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It is the same with peace. That primal peace, which by emphasis he calls "my peace," which He had with the Father, He has given to us; as he says, "My peace I give unto you." He speaks distinctly of "peace," and of "my peace." He says, "Peace I leave with you;" that is one peace-peace with God, which, as sinners, we need, and which was made for us by Christ on the cross, and which in the Gospel is offered to us. But, over and above that, He says, "My peace (my own peace-the peace I have as Son with the Father) I give unto you"-a peace which is above all circumstances of sorrow or trial, as seen in Him who, though a man of sorrows, retained a mind at rest before God. Ah! beloved, we have not yet, believe me, taken hold of all our privileges in Christ Jesus. His peace is ours-oh, wondrous thought!— the peace of the Son of God. Some do not understand either this peace of the Son which He hath given "the love of the Father." Then we are also heirs. He is heir of all things, and we take heirship with Him. Neither He nor we are yet in possession. He died to reconcile all things. He has reconciled us. We are made nigh. But the whole earth, and the heavens, will yet be subject to Him, when He is enthroned above them all. Angels are distanced by the thought that sinners are to sit down with Him on His throne, even as He is now on His Father's throne. Moreover, the Head cannot show out its fulness but through the members. It is ours, beloved, we who are with Him in His rejection-who own Him as Lord and Christ-who are His body,-to be associated with His highest exaltation. This it was which gave Him infinite satisfaction during the time of His rejection. As, when David came to the throne, those who had shared his rejection were raised to positions of honour in the kingdom, even so, there are those, He tells us, who will sit with Him on His throne, reigning over the kingdom, ruling the world.

This is a glory which differs-the body with the Head. Is there not a difference between the glory of Israel and that of His redeemed body? Surely, there is a marvellous distinction between those who reign with Christ, and those who are reigned over. He had long since gathered Israel as a people ere He said, "On this rock will I build my Church." He is now building His Church. Every believing sinner from the time of the Lord's rejection to the time of His coming again, is, as I believe, included in the body. But neither the Head nor the body have as yet been manifested. Can the Head manifest His life, and the body not be in the manifestation ? "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."

It is the same with His fulness. The body, says Paul, is the fulness of Him, that filleth all in all." What was in Him never could have been seen or known but for His redeemed body. Even as no one could have known a Creator but for creation, which showed what was in him, so none would have known God, in Christ, His infinite resources of grace, holiness, righteousness, and love, but for the Church; hence He hath, says Paul, "raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus."

But the exceeding riches will not be fully seen until Christ and His Church, the Head and the members, are "glorified together." The Head the first fruits, afterwards them that are His. This is a time for the patience of Jesus. He is waiting to take up His Church for which He died, that we may be glorified together. In order to that, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven for us, and we shall be caught up to meet Him. The body will then be with the Head, and will be with Him wherever He is. If the Head, as in 1 Thess. iv., be in the air, the body will

be with Him. If the Head, as in John xiv., be in heaven, the body will be with Him. If He be in glory, as in Colossians, reigning, we shall reign with Him, and be with Him for ever. When He delivers up the kingdom to the Father, He will not deliver up His body. Did any man ever give up His body? The kingdom will have answered its end; not so the body.

What sublime and elevating truth is this! How it links us in, not only with the eternal future, but brings us back to see what we were, in the purpose of God, in the eternal past-joint heirs with the Son, who was with the Father. John says, " We beheld His glory;" not His glory as man, but as of the only begotten of the Father." Ah, it is with that glory also we are to be associated. The Head cannot have His primal glory without its casting its radiance specially on the body. Of one glory He says, "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them;" but in regard to the essential glory He says, "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold MY glory."

Nearer or dearer to God than all this we cannot be ; and all that we want is to bow the head before Him, to adore and worship. As to our walk and life, we must take our true standing as the members of Christ's body. The world that rejected the Head rejects the members; that is, if true to Him. He promises you nothing now from the world but tribulation. Israel will have much here the kingdom, the whole earth, a new Jerusalem! Abraham looked for a city, which city, as seen in Rev. xxi., will yet come down from God out of heaven ; and the Messiah, for His Israel, is to have the throne of David; but where are we? We have no throne, no kingdom here; but we shall reign with Him over the earth, like those who were with David in the cave, and who shared his honour when he came to the throne. So shall we share the glory of Jesus. We shall come with Him in His glory, and shall reign with Him. Won

derful position-to form the body of Christ! Nothing, not one iota, lower! This surely is wonderful, to be as He is! Is it not melancholy that there are dear Christians not knowing, and therefore not living in the enjoyment of this truth? And sometimes it happens that when told of it, they care not for it. Alas, how shameful! that when God's love is put out to me I do not care to know it! I draw into the narrow shell of my own prejudices rather than take it!

Imagine a poor man who got his living by taking alms of the passers-by. A lawyer tells him he is worth ten thousand pounds! What cares the man now for the alms? But, oh, how are we still, as it were, content with our own former poverty, instead of exulting in our priceless portion. What I want is, with the Colossians, to be brought into the knowledge of His will, to know what I was in His purpose, and to be filled with a knowledge of His will. I have only to know the will, and whatever I find as mine there, I am in it at once. This is the present privilege of every believing sinner.

And will not the Lord, beloved, care for His body? "Saul, Saul," He said, "you are touching me-you are afflicting me." Oh! how close is the connexion between the Head and the members! Can the body suffer pain, and the Head not feel it? or the members be in a wrong position, and the Head not sooner or later deal with them? Sometimes, when they sin a sin unto death, He takes them up home into heaven. If mixed with the world, and in a wrong position, He, in simple love, takes them out of it. What better care could He take of His members? Great is His love. If the hand be cold, He will warm it; if in pain, He will devise means to alleviate it, or will suffer with it.

Ah! beloved, believe me, whatever may be thought or said to the contrary, this whole truth is a practical truth. It is a deeply sanctifying truth. For how does this position of ours bear upon our life! The Head

is holy; we must be holy. The Head is not of the world; we are not of the world. The Head is in heaven; we must be heavenly. The Head has no place with the ordinary course of this present, evil world, (age,) and, as members of the body of Christ, we should have none. Should we go where the Head would not go? But the Head could not go where, alas! many Christians go. You are walking, perhaps, in some wrong way with the world that rejected the Head. "Holding the Head" will put you right in every circumstance. Would He be here? Would He do this? This should guide me. Christians it would make of us! standard, I know, and few there be it. Yet it is our standard; not I am a professor, and I must walk as such, or I am a minister, and must walk as such; such walk, at best, must be defective; but I am as Christ, and must walk as He walked. Says John, "As Christ is in this world, so are we;" and being as He is, we must walk even as He walked.

What wonderful Ah! it is a high that even think of

And now as we have one life and are one body, so we have one Spirit. Not one Spirit for the Head and another for the body. The Head was anointed with the oil of gladness, and it ran down to the body. The Holy Ghost dwells in us: "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" He said to His disciples, "Behold, I send the promise of my Father unto you;" and the Holy Ghost baptized them into one body at Pentecost, so that we have not to ask for the Holy Ghost to come. The Spirit is in the Head and in the members; and He it is who reveals to the members the fulness in the Head. Oh! it is His work to bring all this wondrous truth to our mind, and so give it to be life and power within us, that our lives being formed thereby, we may glorify God. It is thus, too, when we walk according to what He through the Word reveals, that He dwells within us an unhindered and an ungrieved guest.