steady development of some inconceivably great purpose upon which His mind has been fixed "From the beginning, ere ever the earth was." That the dispensation of grace, dating from the fall of Judaism, is such a step in advance, such an additional unfolding of a settled purpose of action, there can be no doubt. Hear the apostle of the nations, the great minister of grace to the world outside Judea "Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men; manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testame; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance-which glory was to be done away-how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious " (2 Cor. iii. 1-11). This is admirable testimony to the superiority of the dispensation of grace over that of law; and the witness is unexceptionable, for he personally knew both dispensations. Besides, the words are not Paul's only, but the inbreathing of the Holy Spirit, the testimony of that Spirit who knows the mind of God.

Here, then, we see at once that the Christian age is incomparably superior to the Mosaic. It brings God so much nearer to His ultimate goal. He is not thrown back by the crime that "crucified the Lord of Glory," but makes it the occasion of rending the symbolic veil, of throwing down the partition which divided the Gentile from the Jew, of nailing to the cross the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, of abolishing-its purpose served--the entire ceremonialism of the Levitical code, of enlarging the locality upon. which Divine light shone from a small province of the Roman Empire to the entire world, and of commissioning the messengers -not of law, but of grace-to carry tidings of mercy to every nation under heaven. The Jews have slain the Hope of the nation, to whom every part of their gorgeous ritualism pointed, and now that ritualism can no longer hold together. Its preparatory work is done, its testimony is delivered, its machinery set aside, and the nation itself disappears from the map of the world. The fall of Judea, and with it Judaism--for without the Temple Judaism is

impossible-was to the eye of the Jew nothing but overwhelming disaster, a dismal, a terrific calamity; but in God's wondrous plan it was the reconciling of the world. When wicked hands killed the Prince of Life, God's hands opened wide, not to grasp hot thunderbolts to wrap our world in unquenchable fire, but to pour life and salvation across the vast deserts of idolatry, life and salvation without money, without price, without obedience to any law, freely, freely—it was the actual inauguration of the gentle dispensation of grace, the best, most blessed, most beneficent economy the world has hitherto seen. The special privileges of Judaism were contracted within a narrow sphere; the dispensation of the law was for the Jews only; and during its continuance God "suffered all nations to walk in their own ways" (Acts xiv. 6). The times of that ignorance He overlooked, but now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent. The dispensation of grace is for the world, and it turns upon the Divine point of simple belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a dispensation of testimony regarding the Son of God; that God is in Him reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved" (John iii. 16, 17). This testimony pervades the New Testament. Its sublime simplicity meets us constantly." If we receive the witness of men," writes John," the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because He believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son " (1 John v. 9, 10).

The presentation of Divine testimony, the truth to be believed, is the grand feature of this economy. Hear what the Apostle Paul says about the subject of his ministry. "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that He died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then,"-what am I and my fellowapostles in consequence of this new and most merciful state of

things?" we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. v. 14-21). This was apostolic ministry. It was a presentation to "sinners of the Gentiles," men who had not been placed under the dispensation of law, and who were living without God in the world, of the full benefits of a purely Divine scheme of reconciliation, on the simple ground of belief. If they would but believe the testimony, all the blessings to which that testimony referred should be theirs. No matter what their character had been. There was no moral preparation required on their part, no obedience to any law exacted, no process of introductory improvement enjoined. Every objection is met, every difficulty removed, every barrier broken down; all things are ready: all things are of God; be ye reconciled. Accept the perfect reconciliation just as you are, here and now, without money, without price, without merit, without previous purification, for it is the dispensation of grace, of gift, not of works. The treasures of grace are opened, and the Sovereign, with Divine munificence, is giving, without stint, without question as to character, to all who come. Sunk in abominable idolatry, debased, polluted, unutterably vile you may be. Well, this is all known, and because it is all known, the arrangement has been so made as entirely and fully to meet your case. It is for you, the helpless; God's redeeming love through Christ comes to you, meets you, asks an entrance into your hearts, an abiding place in your souls. You are not asked to give, but to take; not to do work, but to "be reconciled." You are offered life, character, privilege, immortality as the gift of God.

Let any man read the loathsome description of heathendom in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans-a description fully borne out by such writings of the heathens themselves as have reached us, and by the testimony of our missionaries-and then ask himself what could meet the case of such persons, if it was to be met at all, but a system of transcendent grace, purely Divine in its origin and application? But the case of such brutalised, demonised human beings has been met successfully, triumphantly, millions of times. Just listen to this: "To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world" (Rom. i. 7, 8). In Rome! Ay, these are the very words. If grace won such triumphs there, the new dispensation has proved itself the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation.

In truth, the glorious character of God has been unfolding itself through past dispensations; over the darkness of the world's ignorance, and sin, and misery, His light shines, and by what He has

done and is doing we see indeed that "God is love," and "God is light." For myself I most surely believe that the dark problem of the universe will be so solved by Him in due time as to command the admiration, wonder, and gratitude of every created intelligence. I believe without difficulty, nay, in my case the difficulty would be not to believe it-that the time is coming when "every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them," will be heard saying, "Blessing and honour and glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever (Rev. v. 13). Nor will this universal concert of adoration be the result of an all-commanding power which may no longer be resisted, or of an all-subduing authority which makes continued opposition fruitless madness, but the spontaneous utterance of intelligent conviction that a wisdom so profound deserves the highest tribute of admiration, and a love so strong the most fervent expressions of praise. For though all-commanding power, as we shall see shortly, will be put forth for a specific purpose, and for a brief period, when Divine right asserts itself against diabolic usurpation, yet the great law of constraining love, the normal principle which overcomes evil with good, will unquestionably retain its ascendancy to the last, so that the loyalty of creaturehood will ultimately be the result of the grace of the Godhead.

The economy under which we live is both a development and an initiation. It illustrates the dispensations that have preceded it; it suggests the essential character of those that are to follow. It is itself neither a first nor a last economy, but an interpretation of its predecessors and a herald of the ages to come. It takes up man just as he is, a creature for whom law can do nothing, "in that it is weak through the flesh," and proposes to make him a new creature under the influence of Gospel, or good news from heaven. It finds him devil-possessed, and speaks of making him a temple of the Holy Spirit. It sees him wofully degraded, and utters in his ear words of deep significance concerning the formation in his heart of Christ the hope of glory. But from the indisputable fact that the mass of mankind are destitute, even under the reign of grace, of the character which results from the belief of the record, it is not too much to infer that the ages to come will witness fresh developments of the wisdom and love of God, yet all associated with and springing out of the priestly work and royal rights of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Some of the leading characteristics of the dispensation, which give it its peculiarity, may be briefly noted.

It is an age in which God deals with men as individuals. Nations are merged into the higher idea of a world, and social distinctions in the higher idea of humanity. Hence the Gospel of grace is preached alike, and on precisely the same terms, to Jew and Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free. There were saints

among the aristocracy of Cæsar's household; there were elsewhere poor saints for whom it was necessary to collect the gifts of the charitable; but the parties thus distinguished in worldly circumstances had been addressed as sinners needing mercy, when the Gospel was first preached to them. They had been spoken to, not as nobles in the one case, and as peasants in the other, but as men who, in common with the entire race, had "come short of the glory of God," and salvation through Jesus by faith was set before them for acceptance. They did accept it, and thus became saints -men separated, set apart from a common to a sacred use, delivered from the slavery of sin into the freedom with which Christ makes free.

And so it is still. Salvation is proclaimed on the same principle to all ranks, classes, and conditions of men. There is no refined aspect of it for the cultured, and a more common one for the untrained. It is a "common salvation" for men who are altogether helpless without it. He who wields a sceptre and he that handles the plough are invited to the same feast. The man who counts his gold by millions, and the ragged beggar, are equally welcome to the royal dainties of God's priceless banquet. The philosopher who has discovered and described the laws of nature, and the peasant who cannot read the alphabet, are urged to come, and take, and live for ever. Caste, tribe, parentage, position, rank, class, country, are all nothing. The sinner and the Saviour alone come before us on this broad field of Divine beneficence, and if these meet and speak to each other, all is well. Not, be it observed, that Christianity ignores social classifications. So far from that, it fully recognises them; but its terms to every member of every class in society are precisely the same.

It is an age of toleration, that is, of Divine long-suffering and patience. The blasphemer is not stoned, the man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day is not put to death, and the unclean is not driven beyond the pale of society. God waits with men ; waits to be gracious; and bears long with the rejecters of His Son and the despisers of His grace. The overwhelming multitude are practical atheists. They are living without God in the world. He is to them as a Being who has no existence; and yet they are not smitten down by visible judgments, nor hurried away in His wrath. On the contrary, they are daily watched over and cared for by His bountiful providence. Their wants are supplied, their necessities are anticipated, their lot in life is arranged. To many of them He gives gold and grandeur, and much worldly influence. His sun shines upon, His showers soften their broad acres. But they return no love, feel no gratitude, express no thanks, and they continue from year to year turning a deaf ear to the message of reconciliation, resisting the Holy Spirit, and trampling on the blood of Christ. Still, however, He bears with them, and looks with unutterable complacency upon the Man of His right hand, who