whose position in glory is even above that of angels and principalities, to conclude that a

walk that is worthy of such a calling would lead to avoidance of so carnal a bond.

By the time John came to write his gospel, however, incipient Gnosticism had made

its voice heard, and John omits the references to marrying already referred to, and instead

emphasizes the fact that the Lord's opening miracle was at "a marriage" at Cana of

Galilee. If Christ could thus grace with His presence the nuptials of two villagers, it

becomes evident that to "forbid" to marry contains the seeds of anti-christian teaching.

In intentional contrast with the demonic doctrine of celibacy the apostle enjoins even a

second marriage upon young widows, associating the abstinence from such marrying

with waxing wanton against Christ, having damnation, and having cast off their first faith

(I Tim. 5: 11, 12), this "first faith" being placed in intentional opposition to the tenets of

I Tim. 4: 1-3. Moreover, in the third chapter of this same epistle and associated with the

Mystery of Godliness, the apostle speaks of the offices of both bishops and deacons and

stresses that both should be married and have children, not even permitting marriage and

the avoidance of children, and associating these homely and familiar conditions with

"holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience", with evident anticipation of the

reference to the forbidding of marriage and the seared consciences of first Timothy,

chapter four. It evidently became necessary for the apostle to write to the Hebrews that

"marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled" (Heb. 13: 4). Marriage, like meats,

is a part of the conditions of life while in this "body of our humiliation" and the intricate

ceremonial of the Levitical laws of uncleanness that are associated with child birth and its

necessary concomitants, could be used by these seducing spirits to create an aversion and

cause a rebound to a false sanctity. While the seducing spirits lead their dupes on their

vain quest for a superior sanctity that finds its roots only in the flesh, I Tim. 4: tells us

the only real sanctity that avails before God is that which "is sanctified by the Word of

God, and prayer".

Here we have the sanction of scripture intelligently and thankfully endorsed by the

prayer and thanksgiving of the believer. He who has reached this blessed position is

indeed proof against the enticement of a specious holiness, but those who do not see that

sanctification, like justification, is in the first instance a gift in grace and can have no

room for the flesh in any of its ways, are the ones most likely to be used as instruments in

the hands of the father of lies.

It is a mistake to look upon the words "meats" in I Tim. 4: as being a reference to

"flesh" and as distinct from a "non-flesh" diet. This has turned the eyes of many to

Roman Catholic and Ritualistic practices and so prevented them from beholding the

possibility of a beam being in their own eye. The word broma means in the first place

any solid food as distinct from drink.

The "meat" offering of the second of Leviticus is entirely devoid of "flesh", and the

expression "Grace before meat" means the giving of thanks before partaking of any meal.

The terms "sweetmeats" "greenmeat", &100:, further indicate the range of the word. While

therefore a super sanctity would naturally abstain from flesh as an article of diet, that is