TO the, children of Eve, whose Son should bruise the head of the serpent; to the children of Abraham, who said, "My son, God will provide himself a Lamb for a burnt offering;" to the children of Light, who "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;" to "the children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus:" to the brethren of the Man who is the First-born Brother from the dead, this offering of Faith and Hope and Love in the Living and Loving Son of man, who is in the presence of God for us, is affectionately inscribed and commended with the fervent prayer that our Father will bless you and it.

The AUTHOR

.

WHEN the work on the Priesthood of God's Anointed was written, I believed it was the last book I should write. This belief abided with me until three days ago, when I was made willing to write the things, which the Lord had shown unto me.

It was in this way: At the home of brother G. M. Hite, in the city of Nashville, I retired Saturday night, October 14, 1905, and was given a refreshing sleep until midnight, when I awoke with a comforting realization that "The Lord is good," and for three hours my wakeful spirit was shown wonderful things in the holy Scriptures, and I was led out to behold divine visions or views of illustrious persons in the Bible, men whom God in his infinite wisdom and goodness was pleased to raise up and ordain as great leaders and examples in their lives and characters, to fulfill his holy purpose. The first and chiefest of these was the Man of God's right hand, whom he made strong for himself; the Child that was born unto us, the Son that was given unto us, whose very name is "Wonderful," the Man Christ Jesus, the one Mediator between God and men. In his names and Person, offices and work, life and death, he was at once spotless and perfect, wonderful and glorious. Not only was he the complete embodiment of sinless Manhood, but as well the brightness of God's glory and the express image of his Person in his own lovely Person. He was the least of all, yet the greatest of all. He came into the world and the kingdom of God as a little infant in the arms of his blessed mother, and at the same time lie was equal with God. In vision the holy child Jesus was shown to me in the manger, in the temple of God, in the Jordan, in the wilderness, on the holy mount of transfiguration with Moses and Elijah, on the cross, in the tomb, and upon his Father's throne of glory in holy Heaven.

After this inspiring view of the heavenly Man, then it was given me to see other very remarkable persons in the Bible record, whom God ordained to go before Christ, as types of him, to prefigure his coming to earth in the flesh in the fullness of God's time, and to represent or personate Christ in his wonderful official work, his humiliation, his atoning sufferings and death, his resurrection and ascension to glory, as the Redeemer and Savior of his people from their sins. But no man was sufficient to be a full type of the Man whom God made higher than the heavens, his Anointed and Holy One. Therefore God was pleased to raise up a number of notable men, before he sent forth his Son, and make them in their appointed sphere and way figures and sure pledges to his chosen people that the Redeemer should come to Zion, having salvation In his wisdom and love God did this for the comfort of his afflicted people.

In vision this was blessedly shown to me, and there passed in review before me typical persons of the Old Testament, one after another, all testifying of Christ, as all the Scriptures do: Adam, Melchisedec, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Aaron, Jonah Boaz and David. The view that was given of all these typical men was so wonderful that I longed to show it to the faithful in Christ, that they might also be glad arid rejoice in the wonderful revelation that God has mercifully givers us of his Son. My thought then was to speak upon this theme in our meeting that day, if it was the will of the Lord. But it was not, and my mind was turned to another subject. It was made evident tome that several discourses would not be enough to set: forth the meaning of those personal types of the holy Son of man. Then the impression came forcibly upon me to write the things which had been shown to me of the Lord, and I am made to feel that it is a labor of faith and love which the Lord has laid upon me, and trusting that he will so enable me to his declarative glory, I obey.

It is all a new and wonderful experience to me, as 1 am nearing four score years, my health very infirm, and I have felt that my gospel ministry of fifty-one years is near its close. I am in the hand of the Lord, to do with me as seemeth him good.

DAVID BARTLEY.

October 17th, 1905.

 

THE name Adam belongs to all the race of men, and its simple meaning is, of the ground. "The first man is of the earth, earthy," says the Scripture. Moses thus records the creation and dominion of Adam: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and overall the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them; and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created."

This inspired testimony reveals two very wonderful facts; that is, that both the Creator and creature are one and yet two; and that in the likeness of the LORD God made he man. This wonderful truth runs through all the Bible. Adam and Eve were two; yet in life and nature and name they two were one. God thus made them, joined them together and made them one. Of these two-one, the husband and the wife, Paul truly says: "This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Most truly, then, as Adam and Eve were one, so Christ and the church are one; for God himself joined them together. This mystery of God's hidden wisdom is hid from the world, but made known to his Saints.

Now, in this great mystery of godliness is revealed the meaning of the wonderful words of God: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." God thus spoke to the Word, who was in the beginning with God; and was God. "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father;) full of grace and truth." This testimony of John is also given by Paul in Hebrews: "God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the, express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." These Scriptures plainly show in what sense God made man in his own image and likeness, and that it was after the image of the Word, the Son of God, the Man Christ Jesus, who is the express image of God's person. God has no personality, only the person of his Son. God is a Spirit and is invisible, and so Adam was not made in the likeness of the eternal Godhead, but he was the image of the heavenly Man, Christ Jesus, the Son of man. Of him Paul said: "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. " Thus the Son of God was both in the likeness of God and in the likeness of Adam, and so he was equal with both God and man. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Yet he dwelt in the bosom of God the Father. "And the Word was God." For all his people, Jesus, our Advocate with the Father, prayed, saying: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." This oneness Paul thus affirms: "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." This oneness and equality of Christ with God and with the church truly qualified him to be the complete and only Mediator between them. Paul thus declares this truth: "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time." Because Jesus mediates between God and men, he brings them together in oneness.

These wonderful testimonies of the Scriptures reveal to us the truth that God made Adam in the image and likeness of his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul expressly declares this in Romans five, saying: "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." The figure or image of the Man Christ Jesus. This figure Adam is. No other man is called the figure of Christ, although others were also types of him, but not in the pre-eminent way that Adam is.

It will instruct and comfort us to trace in the Scriptures this likeness of Adam to Christ. The first is, God gave Adam dominion over all the earth, and put all things under his feet. In this Adam is a noble figure of the second Man, the Lord from heaven. To no other man has God ever given this dominion, authority and honor. This entire dominion, power and glory is perfectly fulfilled in the last Adam, to whom God said: "Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. "

When the risen Jesus had put death under his feet, he came to his disciples and said: "All power is given unto me 'in heaven and in earth." Paul speaks of the working of God's mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the Head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." This is the glorious antitype of Adam.

Adam is the head of Eve and all her children. In this he is the figure of Christ. Paul says: "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the church: and he is the Savior of the body. " It is in this oneness of the head and the body, the husband and the wife, that Adam is specially the figure of him that was to come. "And Adam said: This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." In life and nature and name they two were truly one. Yea, also, in estate, whether of goodness or woe, life or death, they were one. Neither life nor death could separate Adam and Eve. When she sinned, and death passed upon her, it behooved him to partake with her and suffer and die with her and for her. Life and Love united them. God had made them one. How touchingly they are the figures of Christ and the church: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Paul. In this Christ is infinitely greater than Adam. For the first Adam could only die with Eve, and remain with her under sin and death, but the last Adam had power both to lay down his life, and had power to take it up again. He said: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." This is most wonderful and glorious. To no other man or being did God give this power. Power here means, lawful and rightful authority. "There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother." "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," said our heavenly Friend to us. This wonderful Man is the Head and Husband of his Bride. "He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom, said John the Baptist, the friend of Jesus. It was only because of this union or oneness, a unity in life and substance, in name and interest, between the Bridegroom and his bride, that Jesus had the power to lay down his righteous life for the church. In all things Christ and the church and all her members or children are one; therefore he loved the church, which is his body and fullness, and gave himself for it.

In this oneness with his bride and love for her, which sin nor guilt nor death could sever, Adam is a beautiful and wonderful figure of our heavenly Bridegroom. Paul says that Adam was not deceived; but Eve had been deceived and had sinned unto death. In every dear and sacred way they were still one, and this bond of life and love behooved him to give himself and his life for her. So he willingly partook of her sin, and went down into death with her. Thus far Adam is a figure of Christ, and Eve is a figure of the church.

0 how pathetic is their betrothal and oneness under the law of sin and death! Let us go with them to lovely Eden, and view them in their innocence as God put them there, and said of all his work that he had created and made that "It was very good." In perfect wisdom and goodness God made all his work, and ordained it unto his own glory. In all his great and wonderful work which the LORD God created and made, there was not the least mistake or blunder. Wisdom and Knowledge, Counsel and Purpose were with him, and presided over all his manifold works. Not only do his perfect attributes establish the certainty of all this, but the Holy Scriptures fully testify that it is so. Believing this truth, we in spirit go back to Eden, from whence we were driven out. Here we look, behold with wonder and read: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." But, lo, the man is there alone in his beautiful paradise! How strange this is to us. As we gaze in wonder and surprise at this, our vision is raised to heaven, and with still greater wonder we behold in the paradise of God a glorious One, and he speaks and says: "The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment; when he appointed the foundations of the earth; then I was by him, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights, were with the sons of men." We look to behold the objects of his delights, but our vision sees only him with the omnipotent Maker. Seeking light, we read again: "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." So God clearly saw from the dateless beginning that which we could not see. Again we read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. * * And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. " To the church in Christ Paul said: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. " In spirit we are now carried up to Christ in heaven; and, behold, the bride, the Lamb's wife, was there in him in her spiritual substance before the world was, before God made Adam, who is the figure of Christ. And certainly the figure could not exist before its substance. Just before he died, the Son of God asked his Father to glorify him with the glory, which he had with him before the world was.

Our vision now beholds wonderful Eden again; and, lo, the voice of God says: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. " God had raised Adam up out of his deep sleep; and now, behold, Eve stood by his side! spotless and fair, and Adam was blessed and happy in her, and could well say, as the divine Bridegroom said, "Thou art all fair, my love:" "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." 0 lovely bride and bridegroom! Blessed of God, your Maker. His hands made and fashioned you. And he made you lovely types of the wonderful Bridegroom of heaven, his beloved Son and his bride.

Oh! With amazement and sorrow, we see the scene all changed in Eden, and in vision we follow the man and his wife, as hand in hand, with bowed heads and tear stained faces, they slowly turn away from lost Eden, and go forth to till the ground and eat their bread in sorrow, until their mother Earth received them into her bosom. For they sadly know now that their darkened way surely leads them down, down to death. Oh! How dreadful the word DEATH ! Why must it be so? Did not God bless them? Did he not pronounce all that he had made "very good?' Has his beneficence and goodness failed? Does he hate this yet lovely pair that he had blessed? All is fearfully dark, and seems against them and lost. Looking back to Eden, with terror they see that the fiery cherubim and a flaming sword guard the tree of life, and the weeping man and woman flee away. Blind unbelief would say, that God himself was defeated and all his grand purpose was a woeful failure.

But 0, look and wonder again at penitent Adam and Eve! for they are clothed with the seamless skins of innocent animals, whose blood and life have been taken; and their Maker himself has wrought their robes and put them upon them. Yea, also, they hear him say to the beguiling serpent: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

This decree of God is absolute, and it must be accomplished. God himself put this enmity between the woman and the serpent, the devil, and between her seed and his seed. Here in type is Christ and the church, the seed of the woman, for they are all born of woman, and are all partakers of flesh and blood, both the Son of God and all the children of God. The devil and his seed of evildoers all hate and persecute the woman, the church, and her Son and children. And so in their flesh they must all be bruised, suffer and die, even as Adam and Eve and all their children must die because of sin. So of Christ and the children God gave him it is written: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

Thus the purpose of God is unfolded by the solemn events in Eden, and his infinite goodness and the exceeding riches of his mercy are made known. All was as he purposed. God made the subtil serpent; he planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden, and gave the command to Adam not to eat of it, and made the penalty of disobedience death. He then caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, took a rib from his side, near his heart, made woman, the companion and help meet of man, and brought her to Adam. She was beguiled by the serpent to eat and sin. This brought Adam down under the law of God that he might die with her. All was thus fixed and sure, and resulted in the determined end. In this wonderful way God made Adam the figure of the Christ-Man, whom God had verily foreordained to come into the world and die for the church, his bride and body. Neither Adam nor Christ were deceived, but the bride of each were deceived, and were in the transgression. But the sin and death of these two brides brought the head and husband and life of each one down into death with them. God ordained that it should be so. In this way God and his Christ were to be glorified, and heaven was to be filled with the happy people saved by the Lord.

It was not possible for almighty Power, guided by infinite Wisdom and Love, to be at fault or err; therefore every thing that God created and made was according to his perfect counsel and eternal purpose, and was very good, and his purpose was fulfilled in all the deeply solemn events of Eden, and not the least thing in all the counsel of God failed. To say it did, and that God would have had it different, would be to charge him with both weakness and folly. None that fear God will do this, but all who thus do are themselves irreverent, ignorant and foolish. "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." They have not this wisdom.

In this fear and wisdom, let us now again look upon a profoundly wonderful event in Eden, in which Adam is the figure of him that was to come. With awe and deep amazement and sorrow we behold him prostrate as one dead, his eyes closed and the life-blood flowing from his wounded side. While we look and weep, that the life of this lovely man should end so early, our sorrow is turned into astonished joy; for the lonely Adam not only revives and lives again, but out of his wounded side, lo, there is with him a living and loving bride, most beautiful and lovely to behold! The bridegroom rejoices over his bride. They now both live a new life. To him Eden is all the more beautiful because she is there to enjoy it with him. 0 how blessed and good is the work of God! So far from complaining at his deep sleep and suffering, without which there had been no living and happy help meet with him, Adam the more adores and praises God for all his great and marvelous works, and Eve joins in the praise.

How touchingly wonderful is this type! Our faith beholds in it the beloved Son of God, the devoted Bridegroom of heaven, wounded and bleeding; then in a deep sleep, out of which God raises him up; and, 0 wonder of wonders! out of his wounded side there arises with him the happy queen of heaven, the living and glorious church of the First-born from the dead! The word is fulfilled that says, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." The lovely Man of sorrow said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." He spoke this of himself and the church, for it should come forth with him out of death, a living, spotless church. "It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him," says Paul to us. Death is first, and out of the death of Christ, and our death unto sin with him, there arises a living Christ and living church, a glorious Bridegroom and his bride, and they two are one. This is God's own way. Out of it there arises an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The infinite wisdom and love of God only ordained this way, and his almighty power fulfilled it. The unbelieving world fights against it; but saints and angels will love and praise him forever for it.

Adam and Eve shall be with the church in that new song of joyful praise; for God himself made the atoning sacrifice and clothed them with salvation. We shall never cease to behold and admire with joyful wonder this figure that God gave us, with its spiritual and heavenly antitype. Upon the first Adam, who was alone in Eden, he causes a deep sleep, symbol of death, to fall. Then God awakes Adam and raises him up, and wonderful to tell, his fair and lovely Eve is with him in beautiful Eden! From Eden we look away to the beautiful paradise of God to see the meaning of this picture, and with joyful praise to God we see the last Adam and his heavenly queen.

Now the vision changes, and, alas! The husband and the wife are going down from Eden to the dark tomb! For her sake he must die with her; for she is life of his life, bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh. Her sin and woe and death are his, because she is his and he is hers. In life they two are one, and .in death they are one. As yet all their countless children are unborn; so they, too, are one with them in sin and death. All is lost! not only Eden and its innocent joys, but themselves as well, their life, their all is lost! This is the dark picture or figure.

The vision changes now, and angels and men are filled with adoring wonder: A child is born in Bethlehem; and behold, he came down from heaven! And God was his Father! This is the last Adam. But Oh, he is under the law, and is bruised and persecuted, afflicted and sorrowful. He calls a little flock to follow him, but they, too, are under the law and its curse, are sorrowful and poor. He teaches them that the kingdom of heaven is near, when the Bridegroom shall enter into it with his bride; but it had not come yet. He says that he will build his church upon the living Rock, But he sorrowfully assures them again, and again, that he must first suffer and die, and thus do the will of his Father; that for this cause he came down from heaven, and came into the world; and that only in this ordained way could he enter into his glory, and redeem his bride, the church, and present her unto himself and to his Father in glory. His Father gave him the commandment to lay down his life that he might take it up again. The people that God had given Christ, who should be the members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones, as Eve was of Adam, were all sinful and guilty under the curse of the holy law of God, as was Eve and her children. Yet they were the people of his choice and the objects of his love. They were in the world, yet they were his own, and he loved them unto the end. He said to his sorrowing disciples, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And all his beloved people were to be his bosom friends forever in the perfect love of his Father, who also loved them as he loved his Son.

The love of Adam for his sinful Eve was strong and beautiful, and so he gave his life for her; but the love of Christ for the church far surpassed all finite love. The bond that made him one with his people is infinitely near and dear, and it is divine and heavenly. God made them one. This Beloved says to his bride, "And. I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord." In the deathless bonds of this holy betrothal, he says, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: 0 death, I will be thy plagues: 0 grave, I will be thy destruction."

0 sorrowful hour! Satan bruises the heel of the Son of the woman, and in the body of his flesh the last Adam, the only hope of Eve and her sorrowing children, goes down into death and the grave closes over him. His sorrow had been exceeding great, but his love to his Father and his brethren was greater. "In his love and in his pity he redeemed them."

Through Satan beguiling Eve, the first Adam and all his race or people must follow them down into death. And now, because of sin, the last Man is dead. This is the end of the law. Satan sought to defeat the counsel and work of God. He spoiled the happiness of Eden and it was lost. This last deadly enmity is aimed to destroy heaven and shut all people out of it. Sin and death and the grave seem indeed to have the victory. All now turns upon whether the last Adam, the Man of the cross, shall awake and rise up again, to die no more. For unless he has bruised the serpent's head, destroyed the devil, that had the power of death, made an end of sin, abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the power of an endless life, then hopeless infidelity obtains, and there shall be no redeemed gospel church with him on earth, clothed with his salvation as his loving bride, to rejoice in his name, and no glorified church in heaven. If he rises not, then sin has dominion over all, heaven is void and all are perished. This is the claim and boast of black infidelity. So the resurrection of Christ in the power and glory of his new and holy life is the salvation of his people, the birth of the gospel church, the bride, the Lamb's wife, the ushering in of the new covenant and the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth everlasting righteousness. All this is gloriously fulfilled in the Son of the woman. The death of the Bridegroom gives life to his bride, and she glorifies him.

"It is finished," cried the dying Man on the cross. "Finished," sin and death; "finished," justice and the law; "finished," redemption and righteousness; "finished," the devil and the power of darkness; "finished," the suffering and the warfare; "finished," the covenant with death and the league with hell; "finished," the debt and the bondage; "finished," the cup of woe and the baptism of death; "finished, "the sting of death and the victory of the grave; "finished, " the night and the darkness; yea, "finished," the way to the tree of life and into heaven! All hail to conquering Jesus! "Glory to God in the highest!" "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me. Write, Blessed are they, which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God."

Of the risen Christ and his apostles Luke says, "And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy." In vision we now are with John on Patmos, who saw Jesus in heaven, and says, "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." "And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. * * * And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. "

The above is the beautiful mount Sion, the gospel church that Christ said he would build. It is not earthly, nor worldly, nor legal, for it is not under the law; but it comes down from God out of heaven, and is spiritual, holy and heavenly, and is the bride, the Lamb's wife. He, the Head and the Husband, came down from heaven; his doctrine is the doctrine of God; his ordinances and order are heavenly; his brethren are all born of God, and the heavenly Jerusalem is their mother, and his words are spirit and life. The church of Christ was not manifested under the law and the old covenant, but he built it under the gospel of salvation and the new covenant of life and peace. It was first organized and built and adorned as a bride for her husband on the day of Pentecost, when the apostles were endued with power from on high. "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." "The number of the names together were about an hundred and twenty." After the resurrection of Christ, and before he ascended up to heaven, being assembled together with his disciples, he "commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. * * Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

This baptism of the church of Christ by the Holy Spirit was divinely glorious and blessed. She was now anointed and illuminated, and was clothed with salvation and adorned with the robe of righteousness, her glorious wedding dress. This church was shown to John by an angel, who came and said to him, "Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain; and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God," &c. As shown to John it is a glorious and heavenly city, having no need of any wordly light. "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. * * And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." And now, most wonderful and glorious, the angel showed John in this city of God, "a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life." 0 praise the Lord! the flaming sword was not there, to smite the one who would eat of the tree of life, as it was in lost Eden. For the Man who is the equal of the Lord of hosts had fought the fearful battle with death, and had been cut down by the sword that awoke against him; but 0, all glory to his precious name! he had taken the sword away from his church, and had planted the tree of life in the midst of the holy city. "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads." And now, Jesus, who over came for us, says, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

Now, turning to Paul, who writes of Adam and of the Man of whom he is the figure, comparing them, we read: "But not as the offence so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation: even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one mm's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteousness."

How strong and unconditional and absolutely sure this doctrine is! It is the imputation of sin unto the condemnation of death by the first man, and the imputation of righteousness unto the justification of life by the last Man, by virtue of the close relationship of each one of these two public heads to their respective bodies or families or people, as has been shown in these pages. By the offence of Adam judgment came upon all men in him to Condemnation of death; and even so by the righteousness of Christ the free, gift of God's grace came upon all men in him unto justification of life. The disobedience of Adam brought all his people down into sin and death with him, and they could do nothing to bring them back into life. His death was theirs in him, and for all men in him there is no possible escape. Just so, the obedience of Christ for all his people shall bring all men in him up out of sin and death into holiness and life with him, and it is not possible for one of them to perish. Christ's righteous life is theirs in him, and to them he says, "Because I live, ye shall live also," The bodes either dies with its head, or lives with its head This shows that Adam is truly a great figure of Christ. And God has thus shown to his people in a clear strong light both his justice and his Grace. He has here shown them also that there is not the least condition on their part in their salvation, but that it is entirely "the gift by grace," and "the free gift." "For since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." The all in Adam die because they are in him. and their life is his dying life. On the other hand, all in Christ shall be made alive because they are in him, and his eternal life is theirs in him by gift of his Father.

The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."

Melchisedec in some very special things is the most peculiar of all the typical men who represented the Son of God, and in those respects he stands alone among the types of Christ. He was made like unto the Son of God as none of the others were; therefore the types would not be complete without Melchisedec. In this is shown the perfect wisdom of God.

Melchisedec is both peculiar and wonderful. He was verily a man, a Son of woman, but no other man ever bore his name, so sacred is it. By interpretation this name means, "King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King of peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." Thus it was as a priest that Melchisedec was without descent, or father or mother in his priestly office, and had neither beginning of days, nor end of life; for he was a priest for ever and ever, And not only this wonderful priest was he, for he was likewise King of righteousness, and also King of Salem, that is, King of peace. Salem is Jerusalem, the holy Mount Zion, City of God. So this man was a twofold King: first, King of righteousness, then King of peace. In this kingly office and glory Melchisedec personated the Anointed Man Christ Jesus, God's righteous King, of whom he said, "Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. "

It is very wonderful and blessed that a man should be made King of righteousness, and of peace, and also Priest of the most high God, and should reign in righteousness, and so make all his kingly and priestly people righteous and holy, and bless them with everlasting peace. This blessedly shows us that our King upon the holy hill of Zion shall subdue and destroy all the enemies of his kingdom and people, both their outward and inward foes and that they shall be with him an holy priesthood unto God, to praise him in glory for ever.

"And Melchisedec King of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he (Abram) "gave him tithes of all. " Gen. xiv. "And this stone which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee:"

This is the only time that Melchisedec appeared in the Bible, and his blessing Abram is his only recorded official act as the priest of the most high God. He appeared but once on earth, in Salem, and made but one offering, the offering of himself unto God as his priest, and the fulfillment of his priestly office was to bless Abraham in the name of God and for him. Abraham was the friend of God, the father of all the chosen and faithful people of God on earth, and in this blessing of God upon Abraham by this wonderful priest all the seed of Abraham, all that are Christ's, in all the families of the earth, were blessed. This is God's own blessing. It is special and sacred and for ever. For this he raised up, appointed and consecrated Melchisedec, king of righteousness, king of Salem or peace, priest of the most high God for ever, and made him like unto the Son of God, to abide a priest continually. Thus the priesthood of Melchisedec was unto God himself, for he acted Godward, for God, and brought down the blessing of God to his family in the person of Abraham. To no other man as priest did God give this divine honor and excellence. No other priest thus personated Christ, or was made like him. Aaron acted for and represented his brethren as their high priest; but Melchisedec represented God and acted for him and in God's stead. Aaron had authority and power with men; but Melchisedec had authority and power with God. Aaron was made priest without the oath of God, after the law of a carnal commandment, and was not suffered to continue as priest by reason of death; but Melchisedec as king and priest was made like unto the Son of God, who was made priest with the oath of God, after the power of an endless life, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

How wonderful was Melchisedec! Of him the Scripture says, "Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils." This man blessed Abraham, who had the promise of God. And the less is blessed of the greater and better. The blessing of this priest is, therefore, the blessing of God himself. He spoke the words of God in blessing Abraham; and to him the father of the faithful paid tithes as unto God. How sacredly and blessedly he personated God's own eternal High Priest! He also is alone in his holy priesthood, and is Priest unto God forever. Therefore his priesthood is unchangeable. And so, too, he was King of righteousness, and also King of peace; for he made peace by the blood of his cross, having slain the enmity thereby.

And, through his priesthood and righteous reign upon his throne, the people of God shall be all righteous, and shall worship him in true holiness, Yea, he will make a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Then, as it was at Salem, which is Jerusalem, that this wonderful priest of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, met and blessed him; so also, it was there that the Son of God himself made his priestly offering unto God, and on God's behalf blessed all his people. And how true it is, that as all the house of Israel paid tithes to Melchisedec in Abraham, and thus honored him as greater than Abraham and as before him, so truly shall all the house of God bring praise and honor and glory to the divine Man, who was made God's High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

As a type of the incarnate Son of God, who was verily a Man in the flesh, none but Melchisedec did God ever make both king and priest. No high priest of the order of Aaron could be a king upon the throne of David; and not David himself could officiate in the priest's office. Yet the Son of God, the Son of Mary, reigns in Zion upon the throne of David, and as High Priest he entered into the Holy of holies and appeared in the very presence of God.

From Abraham to David, and from David to Malichi, they would read in the Scriptures that Melchisedec, both a king and priest, once appeared at Salem, and so truly personated the most high God that he blessed the great patriarch Abraham, the father of the faithful, and they would by faith look and hope for the glorious realization of this blessing of God. Here was the promise that a wonderful Man should come to Zion, and should be both King and Priest of the most high God; that he should put away sin and establish righteousness, and that in him should God bless all the children of Abraham, all the nations and families of the earth. 0 how this would inspire the faithful among them, who feared God, with hope and patient endurance. For it assured them that as God had sent this king and priest and blessed Abraham, so he was their God, the possessor of heaven and earth, and that he would himself come down to them upon mount Zion in the person of a wonderful Man, like unto Melchisedec, and through this King and Priest they should be blessed.

Thus inspired and moved, "the sweet Psalmist of Israel" poured forth his soul in psalm and said: "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy `footstool, The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning" (morning of his resurrection) : "thou hast the dew of thy youth. The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." 'Prophets were raised up and sent to Israel, from time to time, who foretold that this King and Priest should come at the time appointed in the counsel of God, and that he should magnify his holy office and fulfill all the will of God. When Daniel the prophet had prayed to God for his people Israel, the angel Gabriel flew swiftly and touched him, and said, "I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint' the most Holy. " God had thus determined, and so it should be accomplished. It was very wonderful and solemn and blessed. Gabriel further said to Daniel, "And after three score and two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself."

Finally, the Lord sent Malachi, the last of the prophets, and proclaimed: "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LoRD of hosts." This truly came to pass, and John the Baptist was sent before the Messiah, who came to his temple in Jerusalem and was cut off, as Gabriel foretold, and as the four evangelists have recorded the wonderful fulfillment.

The churches of Judea were Hebrews, Jews, even the church in Jerusalem, who had been brought up under the ministry of the Levitical priesthood and the ceremoniel law of Moses, to which they were wedded and devoted. They were therefore far more familiar with the order of the priesthood of Aaron than they were with the priesthood of the Son of God, who was a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Indeed, they did not understand the ancient, and far away Melchisedec and the order of his mysterious priesthood. But with the priesthood of Aaron they were familiar, and it seemed to them suitable and was congenial to the legal bias of their minds and hearts, for it was their home-born religion and mode of worship. Why, then, should they entirely give it up and turn away from it ? Had not God himself given it to them upon Sinai by his servant Moses, and commanded them 'to walk in all his judgments and statutes and do them? And was not Aaron the brother of Moses and God's own ordained priest? Was not the law of Moses a good moral code and correct rule of conduct and of life? Did it not separate and distinguish them from the ungodly and profane? Yea, was not Christ himself, in whom they believed, a Jew, and did he not keep the law? Why, then, should they wholly give it up, and depend entirely upon the mercy and grace of God in the gospel of Christ? This was hard for them to do, and it seemed an uncalled for sacrifice. For they prided themselves that they were of the family of the great Abraham, the Hebrew, and the people of the covenant that God made with him, and established it with Moses. Their advantages in the law were many, and so they felt that they were more favored and really better than ungodly sinners, as the Gentiles were. It seemed to them, therefore, right to observe Moses and honor him, as well as Jesus. James and the other apostles in Jerusalem and the church, with the other Jewish churches, were of this sentiment, doubtless. It was a serious legal prejudice and a blinding error; for it led them to still cleave to the works of the law in part, while professing to believe in the grace of the gospel. So it was an effort to unite the law of Moses with the gospel of Jesus. This is the sentiment and position of most of the professed gospel churches in the world until this day. In all their houses of worship every Sabbath day or Sunday Moses is taught.

During the time of this prevailing legal sentiment of the Hebrew saints, it pleased the Lord to call Paul, the learned doctor of the law and zealous Pharisee in the Jew's religion, to be the last and least of the apostles, yet the greatest and chiefest, and to send him to Jerusalem, that he might see and know how legal leaven or doctrine prevailed among the Hebrew brethren.

"And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of the Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: and they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs." Paul did not deny this that they had heard of him, but it showed him how blinding and bitter was this legal doctrine among the brethren, for it incensed them against him, and he painfully saw how far short they had fallen from the true grace of Christ, and were not standing fast in the liberty where with Christ had made them free from the bondage of the law, no less than from the dominion of sin.

Paul knew the law in its letter and power better than any of the apostles, and he had been more exceedingly zealous for its strict observance; but he also knew the far more exceeding riches of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. All those things in the law of works were as dross to gold in comparison with Christ and the gospel of his grace. Paul said: "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." Thus the Lord had cut him off from the law for ever. God had called him by his grace, and revealed his Son in him. To Saul the Pharisee this was a wonderful revelation of the way of salvation. It gave him to see that the fullness of Moses and the prophets, of Aaron and the priesthood, the very perfection of the law, the fullness of righteousness and of grace and truth, even the fullness of God and the perfection of his children, all fullness is in Christ Jesus.

All this the exalted Head of the church fully prepared and qualified Paul to teach and preach, and made him preeminently the Apostle of his Grace, and the Minister of the new covenant and of the perfect priesthood. The Lord then inspired Paul to write The Epistle to the Hebrews, withholding his name, because they had a legal prejudice against him. In it the Holy Spirit has revealed to us more fully and gloriously the perfection and power of the everlasting Priesthood of the Man Christ Jesus, God's Anointed High Priest, than in any book of the Bible. It is the only one of the sacred books devoted entirely to the covenants and the priesthoods under them. No other inspired Scriptures so fully show in contrast the faultiness of the old covenant, and the perfection of the new covenant. No other so wondrously reveals the greater honor and glory of Christ, the Son of God, over Moses, the servant of God. No other so beautifully and blessedly makes known the infinite superiority of the priesthood after the order of Melchisedec over the order of Aaron's priesthood. A great need was upon the Hebrew believers in Christ, to turn them from the formal and showy priesthood that made nothing perfect, but was perishing with its own burdens and failures, to the perfect and abiding priesthood of the Son of God, the Christ, whom they had confessed as their Savior and Master. The Lord therefore gave them, and us, this great and wonderful epistle.

Paul believed they were brethren in Christ, and thus appealed to them: "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses." Moses was faithful in all his house, as a servant, but Christ was faithful, as a SON, over his own house. Yet Moses was greater than Aaron and the priesthood; for the law was given by Moses, and he was the mediator and leader of the priesthood and all the people. But Moses and Aaron, the priesthood and all the people under the law of Moses, were inferior to their great patriarch Abraham.

The faithful minister of Christ then leads the brethren far back to the time of Abraham, before Moses and the law, before Aaron and his priesthood, and says: "For this Melchisedec, King of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth of all. * Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils." He then shows them that Melchisedec was not descended from the family of Levi, who as priests received tithes of their brethren; yet Levi paid tithes in Abraham to Melchisedec, who blessed him that had the promises. "And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better." Thus clearly Paul shows that Melchisedec was greater than Abraham and all in him, and his priesthood was far better than the priesthood of Levi and Aaron.

"If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. * * * For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (for those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:) by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this Man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens."

This is our exalted and glorious High Priest. His work is perfect, and his priesthood has no end, because he lives for ever. Like Melchisedec, he made but one offering as Priest of the most high God. And having offered himself up unto God, he then blessed all the family of God in Abraham, and passed from earth into heaven. Melchisedec brought forth bread and wine, and gave to Abraham, and blessed him. Likewise our holy Priest unto God took bread and wine, symbols of his body and blood, and blessed them, and gave them to his Father's children. Thus he gave himself to God for us, and so bestowed upon us the blessing of God. All glory to his name! God was well pleased for his righteousness' sake, and accepted him and his offering, and accepted and blessed us in our Priest, as he blessed Abraham in the priest Melchisedec.

How blessed it is for us, that God first gave us Melchisedec, both priest and king, before he gave to Israel the priesthood of Aaron and the law of that priesthood, How dreadful it would be for us, if God had not given us another High Priest, after the order of Melchisedec, and a better testament or covenant than that of Moses and Aaron. Then, what weakness and folly it is for us to seek to mix the conditions of the old covenant with the free gift and grace of the new covenant. It is the folly of trying to better that which is perfect in itself by adding to it that which God said was faulty and made nothing perfect. It was this legal blindness of the Jewish believers in Christ that moved Paul to write the blessed Hebrew epistle, and the one to the churches of Galatia. To them he said, "0 foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" He says the same things now. O let us, who are partakers of the heavenly calling, "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus."

Let us consider why Melchisedec, a glorious type of the Son of God, was made like him in his twofold office of priest unto God and king of righteousness and peace. For in these respects he was the only man that personated the Christ-Man. As such Melchisedec stands out as a bright light in the spiritual heavens, a sure promise that the glorious Sun of Righteousness should arise unto all that feared God with healing and blessing in his wings of peace.

First. A successful priest must have power with God and be in God's stead, personating and acting for God, so that his offering is the perfect offering of God in the person of his priest. This only could magnify the holy law and fulfill all righteousness. Aaron, the high priest of Israel, nor all his sons, could do this, for they were sinful. But this virtue, excellence and perfection was in Melchisedec and his one offering as made like unto the Son of God.

Second. The priest and his offering being perfect and accepted with God, law and justice are satisfied, the curse is removed, the blessing of righteousness upon Abraham and all the family of God is bestowed once and forever. In Abraham stood Moses and Aaron, Levi and the priests, the house of Israel and all the household of God, the people of his covenant with Abraham. Therefore, Moses, the law giver, Aaron and all the people of that legal priesthood, must turn away from it, look through it and above it, and look to the one righteous and all-satisfying offering of Melchisedec, type of the Son of God, and its fulfillment in the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, for their righteousness and acceptance and the blessing of God. In this view, they were no better than Gentile sinners, as Paul proves in the third chapter of Romans. None knew this solemn truth better than Moses himself, that neither his law, nor Aaron's priestly offerings could take away their sins, nor make them righteous.

Third. The offering of God's Priest having fulfilled all righteousness, he now has the power to sit down upon the kingly throne, and reign over the kingdom in righteousness. No other man as king ever thus reigned. But our High Priest and King, having made an end of sin, and God having put all things under his feet, he now reigns gloriously in Zion, makes all her children righteous, gives them peace, and crowns her with the blessing of God, "even life for evermore." Melchisedec thus blessed Abraham with the blessing of God. The Lord by Isaiah said: "And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."

Fourth. All this shows us how necessary it was that God's own High Priest must also be the King upon his glorious high throne upon the holy hill of Zion; for he must not only put down all the enemies of righteousness, but he must also make his people willing in the day of his power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning-the morning of his resurrection, when the night of death was ended, and he brought life and immortality to light. Thus he must reconcile all his people unto God and make them his friends, as Abraham was the friend of God. As King of righteousness and King of peace, he thus reigns in Zion. As king and priest on earth of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, Melchisedec alone was made like unto the Son of God. We cannot too well remember this. It beautifully sets forth the perfection and power and glory of our Priest and King, in whom alone is righteousness and salvation, acceptance and peace with God.

We should not forget that Melchisedec wore a double crown, and was "first King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace." Thus he was in the likeness of the Son of God. It was on earth, in Salem, that this wonderful man was King of peace, and it was to God ward that he was King of righteousness. So it was on earth also that our spiritual Melchisedec was King of peace, and said to us, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." And as King of righteousness, he sits upon the throne of God, "A glorious high throne," and reigns in holy heaven.

"ALL HAIL the power of Jesus' name!

Let angels prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown him LORD OF ALL."

 

 

Isaac was a person of upright, tranquil, peaceful life. Not one thing is said against him. He was not great, as men would speak of greatness, but was quiet, meek and lowly. To him belonged five peculiar and special things, in each of which he was a type and represented some peculiar truth or special person or persons. These things were, his birth, his name, his being offered to God as a sacrifice, his marriage, and his blessing his son Jacob, the younger. These will be considered.

Isaac was the only son of Abraham and Sarah, and at his birth his father was one hundred years old and his mother ninety. Therefore his birth was supernatural and according to the promise and power of God. Thus Isaac was the child of faith and the heir of promise. Moreover, he was born in the covenant that God made with Abraham. And as he was their first and only son in the covenant of God with them,-he was therefore the haad of the covenant. Now, that was an everlasting covenant, and in it and in Isaac God blessed all the nations, kindreds and families of the earth. In all this Isaac was, first, a blessed type of "the only begotten Son of God," who is the Head of all God's covenant people and children, all of whom God blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ. God established the covenant in Isaac, and fulfilled it in Jesus.

Then, second, Isaac was as well a type of every one of God's chosen and covenant people in Christ; for as both Isaac and Jesus were the promised sons of Abraham and of God, and were born by the supernatural power and of the infinite love of God, so also is every child of God thus born, and, like Isaac, they are children of God's promise to Abraham, and his heirs in the covenant.

"Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. * And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. "

"Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. * * * Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her Son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free." Paul to the Galatians.

How blessedly this shows us that the covenant and promise of God to Abraham embraced both Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, and Christ, the Son of God and the holy Jerusalem, and with them all who are Christ's, all the children of the free woman, the new covenant, the children of the promise. All these are the children of Abraham, the children of God, and are one with Isaac and Jesus in the covenant of life. They are all born by promise, as Isaac was, born of God, and the heavenly Jerusalem is their mother. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of Goa: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." So the children of God are one with Christ in his sufferings, even as they shall be one with him in his life of glory.

The name Isaac means laughter. His name is typical. When he was born, there was joy and gladness in his father's house. For they knew that what God had promised, he was able also to perform, and their faith in God was confirmed; and they believed in him and were glad. They had experienced the power and the faithfulness of God. The realization of this always brings trust and hope in God, with peace and joy. So Isaac was the child of faith, as well as of promise. And faith brings hope and love, thanksgiving and joy in the Lord. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." "The wilder ness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."

"But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." And so there is gladness in the house of God when the children of the promise are born in Zion, and therefore they are all given the name of Isaac.

"But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." In this anointing all the children of God were one with their Head, and his gladness is theirs in him, and he will show them his glory. "Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their Head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away."

And so the prophecy of Sarah at the birth of her promised son shall be fulfilled. "And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. "

But Oh! it seemed that God would turn their laughter into weeping. Isaac had grown up to promising manhood, a lovely youth of twenty-five summers, the glory of his father and the joy of his mother, when God said unto him, "Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." There was no mistaking the fearful words of this command, and Abraham knew that it was God who spoke to him, who had also given a command to Adam. Should he disobey God, as Adam had done? He knew how ruinous that act was. No! he could not disobey the voice of God, in whom he believed and trusted. He knew that Isaac was the gift of God, and that he had the right to take him away. But 0 how great was the sacrifice! Why would not one of his faithful servants have sufficed for the sacrifice, instead of his only darling son? Then, God had never before required that the father should sacrifice the son. Oh! what could it mean? How fearfully mysterious and dark. Yet there was the command. He must go forward, and leave all with God, who had said to him, "For in Isaac shall thy seed be called." "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. " 0, could any scene be more sorrowful and heartrending! The innocent son carrying up the mount the altar upon which he was to die, and his own father should deliver him up! Even so the Son of God bore his cross, near the same place, up mount Calvary. Weep, 0 heaven and earth, at the solemn scene!

"And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son." How endearing and tender the appeal, and the response!

"And he said, Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together." This was a glorious triumph of faith, and the son believed it with the father. It was far out of sight of reason and above it, yet their faith in God accepted this most wonderful truth of all truth, that God would provide himself a Lamb for the sacrifice, the offering for sin. Isaac was unresisting and obedient, though he must have felt that he was the only lamb for the offering. This was a trial and sorrow to both the father and the son too deep for words, and more than flesh could meet, but faith in God sustained them. "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. "

Blessed be the holy name of God! Isaac, the beloved and only son of his father, was the lamb of God for an offering in type only, though at that moment neither his father nor himself understood this, but God was about to open their eyes and show it to them.

"And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son." Faith in God was full; the obedience was perfect; God was well pleased; the triumph was glorious! Isaac, type of Jesus, was released from death, and all the children of the promise’ were released in him.

"And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and, he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Je-ho-vah ji reh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen." (That is, The Lord will see, or, provide.)

 

And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."

In solemn grandeur and infinite mercy and blessing in its meaning, this offering up of Isaac was the most wonderful that God had ever commanded. He only could give Abraham the faithfulness and power to fulfill it. In this sacrifice of his only son, whom he loved, Abraham was like God himself, for God was with him. There should be but one other offering made on earth like it. This one should be the well beloved and only Son of God himself, in whom were all the promises of God, and in him God confirmed the covenant with an oath to Abraham, as we have just read.

Let us consider the type and its blessed fulfillment: When Isaac was bound, and laid upon the altar, the covenant of God and all his promises of a glorious inheritance and a family as countless as the stars were in him. The Son of God himself, according to the flesh, was in Isaac. Moses and the priests, the prophets and the kings of Israel, with all the covenant people, were in the life of Isaac. Therefore, should he be cut off and live no more, then all, all should perish in him. This Abraham knew. But his faith had the power of God in it, and there was nothing impossible with God. His God had promised him a son, in whom all nations should be blessed. "He staggered not at the pt rise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness."

When he firmly grasped the knife in his strong hand to slay that son of God's promise, his faith in God was steadfast and stronger than death. Of this perfect faith in God and its perfect obedience Paul says: "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." "GOD was able to raise him up from the dead." This was the overcoming faith of Abraham. It is also the faith of all who truly believe in God.

Faith in God, therefore, embraces the resurrection of the dead. Unbelief staggers at this and rejects it. It denies the power of God to raise up the dead. If Abraham had not believed in the resurrection of the dead, and that God would raise up his beloved son into life

again, then he could not have obeyed God, nor offered up Isaac. But his obedience and the obedience of his son in yielding unto death, was the beautiful type and sure promise of the righteous obedience of the Son of God unto death, even the death of the cross, by which he should destroy both sin and death, and God, who is able, would raise him up, even from the dead, by the glory of his power. So the resurrection of the dead is the realization and crowning glory of faith. If the dead rise not, faith fails and is vain. If the dead rise not, then there is no righteous obedience unto God, no end to sin, and the perfect obedience of Abraham's faith counted no more than disobedience. How dark and fearful is unbelief!

In a figure Abraham received his son from death. That figure was the ram that died in Isaac's stead. God provided himself this lamb for an offering. It was a figure of the Lamb of God. "Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, 0 God." He testified that it was the will of God that he should lay down his life, and take it up again. He did this in the perfect obedience of faith and love. He offered up himself without spot unto God. In his body that God provided him as the Lamb for an offering for sin, Christ was righteous and holy. His offering was infinite in virtue and merit, so that law and justice were honored fulfilled, and God was well pleased with the holy obedience of his Son.

The offering of Isaac was a wonderful figure of this glorious obedience of the holy Lamb and Son of God. Christ was both the Lamb for an offering, and the Son and High Priest to make one sacrifice for sins forever. As the Lamb of God he died, but as the Son of God, the Father nbound him, when he loosed the pains of death; for it was not possible that he should be holden of it. So Abraham, who offered up his son, had the unspeakable joy of faith and love to loose him at God's command, and, lo, Isaac lived! So in him as the type of the risen Son of God. all the elect family of God, all the chosen in Christ, were made free from death and shall enter into life everlasting. In his faith Abraham saw this when he raised up Isaac, and he rejoiced in the coming glory. This well beloved and obedient Son said to the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad."

"And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. " This great blessing was of God, and it was fulfilled, both literally and spiritually, in the type and in the antitype.

Isaac was then forty years old, his mother was with God, and he was alone with his father. The Lord had said, "It is not good that the man should be alone." "And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house. that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: and I. will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac." Isaac should dwell in Canaan, the promised inheritance, and she should leave her own country and people, and should go and be the wife of Isaac. But if she was not willing to go, then the servant should be free from his oath to his master. There should be no urging, nor force, but all should be according to the choice of her heart. How suitable and good this is! It is the divine pattern, the example the Lord has given to his servants. The true and faithful will be faithful to their Master and true to their oath, as Abraham's servant was. Abraham knew the failure and folly of bringing in a stranger and bondwoman to try to build his household.

The servant had told the touching story of his master's greatness and excellence, and of his only son, the heir of all his father's glory.

The heart of the lovely Rebekah was won, and we have heard her simple answer: "I WILL Go!" A meaning was in, it too sublime for words to tell. It was full of love and faith, trust and hope. Isaac was more to her than all the world. God had greatly blessed him. He was her beloved kinsman. And now she should be one with him in his blessing and estate and honor. His joyous name and blessed life were hers with him. "And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah." These were the gifts of Isaac "Hinder me not, seeing the Lord bath prospered my way," said the servant. "I will go," said the sweet voice of Rebekah. "This is the Lord's doing; and it is marvelous in our eyes. "

"Draw me, we will run after thee: the king bath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we well remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee." "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love."

"And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her." "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. " Isaac and Rebekah were lovely and blessed, but Christ and the church are lovely, blessed and glorious. All this is in the love of God. "The King's daughter is all glorious: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the King's palace. "

"My Beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away." Thus drawn, the fair and lovely Rebekah, type of the church, went to the goodly land of Canaan and was married to Isaac, after he had been loosed from death, and God had confirmed the covenant and the blessing in him. Canaan and its wine and milk and honey, and many good things, was a type and a promise of the militant gospel kingdom; for Canaan was a goodly heritage, a pleasant land. God gave it to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob by promise. They were called out and separated from the nations to dwell there, in the home he gave them, to be married unto the Lord, as Rebekah to Isaac. That house or family should dwell alone, live unto the Lord and worship him, and not be reckoned among the nations. They were the favored children of Isaac and Rebekah.

Now, all this was typical. So it was after our spiritual Isaac was loosed from death by his Father, that his lovely bride came and entered with her adored Bridegroom into the gospel house. This is all by the power of living Faith, God given faith, the faith that worketh by love, purifieth the heart, and overcometh the world.

To Isaac and Rebekah God gave two children, twin brothers, Esau and Jacob. These two differed very widely in their lives, their features, tastes and pursuits. In all this they were typical or representative of things which are true in the people of God.

The time came when their father Isaac should bestow the patriarchal blessing, as he was old. By usage this blessing should descend upon the head of Esau, the first-born, and Isaac so intended it, but the Lord caused him to bless Jacob, the younger. Having blessed him, Isaac could not reverse the blessing, but he confirmed it and said, "yea, and he shall be blessed." Isaac said to Esau: "Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, 0 my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck."

That we may see the meaning of all this, let us notice the early youth of Esau and Jacob. We read: "And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field: and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents." Even before their birth the children struggled. So Rebekah enquired of the Lord why it was thus. "And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." Thus the Lord had blessed Jacob before the children were born. Rebekah knew this, and so it wa an act of faith in the word of the Lord, when she disguised Jacob as Esau, and sent him with the delicious food she had prepared to obtain his father's blessing. Faith only obtains the blessing. Esau was natural, and he was without faith. His name and nature prove him an earthy man, red and hairy. Therefore, he despised his birthright, and sold it to Jacob to satisfy his natural appetite. Jacob was not so, but he was smooth, fair and plain, dwelling in tents at home with his mother. It will help us, to stand with him in his father's tent, while he speaks the words of blessing. "And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed: therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee,"

We are now deeply interested in Jacob, and regard him with peculiar favor, while we pity Esau, but cannot really love him. Their parents were lovely, and the Lord had blessed them, and their twin sons were embraced in the covenant that God made with Abraham.

I

56 THE CHRIST-MAN IN TYPE

Yet the children were so radically different in their natures, even from their birth, that their desires and pursuits were unlike, and neither one was pleased with the other. What does all this mean, and whom do they represent? God had made them different, yet his purp:)se was in each of them. We have seen that Isaac blessed Esau with no mean blessing, but it was earthly.

The Lord said to Israel by Malachi: "I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid.his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. " This is the sense in which the Lord hated Esau; for he does not hate, only in the sense of his righteous dealings and judgments. Of Rebekah and her two sons Paul said: " (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. "

It is plain to us now, that the love and special blessing of God was upon Jacob, yet Esau was his brother. In this they were evidently typical, and represented that which is true in the kingdom of God, and true of the people of his covenant. It is true, we know, that every one of the people of God is dual or complex, as born of the flesh, and born of the Spirit. They are all as the Shulamite, in whom we see as it were the company of two armies, For in every child of God on earth is found the life and nature of the earthly man, and also the life and nature of the heavenly Man, and these are as twin-brothers; yet they are as Esau and Jacob. Esau represents every child of God in Adam, and Jacob represents every child of God in Christ. It is in Christ that God loved and blessed his people, and each one in whom Christ liveth is a Jacob. Yet in that child of God there is as well the twin brother, Esau. For sadly enough, we are earthborn, where the curse of God fell, and we are earthly, like our brother Esau; alas! too earthly. But we rejoice that God loved Jacob (Jesus), and said Esau should serve him. "The first shall be last." Esau was first, then Jacob. And so Paul said: "Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual." This he said of the two Adams. This is true also in the manifestation of every child of God. The child of earth (Esau) is first; and afterward the child of heaven (Jacob). "And these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Paul found it so in himself.

Jacob loved the Lord and the house of the Lord; but Esau loved the field, and pursued the chase, the sports of earth. As Esau, we would run downward to the earth; but as Jacob, we are drawn upward to things heavenly. Being risen with Christ, Jacob's blessing is ours, and the word of the Lord is in our heart to seek his face, and so we seek those things which are above. In this experience the word of the Lord is true in us: "And the elder shall serve the younger." How blessed it is that the Lord has ordained that it SHALL be so. For now Christ has the dominion, and by him grace much more abounds than sin; for grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.

We are taught by the example of Esau and Jacob this solemn truth: That God did not love and choose and bless his people in Adam, but in Christ; and that not in the flesh are they lovely in his sight, but in the Spirit. The one is Esau, the other is Jacob. "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." This is true in the experience of every one who is led by the Spirit of God; for each one loves what God loves, but hates what he^-hates. You love the lovely Christ and his image, but you hate your own sinful nature,

But blessed be God! "We shall all be changed." We shall awake with the likeness of Christ, and be satisfied. "And there shad be no more curse."

CHAPTER FOUR.

JOSEPH.

JOSEPH, increaser, was the beloved son of his father Jacob, and the first son of his mother Rachel. He had ten older brothers, and Benjamin, his youngest brother. These were the twelve patriarchs, the heads of the twelve tribes of Jacob or Israel. Their history is very peculiar, interesting and wonderful. No other people or nation on earth was like them. God dealt with them as with no other people. They alone were his people, to the exclusion of all other people, until Christ came, then they ceased to be the covenant people of God, because his kingdom was taken from them, and they were driven out of Canaan, the land of promise, as Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden, and scattered to the four corners of the earth.

Jacob's sons, like himself, were husbandmen, as also were Abraham and Isaac, and they were the keepers of herds and flocks. They were a nation of shepherds. There is a special and far-reaching meaning in this. It was a good and peaceful calling. Now, however, there is scarcely a son of Israel who is a shepherd, for they are all money-changers. For this Christ, the Chief Shepherd, drove them out of the temple of God. So far from feeding the flock, they fleece it, but feed themselves. This is the effect of self-righteousness, and it is the same in all who trust in themselves that they are righteous.

Joseph was very lovely in his person and life. From his childhood to his death he was guileless and faithful, and there was no fault in him. God himself was pleased with Joseph, was with him and greatly blessed him. In all this Joseph was a lovely type of the child Jesus. Joseph was the one special son of his father's love and delight, the promise and joy of his life. He clothed his darling boy in a rich and beautiful coat. So it was with the child Jesus, the well beloved of his Father, who anointed him with the Holy Spirit of joy above all the children of God, and adorned him with the robe of righteousness and glory. On this account both Joseph and Jesus were hated, envied and persecuted by their fleshly, sinful brethren.

God gave Joseph a dream, which he innocently told to his brethren; that they were all binding sheaves in the field, when, lo, their sheaves all stood up, and theirs bowed to his. For this they hated him the more. The Lord gave him another dream, and he told it to his father and his brethren, saying, "behold the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. " His father said to him, "Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying." "And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words." The love of God to Joseph was in his dreams, in which was revealed to him his future dominion, honor and glory. The Lord thus sustained him through the time of his long separation from his father, and his servitude and imprisonment. How needful this divine assurance and comfort was to Joseph. Human policy would say that he should not have told the revelation to his brethren, to incite their envy and hatred. But his telling them his dreams was a link in the chain of providential events, which brought his dreams to pass, and all this was in the perfect counsel of God, whose purpose is in all things.

And as it was with the youthful Joseph, so it was, too, with the youthful Jesus in the days of his deep humiliation in the world. He must be put to grief, falsely accused, rejected and cast out by his own people. He was a tender, guileless, loving youth, an obedient Son, like Joseph, his lovely type; therefore the infinite love and wisdom of his Father gave him the wonderful dreams or revelations of the wonderful triumph and exaltation that should crown him at last. This divine support and sure promise of victory and coming glory sustained him, and gave him patient endurance and submission under all the heavy cross and deep suffering, as in the case of Joseph. This is applied with comfort and strength to us, and we read, "let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." The dear Son of God did this, and overcame all our enemies for us' and put away our sins. Then, let us look to him and consider how he suffered for us in our flesh. This will comfort us.

Like Joseph, Jesus told to his Jewish brethren the things concerning himself, and that he should have the dominion and glory. This called out their hatred against him the more, and they were ready to kill him. But they hated him without a cause, as the brethren of Joseph hated him. Yet the hand and the counsel of the Lord was in it all, although it was done by wicked hands.

The time came when Israel said to his youthful son, "Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again." Long years of deepest affliction, trial and sorrow, to both father and son, passed before they met again. When Joseph went to his brethren, in loving obedience to his father, they said to one another, "Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay bim, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams."

Thus the wicked blindly think they can disprove the counsel of the Lord, and defeat his purpose. "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his displeasure. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." God would surely exalt Joseph, and crown Jesus. Not all the cunning wickedness and deadly wrath of man could prevent this. Nay, the very wrath of man should be made subservient to the wise and merciful purpose of the Lord, and should praise him. How unreasoning and foolish it is for man to set himself against the Lord, or reply against him, by vainly saying that his counsel is not all-ordering and his power is not all-controlling, but wicked men and devils may prevent, hinder or defeat him in his desire, counsel and Purpose. If this were possible, then it might as well be said at once, "There is no God," as the fool hath said in his heart. For if there is any creature, being or power anywhere that might possibly change the least thing in all the universe from the counsel of the Lord, he would at once cease to be the Lord God Almighty, and could no longer reign sovereignly over all, as he does. For there would then be an opposing counsel, purpose and power greater and stronger than his own. Then there could not be the least certainty or safety for any one anywhere, but all should be exposed to the ever-present liability of woeful failure, defeat and destruction for ever and ever. Then Joseph might never have gone into Egypt, nor into the prison there, nor to the throne of Egypt, but his dreams might have failed to come to pass, and his brethren and all his father's house might have perished in the famine of seven years. For this great honor to Joseph and rich mercy and blessing to his father's household was brought to pass through the wicked hatred of his brethren, who thought to defeat his dreams, but only fulfilled them. Could they have had their own way, instead of God's way, it would have been to their own destruction. In it all, their hearts and desires were evil only, but the purpose or counsel of the Lord, which shall stand, was good and full of mercy, even to the cruel brethren of Joseph themselves.

Just so it is in all things, for "God worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," wrote inspired Paul. But carnal men, in their enmity against God and blind unbelief, fight against his counsel, reply against his wisdom and holiness, and deny his unlimited power and eternal Godhead. 0 that all who fear God with a child's loving heart may see the irreverence and sinful folly of presuming to be more wise and good and holy than he is, and believe in their hearts that God is as unlimited in his purpose and power as he is in his wisdom and knowledge, as holy men of old believed.

Joseph was carried down into Egypt, and sold as a slave to an officer of Pharaoh, Potiphar, captain of the guard. And thus he escaped death at the hands of his brethren. Jesus was also carried down into Egypt, that the monster Herod should not kill him with the harmless children of Bethlehem. The Lord restrains the remainder of wrath. As Joseph was a servant in the house of Potiphar under his authority, so was Jesus a servant in the house of Israel under the authority of Moses, for he was made under the law. And as Joseph was obedient, faithful and true to every obligation in all the time of his servitude, though falsely accused and imprisoned for it, so also was his perfect antitype, our gospel Joseph. In the house of Potiphar, and in the prison of Pharaoh, the God of Abraham was with Joseph, to sustain and honor him, and greatly blessed him to others. So it was in the lowly life of Jesus; God was with him, and his work was a sweet ministration of goodness and mercy so that his very presence was a benediction and brought the favor of God.

The time drew near when Joseph's dreams should be fulfilled, and he should be made glorious and should rule over Egypt and save his father's house. But he must first make himself of no reputation, and be shut up in the prison-house. In this he was submissive and obedient. The same guiding Providence that sent him to Egypt, sent him to prison. So, too, the same Father above that sent his Son down to the earth, sent him down into the last prison-house; and therefore Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So must we be brought to follow him in his steps. This is the good way, which the Lord hath ordained. Jesus is the only way of salvation and life and glory, and we must be made like him. "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction, " saith the Lord. First, the predestination, then the redemption or adoption; first, the sowing in tears, then the reaping in joy; first, the great tribulation, then the glory which shall be revealed in us; first, the baptism of death, then heaven shall be opened unto us; first, the heavy cross, then the crown of life that fadeth not away.

God gave dreams to two of Pharaoh's officers in the prison, and gave Joseph the wisdom to reveal them, and they so came to pass, and one was put to death, but the other was restored to his place. Then it came to pass that the king himself dreamed a most wonderful dream, which was doubled to him, or dreamed twice, in two forms, which troubled Pharaoh, but no one could reveal the dream to him. This was God's way and time to release and honor Joseph. The forty-first chapter of Genesis gives us a touchingly interesting history of this, and it will do you good to read it. The good hand of the Lord was in it all, bringing to pass his abounding goodness and compassion to the children of men, in the rich display of his infinite wisdom and the majesty of his power. The chief butler in the court of Pharaoh was made to remember Joseph, and told the king of him. He was at once brought from his deep humiliation in the dark prison to the glory of the throne. How wonderful!

Let us dwell on it a little: Joseph had been doomed to the prison by an officer of the king, but it was under a false and wicked accusation, and he suffered innocently. God had now made this known to Pharaoh, who was greater in power than Potiphar, and so the king both justified and glorified Joseph. 0 how sorrowfully and yet blessedly this was true in the person of our most lovely Antitype! when he was about the same age with Joseph.

Let us see how it might have been, if all things and each event is not fixed in the determinate counsel of God. If not, then Joseph's dreams, the dreams of his two fellow-prisoners, and the dream of Phararoh might have been something else, or not at all. If God had not predestinated those dreams, and so made their meaning certain, then they might have had an uncertain meaning, or rather no meaning at all, and Joseph could not possibly have foretold the dreams and their certain meaning and sure fulfillment. This is self-evident. The dreams included some of the most cruel and sinful things, the killing of one of the dreamers, a dreadful famine of seven years, the goodness and great honor of Joseph, the deep and long sorrow of his loving father, the bitter suffering and poverty wrought by the famine, and the extreme distress, remorse, abasement and most abject self-prostration of his brethren, which caused Joseph to weep over them in yearning, forgiving love.

Now, to suppose that the least link in this chain of calamitous dreams might have been lost or failed as a mere chance dream, then all must have failed, and Joseph and all his father's house, with all Egypt, must have perished in the famine. Such is the frightful consequence of denying God's wisdom, counsel and purpose in all things. If Potiphar's wife had been innocent, Joseph should not have been in the prison to interpret the dreams, or if the two officers had pleased the king they should not have been in the prison to dream, or if any of the wise men of Egypt could have interpreted the king's dream, then all must have been a failure, and Joseph might have remained in the prison.

So, if another Joseph had not dreamed, or if the wise men had not dreamed, then Herod might have killed the infant Jesus.

We know that it was through malice and wickedness that Joseph went to Egypt and to prison, yet it was God's way of salvation to all the house of Israel, and in this way, which God only could have brought to pass, he fulfilled his promise to Abraham, that in him and in his seed should all the families of the earth be blessed. In this line of sons was Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Jesus. Denying the purpose or determined counsel of God in all things, great or small, good or evil, as men call them, then all the promised seed of Abraham must have perished through Joseph's brethren having killed him when he was a tender youth of seventeen, as they purposed to do, because the famine must have left Jacob without a child. There could then have been no Moses, no David, no Mary, no Jesus, the Son of Abraham. For all this boundless mercy of God to the children of Eve has been accomplished through hatred and malice, persecution and death, and in the fulfillment of dreams.

"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it; and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace." He told the dream to Joseph, who said, "What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout t, e land of Egypt: and there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous. And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt," &c. Joseph said to him to do this, "that the land perish not through the famine." "And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a man as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in ventures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. "

In all the Bible God has not given us a more blessedly beautiful and glorious type of his own deeply humbled and highly exalted Son than this. 0 how the believing heart glows with love and honor to both Joseph and Jesus! How deeply hated, wronged and afflicted both the son of Israel and the Son of God were! And yet they were the most innocent, lamb-like and lovely of all men. 0 why should they have been so wickedly persecuted? We can only say, "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. "

Joseph was lifted up from the dungeon to the throne of Pharaoh; and Jesus was lifted up from the cross of death to the throne of God. The fulfillment of this to Joseph was the salvation from death of all his father's family; and so its fulfillment to Jesus was more blessedly the salvation of all his Father's family from sin and the last enemy, death.

0 how great was the honor to Joseph and the goodness and mercy to his people, when God gave him the wisdom and power to reveal to Pharaoh his dream, and tell him what God would do. Not all the wise men of Egypt could do this; neither can the wisdom of the world search out the deep things of God, but he must reveal them unto us in the person of his Son by the Spirit. The Spirit of God was in Joseph; and so God gave to Jesus the Spirit without measure. We read: "And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. * * * And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." And so, too, the excellent honor to which Joseph was raised, was to the rejoicing and glory of his dear father.

Humility was a lovely virtue in Joseph, and it was perfect in Jesus. "I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it." How this would exalt a vain man, who seeks his own honor, and not the honor that cometh from God only. How many now claim that they have ability to do great religious works. But the meek Joseph said in answer, "It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace." This is the spirit of the Christ, who is meek and lowly in heart. He said, `The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things th