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be witnesses unto Me;" a crucified, risen, ascended, and coming Saviour-witnesses to a Divine Person, who changes not: hence our witnessing must remain the same through all

ages. We are not called upon to adapt the Gospel to every century, but to preach the Gospel to every creature.

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The words of the Lord to Paul declared that he was to be "a minister and a witness" (Acts xxvi. 16), and Christ was a Minister and a Witness. Thus Christ and His people are one, for as the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." And as He was a Minister and a Witness, so must we be ministers and witnesses. Who ministered like Him, who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister?" Who can witness like Him, who was "the faithful and true witness?"

What a wondrous calling for us! How wonderful to think of poor, weak, frail, earthen vessels being used by God for the communication to souls of this Divine and saving knowledge! Well may we be reminded that "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us (2 Cor. iv. 7). These vessels are "chosen"; all men are not called to be ministers, but all are witnesses. The purpose of God as to His people being witnesses is their being so controlled and handled by Himself that He can point to them as His workmanship.

Now we are called vessels, and that which we contain is called a treasure: not to express its value to the possessors of it, but because of its own intrinsic quality and value. The thought is not so much that the earthen vessel is possessed of a treasure, as that of the treasure possessing the vessel, governing the vessel; filling the vessel, using the vessel, and displaying itself through the vessel.

The contrast is strongly marked. We have an earthen vessel, and in it there is a treasure. In human affairs, man in selecting a vessel has some regard to the excellence of the treasure to be contained. He prepares a casket commensurate with the value of the treasure. So much so that the brilliancy of the treasure is often obscured by the beauty or value of the casket. Not so with God. With Him the treasure is everything; the casket is nothing. On account of the excellency and glory of this treasure, He chooses earthen vessels to contain it, in order that the glory of the treasure may be more clearly and powerfully displayed.

And in verses 8 and 9 we have the inward and outward

exercises to which the vessel is subjected in order that the glory of the treasure may be manifested. "We are troubled on every side [because of the earthen vessel], yet not distressed [because of the excellency of the treasure]; we are perplexed [because of the weakness and frailty of the vessel], but not in despair [because of the excellency of the treasure]." We are "persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." Notice how careful-if we may reverently use the expression -the Holy Ghost always is to keep before us the weakness and frailty of these earthen vessels, "the weak things, the base things, the despised things." You remember how St. Paul is instructed to write: "Who then is Paul? who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man." It is not man, but the Lord. And so thinking of man, he writes in 1 Cor. i. 26, "Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble called you." Both in the Authorised and Revised versions it is are called," but the words are in italics. The thought is not those who are called, but rather those who are used in calling. This is clear from what follows in verse 27. "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in His presence.'

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This knowledge is divinely and savingly communicated to us, but the power is not of us, not of Paul or Apollos, or any other mighty and noble ones, but "of Him," Jesus Christ, "that no flesh should glory in His presence, and that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord." Thus we have our treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us. Here we have a power working, as well as a treasure shining. Oh, what a power!

True, there is a human instrumentality, but what is it? Paul writing to these Corinthians says, "Paul planted, Apollos watered." Now we read in the Acts of Paul's visit to Corinth. He was there over eighteen months, "teaching the Word of God among them." He calls this planting. Apollos had followed and "taught diligently the things of the Lord," and he calls this watering. Now when the Holy Ghost speaks of planting, what does He mean? An utter condemnation of

the world for its unfruitfulness to God. He tells the world by that word "planting" that nothing in it or of it can bring fruit to Him, fruit to His glory. And there is not only the impossibility of its bringing fruit, but also the ignoring of anything good which it may have possessed, by the introduction of something new. He takes no account of anything save what He Himself gives us. It is not that Paul cultivated or improved something that was already there; but Paul planted, and planting is the putting in of something that did not exist there before. It is the imparting of something wholly new, which the world did not possess. It is asserting to the world, in other words, that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," and nothing else; and "that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." The Holy Ghost calls that planting, and He tells us what Paul did. He took them something they had never heard before, and which they were totally ignorant of, with all their boasted wisdom, up to the present time.

Mark what that involves. It teaches us that we are not mere reformers of morals. Paul did not go to Corinth as a mere reformer. He did not go there to improve the morals of the Corinthians, though I suppose no city of that or any time ever reached such a height of immorality as Corinth; and he writes, "such were some of you." Paul reminds them that when he went to Corinth he did not set himself to raise their social condition, but by "the foolishness of preaching" to take out of these Corinthians "a people for His name." In other words, he "planted," he planted something fresh, something Divine, something that communicates the Divine life; and this Divine life necessarily produces outward reformation, even newness of life. It is not that we despise reformation. There is a reformation which tells on society, on the world, on the sphere in which a man moves, and on his personal character. Human reformation may make a man outwardly improved, may lead to sobriety, thrift, diligence, and prosperity, while he is still ignorant of the righteousness and wisdom of God. The communication of this knowledge is not a mere addition of one other thing to those already possessed, but it is the apprehension of something totally new, even the Divine knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Hence, whilst it was true that "the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them

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which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God:" the foundation is Christ; the power is Christ; the wisdom is Christ; the hope is Christ; He is the righteousness, and the everlasting salvation of His people. Oh, what a privilege to communicate, to declare Jesus Christ the effulgence, the brightness of His Father's glory! And mark how all this is done: it is "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts." Thus are we to be witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ; we are to communicate this light by shining. We are light bearers. And, just as "the heavens declare the glory of God," so His people now declare that glory by reflecting it abroad. And now in this world that "lieth in darkness," Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, is hidden from men. Personally, He has gone to heaven, and it is all dark now. But the same Word that tells us it is night, tells us also that "the night is far spent." And just as the moon and the stars, which shine in the absence of the sun, give light upon the world, so the church, collectively, as the moon, and believers, individually, as the stars, are to shine forth His knowledge and declare His knowledge, by reflecting during this night of His absence the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Dear friends, we know that this night will soon be at an end; the morning is soon about to dawn-that morning without a cloud. We look for the morning star, for the rising of the glorious Sun of Righteousness. Let us pray, and desire, and long, and look for that glorious time when this "light of the knowledge of the glory of God" shall flood the earth with His glory and His beauty, as the waters cover the sea.

The proceedings of the morning were closed with prayer by the Rev. C. A. Fox.

The Knowledge of God:

Communicated by the Word and by the Church.

ADDRESSES BY

REV. A. N. MACKRAY. REV. HUBERT BROOKE.
REV. J. HUDSON TAYLOR.

Friday Evening, 27th June, 1884.

HE closing meeting of the Conference commenced with a season of silent devotion, and prayer by S. A. BLACKWOOD, Esq., C. B. Hymn No. 1 having been sung

"And may I really tread

The palace of my King?".

the Rev. JAMES H. BROOKES, D.D., of St. Louis, presented prayer.

S. A. BLACKWOOD, Esq., C.B., read Matt. xv. 29-31, and said: What a scene it must have been! We can picture to ourselves this festering mass of crippled humanity thronging the ground at the feet of the Lord of life and health and power; and as He touched them one by one, or spoke and looked upon them, the lame man threw away his crutches, the man who had never spoken began to sing "Hallelujah," the ears that had never heard the bird sing or the human voice speak, sweetly heard the sounds of earth; the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed (or crippled), and many others were healed. What a scene of joy it must have been! and for the people who brought

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