prayed, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always; but because of the people which stand by I said it that they may believe that thou hast sent me." Since the Father hears Christ always, he heard him when he prayed for Peter, and so his faith did not fail; and as a proof that it did not, after the denial, he "went out and wept bitterly." And that same Saviour who prayed for Peter, prays to-day for all true Christians that their faith fail not, and therefore in no case will it fail. "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Rom. viii. 34. See also Heb. vii. 25, and I. John ii. 1.)

Paul is supposed to teach the possibility of apostasy in I. Cor. ix. 27, where he says, "But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." If he had said, "lest I myself should be an apostate," then the passage might have borne the interpretation sought to be put upon it. The Apostle is comparing the Christian life to the contests of the Greek athletes a familiar picture to the Corinthians-and after stating how these athletes were "temperate in all things," "to obtain a corruptible crown," he goes on to say: "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep my body under," etc. The word rendered "castaway" is

dôóxpo and means "spurious." Plato and other Greek writers use the word to describe counterfeit coin. Now counterfeit coin never was genuine, and the use of the word in this connection, so far from favoring, is in direct conflict with the doctrine of apostasy.

That Paul said to the Galatians, "Ye are fallen from grace," is sometimes cited to prove apostasy. But the connection plainly shows that the Apostle referred to the doctrinal error of those who claimed that justification was by the law instead of by faith, and the argument is, that such persons, in their belief, had fallen from the doctrines of grace to those of works. A simple reading of the fourth, fifth and sixth verses (Gal. v. 4, 5, 6,) will make the meaning clear. "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."

But the passages chiefly relied upon to establish the doctrine of apostasy are Hebrews vi. 4-6-" For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made. partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again

unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame;"-and x. 26, 27-" For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." If these passages prove apostasy, they prove too much for the advocates of that doctrine, who teach that a man may be recovered after apostatizing, and that, too, more than once. The words apostasy, apostatizing, etc., are used in this discussion as meaning the loss of regeneration and the passing back from a state of grace to a state of nature. But in neither of these passages is it said that a regenerate man may fall away. To say "if a thing should happen," is not to declare that it ever will happen. But none of the expressions in the above passages are necessarily descriptive of a true Christian. The expression "made partakers of the Holy Ghost and the powers of the world to come " is nearest such a description; but Judas had this qualification, for he wrought miracles by the power of the Holy Ghost; and Judas was never regenerate. It has been claimed that he was regenerate, and John xvii. 12 has been cited in proof. "Those whom thou gavest me have I kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition." That Judas is here not declared to be one of those given