a

"THE CHURCH THE HABITATION OF GOD." GOD, in "the old dispensation," was displaying himself, in the government of his people Israel, as the Most High God. The devil had made it appear to the world (which had become an idolatrous world), that he was the alone source of that good and evil which was felt to result from man's conduct here: he had caused men to worship other gods. That a testimony might be raised against this, and an opportunity afforded in the midst of it for the display of His providential government, God took up one nation and separated them from the peoples of the earth to himself. But to this end, the separation must needs be a manifest one. An external character, distinctive in the eyes of the heathen, must be given them; and therefore ceremonial observances were enjoined which effectually separated them, and marked them off as a people distinct from all others; and this separate character being preserved, the surrounding nations were henceforward dealt with in judgment or otherwise, according to the manner in which they acted towards the Jews. Hence resulted the judgments upon Edom, Moab, Babylon, etc. "Sin was imputed.'

But whilst they were thus called to be a witness for God against the idolatry of the world, and to be the medium for the display of His character, as the Most High God, towards the nations, the responsibilities which were laid upon them, together with the conditional blessings or curses annexed to their fulfilment or neglect, gave occasion for the constant display of his government amongst themselves. They were to be blessed in earthly things if obedient, and to be visited with curses if not (see Deut. xxviii.)

But they failed: and, instead of having rest and blessing in the land, and the first place among the nations, Nebuchadnezzar was permitted to carry them away as captives into Babylon.

But when Christ came and displayed all the goodness and grace-in a word, all the moral glory of God; and

a Rather as Jehovah who was the Most High God. Ed.

when, the Jewish witness being displaced, another had now to be raised up, the character of this witness must, of necessity, be altogether new. The providential government of God was now no longer to be the special subject of the testimony; but that light of the knowledge of the glory which God had given in the face of Jesus Christ had now to be reflected. Indeed, Jesus himself being in the heavens and His glory invisible, the saints in their path here on earth, were to represent Him, and to be the witness of His glory. They were to take His place herein a word, they were to be Christ's epistle of commendation to the world (2. Cor. iii. 3). Evidently, therefore, the character and relations of this new witness, unlike those of Israel before, must needs be heavenly. But perhaps there is nothing in which the difference is more strikingly seen, than in the hope which is set before us; for, although it is true we do replace Israel on the earth, yet it is in "the ends of the world" we stand (1 Cor. x). We are in the last times (1 John ii. 18); and so true is this, that nothing is revealed as of necessity intervening between us and the glory. The glory is before us as our immediate hope: it is to this heavenly glory we are called. Thus our calling is identical with our hope: but with those of old it was far otherwise.

The present calling and the eternal hope was with them distinct; so that it was not merely that intervening events were revealed, but intervening objects of hope were presented to their faith. Thus a Jew was called into separation from the Gentiles to the enjoyment of present blessings in the land; and although doubtless individual faith reached out beyond the proper calling of the dispensation, and laid hold of what was eternal; and although in the ministry of the prophets (a ministry which was introduced in grace because of the failure), the better hopes of a resurrection-state were more clearly opened to the view of faith, that the souls of those faithful ones who felt the present ruin might be sustained; yet these were at best only indistinctly seen, and were ever, as it were, in the distance. It was only through a lengthened vista that they viewed them; for "life and

immortality were brought to light through the Gospel" (2 Tim. i. 10). Abraham, for example, looked for a "city which hath foundations, and so dwelt as a sojourner in the land of promise" (Heb. xi. 9); but it was only through a lengthened vista that Abraham viewed the city; for it was revealed to him that he was to be buried in a good old age—the iniquity of the Amorites was yet to come to the full, and his seed was to be afflicted four hundred years in a land that was not theirs. But in this dispensation the present call and the eternal hope are one and the same. We are called into the immediate hope and expectancy of that glory into which Jesus, with whom we stand in present association, has already entered.

We are now by the Holy Ghost made conversant with our eternal blessings, no longer indistinctly seen in the distance; but "brought to light", so as to become objects of present delight and enjoyment. The glory is immediately before us, and we press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. God grant that we might each be able to say with the Apostle, "This one thing I do."

There is, however, still a very simple and definite sense in which the saints of the present dispensation may be regarded as replacing Israel on the earth, without in any way detracting from their high and heavenly standing as members of Christ's body. It is evident that we replace them now (just as they will us again in the Millennium), as heirs of promise on the earth, and this is the subject which the Apostle considers in Rom. xi. But we must remember that here we descend into the region of the kingdom; indeed we get entirely on earthly ground, for the Apostle is here treating of the administration on earth of those promises which, naturally belonged to Israel.

It is important to observe, that the olive-tree itself retains its place throughout the past, the present, and the future dispensations: some changes indeed are made as regards the branches; but the stock, and some of the branches, retain the same place throughout, without any b This may be said to be the stock of promise.

change whatever. Now the Jews are here represented by the natural branches of the olive-tree, that is, they stood on the earth as the heirs of the promises to Abraham; but on the setting aside of that dispensation, some of the branches, i. e., the unbelieving portion of the Jews, were broken off, and we, who were sinners of the Gentiles, being graffed in, partake with the branches that were left of the root and fatness of the olive-tree: in other words, we, together with the remnant according to the election of grace out of Israel, now stand in Israel's place, as the only present inheritors here on earth of these same Abrahamic promises and blessings-a place which the Jews will again themselves fill in the next dispensation; for then the natural branches shall be again graffed into their own olive-tree (Rom. xi. 24-26).

But our participation during our sojourn here on earth of the fatness of this olive-tree, cannot for a moment be understood to imply that all our privileges and blessings are derived from it. The fact is, that the proper distinctive privileges and blessings of the Church are in no way whatever connected with it. The arrangements of Heaven do not come within the statements of the Apostle in this chapter at all: he merely speaks of what takes place on earth. All indeed that is stated as to the present position of the saints is simply this, that whereas the Jews were the depositaries of the promises of God on earth in the former dispensation, we (inasmuch as we are actually on earth for the present) have become the depositaries of promise now: a place in which we shall, in our turn, be succeeded by the Jews again in the Millennium. That responsibilities are, of course, connected with this position is sufficiently plain from the same passage,―responsibilities too upon the fulfilment of which our very continuance in the enjoyment of the privileges in question is made to depend; for it is said," If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." Nor does anything which is here said about the responsibilities and con

ditional privileges of the saints as replacing the Jews on earth, in the slightest degree interfere with the heavenly character and privileges of the Church as taught elsewhere. Let us suppose the case of a householder who, having conferred certain privileges on his servants, afterwards chooses to break up his establishment, and dismiss them all for a time; but during the interval he allows his sons to enjoy the privileges and perquisites which had previously belonged to his servants. Would any one for a moment suppose that they would of necessity lose thereby their place and character as children, and be reduced to the mere condition of servants?

Nothing, indeed, can be more plain, than that the apostle, in this 11th of Romans, simply speaks of the transfer of certain privileges and responsibilities here on earth from one body to another, without in any way touching upon the character and condition of that body to whom they are thus transferred. But it is at the same time most important, that we should very distinctly recog nise the position in which the saints are presented in this chapter; for it is as standing in this place, that we fill up the gap in the earthly dealings of God, and partake of the character of an earthly dispensation. And it is because the saints have entirely failed in fulfilling the responsi bilities belonging to them in this position, that we speak of the failure and ruin of the church. It must be plain to all, that she has not fulfilled the conditions of the 11th of Romans.c

Surely no one can read the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, and compare the state of things there described with that which now exists around us, without seeing that the most sorrowful failure has undoubtedly taken place. We have not "continued in the goodness of God"; and the unavoidable sentence of excision there

In the 11th of Romans, the apostle does not allude to the introduction of the tares, or to the creeping in unawares of those mentioned in Jude; nor the condition and aspect which the church on earth then assumed, (this is treated of in Peter and elsewhere); but he here speaks of the failure of the true saints in fulfilling their responsibilities, and of their consequent excision from the place of dispensational privilege in which they had been set. The coming in of the tares, etc., was, of course, a consequence of this failure; but a consequence not noticed in this chapter.