-the bondage of his children in a strange land four hundred years. Egypt was to oppress Israel, and God was to judge Egypt. Many signs and wonders shall draw away those who stand not upon the authority of the written Word. True humility seeks supremely the glorification of God's Word. The humble disciple is ready to become in the lowest degree subservient to this end.

Miriam, lowly in condition and humble of soul, regardless of the strife of tongues, was so identified with the glorification of the truth sworn to her forefathers and their seed for ever, that with an eye of faith fixed upon the ultimate triumph of Jehovah's promise in their redemption and exaltation, " her soul magnified the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in God her Saviour." Her language was that of elevated faith, of meek acquiescence, of devoted self-sacrifice. " Behold the handmaid of the LORD, be it unto me as thou hast said."

We have many examples of true humility in Scripture, but none is more striking than that which induced one of the sisters of Eliezer of Bethany, to repress the feeling which would have hastened to meet Jesus, and rather to wait "till the master called." It was a high sense of the value of pure truth which made her love to hear His words, for they were the Father's; and it was a lowly attitude of soul which she expressed by sitting at His feet to hear them-those feet which went about continually doing good, and which for that reason she had washed with her tears, and wiped with the hair of her head. Nor should mention of the centurion be omitted, who said: "I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word, and thy servant shall be healed." In order to enter fully into their humility and faith, it ought to be recollected that He to whom they were thus devoted, was held in scorn by the Senhedrin, who led public opinion; besides, he was utterly divested of all that adventitious investment which procures the respect of the world. He was a poor man persecuted for maintaining the Law which they had made void by their traditions and glosses, a sign to be spoken against. Could the guest of publicans and sinners, the leader of illiterate fishermen, be worthy to associate with the reputable, who loved the praise of men rather than the praise of God?

Supernatural manifestations, abstractedly considered, are as likely to be the devices of the power of the air, who worketh in the children of disobedience as evidences of another spirit. The piety and amiability of those through whom these spiritualities are exhibited, afford no ground for believing them to be influenced by God. Eve was in the most sinless and perfect condition; yet this did not prevent her from being for that very reason made use of as a tool by the fallen Spirit to seduce Adam to the spiritual wickedness into which she had been beguiled. The temptation of becoming as gods, independently possessed of an inward spirit of discernment and judgment, seemed an enviable condition. It was only in its opposition to, and in its transgression of the command which was life and light, that the principle of evil, of moral darkness and death, was to be detected. This desire of the mind blinded the reason, and six thousand years of the consequence of that act has mournfully illustrated, that God will not be mocked, for " whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,"

Satan has an agent in the nervous system, easily influenced by his subtle devices, even as he has an ally in the blood for the grosser forms of evil. He tempts the former class to aspire after an individual inward light, which shall enable them to judge and discern, as gods without re

ference to His standard of judgment, while the latter he infatuates with the Circean cup of vice in all its forms of depravity.

We ought never to forget, that in being composed of mind as well as matter, the vigilant enemy acts on mind by one set of temptations, and on flesh by another.

While Satan abode in the Truth, he was an angel of light in principle. Now it is only in semblance, for he " abode not in the truth," but "left his first habitation." In like manner, while man "abides in the truth," he is a son, but in leaving it, he is a rebel, deceiving and being deceived.

The Scriptures are full of illustrations of this truth, that life is in the Word of God, even as our Lord said to his disciples : "the flesh profiteth nothing." "The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life." They were to hunger and thirst for this food, to nourish the inner man unto life eternal.

Let us trace the further illustration of this in the power of God, which was exercised by Moses, his obedient servant; and the supernatural imitations of the magicians of Egypt, who resisting the truth, served to confound in Pharaoh's mind all sense of what was of God, and what was of Satan, insomuch that his heart became only the more hardened, until his infatuated belief in these supernatural manifestations of Satan led to his destruction.

The wise men of Pharaoh saw the rod of Moses become a serpent; but they neither knew that God had empowered him with that emblem of delegated authority, nor did they understand that at the command of God Moses used that ensign of His power. They also threw down their rods, and these in like manner assumed the semblance of serpents; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. To a people conversant with hieroglyphic, this was a pointed lesson; but so dazzled were they with the supernatural which seemed to attest the rival claims of the resisters of truth, that its morale was lost upon them. They read not of a prescient and pre-eminent putting forth of divine power, by his obedient servants, which could triumph over and put an end to error, however specious its disguise, and manifold its forms.

When the servants of God are made mention of in Scripture, the term signifies such as have no will but His to serve in all that he calls them to do. Through their identification with the power of the creating and controlling Word, not alone the elements, but disease, the consequence of transgression, are in abeyance.

Those who wielded in faith and obedience the power of the Word, were thereby enabled to perform perfect cures, "all manner of sickness and disease among the people;" while those who exercised the power of adverse spirits, were necessarily baffled in every attempt which required the power of the Almighty Word. He who had been lame from his birth felt the renovating power of the Word. He received strength in his feet and ancle bones, when standing upright he walked, and leaped, and praised God, who had "given him that perfect soundness in the presence of them all."

Elijah, full of power, recalled to life the only son of the widow who sustained him, and the woman said: "Now I know that thou art a man of God, and that the Word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth."

Elisha, who received a double portion of his spirit, not only brought to life the son of her who had dealt kindly by him in receiving him under her roof; but, as if the power of the Word (which should in due time raise him from the grave), still pervaded the bones which rested in that assured hope, no sooner had " a dead man, who was cast into his sepulchre, touched the bones of Elisha, than he revived and stood upon his feet."

Let us consider the purpose, as well as the character of the Spirit of Truth in the disciples of our Lord and Master. Our Lord had commanded them not to depart from JERUSALEM, for there they were to be endued with power from on high; accordingly, on the anniversary of that day on which the Law had been given by God through Moses to the people of Israel, on that self-same day of Pentecost, this early rain of the Spirit was shed forth. Nor were their senses less appealed to in evidence of the Truth now than before. "A sudden sound came from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were seated." This was the Spirit of Truth; " and there appeared cloven tongues as of fire, and it sate upon each of them." Here is, in a most expressive compound figure set forth, unity of spirit and the divers languages, in which they were to declare the truth of God as revealed in His Word, which is as fire. This image of manifold power and unity in glorifying God sate upon each of them.

Devout Jews, out of every nation of the Asiatic world, over whom Jerusalem was the dispenser of Spiritual blessing, heard in their own native languages the wonderful works of God from these simple and unlettered Galileans. On either side the understanding was appealed to, they spake by the Spirit, and with the understanding also.

The full measure of the Father's promise remains (as the latter rain), to descend copiously after their restoration to JERUSALEM, " with the last" disciples, who shall meet with one accord in one place for this glorification of truth,