(2 Pet. i. 2, 4.) Here, "The Truth" is the author of life, and "the Spirit of Truth" is God. The first sentence in our Saviour's public ministry, as related by St. Matthew, is remarkable: "Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (iv. 17.)

That kingdom, in contradistinction to all the kingdoms of the world, stood before Him: its rest, and holiness, and peace, and joy were known and felt by Him; while the strife, the tumult, the shame and misery of the kingdom of darkness lay around him ;-I say felt, for was not His prayer evidence of what He felt, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven"?

What a consummation of glory! and, as I have said before, by what simple means-by the light and life-giving power of the Word.

But I cannot leave this subject of "The True Light' without one word of caution. We may not quench or grieve the Spirit. Our Saviour's words are quite fearful: "The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the judgment to come." (Matt. xii.) This blasphemy is a violation of conscience, a rejection of truth against the clearest conviction: wilfully ascribing to the devil what men know to be of God. Oh, let us beware, for I do know many blasphemers against the Holy Ghostmany whose pride distorts and would annul truth. "Either

make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt." One would think the words of St. Paul were rooted in this solemn warning of Christ's. (Heb. vi. 4, 6, 7, 8.) "There is a sin unto death: I do not say that ye shall pray for it." (1 John v. 16.) I believe this sin to be, too, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; a violation of conscience; an obstinate acting, contrary to the light of conviction, knowledge, and the strongest sense of right. Reader, beware how you sin against the light of conscience; how you commit blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man.”

CHAPTER III.

ON LIGHT AND DARKNESS, GOOD AND EVIL IN OUR

NATURE.

CONTRAST Over against this state, called in Scripture "Light in the Lord," that state of ignorance and unbelief called darkness. The first thing that meets us in Revelation is a vivid type of it, and evidently intended by God to be so. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep." (Gen. i. 2.)

The plague of darkness in Egypt was another type of that state of darkness and misery into which a mind may be left to fall, deeply to convict of sin. "Darkness which may be felt." Condemnation is a state of darkness felt; there have been those who have writhed under torment, even in this life; but nothing here can adequately shadow to us the lost state. "They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." (Exod. x. 23.) Christ was three days in the grave, in " "a land of darkness, as darkness itself." Did the plague of darkness in Egypt shadow to us the state of eternal darkness of those who reject His salvation; and

the light of the children of Israel, those who will be eternally light in Him through receiving it?

There is left us an awful record of the state of those under Divine visitation, condemnation, even in this life. kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain." (Rev. xvi. 10.)

"The pillar of the cloud," in which was "the Angel of God," was to us another vivid type of the Orb of Revelation a glorious light, day-star to His people, and darkness to His enemies. "It was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these." (Exod. xiv. 20.)

Darkness was a metaphor often employed by the Hebrew poets and writers, to signify God's judgments, times of great calamity and perplexity. So when He had delivered David from his enemies, in that sublime song of thanksgiving (2 Sam. xxii.), he said, "He bowed the heavens, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. And he made. darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies."

And again, "Let their way be dark and slippery. (Ps. xxxv. 6.) "Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not." (xlix. 23.)

"Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness." (Job xxxvii. 19; xxi. 17; xxviii. 3.)

Jeremiah's prophecy of the present dead state of the Jews, or rather his warning voice to them to avoid it, is

really terrible, and should awaken us to vigilance and true holiness. "Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness." (xiii. 16.) Their wail, as related by Isaiah (lix. 9), seems almost an answer to the Divine caution they despised, "We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men."

St. Paul knew well these two states, darkness and light. "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." (Col. i. 13.) "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." (Eph. v. 8.) "Having the understanding darkened."

Our blessed Saviour knew what it was to be under darkness, not of ignorance, but of judgment, under the condemnation of the law, human and Divine. "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." (Luke xxv. 53.) But when He thus descended into hell, it was to destroy for ever the realm of darkness and of death; to destroy him who had had the power of that darkness and of death; so that, if they now remain, it is not His fault, but ours. And if we do not, through the Spirit, rise with Him in resurrection life and glory, we must hear His voice as our Judge, to pass upon us