Christ, in His life, and death, and resurrection, and intercession, the constant desire of our hearts. We are one with Christ; and realising this by faith in all these things, we are animated, and strengthened, and resolved to maintain our conflict with everything within ourselves, which we know to be contrary to His mind and will. We would not live a life different from His; we would be crucified with Him to all sin; we would in heart and mind thither ascend where He is; and have our conversation in heaven, from whence we look for His coming again without sin unto our salvation. The love of Him constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died as a substitute for all, the death of all, as a matter of atonement, was then accomplished in Him, and we live justified and holy; not to ourselves, but in love unto Him that died for us and rose again, (2 Cor. v. 14.) "If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him," (2 Tim. ii. 11.) "Yielding ourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and making even our bodily members, contrary to their disposition, to be instruments of righteousness unto God," (Rom. vi. 13.) The whole man is required to be subdued to the obedience of Christ. For this we are strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; that being rooted and grounded in love, we may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge; that we may be

filled with all the fulness of God, (Eph. iv. 16.) "Filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God himself; strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,” (Col. i. 9.)

Herein, by the Spirit of God, comes our renewal day by day, our growth in grace, as that of those who are alive unto God; growing as all living things are expected to grow. And for this the dew and rain of the Spirit, with the beams of the Sun of righteousness, are given, without which there would be not only no growing, but no life.

In due time our growth will be complete, and we shall be cut down living, or rather taken up, for ulterior and more glorious purposes. Let us go on, therefore, unto perfection.

The outward man shall be mortified, and perish, but the inward man be renewed. Here is our warfare. Let us be good soldiers, receiving of the SPIRIT of God for true heroism, and sure of being more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us. "He giveth His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him," (Luke xi. 13.) There are two ways in which He gives Him; -either, 1. In sovereign acts of gracious invasion of

the heart; or, 2. In special answers to the special prayers of them that ask for Him. But if this last be so, according to the rule declared, then how ought we to pray for Him always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, Himself assisting us, and watching thereunto with all perseverance, for answers to be given; yea, praying, like St Paul, again and again, until we find His grace sufficient for us. I speak in the word of the Lord, which is better than my own. Let us regard it.

Let it not be forgotten that it is yet the dispensation of the Spirit, through the whole of which Christ said to His disciples, "Lo, I am with you always, (implying after one and the same manner,) even to the end of the world." Of this dispensation, not only the end, but even the most glorious times, have not yet been known. Where is the preaching of the gospel in all the world? Where are the kingdoms of this world coming near to the entire surrender of themselves to Christ? Where have times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord been seen if we except that of the Reformation, and a slight manifestation here and there? Where has been the conversion and gathering of the Jews from their universal dispersion, according to the promises of God? Where the living and reigning of the saints with Christ for a thousand years, ere He deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and God be all in all?

The dispensation of conflict, both open and secret,

as it was in the earliest Christian times, even when Christ spoke, yet continues; and every soldier must fight, until the spirit triumphs in the death of the body, which, when it lives again, shall receive the crown of glory which fadeth not away.

SECTION VIII.

MEANS IN AID OF PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY.

THE means, in the diligent use of which the Spirit will carry on our renewal, ought to be separately considered.

Holy Scripture is the principal. This, and especially those parts which remind us of the foundations of our faith, and those which bear particularly upon our warfare, will be often seriously read, examined, and applied to the heart, and brought into our prayers.

A crucified and ever-living Saviour will be called again and again to mind. And such views as connect Him, in our justification by His blood and righteousness, with our experience in Christian progress, will be earnestly studied and laid to heart. We are not under the law, but under grace. We may have thought that by our obedience to the law of God we should obtain salvation; but the requirements of it are so perfect, that the more we know of it the more we have found that we are condemned under our inability and sinfulness, and die instead of living by it. It actually kills us, unless we have a