living landscape of spring do our hearts glow with a sensation that the most vivid imitation cannot excite?

"The day of the Lord" shall be " upon all pleasant pictures," for man's work must perish; but to the bright realities which his own hand has formed, it shall come to shed a sevenfold light, to bid the wilderness blossom, and to make the place of his feet glorious.

Let our hearts, then, so far cleave to earth as we would cleave to a friend who has suffered in our fall, and will rejoice and triumph when we rise. The world that, with the fashion of it, passeth away, is not that goodly fabric which emerged unharmed from beneath the deluge, but that which was swept away for ever from its surface, and from the presence of the Lord. We may look with delightful anticipation to what will in like manner survive the fiery trial of the latter day:-what God has reserved for his people when the final struggle of Satan is over, and the flaming pit sealed upon him for ever and ever, we know not; but the glorified saints and the triumphant church have yet before them a long season of intercourse with this earth, renovated and made far brighter than ever: and surely in that anticipation, though we love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, we may love our earth, and delight in the glowing beauties with which the Lord has invested it.

C. E.

NOTES OF A TRINITARIAN.

No. IV.

THE GLORY OF GOD.

WE have already seen what is the great mystery of the New Testament," the mystery of godliness," the manifestation of God in Christ Jesus; but this is not the only title by which the apostles designate this marvellous event. It is frequently spoken of as "the glory of God;" and this clearly enough in many places of the English version, although in others there is a cloud (unintentionally, of course,) thrown over the full meaning of the original.

We often hear or read such a passage as this"Creation indeed shews forth the glory of God, but redemption shews it still more. The exertion of His power and wisdom is glorious, but it is not comparable to the exertion of His mercy." The beauty and truth of such a sentiment strike us at once; and it is not a mere poetic flight, but a most scriptural assertion. Observe what St. Paul says in that wondrous chapter, the ivth of his second epistle to the Corinthians, ver. 6, "For that God who bade light shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the visible person of Jesus Christ;" evidently implying that "the visible person of Jesus" is the

glory of God, and that "the knowledge" of this fact is given by divine illumination.

In Phil. iv. 19, we read of God's "riches in glory in Christ Jesus," as if the apostle had said "the riches of God's mercy are manifested to us in His glory, which is Jesus." "By Christ," as the English has it, spoils this beautiful meaning; the word is the same in each phrase, en doxe, en Christo," (in glory, in Christ, why then should the first be rendered in, and the second by?

Another most remarkable passage is in Acts vii. 55, which, literally rendered, (according to the meaning which we have seen the Greek kai may receive) runs thus-Stephen, "looking up stedfastly into heaven, saw the glory of God, even JESUS, standing at the right hand of God." This sense of the passage cannot be disputed, after attentively reading the above text from 2 Cor. iv. Farther on in the narrative of Stephen's martyrdom, ver. 59, the passage should be rendered, "And they stoned Stephen, invoking and saying, Jehovah Jesus! receive my spirit!" for though this prayer implies Jesus to be Jehovah, the name of God does not occur in the Greek.

In Phil. ii. 11, "the glory of the Father" is closely connected with the acknowledgment of Jesus as Jehovah. "That every tongue should confess that Jesus Messiah is Jehovah, unto the glory of God the Father."

In many passages of the English version, this sense of the expression is obscured by treating the original phrase as a Hebraism, and rendering it "glorious," where it should be "the glory of." Thus 1 Tim. i. 11, should be read thus, "According to the

good tidings of the glory of the blessed God; i.e. the good tidings that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself," which is his supreme glory. In Eph. ii. 7, the apostle says "That he might shew, in the coming ages, the excessive treasure of his benevolence in benignity to us in Christ Jesus; when God was "in Christ," all this treasure of free benevolence was shewn forth; which is the extreme of grace, and therefore the highest "glory of God."

We know how often the grace of God and his glory are connected in the epistles; and how frequently also we find mention of "the love of Christ," that is, the love of "God in Christ," as we saw it explained by St. Paul to the Romans, in our last number. The most striking passage of this class is in Eph. iii. 18, where St. Paul prays that the converts might be able to understand "what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and (thus) to know the knowledge-exceeding love of the Messiah, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God." It was indeed a knowledge-exceeding love that moved the God of heaven to be "made flesh and dwell among us;" and we see that great blessings arise to the saints from knowing this love, even the " being filled with all the fulness of God." Indeed, in many passages we find that "the acknowledgment of the mystery" to be the cause of numberless blessings to the believer. Nor can this acknowledgment be made by unassisted human wisdom; it is expressly the gift of God. The passage we have before quoted (2 Cor. iv. 6.) shews this plainly. It is "GOD" who "hath shined in our hearts to the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the visible person of Jesus Christ." This corresponds

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with our Saviour's own declaration, (John vi. 44.) "No man can come unto me (so as truly to believe and acknowledge my Deity) "unless the Father who hath sent me, draw him."

This recognition is also stated to be the work of the Holy Spirit, (Eph. i. 17.) "That the God of our Jehovah Jesus Messiah, the Father of glory, (i.e. the Father of Jesus, who is "the glory of God,”) may give you the Spirit of wisdom and discovery for the acknowledgment of him." Now this must be some peculiar acknowledgment, for the mere acknowledgment of God's existence must have been made by all the converts, at first; but the acknowledgment of "God in Christ," which is "the mystery of godliness," is a far deeper and more difficult recognition, and especially needs the."wisdom" given by the Holy Ghost. St. Paul elsewhere affirms this, in a passage that throws light on the interpretation of this verse; in 1 Cor. xii. 3, he says,-"And none is able to say that Jesus is Jehovah, but by the Holy Spirit."

Let us now see what are the blessings this " acknowledgment of the mystery" brings to the humble Christian who honestly makes it, not curiously prying into the hidden things of that great mystery, nor into the exact means of its accomplishment, but calmly comparing scripture with scripture, and thus collecting the information which it has pleased eternal wisdom and love to give him concerning it.

In the passage from Eph. iii. above quoted, we saw that St. Paul prayed that the church might "know the knowledge-exceeding love of Christ,” in order that they might "be filled with all the fulness of God." In another and similar passage in the fol