privileged, so buessed; nn, not even she who bore the Saviour of the world, the Christ, the true King, as he who hears the Word of God and keeps in

What the Lord said of His disciples He says of all who are true discipues, “I have given them Thy Word, and the world bath them.” It haseth them because they are of the kingdom which it reveals. They who receive the Word keep it. It is the Word of the righteous Father. They see, they enter the kingdom, being born of the Father, of His Word, the incorruptibue seed; and because of this, they are hated of the world. Thus we learn Christ, and in the Son we know the Father. Christ dwelling in us, casting down everything that would exalt itself against God, and the knowledge of Him, that we might enter into all the fulness of His grace.

XX.

LUKE xi. 2, 29-xii. 12.

"Thy will be done on earth as in heaven."

THE Father has predestinated all to the place of children, to be holy and without blame before Him in love. He has made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption, through His blood the forgiveness of sins.

In Christ we have redemption from sin; in the Son full forgiveness. We are perfect in Christ Jesus, who said, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not require; mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required." Then said I, "Lo, I come! in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my heart." Not only were His ears opened as He became sin for us, but he, having died and risen again, possessed the will of God, which he preached in the great congregation. It is the Gospel message. Repentance and remission of sins must, therefore, be preached among all nations. This repentance is redemption realised. Remission is the realisation of the life already given us in the Son of God. No one has remission till he makes effective his adoption in the Spirit of the Son. Hence Jesus argued the necessity of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. It was the Father's will that of what He had given Him He should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day; therefore, every one that ɛeeth the Son, and believeth into Him, having first put on Christ, hath everlasting life, and He will raise

him

up

at the last day. This was to eat His flesh and drink His blood. It was being in His name. And the final resurrection of all men will be an unquestionable attestation to the gift of God to all in all time.

When we go on to perfection—are perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, we possess Christ and obey the law of the Spirit of Life. We walk in holiness, and we possess the will of the Father, who is both willing and doing in us, even as the Lord said: "I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me." It is a vital error to make the doing of the will of the Father to be the obeying of certain precepts, the doing of something external to us; whereas it is a condition of soul acting according to its own law, despite every obstacle. We possess the mind that is in Christ Jesus, in whom and by whom we purge away the dross of our own earthly-mindedness, and reveal the good, perfect, acceptable will of God. His will operates, works in us. It is He working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. ii. 13). We are, then, in Christ Jesus, no longer alienated from the life of God, but are renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created us; abounding yet more and more in knowledge as we abound in all judgment.

One instance is sufficient to show the prevailing ignorance of the truth. It is said: 66 'He creates us anew in Christ

Jesus unto good works." This is rendered abortive by saying: "We are not to imagine that either the principle of obedience or the power to obey is perfect." And then a comparison is drawn between the obedience of angels and of men, instead of seeing the necessity of a condition of soul possessed and manifested in the life. If we cannot go on to perfection, even as the Lord urges us, why has He put this

petition in our mouths, saying, "Thy will be done on earth as in heaven"?

Angels implicitly do the will of God. If they did not, they would sully that most glorious attribute, the crown of His perfections-holiness, of which they are the representatives, and become unholy. But our exemplar is the only begotten of the Father; and we are like Him when He is in us and we in Him, doing the Father's will on earth as He does it in heaven.

We now follow the Lord's exposition (xi. 29; xii. 12).

He calls this generation evil. It is such, notwithstanding the presence of His kingdom. It seeks not the reality, but rejects it because it is not visible, not tangible. However, inwardly, in the depths of every man's inner being, the reality is vouchsafed. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so is the one sign given that the Father has redeemed the world. As Jonah was, so to speak, dead, buried, had descended into the depths of Hades, and came forth witnessing to the truth, preaching repentance unto the Ninevites; so was the Son of man, in His crucifixion, death, and burial, a sign to this generation. The death of the Son of God on the accursed tree was a sign of that most awful agony, that unfathomable experience, that sent forth the cry, My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" when the holy, the eternal One, was made sin, a curse for all men, that all might through Him possess the righteousness of God in Him. His death was our death. When He died we died; but it is only when His death is effective in us, when we so suffer in the flesh, bear the one cross, that we cease from sin.

66

There is a judgment to come, the full manifestation of the kingdom, when Christ shall come in His own glory, in the perfection of holiness, with all His holy angels, to the con

N

fusion of all that is not of it; when all evil will be banished into outer darkness, and the Father will be all and in all. Then will Queen Sheba, who sought the son of David, and the Ninevites, who repented, rise in judgment and condemn those who, possessing greater privileges in the wisdom of God-the true Son, the Christ-obeyed it not.

The kingdom is established, claiming the heathen for its inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for its possession. Light is come into the world, for the Spirit is poured out upon all flesh. Then why has the only begotten of the Father taken our nature, and died the accursed death for all men? Why has the Spirit come forth in all His condescending love, blessing all? The Lord answers, as he asks, “Does any man light a candle to put it in a secret place or under a bushel?" If, then, God, in His covenant grace, has lighted every man, is it not that light may come forth ? If any, then, will ask and seek, not signs, but realities, he knocks, he enters the kingdom, he walks in the light with God, and lets his light so shine before men that they, beholding his good works-the will of the Father working in him-glorify Him which is in heaven.

By the very simple and universal imagery the Lord illustrates the truth. If the eye be single, without the lid,—that is, not closed,—it cannot but receive light and give light to the body, so that the body becomes full of light. But when the eye is evil (Tovηpòs)—and it is so because it is not singlethe body is full of darkness. God has lighted us. He has lighted every man coming into the world; and, unless our eye be single,-which is its normal condition, as indicative of life, even as sleep is of death,-unless the soul have put off the flesh, it cannot give light to the body.

The eye and the lid, in their relation to the body, represent