Wednesday, June 25th, 1884. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. The Purpose of God. "My people shall know My Name."-Isa. lii. 6. "Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me."-Jer.ix. 24. "I will betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord."-Hos. ii. 20. "I desired. . . . . the knowledge of God more than burnt offer. ings."-Hos. vi. 6. "I will give them an heart to know Me."-Jer. xxiv. 7. "All shall know Me, from the least to the greatest."-Heb. viii. 11. "The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord."--Hab. ii. 14. Revealed in the Son. "The knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."-2 Cor. iv. 6. "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son."-Matt. xi. 27. "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."-John i. 18. "I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it."John xvii. 26. "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."-John xiv. 9. "The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true."-1 John v. 20. Imparted by the Holy Ghost. "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost He shall teach you all things."-John xiv. 26. "The Spirit of truth, which proceedetn from the Father, He shall testify of Me."-John xv. 26 "He shall receive of Mine, and shal' show it unto you."--John xvi. 14. "The S, irit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him."-Eph. i. 17. Not Possessed by the World. "An altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD."Acts xvii. 23. "The world by wisdom knew not God." -I Cor. i. 21. "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God."-Rom. i. 21. "They did not like to retain God in their knowledge."-Rom. i. 28. "O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee."-John xvii. 25. To be Communicated by the Church. By the Word of Truth. "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." Acts xvii. 23. "The lips of the wise disperse knowledge."-Prov. xv. 7. "Holding forth the Word of Life." Phil. ii. 16. "God maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place."-2 Cor. ii. 14. By the Manifestation of the Life of Jesus. "God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.". 2 Cor. iv. 6. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels."-2 Cor. iv. 7. "Delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."-2 Cor. iv. II. "The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them. that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me."-John xvii. 22, 23. The Knowledge of God: The Purpose of God Revealed in the Son. ADDRESSES BY S. A. BLACKWOOD, Esq., C.B. REV. H. W. WEBB-PEPLOE, M.A. REV. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D. Wednesday Morning, 25th Fune, 1884. HE preliminary prayer meetings having proved a time of much blessing, many came up to this Conference firm in faith that the Lord was in the midst. After several minutes spent, at Mr. Blackwood's request, in silence before God the proceedings of the Conference were opened with the hymn of prayer— "Jesus! stand among us In Thy risen power; The Rev. Prebendary DANIEL WILSON, D.D., the venerable vicar of Islington, presented the opening prayer, closing with the prayer our Lord taught His disciples, in the repetition of which the whole audience joined audibly. S. A. BLACKWOOD, Esq., C.B., said:-A friend gave me this morning a text we may well take as a key-note for our Conference: "I will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her." cannot do without that protection wall; may we be individually kept within it. Keep yourselves in the love of God." 66 We It is a wall of fire, that tender, jealous, watchful, knowledge-passing love of God, and if each heart here is determined to make Him its glory, its object, then we shall realise the second promise, "I will be the glory in the midst of her.” May the Lord Himself be the glory of this Conference, the glory of every heart here! The hymns Nos. 6 and 32 having been sung "How shall we praise Thy name, Jesus! Thou Lord of light?" "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee." S. A. BLACKWOOD, ESQ., C.B., proceeded: Let us hear the Word of the Lord in Exodus vi. 6, 7, 8. "Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give you for an heritage: I am the Lord.” Seven glorious "I wills." "I will bring you out; " "I will rid you of bondage; " "I will redeem you;" "I will take you to Me; "I will be to you a God;' "I will bring you in; and "I will give it you for an heritage." "But they hearkened not for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage." Oh, dear friends, I trust that is not the attitude of your spirit in entering on Mildmay Conference this morning. Surely those who know the redeeming love and liberating power of God with us will say, We will hear what God the Lord will say unto us. Though we cannot fully comprehend all the fulness of blessing it contained in these seven "I wills," we will take as much as our poor little hearts can take to-day, and ask Him to give us more as we are able to bear it, in reliance on the Father's love, and in the illimitable resources of the Holy Spirit of God. Well, we have again invited you to meet us, or, rather, to meet God at Mildmay, and I believe our desire in so doing and your object in coming together will not be disappointed. His riches are unsearchable, inexhaustible, our bank can never break, our treasury can never be empty, the river of the water of life that proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb can never run dry. Were Mildmay Conferences multiplied a million and a million times again, there would be bread enough in the Father's house and to spare. I think I may say to you, as the first Gentile convert said to the Apostle Peter, "Thou hast well done that thou art come." And then I think I may go on to say in the next words he uttered, and to say it with a deep sense of the solemnity it involves, "We are all here present before God." Let us unite in saying that audibly-(the audience repeat audibly) "We are all here present before God." Now, without intruding on the province of those who will speak in the Master's name immediately, and only saying a very few words, let me remind you of the vastness of the subject placed before us in these three days, so vast that it will take nothing short of eternity to comprehend it--to know God. Let us occupy ourselves not so much with the knowledge as with the God. It is not the elements of the science, but it is the end of the investigation. It is God Himself. We profess to know that Glorious One, we seek to know more of Him, all that it is His gracious purpose we should know. In one sense we may say we are Agnostics, for we cannot know Him fully. But, blessed be His name, He is able to reveal to us as we are able to bear it, the glorious features of His person and character, that we, each one of us, need to know. But where must we be to know Him? I remember many years ago a learned Jewish Rabbi, still in London, telling me as he came to the class, that he had been present the night before at a very solemn scene, the death-bed of a very aged Israelite, a man of great wealth and with a large family of sons, some of them old men themselves. his bed, and the Rabbi said he could ing Jacob with his sons around him. These sons stood round picture to himself departHe told these sons of a |