Here, the church is spoken of as being married to God. "As a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.""""Thou shalt be called Hephzibah [my delight is in her], and thy land Beulah [which means "married"]." Isa. 62:4, 5. Under this figure the church is our spiritual mother and God our father. Accordingly, we read that "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all" (Gal. 4:26). The church being the spiritual mother, she travails for the salvation of a lost world and brings forth children (Isa. 66: 8). As a good mother, she bears us upon her sides and dandles us upon her knees. She satisfies her children with the breasts of her consolations; and they are permitted to milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory (Isa. 66: 11, 12). In fulfilment Paul says, "I have fed you with milk." Peter thus expressed it: "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby." 1 Pet. 2:2.

As a true wife endeavors to honor and reverence her husband, she bears his name. No true wife will think of taking some other man's name, Just so it is with the church. Being

married to God, she bears his name. How consistent, then, the name given her by the Lord! Christ said in his prayer to the Father, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name." "Holy Father, keep through [Greek, in] thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are one." His name being God, she was properly named "the church of God." This is the name given in the New Testament. Both as a family and as a wife taking her husband's name, she is termed "the church of God." For the church to take other names, as the various sects have, is to cast reflection upon the Lord and to make the institution guilty of the sin of adultery.

Since God is recognized as being the husband of his church, he bears, in many respects, the relationship that a true husband bears to his wife. He supplies all her needs. In Phil. 4:19 we read, "My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." Psa. 23: 5. This table is spread with the dainties of heaven, rich things of the kingdom of grace; and the

willing and obedient are enabled to eat the good of the land. Thus they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of the Lord's house. He shall make them to drink of the rivers of his pleasures. A husband provides raiment for his wife; so the Lord clothes us with the garments of salvation, yea, he covers us with the robe of righteousness. The Lord also furnishes light for his church. Accordingly, we read in Isa. 60: 19, 20: "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." What a beautiful picture is here portrayed! The Lord has become the light of his church, or people. He also promises grace sufficient for every trial and every need. "My grace is sufficient for thee," and "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Cor. 9:8). In this figure, then, we have God acting as a husband unto the

church and as a kind, loving Father to all of her children.

A CITY.

Another figure under which the new-testament church is presented is that of a city. It was predicted by the prophet Isaiah, "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks." Isa. 26: 1. The day referred to is the gospel day. The strong city is a prediction of the new-testament church. Salvation was to be her walls and bulwarks. These were means of protection used by nations and cities in ancient times. In time of war the people would flock inside the city walls and feel secure. The people then did not have such implements of warfare as we have in modern times. The ancient city of Babylon had, it is said, a wall 350 feet in height, about 87 feet thick, and 60 miles in length. The church was to be a strong city, and one reason of her great strength was the fact that salvation would be her impregnable walls and bulwarks.

In Isa. 62: 12 the church was prophesied of in the following language: "And they shall call

them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken." Again, in Isa. 60: 18 is this prophecy: "Violence shall no more be heal in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvatation, and thy gates Praise." Such a city the world had never seen, a spiritual city, a city made up of saved men and women, each individual constituting a house in this city. And the gates of this spiritual city are said to be praise. This signifies the songs of triumph and the shouts of victory that emanate from the people of God.

Throughout the prophecies and in the New Testament as well, Zion and Jerusalem are very often used as metaphors signifying the newtestament church. For example, "Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the unclean." Such language as this could not apply to a temporal city, but can apply only to the church of God. She is here seen clothed in beautiful garments, a holy city. Under this figure, then, the purity