society.

First, the conditions and process of becoming a member must be met; and, secondly, the name must be entered on the roll of membership. Therefore the class-book of any sect decides who are and who are not its members. No matter how much a man may affirm his membership, if his name is not recorded in the classbook, his claim is false; and no difference how vile a character may be, if his name stands on the book, he is a member, even though the society be ashamed to confess the fact. Now, it is by these same two tests that we define membership in God's church. First, all must enter through Christ, the only door, and by the process of salvation (John 10:9; Eph. 2:18); for there is no other possible admittance. Second, he must have his name in the Lamb's book of life; for there is no other enrollment of the names of all the household of God. Thus no one can enter except by obtaining salvation, and all that are thus born of God do not commit sin, but are "holy brethren"; and, furthermore, no sinner or hypocrite has deceived God and got his name written down in heaven, and whosoever commits sin and does not continue to overcome, that man's name is blotted out of the book

of life. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book" (Ex. 32:33); but "he that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life." Rev. 3:5. There are, then, no sinners' names continued on the book of God's church, nor names of any who have been overcome by the devil or any evil agent. There is not an unholy member in the church of God. She is a "spiritual house, an holy priesthood," "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people" (1 Pet. 2: 5, 9). Yea, saith her Lord, "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee." S. of Sol. 4: 7.

UNCHANGEABLENESS OF THE CHURCH.

Though great and popular counterfeits of the church have been formed on earth, which are very mutable in all their elements; though it is true that the real membership of God's church may increase and decrease in numbers, and that during the middle ages the saints were trodden down and so worn-out by the persecuting powers of darkness that but few remained on earth to keep alive the holy seed; yea, and though it

is also true that nearly all the doctrines and principles of the church of the living God were trodden under foot by the adversary and almost entirely hidden beneath the traditions and the inventions of men, yet it still remains true that every doctrinal element of the divine structure is eternal and unchangeable. Many factious

bodies have arisen since Christ purchased and founded his holy community, but "the portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things" (Jer. 51: 19). The fold of Christ is the same thing on earth today that she was before the first "molten image" of sectism was evolved from strife and spiritual ignorance. We have seen that God is the builder and maker of the church; and the wise man says, "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past." Eccl. 3:14:15. It looks, indeed, as if these words were placed on record to rebuke all the founders of new sects and inventors of new creeds, and also to vindicate the unchangeable church of God.

The law of Moses was given for a temporal purpose and for a limited time. "It was added because of transgressions [to restrain sinful deeds], till the seed should come." Gal. 3:19. That seed is Christ (verse 16). So the law system was to remain only until Christ should come, and it was supplanted by the new covenant, the law of Christ. While it was in force, however, no man could set it aside, add to it, or take from it. But the Christian system constitutes the law of the kingdom of God, which shall "stand forever"; therefore it "shall be forever." An attempt to change one word of it is sure death to the soul. Even the pope, with all his boasted power, is unable to change the eternal laws of the kingdom of heaven, though he shall "think to change times and laws" (Dan. 7:25). No power short of the throne of God can change one thing in the divine church.

The same self-denial, and repentance, and utter forsaking of all sin, that were conditions of entering the church at the beginning must be met today. The same experience of entire sanctification and holy character demanded then is yet required and fully provided for in God's