prophets, evangelists, and teachers, to be the gift of the Head of the church. We find them addressed as constituted overseers by the Holy Spirit, and we find the brotherhood enjoined to submit to them as to those who must give account, not to the church, but to its Sovereign Head. See Ephes. iv. 8-11; Acts. xx. 28; and Heb. xiii. 17.

Christian bishopric finds its true source and example in the Lord himself. He is the Chief Shepherd; the only Archbishop the church has ever had, or ever can have in truth. Of him therefore spoke Peter when he said to the flock scattered in the dispersion. "Ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." Happy is that wanderer who can say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want; he maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters; he restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name sake." But it was the need of the wanderers that called forth deliverance from him who is mighty to save. His is the power, ours is the need. All we like sheep had gone astray; we had turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." I am," says Jesus, "the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." "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 two-fold idea of need on our part, and of power on the Saviour's, ramifies through every experience, fact and illustration of the relationship of the Redeemer to the redeemed; and never more so than when the church is spoken of as a flock. The very conception excludes the supposition of elective power. It is one which is well calculated and assuredly is meant to convey the pervading idea of dependency. It stands to reason as well as to Scripture, that if there are to be undershepherds, we must look to the Chief Shepherd for them. The sheep have need; the Shepherd has power. ED.

LETTERS TO THE PEOPLE.

No. 14.

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN,-The Gospel preached by the Apostles, and which they declared to be the power of God unto salvation to all the believing, is much more simple than is now commonly supposed. It consists simply in the truth concerning Jesus of Nazareth as the Son and Christ of God, and the Lord and Saviour of men. It is a piece of simple personal

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news-it is the tidings of a divine Saviour for human sinners. It is comprised in the announcement that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him might not perish, but have everlasting life." It is God's good news, not to holy persons, but to sinners; it is the recommendation of his love to the guilty, as said by Paul "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It is in the gift of His well and only beloved Son even unto death for our sinful race that God has graciously demonstrated his compassion towards mankind; and it is therefore in the facts of that Redeemer's vicarious death that the gospel is summed up. Hence Paul's words to the Corinthians when he proclaimed the glad tidings for the first time in their city: "I delivered," says he, unto you that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures." This gospel these Corinthians received; in it they stood, and by it they were saved. And that you may be sure that this is the one divine and apostolic Gospel, note Paul's words to the Galatian converts: Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Plainly, then, this is the Gospel for you as it is for all. It is God's one message of salvation to the world; and if so, the question for you personally is-Have you received it? Have you believed and obeyed it? The Saviour's commission to his ambassadors reads: Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be every saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned." If, then, you admit the truth and authority of these words, you must allow that your duty, wisdom, and safety consist in acting as they direct. If they be the words of eternal life formally uttered by its author, no excuse for their non-observance is justifiable or available on your part. Have you, then, believingly obeyed. this one divine Gospel? Have you received it just as the first converts did, who heard, believed, and were baptized? Or, have you received instead another Gospel, which as Paul says, "is not another ?" Have you rendered another obedience than that required by the Saviour? Have you been led to imagine that the Bible, or anything in or about the Bible, is the Gospel? Have you lived under the notion that anything called preaching is the Gospel ?—that any doctrine, or set of doctrines, is the

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Gospel? If so, you have simply believed a lie. The Gospel, as we have shown, consists not in any system of abstract dogmas, but in the soul-gladdening, heart-captivating, sinner-saving facts of God's love to the world, in the surrender of his beloved and only Son as a sacrifice for sin. See, then, reader, God's love to you as a sinner, in the sacrificial death of the Messiah. Receive the glad tidings and live.

T. H. M.

EVANGELISATION.-No. II.

PURSUING Our theme with the settled conviction-that the work of evangelisation is committed to the church of Christ-that it is heaven's organisation for that end-that in prosecuting its mission it is not at liberty to neglect or violate any Scripture law, but that it may adopt whatever arrangements are in accord with its constitution, and that the Scriptures are its repository of information in respect to every department of its good work,-let us note as follows.

First, It may not consign all preaching over to one or a few brethren, but must ever preserve and practise that liberty of service in this respect which in the primitive church was so largely owned of God. It would prove an evil day for the churches now contending for the faith once delivered to the saints in which they should restrict in favour of any one or more of their most gifted brethren the unspeakably precious privilege of holding forth the glad tidings of the love of God in Christ to the world. All have not, of course, gifts qualifying them for public preaching as the word is now understood, nor have all the gifts requisite to the doing of the work of an evangelist scripturally understood, but all-sisters included-have more or less the needed ability to tell and press to a reception among their kinsfolk and acquaintance the truth that saves the soul. At home or from house to house, though not publicly, all may and ought to hold forth the word of life. It was not alone by proclamation from apostolic lips that the evangel of Jesus spread at first, but also by the universal individual preaching of the brotherhood. The eighth of Acts furnishes a fine example of this, as also of the manner in which God punishes his people for their remissness, brings good out of the evil counsel of the wicked, and effects, notwithstanding both, his own most wise and generous purposes. The commission required the gospel to be proclaimed to every creature throughout the world; it required the proclamation to begin at Jerusalem, but neither to halt nor end there. Yet for a year there appears no movement beyond, even to the cantons of Judah. But while the number of the disciples was multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, the sword of persecution is unsheathed against them, and all the brethren are scattered abroad everywhere the apostles only remaining in the city. Now however, and by this unlikely means, the tidings of salvation spread apace; for they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Philip, the table server, is found in Samaria preaching Christ to the citizens, and the people with one accord gave heed to the words he spoke and, believing, were baptised

both men and women.

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Now come the apostles to follow up the work, while Philip goes into the desert and finds even in such an out-of-the-way place a convert to the Messiah, in Queen Candace's prime minister; and this faithful deacon giving himself to this good work and preaching in every city is known after as Philip the Evangelist." Leaving him we find that others were scarcely less honoured by the Master in the work to which by adversity he had apprenticed them. Acts eleventh reports that those who were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch. Till that city is reached where the one all-uniting name of Christian is received, the gospel is preached only to Jews; but here the disciples "spoke unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great multitude believed and turned unto the Lord." Thus did the church in Jerusalem become the first missionary society. "Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem; and they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch, who when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord; for he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and much people was added to the Lord."

Second,―The church may and ought to send forth its most choice men on evangelistic or missionary work. Let a congregation confine its gifts within its own circumference, and it will both restrict their developement and use. Encase with a mummy a seed of corn that should be sown in mother earth under the wide canopy of heaven, and you may preserve it, but so long as you so preserve it, it can be of no use. Could the sun confine its rays within the limits of its orbit, the light, though all conserved, would all be lost while such conservation lasted. So with the church. Its light must be diffused, and that so as to shine upon that world of which it is the light. A seed in order to grow must be sown, and that in soil appropriate to its nature. Now all this argues for the sending forth of the more gifted brethren into the evangelistic field. Let those brethren confine themselves exclusively to one church or centre and the result will be, first, the dwarfing of their own powers and energies, and second, the restraining rather than the developing of those of the brethren generally. It cannot be otherwise. The younger and less experienced in the church, seeing little or no effort for the extension of the gospel put forth by those who are their examples, will feel little call to make any endeavours themselves. Or even under a better example, they cannot help feeling and arguing thus: "There are brethren Boanerges and Barnabas, the one a son of thunder and the other a son of consolation, always with us, ever ready to preach or teach, to rebuke or exhort, to warn or entreat, what need have we to do else than study to be quiet, while they study to speak? Were they out of the way we should feel called upon to stir up the gift that is in us; but while they are here ready to do what we cannot do so well, the best we can do is to leave it to them." We do not say this ought to be so, but that it is so, and that the proper remedy is to clear the ground by extending the field of usefulness. We say that the church to do this must make room, furnish occasion and so call forth its less developed gifts by sending forth its more efficient mem

bers. And the doing of this does not imply the entire or permanent devotion of all the brethren so sent forth. It implies rather the practice of such special visits or missions as that on which good brother Barnabas was sent. The mission may occupy a day, a month, or a year; the case, not the principle must determine. As to brother Apollos, or any other, he must come and go when he shall have convenient time.

But in addition to the general spontaneous making known of the gospel by the brethren in common, and in addition also to the custom of sending well equipped brethren on visiting tours, the church may and ought to support in constant campaign such "able ministers," as having, first by voluntary service, and second by such special service above indicated, secured the approval of the Master and the confidence of the church by the things God has wrought by them, now give themselves wholly to the work. In this way do we hope for such labourers as need not to be ashamed; not otherwise do we anticipate the rising of a truly New Testament evangelistic ministry. Such a ministry we must have if the honour is to be ours of making known the glorious gospel of the blessed God, and of establishing churches, and of confirming the disciples in primitive fashion. Our evangelists must rise from the ranks-the ranks of the faithful, not of the devil. They must serve their apprenticeship in the church, not out of it. And their diploma and the seal of their ministry must consist in the converts they have made, and the labours they have wrought. Such labourers are all worthy of their reward-worthy to be held in the reputation of the brotherhood, and surely worthy to be kept without care as to the supply of their daily need. Be it our prayer that the Lord would send such labourers into his harvest, and be the consistency ours to rely on his own manner of sending them. Thus may and do we expect the ever-glorious work of the evangelisation of our sin-cursed race to advance.-ED.

THE PROCLAMATION OF MERCY.

"Go ye into all the world,

And proclaim the good news to the whole creation :

He that believeth, and is immersed,*

Shall be saved;

But he that believeth not,

Shall be condemned?" +

Mark xvi. 15, 16.

KIND READER,-These words were spoken to the eleven apostles by Jesus, the Son of God, just after he had died for our sins and risen again for our justification. Can you fail to see the love which shines through them? Who but the blessed Jesus could have provided such

"Baptism-that is dipping, immersing, from the Greek baptizo." POPULAR ENCYCLOPEDIA, p. 411.-" The original meaning of the word baptisma is immersion." CHALMERS ON ROM. vi. 4.

So katakrino should be translated, and so the learned Bengel renders it. It occurs nineteen times in the Greek New Testament, and is seventeen times translated" condemn" in the Com. Version. "Damned" occurs as its translation in Rom. xiv. 23, and Mark xvi. 16, only. All must admit its modern appropriation to everlasting punishment too strong for the former passage: nothing but a misconception can retain it in the latter.