there appeared the marvellous vision of a glorious Person in human form-the same whom Daniel saw long afterwards by the river side, and John saw Him after His incarnation, still later, in the Isle of Patmos. When the "Man" approached, there took place that marvellous, unparalleled event in Jacob's life-the midnight wrestling!

Here we learn the nature of real prayer. We wish our readers to notice that it is not quite correct to describe this circumstance as" Jacob's wrestling with the Angel." The Scripture represents it otherwise. It is written- "there wrestled a Man with him." It is, therefore, more proper to speak of the Angel wrestling with Jacob. The point, however, we desire to call attention to is this—that the Man was first. Oh, yes, Jesus is always first, or we should never wrestle in prayer at all. He came to Jacob and began with him. In wrestling, there is a mutual laying hold; so the Lord lays hold of His Jacobs first, and then they endeavour to lay hold of Him and His righteousness. This is the very essence and act of prayer. The object each wrestler has in view is, to bring the other down. The Lord brought Jacob down to His feet, and Jacob sought to bring the Lord's blessing down upon his head, and succeeded, which leads us to consider

3. Jacob's prevailing.-The narrative teaches us how and when pleading wrestlers prevail. After a lengthened exercise-real prayer is truly an exercise-even "until the breaking of the day," the Lord "touched the hollow of his thigh," and this putting forth of divine power effectually brought Jacob low. The shrinking of the sinew which resulted denotes the withering away of creature strength, which is always the first step towards finally prevailing with God. As in the case before us, the Lord, by the exercise of His own power, brings us to His feet as poor, helpless sinners, unable to stand our ground before Him. Our native holiness and natural religion are taken away, and we have no might nor strength left. The touch of the divine finger humbles self, mortifies the flesh, and lays us prostrate in the dust.

Now, when Jacob found his strength was gone, and he could no longer wrestle as heretofore, he took to clinging. Humbled at the dear Saviour's feet, we behold him cleaving and clinging to Him, saying, "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.' He could take no denial. His determination was, not to let Christ go. Similarly to this, the spouse in the Canticles declares, "I held Him, and would not let Him go." Moreover, at this point, Esau seemed to be banished from his mind. He utters not a word about either his enemies or his fears. His whole heart was absorbed in seeking a blessing. He simply wanted the Lord to bless him.

We find, from the sequel, that the nature of the blessing he sought was a word from the Lord. Every poor wilderness wanderer

towards the better land will have a sweet fellow-feeling with Jacob in this matter. It was here Jacob prevailed. The word he obtained was, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." A prince is the son of a king; this was, therefore, an assurance of sonship. The change of name appeared a singular blessing, but, as a matter of fact, every answer to prayer is a virtual changing of the name of the supplicant from " wrestling Jacob" to "prevailing Israel." The Lord blessed Jacob by answering his petitions, giving him a word, assuring him of final victory, and so dealing with him that his strength was made perfect in weakness. He prevailed when defeated, gained the prize when worsted in the contest, and he conquered when he was overcome, for the Lord "blessed him there," by giving him a sight of God in Christ, "for," saith he, "I have seen God face to face." A faith's view of a covenant God and Father in Christ Jesus, with whom and through whom we are privileged to prevail in prayer, is a blessing indeed. Thus God's seeking people obtain God's blessing, and come off "more than conquerors, through Him that hath loved them."

Leicester.

TO "J. T. W."

E. C.

WITH respect to your inquiry about preaching repentance, we would briefly observe that Gospel ministers are bound to declare, wherever they preach, that, without repentance and faith in Christ Jesus, there can be no salvation. Repentance and remission of sins are to be preached, in the name of Jesus, among all nations (Luke xxiv. 47); and it is declared that both are His gift (Acts v. 31). Thus the Gospel is to be preached in all the world, for a witness, or testimony, unto all nations. It is to be proclaimed that the only way of salvation is by Jesus Christ, there being no other name than His given among men whereby we must be saved (Acts iv. 12). Ministers are to testify and insist upon these things as the truth of God, and whosoever believes or receives in faith the testimony of Jesus shall be saved, but "he that believeth not shall be damned." Repentance and faith are not conditions upon which salvation is given, but they are accompaniments wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost, by which those who are savingly converted are made manifest; and, being alone the work of the Holy Spirit, no natural man can of himself perform them. Nevertheless, it is to be plainly set forth and insisted upon, that only those who spiritually repent and believe will be saved. This will set those who are truly concerned about their salvation searching themselves as to how matters stand with them, and cause them to seek the Lord for His promised mercy, while the unbelieving and impenitent will grow

harder and more determined in sin. As Paul says, "To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other of life unto life." God is the Author of the salvation of the latter, but He is not the cause of the death of the former. He did not render man incapable of doing His will and obeying His Word-sin did that. Neither has He lost His right to demand of man obedience to His Word, for sin in man, though it renders him unable to do what God commands, cannot destroy God's right to command, otherwise His government would fail. God, therefore, may justly command men to repent of their evil ways (Ezek. xiv. 6), and they may, as did Ahab and the Ninevites, refrain or turn from their gross sins, as it is right for men to do; but all this may take place without their being regenerate characters, as the instances above referred to prove; whereas true spiritual repentance is the result of quickening grace, therefore cannot be performed by a person dead in sin. A minister may then show how God commands the former repentance, and how none can be saved without the latter, without exhorting natural men to perform spiritual acts. To show the necessity of spiritual repentance is one thing; to teach that natural men can or must perform it is another. To keep in mind the difference between the repentance commanded those whose evil ways the Lord reproves (Ezek. xviii. 30), and that which is to be taught those who are convinced of sin, will greatly help in a search after the truth of this important part of the ministry.

Much more might be said, but perhaps these few hints will suffice to help you in your difficulty.

"FROM ME IS THY FRUIT FOUND."

(HOSEA xiv. 8.)

CHRIST is the Root of all good fruit,
From Him alone 'tis found;

Till graffed in Him, whate'er we seem,
Our fruit is all unsound.

Profession's vain till born again,
United to the Root;

Then sap does flow, the branches grow,

And bring forth precious fruit.

Of virtue rare we have a share,

Derived from Him alone;

The more it flows, more fruit it shows,
And thus each branch is known.

Lord, make me now a fruitful bough!
I would not barren be;

Thou fruitful art-to me impart
More life to live to Thee.

ALFRED.

THE PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF POPERY.

To the Editor of the Sower.

DEAR SIR, In a previous paper, "Popery an Antichristian System," I endeavoured to show that the principle of Pagan idolatry permeated the Papal system. I have since had the pleasure and privilege of reading "The Great Exodus," by Dr. Wylie, and was much pleased and instructed with the ability of the highly-gifted author in tracing this subtle principle to its origin, and showing its progressive development.

The following abridged extract will give an idea, though a very imperfect one, of the ability and perspicuity with which the author shows that the facts of history are in perfect accord with the truths of revelation. In the hope that it may induce many of your readers to procure the book for themselves,

I am, yours in the love of the truth,

T. W.

"From the beginning there have been two, and only two, principles on the earth-the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of Satan. These two kingdoms have striven unceasingly for the mastery. The Bible is the record of this war. Earth is its seat, but its origin was not on earth, but in the invisible world. The two leaders in this war are discovered to us on the first page of the Bible as the 'seed of the woman,' and the seed of the serpent.' As the battle advances, we catch sight of them at intervals, and on the last page of the Bible, when the conflict is closing, the two great combatants are seen openly in their true character-Christ on the one side, and the devil on the other. But spiritual powers cannot, as such, conflict together on the earth. It is necessary that they should embody themselves in a material organization, and by its instrumentality carry on the war. The organization in which Christ dwelt was the Church; the organization Satan formed for himself was the great idolatrous confederacy, or false church. Had the seductions of wealth, the incentives of passion, and the coercion of power been wanting to idolatry, its followers would have been fewer, and its success less signal. Of this Satan was aware. He looked around on existing social and political organizations, and selected that which seemed best fitted for his purpose as an instrument through which to work.

"Government, an ordinance of God, and, as such, having a basis in the natural conscience, he appropriated to his own designs. Crouching down, he crept into the body politic. That organization was to him the mouth through which he spake, and the hand by

which he executed his decrees. Ever since that time the twoidolatry and empire-have been in strictest alliance. Together they have journeyed over the earth. Where the one planted its throne, there the other set up its altar. In the same region grew up the true and the false-the worship of God and the worship of idols.

"In Chaldea was beheld the first great empire of the world. In Chaldea, too, was witnessed the first great idolatry of the world. In Chaldea, idolatry was the worship of the grand and the sublime. With great cunning, Satan let man down by easy stages into the abyss of creature worship. He began with the most resplendent of material things, the orbs of heaven, and to them he taught men to kneel. So long as Chaldea continued to be the seat of empire, so long it remained the chief seat of the false worship. But soon the empire removed to the West, to the lovely, voluptuous land of Greece. Thither, too, did idolatry transfer itself. Here idolatry became the worship of beauty and passion. It thus came down to earth, as it were, and the Greek bowed down to 'gods many' with fervent but licentious worship. But empire moved westward still, and idolatry followed in its wake. Quitting Olympus, it fixed its seat on the Capitol, where one of their poets vainly said the Romans had built for it an eternal home. Idolatry was the all-pervasive principle that gave unity to the mighty fabric of the empire. It ran through all ranks, from the palace on the Palatine to the hut on the Danube, and it controlled all affairs, from the consultations of the college of Augers to the games of the circus and the brawls of the tavern. From it the head of the state had his title of supreme dignity. He was great as 'Imperator'; he was greater still as "Pontifex Maximus.' Cæsar was the high priest and servant of Jupiter. But, in the course of time, idolatry demoralized the Roman, as it had emasculated the Greek; and the Goths, fresh from their native forests, rushed down upon the empire, and wrested from hands palsied with superstition and vice, the sceptre of the world. But, though the empire of Rome fell, the empire of idolatry did not fall. The Pagan empire was but the body which the old serpent inhabited, and when Rome Papal rose upon the ruins of Rome Pagan, in it idolatry found a second body from which the old sorceress, wary and skilful, began to ply her arts anew. Like her prototype, Jezebel, she strove to hide her withered charms by painting her face, and decking herself with ornaments stolen from Christianity, and thus unveiled one by one her old lineaments to the world; and when at length she stood fully revealed as face answereth to face,' so did the features of Papal idolatry answer to those of Pagan idolatry. The very same objects of worship were restored. The same deities and demons