entreat, beg, supplicate, pray; implying a distinction in dignity, in authority, in circumstances, in age, between the parties. This is the appropriate word for expressing the petition which an inferior makes to a superior, as of a son to a father, the creature to the Creator. Both words are used in Acts iii. 2, 3, where the distinction, though not of material importance, may be preserved by rendering the passage; 'They placed the lame man at the gate of the temple for the purpose of begging alms' (Te). He seeing Peter and John, inquired of them (péτa) with a view to alms. Thus aréw is used in passages like, 'Ask, and it shall be given you.' 'If a son ask bread,' &c. But when our blessed Lord says (John xiv. 16) 'I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter,' the word is éparnow, implying a degree of equality which is not conveyed by Téw. The only passage in which aréw is used of our Lord in reference to His Father, is in John xi. 22, where Martha says, 'I know that whatever thou shalt ask of God, God will give it thee.' We may account for its use in this passage by conceiving that the speaker did not recognise the truth, Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead,' or felt very forcibly the fact, ‘Inferior to the Father as touching his manhood.' In all cases where our Lord speaks of asking the Father, of praying the Father, the word used is épwráw. This is one of the minute, latent, but conclusive, testimonies to the Deity of Christ, which can be appreciated only by the critical student of the N. T. in the original. The whole passage (John xvi. 19-30) must be allowed to be a difficult one, from the transcendent nature of the subject matter. Some of the difficulties will be removed by rendering práw (question, enquire,) and réw (pray, supplicate). Thus we may translate verse 19, 'Jesus knew that they were desiring to question Him;' verses 23, 24; 'In that day ye shall ask no question, make no inquiry. Verily, verily I say unto you, whatever ye shall supplicate the Father in my name, he will give it you. Up to this time ye have prayed for nothing in my name, pray and ye shall receive.' Verse 26, 'In that day ye shall pray in my name, and I say not to you that I will inquire of the Father concerning you; (this will be quite unnecessary) for the Father of himself loveth you.' So in the reply of the disciples, verse 30, 'Now we know that thou knowest all things, and thou hast no need that any one inquire of thee.' The meaning of which, probably, is, 'Thou knowest all things, so as to answer by anticipation the questions we secretly wished to put;' referring to the account given of their mental anxiety in verse 19. Some of the difficulties connected with 1 John v. 16, will be removed by rendering it, 'If any man see his brother com mit sin not involving spiritual death, he shall pray for him (týσe), and shall be the means of giving him life.' Or it may be, 'God, in answer to the prayer of faith, will give him life.' Then the Apostle proceeds to say, 'There is sin, sin of such a character as to involve spiritual death. I bid him not to ask for information (iva éparnon) concerning that state of sin.' The Apostle checks the approach to the throne of grace as to an oracle to make inquiries with the view of offering intercession. The import of his language reminds us of the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which may have been committed by those who impugned the true doctrine of Christ, and were Antichrists in theory and practice. The Preacher's Finger-Post. CHRIST'S LIFE IN HEAVEN. "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."Rev. i. 18. ONE might have thought that after Christ had received such malignant treatment on this earth, His departure from it would be an everlasting termination of all His communications with it; that His last word on earth to men would be His last word to them until the day of doom; that on His ascension to VOL. X. heaven He would withdraw Himself with a righteous indignation from this corrupt planet; turn away from it, and speak only to intelligencies who would devoutly hail His every utterance. Not so, however. Here, after threescore years of personal absence from this earth, with unabated love for our fallen race, He breaks the silence of eternity, and makes such communications to John on the Isle of Patmos that would be for the good of all coming generations. The text leads us to consider His life in heaven. 2 s I. His life in heaven is a life that succeeds an extraordinary death. "Was dead." Life after death at all, is a life in itself truly wonderful. Such a life we have never seen. But the life of Christ in heaven is a life succeeding a death that has no parallel in the history of the universe. There are at least three circumstances that mark off His death at an infinite distance from that of any other being that ever has died. First Absolute spontaneity. No being ever died but Christ who had the feeling that he need never die,—that death could be for ever escaped. Christ had it. "He had power to lay down his life," &c. Secondly: Entire relativeness. Every other man that ever died, died for himself, died because he was a sinner, and the seed of death was sown in his nature. Not so with Christ. He died for others. "He was bruised for our iniquities," &c. Thirdly: Universal influence. The death of the most important man that ever lived has an influence of a comparatively limited degree. It extends but over a contracted circle. Only a few of the age feel it; future ages feel it not; it is nothing to the universe. But Christ's death had an influence that admits of no measurement. It extended over II. His life in heaven is a life of endless duration. "I am alive for evermore." First: His endless duration is a necessity of His nature. "I am he that liveth." There are moral intelligences,we amongst them,—that may live for ever, but not by necessity of nature. We live because the Infinite supports us let Him withdraw His sustaining agency, and we cease to breathe. Not so with Christ. His life is absolutely independent of the universe. He is the "I AM." Hence He says, "I am He that liveth." Secondly: His endless duration is the glory of the good. "Amen." When Christ says, "I am alive for evermore, "the unfallen and redeemed universe may well exclaim, "Amen." Whatever other friends die, the great Friend liveth on. "The same yesterday," &c. III. His life in heaven is a life of absolute dominion over the destinies of men. "I have the keys of hell and of death." The grave and hades. He has dominion over the bodies and souls of men as well when they are separated from each other, as previous to their dissolution. "He is the Lord of the dead and of the living." From His absolute dominion over the destinies of men, four things may be inferred.* First: There is nothing accidental in human history. He has "the key" of death. No grave is opened but by His hand. Secondly: Departed men are still in existence. He has the key of Hades (the world of separate souls), as well as of the grave. They live, therefore, for "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Thirdly: Death is not the introduction to a The same moral kingdom. Lord is here as there. What is right here, therefore, is right there, and the reverse. Fourthly We may anticipate the day when death shall be swallowed up in victory. "He has the key of the grave," &c. new * See Homilist, Vol. I., p. 207. A DISSOLUTE YOUNG MAN. "And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly." -Prov. v. 11-14. HERE we have : I. A dissolute young man with a decaying body. The wise man foresaw the wretched physical condition to which the dissolute life of the young man, whom he calls his "son," would lead. "When thy flesh and thy body are consumed." First: It is a sad sight to see a young man decay at all. Few sights are more painful to the heart than the tottering limb, the deep sunk eye, the hectic flush, of a young man in consumption. Secondly It is a far sadder sight when that physical decay has been produced by a dissolute life. This is the state to which the wise man refers in the text. It is a state, alas, too common among young men in every age, and in no age more common than this. Who that walks the streets of London, or any of our large towns, does not meet every day with young men whose constitutions have been emaciated, blotched, shattered, and rendered of fensive, even to sight, by a course of sin? A sad sight this. Here we have : II. A dissolute young man with an active memory. With a palsied frame trembling on the brink of the grave, his memory runs back over his past life, and he says, "How have I hated instruction," &c. First He remembers the many privileges he has abused. The "instruction," the "reproof," and the "voice of the teachers," all come with a vivid freshness to his mind. Memory brings up the form of his father, whose admonitions he despised; his mother, whose affectionate appeals he had disregarded, &c. Memory will repeat every lesson we have ever heard, and every sermon that has fallen on our ears, over and over, and over again, for ever. Secondly: He remembers the sinful scenes of his life. us from such memories when dying! Here we have : III. A dissolute young man with a torturing conscience. "Thou mourn at last." This is the climax. A decaying body is bad; the memory of a dissolute life is worse; but a torturing conscience is the climax of misery. Remorse, like a fierce vulture, seizes the soul, or, like a scorpion, darts its poisonous fangs deep into his nature. (1) Here is an agonising sense of self-blamefulness. "I have hated instruction." It is all I;-no imputing blame to others. Conscience casts all excuses to the winds, fastens the crime home on the individual himself. Conscience shuts its ear to all the excuses arising from power of circumstances, and force of temptations. It says to the man, "You knew your duty, but you did it not." (2) Here is an agonising sense of selfruin. The moral wail here breathes the feeling of destruction. "I had instructors, I had reproof, I had teachers; they are gone, and I am ruined." Conscience tolls in the soul the knell of all good, and blows the warnmind of the body, that me-ing trumpet-blast of all commory often grows vigorous as ing evil. "I was almost in all evil," &c. The ghosts of his sinful companions now haunted him. His crimes stood in a terrible array before his affrighted imagination. Thus, so independent is the the tide of our mortal life Heaven deliver ebbs away. "Darkness above, despair beneath, Around it flame, within it-DEATH!" |