knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who know and make much of Him will find much in the thought of being with Him. To a saint there is nothing like presence with the Lord. If self rules, we must have circumstances and details, so as to be able to pick up what suits man thinking of himself and his circumstances.

There is a monstrous abortion of unbelief in many minds now, that because earthly ties and relationships cease in Heaven, persons will not be known, or our mutual interest be sustained. I know and love, and am known and loved by many who have been either my masters or my servants upon earth. The relationship may be passed, but, thank God, not the mutual love and esteem which our hearts formed in it. A child, when married, ceases to be child in the house-is, he or she is, according to God, absolved from the tie, but the love and interest go on; or does a married daughter cease to be loved because she has taken headship under another, and has not the tie and responsibility of the child in the house? Paul's former tie with the Thessalonians may cease, but not his love for them, or theirs for him, as found when on Earth. They will be around him in glory, his crown of joy and rejoicing. "For what is our hope, or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?"

tion too.

FRAGMENTS.

WHAT a discovery is it for us to make, in any measure, that the portion of Christ at the world's hands is our porIt knew Him not, and, in proportion as we are simple and true as children of God, it knows us not; and we, too, know it not. We know that it exists, but it and we have nothing in common. We are not of it, we do not approve it, and it is nothing to us, save in so far as we are inconsistent, allowing lust to come in and

work.

We shall be like Him! With all the affections of children, and all their hopes-with all the schooling of God, with all the judgment of self, with all the truehearted prayer that a saint pours out for himself, and for God's dear people-how will the groans, nevertheless, come out from the heart-"So little attained! so little of power!" Never mind; go on climbing up the hill. We shall be like Him. We shall yet have no taste for anything that He has not a taste for-no mind, save for that for which He has a mind. Like Christ! clothed with immortality, incorruptibility and glory! And not only like Him outside, even in a scene where all can shine out without disturbance, but like Him all within, from the quickened soul upwards and outwards.

harmony with Christ! What a word to have in one's heart, "I shall be" like Him! His name written on my forehead; I clothed upon with His likeness, for I shall see Him as He is.

Now we see through a glass darkly, and yet, if in any measure we see, we are moulded into the same image; but then eye to eye-go onward. Onward in darkness? No, onward still in light, because it is on ward to Christ. While the heart is occupied with Him, each step leads it nearer. Every spot that is unlike Christ becomes odious. We purify ourselves, even as He is pure.

It becomes us in these days to look to it, that we have the marks of God's children on us, both as answering to God, and also for the joy and comfort of our own souls.

241

No. IX.

APOSTOLICITY AND SUCCESSION.

SIXTH CONVERSATION.

N*. WELL, James, we were able to come back to you, and thought you would like to be present while we pursue our enquiry, and Mr. O. will have no more to say to us. And though it was well for Bill M. that Mr. O. should be there, and not fancy that if one more capable than he were present, there would be an answer, yet we can follow Milner just as well, and more quietly; and he is what they all refer to, and what M. had and trusted in; and I can give you as before what I have collected in reading, so as to judge how far it is true.

Bill M. I hope you have no objection, Sir, but though Mr. O. would not come, a gentleman he knows would be glad to be present, and I said I was sure you would not object.

N*. Not in the least. I shall follow Milner as a guide to the points we have to enquire into, but this gentleman can make any remark he wishes, or either of you, of course, if you have anything on your mind, though I shall have, as you two cannot know much of the details, to go pretty straight forward myself through the history. James. I am very glad to see you, Sir, and obliged to you for thinking of me and coming back.

N*. Well, our next point is apostolicity and succession. To me it has no importance whatever. In the Spirit and word of God there can be no succession. They are themselves complete and perfect, and remain the same. Truth is itself; you cannot apply the idea of succession to it. That truth we have in God's written word. The word of God abides for ever. To talk of succession as to it is simple nonsense. They speak of succession as a means of securing the truth. But we have it in the word. It VOL. III.—New Series. 12

is very striking how the truth is never made a mark of the Church by Roman Catholics. The Scriptures are full of it. Christ is the truth; the Father's word is truth, we are sanctified by the truth, the Apostle loved in the truth and for the truth's sake. If a preacher did not bring sound doctrine even a woman was to judge him, and not receive him into her house nor bid him God speed. Souls are begotten to God by the truth. The truth sets free. But for the Roman Catholic system it is no mark of anything; for if the truth were a mark of the Church, those who seek the Church must have the truth first to judge of it by, before they have the Church, and if the truth was really possessed by them, they then would be begotten of God and sanctified before they find the Church. And so it was at the beginning; the truth was preached and received, and men thereupon entered into the Church, because they had received it, if it was really savingly received; and this they do not deny when first preached to Heathens and Jews. As to the use. made by Irenæus and others of this succession against heretics, though soon abused as a mere human argument as I have already said, I have no great objection to it. What was from the beginning is the truth; the surest way of finding it is reading what was at the be ginning, which we confessedly have in the Scriptures; still as a mere external proof, if he could shew that no one had ever held it, and that it sprung up now in his own time, it might be used as an argument. Only it has this defect, that the carelessness of men may lose the discernment of many things in Scripture, and truth may be brought up which really was at the beginning, and lost or somewhat enfeebled or even corrupted, so that to the men of the age it may seem new, when only reproduced from Scripture. But when heretics said it was a bad God that made the Old Testament, as the heretics did, it might be honestly argued : No one from the beginning ever heard such a thing; and that is what Irenæus did. The Scriptures were the surest appeal, and Irenæus does appeal to them, only he shews he has not just confidence in using them in the power of the Spirit of God, and with Tertullian it is utterly so. He is just a lawyer,

as he was, arguing a brief. And the result shews clearly the danger of leaving Scripture; for what was at first used as a testimony soon came to be considered an authority, and then as more convenient for the corruptions of men, so that the Scriptures were put out of sight. However, that was the use especially made of succession by those early writers. We will therefore examine the succession they plead, and see how far apostolicity in this respect will accredit their system. I take them on their own ground not on mine; for grace and gift, I am perfectly assured, came directly from God, and not by succession. I examine it only as an alleged mark of the true Church. They allege from early writers that the episcopal order can be traced up to the foundation of every see by Apostles and Apostolic men, or afterwards through them in places subsequently founded, and in particular the succession of Rome to Peter, for poor Paul is now-a-days pretty much thrown overboard, his teaching does not suit Rome.

James. But pardon me, Sir, I do not see how this affects the truth or the authority of the word of God. That is true whether there are Popes at Rome or not.

N*. Surely it does not, but the idea of authority of what has been handed down from Christ and His Apostles to these days, by those, as they allege, commissioned of God, has great power over the imagination. Wherever the word of God is received by faith, all these things drop like autumn leaves, because we have the truth itself with divine certainty, and know it would be a sin to doubt of it. But all have not this simple faith in the word of God; it has not that simple but absolute authority as God's word over them, and habits of mind are very powerful, particularly when they are superstitious habits of mind. It seems humble though it is not; it is a sin to yield up our souls to man when God has spoken, it is what the Scripture calls voluntary humility; and people are afraid to trust God in His word, and do not know that word. Here is our friend Bill M. He thought the clergy secured all truth to him, though it was official authority not truth, and even now he has not the word of God at his command to meet these difficulties. He