HOLY IN CHRIST: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy. BY REV. ANDREW MURRAY, AUTHOR OF 'ABIDE IN CHRIST, ' 'LIKE CHRIST, ' ETC. _'I am holy: ye shall be holy. '_ FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY, CHICAGO, NEW YORK, TORONTO, Publishers of Evangelical Literature. PREFACE. There is not in Scripture a word more distinctly Divine in its originand meaning than the word holy. There is not a word that leads us higherinto the mystery of Deity, nor deeper into the privilege and theblessedness of God's children. And yet it is a word that many aChristian has never studied or understood. There are not a few who can praise God that during the past twenty yearsthe watchword BE HOLY has been taken up in many a church and Christiancircle with greater earnestness than before. In books and magazines, inconventions and conferences, in the testimonies and the lives ofbelievers, we have abundant tokens that what is called theHoliness-movement is a reality. And yet how much is still wanting! What multitudes of believingChristians there are who have none but the very vaguest thoughts of whatholiness is! And of those who are seeking after it how many who havehardly learnt what it is to come to God's Word and to God Himself forthe teaching that can alone reveal this part of the mystery of Christand of God! To many, holiness has simply been a general expression forthe Christian life in its more earnest form, without much thought ofwhat the term really means. In writing this little book, my object has been to discover in whatsense God uses the word, that so it may mean to us what it means to Him. I have sought to trace the word through some of the most importantpassages of Holy Scripture where it occurs, there to learn what God'sholiness is, what ours is to be, and what the way by which we attain it. I have been specially anxious to point out how many and various theelements are that go to make up true holiness as the Divine expressionof the Christian life in all its fulness and perfection. I have at thesame time striven continually to keep in mind the wonderful unity andsimplicity there is in it, as centred in the person of Jesus. As Iproceeded in my work, I felt ever more deeply how high the task was Ihad undertaken in offering to guide others even into the outer courts ofthe Holy Place of the Most High. And yet the very difficulty of the taskconvinced me of how needful it was. I fear there are some to whom the book may be a disappointment. Theyhave heard that the entrance to the life of holiness is often but astep. They have heard of or seen believers who could tell of the blessedchange that has come over their lives since they found the wonderfulsecret of holiness by faith. And now they are seeking for this secret. They cannot understand that the secret comes to those who seek it not, but only seek Jesus. They might fain have a book in which all they needto know of Holiness and the way to it is gathered into a few simplelessons, easy to learn, to remember, and to practise. This they will notfind. There is such a thing as a Pentecost still to the disciples ofJesus; but it comes to him who has forsaken all to follow Jesus only, and in following fully has allowed the Master to reprove and instructhim. There are often very blessed revelations of Christ, as a Saviourfrom sin, both in the secret chamber and in the meetings of the saints;but these are given to those for whom they have been prepared, and whohave been prepared to receive. Let all learn to trust in Jesus, andrejoice in Him, even though their experience be not what they wouldwish. He will make us holy. But whether we have entered the blessed lifeof faith in Jesus as our sanctification, or are still longing for itfrom afar, we all need one thing, the simple, believing, and obedientacceptance of each word that our God has spoken. It has been my earnestdesire that I might be a helper of the faith of my brethren in seekingto trace with them the wondrous revelation of God's Holiness through theages as recorded in His blessed Word. It has been my continual prayerthat God might use what is written to increase in His children theconviction that we must be holy, the knowledge of how we are to be holy, the joy that we may be holy, the faith that we can be holy. And may Hestir us all to cry day and night to Him for a visitation of the Spiritand the Power of Holiness upon all His people, that the name ofChristian and of saint may be synonymous, and every believer be a vesselmade holy and meet for the Master's use. A. M. Wellington, _16th November 1887_. CONTENTS. DAY PAGE 1. God's Call to Holiness--1 Pet. I. 15, 16, 11 2. God's Provision for Holiness--1 Cor. I. 2, 19 3. Holiness and Creation--Gen. Ii. 3, 28 4. Holiness and Revelation--Ex. Iii. 4-6, 36 5. Holiness and Redemption--Ex. Xiii. 2, 46 6. Holiness and Glory--Ex. Xv. 11-17, 55 7. Holiness and Obedience--Ex. Xix. 5, 6, 64 8. Holiness and Indwelling--Ex. Xxv. 8, 73 9. Holiness and Meditation--Ex. Xxviii. 36-38, 81 10. Holiness and Separation--Lev. Xx. 24, 26, 89 11. The Holy One of Israel--Lev. Xi. 45, 98 12. The Thrice Holy One--Isa. Vi. 1-3, 107 13. Holiness and Humility--Isa. Lvii. 15, 117 14. The Holy One of God--John vi. 69, 125 15. The Holy Spirit--John vii. 39, 133 16. Holiness and Truth--John xvii. 17, 142 17. Holiness and Crucifixion--John xvii. 19, 150 18. Holiness and Faith--Acts xxvi. 18, 158 19. Holiness and Resurrection--Rom. I. 4, 167 20. Holiness and Liberty--Rom. Vi. 18-22, 175 21. Holiness and Happiness--Rom. Xiv. 17, 184 22. In Christ our Sanctification--1 Cor. I. 30, 31, 192 23. Holiness and the Body--1 Cor. Iii. 16, 201 24. Holiness and Cleansing--2 Cor. Vii. 1, 210 25. Holiness and Blamelessness--1 Thess. Iii. 12, 13, 219 26. Holiness and the Will of God--1 Thess. Iv. 3, 227 27. Holiness and Service--2 Tim. Ii. 21, 235 28. The Way into the Holiest--Heb. X. 19, 243 29. Holiness and Chastisement--Heb. Xii. 10, 14, 253 30. The Unction from the Holy One--1 John ii. 20, 27, 262 31. Holiness and Heaven--2 Pet. Iii. 11, 271 Notes, 281 First Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. God's Call to Holiness. 'Like as He which called you is _holy_, be ye yourselves also _holy_ in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be _holy_, for I am _holy_. '--1 Pet. I. 15, 16. The call of God is the manifestation in time of the purpose of eternity:'Whom He predestinated, them He also _called_. ' Believers are 'the_called_ according to His purpose. ' In His call He reveals to us whatHis thoughts and His will concerning us are, and what the life to whichHe invites us. In His call He makes clear to us what the hope of ourcalling is; as we spiritually apprehend and enter into this, our life onearth will be the reflection of His purpose in eternity. Holy Scripture uses more than one word to indicate the object or aim ofour calling, but none more frequently than what Peter speaks ofhere--God has called us _to be holy_ as He is holy. Paul addressesbelievers twice as 'called to be _holy_' (Rom. I. 7; 1 Cor. I. 2). 'Godcalled us', he says, 'not for uncleanness, but _in sanctification_'(1 Thess. Iv. 7). When he writes, 'The God of peace _sanctify_ youwholly, ' he adds, 'Faithful is He which _calleth_ you, who also will doit' (1 Thess. V. 24). The calling itself is spoken of as 'a _holy_calling. ' The eternal purpose of which the calling is the outcome, iscontinually also connected with holiness as its aim. 'He hath _chosen_us in Him, that we should be _holy_ and without blame' (Eph. I. 4). 'Whom God _chose_ from the beginning unto _salvation in sanctification_'(2 Thess. Ii. 12). '_Elect_ according to the foreknowledge of theFather, through _sanctification_ of the Spirit' (1 Pet. I. 2). The callis the unveiling of the purpose that the Father from eternity had setHis heart upon: that we should be holy. It needs no proof that it is of infinite importance to know aright whatGod has called us to. A misunderstanding here may have fatal results. You may have heard that God calls you to salvation or to happiness, toreceive pardon or to obtain heaven, and never noticed that all thesewere subordinate. It was to 'salvation _in sanctification_, ' it was toHoliness in the first place, as the element in which salvation andheaven are to be found. The complaints of many Christians as to lack ofjoy and strength, as to failure and want of growth, are simply owing tothis--the place God gave Holiness in His call they have not given it intheir response. God and they have never yet come to an agreement onthis. No wonder that Paul, in the chapter in which he had spoken to theEphesians of their being 'chosen to be holy' prays for the spirit ofwisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God to be given to believers, that they might know 'the hope of their _calling_' (i. 17, 18). Let allof us, who feel that we have too little realized that we are called toHoliness, pray this prayer. It is just what we need. Let us ask God toshow us how, as He who hath called us is Himself holy, so we are to beholy too; our calling is a holy calling, a calling before and aboveeverything, to Holiness. Let us ask Him to show us what Holiness is, HisHoliness first, and then our Holiness; to show us how He has set Hisheart upon it as the one thing He wants to see in us, as being His ownimage and likeness; to show us too the unutterable blessedness and gloryof sharing with Christ in His Holiness. Oh! that God by His Spirit wouldteach us what it means that we are called to be holy as He is holy. Wecan easily conceive what a mighty influence it would exert. 'Like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy'. Howthis call of God shows us the true _motive_ to Holiness. 'Be ye holy, for I am holy. ' It is as if God said, Holiness is my blessedness and myglory: without this you cannot, in the very nature of things, see me orenjoy me. Holiness is my blessedness and my glory: there is nothinghigher to be conceived; I invite you to share with me in it, I inviteyou to likeness to myself: 'Be ye holy, for I am holy. ' Is it notenough, has it no attraction, does it not move and draw you mightily, the hope of being with me, partakers of my Holiness? I have nothingbetter to offer--I offer you myself: 'Be holy, for I am holy. ' Shall wenot cry earnestly to God to show us the glory of His Holiness, that oursouls may be made willing to give everything in response to thiswondrous call? As we listen to the call, it shows also the _nature_ of true Holiness. '_Like as_ He is holy, so be ye also holy. ' To be holy is to be Godlike, to have a disposition, a will, a character like God. The thought almostlooks like blasphemy, until we listen again, 'He hath chosen us _inChrist_ to be holy. ' In Christ the Holiness of God appeared in a humanlife: in Christ's example, in His mind and Spirit, we have the Holinessof the Invisible One translated into the forms of human life andconduct. To be Christlike is to be Godlike; to be Christlike is to beholy as God is holy. The call equally reveals the _power_ of Holiness. 'There is none holybut the Lord;' there is no Holiness but what He has, or rather what Heis, and gives. Holiness is not something we do or attain: it is thecommunication of the Divine life, the inbreathing of the Divine nature, the power of the Divine Presence resting on us. And our power to becomeholy is to be found in the call of God: the Holy One calls us toHimself, that He may make us holy in possessing Himself. He not onlysays 'I am holy, ' but 'I am the Lord, who make holy. ' It is because thecall to Holiness comes from the God of infinite Power and Love that wemay have the confidence: we can be holy. The call no less reveals the _standard_ of Holiness. '_Like as He_ isholy, _so ye also_ yourselves, ' or (as in margin, R. V. ), 'Like the HolyOne, which calleth you, be ye yourselves also holy. ' There is not onestandard of Holiness for God and another for man. The nature of light isthe same, whether we see it in the sun or in a candle: the nature ofHoliness remains unchanged, whether it be God or man in whom it dwells. The Lord Jesus could say nothing less than, 'Be perfect, even as yourFather in heaven is perfect. ' When God calls us to Holiness, He calls usto Himself and His own life: the more carefully we listen to the voice, and let it sink into our hearts, the more will all human standards fallaway, and only the words be heard, Holy, as I am holy. And the call shows us the _path_ to Holiness. The calling of God is oneof mighty efficacy, an effectual calling. Oh! let us but listen to it, let us but listen to Him, and the call will with Divine power work whatit offers. He calleth the things that are not as though they were: Hiscall gives life to the dead, and holiness to those whom He has madealive. He calls us to listen as He speaks of His Holiness, and of ourholiness like His. He calls us to Himself, to study, to fear, to love, to claim His Holiness. He calls us to Christ, in whom Divine Holinessbecame human Holiness, to see and admire, to desire and accept what isall for us. He calls us to the indwelling and the teaching of theSpirit of Holiness, to yield ourselves that He may bring home to us andbreathe within us what is ours in Christ. Christian! listen to Godcalling thee to Holiness. Come and learn what His Holiness is, and whatthine is and must be. Yes, be very silent and listen. When God called Abraham, he answered, Here am I. When God called Moses from the bush, he answered, Here am I, and he hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. God is callingthee to Holiness, to Himself the Holy One, that He may make thee holy. Let thy whole soul answer, Here am I, Lord! Speak, Lord! Show Thyself, Lord! Here am I. As you listen, the voice will sound ever deeper andever stiller: Be holy, _as_ I am holy. Be holy, _for_ I am holy. Youwill hear a voice coming out of the great eternity, from thecouncil-chamber of redemption, and as you catch its distant whisper, itwill be, Be holy, I am holy. You will hear a voice from Paradise, theCreator making the seventh day holy for man whom He had created, andsaying, Be holy. You will hear the voice from Sinai, amid thunderingsand lightnings, and still it is, Be holy, as I am holy. You will hear avoice from Calvary, and there above all it is, Be holy, for I am holy. Child of God, have you ever realized it, our Father is calling us toHimself, to be holy as He is holy? Must we not confess that happinesshas been to us more than holiness, salvation than sanctification? Oh! itis not too late to redeem the error. Let us now band ourselves togetherto listen to the voice that calls, to draw nigh, and find out and knowwhat Holiness is, or rather, find out and know Himself the Holy One. Andif the first approach to Him fill us with shame and confusion, make usfear and shrink back, let us still listen to the Voice and the Call, 'Beholy, as I am holy. ' 'Faithful is He which _calleth_, who also _will doit_. ' All our fears and questions will be met by the Holy One who hasrevealed His Holiness, with this one purpose in view, that we mightshare it with Him. As we yield ourselves in deep stillness of soul tolisten to the Holy Voice that calls us, it will waken within us newdesire and strong faith, and the most precious of all promises will beto us this word of Divine command: BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. O Lord! the alone Holy One, Thou hast called us to be holy, even as Thouart holy. Lord! how can we, unless Thou reveal to us Thy Holiness. Showus, we pray Thee, how Thou art holy, how holy Thou art, what Thyholiness is, that we may know how we are to be holy, how holy we are tobe. And when the sight of Thy Holiness only shows us the more how unholywe are, teach us that Thou makest partakers of Thy own Holiness thosewho come to Thee for it. O God! we come to Thee, the Holy One. It is in knowing and finding andhaving Thyself, that the soul finds Holiness. We do beseech Thee, as wenow come to Thee, establish it in the thoughts of our heart, that theone object of Thy calling us, and of our coming to Thee, is Holiness. Thou wouldst have us like Thyself, partakers of Thy Holiness. If everour heart becomes afraid, as if it were too high, or rests content witha salvation less than Holiness, Blessed God! let us hear Thy voicecalling again, Be holy, I am holy. Let that call be our motive and ourstrength, because faithful is He that calleth, who also will do it. Letthat call mark our standard and our path; oh! let our life be such asThou art able to make it. Holy Father! I bow in lowly worship and silence before Thee. Let nowThine own voice sound in the depths of my heart calling me, Be holy, asI am holy. Amen. 1. Let me press it upon every reader of this little book, that if it is to help him in the pursuit of Holiness, he must begin _with God Himself_. You must go _to Him who calls you_. It is only in the personal revelation of God to you, as He speaks, I am holy, that the command, Be ye holy, can have life or power. 2. Remember, as a believer, you have already accepted God's call, even though you did not fully understand it. Let it be a settled matter, that whatever you see to be the meaning of the call, you will at once accept and carry out. If God calls me to be holy, holy I will be. 3. Take fast hold of the word: 'The God of peace sanctify you wholly: faithful is He which _calleth_ you, _who also will do it_. ' In that faith listen to God calling you. 4. Do be still now, and listen to your Father calling you. Ask for and count upon the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness, to open your heart to understand this holy calling. And then speak out the answer you have to give to this call. Second Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. God's Provision for Holiness. 'To those that are _made holy_ in Christ Jesus, called to be _holy_. '--1 Cor. I. 2. 'To all the _holy ones_ in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi. Salute every _holy one_ in Christ Jesus. '[1]--Phil. I. 1, iv. 21. HOLY! IN CHRIST! In these two expressions we have perhaps the mostwonderful words of all the Bible. HOLY! the word of unfathomable meaning, which the Seraphs utter withveiled faces. HOLY! the word in which all God's perfections centre, andof which His glory is but the streaming forth. HOLY! the word whichreveals the purpose with which God from eternity thought of man, andtells what man's highest glory in the coming eternity is to be; to bepartaker of His Holiness! IN CHRIST! the word in which all the wisdom and love of God areunveiled! The Father giving His Son to be one with us! the Son dying onthe cross to make us one with Himself! the Holy Spirit of the Fatherdwelling in us to establish and maintain that union! IN CHRIST! what asummary of what redemption has done, and of the inconceivably blessedlife in which the child of God is permitted to dwell. IN CHRIST! the onelesson we have to study on earth. God's one answer to all our needs andprayers. IN CHRIST! the guarantee and the foretaste of eternal glory. What wealth of meaning and blessing in the two words combined: HOLY INCHRIST! Here is God's provision for our holiness, God's response to ourquestion, How to be holy? Often and often as we hear the call, Be _ye_holy, _even as I_ am holy, it is as if there is and ever must be a greatgulf between the holiness of God and man. IN CHRIST! is the bridge thatcrosses the gulf; nay rather, His fulness has filled it up. IN CHRIST!God and man meet; IN CHRIST! the Holiness of God has found us, and madeus its own; has become human, and can indeed become our very own. To theanxious cries and the heart-yearnings of thousands of thirsty souls whohave believed in Jesus and yet know not how to be holy, here is God'sanswer: YE ARE HOLY IN CHRIST JESUS. Would they but hearken, andbelieve; would they but take these Divine words, and say them over, ifneed be, a thousand times, how God's light would shine, and fill theirhearts with joy and love as they echo them back: Yes, now I see it. Holyin Christ! Made holy in Christ Jesus! As we set ourselves to study these wondrous words, let us remember thatit is only God Himself who can reveal to us what Holiness truly is. Letus fear our own thoughts, and crucify our own wisdom. Let us give upourselves to receive, in the power of the life of God Himself, workingin us by the Holy Spirit, that which is deeper and truer than humanthought, Christ Himself as our Holiness. In this dependence upon theteaching of the Spirit of Holiness, let us seek simply to accept whatHoly Scripture sets before us; as the revelation of the Holy One of oldwas a very slow and gradual one, so let us be content patiently tofollow step by step the path of the shining light through the Word; itwill shine more and more unto the perfect day. We shall first have to study the word Holy in the Old Testament. InIsrael as the holy people, the type of us who now are holy in Christ, weshall see with what fulness of symbol God sought to work into the veryconstitution of the people some apprehension of what He would have thembe. In the law we shall see how HOLY is the great keyword of theredemption which it was meant to serve and prepare for. In the prophetswe shall hear how the Holiness of God is revealed as the source whencethe coming redemption should spring: it is not so much Holiness as theHoly One they speak of, who would, in redeeming love and savingrighteousness, make Himself known as the God of His people. And when the meaning of the word has been somewhat opened up, and thedeep need of the blessing made manifest in the Old Testament, we shallcome to the New to find how that need was fulfilled. In Christ, the HolyOne of God, Divine Holiness will be found in human life and humannature; a truly human will being made perfect and growing up throughobedience into complete union with all the Holy Will of God. In thesacrifice of Himself on the cross, that holy nature gave itself up tothe death, that, like the seed-corn, it might through death live againand reproduce itself in us. In the gift from the throne of the Spirit ofGod's Holiness, representing and revealing and communicating the unseenChrist, the holy life of Christ descends and takes possession of Hispeople, and they become one with Him. As the Old Testament had no higherword than that HOLY, the New has none deeper than this, IN CHRIST. Thebeing in Him, the abiding in Him, the being rooted in Him, the growingup in Him and into Him in all things, are the Divine expressions inwhich the wonderful and complete oneness between us and our Saviour arebrought as near us as human language can do. And when Old and New Testament have each given their message, the one inteaching us what _Holy_, the other what _in Christ_ means, we have inthe word of God, that unites the two, the most complete summary of theGreat Redemption that God's love has provided. The everlastingcertainty, the wonderful sufficiency, the infinite efficacy of theHoliness that God has prepared for us in His Son, are all revealed inthis blessed, HOLY IN CHRIST. 'The Holy Ones in Christ Jesus!' Such is the name, belovedfellow-believers, which we bear in Holy Scripture, in the language ofthe Holy Spirit. It is no mere statement of doctrine, that we are holyin Christ: it is no deep theological discussion to which we are invited;but out of the depths of God's loving heart, there comes a voice thusaddressing His beloved children. It is the name by which the Fathercalls His children. That name tells us of God's provision for our beingholy. It is the revelation of what God has given us, and what we alreadyare; of what God waits to work in us, and what can be ours in personalpractical possession. That name, gratefully accepted, joyfullyconfessed, trustfully pleaded, will be the pledge and the power of ourattainment of the Holiness to which we have been called. And so we shall find that as we go along, all our study and all God'steaching will be comprised in three great lessons. The first arevelation, '_I am holy_;' the second a command, '_Be ye holy_;' thethird a gift, the link between the two, '_Ye are holy in Christ_. ' First comes the revelation, 'I am holy. ' Our study must be on bendedknee, in the spirit of worship and deep humility. God must revealHimself to us, if we are to know what Holy is. The deep unholiness ofour nature and all that is of nature must be shown us; with Moses andIsaiah, when the Holy One revealed Himself to them, we must fear andtremble, and confess how utterly unfit we are for the revelation or thefellowship, without the cleansing of fire. In the consciousness of theutter impotence of our own wisdom or understanding to know God, oursouls must in contrition, brokenness from ourselves and our power orefforts, yield to God's Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness, to reveal God asthe Holy One. And as we begin to know Him in His infinite righteousness, in His fiery burning zeal against all that is sin, and His infiniteself-sacrificing love to free the sinner from his sin, and to bring himto His own perfection, we shall learn to wonder at and worship thisglorious God, to feel and deplore our terrible unlikeness to Him, tolong and cry for some share in the Divine beauty and blessedness of thisHoliness. And then will come with new meaning the command, 'Be holy, as I amholy. ' Oh, my brethren! ye who profess to obey the commands of your God, do give this all-surpassing and all-including command that first placein your heart and life which it claims. Do be holy with the likeness ofGod's Holiness. Do be holy as He is holy. And if you find that the moreyou meditate and study, the less you can grasp this infinite holiness;that the more you at moments grasp of it, the more you despair of aholiness so Divine; remember that such breaking down and such despair isjust what the command was meant to work. Learn to cease from your ownwisdom as well as your own goodness; draw near in poverty of spirit tolet the Holy One show you how utterly above human knowledge or humanpower is the holiness He demands; to the soul that ceases from self, andhas no confidence in the flesh, He will show and give the holiness Hecalls us to. It is to such that the great gift of Holiness in Christ becomesintelligible and acceptable. Christ brings the Holiness of God nigh byshowing it in human conduct and intercourse. He brings it nigh byremoving the barrier between it and us, between God and us. He brings itnigh, because He makes us one with Himself. 'Holy in Christ:' ourholiness is a Divine bestowment, held for us, communicated to us, working mightily in us because we are _in Him_. 'In Christ!' oh, thatwonderful _in_! our very life rooted in the life of Christ. That holySon and Servant of the Father, beautiful in His life of love andobedience on earth, sanctifying Himself for us--that life of Christ, theground in which I am planted and rooted, the soil from which I draw asmy nourishment its every quality and its very nature. How that wordsheds its light both on the revelation, 'I am holy, ' and on the command, 'Be ye holy, as I am, ' and binds them in one! In Christ I see what God'sHoliness is, and what my holiness is. In Him both are one, and both aremine. In Him I am holy; abiding and growing up in Him, I can be holy inall manner of living, as God is holy. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. O Most Holy God! we do beseech Thee, reveal Thou to Thy children what itmeaneth that Thou hast not only called them to holiness, but even calledthem by this name, 'the holy ones in Christ Jesus. ' Oh that every childof Thine might know that He bears this name, might know what it means, and what power there is in it to make Him what it calls him. Holy LordGod! oh that the time of Thy visitation might speedily come, and eachchild of Thine on earth be known as a holy one! To this end we pray Thee to reveal to Thy saints what Thy Holiness is. Teach us to worship and to wait until Thou hast spoken unto our soulswith Divine Power Thy word, 'I am holy. ' Oh that it may search out andconvict us of our unholiness! And reveal to us, we pray Thee, that as holy as Thou art, even aconsuming fire, so holy is Thy command in its determined anduncompromising purpose to have us holy. O God! let Thy voice soundthrough the depth of our being, with a power from which there is noescape: Be holy, be holy. And let us thus, between Thine infinite Holiness on the one hand and ourunholiness on the other, be driven and be drawn to accept of Christ asour sanctification, to abide in Him as our life and our power to be whatThou wouldst have us--'Holy in Christ Jesus. ' O Father! let Thy Spirit make this precious word life and truth withinus. Amen. 1. You are entering anew on the study of a Divine mystery. 'Trust not to your own understanding;' wait for the teaching of the Spirit of truth. 2. _In Christ. _ A commentator says, 'The phrase denotes two moral facts--first, the act of faith whereby a man lays hold of Christ; second, the community of life with Him contracted by means of this faith. ' There is still another fact, the greatest of all: that it is by an act of Divine power that I am in Christ and am kept in Him. It is this I want to realize: the Divineness of my position in Jesus. 3. Grasp the two sides of the truth. _You are_ holy in Christ with a Divine holiness. In the faith of that, you are to _be holy_, to _become holy_ with a human holiness, the Divine Holiness manifest in all the conduct of a human life. 4. This Christ is a Living Person, a Loving Saviour: how He will delight to get complete possession, and do all the work in you! Keep hold of this all along as we go on: you have a claim on Christ, on His Love and Power, to make you holy. As His redeemed one, you are at this moment, whatever and wherever you be, _in Him_. His Holy Presence and Love are around you. You are _in Him_, in the enclosure of that tender love, which ever encircles you with His Holy Presence. _In that Presence, accepted and realized, is your holiness. _ [1] There is one disadvantage in English in our having synonyms of which some are derived from Saxon and others from Latin. Ordinary readers are apt to forget that in our translation of the Bible we may use two different words for what in the original is expressed by one term. This is the case with the words _holy_, _holiness_, _keep holy_, _hallow_, _saint_, _sanctify_, and _sanctification_. When God or Christ is called the Holy One, the word in Hebrew and Greek is exactly the same that is used when the believer is called a saint: he too is a holy one. So the three words _hallow_, _keep holy_, _sanctify_, all represent but one term in the original, of which the real meaning is to make holy, as it is in Dutch, _heiliging_ (holying), and _heiligmaking_ (holy-making). Third Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Creation. 'And God blessed the Sabbath day, and _sanctified_ it, because that in it He had rested from all the work which God created and made. '--Gen. Ii. 3. In Genesis we have the Book of Beginnings. To its first three chapterswe are specially indebted for a Divine light shining on the manyquestions to which human wisdom never could find an answer. In oursearch after Holiness, we are led thither too. In the whole book ofGenesis the word Holy occurs but once. But that once in such aconnection as to open to us the secret spring whence flows all that theBible has to teach or to give us of this heavenly blessing. The fullmeaning of the precious word we want to master, of the pricelessblessing we want to get possession of, '_Sanctified in Christ_, ' takesits rise in what is here written of that wondrous act of God, by whichHe closed His creation work, and revealed how wonderfully it would becontinued and perfected. When God blessed the seventh day, and_sanctified_ it, He lifted it above the other days, and set it apart toa work and a revelation of Himself, excelling in glory all that hadpreceded. In this simple expression, Scripture reveals to us thecharacter of God as the Holy One, who _makes holy_; the way in which Hemakes holy, by entering in and _resting_; and the power of _blessing_with which God's making holy is ever accompanied. These three lessons weshall find it of the deepest importance to study well, as containing theroot-principles of all the Scripture will have to teach us in ourpursuit of Holiness. 1. God _sanctified_ the Sabbath day. Of the previous six days thekeyword was, from the first calling into existence of the heaven and theearth, down to the making of man: _God created_. All at once a new wordand a new work of God, is introduced: _God sanctified_. Something higherthan creation, that for which creation is to exist, is now to berevealed; God Almighty is now to be known as God Most Holy. And just asthe work of creation shows His Power, without that Power beingmentioned, so His making holy the seventh day reveals His character asthe Holy One. As Omnipotence is the chief of His natural, so Holiness isthe first of His moral attributes. And just as He alone is Creator, soHe alone is Sanctifier; to make holy is His work as truly andexclusively as to create. Blessed is the child of God who truly andfully believes this! God sanctified the Sabbath day. The word can teach us what the natureis of the work God does when He makes holy. Sanctification in Paradisecannot be essentially different from Sanctification in Redemption. Godhad pronounced all His works, and man the chief of them, very good. Andyet they were not holy. The six days' work had nought of defilement orsin, and yet it was not holy. The seventh day needed to be speciallymade holy, for the great work of making holy man, who was already verygood. In Exodus, God says distinctly that He sanctified the Sabbath day, with a view to man's sanctification. 'That ye may know that I am theLord that doth _sanctify you_. ' Goodness, innocence, purity, freedomfrom sin, is not Holiness. Goodness is the work of omnipotence, anattribute of nature, as God creates it: holiness is something infinitelyhigher. We speak of the holiness of God as His infinite moralperfection; man's moral perfection could only come in the use of hiswill, consenting freely to and abiding in the will of God. Thus alonecould he become holy. The seventh day was made holy by God as a pledgethat He would make man holy. In the ages that preceded the seventh day, the Creation period, God's Power, Wisdom, and Goodness had beendisplayed. The age to come, in the seventh day period, is to be thedispensation of holiness: God made holy the seventh day. 2. God sanctified the Sabbath day, _because in it He rested_ from allHis work. This rest was something real. In Creation, God had, as itwere, gone out of Himself to bring forth something new: in resting Henow returns from His creating work into Himself, to rejoice in His loveover the man He has created, and communicate Himself to him. This opensup to us the way in which God makes holy. The connection between theresting and making holy was no arbitrary one; the making holy was noafter-thought; in the very nature of things it could not be otherwise:He sanctified _because_ He rested in it; He sanctified by resting. As Heregards His finished work, more especially man, rejoices in it, and, aswe have it in Exodus, 'is refreshed, ' this time of His Divine rest isthe time in which He will carry on unto perfection what He has begun, and make man, created in His image, in very deed partaker of His highestglory, His Holiness. _Where God rests in complacency and love, He makes holy. _ The Presenceof God revealing itself, entering in, and taking possession, is whatconstitutes true Holiness. As we go down the ages, studying theprogressive unfolding of what Holiness is, this truth will continuallymeet us. In God's indwelling in heaven, in His temple on earth, in Hisbeloved Son, in the person of the believer through the Holy Spirit, weshall everywhere find that Holiness is not something that man is ordoes, but that it always comes where God comes. In the deepest meaningof the words: where God enters to rest, there He sanctifies. And when wecome to study the New Testament revelation of the way in which we areto be holy, we shall find in this one of our earliest and deepestlessons. It is as we enter into the rest of God that we become partakersof His Holiness. 'We which have believed do enter into that rest;' 'Hethat hath entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. ' It is as the soul ceases from its own efforts, andrests in Him who has finished all for us, and will finish all in us, asthe soul yields itself in the quiet confidence of true faith to rest inGod, that it will know what true Holiness is. Where the soul enters intothe Sabbath stillness of perfect trust, God comes to keep His Sabbathholy; and the soul where He rests He sanctifies. Whether we speak of Hisown day, 'He sanctified it, ' or His own people 'sanctified in Christ, 'the secret of Holiness is ever the same: 'He sanctified because herested. ' 3. And then we read, '_He blessed_ and sanctified it. ' As used in thefirst chapter and throughout the book of Genesis, the word 'God blessed'is one of great significance. 'Be fruitful and multiply' was, as toAdam, so later to Noah and Abraham, the Divine exposition of itsmeaning. The blessing with which God blessed Adam and Noah and Abrahamwas that of fruitfulness and increase, the power to reproduce andmultiply. When God blessed the seventh day, He filled it so with theliving power of His Holiness, that in it that Holiness might increaseand reproduce itself in those who, like Him, seek to enter into its restand sanctify it. The seventh day is that in which we are still living. Of each of the creation days it is written, up to the last, 'There wasevening, and there was morning, the sixth day. ' Of the seventh therecord has not yet been made; we are living in it now, God's own day ofrest and holiness and blessing. Entering into it in a very specialmanner, and taking possession of it, as the time for His rejoicing inHis creature, and manifesting the fulness of His love in sanctifyinghim, He has made the dispensation we now live in one of Divine andmighty blessing. And He has at the same time taught us what the blessingis. Holiness is blessedness. Fellowship with God in His holy rest isblessedness. And as all God's blessings in Christ have but one fountain, God's Holiness, so they all have but one aim, making us partakers ofthat Holiness. God created, _and blessed_; with the creation blessing. God sanctified, _and blessed_; with the Sabbath blessing of His rest. The Creation blessing, of goodness and fruitfulness and dominion, is tobe crowned by the Sabbath blessing of rest in God and holiness infellowship with Him. God's finished work of Creation was marred by sin, and our fellowshipwith Him in the blessing of His holy rest cut off. The finished work ofredemption opened for us a truer rest and a surer entrance into theHoliness of God. As He rested in His holy day, so He now rests in HisHoly Son. In Him we now can enter fully into the rest of God. 'Made holyin Christ, ' let us rest in Him. Let us rest, because we see that aswonderfully as God by His mighty power finished His work of Creation, will He complete and perfect His work of sanctification. Let us yieldourselves to God in Christ, to rest where He rested, to be made holywith His own holiness, and to be blessed with God's own blessing. Godthe Sanctifier is the name now inscribed upon the throne of God theCreator. At the threshold of the history of the human race there shinesthis word of infinite promise and hope: 'God blessed and sanctified theseventh day because in it He rested. ' BE YE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. Blessed Lord God! I bow before Thee in lowly worship. I adore Thee asGod the Creator, and God the Sanctifier. Thou hast revealed Thyself asGod Almighty and God Most Holy. I beseech Thee, teach me to know and totrust Thee as such. I humbly ask Thee for grace to learn and hold fast the deep spiritualtruths Thou hast revealed in making holy the Sabbath day. Thy purpose inman's creation is to show forth Thy Holiness, and make him partaker ofit. Oh, teach me to believe in Thee as God my Creator and Sanctifier, tobelieve with my whole heart that the same Almighty power which gave thesixth-day blessing of creation, secures to us the seventh-day blessingof sanctification. Thy will is our sanctification. And teach me, Lord, to understand better how this blessing comes. It iswhere Thou enterest to rest, to refresh and reveal Thyself, that Thoumakest holy. O my God! may my heart be Thy resting-place. I would, inthe stillness and confidence of a restful faith, rest in Thee, believingthat Thou doest all in me. Let such fellowship with Thee, and Thy love, and Thy will be to me the secret of a life of holiness. I ask it in thename of our Lord Jesus, in whom Thou hast sanctified us. Amen. 1. God the Creator is God the Sanctifier. The Omnipotence that did the first work does the second too. I can trust God Almighty to make me holy. God is holy: if God is everything to me, His presence will be my holiness. 2. Rest is ceasing from work, not to work no more, but to begin a new work. God rests and begins at once to make holy that in which He rests. He created by the word of His power; He rests in His love. Creation was the building of the temple; sanctification is the entering in and taking possession. Oh, that wonderful entering into human nature! 3. God rests only in what is restful, wholly at His disposal. It is in the restfulness of faith that we must look to God the Sanctifier; He will come in and keep His holy Sabbath in the restful soul. We rest in God's rest; God rests in our rest. 4. The God that rests in man whom He made, and in resting sanctifies, and in sanctifying blesses: this is our God; praise and worship Him. _And trust Him to do His work. _ 5. Rest! what a simple word. The Rest of God! what an inconceivable fulness of Life and Love in that word. Let us meditate on it and worship before Him, until it overshadow us and we enter into it--the Rest of God. _Rest_ belongeth unto God: He alone can give it, by making us share His own. Fourth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Revelation. 'And when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see, He called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And He said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is _holy_ ground. And Moses hid his face, for He was afraid to look upon God. '--Ex. Iii. 4-6. And why was it holy ground? Because God had come there and occupied it. Where God is, there is holiness; it is the presence of God makes holy. This is the truth we met with in Paradise when man was just created;here, where Scripture uses the word _Holy_ for the second time, it isrepeated and enforced. A careful study of the word in the light of theburning bush will further open its deep significance. Let us see whatthe sacred history, what the revelation of God, and what Moses teachesus of this holy ground. 1. Note the place this first direct revelation of God to man as the HolyOne takes in sacred history. In Paradise we found the word _Holy_ usedof the seventh day. Since that time twenty-five centuries have elapsed. We found in God's sanctifying the day of rest a promise of a newdispensation--the revelation of the Almighty Creator to be followed bythat of the Holy One making holy. And yet throughout the book of Genesisthe word never occurs again; it is as if God's Holiness is in abeyance;only in Exodus, with the calling of Moses, does it make its appearanceagain. This is a fact of deep import. Just as a parent or teacher seeks, in early childhood, to impress one lesson at a time, so God deals in theeducation of the human race. After having in the flood exhibited Hisrighteous judgment against sin, He calls Abraham to be the father of achosen people. And as the foundation of all His dealings with thatpeople, He teaches him and his seed first of all the lesson of_childlike trust_--trust in Him as the Almighty, with whom nothing istoo wonderful, and trust in Him as the Faithful One, whose oath couldnot be broken. With the growth of Israel to a people we see therevelation advancing to a new stage. The simplicity of childhood givesway to the waywardness of youth, and God must now interfere with thediscipline and restriction of law. Having gained a right to a place intheir confidence as the God of their fathers, He prepares them for afurther revelation. Of the God of Abraham the chief attribute was thatHe was the Almighty One; of the God of Israel, Jehovah, that He is theHoly One. And what is to be the special mark of the new period that is now aboutto be inaugurated, and which is introduced by the word holy? God tellsMoses that He is now about to reveal Himself in a new character. He hadbeen known to Abraham as God Almighty, the God of Promise (Ex. Vi. 3). He would now manifest Himself as Jehovah, the God of Fulfilment, especially in the redemption and deliverance of His people from theoppression He had foretold to Abraham. God Almighty is the God ofCreation: Abraham believed in God, 'who quickeneth the dead, and calleththe things that are not as though they were. ' Jehovah is the God ofRedemption and of Holiness. With Abraham there was not a word of sin orguilt, and therefore not of redemption or holiness. To Israel the law isto be given, to convince of sin and prepare the way for holiness; it isJehovah, the Holy One of Israel, the Redeemer, who now appears. And itis the presence of this Holy One that makes the holy ground. 2. And how does this Presence reveal itself? In the burning bush Godmakes Himself known as dwelling in the midst of the fire. Elsewhere inHoly Scripture the connection between fire and the Holiness of God isclearly expressed: 'The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and theHoly One for a flame. ' The nature of fire may be either beneficent ordestructive. The sun, the great central fire, may give life andfruitfulness, or may scorch to death. All depends upon occupying theright position, upon the relation in which we stand to it. And sowherever God the Holy One reveals Himself, we shall find the two sidestogether: God's Holiness as judgment against sin, destroying the sinnerwho remains in it, and as Mercy freeing His people from it. Judgment andMercy ever go together. Of the elements of nature there is none of suchspiritual and mighty energy as Fire: what it consumes it takes andchanges into its own spiritual nature, rejecting as smoke and ashes whatcannot be assimilated. And so the Holiness of God is that infinitePerfection by which He keeps Himself free from all that is not Divine, and yet has fellowship with the creature, and takes it up into unionwith Himself, destroying and casting out all that will not yield itselfto Him. It is thus as One who dwells in the fire, who is a fire, that Godreveals Himself at the opening of this new redemption period. WithAbraham and the patriarchs, as we have said, there had been littleteaching about sin or redemption; the nearness and friendship of God hadbeen revealed. Now the law will be given, sin will be made manifest, thedistance from God will be felt, that man, in learning to know himselfand his sinfulness, may learn to know and long for God to make him holy. In all God's revelation of Himself we shall find the combination of thetwo elements, the one repelling, the other attracting. In His house Hewill dwell in the midst of Israel, and yet it will be in the awfulunapproachable solitude and darkness of the holiest of all within theveil. He will come near to them, and yet keep them at a distance. As westudy the Holiness of God, we shall see in increasing clearness how, like fire, it repels and attracts, how it combines into one His infinitedistance and His infinite nearness. 3. But the distance will be that which comes out first and moststrongly. This we see in Moses: he hid his face, for He feared to lookupon God. The first impression which God's Holiness produces is that offear and awe. Until man, both as a creature and a sinner, learns howhigh God is above him, how different and distant he is from God, theHoliness of God will have little real value or attraction. Moses hidinghis face shows us the effect of the drawing nigh of the Holy One, andthe path to His further revelation. How distinctly this comes out in God's own words: 'Draw not nigh hither;put off thy shoes from off thy feet. ' Yes, God had drawn nigh, but Mosesmay not. God comes near: man must stand back. In the same breath Godsays, Draw nigh, and, Draw not nigh. There can be no knowledge of God ornearness to Him, where we have not first heard His, Draw not nigh. Thesense of sin, of unfitness for God's presence, is the groundwork of trueknowledge or worship of Him as the Holy One. 'Put off thy shoes from offthy feet. ' The shoes are the means of intercourse with the world, theaids through which the flesh or nature does its will, moves about anddoes its work. In standing upon holy ground, all this must be put away. It is with naked feet, naked and stript of every covering, that man mustbow before a holy God. Our utter unfitness to draw nigh or have anydealings with the Holy One, is the very first lesson we have to learn, if ever we are to participate in His Holiness. That _Put off!_ mustexercise its condemning power through our whole being, until we come torealize the full extent of its meaning in the great, '_Put off_ the oldman; put on the Lord Jesus, ' and what 'the _putting off_ of the body ofthe flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, ' is. Yes, all that is ofnature and the flesh, all that is of our own doing or willing orworking--our very life, must be put off and given unto the death, ifGod, as the Holy One, is to make Himself known to us. We have seen before that Holiness is more than goodness or freedom fromsin: even unfallen nature is not holy. Holiness is that awful glory bywhich Divinity is separated from all that is created. Therefore even theseraphs veil their faces with their wings when they sing the ThriceHoly. But oh! when the distance and the difference is not that of thecreature only, but of the sinner, who can express, who can realize, thehumiliation, the fear, the shame with which we ought to bow before thevoice of the Holy One? Alas! this is one of the most terrible effects ofsin, that it blinds us. We know not how unholy, how abominable, sin andthe sinful nature are in God's sight. We have lost the power ofrecognising the Holiness of God: heathen philosophy had not even theidea of using the word as expressive of the moral character of its gods. In losing the light of the glory of God, we have lost the power ofknowing what sin is. And now God's first work in drawing nigh to us isto make us feel that we may not draw nigh as we are; that there willhave to be a very real and a very solemn putting off, and even giving upto the death, of all that appears most lawful and most needful. Not onlyour shoes are soiled with contact with this unholy earth; even our facemust be covered and our eyes closed, in token that the eyes of ourheart, all our human wisdom and understanding, are incapable ofbeholding the Holy One. The first lesson in the school of personalholiness is, to fear and hide our face before the Holiness of God. 'Thussaith the High and Lofty One, whose name is holy, I dwell in the Highand Holy Place, and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit. 'Contrition, brokenness of spirit, fear and trembling are God's firstdemand of those who would see His Holiness. Moses was to be the first preacher of the Holiness of God. Of the fullcommunication of God's Holiness to us in Christ, His first revelation toMoses was the type and the pledge. From Moses' lips the people ofIsrael, from his pen the Church of Christ, was to receive the message, 'Be holy: I am holy: I make holy. ' His preparation for being themessenger of the Holy One was here, where he hid his face, because hewas afraid to look upon God. It is with the face in the dust, it is inthe putting off not only of the shoes, but of all that has been incontact with the world and self and sin, that the soul draws nigh to thefire, in which God dwells, and which burns, but does not consume. Ohthat every believer, who seeks to witness for God as the Holy One, mightthus learn how the fulfilment of the type of the Burning Bush is theCrucified Christ, and how, as we die with Him, we receive that Baptismof Fire, which reveals in each of us what it means: the Holy Onedwelling in a Burning Bush. Only so can we learn what it is to be holy, as He is holy. BE YE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. Most Holy God! I have seen Thee, who dwellest in the fire. I have heardThy voice, Draw not nigh hither; put thy shoes off from thy feet. And mysoul has feared to look upon God, the Holy One. And yet, O my God! I must see Thee. Thou didst create me for Thylikeness. Thou hast taught that this likeness is Thy Holiness: 'Be holy, as I am holy. ' O my God! how shall I know to be holy, unless I may seeThee, the Holy One? To be holy, I must look upon God. I bless Thee for the revelation of Thyself in the flames of thethorn-bush, in the fire of the accursed tree. I bow in amazement anddeep abasement at the great sight: Thy Son in the weakness of His humannature, in the fire, burning but not consumed. O my God! in fear andtrembling I have yielded myself as a sinner to die like Him. Oh, let thefire consume all that is unholy in me! Let me too know Thee as the Godthat dwelleth in the fire, to melt down and purge out and destroy whatis not of Thee, to save and take up into Thine own Holiness what isThine own. O Holy Lord God! I bow in the dust before this great mystery. Reveal tome Thy Holiness, that I too may be its witness and its messenger onearth. Amen. 1. _Holiness as the fire of God. _ Praise God that there is a Power that can consume the vile and the dross, a Power that will not leave it undisturbed. 'The bush burning but not consumed' is not only the motto of the Church in time of persecution; it is the watchword of every soul in God's sanctifying work. 2. There is a new Theology, which only speaks of the love of God as seen in the cross. It sees not the glory of His Righteousness, and His righteous judgment. This is not the God of Scripture. 'Our God is a consuming fire, ' is New Testament Theology. To 'offer service with reverence and awe, ' is New Testament religion. In Holiness, Judgment and Mercy meet. 3. _Holiness as the fear of God. _ Hiding the face before God for fear, not daring to look or speak, --this is the beginning of rest in God. It is not yet the true rest, but on the way to it. May God give us a deep fear of whatever could grieve or anger Him. May we have a deep fear of ourselves, and all that is of the old, the condemned nature, lest it rise again. 'The spirit of the fear of the Lord' is the first manifestation of the spirit of holiness, and prepares the way for the joy of holiness. 'Walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost;' these are the two sides of the Christian life. 4. The Holiness of God was revealed to Moses that he might be its messenger. The Church needs nothing so much to-day as men and women who can testify for the Holiness of God. Will you be one? NOTE. The connection between the fear of God and holiness is most intimate. There are some who seek most earnestly for holiness, and yet neverexhibit it in a light that will attract the world or even believers, because this element is wanting. It is the fear of the Lord that worksthat meekness and gentleness, that deliverance from self-confidence andself-consciousness, which form the true groundwork of a saintlycharacter. The passages of God's Word in which the two words are linkedtogether are well worthy of a careful study. 'Who is like unto Thee, glorious in _holiness_, _fearful_ in praises?' 'In Thy _fear_ will Iworship towards Thy _holy_ temple. ' 'O _fear_ the Lord, ye His _holyones_. ' 'O worship the Lord, in the beauty of _holiness_; _fear_ beforeHim, all the earth. ' 'Let them praise Thy great and _terrible_ name;_holy_ is He. ' 'The _fear_ of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; andthe knowledge of the _Holy One_ is understanding. ' 'The Lord of hosts, Him shall ye _sanctify_; let Him be your _fear_, and let Him be yourdread. ' 'Perfecting _holiness_ in the _fear_ of the Lord. ' 'Like as Hewhich _called you_ is holy, be ye yourselves also _holy_; and if ye_call on Him_ as father, pass the time of your sojourning in _fear_. 'And so on through the whole of Scripture, from the Song of Moses on tothe Song of the Lamb: 'Who shall not _fear_ Thee, O Lord! and glorifyThy name, for Thou only art _holy_. ' If we yield ourselves to theimpression of such passages, we shall feel more deeply that the fear ofGod, the tender fear of in any way offending Him, the fear especially ofentering into His holy presence with what is human and carnal, withaught of our own wisdom and effort, is of the very essence of theholiness we are to follow after. It is this fear of God will make us, like Moses, fall down and hide our face in God's presence, and wait forHis own Holy Spirit to open in us the eyes, and breathe in us thethoughts and the worship, with which we draw nigh to Him, the Holy One. It is in this holy fear that that stillness of soul is wrought whichleads it to rest in God, and opens the way for what we saw in Paradiseto be the secret of holiness: God keeping His Sabbath, and sanctifyingthe soul in which He rests. Fifth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Redemption. '_Sanctify_ unto _me_ all the first-born. '--Ex. Xiii. 2. 'All the first-born _are mine_; for on the day I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt _I sanctified_ unto _me_ all the first-born in Israel: _mine_ they shall be: I am the Lord. '--Num. Iii. 13, viii. 17. 'For I am the Lord your God that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God: ye shall therefore _be holy_, for I am _holy_. '--Lev. Xi. 45. 'I have redeemed thee; thou art mine. '--Isa. Xliii. 1. At Horeb we saw how the first mention of the word holy in the history offallen man was connected with the inauguration of a new period in therevelation of God, that of Redemption. In the passover we have the firstmanifestation of what Redemption is; and here the more frequent use ofthe word holy begins. In the feast of unleavened bread we have thesymbol of the putting off of the old and the putting on of the new, towhich redemption through blood is to lead. Of the seven days we read:'In the first day there shall be an _holy_ convocation, and in theseventh day there shall be an _holy_ convocation;' the meeting of theredeemed people to commemorate its deliverance is a holy gathering; theymeet under the covering of their Redeemer, the Holy One. As soon as thepeople had been redeemed from Egypt, God's very first word to them was, 'Sanctify--make holy unto me all the first-born: it is mine. ' (See Ex. Xiii. 2. ) The word reveals how proprietorship is one of the centralthoughts both in redemption and in sanctification, the link that bindsthem together. And though the word is here only used of the first-born, they are regarded as the type of the whole people. We know how allgrowth and organization commence from a centre, around which inever-widening circles the life of the organism spreads. If holiness inthe human race is to be true and real, free as that of God, it must bethe result of a self-appropriating development. And so the first-bornare sanctified, and afterwards the priests in their place, as the typeof what the whole people is to be as God's first-born among the nations, His peculiar treasure, 'an holy nation. ' This idea of proprietorship asrelated to redemption and sanctification comes out with especialclearness when God speaks of the exchange of the priests for thefirst-born (Num. Iii. 12, 13, viii. 16, 17): 'The Levites are _whollygiven unto me_; instead of the first-born have I _taken them unto me_;for all the first-born _are mine_; in the day that I smote everyfirst-born in the land of Egypt _I sanctified them for myself_. ' Let us try and realize the relation existing between redemption andholiness. In Paradise we saw what God's sanctifying the seventh day was:He took possession of it, He blessed it, He rested in it and refreshedHimself. Where God enters and rests, there is holiness: the moreperfectly the object is fitted for Him to enter and dwell, the moreperfect the holiness. The seventh day was sanctified as the period forman's sanctification. At the very first step God took to lead him to HisHoliness--the command not to eat of the tree--man fell. God did not giveup His plan, but had now to pursue a different and slower path. Aftertwenty-five centuries' slow but needful preparation, He now revealsHimself as the Redeemer. A people whom He had chosen and formed forHimself He gives up to oppression and slavery, that their hearts may beprepared to long for and welcome a Deliverer. In a series of mightywonders He proves Himself the Conqueror of their enemies, and then, inthe blood of the Paschal Lamb on their doors, teaches them whatredemption is, not only from an unjust oppressor here on earth, but fromthe righteous judgment their sins had deserved. The Passover is to be tothem the transition from the seen and temporal to the unseen andspiritual, revealing God not only as the Mighty but as the Holy One, freeing them not only from the house of bondage but the DestroyingAngel. And having thus redeemed them, He tells them that they are now His own. During their stay at Sinai and in the wilderness, the thought iscontinually pressed upon them that they are now the Lord's people, whomHe has made His own by the strength of His arm, that He may make themholy for Himself, even as He is holy. The purpose of redemption isPossession, and the purpose of Possession is likeness to Him who isRedeemer and Owner, is Holiness. In regard to this Holiness, and the way it is to be attained as theresult of redemption, there is more than one lesson the sanctifying ofthe first-born will teach us. First of all, we want to realize how inseparable redemption and holinessare. Neither can exist without the other. _Only redemption leads toholiness. _ If I am seeking holiness, I must abide in the clear and fullexperience of being a redeemed one, and as such of being owned andpossessed by God. Redemption is too often looked at from its negativeside as deliverance from: its real glory is the positive element ofbeing redeemed unto Himself. Full possession of a house meansoccupation: if I own a house without occupying it, it may be the home ofall that is foul and evil. God has redeemed me and made me His own withthe view of getting complete possession of me. He says of my soul, 'Itis mine, ' and seeks to have His right of ownership acknowledged and madefully manifest. That will be perfect holiness, where God has entered inand taken complete and entire possession. [2] It is redemption gives GodHis right and power over me; it is redemption sets me free for God nowto possess and bless: it is redemption realized and filling my soul, that will bring me the assurance and experience of all His power willwork in me. In God, redemption and sanctification are one: the moreredemption as a Divine reality possesses me, the closer am I linked tothe Redeemer-God, the Holy One. And just so, _only holiness brings the assurance and enjoyment ofredemption_. If I am seeking to hold fast redemption on lower ground, Imay be deceived. If I have become unwatchful or careless, I shouldtremble at the very idea of trusting in redemption apart from holinessas its object. To Israel God spake, 'I brought you up out of the land ofEgypt: _therefore_ ye shall be holy, for I am holy. ' It is God theRedeemer who made us His own, who calls us too to be holy: let Holinessbe to us the most essential, the most precious part of redemption: theyielding of ourselves to Him who has _taken_ us as His own, and hasundertaken to _make_ us His own entirely. A second lesson suggested is the connection between God's and man'sworking in sanctification. To Moses the Lord speaks, '_Sanctify_ unto meall the first-born. ' He afterwards says, '_I sanctified_ all thefirst-born for myself. ' What God does He does to be carried out andappropriated through us. When He tells us that we are made holy inChrist Jesus, that we are His holy ones, He speaks not only of Hispurpose, but of what He has really done; we have been sanctified in theone offering of Christ, and in our being created anew in Him. But thiswork has a human side. To us comes the call to be holy, to follow afterholiness, to perfect holiness. God has made us His own, and allows us tosay that we are His: but He waits for us now to yield Him an enlargedentrance into the secret places of our inner being, for Him to fill itall with His fulness. Holiness is not something we bring to God or dofor Him. Holiness is what there is of God in us. God has made us His ownin redemption, that He might make Himself our own in sanctification. Andour work in becoming holy is the bringing our whole life, and every partof it, into subjection to the rule of this holy God, putting everymember and every power upon His altar. And this teaches us the answer to the question as to the connectionbetween the sudden and the gradual in sanctification: between its beinga thing once for all complete, and yet imperfect and needing to beperfected. What God sanctifies is holy with a Divine and perfectholiness as His gift: man has to sanctify by acknowledging andmaintaining and carrying out that holiness in relation to what God hasmade holy. God sanctified the Sabbath day: man has to sanctify it, thatis, to keep it holy. God sanctified the first-born as His own: Israelhad to sanctify them, to treat them and give them up to God as holy. Godis holy: we are to sanctify Him in acknowledging and adoring andhonouring that holiness. God has sanctified His great name, His name isHoly: we sanctify or hallow that name as we fear and trust and use itas the revelation of His Holiness. God sanctified Christ: Christsanctified Himself, manifesting in His personal will and action perfectconformity to the Holiness with which God had made Him holy. God hassanctified us in Christ Jesus: we are to be holy by yielding ourselvesto the power of that holiness, by acting it out, and manifesting it inall our life and walk. The objective Divine gift, bestowed once for alland completely, must be appropriated as a subjective personalpossession; we must cleanse ourselves, perfecting holiness. Redeemedunto holiness: as the two thoughts are linked in the mind and work ofGod, they must be linked in our heart and life. When Isaiah announced the second, the true redemption, it was given tohim, even more clearly and fully than to Moses, to reveal the name ofGod as 'The Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. ' The more we study thisname, and hallow it, and worship God by it, the more inseparably willthe words become connected, and we shall see how, as the Redeemer is theHoly One, the redeemed are holy ones too. Isaiah says of 'the way ofholiness, ' the 'redeemed shall walk therein. ' The redemption that comesout from the Holiness of God must lead up into it too. We shallunderstand that to be redeemed in Christ is to be holy in Christ, andthe call of our redeeming God will acquire new meaning: 'I am _holy_:_be ye holy_. ' BE YE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. O Lord God! the Holy One of Israel and his Redeemer! I worship beforeThee in deep humility. I confess with shame that I so long sought Theemore as the Redeemer than as the Holy One. I knew not that it was as theHoly One Thou hadst redeemed, that redemption was the outcome and thefruit of Thy Holiness; that a participation in Thy Holiness was its onepurpose and its highest beauty. I only thought of being redeemed frombondage and death: like Israel, I understood not that without fellowshipand conformity to Thyself redemption would lose its value. Most holy God! I praise Thee for the patience with which Thou bearestwith the selfishness and the slowness of Thy redeemed ones. I praiseThee for the teaching of the Spirit of Thy Holiness, leading Thy saints, and me too, to see how it is Thy Holiness, and the call to becomepartaker of it, that gives redemption its value; how it is for Thyselfas the Holy One, to be Thine own, possessed and sanctified of Thee, thatwe are redeemed. O my God! with a love and a joy and a thanksgiving that cannot beuttered, I praise Thee for Christ, who has been made unto us of Theesanctification and redemption. In Him Thou art my Redeemer, my Holy One. In Him I am Thy redeemed, Thy holy one. O God! in speechless adoration Ifall down to worship the love that passeth knowledge, that hath donethis for us, and to believe that in one who is now before Thee, holy inChrist, Thou wilt fulfil all Thy glorious purposes according to thegreatness of Thy power. Amen. 1. 'Redemption through His blood. ' The blood we meet at the threshold of the pathway of Holiness. For it is the blood of the sacrifice which the fire of God consumed, and yet could not consume. That blood has such power of holiness in it, that we read, 'Sanctified by His own blood. ' Always think of holiness, or pray for it, as one redeemed by blood. Live under the covering of the blood in its daily cleansing power. 2. It is only as we know the Holiness of God as Fire, and bow before His righteous judgment, that we can appreciate the preciousness of the blood or the reality of the redemption. As long as we only think of the love of God as goodness, we may aim at being good; faith in God who redeems will waken in us the need and the joy of being _holy in Christ_. 3. Have you understood the right of property God has in what He has redeemed? Have you heard a voice say, _Mine. Thou art Mine. _ Ask God very humbly to speak it to you. Listen very gently for it. 4. The holiness of the creature has its origin in the Divine will, in the Divine election, redemption, and possession. Give yourself up to this will of God and rejoice in it. 5. As God created, so He redeemed, to sanctify. Have great faith in Him for this. 6. Let God have the entire possession and disposal of you. Holiness is His; our holiness is to let Him, the Holy One, be all. [2] See Note A on Holiness as Proprietorship. Sixth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Glory. 'Who is like unto Thee, O Lord! among the gods? Who is like unto Thee, _glorious in holiness_, Fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou in Thy mercy hast led Thy people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in Thy strength to the habitation of _Thy holiness_ . . . _The holy place_, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. ' --Ex. Xv. 11-17. In these words we have another step in advance in the revelation ofHoliness. We have here for the first time Holiness predicated of GodHimself. _He is_ glorious in holiness: and it is to the dwelling-placeof _His Holiness_ that He is guiding His people. Let us first note the expression used here: glorious in holiness. Throughout Scripture we find the glory and the holiness of God mentionedtogether. In Ex. Xxix. 43 we read, 'And the tent shall be _made holy_ bymy _glory_, ' that glory of the Lord of which we afterwards read that itfilled the house. The glory of an object, of a thing or person, is itsintrinsic worth or excellence: to glorify is to remove everything thatcould hinder the full revelation of that excellence. In the Holiness ofGod His glory is hidden; in the glory of God His Holiness is manifested:His glory, the revelation of Himself as the Holy One, would make thehouse holy. In the same way the two are connected in Lev. X. 3, 'I willbe _sanctified_ in them that come nigh unto me, and before all thepeople I will be _glorified_. ' The acknowledgment of His Holiness in thepriests would be the manifestation of His glory to the people. So, too, in the song of the Seraphim (Isa. Vi. 3), '_Holy, holy, holy_, Lord Godof Hosts: the whole earth is full of His _glory_. ' God is He whodwelleth in a light that is unapproachable, whom no man hath seen or cansee: it is the _light_ of the knowledge of the _glory_ of God that Hegives into our hearts. The glory is that which can be seen and known ofthe invisible and unapproachable light: that light itself, and theglorious fire of which that light is the shining out, that light is theHoliness of God. Holiness is not so much an attribute of God, as thecomprehensive summary of all His perfections. It is on the shore of the Red Sea that Israel thus praises God: 'Who islike unto Thee, O Lord! Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness?' Heis the Incomparable One, there is none like Him. And wherein has Heproved this, and revealed the glory of His Holiness? With Moses inHoreb we saw God's glory in the fire, in its double aspect of salvationand destruction: consuming what could not be purified, purifying whatwas not consumed. We see it here too in the song of Moses: Israel singsof judgment and of mercy. The pillar of fire and of the cloud camebetween the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel: it was a cloudand darkness to those, but it gave light by night to these. The twothoughts run through the whole song. But in the two verses that followthe ascription of holiness, we find the sum of the whole. 'Thoustretchedst out Thy right hand: the earth swallowed them. ' 'The Lordlooked forth upon the host of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire anddiscomfited them. ' This is the glory of Holiness as judgment anddestruction of the enemy. 'Thou in Thy mercy hast led _Thy people_ whichthou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided _them_ in Thy strength to thehabitation of Thy Holiness. ' This is the glory of Holiness in mercy andredemption--a Holiness that not only delivers but guides to thehabitation of holiness, where the Holy One is to dwell with and in Hispeople. In the inspiration of the hour of triumph it is thus earlyrevealed that the great object and fruit of redemption, as wrought outby the Holy One, is to be His indwelling: with nothing short of this canthe Holy One rest content, or the full glory of His Holiness be mademanifest. And now, observe further, how, as it is in the redemption of His peoplethat God's Holiness is revealed, so it is in the song of redemption thatthe personal ascription of Holiness to God is found. We know how inScripture, after some striking special interposition of God as Redeemer, the special influence of the Spirit is manifested in some song ofpraise. It is remarkable how it is in these outbursts of holyenthusiasm, God is praised as the Holy One. See it in the song of Hannah(1 Sam. Ii. 2), 'There is none holy as the Lord. ' The language of theSeraphim (Isa. Vi. ) is that of a song of adoration. In the great day ofIsrael's deliverance the song will be, 'The Lord Jehovah is become mystrength and song. Sing unto the Lord, for He hath done excellentthings. Cry aloud and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is _theHoly One_ of Israel in the midst of thee. ' Mary sings, 'For He that ismighty hath done great things to me: and _holy_ is His name. ' The bookof Revelation reveals the living creatures giving glory and honour andthanks to Him that sitteth on the throne; 'and they have no rest day andnight, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, whichwas, and which is, and which is to come. ' And when the song of Moses andof the Lamb is sung by the sea of glass, it will still be, 'Who shallnot fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy. ' It isin the moments of highest inspiration, under the fullest manifestationof God's redeeming power, that His servants speak of His Holiness. InPs. Xcvii. We read, 'Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanksat the remembrance of His Holiness. ' And in Ps. Xcix. , which has, withits thrice repeated holy, been called the echo on earth of the ThriceHoly of heaven, we sing-- Let them praise Thy great and terrible name. HOLY IS HE. Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool: HOLY IS HE. Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill: For the Lord our God is HOLY. It is only under the influence of high spiritual elevation and joy thatGod's holiness can be fully apprehended or rightly worshipped. Thesentiment that becomes us as we worship the Holy One, that fits us forknowing and worshipping Him aright, is the spirit of praise that singsand shouts for joy in the experience of His full salvation. But is not this at variance with the lesson we learnt at Horeb, when Godspake, 'Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes, ' and where Moses fearedand hid his face? And is not this in very deed the posture that becomesus as creatures and sinners? It is indeed: and yet the two sentimentsare not at variance: rather they are indispensable to each other; thefear is the preparation for the praise and the glory. Or is it not thatsame Moses who hid his face and feared to look upon God, who afterwardsbeheld His glory until his own face shone with a brightness that mencould not bear to look upon? And is not the song that sings here of Godas glorious in holiness, also the song of Moses who feared and hid hisface? Have we not seen in the fire, and in God, and specially in HisHoliness, the twofold aspect; consuming and purifying, repelling andattracting, judging and saving, with the latter in each case not onlythe accompaniment but the result of the former? And so we shall findthat the deeper the humbling and the fear in God's Holy Presence, andthe more real and complete the putting off of all that is of self and ofnature, even to the putting off, the complete death of the old man andhis will, the more hearty the giving up to be consumed of what issinful, the deeper and fuller will be the praise and joy with which wedaily sing our song of redemption: 'Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?' '_Glorious_ in holiness; _fearful_ in praises:' the song itselfharmonizes the apparently conflicting elements. Yes, I will sing ofjudgment and of mercy. I will rejoice with trembling as I praise theHoly One. As I look upon the two sides of His Holiness, as revealed tothe Egyptians and the Israelites, I remember that what was thereseparated is in me united. By nature I am the Egyptian, an enemy doomedto destruction; by grace, an Israelite chosen for redemption. In me thefire must consume and destroy; only as judgment does its work, can mercyfully save. It is only as I tremble before the Searching Light and theBurning Fire and the Consuming Heat of the Holy One, as I yield theEgyptian nature to be judged and condemned and slain, that the Israelitewill be redeemed to know aright his God as the God of salvation, and torejoice in Him. Blessed be God! the judgment is past. In Christ, the burning bush, thefire of the Divine Holiness did its double work: in Him sin wascondemned in the flesh; in Him we are free. In giving up His will to thedeath, and doing God's will, Christ sanctified Himself; and in that willwe are sanctified too. His crucifixion, with its judgment of the flesh, His death, with its entire putting off of what is of nature, is not onlyfor us, but is really ours; a life and a power working within us by HisSpirit. Day by day we abide in Him. Tremblingly but rejoicingly we takeour stand in Him, for the Power of Holiness as Judgment to vindicatewithin us its fierce vengeance against what is sin and flesh, and so tolet the Power of Holiness as Redemption accomplish that glorious workthat makes us give thanks at the remembrance of His Holiness. And so theshout of Salvation rings ever deeper and truer and louder through ourlife, 'Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like untoThee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?' BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. '_Who_ is like unto Thee, O Lord! glorious in holiness, fearful inpraises, doing wonders?' With my whole heart would I join in this songof redemption, and rejoice in Thee as the God of my salvation. O my God! let Thy Spirit, from whom these words of holy joy and triumphcame, so reveal within me the great redemption as a personal experience, that my whole life may be one song of trembling and adoring wonder. I beseech Thee especially, let my whole heart be filled with Thyself, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, who alone doest wonders. Letthe fear of Thy Holiness make me tremble at all there is in me of selfand flesh, and lead me in my worship to deny and crucify my own wisdom, that the Spirit of Thy Holiness may breathe in me. Let the fear of theLord give its deep undertone to all my coming in and going out in ThyHoly Presence. Prepare me thus for giving praise without ceasing at theremembrance of Thy holiness. O my God! I would rejoice in Thee as myRedeemer, MY HOLY ONE, with a joy unspeakable and full of glory. As myRedeemer, Thou makest me holy. With my whole heart do I trust Thee to doit, to sanctify me wholly. I do believe in Thy promise. I do believe inThyself, and believing I receive Thee, the Holy One, my Redeemer. Who is like unto Thee, O Lord! glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? 1. _God's Holiness as Glory. _ God is glorified in the holiness of His people. True holiness always gives glory to God alone. Live to the glory of God: that is holiness. Live holily: that will glorify God. To lose sight of self, and seek only God's glory, is holiness. 2. _Our Holiness as Praise. _ Praise gives glory to God, and is thus an element of holiness. 'Thou art holy, Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. ' 3. God's Holiness, His holy redeeming love, is cause of unceasing joy and praise. Praise God every day for it. But you cannot do this unless you live in it. May God's holiness become so glorious to us, as we understand that whatever we see of His glory is just the outshining of His holiness, that we cannot help rejoicing in it, and in Him the Holy One. 4. The spirit of the fear of the Lord and the spirit of praise may, at first sight, appear to be at variance. But it is not so. The humility that fears the Holy One will also praise Him: 'Ye that fear the Lord: praise the Lord. ' The lower we lie in the fear of God, and the fear of self, the more surely will He lift us up in due time to praise Him. Seventh Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Obedience. 'Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you _unto myself_. Now therefore, if ye will _obey my voice indeed_, and keep my covenant, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: ye shall be unto me an _holy_ nation. '--Ex. Xix. 4-6. Israel has reached Horeb. The law is to be given and the covenant made. Here are God's first words to the people; He speaks of redemption andits blessing, fellowship with Himself: 'Ye have seen how I brought you_unto myself_. ' He speaks of holiness as His purpose in redemption: 'Yeshall be unto me an _holy_ nation. ' And as the link between the two Heplaces obedience: 'If ye will indeed _obey_ my voice, ye shall be untome an _holy_ nation. ' God's will is the expression of His holiness; aswe do His will, we come into contact with His holiness. The link betweenRedemption and Holiness is Obedience. This takes us back to what we saw in Paradise. God sanctified theseventh day as the time for sanctifying man. And what was the firstthing He did with this purpose? He gave him a commandment. Obedience tothat commandment would have opened the door, would have been theentrance, into the Holiness of God. Holiness is a moral attribute; andmoral is that which a free will chooses and determines for itself. WhatGod creates and gives is only naturally good; what man wills to have ofGod and His will, and really appropriates, has moral worth, and leads toholiness. In creation God manifested His wise and good will. His holywill He speaks in His commands. As that holy will enters man's will, asman's will accepts and unites itself with God's will, he becomes holy. After creation, in the seventh day, God took man up into His work ofsanctification to make him holy. Obedience is the path to holiness, because it is the path to union with God's holy will; with man unfallen, as with fallen man, in redemption here and in glory above, in all theholy angels, in Christ the Holy One of God Himself, obedience is thepath of holiness. It is not itself holiness: but as the will opensitself to accept and to do the will of God, God communicates Himself andHis Holiness. To obey His voice is to follow Him as He leads in the wayto the full revelation and communication of Himself and His blessednature as the Holy One. Obedience. Not knowledge of the will of God, not even approval, not eventhe will to do it, but the doing of it. Knowledge, and approval, andwill must lead to action; the will of God must be _done_. 'If ye indeedobey my voice, ye shall be unto me an holy nation. ' It is not faith, andnot worship, and not profession, that God here asks in the first placefrom His people when He speaks of holiness; it is obedience. God's willmust be _done_ on earth, as in heaven. 'Remember _and do_ all mycommandments, that ye may be holy to your God' (Num. Xv. 40). 'Sanctifyyourselves therefore, and be ye holy; and ye shall keep my statutes _anddo_ them. I am the Lord which sanctify you' (Lev. Xx. 7, 8). 'Thereforeshall ye keep my commandments _and do_ them: I am the Lord: I will behallowed among the children of Israel: I am the Lord which hallow you, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt' (xxii 21, 33). A moment's reflection will make the reason of this clear to us. It is ina man's work that he manifests what he is. I may know what is good, andyet not approve it. I may approve, and yet not will it. I may in acertain sense will it, and yet be wanting in the energy, or theself-sacrifice, or the power that will rouse and do the thing. Thinkingis easier than willing, and willing is easier than doing. Action aloneproves whether the object of my interest has complete mastery over me. God wants His will _done_. This alone is obedience. In this alone it isseen whether the whole heart, with all its strength and will, has givenitself over to the will of God; whether we live it, and are ready at anysacrifice to make it our own by doing it. God has no other way formaking us holy. 'Ye shall keep my statutes _and do_ them: I am the Lordwhich make you holy. ' To all seekers after holiness this is a lesson of deep importance. Obedience is not holiness; holiness is something far higher, somethingthat comes from God to us, or rather, something of God coming into us. But obedience is _indispensable_ to holiness: it cannot exist withoutit. While, therefore, your heart seeks to follow the teaching of God'sword, and looks in faith to what God has done, as He has made you _holyin Christ_, and to what God is still to do through the Spirit ofHoliness as He fulfils the promise, 'The very God of peace sanctify youwholly, ' never for one moment forget to be obedient. 'If ye shall indeedobey my voice, ye shall be an holy nation to me. ' Begin by doing at oncewhatever appears right to do. Give up at once whatever conscience tellsthat you dare not say is according to the will of God. Not only pray forlight and strength, but _act_; do what God says. 'He that _doeth_ thewill of God is my brother, ' Jesus says. Every son of God has beenbegotten of the will of God: in it he has his life. To do the Father'swill is the meat, the strength, the mark, of every son of God. It is nothing less than the surrender to such a life of simple andentire obedience that is implied in becoming a Christian. There are, alas! too many Christians who, from the want either of properinstruction, or of proper attention to the teaching of God's word, havenever realized the place of supreme importance that obedience takes inthe Christian life. They know not that Christ, and redemption, and faithall lead to it, because through it alone is the way to the fellowship ofthe Love, and the Likeness, and the Glory of God. We have all, possibly, suffered from it ourselves: in our prayers and efforts after the perfectpeace and the rest of faith, after the abiding joy and the increasingpower of the Christian life, there has been a secret something hinderingthe blessing, or causing the speedy loss of what had been apprehended. Awrong impression as to the absolute necessity of obedience was probablythe cause. It cannot too earnestly be insisted on that the freeness andmighty power of grace has this for its object from our conversiononwards, the restoring us to the active obedience and harmony with God'swill from which we had fallen through the first sin in Paradise. Obedience leads to God and His Holiness. It is in obedience that thewill is moulded, and the character fashioned, and an inner man built upwhich God can clothe and adorn with the beauty of holiness. When a Christian discovers that this has been the missing link, thecause of failure and darkness, there is nothing for it but, in a grandact of surrender, deliberately to choose obedience, universal, whole-hearted obedience, as the law of his life in the power of the HolySpirit. Let him not fear to make his own the words of Israel at Sinai, in answer to the message of God we are considering: 'All that the Lordhath spoken, _we will do_;' 'All that the Lord hath said _will we do_, and be obedient. ' What the law could not do, in that it was weak throughthe flesh, God hath done by the gift of His Son and Spirit. Thelaw-giving of Sinai on tables of stone has been succeeded by thelaw-giving of the Spirit on the table of the heart: the Holy Spirit isthe power of obedience, and is so the Spirit of Holiness, who, inobedience, prepares our hearts for being the dwelling of the Holy One. Let us in this faith yield ourselves to a life of obedience: it is theNew Testament path to the realization of the promise: 'If ye will _obey_my voice indeed, ye shall be unto me an _holy_ nation. ' We have already seen how holiness in its very nature supposes thepersonal relation to God, His personal presence. 'I have brought you_unto myself_; if ye obey, ye shall be _unto me_ an holy nation. ' It isas we understand and hold fast this personal element that obedience willbecome possible, and will lead to holiness. Mark well God's words: 'Ifye will obey my _voice_, and keep my covenant. ' The voice is more than alaw or a book; it always implies a living person and intercourse withhim. It is this that is the secret of gospel obedience: hearing thevoice and following the lead of Jesus as a personal friend, a livingSaviour. It is being led by the Spirit of God, having Him to reveal thePresence, and the Will, and the Love of the Father, that will work in usthat personal relation which the New Testament means when it speaks ofdoing everything unto the Lord, as pleasing God. Such obedience is the pathway of holiness. Its every act is a link tothe living God, a surrender of the being for God's will, for God Himselfto take possession. In the process of assimilation, slow but sure, bywhich the will of God, as the meat of our souls, is taken up into ourinmost being, our spiritual nature is strengthened, is spiritualized, growing up into an holy temple in which God can reveal Himself and takeup His abode. Let every believer study to realize this. When God sanctified theseventh day as His period of making holy, He taught us that He could notdo it at once. The revelation and communication of holiness must begradual, as man is prepared to receive it. God's sanctifying work witheach of us, as with the race, needs time. The time it needs and seeks isthe life of daily, hourly obedience. All that is spent in self-will, andnot in the living relation to the Lord, is lost. But when the heartseeks day by day to hearken to the voice and to obey it, the Holy OneHimself watches over His words to fulfil them: 'Ye shall be unto me anholy nation. ' In a way of which the soul beforehand can have but littleconception, God will overshadow and make His abode in the obedientheart. The habit of always listening for the voice and obeying it willonly be the building of the temple: the Living God Himself, the HolyOne, will come to take up His abode. The glory of the Lord will fillthe house, and the promise be made true, 'I will sanctify it by myglory. ' 'I brought you _unto myself_; if ye will obey _my voice_ in deed, yeshall be _unto me_ an holy nation. ' Seekers after holiness! God hasbrought you to Himself. And now His voice speaks to you all the thoughtsof His heart, that as you take them in, and make them your own, and makeHis will your own by living and doing it, you may enter into the mostcomplete union with Himself, the union of will as well as of life, andso become a holy people unto Him. Let obedience, the listening to andthe doing the will of God, be the joy and the glory of your life; itwill give you access unto the Holiness of God. BE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. O my God! Thou hast redeemed me for Thyself, that Thou mightest have mewholly as Thine own, possessing, filling my inmost being with Thy ownlikeness, Thy perfect will, and the glory of Thy Holiness. And Thouseekest to train me, in the power of a free and loving will, to take Thywill and make it my own, that in the very centre of my being I may haveThine own perfection dwelling in me. And in Thy words Thou revealest Thywill, that as I accept and keep them I may master their Divine contents, and will all that Thou willest. O my God! let me live day by day in such fellowship with Thee, that Imay indeed in everything hear Thy voice, the living voice of the livingGod speaking to me. Let the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Thy Holiness, beto me Thy voice guiding me in the path of simple, childlike obedience. Ido bless Thee that I have seen that Christ, in whom I am holy, was theobedient one, that in obedience He sanctified Himself to become mysanctification, and that abiding in Him, Thy obedient, holy Child, isabiding in Thy will as once done by Him, and now to be done by me. O myGod! I will indeed obey Thy will: make Thou me one of Thy holy nation, apeculiar treasure above all people. Amen. 1. 'He became obedient unto death. ' 'Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. ' 'I come to do Thy will. ' 'In which will we are sanctified. ' Christ's example teaches us that obedience is the only path to the Holiness or the glory of God. Be this your consecration: a surrender in everything to seek and do the will of God. 2. We are 'holy in Christ'--in this Christ who did the will of God and was obedient to the death. In Him it is we are; in Him we are holy. His obedience is the soil in which we are planted, and must be rooted. 'It is my meat to do His will;' obedience was the sustenance of His life; in doing God's will He drew down Divine nourishment; it must be so with us too. 3. As you study what it is to be and abide in Christ, as you rejoice you are in Him, always remember it is Christ who obeyed in whom God has planted you. 4. If ever you feel perplexed about holiness, just yield yourself again to do God's will, and go and do it. It is ours to obey, it is God's to sanctify. 5. _Holy in Christ. _ Christ sanctified Himself by obedience, by doing the will of God, and in that will, as done by Him, we have been sanctified. In accepting that will as done by Him, in accepting Him, _I am holy_. In accepting that will of God, as to be done by me, _I become holy_. I am in Him; in every act of living obedience, I enter into living fellowship with Him, and draw the power of His life into mine. 6. Obedience depends upon hearing the voice. Do not imagine you know the will of God. Pray and wait for the inward teaching of the Spirit. Eighth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Indwelling. 'And let them make me _a holy place_, that I may _dwell_ among them. '--Ex. Xxv. 8. 'And the tent shall be _sanctified_ by my glory, and I will _dwell_ among the children of Israel, and will be their God. '--Ex. Xxix. 43, 45. The Presence of God makes holy, even when it descends but for a littlewhile, as at Horeb, in the burning bush. How much more must thatPresence make holy the place where it dwells, where it fixes itspermanent abode! So much is this the case, that the place where Goddwells came to be called _the_ holy place, 'the holy place of thehabitation of the Most High. ' All around where God dwelt was holy: theholy city, the mountain of God's Holiness, His holy house, till we comewithin the veil, to the most holy place, the holy of holies. It is as_the indwelling God_ that He sanctifies His house, that He revealsHimself as the Holy One in Israel, that He makes us holy too. Because God is holy, _the house_ in which He dwells is holy too. Thisis the only attribute of God which He can communicate to His house; butthis one He can and does communicate. Among men there is a very closelink between the character of a house and its occupants. When there isno obstacle to prevent it, the house unintentionally reflects themaster's likeness. Holiness expresses not so much an attribute as thevery being of God in His infinite perfection, and His house testifies tothis one truth, that He is holy, that where He dwells He must haveholiness, that His indwelling makes holy. In His first command to Hispeople to build Him a holy place, God distinctly said that it was thatHe might dwell among them: the dwelling in the house was to be theshadowing forth of His dwelling in the midst of His people. The housewith its holiness thus leads us on to the holiness of His dwelling amongHis redeemed ones. The holy place, the habitation of God's Holiness, was the centre of allGod's work in making _Israel_ holy. Everything connected with it washoly. The altar, the priests, the sacrifices, the oil, the bread, thevessels, all were holy, because they belonged to God. From the housethere issued the twofold voice--God's call to be holy, God's promise tomake holy. God's claim was manifested in the demand for cleansing, foratonement, for holiness, in all who were to draw near, whether aspriests or worshippers. And God's promise shone forth from His house inthe provision for making holy, in the sanctifying power of the altar, ofthe blood and the oil. The house embodied the two sides that are unitedin holiness, the repelling and the attracting, the condemning and thesaving. Now by keeping the people at a distance, then by inviting andbringing them nigh, God's house was the great symbol of His ownHoliness. He had come nigh even to dwell among them; and yet they mightnot come nigh, they might never enter the secret place of His presence. All these things are written on our behalf. It is as the Indwelling Onethat God is the sanctifier of _His people_ still: the IndwellingPresence alone makes us holy. This comes out with special clearness ifwe note how, the nearer the Presence was, the greater the degree ofholiness. Because God dwelt among them, the camp was holy: alluncleanness was to be removed from it. But the holiness of the court ofthe tabernacle was greater: uncleanness which did not exclude from thecamp would not be tolerated there. Then the holy place was still holier, because still nearer God. And the inner sanctuary, where the Presencedwelt on the mercy-seat, was the Holiest of All, was most holy. Theprinciple still holds good: holiness is measured by nearness to God; themore of His Presence, the more of true holiness; perfect indwelling willbe perfect holiness. There is none holy but the Lord; there is noholiness but in Him. He cannot part with somewhat of His holiness, andgive it to us apart from Himself; we have only so much of holiness as wehave of God Himself. And to have Himself truly and fully, we must haveHim as the Indwelling One. And His indwelling in a house or locality, without life or spirit, is only a faint shadow of the true indwelling asthe Living One, when He enters into and penetrates our very being, andfills us, our very selves, with His own life. There is no union so intimate, so real, so perfect, as that of anindwelling life. Think of the life that circulates through a large andfruitful tree. How it penetrates and fills every portion; howinseparably it unites the whole as long as it really is to exist!--inwood and leaf, in flower and fruit, everywhere the indwelling life flowsand fills. This life is the life of nature, the life of the Spirit ofGod which dwells in nature. It is the same life that animates ourbodies, the spirit of nature pervading every portion of them with thepower of sensibility and action. Not less intimate, yea rather, far more wonderful and real, is theindwelling of the Spirit of the New Life, through whom God dwells in theheart of the believer. And it is as this indwelling becomes a matter ofconscious longing and faith, that the soul obeys the command, 'Let themmake me a holy place, that I may dwell among them, ' and experiences thetruth of the promise, 'The tent shall be sanctified by my glory, and Iwill dwell among the children of Israel. ' It was as the Indwelling One that God revealed Himself in the Son, whomHe sanctified and sent into the world. More than once our Lord insistedupon it, 'Believe me, that I am in the Father and _the Father in me_;the Father _abiding in me_ doeth the works. ' It is specially as thetemple of God that believers are more than once called holy in the NewTestament: 'The temple of God is _holy_, which temple ye are. ' 'Yourbody is a temple of the _Holy_ Spirit. ' 'All the building groweth untoan holy temple in the Lord. ' It is--we shall later on learn tounderstand this better--just because it is through the Spirit that theheart is prepared for the indwelling, and the indwelling effected andmaintained, that the Spirit so peculiarly takes the attribute of Holy. The Indwelling Spirit is the Holy Spirit. The measure of His indwelling, or rather of His revealing the Indwelling Christ, is the measure ofholiness. We have seen what the various degrees of nearness to God's Presence inIsrael were. They are still to be found. You have Christians who dwellin the camp, but know little of drawing nigh to the Holy One. Then youhave outer court Christians: they long for pardon and peace, they comeever again to the altar of atonement; but they know little of truenearness or holiness; of their privilege as priests to enter the holyplace. Others there are who have learnt that this is their calling, andlong to draw near, and yet hardly understand the boldness they have toenter into the Holiest of all, and to dwell there. Blessed they to whomthis, the secret of the Lord, has been revealed. _They know_ what therent veil means, and the access into the immediate Presence. The veilhath been taken away from their hearts: they have found the secret oftrue holiness in the Indwelling of the Holy One, the God who is holy andmakes holy. Believer! the God who calls you to holiness is the God of the IndwellingLife. The tabernacle typifies it, the Son reveals it, the Spiritcommunicates it, the eternal glory will fully manifest it. And you mayexperience it. It is your calling as a believer to be God's Holy Temple. Oh, do but yield yourself to His full indwelling! seek not holiness inthe first place in what you are or do; seek it in God. Seek it not evenas a gift from God, seek it in God Himself, in His indwelling Presence. Worship Him in the beauty of holiness, as He dwells in the high and holyplace. And as you worship, listen to His voice: 'Thus saith the high andlofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in thehigh and holy place, _with him also_ that is of a contrite and humblespirit. ' It is as the Spirit strengthens us mightily in the inward man, so that Christ dwells in our heart by faith, and the Father comes andmakes with Him His abode in us, that we are truly holy. Oh, let us but, in true, true-hearted consecration, yield ourselves to be, as distinctlyas was the tabernacle or the temple, given up entirely to be thedwelling of the Most High, the habitation of His Holiness. A housefilled with the glory of God, a heart filled with all the fulness ofGod, is God's promise, is our portion. Let us in faith claim and acceptand hold fast the blessing: Christ, the Holy One of God, will in HisFather's Name, enter and take possession. Then faith will bring thesolution of all our difficulties, the victory over all our failures, thefulfilment of all our desires: 'The tent, the heart, shall be sanctifiedby my glory; and I will dwell among them. ' The open secret of trueholiness, the secret of the joy unspeakable, is Christ dwelling in theheart by faith. BE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. We bow our knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus, that He would grantunto us, according to the riches of His glory, what He Himself hastaught us to ask for. We ask nothing less than this, that Christ maydwell in our hearts by faith. We long for that most blessed, permanent, conscious indwelling of the Lord Jesus in the heart, which He sodistinctly promised as the fruit of the Holy Spirit's coming. Father! weask for what He meant when He spake of the loving, obedient disciple: 'Iwill come and manifest myself to him. We will come and take up our abodewith him. ' Oh, grant unto us this indwelling of Christ in the heart byfaith! And for this, we beseech Thee, grant us to be strengthened with might byThy Spirit in the inner man. O Most Mighty God! let the spirit of ThyDivine Power work mightily within us, renewing our mind, and will, andaffections, so that the heart be all prepared and furnished as atemple, as a home, for Jesus. Let that Blessed Spirit strengthen us tothe faith that receives the Blessed Saviour and His indwelling Presence. O Most Gracious Father! hear our cry. We do bow our knee to Thee. Weplead the riches of Thy glory. We praise Thee who art mighty to do abovewhat we can ask or think. We wait on Thee, O our Father: oh, grant us amighty strengthening by the Spirit in the inner man, that this bliss maybe ours in its full blessedness, our Lord Jesus dwelling in the heart. We ask it in His Name. Amen. 1. God's dwelling in the midst of Israel was the great central fact to which all the commands concerning holiness were but preparatory and subordinate. So the work of the Holy Spirit also culminates in the personal indwelling of Christ. (John xiv. 21, 23. Eph. Iii. 16, 17. ) Aim at this and expect it. 2. The tabernacle with its three divisions was, as of other spiritual truths, so the image of man's threefold nature. Our spirit is the Holiest of all, where God is meant to dwell, where the Holy Spirit is given. The life of the soul, with its powers of feeling, knowing, and willing, is the holy place. And the outer life of the body, of conduct and action, is the outer court. Begin by believing that the Spirit dwells in the inmost sanctuary, where His workings are secret and hidden. Honour Him by trusting Him to work, by yielding to Him in silent worship before God. From within He will take possession of thought and will; He will even fill the outer court, the body, with the Holiness of God. 'The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved entire, without blame. Faithful is He which calleth you, who will also do it. ' 3. God's indwelling was within the veil, in the unseen, the secret place. Faith knew it, and served Him with holy fear. Our faith knows that God the Holy Spirit has His abode in the hidden place of our inner life. Set open your inmost being to Him; bow in lowly reverence before the Holy One as you yield yourself to His working. Holiness is the presence of the Indwelling One. Ninth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Mediation. 'And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the _holy_ things, which the children of Israel shall _hallow_ in all their _holy_ gifts; and it shall always be upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. '--Ex. Xxviii. 36, 38. God's house was to be the dwelling-place of His Holiness, the placewhere He was to reveal Himself; as the Holy One, not to be approachedbut with fear and trembling; as the Holy-making One, drawing to Himselfall who would be made partakers of His Holiness. Of the revelation ofHis Holy and His Holy-making Presence, the centre is found in the personof the high priest, in his double capacity of representing God with man, and man with God. He is the embodiment of the Divine Holiness in humanform, and of human holiness as a Divine gift, as far as the dispensationof symbol and shadow could offer and express it. In him God came near tosanctify and bless the people. In him the people came their verynearest to God. And yet the very Day of Atonement, in which he mightenter into the Most Holy, was but the proof of how unholy man was, andhow unfit to abide in God's Presence. In himself a proof of Israel'sunholiness, he yet was a type and picture of the coming Saviour, ourblessed Lord Jesus, a wondrous exhibition of the way in which hereafterthe holiness of God should become the portion of His people. Among the many points in which the high priest typified Christ as oursanctification, there is, perhaps, none more suggestive or beautifulthan _the holy crown_ he wore on his forehead. Everything about him wasto be holy. His garments were holy garments. But there was to be onething in which this holiness reached its fullest manifestation. On hisforehead he was always to wear a plate of gold, with the words engravedon it, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. Every one was to read there that the wholeobject of his existence, the one thing he lived for, was, to be theembodiment and the bearer of the Divine holiness, the chosen one throughwhom God's holiness might flow out in blessing upon the people. The way in which the blessing of the holy crown was to act was a mostremarkable one. In bearing HOLINESS TO THE LORD on his forehead, he is, we read, 'to bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children ofIsrael hallow; that they may be accepted before the Lord. ' For every sinsome sacrifice or way of atonement had been devised. But how about thesin that cleaves to the very sacrifice and religious service itself?'Thou desirest truth in the inward parts. ' How painfully the worshippermight be oppressed by the consciousness that his penitence, his faith, his love, his obedience, his consecration, were all imperfect anddefiled! For this need, too, of the worshipper, God had provided. Theholiness of the high priest covered the sin and the unholiness of hisholy things. The holy crown was God's pledge that the holiness of thehigh priest rendered the worshipper acceptable. If he was unholy, therewas one among his brethren who was holy, who had a holiness that couldavail for him too, a holiness he could trust in. He could look to thehigh priest not only to effect atonement by his blood-sprinkling, but inhis person to secure a holiness too that made him and his gifts mostacceptable. In the consciousness of personal unholiness he might rejoicein a mediator, in the holiness of Another than himself, the priest whomGod had provided. Have we not here a most precious lesson, leading us a step farther on inthe way of holiness? To our question, How God makes holy, we have theDivine answer: Through a man whom the Divine Holiness has chosen to restupon, and whose holiness belongs to us, as His brethren, the verymembers of His own body. Through a holiness which is of such efficacy, that the very sins of our holy things disappear, and we can enter theHoly Presence with the assurance of being altogether well-pleasing. And is not just this the lesson that many earnest seekers after holinessneed? They know all that the Word teaches of the blessed Atonement, andthe full pardon it has brought. They believe in the Father's wonderfullove, and what He is ready to do for them. And yet, when they hear ofthe childlike simplicity, the assurance of faith, the loving obedience, and the blessed surrender with which the Father expects them to come andreceive the blessing, their heart fails for fear. It is as if theblessing were all beyond their reach. What avails that the Holy One issaid to come so nigh? their unholiness renders them incapable ofclaiming or grasping the Presence that offers itself to them. Just seehow the Holy One here reveals His way of making holy, and preparing forthe fellowship of His Holiness. In His Elect One as Mediator, holinessis prepared and treasured up enough for all who come through Him. As Ibow to pray or worship, and feel how much there is still wanting of thathumility, and fervency, and faith, that God has a right to demand, I maylook up to the High Priest in His Holiness, to the holy crown upon Hisforehead, and believe that the iniquity of my holy things is borne andtaken away. I may, with all my deficiency and unworthiness, know mostassuredly that my prayer is acceptable, a sweet-smelling savour. I maylook up to the Holy One to see Him smiling on me, for the sake of HisAnointed One. 'The holy crown shall always be on His forehead, that theymay be accepted before the Lord. ' It is the blessed truth ofSubstitution--One for all--of Mediatorship; God's way of making us holy. The sacrifice of the worshipping Israelite is holy and acceptable invirtue of the holiness of Another. The Old Testament shadow can never adequately set forth the NewTestament reality with its fulness of grace and truth. As we proceed inour study, we shall find that the holiness of Jesus our sanctificationis not only imputed but imparted, because we are _in Him_; the new manwe have put on is created in true holiness. We are not only countedholy; we are holy, we have received a new holy nature in Christ Jesus. 'He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all _of One_;therefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren. ' It is our livingunion with Jesus, God's Holy One, that has given us the new and holynature, and with that a claim and a share in all the holiness there isin Jesus. And so, as often as we are conscious of how unholy we are, wehave only to come under the covering of the Holiness of Jesus, to enjoythe full assurance that we and our gifts are most acceptable. Howevergreat be the weakness of our faith, the shortcoming in our desire forGod's glory, the lack in our love or zeal, as we see Jesus, withHoliness to the Lord on His forehead, we lift up our faces to receivethe Divine smile of full approval and perfect acceptance. This is God's way of making holy. Not only with the holy place, as wehave seen, but with the holy persons too, He begins with a centre, andfrom that in ever-widening circle makes holy. And that this Divinemethod will be crowned with success we may be sure. In the Word we finda most remarkable illustration of the extent to which it will berealized. We find the words on the holy crown once again in the OldTestament at its close. In the day of the Lord, 'there shall be upon thebells of the horses, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. ' The high priest's mottoshall then have become the watchword of daily life; every article ofbeauty or of service shall be holy too; from the head it shall haveextended to the skirts of the garments. Let us begin with realizing theHoliness of Jesus in its power to cover the iniquity of our holy things;let us make proof of it, and no longer suffer our unworthiness to keepus back or make us doubt; let us believe that we and our holy things areacceptable, because in Christ holy to the Lord; let us live in thisconsciousness of acceptance, and enter into fellowship with the HolyOne. As we enter in and abide in the holiness of Jesus, it will enter inand abide in us. It will take possession and spread its conquering powerthrough our whole life, until with us too upon everything that belongsto us the word shall shine, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And we shall againfind how God's way of holiness is ever from a centre, here the centre ofour renewed nature, throughout the whole circumference of our being, tomake His Holiness prove its power. Let us but dwell under the coveringof the Holiness of Jesus, as He takes away the iniquity of our holythings, He will make us and our life holy to the Lord. BE YE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. O my God and Father! my soul doth bless Thee for this wondrousrevelation of what Thy way and Thy grace is with those whom Thou hastcalled 'Holy in Christ. ' Thou knowest, O Lord, how continually ourhearts have limited our acceptance with Thee by our attainments, andconscious shortcoming has wrought condemnation. We knew too little how, in the Holiness of Him who makes us holy, there is a Divinely infiniteefficacy to cover our iniquities, and give us the assurance of perfectacceptance. Blessed Father! open our eyes to see, and our hearts tounderstand this holy crown of our blessed Jesus, with its wondrous andmost blessed, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And when our hearts condemn us, because our prayers are so littleconsciously according to the will or to the glory of God, or truly inthe name of Jesus, O most Holy Father, be pleased by Thy Spirit to showus how bright the smile and how hearty the welcome is we still have withThee. Teach us to come in the Holiness of our High Priest, and enterinto Thine, until it take possession of us, and permeate our wholebeing, and all that is in us be holy to the Lord. Amen. 1. Holiness is not something I can see or admire in myself: it is covering myself, losing myself, in the Holiness of Jesus. How wonderfully this is typified in Aaron and the holy crown. And the more I see and have apprehended of the Holiness of Jesus, the less shall I see or seek of holiness in myself. 2. He will make me holy: my tempers and dispositions will be renewed; my heart and mind cleansed and sanctified; holiness will be a new nature; and yet there will be all along the consciousness, humbling and yet full of joy: it is not I; Christ liveth in me. 3. Let us lie very low and tender before God, that the Holy Spirit may reveal to us what it is to be holy in the Holiness of Another, in the Holiness of Jesus, that is, in the Holiness of God. 4. Do not trouble or weary too much to grasp this with the intellect. Just believe it, and look in simplicity and trust to Jesus to make it all right for you. 5. _Holy in Christ. _ In childlike faith I take Christ's holiness afresh as my covering before God. In loving obedience I take it into my will and life. I trust and I follow Jesus: this is the path of holiness. 6. If we gather up the lessons we have found in the Word from Paradise downward, we see that the elements of holiness in us are these, each corresponding to some special aspect of God's holiness: deep Restfulness (ch. 3), humble Reverence (ch. 4), entire Surrender (ch. 5), joyful Adoration (ch. 6), simple Obedience (ch. 7). These all prepare for the Divine Indwelling (ch. 8), and this again we have through the Abiding in Jesus with the Crown of Holiness on His head. Tenth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Separation. 'I am the Lord your God, which have _separated_ you from other people. And ye shall be _holy_ unto me, for I the Lord am _holy_, and have _separated_ you from other people that ye should be _Mine_. '--Lev. Xx. 24, 26. 'Until the days be fulfilled, in the which he _separateth_ himself unto the Lord, he shall be _holy_. . . . All the days of his _separation_ he is _holy_ unto the Lord. '--Num. Vi. 5, 8. 'Wherefore Jesus also, that He might _sanctify_ the people through His own blood, suffered _without the gate_. Let us therefore go forth unto Him _without the camp_, bearing His reproach. '--Heb. Xiii. 12, 13. Separation is not holiness, but is the way to it. Though there can be noholiness without separation, there can be separation that does not leadto holiness. It is of deep importance to understand both the differenceand the connection, that we may be kept from the right-hand error ofcounting separation alone as holiness, as well as the left-hand error ofseeking holiness without separation. The Hebrew word for holiness possibly comes from a root that means toseparate. But where we have in our translation 'separate' or 'sever' or'set apart, ' we have quite different words. [3] The word for holy is usedexclusively to express that special idea. And though the idea of holyalways includes that of separation, it is itself something infinitelyhigher. It is of great importance to understand this well, because thebeing set apart to God, the surrender to His claim, the devotion orconsecration to His service, is often spoken of as if this constitutedholiness. We cannot too earnestly press the thought that this is onlythe beginning, the presupposition: holiness itself is infinitely more;not what I am, or do, or give, is holiness, but what God is, and gives, and does to me. It is God's taking possession of me that makes me holy;it is the Presence and the glory of God that really makes holy. Acareful study of God's words to Israel will make this clear to us. Eighttimes we find the expression in Leviticus, 'Ye shall be holy, for I amholy. ' Holiness is the highest attribute of God, expressive not only ofHis relation to Israel, but of His very being and nature, His infinitemoral perfection. And though it is by very slow and gradual steps thatHe can teach the carnal darkened mind of man what this means, yet fromthe very commencement He tells His people that His purpose is that theyshould be like Himself--holy because and as He is holy. To tell me thatGod separates men for Himself to be His, even as He gives Himself to betheirs, tells me of a relation that exists, but tells me nothing of thereal nature of this Holy Being, or of the essential worth of theholiness He will communicate to me. Separation is only the setting apartand taking possession of the vessel to be cleansed and used; it is thefilling of it with the precious contents we entrust to it that gives itits real value. Holiness is the Divine filling without which theseparation leaves us empty. Separation is not holiness. But separation is essential to holiness. 'I have separated you fromother people, and ye shall be holy. ' Until I have chosen out andseparated a vessel from those around it, and, if need be, cleansed it, Icannot fill or use it. I must have it in my hand, full and exclusivecommand of it for the time being, or I will not pour into it theprecious milk or wine. And just so God separated His people when Hebrought them up out of Egypt, separated them _unto Himself_ when He gavethem His covenant and His law, that He might have them under His controland power, to work out His purpose of making them holy. This He couldnot do until He had them apart, and had wakened in them theconsciousness that they were His peculiar people, wholly and only His, until He had so taught them also to separate themselves to Him. Separation is essential to holiness. The institution of the Nazarite will confirm this, and will also bringout very clearly what separation means. Israel was meant to be a holynation. Its holiness was specially typified in its priests. With regardto the individual Israelite, we nowhere read in the books of Moses ofhis being holy. But there were ordinances through which the Israelite, who would fain prove his desire to be entirely holy, could do so. Hemight separate himself from the ordinary life of the nation around him, and live the life of a Nazarite, a separated one. This separation wasaccepted, in those days of shadow and type, as holiness. 'All the daysof his separation he is holy unto the Lord. ' The separation consisted specially in three things--temperance, inabstinence from the fruit of the vine; humiliation, in not cutting orshaving his hair ('it is a shame for a man if he have long hair');self-sacrifice, in not defiling himself for even father or mother, ontheir death. What we must specially note is that the separation was notfrom things unlawful, but things lawful. There was nothing sinful initself in Abraham living in his father's house, or in Israel dwelling inEgypt. It is in giving up, not only what can be proved to be sin, butall that may hinder the full intensity of our surrender into God's handsto make us holy, that the spirit of separation is manifested. Let us learn the lessons this truth suggests. We must know _the need_for separation. It is no arbitrary demand of God, but has its ground inthe very nature of things. To separate a thing is to set it free for onespecial use or purpose, that it may with undivided power fulfil the willof him who chose it, and so realize its destiny. It is the principlethat lies at the root of all division of labour; complete separation toone branch of study or labour is the way to success and perfection. Ihave before me an oak forest with the trees all shooting up straight andclose to each other. On the outskirts there is one tree separated fromhis fellows; its heavy trunk and wide-spreading branches prove how itsbeing separated, and having a large piece of ground separated to its ownuse, over which roots and branches can spread, is the secret of growthand greatness. Our human powers are limited; if God is to take fullpossession, if we are fully to enjoy Him, separation to Him is nothingbut the simple, natural, indispensable requisite. God wants us all toHimself, that He may give Himself all to us. We must know the _purpose_ of separation. It is to be found in what Godhas said, 'Ye shall be holy unto me, for I the Lord am holy, and haveseparated you from the people, that ye should be MINE. ' God hasseparated us _for Himself_ in the deepest sense of the word; that Hemight enter into us, and show forth Himself in us. His holiness is thesum and the centre of all His perfections; it is that He may make usholy like Himself that He has separated us. Separation never has anyvalue in itself; it may become most wrong or hurtful; everything dependsupon the object proposed. It is as God gets and takes full possession ofus, as the eternal life in Christ has the mastery of our whole being, asthe Holy Spirit flows fully and freely through us, so that we dwell inGod, and God in us, that separation will be, not a thing of ordinancesand observances, but a spiritual reality. And it is as this purpose ofGod is seen and accepted and followed after, that difficult questions asto what we must be separated from, and how much sacrifice separationdemands, will find an easy answer. God separates from all that does notlead us into His holiness and fellowship. We need, above all, to know _the power_ of separation, the power thatleads us into it in the spirit of desire and of joy, of liberty and oflove. The great separating word in human language is the word _Mine_. Inthis we have the great spring of effort and of happiness: in the childwith its toys, in labour with its gains and rewards, in the patriot whodies for his country, it is this _Mine_ that lays its hand on what itsets apart from all else. It is the great word that love uses. Be it thechild that says to its mother, My own mamma, and calls forth theresponse, My own child; the bridegroom who draws the daughter from herbeloved home and parents to become his; or the Holy God who speaks: 'Ihave separated you from the people, that ye should be _Mine_;' it isalways with that _Mine_ that love exerts its mighty power, and drawsfrom all else to itself. God Himself knows no mightier argument, can putforth no more powerful attraction than this, 'that ye should be _Mine_. 'And the power of separation will come to us, and work in us, just as weyield ourselves to study and realize that holy purpose, to listen to andappropriate that wondrous _Mine_, to be apprehended and possessed ofthat Almighty Love. Let us study step by step the wondrous path in which Divine Love does itseparating work. In redemption it prepares the way. Israel is separatedfrom Egypt by the blood of the Lamb and the guiding pillar of fire. Inits command, 'Come out and be separate, ' it wakens man to action; in itspromises, 'I will be your God, ' it stirs desire and strengthens faith. In all the holy saints and servants of God, and at last in Him who washoly, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, it points the way. Inthe power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness, it seals theseparation by the Presence of the Indwelling God. This is indeed thepower of separation. _The separating power of the Presence of God_; thisit is we need to know. 'Wherein now shall it be known that I have foundgrace in Thy sight, I and Thy people?' said Moses: 'is it not in _thatThou goest with us_? _so_ shall we be _separated_, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. ' It is theconsciousness of God's Indwelling Presence, making and keeping us Hisvery own, that works the true separateness from the world and itsspirit, from ourselves and our own will. And it is as this separation isaccepted and prized and persevered in by us, that the holiness of Godwill enter in and take possession. And we shall realize that to be theLord's property, a people of His own, is infinitely more than merely tobe accounted or acknowledged as His, that it means nothing less thanthat God, in the power and indwelling of the Holy Ghost, fills ourbeing, our affections, and our will with His own life and holiness. Heseparates us for Himself, and sanctifies us to be His dwelling. He comesHimself to take personal possession by the indwelling of Christ in theheart. And we are then truly separate, and kept separate, by thepresence of God within us. BE YE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. O my God! who hast separated me for Thyself, I beseech Thee, by Thymighty power, to make this Divine separation deed and truth to me. Maywithin, in the depths of my own spirit, and without, in all myintercourse, the crown of separation of my God be upon me. I pray Thee especially, O my God, to perfect in power the separationfrom self! Let Thy Presence in the indwelling of my Lord Jesus be thepower that banishes self from the throne. I have turned from it withabhorrence; oh, my Father, reveal Thy Son fully in me! it is Hisenthronement in my heart can keep me as Thy own, as Himself takes theplace of myself. And give me grace, Lord, in my outward life to wait for a Divine wisdom, that I may know to witness, for Thy glory and for what Thy people need, to the blessedness of an entire giving up of everything for God, aseparation that holds back nothing, to be His and His alone. Holy Lord God! visit Thy people. Oh, withdraw Thou them from the worldand conformity to it. Separate, Lord, separate Thine own for Thyself. Separate, Lord, the wheat from the chaff; separate, as by fire, the goldfrom the dross; that it may be seen who are the Lord's, even His holyones. Amen. 1. Love separates effectually. With what jealousy a husband claims his wife, a mother her children, a miser his possessions! Pray that the Holy Spirit may show how God brought you to Himself, that you should be His. 'He is a holy God; He is a Jealous God. ' God's love shed abroad in the heart makes separation easy. 2. Death separates effectually. If I reckon myself to be indeed dead in Christ, I am separated from self by the power of Christ's death. Life separates still more mightily. As I say, 'Not I, but Christ liveth in me, ' I am lifted up out of the life of self. 3. Separation must be manifest; it is meant as a witness to others and ourselves; it must find expression in the external, if internally it is to be real and strong. It is the characteristic of a symbolic action that it not merely expresses a feeling, but nourishes and strengthens the feeling to which it corresponds. When the soul enters the fellowship of God, it feels the need of external separation, sometimes even from what appears to others harmless. If animated by the spirit of lowly consecration to God, the external may be a great strengthening of the true separateness. 4. Separation to God and appropriation by Him go together. This has been the blessing that has come to martyrs, confessors, missionaries, --all who have given distinct expression to the forsaking all. 5. Separation begins in love, and ends in love. The spirit of separation is the spirit of self-sacrifice, of surrender to the love of God; the truly separate one will be the most loving and love-winning, given up to serve God and man. Is not what separates, what distinguishes Jesus from all others, His self-sacrificing love? This is His separateness, in which we are to be made like Him. 6. God's holiness is His separateness; let us enter into _His_ separateness from the world; that will be our holiness. Unite thyself to God. Then art thou separate and holy. God separates for Himself, not by an act from without, but as His Will and Presence take possession of us. [3] See Note B. Eleventh Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. The Holy One of Israel. 'I am the Lord that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be _your God_; ye shall therefore _be holy_, for _I am holy_. I the Lord which _make you holy, am holy_. '--Lev. Xi. 45, xxi. 8. 'I am the Lord Thy God, _the Holy One of Israel_, Thy Saviour. Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, _the Holy One of Israel_: I am the Lord, _your Holy One_, the Creator of Israel, your King. '--Isa. Xliii. 3, 14, 15. In the book of Exodus we found God making provision for the Holiness ofHis people. In the holy times and holy places, holy persons, holythings, and holy services, He had taught His people that everythingaround Him, that all that would come near Him, must be holy. He wouldonly dwell in the midst of holiness; His people must be a holy people. But there is no direct mention of God Himself as holy. In the book ofLeviticus we are led on a step further. Here first we have God speakingof His own holiness, and making it the plea for the holiness of Hispeople, as well as its pledge and power. Without this the revelation ofholiness were incomplete, and the call to holiness powerless. Trueholiness will come to us as we learn that God Himself alone is holy. Itis He alone makes holy; it is as we come to Himself, and in obedienceand love are linked to Himself, that His Holiness can rest on us. [4] From the books of Moses onwards we shall find that the name of God asholy is found but seldom in the inspired writings, until we come toIsaiah, the evangelist prophet. There it occurs twenty-six times, andhas its true meaning opened up in the way in which it is linked with thename of Saviour and Redeemer. The sentiments of joy and trust andpraise, with which a redeemed people would look upon their Deliverer, are all mentioned in connection with the name of the Holy One. 'Cryaloud and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is _the Holy One ofIsrael_ in the midst of thee. ' 'The poor among men shall rejoice in _theHoly One of Israel_. ' 'Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt gloryin _the Holy One of Israel_. ' In Paradise we saw that God the Creatorwas God the Sanctifier, perfecting the work of His hands. In Israel wesaw that God the Redeemer was ever God the Sanctifier, making holy thepeople He had chosen for Himself. Here in Isaiah we see how it is Godthe Sanctifier, the Holy One, who is to bring about the great redemptionof the New Testament: as the Holy One, He is the Redeemer. God redeemsbecause He is holy, and loves to make holy: Holiness will be Redemptionperfected. Redemption and Holiness together are to be found in thepersonal relation to God. The key to the secret of holiness is offeredto each believer in that word: 'Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, theHoly One of Israel: I am the Lord, your Holy One. ' To come near, toknow, to possess the Holy One, and be possessed of Him, is Holiness. If God's Holiness is thus the only hope for ours, it is right that weseek to know what that Holiness is. And though we may find it indeed tobe something that passeth knowledge, it will not be in vain to gather upwhat has been revealed in the Word concerning it. Let us do so in thespirit of holy fear and worship, trusting to the Holy Spirit to be ourteacher. And let us first notice how this Holiness of God, though it is oftenmentioned as one of the Divine attributes, can hardly be counted such, on a level with the others. The other attributes all refer to somespecial aspect or characteristic of the Divine Nature; Holiness appearsto express what is the very essence or perfection of the Divine BeingHimself. None of the attributes can be predicated of all that belongs toGod; but Scripture speaks of His Holy Name, His Holy Day, His HolyHabitation, His Holy Word. In the word Holy we have the nearest possibleapproach to a summary of all the Divine perfections, the description ofwhat Divinity is. We speak of the other attributes as Divineperfections, but in this we have the only human expression for theDivine Perfection itself. It is for this reason that theologians havefound such difficulty in framing a definition that can express all theword means. [5] The original Hebrew word, whether derived from a root signifying toseparate, or another with the idea of shining, expressed the idea ofsomething distinguished from others, separate from them by superiorexcellence. God is Separate and different from all that is created, keeps Himself separate from all that is not God; as the Holy One Hemaintains His Divine glory and perfection against whatever mightinterfere with it: 'There is none holy, but the Lord;' 'To whom will youliken me? or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. ' As Holy, God isindeed the Incomparable One; Holiness is His alone; there is nothinglike it in heaven or earth, except when He gives it. And so our holinesswill consist, not in a human separation in which we attempt to imitateGod's, --no, but in entering into His separateness; belonging entirely toHim; set apart by Him and for Himself. Closely connected with this is the idea of Exaltation: 'Thus saith theHigh and Holy One, whose name is Holy. ' It was the Holy One who was seensitting upon a throne high and lifted up, the object of the worship ofthe seraphim. In Psalm xcix. God's Holiness is specially spoken of inconnection with His exaltation. For this reason, too, His Holiness is sooften connected with His Glory and Majesty (see 'Sixth Day'). And hereour holiness will be seen to be nothing but the poverty and humilitywhich comes when 'the loftiness of man is brought low, and the Lordalone is exalted. ' If we inquire more closely wherein the infinite excellence of thisSeparateness and Exaltation consists, we are led to think of the DivinePurity, and that not only in its negative aspect--as hatred of sin--butwith the more positive element of perfect beauty. Because we aresinners, and the revelation of God's Holiness is in a world of sin, itis natural, it is right and meet, that the first, that the abidingimpression of God's Holiness should be that of an Infinite Purity thatcannot look upon sin, in whose Presence it becomes the sinner to hidehis face and tremble. The Righteousness of God, forbidding andcondemning and punishing sin, has its root in His Holiness, is one ofits two elements--the devouring and destroying power of the consumingfire. 'God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness' (Isa. V. 16); inrighteousness the Holiness of the Holy One is maintained and revealed. But Light not only discovers what is impure, that it may be purified, but is in itself a thing of infinite beauty. And so some of our holiestmen have not hesitated to speak of God's Holiness as the infinitePulchritude or Beauty of the Divine Being, the Perfect Purity and Beautyof that Light in which God dwelleth. And if the Holiness of God is tobecome ours, to rest upon us, and enter into us, there must be, withoutceasing, the holy fear that trembles at the thought of grieving theinfinite sensitiveness of this Holy One by our sins, and yet side byside, and in perfect harmony with it, the deep longing to behold theBeauty of the Lord, an admiration of its Divine glory, and a joyfulsurrender to be His alone. We must go one step further. When God says, 'I am holy: _I make holy_, 'we see that one of the chief elements of His Holiness is this, that itseeks to communicate itself, to make partaker of its own perfection andblessedness. This is nought but Love. In the wonderful revelation inIsaiah of what the Holy One is to His people, we must beware ofmisreading God's precious Word. It is not said, that _though_ God is theHoly One, and hates sin, and ought to punish and destroy, thatnotwithstanding this He will save. By no means. But we are taught that_as_ the Holy One, _just because_ He is the Holy One, who delights tomake holy, He will be the Deliverer of His people. (See Hos. Xi. 9. ) Itis Holiness above everything else that we are invited to look to, totrust in, to rejoice in. The Holy One is the Holy-making One: He redeemsand saves that He may win our confidence for Himself, that He may drawus to Himself as the Holy One, that in the personal attachment toHimself we may learn to obey, to become of one mind with Him, to be holyas He is holy. The Divine Holiness is thus that infinite Perfection of Divinity inwhich Righteousness and Love are in perfect harmony, out of which theyproceed, and which together they reveal. It is that Energy of the Divinelife in the power of which God not only keeps Himself free from allcreature weakness or sin, but unceasingly seeks to lift the creatureinto union with Himself and the full participation of His own purity andperfection. The glory of God as God, as the God of Creation andRedemption, is His Holiness. It is in this that the Separateness andExaltation of God, even above all thought of man, really consists. 'Godis Light;' in His infinite Purity He reveals all darkness, and yet hasno fellowship with it. He judges and condemns it; He saves out of it, and lifts up into the fellowship of His own purity and blessedness. Thisis the Holy One of Israel. It is this God who speaks to us, 'I am the Lord your God: I am holy: Imake holy. ' It is in the adoring contemplation of His Holiness, in thetrustful surrender to it, in the loving fellowship with Himself, theHoly One, that we can be made holy. My brother! would you be holy?listen again, and let, in the deep silence of trust, God's words sinkinto your heart--'Your Holy One. ' Come to Himself and claim Him as yourGod, and claim all that He, as the Holy One who makes holy, can do foryou. Just remember that Holiness is Himself. Come to _Him_; worship_Him_; give _Him_ the glory. Seek not, even from Him, holiness inyourself; let self be abased, and be content that the Holiness is His. As _His_ presence fills your heart, as _His_ Holiness and Glory are yourone desire, as _His_ holy Will and Love are your delight, --as the HolyOne becomes all in all to you, --you will be holy with the holiness Heloves to see. And as, to the end, you see nothing to admire in self, andonly Beauty in Him, you will know that He has laid of His glory on you;and your holiness will be found in the song, There is none holy, but theLord. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. O God! we have again heard the wonderful revelation of Thyself, 'I amholy. ' And as we felt how infinitely exalted above all our conceptionsThy Holiness is, we heard Thy call, almost still more wonderful, 'Be yeholy, as I am holy. ' And as every thought of how we were to be holy, asThou art holy, failed us, we heard Thy voice once again, in this mostwonderful word of all, 'I make you holy. ' I am 'your Holy One. ' Most Holy God! we do beseech Thee, give us in some due measure torealize how unholy we are, and so to take the place that becomes us inThy presence. Oh that the sinfulness of our nature, and all that is ofself, may be so discovered to us, that it may be no longer possible tolive in it! May the Light that reveals this, reveal too, how ThyHoliness is our only hope, our sure refuge, our complete deliverance. O Lord! speak into our souls the word, 'The Holy One, your Redeemer, ''Your Holy One, ' with such power by Thy Spirit, that our faith may growinto the assured confidence that we can be holy as Thou art holy. Holy Lord God! we wait for Thee. Reveal Thyself in power within us, andfit us to be the messengers of Thy Holiness, to tell Thy people how holyThou art, and how holy we must be, and how holy Thou dost make us. Amen. 1. This Holy One is God Almighty. Before He revealed Himself to Israel as the Holy One, He made Himself known to Abraham as the Almighty, 'who quickeneth the dead. ' In all your dealings with God for holiness, remember He is the Almighty One, who can do wonders in you. Say often, 'Glory to Him who is mighty to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. ' 2. This Holy One is the Righteous God, a consuming fire. Cast yourself into it, that all that is sinful may be destroyed. As you lay yourself upon the altar, expect the fire. 'And yield your members unto God as instruments of Righteousness. ' 3. This Holy One is the God of Love. He is your Father; yield yourself to let the Holy Spirit cry in you, Abba Father! that is, to let Him shed abroad and fill your heart with God's father-love. God's Holiness is His fatherliness; our holiness is childlikeness. Be simple, loving, trustful. 4. This Holy One is God. Let Him be God to you; ruling all, filling all, working all. Worship Him, come near to Him, live with and in and for Him: He will be your holiness. [4] 'I am the Lord your God; ye shall therefore _make holy_ yourselves, and _be holy, for I am holy_' (Lev. Xi. 44). 'I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God: ye shall therefore _be holy, for I am holy_' (Lev. Xi. 45). 'Ye shall _be holy_, for _I the Lord your God am holy_' (Lev. Xix. 2). '_Make holy_ yourselves therefore, and _be ye holy_, for I am the Lord your God; ye shall keep my statutes and do them: I am the Lord which _make you holy_' (Lev. Xx. 7, 8). 'Ye shall _be holy_ unto me, for _I the Lord am holy_, and have separated you from other people, that ye should be mine' (Lev. Xx. 26). 'The priest shall be _holy_ unto thee, for _I the Lord which make you holy, am holy_' (Lev. Xxi. 8). 'I will be _hallowed_ among the children of Israel; I am the Lord _which make you holy_' (Lev. Xxii. 32). 'I am the Lord _which make them holy_' (Lev. Xxi. 15, 23; xxii. 9, 16). [5] See Note C for some account of the different definitions that have been given. Twelfth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. The Thrice Holy One. 'I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. Above Him stood the seraphim. And one cried to another, and said, _Holy, holy, holy_ is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. '--Isa. Vi. 1-3. 'And the four living creatures, they have no rest day and night, saying, _Holy, holy, holy_ is the Lord God, the Almighty, which was, and which is, and which is to come. '--Rev. Iv. 8. It is not only on earth, but in heaven too, that the Holiness of God isHis chief and most glorious attribute. It is not only on earth, but inheaven too, that the highest inspiration of adoration and praise makesmention of His Holiness. The brightest of living beings, they who areever before and around and above the throne, find their glory in adoringand proclaiming the Holiness of God: surely there can be for us nohigher honour than to study and to know, to worship and adore, toproclaim and show forth the glory of the Thrice Holy One. After Moses, as we know, Isaiah was the chief messenger of the Holinessof God. Each had a special preparation for his commission to make knownthe Holy One. Moses saw the Holy One in the fire, and hid his face andfeared to look upon God, and so was prepared for being His messenger, and for praising Him as 'glorious in holiness. ' Isaiah, as he heard thesong of the seraphim, and saw the fire on the altar, and the housefilled with the smoke, cried out, 'Woe is me. ' It was not till, in thedeep sense of the need of cleansing, he had received the touch of thefire and the purging of his sin, that he might bear to Israel the Gospelof the Holy One as its Redeemer. May it be in the spirit of fear andlowly worship that we listen to the song of the seraphim, and seek toknow and worship the Thrice Holy One. And may ours too be the cleansingwith the fire, that we may be found fit to tell God's people that He isthe Holy One of Israel, their Redeemer. The threefold repetition of the HOLY has at all times by the Church ofChrist been connected with the Holy Trinity. The song of the livingcreatures around the throne (Rev. Iv. ) is evidence of the truth of thisthought. We there find it followed by the adoration of Him who was, andis, and is to come, the Almighty: the Eternal Source, the presentmanifestation in the Son, the future perfecting of the revelation of Godin the Spirit's work in His Church. The truth of the Holy Trinity isoften regarded as an abstract doctrine, with little direct bearing onpractical life. So far is this from being the case, that a living faithmust root in it: some spiritual insight into the relation and theoperation of each of the Three, and the reality of their living Oneness, is an essential element of true growth in knowledge and spiritualunderstanding. [6] Let us here regard the Trinity specially in itsrelation to God's Holiness and as the source of ours. What does it meanthat we adore the Thrice Holy One? God is not only holy, but makes holy:in the revelation of the Three Persons we have the revelation of the wayin which God makes holy. The Trinity teaches us that God has revealed Himself in two ways. TheSon is _the Form of God_, His manifestation as He shows Himself to man, the Image in which His unseen glory is embodied, and to which man is tobe conformed. The Spirit is _the Power of God_, working in man, andleading him up to that Image. In Jesus, He who had been in the form ofGod took the form of man; and the Divine Holiness was literallymanifested in the form of a human life and the members of a human body. A new holy human nature was formed in Christ, to be communicated to us. In His death His own personal holiness was perfected as human obedience, and so the power of sin conquered and broken. Therefore in theresurrection, through the Spirit of Holiness, He was declared to be theSon of God with power to impart His life to us. There the Spirit ofHoliness was set free from the veil of the flesh, the trammels thathindered it, and obtained power to enter and dwell in man. The HolySpirit was poured out as the fruit of Resurrection and Ascension. Andthe Spirit is now the Power of God in us, working upwards towardsChrist, to reproduce His life and Holiness in us, to fit us for fullyreceiving and showing forth Him in our lives. Christ from above comes tous as the embodiment of the Unseen Holiness of God: the Spirit fromwithin lifts us up to meet Him, and fits us to receive and make our ownall that is in Him. The Triune God whom we adore is the Thrice Holy One: the mystery of theTrinity is the mystery of Holiness: the Glory and the Power of theTrinity is the Glory and Power of God who makes us holy. There is Goddwelling in light inaccessible, a consuming fire of Holy Love, destroying all that resists, glorifying into its own purity all thatyields. There is the Son, casting Himself into that consuming fire, whether in its eternal blessedness in heaven, or its angry wrath onearth, a willing sacrifice, to be its food and its satisfaction, aswell as the revelation of its power to destroy and to save. And there isthe Spirit of Holiness, the flames of that mighty fire spreading onevery side, convicting and judging as the Spirit of Burning, and thentransforming into its own brightness and holiness all that it can reach. All the relations of the Three Persons to each other and to us havetheir root and their meaning in the revelation of God as the Holy One. As we know and partake of Him, we shall know and partake of Holiness. And how shall we know Him? Let us learn to know the Holiness of God asthe seraphs do: in the worship of the Thrice Holy One. Let us withveiled faces join in the ceaseless song of adoration: 'Holy, holy, holyis the Lord of hosts. ' Each time we meditate on the Word, each prayer tothe Holy God, each act of faith in Christ the Holy One, each exercise ofwaiting dependence on the Holy Spirit, let it be in the spirit ofworship: Holy, holy, holy. Let us learn to know the Holiness of God asIsaiah did. He was to be the chosen messenger to reveal and interpret tothe people the name, the Holy One of Israel. His preparation was thevision that made him cry out, 'Woe is me! for mine eyes have seen theKing, the Lord of hosts. ' Let us bow in silence before the Holy One, until our comeliness too be turned into corruption. And then let usbelieve in the cleansing fire from the altar, the touch of the livecoals of the burning holiness, which not only consumes, but purges lipsand heart to say, 'Here am I, send me. ' Yes, let us worship, whetherlike the adoring seraphim, or like the trembling prophet, until we knowthat our service too is accepted, to tell forth the praise of the ThriceHoly One. Holy, holy, holy: if we are indeed to be the messengers of the Holy One, let us seek to enter fully into what this Thrice Holy means. HOLY, theFather, _God above us_, High and Lifted up, whom no man hath seen or cansee, whose Holiness none dare approach, but who doth Himself in HisHoliness draw nigh to make holy. HOLY, the Son, _God with us_, revealingDivine Holiness in human life, maintaining it amid the suffering ofdeath for us, and preparing a holy life and nature for His people. HOLY, the Spirit, _God in us_, the Power of Holiness within us, reaching outto and embracing Christ, and transforming our inner life into the unionand communion of Him in whom we are holy. Holy, holy, holy! it is allholiness. It is only holiness--perfect holiness. This is Divineholiness: holiness hidden and unapproachable; holiness manifested andmaintained in human nature; holiness communicated and made our very own. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is the mystery of the Christian life, the mystery of Holiness. The Three are One, and we need to enter evermore deeply into the truth that neither of the Three ever works separateor independent of the other. The Son reveals the Father, and the Fatherreveals the Son. The Father gives not Himself, but the Spirit: theSpirit speaks not of Himself, but cries Abba Father! The Son is ourSanctification, our Life, our All: the fulness is in Him. And yet wehave ever to bow our knees to the Father for Him to reveal Christ in us, for Him to establish us in Christ. And the Father does not this withoutthe Spirit: so that we have to ask to be strengthened mightily by theSpirit, that Christ may dwell in us. Christ gives the Spirit to themthat believe and love and obey; the Spirit again gives Christ, formedwithin and dwelling in the heart. And so in each act of worship, andeach step of growth, and each blessed experience of grace, all the ThreePersons are actively engaged: the One is ever Three, the Three are everOne. Would you apply this in the life of holiness, let faith in the HolyTrinity be a living practical reality. In every prayer to _the Father_to sanctify you, take up your position _in Christ_, and do it in thepower of _the Spirit within you_. In every exercise of faith _in Christ_as your Sanctification, let your posture be that of prayer to _theFather_ and trust in Him as He delights to honour the Son, and of quietexpectancy of _the Spirit's_ working, through whom the Father glorifiesthe Son. In every surrender of the soul to the sanctification of _theSpirit_, to His leading as the Spirit of Holiness, look to _the Father_who grants His mighty working, and who sanctifies through faith in _theSon_, and expect the Spirit's power to manifest itself in showing thewill of God, and Jesus as your Sanctification. If for a time thisappears at variance with the simplicity of childlike faith and prayer, be assured that as God has thus revealed Himself, He will teach you soto worship and believe. And so the Holy, holy, holy will become the deepundertone of all our worship and all our life. Children of God! called to be holy as He is holy, oh, come let us bowdown and worship in His holy presence! Come and veil the face: withdraweye and mind from gazing on what passes knowledge, and let the soul begathered into that inner stillness, in which the worship of the heavenlySanctuary alone can be heard. Come and cover the feet: withdraw from therush of work and haste, be it worldly or religious, and learn toworship. Come, and as you fall down in self-abasement, the glory of theHoly One will shine upon you. And as you hear and take up and sing thesong, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, you will find how in such knowledge and worshipof the Thrice Holy One is the power that makes you holy. BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God Almighty! which wast, and art, and art tocome! I worship Thee as the Triune God. With face veiled and feetcovered, I would bow in deep humility and silence, till Thy mercy liftme as on eagles' wings to behold Thy glory. Most merciful God! who hast called me to be holy as Thou art holy, oh, reveal to me somewhat of Thy Holiness! As it shines upon me and strikesdeath into the creature and the flesh, may even the most involuntarytaint of sin, and its slightest movement, become unbearable. As itshines and revives the hope of being partaker of Thy Holiness, may theconfidence grow strong that Thou Thyself art making me holy, wilt evenmake me a messenger of Thy Holiness. Thrice Holy God! I worship Thee as my God. HOLY! THE FATHER; holy andmaking holy; making holy His own Son and sending Him into the world, that we might behold the very glory of God in a human face, the face ofJesus Christ. HOLY! THE SON; the Holy One of God, fulfilling the will ofthe Father, and so making holy Himself that He might be our holiness. HOLY! THE SPIRIT; the Spirit of Holiness, dwelling within us, making theSon and His Holiness our own, and so making us partakers of the Holinessof God. O my God! I bow down, and worship, and adore. May even now the worship of heaven that rests not day or night be theworship my soul renders Thee without ceasing. May its song be, down inthe depths of the heart, the keynote of my life: HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LordGod Almighty! which wast, and art, and art to come. Amen. 1. Thought always needs to distinguish and separate: in life alone there is perfect unity. The more we know the living God, the more we shall realize how truly the Three are One. In each act of One Person the other Two are present. There is not a prayer rises but the Presence of the Holy Three is needed through Christ, in the Spirit, we speak to the Father. 2. In faith to apprehend this is to have the secret of holiness. The Holy God above us, ever giving and working; the Holy One of God, the living gift, who has possession of us, in whom we are; the Holy Spirit, God within us, through whom the Father works, and the Son is revealed: this is the God who says, I am holy, I make holy. In the perfect unity of the work of the Three, holiness is found. 3. No wonder that the love of the Father and the grace of the Son do not accomplish more, when the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is little understood or sought or accepted. The Holy Spirit is the fruit and crown of the Divine Revelation, through whom the Son and the Father come to us. If you would know God, if you would be holy, you must be taught and led of the Spirit. 4. As often as you worship the Thrice Holy One, hearken if no voice be heard: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Let the answer rise, Here am I, send me, and offer yourself to be _a messenger of the holiness of God_ to those around you. 5. When in meditation and worship you have sought to take in and express what God's word has taught, then comes the time for confessing how you know nothing, and for waiting on God _to reveal Himself_. [6] The Divine necessity and meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity is seen from the counterpart we have of it in nature. In every living object that exists we distinguish first _the life_, then _the form_ or _shape_ in which that life manifests itself, then _the power_ or _effect_ as seen in the result which the life acting in its form or manifestation produces. And so we have God as the Unseen One, the Fountain of life; the Son as the Form or Image of God, the manifestation of the Unseen Life; and the Holy Spirit as the Power of that life proceeding from the Father and the Son, and working out the purpose of God's will in the Church. Applying this thought to God as the Holy One, we shall understand better the place of the Son and the Spirit as they bring to us the Holiness of God. Thirteenth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Humility. 'Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is _Holy_: I dwell in the High and _Holy_ place, with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. '--Isa. Lvii. 15. Very wonderful is the revelation we have in Isaiah of God, the Holy One, as the Redeemer and the Saviour of His people. In the midst of thepeople whom He created and formed for Himself, He will as the Holy Onedwell, showing forth His power and His glory, filling them with joy andgladness. All these promises have, however, reference to the people as awhole. Our text to-day reveals a new and specially beautiful feature ofthe Divine Holiness in its relation to the individual. The High andLofty One, whose name is Holy, and whose only fit dwelling-place iseternity, He looks to the man who is of a humble and contrite heart;with him will He dwell. God's Holiness is His condescending Love. As itis a consuming fire against all who exalt themselves before Him, it isto the spirit of the humble like the shining of the sun, heart-revivingand life-giving. The deep significance of this promise comes out clearly when we connectit with the other promises of New Testament times. The great feature ofthe New Covenant, in its superiority to the old, is this, that whereasin the law and its institution all was external, in the New the kingdomof God would be within. God's laws given and written into the heart, anew spirit put within us, God's own Spirit given to dwell within ourspirit, and so the heart and the inner life fitted to be the temple andhome of God; it is this constitutes the peculiar privilege of theministration of the Spirit. Our text is perhaps the only one in the OldTestament in which this indwelling of the Holy One, not among the peopleonly, but in the heart of the individual believer, is clearly broughtout. In this the two aspects of the Divine Holiness would reach theirfull manifestation: I dwell in the High and Holy place, and with himalso that is of a contrite and humble spirit. In His heaven above, thehigh and lofty place, and in our heart, contrite and humble, God has Hishome. God's Holiness is His glory that separates Him by an infinitedistance, not only from sin, but even from the creature, lifting Himhigh above it. God's Holiness is His Love, drawing Him down to thesinner, that He may lift him into His fellowship and likeness, and makehim holy as He is holy. The Holy One seeks the humble; the humble findthe Holy One: such are the two lessons we have to learn to-day. _The Holy One seeks the humble. _ There is nothing that has such anattraction for God, that has such affinity with holiness, as a contriteand humble spirit. The reason is evident. There is no law in the naturaland the spiritual world more simple, than that two bodies cannot at thesame moment occupy the same space. Only so much as the new occupant canexpel of what the space was filled with can it really possess. In man, self has possession, and self-will the mastery, and there is no room forGod. It is simply impossible for God to dwell or rule when self is onthe throne. As long as, through the blinding influence of sin andself-love, even the believer is not truly conscious of the extent towhich this self-will reigns, there can be no true contrition orhumility. But as it is discovered by God's Spirit, and the soul sees howit has just been self that has been secretly keeping out God, with whatshame it is broken down, and how it longs to break utterly away fromself, that God may have His place! It is this brokenness, and continuedbreaking down, that is expressed by the word contrition. And as the soulsees what folly and guilt it has been, by its secret honouring of self, to keep the Holy One from the place which He alone has a right to, andwhich He would so blessedly have filled, it casts itself down in utterself-abasement, with the one desire to be nothing, and to give God theplace and the praise that is His due. Such breaking down and humiliation is painful. Its intense realityconsists in this, that the soul can see nothing in itself to trust orhope in. And least of all can it imagine that it should be an object ofDivine complacency, or a fit vessel for the Divine blessing. And yetjust this is the message which the Word of the Lord brings to our faith. It tells us that the Holy One, who dwells in the High and Lofty place, is seeking and preparing for Himself a dwelling here on this earth. Ittells us, just what the truly contrite and humble never could imagine, and even now can hardly believe, that it is even, that it is only, withsuch that He will dwell. These are they in whom God can be glorified, inwhom there is room for Him to take the place of self and to fill theemptied place with Himself. The Holy One seeks the humble. Just when wesee that there is nothing in us to admire or rest in, God sees in useverything to admire and to rest in, because there is room for Himself. The lowly one is the home of the Holy One. _The humble find the Holy One. _ Just when the consciousness of sin andweakness, and the discovery of how much of self there is, makes you fearthat you can never be holy, the Holy One gives Himself. Not as you lookat self, and seek to know whether now you are contrite and humbleenough--no, but when no longer looking at self, because you have givenup all hope of seeing anything in it but sin, you look up to the HolyOne, you will see how His promise is your only hope. It is in faiththat the Holy One is revealed to the contrite soul. Faith is ever theopposite of what we see and feel; it looks to God alone. And it believesthat in its deepest consciousness of unholiness, and its fear that itnever can be holy, God, the Holy One, who makes holy, is near asRedeemer and Saviour. And it is content to be low, in the consciousnessof unworthiness and emptiness, and yet to rejoice in the assurance thatGod Himself does take possession and revive the heart of the contriteone. Happy the soul who is willing at once to learn the lesson that, allalong, it is going to be the simultaneous experience of weakness andpower, of emptiness and filling, of deep, real humiliation, and the asreal and most wonderful indwelling of the Holy One. This is indeed the deep mystery of the Divine life. To human reason itis a paradox. When Paul says of himself, 'as dying, and behold we live;as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as having nothing, yet possessingall things, ' he only gives expression to the law of the kingdom, that asself is displaced and man becomes nothing, God will become all. Side byside with deepest sense of nothingness and weakness, the sense ofinfinite riches and the joy unspeakable can fill the heart. However deepand blessed the experience becomes of the nearness, the blessing, thelove, the actual indwelling of the Holy One, it is never an indwellingin the old self; it is ever a Divine Presence humbling self to makeplace for God alone to be exalted. The power of Christ's death, thefellowship of His cross, works each moment side by side with the powerand the joy of His resurrection. 'He that humbleth himself shall beexalted;' in the blessed life of faith the humiliation and theexaltation are simultaneous, each dependent on the other. The humble find the Holy One; and when they have found, the possessiononly humbles all the more. Not that there is no danger or temptation ofthe flesh exalting itself in the possession, but, once knowing thedanger, the humble soul seeks for grace to fear continually, with a fearthat only clings more firmly to God alone. Never for a moment imaginethat you attain a state in which self or the flesh are absolutely dead. No; by faith you enter into and abide in a fellowship with Jesus, inwhom they are crucified; abiding in Him, you are free from their power, but only as you believe, and, in believing, have gone out of self anddwell in Jesus. Therefore, the more abundant God's grace becomes, andthe more blessed the indwelling of the Holy One, keep so much the lower. Your danger is greater, but your Help is now nearer: be content intrembling to confess the danger, it will make you bold in faith to claimthe victory. Believers, who profess to be nothing, and to trust in grace alone, Ipray you, do listen to the wondrous message. The High and Lofty One, whose name is Holy, and who dwells in the Holy Place, and who can dwellnowhere but in a Holy Place, seeks a dwelling here on earth. Will yougive it Him? Will you not fall down in the dust, that He may find inyou the humble heart He loves to dwell in? Will you not now believe thateven in you, however low and broken you feel, He doth delight to makeHis dwelling? 'Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is theKingdom;' with them the King dwells. Oh, this is the path to holiness!be humble, and the holy nearness and presence of God in you will be yourholiness. As you hear the command, Be holy, as I am holy, let faithclaim the promise, and answer, I will be holy, O Most Holy God! if Thou, the Holy One, wilt dwell with me. BE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. O Lord! Thou art the High and Lofty One, whose Name is Holy. And yetThou speakest, 'I dwell in the high and holy place, and with him that isof a contrite and humble spirit. ' Yes, Lord! when the soul takes the lowplace, and has low thoughts of itself, that it feels it is nothing, Thoudost love to come and comfort, to dwell with it and revive it. O my God! my creature nothingness humbles me; my many transgressionshumble me; my innate sinfulness humbles me; but this humbles me most ofall, Thine infinite condescension, and the ineffable indwelling Thoudost vouchsafe. It is Thy Holiness, in Christ bearing our sin, Thy HolyLove bearing with our sin, and consenting to dwell in us; O God! it isthis love that passeth knowledge that humbles me. I do beseech Thee, letit do its work, until self hides its head and flees away at the presenceof Thy glory, and Thou alone art all. Holy Lord God! I pray Thee to humble me. Didst Thou not of old meet Thyservants, and show Thyself unto them until they fell upon their facesand feared? Thou knowest, my God! I have no humility which I can bringThee. In my blessed Saviour, who humbled Himself in the form of aservant, and unto the death of the cross, I hide myself. In Him, in Hisspirit and likeness, I would live before Thee. Work Thou it in me, bythe Holy Spirit dwelling in me, and as I am dead to self in Him, and Hiscross makes me nothing, let Thy holy indwelling revive and quicken me. Amen. 1. Lowliness and holiness. Keep fast hold of the intimate connection. Lowliness is taking the place that becomes me; holiness, giving God the place that becomes Him. If I be nothing before Him, and God be all to me, I am in the sure path of holiness. Lowliness is holiness, because it gives all the glory to God. 2. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ' These first words of the Master when He opened His lips to proclaim the Kingdom, are often the last in the hearts of His disciples. 'The Kingdom is in the Holy Ghost:' to the poor in spirit, those who know they have nothing that is really spiritual, the Holy Spirit comes to be their life. The poor in spirit are the Kingdom of the Saints: in them the Holy Spirit reveals the King. 3. Many strive hard to be humble with God, but with men they maintain their rights, and nourish self. Remember that the great school of humility before God, is to accept the humbling of man. Christ sanctified Himself in accepting the humiliation and injustice which evil men laid upon Him. 4. Humility never sees its own beauty, because it refuses to look to itself: It only wonders at the condescension of the Holy God, and rejoices in the humility of Jesus, God's Holy One, our Holy One. 5. The link between holiness and humility is indwelling. The Lofty One, whose name is Holy, _dwells_ with the contrite one. And where He dwells is _the Holy Place_. Fourteenth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. The Holy One of God. 'Therefore also that _holy_ thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. '--Luke i. 35. 'We have believed and know that Thou art _the Holy One of God_. '--John vi. 69. 'The holy one of the Lord'--only once (Ps. Cvi. 16) the expression isfound in the Old Testament. It is spoken of Aaron, in whom holiness, asfar as it could then be revealed, had found its most completeembodiment. The title waited for its fulfilment in Him who alone, in Hisown person, could perfectly show forth the holiness of God onearth--Jesus the Son of the Father. In Him we see holiness, as Divine, as human, as our very own. 1. In Him we see wherein that Incomparable Excellence of the DivineNature consists. 'Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest iniquity, therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladnessabove Thy fellows. ' God's infinite hatred of sin, and His maintenance ofthe Right, might appear to have little moral worth, as being anecessity of His nature. In the Son we see Divine Holiness tested. He istried and tempted. He suffers, being tempted. He proves that Holinesshas indeed a moral worth: it is ready to make any sacrifice, yea to giveup life and cease to be, rather than consent to sin. In giving Himselfto die, rather than yield to the temptation of sin; in giving Himself todie, that the Father's righteous judgment may be honoured; Jesus provedhow Righteousness is an element of the Divine Holiness, and how the HolyOne is sanctified in Righteousness. But this is only one side of Holiness. The fire that consumes alsopurifies: it makes partakers of its own beautiful Light-nature all thatis capable of assimilation. So Divine Holiness not only maintains itsown purity; it communicates it too. Herein was Jesus indeed seen to bethe Holy One of God, that He never said, 'Stand by, for I am holier thanthou. ' His holiness proved itself to be the very incarnation of Him whohad spoken, 'Thus saith the High and Lofty One, whose Name is Holy: Idwell in the High and Holy place, and with him who is of a contritespirit. ' In Him was seen the affinity holiness has for all that is lostand helpless and sinful. He proved that holiness is not only the energywhich in holy anger separates itself from all that is impure, but whichin holy love separates to itself even what is most sinful, to save andto bless. In Him we see how the Divine Holiness is the harmony ofInfinite Righteousness with Infinite Love. 2. Such is the Divine aspect of the character of Christ, as He shows inhuman form what God's Holiness is. But there is another aspect, to us noless interesting and important. We not only want to know how God isholy, but how man must act to be holy as God is holy. Jesus came toteach us that it is possible to be men, and yet to have the life of Goddwelling in us. We ordinarily think that the glory and the infinitePerfection of Deity are the proper setting in which the beauty ofholiness is to be seen: Jesus proved the perfect adaptation andsuitability of human nature for showing forth that which is theessential glory of Deity. He showed us how, in choosing and doing thewill of God, and making it his own will, man may truly be holy as God isholy. The value of this aspect of the Incarnation depends upon our realizingintensely the true humanity of our Lord. The awful separating andpurifying process that is ever being carried on in the fiery furnace ofthe Divine Holiness, ever consuming and ever assimilating, we expect tosee in Him in the struggles of a truly human will. Holiness, to be trulyhuman, must not only be a gift, but an acquirement. Coming from God, itmust be accepted and personally appropriated, in the voluntary surrenderof all that is not in accordance with it. In Jesus, as He distinctlygave up His own will, and did and suffered the Father's will, we havethe revelation of what human holiness is, and how truly man, throughthe unity of will, can be holy as God is holy. 3. But what avails that we have seen in Jesus that a man can be holy?His example were indeed a mockery if He show us not the way, and give usnot the power, to become like Himself. To bring us this, was indeed thesupreme object of the Incarnation. The Divine nature of Christ did notsimply make _His_ humanity partaker of its holiness, leaving Him stillnothing more than an individual man. His Divinity gave the humanholiness He wrought out, the holy human nature which He perfected, aninfinite value and power of communication. With Him a new life, theEternal Life, was grafted into the stem of humanity. For all who believein Him, He sanctified Himself, that they themselves might also besanctified in truth. Because His death was the great triumph of Hisobedience to the will of the Father, it broke for ever the dominion ofsin, it atoned for our guilt, and won for Him from the Father the powerto make His people partakers of His own life and holiness. In HisResurrection and Ascension the power of the New Life, and its right touniversal dominion, were made manifest, and He is now in full truth theHoly One of God, holding in Himself as Head the power of a Holiness, atonce Divine and human, to communicate to every member of His body. THE HOLY ONE OF GOD! in a fulness of meaning that passeth knowledge, inspirit and in truth, Jesus now bears this title. He is now the One HolyOne whom God sees, of such an infinite compass and power of holiness, that He can be holiness to each of His brethren. And even as He is toGod the Holy One, in whom He delights, and for whose sake He delights inall who are in Him, so Christ may now be to us too the One Holy One inwhom we delight, in whom the Holiness of God is become ours. 'We havebelieved and know that Thou art _the Holy One of God_, '--blessed theywho can say this, and know themselves to be holy in Christ. In speaking of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, we saw how Christ standsmidway between the Father and the Spirit, as the point of union in whichthey meet. In the Son, 'the very image of His substance' (Heb. I. 3), wehave the objective revelation of Deity, the Divine Holiness embodied andbrought nigh. In the Holy Spirit we have the same revelationsubjectively, _the Divine Holiness entering our inmost being andrevealing itself there_. The work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal andglorify Christ as the Holy One of God, as He takes of His Holiness andmakes it ours. He shows us how all is in Christ; how Christ is all forus; how we are in Christ; and how, as a living Saviour, Christ throughHis Spirit takes and keeps charge of us and our life of holiness. Hemakes Christ indeed to be to us _the Holy One of God_. My Brother! wouldst thou be holy, wouldst thou know God's way ofholiness--learn to know Christ as the Holy One of God. Thou art _inHim_, 'holy in Christ. ' Thou hast been placed, by an act of DivinePower, in Christ, and that same Power keeps thee there, planted androoted in that Divine fulness of life and holiness which there is inHim. His Holy Presence, and the power of His eternal life, surroundthee: let the Holy Spirit reveal this to thee. The Holy Spirit is withinthee as the power of Christ and His life. Secretly, silently, butmightily, if thou wilt look to the Father for His working, will Hestrengthen the faith that thou art in Christ, and that the Divine life, which thus encircles thee on every side, will enter in and takepossession of thee. Study and pray to believe and realize that it is inChrist as the Holy One of God, in Christ in whom the Holiness of God isprepared for thee as a holy nature and holy living, that thou art, andthat thou mayest abide. And then remember, also, that this Christ is thy Saviour, the mostpatient and compassionate of teachers. Study holiness in the light ofHis countenance, looking up into His face. _He came from heaven for thevery purpose of making thee holy. _ His love and power are more than thyslowness and sinfulness. Do learn to think of holiness as theinheritance prepared for thee, as the power of a new life which Jesuswaits and lives to dispense. Just think of it as all in Him, and of itspossession as being dependent upon the possession of Himself. And as thedisciples, though they scarce understood what they confessed, or knewwhither the Lord was leading them, became His saints, His holy ones, invirtue of their intense attachment to Him, so wilt thou find that tolove Jesus fervently, and obey Him simply, is the sure path to holinessand the fulness of the Holy Spirit. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Most Holy Lord God! I do bless Thee that Thy beloved Son, whom Thoudidst sanctify and send into the world, is now to us _the Holy One ofGod_. I beseech Thee that my inner life may so be enlightened by theSpirit that I may in faith fully know what this means. May I know Him as the revelation of Thy Holiness, the incarnation inhuman nature, even unto the death, of Thine infinite and unconquerablehatred of sin, as of Thy amazing love to the sinner. May my soul befilled with great fear and trust of Thee. May I know Him as the exhibition of the Holiness in which we are now towalk before Thee. He lived in Thy holy will. May I know Him as Hewrought out that holiness, to be communicated to us in a new humannature, making it possible for us to live a holy life. May I know Him as Thou hast placed me in Him in heaven, holy in Christ, and as I may abide in Him by faith. May I know Him, as He dwells in me, the Holy One of God on the throne ofmy heart, breathing His Holy Spirit and maintaining His holy rule. Soshall I live holy in Christ. O my Father! it pleased Thee that in Thy Son should all the fulnessdwell. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in Himdwell the unsearchable riches of grace and holiness. I beseech Thee, reveal Him to me, reveal Him in me, that I may not have to satisfymyself with thoughts and desires, without the reality, but that in thepower of an endless life I may know Him, and be known of Him, the HolyOne of God. Amen. 1. In the holiness of Jesus we see what ours must be: righteousness, that hates sin and gives everything to have it destroyed; love, that seeks the sinner and gives everything to have him saved. 'Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. ' 2. It is a solemn thought that we may be studying earnestly to know what holiness is, and yet have little of it, because we have little of Jesus. It is a blessed thought that a man may directly be little occupied with the thought of holiness, and yet have much of it, because he is full of Jesus. 3. We need the whole of what God teaches in His Word in regard to holiness in all its different aspects. We need still more to be ever returning to the living centre where God imparts holiness. Jesus is _the Holy One of God_: to have _Him_ truly, to love _Him_ fervently, to trust and obey _Him_, to be _in Him_--this makes us holy. 4. Your holiness is thus treasured up in this Divine, Almighty, and most gentle Saviour--surely there need to be no fear that He will not be ready or able to make you holy. 5. With such a Sanctifier, how comes it that so many seekers after holiness fail so sadly, and know so little of the joy of a holy life? I am sure it is with very many this one thing: they seek to grasp and hold this Christ in their own strength, and know not how it is the Holy Spirit within them who must be waited for to reveal this Divine Being, the Holy One of God, in their hearts. Fifteenth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. The Holy Spirit. 'But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive: for _the Holy Spirit_ was not yet: because Jesus was not yet glorified. '--John vii. 39. 'The Comforter, even _the Holy Spirit_, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things. '--John xiv. 26. 'God chose you to salvation _in sanctification of the Spirit_, and belief of the truth. '--2 Thess. Ii. 13. (See 1 Pet. I. 2. ) It has sometimes been said, that while the Holiness of God stands outmore prominently in the Old Testament, in the New it has to give way tothe revelation of His love. The remark could hardly be made if it werefully realized that the Spirit is God, and that when He takes up theepithet Holy as His own proper name, it is to teach us that now theHoliness of God is to come nearer than ever, and to be speciallyrevealed as the power that makes us holy. In the Holy Spirit, God theHoly One of Israel, and He who was the Holy One of God, come nigh forthe fulfilment of the promise, 'I am the Lord that make you holy. ' Theunseen and unapproachable holiness of God had been revealed and broughtnear in the life of Christ Jesus; all that hindered our participation init had been removed by His death. The name of Holy Spirit teaches usthat it is specially the Spirit's work to impart it to us and make itour own. Try and realize the meaning of this; the epithet that through the wholeOld Testament has belonged to the Holy God, is now appropriated to thatSpirit which is within you. The Holiness of God in Christ becomesholiness _in you_, because this Spirit is in you. The words, and theDivine realities the words express, _Holy_ and _Spirit_, are nowinseparably and eternally united. You can only have as much of theSpirit as you are willing to have of holiness. You can only have as muchholiness as you have of the indwelling Spirit. There are some who pray for the Spirit because they long to have Hislight and joy and strength. And yet their prayers bring little increaseof blessing or power. It is because they do not rightly know or desireHim as the _Holy_ Spirit. His burning purity, His searching andconvicting light, His making dead of the deeds of the body, of self withits will and its power, His leading into the fellowship of Jesus as Hegave up His will and His life to the Father, --of all this they have notthought. The Spirit cannot work in power in them because they receiveHim not as the _Holy_ Spirit, in _sanctification_ of the Spirit. Attimes, in seasons of revival, as among the Corinthians and Galatians, Hemay indeed come with His gifts and mighty workings, while Hissanctifying power is but little manifest. (1 Cor. Xiv. 4, xiii. 8, iii. 1-3; Gal. Iii. 3, v. 15-26. ) But unless that sanctifying power beacknowledged and accepted, His gifts will be lost. His gifts coming onus are but meant to prepare the way for the sanctifying power within us. We must take the lesson to heart; we can have as much of the Spirit aswe are willing to have of His Holiness. Be full of the Spirit, must meanto us, Be fully holy. The converse is equally true. We can only have so much holiness as wehave of the Spirit. Some souls do very earnestly seek to be holy, but itis very much in their own strength. They will read books and listen toaddresses most earnestly; they will use every effort to lay hold ofevery thought, and act out every advice. And yet they must confess thatthey are still very much strangers to the true, deep rest and joy andpower of abiding in Christ, and being holy in Him. They sought forholiness more than for the Spirit. They must learn how even all theholiness which is so near and clear in Christ, is beyond our reach, except as the Holy Spirit dwells within and imparts it. They must learnto pray for Him and His mighty strengthening (Eph. Iii. 16), to believefor Him (John iv. 14, vii. 37), in faith to yield to Him as indwelling(1 Cor. Iii. 14, vi. 19). They must learn to cease from self-effort inthinking and believing, in willing and in running; to hope in God, andwait patiently for Him. He will by His Holy Spirit make us holy. Be holymeans, Be filled with the Spirit. If we inquire more closely how it is that this Holy Spirit makes holy, the answer is, --He reveals and imparts the Holiness of Christ. Scripturetells us: Christ is made unto us sanctification. He sanctified Himselffor us, that we ourselves might also be sanctified in truth. We havebeen sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ oncefor all. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus. The whole living Christ isjust a treasury of holiness for man. In His life on earth He exchangedthe Divine Holiness He possessed into the current coin needed for thishuman earthly life, obedience to the Father, and humility, and love, andzeal. As God, He has a sufficiency of it for every moment of the life ofevery believer. And yet, it is all beyond our reach, except as the Holy Spirit brings itto us and inwardly communicates it. But this is the very work for whichHe bears the Divine Name, the _Holy_ Spirit, to glorify Jesus, the HolyOne of God, within us, and so make us partakers of His Holiness. He doesit by revealing Christ, so that we begin to see what is in Him. He doesit by discovering the deep unholiness of our nature (Rom. Vii. 14-23). He does it by mightily strengthening us to believe, to receive JesusHimself as our life. He does it by leading us to utter despair of self, to absolute surrender of obedience to Jesus as Lord, to the assuredconfidence of faith in the power of an indwelling Christ. He does it by, in the secret silent depths of the heart and life, imparting thedispositions and graces of Christ, so that from the inner centre of ourlife, which has been renewed and sanctified in Christ, holiness shouldflow out and pervade all to the utmost circumference. Where the desirehas once been awakened, and the delight in the law of God after theinward man been created, there, as the Spirit of this life in ChristJesus, He makes free from the law of sin and death in the members, heleads into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. As God within us, Hecommunicates what God in Christ has prepared. And if we ask once more how the working of this Holy Spirit, who thusmakes holy, is to be secured, the answer is very simple and clear. He isthe Spirit of the Holy Father, and of Christ, the Holy One of God: fromthem He must be received. 'He showed me a river of water of lifeproceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb. ' Jesus speaks of 'theHoly Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name. ' He taught us to askthe Father. Paul prays for the Ephesians: 'I bow my knees to the Father, that He may grant unto you, according to the riches of His glory, thatye may be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. ' It isas we look to God in His Holiness, and all its revelation from Creationdownward, and see how the Spirit now flows out from the throne of HisHoliness as the water of life, that our hope will be awakened that Godwill give Him to work mightily in us. And as we then see Jesus revealingthat holiness in human nature, rending the veil in His atoning death, that the Spirit from the Holiest of all may come forth and, as the HolySpirit, be His representative, making Him present within us, we shallbecome confident that faith in Jesus will bring the fulness of theSpirit. As He told us to ask the Father, He told us to believe inHimself. 'He that believeth in me, rivers of living water shall flow outof him. ' Let us bow to the Father in the name of Christ, His Son; let usbelieve very simply in the Son as Him in whom we are well-pleasing tothe Father, and through whom the Father's love and blessing reach us, and we may be sure the Spirit, who is already within us, will, as theHoly Spirit, do His work in ever-increasing power. The mystery ofholiness is the mystery of the Trinity: as we bow to the Father, believing in the Son, the Holy Spirit will work. And we shall see thetrue meaning of what God spake in Israel: '_I am holy_, ' thus speaks theFather; '_Be holy_, ' as my Son and in my Son; '_I make holy_, ' throughthe Spirit of my Son dwelling in you. Let our souls worship and cry out, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. ' The Holy Spirit. All true knowledge of the Father in His adorableHoliness, and of the Son in His, which is meant to be ours, and allparticipation of it, depend upon our life in the Spirit, upon ourknowing and owning Him as abiding in us as our Life. Oh, what can it bethat, with such a Thrice Holy God, His Holiness does not more cover HisChurch and children? The Holy Spirit is among us, is in us: it must bewe grieve and resist Him. If _you_ would not do so, at once bow the kneeto the Father, that He may grant you the Spirit's mighty workings inthe inner man. Believe that the Holy Spirit, bearer to you of all theHoliness of God and of Jesus, is indeed in you. Let Him take the placeof self, with its thoughts and efforts. Set your soul still before Godin holy silence, for Him to give you wisdom; rest, in emptiness andpoverty of spirit, in the faith that He will work in His own way. AsDivine as is the holiness that Jesus brings, so Divine is the power inwhich the Holy Spirit communicates it. Yield yourself day by day ingrowing dependence and obedience, to wait on and be led of Him. Let thefear of the Holy One be on you: sanctify the Lord God in your heart: letHim be your fear and dread. Fear not only sin: fear above all self, asit thrusts itself in before God with its service. Let self die, inrefusing and denying its work: let the Holy Spirit, in quietness, anddependence, in the surrender of obedience and trust, have the rule, thefree disposal of every faculty. Wait for Him--He can, He will in powerreveal and impart the Holiness of the Father and the Son. [7] BE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts! the whole earth is full of Thyglory! Let that glory fill the heart of Thy child, as he bows beforeThee. I come now to drink of the river of the water of life that flowsfrom under the throne of God and of the Lamb. Glory be to God and to theLamb for the gift that hath not entered into the heart of man toconceive--the gift of the Holy indwelling Spirit. O my Father! in the name of Jesus I ask Thee that I may be strengthenedwith might by Thy Spirit in the inner man. Teach me, I pray Thee, tobelieve that Thou hast given Him, to accept and expect Him to fill andrule my whole inner being. Teach me to give up to Him; not to will or torun, not to think or to work in my strength, but in quiet confidence towait and to know that He works in me. Teach me what it is to have noconfidence in the flesh, and to serve Thee in the Spirit. Teach me whatit is in all things to be led by Thy Holy Spirit, the Spirit of ThyHoliness. And grant, gracious Father, that through Him I may hear Thee speak andreveal Thyself to me in power: I AM HOLY. May He glorify to me and inme, Jesus, in whom Thy command 'BE HOLY' hath been so blessedlyfulfilled on my behalf. And let the Holy Spirit give me the anointingand the sealing which bring the perfect assurance that in Him Thypromise is being gloriously fulfilled, 'I MAKE YOU HOLY. ' Amen. 1. It it universally admitted that the Holy Spirit has not, in the teaching of the Church or the faith of believers, that place of honour and power, which becomes Him as the Revealer of the Father and the Son. Seek a deep conviction that without the Holy Spirit the clearest teaching on holiness, the most fervent desires, the most blessed experiences even, will only be temporary, will produce no permanent result, will bring no abiding rest. 2. The Holy Spirit dwells within, and works within, in the hidden deep of your nature. Seek above everything the clear and habitual assurance that He is within you, doing His work. 3. To this end, deny self and its work in serving God. Your own power to think and pray and believe and strive--lay it all down expressly and distinctly in God's presence; claim, accept, and believe in the hidden workings of the indwelling Spirit. 4. As the Son ever spake of the Father, so the Spirit ever points to Christ. The soul that yields itself to the Spirit will of Him learn to know how Christ is our holiness, how we can always abide in Christ our Sanctification. What a vain effort it has often been without the Spirit! '_As the anointing taught you_, ye abide in Him. ' 5. In the temple of thine heart, beloved believer, there is a secret place, within the veil, where dwells, often all unknown, the Spirit of God. Do bow in deep reverence before the Father, and ask that He may work mightily. Expect the Spirit to do His work: He will make Thy inner man a fit home, Thy heart a throne, for Jesus, and reveal Him there. [7] I cannot say how deeply I feel that one of the great wants of believers is that they do not _know_ the Holy Spirit, who is within them, and thereby lose the blessed life He would work in them. If it please God, I hope that the next volume of this series may be on _The Spirit of Christ_. May the Father give me a message that shall help His children to know what the Holy Spirit can be to them. Sixteenth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Truth. '_Make them holy_ in _the Truth_: Thy word is _Truth_. '--John xvii. 17. 'God chose you unto salvation in _sanctification_ and belief of _the Truth_. '--2 Thess. Ii. 12. The chief means of sanctification that God uses is His word. And yet howmuch there is of reading and studying, of teaching and preaching theword, that has almost no effect in making men holy. It is not the wordthat sanctifies; it is God Himself who alone can sanctify. Nor is itsimply through the word that God does it, but through the Truth which isin the word. As a means the word is of unspeakable value, as the vesselwhich contains the truth, if God use it; as a means it is of no value, if God does not use it. Let us strive to connect God's Holy Word withthe Holy God Himself. God sanctifies in the Truth through His word. Jesus had just said, 'The words which Thou gavest me, I have giventhem. ' Let us try and realize what that means. Think of that greattransaction in eternity: the Infinite Being, whom we call God, _givingHis words_ to His Son; in His words opening up His heart, communicatingHis mind and will, revealing Himself and all His purpose and love. In aDivine power and reality passing all conception, God gave Christ Hiswords. In the same living power Christ gave them to His disciples, allfull of a Divine life and energy to work in their hearts, as they wereable to receive them. And just as in the words of a man on earth weexpect to find all the wisdom or all the goodness there is in him, sothe word of the Thrice Holy One is all alive with the Holiness of God. All the holy fire, alike of His burning zeal and His burning love, dwells in His words. And yet men can handle these words, and study them, and speak them, andbe entire strangers to their holiness, or their power to make holy. Itis God Himself, the Holy One, who must make holy through the word. Everyseed, in which the life of a tree is contained, has around it a husk orshell, which protects and hides the inner life. Only where the seedfinds a place in congenial soil, and the husk is burst and removed, canthe seed germinate and grow up. And it is only where there is a heart inharmony with God's Holiness, longing for it, yielding itself to it, thatthe word will really make holy. It is the heart that is not content withthe word, but seeks the Living, Holy One in the word, to which He willreveal the truth, and in it Himself. It is the word given to us byChrist as God gave it Him, and received by us as it was by Him, to ruleand fill our life, which has power to make holy. But we must notice very specially how our Saviour says, Sanctify them, not in the word, but in the truth. Just as in man there is body, soul, and spirit, so in truth too. There is first _word-truth_; a man may havethe correct form of words while he does not really apprehend the truththey contain. Then there is _thought-truth_; there may be a clearintellectual apprehension of truth without the experience of its power. The Bible speaks of truth as a living reality: this is the _life-truth_, in which the very Spirit of the truth we profess has entered andpossessed our inner being. Christ calls Himself _the Truth_: He is saidto be full of grace and truth. The Divine life and grace are in Him asan actually substantial existence and reality. He not only acts upon usby thoughts and motives, but communicates, as a _reality_, the eternallife He brought for us from the Father. The Holy Spirit is called theSpirit of Truth; what He imparts is all real and actual, the verysubstance of unseen things; He guides into the Truth, not thought-truthor doctrine only, but life-truth, the personal possession of the Truthas it is in Jesus. As the Spirit of Truth He is the Spirit of Holiness;the life of God, which is His Holiness, He brings to us as an actualpossession. It is now of this living Truth, which dwells in the word, as theseed-life dwells in the husk, that Jesus says, 'Make them holy in theTruth: Thy word is Truth. ' He would have us mark the intimateconnection, as well as the wide difference, between the word and thetruth. The connection is one willed by God and meant to be inseparable. 'Thy word is truth;' with God they are one. But not with man. Just asthere were men in close contact and continual intercourse with Jesus, towhom He was only a man, and nothing more, so there are Christians whoknow and understand the word, and yet are strangers to its truespiritual power. They have the letter but not the spirit; the Truthcomes to them in word but not in power. The word does not make themholy, because they hold it not in Spirit and in Truth. To others, on thecontrary, who know what it is to receive the truth in the love of it, who yield themselves, in all their dealings with the word, to the Spiritof Truth who dwells in it and in them too, the word comes indeed asTruth, as a Divine reality, communicating and working what it speaks of. And it is of such a use of the word that the Saviour says, 'Make themholy in the truth: Thy word is truth. ' As the words, which God gave Him, were all in the power of the eternal Life and Love and Will of God, therevelation and communication of the Father's purpose, as God's word wasTruth to Him and in Him, so it can be in us. And as we thus receive it, we are made holy in the Truth. And what now are the lessons we have to learn here for the path ofHoliness? The first is: Let us see to it that in all our intercoursewith God's Blessed Word we rest content with nothing short of theexperience of it, as truth of God, as spirit and as power. Jesus said, 'If ye abide in my word, ye shall know the truth. ' No analysis can everfind or prove the life of a seed: plant it in its proper soil, and thegrowth will testify to the life. It is only as the word of God isreceived in the love of it, as it grows and works in us, that we canknow its truth, can know that it is the Truth of God. It is as we livein the words of Jesus, in love and obedience, keeping and doing them, that the Truth from heaven, the Power of the Divine Life which there isin them, will unfold itself to us. Christ is the Truth; in Him the loveand grace, the very life of God, has come to earth as a substantialexistence, a Living, Mighty Power, something new that was never on earthbefore (John i. 17); let us yield ourselves to the Living Christ topossess us and to rule us as the Living Truth, then will God's word beTruth to us and in us. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Truth; that actual heavenlyreality of Divine life and love in Christ, the Truth, has a Spirit, whocomes to communicate and impart it. Let us beware of trying to study orunderstand or take possession of God's word without that Spirit throughwhom the word was spoken of old; we shall find only the husk, the truthor thought and sentiment, very beautiful perhaps, but with no power tomake us holy. We must have _the Spirit_ of the Truth within us. He willlead us _into_ the Truth; when we are in the Truth, God makes us holy init and by it. The Truth must be in us, and we in it. God desires truthin the inward parts: we must be of the people of whom Christ says, 'Ifye were of the truth, ' 'he that is of the truth knoweth me. ' In thelower sphere of daily life and conduct, of thought and action, theremust be an intense love of truth, and a willingness to sacrificeeverything for it; in the spiritual life, a deep hungering to have allour religion every day, every moment, stand fully in the truth of God. It is to the simple, humble, childlike spirit that the truth of the wordwill be unsealed and revealed. In such the Spirit of truth comes todwell. In such, as they daily wait before the Holy One in silence andemptiness, in reverence and holy fear, His Holy Spirit works and givesthe truth within. In thus imparting Christ as revealed in the word, inHis Divine life and love, as their own life, He makes them holy with theholiness of Christ. There is another lesson. Listen to that prayer, the earthly echo of theprayer which He ever liveth to pray, 'Holy Father! make them holy in thetruth. ' Would you be holy, child of God? cast yourself into that mightycurrent of intercession ever flowing into, ever reaching, the Father'sbosom. Let yourself be borne upon it until your whole soul cries, withthe unutterable groanings, too deep and too intense for human speech, 'Holy Father! make me holy in the truth. ' As you trust in Christ as thetruth, the reality of what you long for, and in His all-prevailingintercession; as you wait for the Spirit within as the Spirit of truth;look up to the Father, and expect His own direct and almighty working tomake you holy. The mystery of holiness is the mystery of the TriuneOne. The deeper entrance into the holy life rests in the fellowship ofthe Three in One. It is the Father who establishes us in Christ, whogives, in a daily fresh giving, the Holy Spirit; it is to the Father, the Holy Father, the soul must look up continually in the prayer, 'Makeme holy in the truth. ' It has been well said that in the word Holy we have the central thoughtof the high-priestly prayer. As the Father's attribute (John xvii. 11), as the Son's work for Himself and us (ver. 19), as the direct work ofthe Father through the Spirit (vers. 17, 20), it is the revelation ofthe glory of God in Himself and in us. Let us enter into the Holiest ofall, and as we bow with our Great High Priest, let the deep, unceasingcry go up for all the Church of God, 'Holy Father! make them holy in thetruth: Thy word is truth. ' The word in which God makes holy is summed upin this, HOLY IN CHRIST. May God make it truth in us! BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Blessed Father! to Israel Thou didst say, I the Lord am holy and makeholy. But it is only in Thy beloved Son that the full glory of ThyHoliness, as making us holy, has been revealed. Thou art our HolyFather, who makest us holy in Thy truth. We thank Thee that Thy Son hath given us the words Thou gavest Him, andthat as He received them from Thee in life and power, we may receivethem too. O Father! with our whole heart we do receive them; let theSpirit make them truth and life within us. So shall we know Thee as theHoly One, consuming the sin, renewing the sinner. We bless Thee most for Thy Blessed Son, the Holy One of God, the LivingWord in whom the Truth dwelleth. We thank Thee that in His never-ceasingintercession, this cry ever reacheth Thee, 'Father, sanctify them in Thytruth, ' and that the answer is ever streaming forth from Thy glory. HolyFather! make us holy in Thy truth, in Thy wonderful revelation ofThyself in Him who is the truth. Let Thy Holy Spirit so have dominion inour hearts that Thy Holy Child Jesus, sanctifying Himself for us that wemay be sanctified in the truth, may be to us the Way, the Truth, and theLife. May we know that we are in Him in Thy presence, and that Thy oneword in answer to our prayer to make us holy is--Holy in Christ. Amen. 1. God is the God of truth--not truth in speaking only, or truth of doctrine--but truth of existence, or life in its Divine reality. And Christ is _the truth_; the actual embodiment of this Divine life. And there is a kingdom of truth, of Divine Spiritual realities, of which Christ is King. And of all this truth of God in Christ, the very essence is, the Spirit. He is the Spirit of truth: He leads us into it, so that we are of the truth and walk in it. Of the truth, the reality there is in God, Holiness, is the deepest root; the Spirit of _truth_ is the _Holy_ Spirit. 2. It is the work of _the Father_ to make us holy in the truth: let us bow very low in childlike trust as we breathe the prayer: 'Holy Father! make us holy in the truth. ' _He will do it. _ 3. It is the intercession of _the Son_ that asks and obtains this blessing: let us take our place _in Him_, and rejoice in the assurance of an answer. 4. It is _the Spirit of truth_ through whom the Father does this work, so that we dwell in the truth, and the truth in us. Let us yield very freely and very fully to the leading of the Spirit, in our intercourse with God's Word, that, as the Son prays, the Father may make us holy in the truth. 5. Let us, in the light of this work of the Three-One, never read the Word but with this aim: to be made holy in the truth by God. Seventeenth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Crucifixion. 'For their sakes I _sanctify_ myself, that they themselves also may be _sanctified_ in truth. '--John xvii. 19. 'He said, Lo, I am come to do Thy will. In which will we have been _sanctified_ through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are _sanctified_. '--Heb. X. 9, 10, 14. It was in His High-priestly prayer, on His way to Gethsemane andCalvary, that Jesus thus spake to the Father: 'I sanctify myself. ' Hehad not long before spoken of Himself as 'the Son whom the Father hathsanctified and sent into the world. ' From the language of Holy Scripturewe are familiar with the thought that, what God has sanctified, man hasto sanctify too. The work of the Father, in sanctifying the Son, is thebasis and groundwork of the work of the Son in sanctifying Himself. IfHis Holiness as man was to be a free and personal possession, acceptedand assimilated in voluntary and conscious self-determination, it wasnot enough that the Father sanctify Him: He must sanctify Himself too. This self-sanctifying of our Lord found place through His whole life, but culminates and comes out in special distinctness in His crucifixion. Wherein it consists is made clear by the words from the Epistle to theHebrews. The Messiah spake: 'Lo, I come to do Thy will. ' And then it isadded, 'In the which will we have been sanctified through the offeringof the body of Christ. ' It was the offering of the body of Christ thatwas the will of God: in doing that will He sanctified us. It was of thedoing that will in the offering His body that He spake, 'I sanctifymyself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. ' Thegiving up of His will to God's will in the agony of Gethsemane, and thenthe doing of that will in the obedience unto death, this was Christ'ssanctifying Himself and us too. Let us try and understand this. The Holiness of God is revealed in His will. Holiness even in the DivineBeing has no moral value except as it is freely willed. In speaking ofthe Trinity, theologians have pointed out how, as the Father representsthe absolute necessity of Everlasting Goodness, the Son proves itsliberty: within the Divine Being it is willed in love. And this now wasthe work of the Son on earth, amid the trials and temptations of a humanlife, to accept and hold fast at any sacrifice, with His whole heart towill, the will of the Father. 'Though He was a Son, yet He learnedobedience in that He suffered. ' In Gethsemane the conflict between thewill of human nature and the Divine will reached its height: itmanifests itself in language which almost makes us tremble for Hissinlessness, as He speaks of His will in antithesis to God's will. Butthe struggle is a victory, because in presence of the clearestconsciousness of what it means to have His own will, He gives it up, andsays, 'Thy will be done. ' To enter into the will of God He gives up Hisvery life. In His crucifixion He thus reveals the law of sanctification. Holiness is the full entrance of our will into God's will. Or rather, Holiness is the entrance of God's will to be the death of our will. Theonly end of our will and deliverance from it, is death to it under therighteous judgment of God. It was in the surrender to the death of thecross that Christ sanctified Himself, and sanctified us, that we alsomight be sanctified in truth. And now, just as the Father sanctified Him, and He in virtue thereofappropriated it and sanctified Himself, so we, whom He has sanctified, have to appropriate it to ourselves. In no other way than crucifixion, the giving up of Himself to the death, could Christ realize thesanctification He had from the Father. And in no other way can werealize the sanctification we have in Him. His own and oursanctification bears the common stamp of the cross. We have seen beforethat obedience is the path to holiness. In Christ we see that the pathto perfect holiness is perfect obedience. And that is obedience untodeath, even to the giving up of life, even the death of the cross. Asthe sanctification which Christ wrought out for us, even unto theoffering of His body, bears the death mark, we cannot partake of it, wecannot enter it, except as we die to self and its will. Crucifixion isthe path to sanctification. This lesson is in harmony with all we have seen. The first revelation ofGod's Holiness to Moses was accompanied with the command, Put off. God'spraise, as Glorious in Holiness, Fearful in Praises, was sounded overthe dead bodies of the Egyptians. When Moses on Sinai was commanded tosanctify the Mount, it was said, 'If any touch it, man or beast, itshall not live. ' The Holiness of God is death to all that is in contactwith sin. Only through death, through blood-shedding, was there accessto the Holiest of all. Christ chose death, even death as a curse, thatHe might sanctify Himself for us, and open to us the path to Holiness, to the Holiest of all, to the Holy One. And so it is still. No man cansee God and live. It is only in death, the death of self and of nature, that we can draw near and behold God. Christ led the way. No man can seeGod and live. 'Then let me die, Lord, ' one has cried, 'but see Thee Imust. ' Yes, blessed be God, so real is our interest in Christ and ourunion to Him, that we may live in His death; as day by day self is keptin the place of death, the life and the holiness of Christ can beours. [8] And where is the place of death? And how can the crucifixion which leadsto Holiness and to God be accomplished in us? Thank God! it is no workof our own, no weary process of self-crucifixion. The crucifixion thatis to sanctify us is an accomplished fact. The cross bears the banner, 'It is finished. ' On it Christ sanctified Himself for us, that we mightbe sanctified in truth. Our crucifixion, as our sanctification, issomething that in Christ has been completely and perfectly finished. 'Wehave been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christonce for all. ' 'By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that aresanctified. ' In that fulness, which it is the Father's good pleasureshould dwell in Christ, the crucifixion of our old man, of the flesh, ofthe world, of ourselves, is all a spiritual reality; he that desires andknows and accepts Christ, fully receives all this in Him. And as theChrist, who had previously been known more in His pardoning, quickening, and saving grace, is again sought after as a real deliverer from thepower of sin, as a sanctifier, He comes and takes up the soul into thefellowship of the sacrifice of His will. 'He put away sin _by thesacrifice of Himself_, ' must become true of us as it is of Him. Hereveals how it is a part of His salvation to make us partakers of a willentirely given up to the will of God, of a life that had yielded itselfto the death, and had then been given back from the dead by the power ofGod, a life of which the crucifixion of self-will was the spirit and thepower. He reveals this, and the soul that sees it, and consents to it, and yields its will and its life, and believes in Jesus as its death andits life, and in His crucifixion as its possession and its inheritance, enters into the enjoyment and experience of it. The language is now, 'Idied that I might live: I have been crucified with Christ, and it is nolonger I that live, but Christ that liveth in me. ' And the life it nowlives is by the faith on the Son of God, the daily acceptance in faithof Him who lives within us in the power of a death that has been passedthrough and for ever finished. 'I sanctify myself for them, that they themselves also may be sanctifiedin truth. ' 'I come to do Thy will, O God. In the which will, ' the willof God accomplished by Christ, 'we have been sanctified through the oneoffering of the body of Christ. ' Let us understand and hold it fast:Christ's giving up His will in Gethsemane and accepting God's will indying; Christ's doing that will in the obedience to the death of thecross, this is His sanctifying Himself, and this is our being sanctifiedin truth. 'In the which will we have been sanctified. ' The death toself, the utter and most absolute giving up of our own life, with itswill and its power and its aims, to the cross, and into the crucifixionof Christ, the daily bearing the cross--not a cross on which we are yetto be crucified, but the cross of the crucified Christ in its power tokill and make dead--this is the secret of the life of holiness--this istrue sanctification. Believer! is this the holiness which you are seeking? Have you seen andconsented that God alone is holy, that self is all unholy, and thatthere is no way to be made holy but for the fire of the Divine Holinessto come in and be the death of self? 'Always bearing about in the bodythe dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested inour mortal body'--is the pathway for each one who seeks to be sanctifiedin truth, even as He sanctified Himself; sanctified just like Jesus. He sanctified Himself for us, that we ourselves also might be sanctifiedin truth. Yes, our sanctification rests and roots in His, in Himself. And we are in Him. The secret roots of our being are planted into Jesus:deeper down than we can see or feel, there is He our Vine, bearing andquickening us. Let us by faith understand that, in a manner and ameasure which are far beyond our comprehension, intensely Divine andreal, we are in Him who sanctified Himself for us. Let us dwell there, where we have been placed of God. And let us bow our knees to theFather, that He would grant us to be mightily strengthened by HisSpirit, that Christ as our Sanctification may dwell in our hearts, thatthe power of His death and His life may be revealed in us, and God'swill be done in us as it was in Him. BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. Holy Father! I do bless Thee for this precious blessed word, for thisprecious blessed work of Thy beloved Son. In His never-ceasingintercession Thou ever hearest the wonderful prayer, 'I sanctify myselffor them, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. ' Blessed Father! I beseech Thee to strengthen me mightily by Thy Spirit, that in living faith I may be able to accept and live the holinessprepared for me in my Lord Jesus. Give me spiritual understanding toknow what it means that He sanctified Himself, that my sanctification issecured in His, that as by faith I abide in Him, its power will cover mywhole life. Let His sanctification indeed be the law as it is the lifeof mine. Let His surrender to Thy fatherly will, His continualdependence and obedience, be its root and its strength. Let His death tothe world and to sin be its daily rule. Above all, _let Himself_, O myFather! _let Himself_, as sanctified for me, the living Jesus, be myonly trust and stay. He sanctified Himself for me, that I myself alsomay be sanctified in truth. Beloved Saviour! how shall I rightly bless and love and glorify Thee forthis wondrous grace! Thou didst give Thyself, so that now I am holy inThee. I give myself, that in Thee I myself may be made holy in truth. Amen. Lord Jesus! Amen. 1. 'If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. ' Jesus means that our life shall be the exact counterpart of His, including even the crucifixion. The beginning of such a life is the denial of self, to give Christ its place. The Jews would not deny self, but '_denied_ the Holy One, and killed the Prince of Life. ' The choice is still between Christ and self. Let us deny the unholy one, and give him to the death. 2. The steps in this path are these: First, the deliberate decision that self shall be given up to the death; then, the surrender to Christ crucified to make us partakers of His crucifixion; then, 'knowing that our old man is crucified, ' the faith that says, 'I am crucified with Christ;' and then, the power to live as a crucified one, to glory in the cross of Christ. 3. This is God's way of holiness, a Divine mystery, which the Holy Spirit alone can daily maintain in us. Blessed be God, it is the life which a Christian can live, because Christ lives in us. 4. The central thought is: We are in Christ, who gave up His will and did the will of God. By the Holy Spirit the mind that was in Him is in us, the will of self is crucified, and we live in the will of God. [8] See Note D. Eighteenth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Faith. 'That they may receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among them that are _sanctified by faith in me_. '--Acts xxvi. 18. The more we study Scripture in the light of the Holy Spirit, or practisethe Christian life in His power, the deeper becomes our conviction ofthe unique and central place faith has in God's plan of salvation. Andwe learn, too, to see that it is meet and right that it should be so:the very nature of things demands it. Because God is a Spiritual andInvisible Being, every revelation of Himself, whether in His works, Hisword, or His Son, calls for faith. Faith is the spiritual sense of thesoul, being to it what the senses are to the body; by it alone we enterinto communication and contact with God. Faith is that meekness of soul which waits in stillness to hear, tounderstand, to accept what God says; to receive, to retain, to possesswhat God gives or works. By faith we allow, we welcome God Himself, theLiving Person, to enter in to make His abode with us, to become ourvery life. However well we think we know it, we always have to learn thetruth afresh, for a deeper and fuller application of it, that in theChristian life faith is the first thing, the one thing that pleases God, and brings blessing to us. And because Holiness is God's highest glory, and the highest blessing He has for us, it is especially in the life ofholiness that we need to live by faith alone. Our Lord speaks here of 'them that are sanctified by faith in me. '[9] HeHimself is our Sanctification as He is our Justification: for the one asfor the other it is faith that God asks, and both are equally given atonce. The participle used here is not the present, denoting a process orwork that is being carried on, but the aorist, indicating an act doneonce for all. When we believe in Christ, we receive the whole Christ, our justification and our sanctification: we are at once accepted by Godas righteous in Him, and as holy in Him. God counts and calls us, whatwe really are, sanctified ones in Christ. It is as we are led to seewhat God sees, as our faith grasps that the holy life of Christ is oursin actual possession, to be accepted and appropriated for daily use, that we shall really be able to live the life God calls us to, the lifeof holy ones in Christ Jesus. We shall then be in the right position inwhich what is called our progressive sanctification can be worked out. It will be, the acceptance and application in daily life of the power ofa holy life which has been prepared in Jesus, which has in the unionwith Him become our present and permanent possession, and which works inus according to the measure of our faith. [10] From this point of view it is evident that faith has a twofoldoperation. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, though _nowactually existing_, the substance of things hoped for, but _not yetpresent_. It deals with the unseen present, as well as with the unseenfuture. As the evidence of things not seen, it rejoices in Christ ourcomplete sanctification, as a present possession. Through faith I simplylook to what Christ is, as revealed in the Word by the Holy Spirit. Claiming all He is as my own, I know that His Holiness, His holy natureand life, are mine; I am a holy one: by faith in Him I have beensanctified. This is the first aspect of sanctification: it looks to whatis a complete and finished thing, an absolute reality. As the substanceof things hoped for, this faith reaches out in the assurance of hope tothe future, to things I do not yet see or experience, and claims, day byday, out of Christ our sanctification, what it needs for practicalholiness, 'to be holy in all manner of living. ' This is the secondaspect of sanctification: I depend upon Jesus to supply, in personalexperience, gradually and unceasingly, for the need of each moment, what has been treasured up in His fulness. 'Of God are ye in ChristJesus, who of God is made unto us sanctification. ' Under its firstaspect faith says, I know I am in Him, and all His Holiness is mine; inits second aspect it speaks, I trust in Him for the grace and thestrength I need each moment to live a holy life. And yet, it need hardly be said, these two are one. It is one Jesus whois our sanctification, whether we look at it in the light of what He ismade for us once for all, or what, as the fruit of that, He becomes toour experience day by day. And so it is one faith which, the more itstudies and adores and rejoices in Jesus as made of God unto ussanctification, as Him in whom we have been sanctified, becomes thebolder to expect the fulfilment of every promise for daily life, and thestronger to claim the victory over every sin. Faith in Jesus is thesecret of a holy life: all holy conduct, all really holy deeds, are thefruit of faith in Jesus as our holiness. We know how faith acts, and what its great hindrances are, in the matterof justification. It is well that we remind ourselves that there are thesame dangers in the exercise of sanctifying as of justifying faith. Faith _in God_ stands opposed to trust _in self_: specially to itswilling and working. Faith is hindered by every effort to do somethingourselves. Faith looks to God working, and yields itself to Hisstrength, as revealed in Christ through the Spirit; it allows God towork both to will and to do. Faith must work; without works it is dead, by works alone can it be perfected; in Jesus Christ, as Paul says, nothing avails but 'faith _working_ by love. ' But these works, whichfaith in God's working inspires and performs, are very different fromthe works in which a believer often puts forth his best efforts, only tofind that he fails. The true life of holiness, the life of them who aresanctified in Christ, has its root and its strength in an abiding senseof utter impotence, in the deep restfulness which trusts to the workingof a Divine power and life, in the entire personal surrender to theloving Saviour, in that faith which consents to be nothing, that He maybe all. It may appear impossible to discern or describe the differencebetween the working that is of self and the working that is of Christthrough faith: if we but know that there is such a difference, if welearn to distrust ourselves, and to count on Christ working, the HolySpirit will lead us into this secret of the Lord too. Faith's works areChrist's works. And as by effort, so faith is also hindered by the desire to see andfeel. 'If thou believest, thou shalt see;' the Holy Spirit will seal ourfaith with a Divine experience; we shall see the glory of God. But thisis His work: ours is, when all appears dark and cold, in the face of allthat nature or experience testifies, still each moment to believe inJesus as our all-sufficient sanctification, in whom we are perfectedbefore God. Complaints as to want of feeling, as to weakness ordeadness, seldom profit: it is the soul that refuses to occupy itselfwith itself, either with its own weakness or the strength of the enemy, but only looks to what Jesus is, and has promised to do, to whomprogress in holiness will be a joyful march from victory to victory. 'The Lord Himself doth fight for you;' this thought, so often repeatedin connection with Israel's possession of the promised land, is the foodof faith: in conscious weakness, in presence of mighty enemies, it singsthe conqueror's song. When God appears to be _not doing_ what we trustedHim for, then is just the time for faith to glory in Him. There is perhaps nothing that more reveals the true character of faiththan joy and praise. You give a child the promise of a presentto-morrow: at once it says, Thank you, and is glad. The joyful thanksare the proof of how really your promise has entered the heart. You aretold by a friend of a rich legacy he has left you in his will: it maynot come true for years, but even now it makes you glad. We have alreadyseen what an element of holiness joy is: it is especially an element ofholiness by faith. Each time I really see how beautiful and how perfectGod's provision is, by which my holiness is in Jesus, and by which I amto allow Him to work in me, my heart ought to rise up in praise andthanks. Instead of allowing the thought that it is, after all, a life ofsuch difficult attainment and such continual self-denial, this life ofholiness through faith, we ought to praise Him exceedingly that He hasmade it possible and sure for us: we can be holy, because Jesus theMighty and the Loving One is our holiness. Praise will express ourfaith; praise will prove it; praise will strengthen it. 'Then believedthey His words; they sang His praise. ' Praise will commit us to faith:we shall see that we have but one thing to do, to go on in a faith thatever trusts and ever praises. It is in a living, loving attachment toJesus, that rejoices in Him, and praises Him continually for what He isto us, that faith proves itself, and receives the power of holiness. 'Sanctified by faith in me. ' Yes, 'by faith _in Me_:' it is the personalliving Jesus who offers Himself, Himself in all the riches of His Powerand Love, as the object, the strength, the life of our faith. He tellsus that if we would be holy, always and in everything holy, we must justsee to one thing: to be always and altogether full of faith in Him. Faith is the eye of the soul: the power by which we discern the presenceof the Unseen One, as He comes to give Himself to us. Faith not onlysees, but appropriates and assimilates: let us set our souls very stillfor the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, to quicken and strengthen thatfaith, for which He has been given us. Faith is surrender: yieldingourselves to Jesus to allow Him to do His work in us, giving upourselves to Him to live out His life and work out His will in us, weshall find Him giving Himself entirely _to us_, and taking completepossession. So faith will be power: the power of obedience to do God'swill: 'our most holy faith, ' 'the faith delivered to the holy ones. 'And we shall understand how simple, to the single-hearted, is the secretof holiness: just Jesus. We are in Him, our Sanctification: Hepersonally is our Holiness; and the life of faith in Him, that receivesand possesses Him, must necessarily be a life of holiness. Jesus says, 'Sanctified by faith in me. ' BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Beloved Lord! again have I seen, with adoring wonder, what Thou artwilling to be to me. It is in Thyself, and a life of living fellowshipwith Thyself, that I am to become holy. It is in the simple life ofpersonal attachment, of trust and love, of surrender and consecration, that Thou dost become my all, and make me partaker of Thyself and ThyHoliness. Blessed Lord Jesus! I do believe in Thee, help Thou mine unbelief. Iconfess what still remains of unbelief, and count on Thy presence toconquer and cast it out. My soul is opening up continually to see morehow Thou Thyself art my Life and my Holiness. Thou art enlarging myheart to rejoice in Thyself as my all, and to be assured that Thou dostThyself take possession and fill the temple of my being with Thy glory. Thou art teaching me to understand that, however feeble and human anddisappointing experiences may be, Thy Holy Spirit is the strength of myfaith, leading me on to grow up into a stronger and a larger confidencein Thee in whom I am holy. O my Saviour! I take Thy word this day, 'Sanctified by faith in me, ' as a new revelation of Thy love and itspurpose with me. In Thee Thyself is the Power of my holiness; in Thee isthe Power of my faith. Blessed be Thy name that Thou hast given me too aplace among them of whom Thou speakest: 'Sanctified by faith in me. 'Amen. 1. Let us remember that it is not only the faith that is dealing specially with Christ for sanctification, but all living faith, that has the power to sanctify. Anything that casts the soul wholly on Jesus, that calls forth intense and simple trust, be it the trial of faith, or the prayer of faith, or the work of faith, helps to make us holy, because it brings us into living contact with the Holy One. 2. It is only through the Holy Spirit that Christ and His Holiness are day by day revealed and made ours in actual possession. And so the faith which receives Him is of the Spirit too. Yield yourself in simplicity and trust to His working. Do not be afraid, as if you cannot believe: you have 'the Spirit of faith' within you: you have the power to believe. And you may ask God to strengthen you mightily by His Spirit in the inner man, for the faith that receives Christ in the indwelling that knows no break. 3. I have only so much of faith as I have of the Spirit. Is not this then what I most need--to live entirely under the influence of the Spirit? 4. Just as the eye in seeing is receptive, and yields to let the object placed before it make its impression, so faith is the impression God makes on the soul when He draws nigh. Was not the faith of Abraham the fruit of God's drawing near and speaking to him, the impression God made on him? Let us be still to gaze on the Divine mystery of Christ our holiness: His Presence, waited for and worshipped, will work the faith. That is, the Spirit that proceeds from Him into those who cling to Him, will be faith. 5. _Holiness by faith in Jesus_, not by effort of thine own, Sin's dominion crushed and broken _by the power of grace alone_, -- _God's own holiness_ within thee, His own beauty on thy brow, -- This shall be thy pilgrim brightness, this _thy blessed portion now_. F. R. H. [9] The best commentators connect the expression, 'by faith in me, ' not with the word 'sanctified, ' but with the whole clause, 'that by faith in me they may receive. ' This will, however, in no way affect the application to the word sanctified. Thus read, the text tells us that the remission of sin, and the inheritance, and the sanctification which qualifies for the inheritance, are all received by faith. [10] See Note E. Nineteenth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Resurrection. 'The Son of God, who was born of the seed of David _according to the flesh_, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, _according to the Spirit_ of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead. '--Rom. I. 4. These words speak of a twofold birth of Christ. According to the flesh, He was born of the seed of David. According to the Spirit, He was thefirst begotten from the dead. As He was a Son of David in virtue of Hisbirth through the flesh, so He was declared to be the Son of God withpower, in virtue of His resurrection-birth through the Spirit ofholiness. As the life He received through His first birth was a life inand after the flesh with its weakness, so the new life He received inthe resurrection was a life in the power of the Spirit of holiness. The expression, the Spirit of holiness, is a peculiar one. It is not theordinary word for God's Holiness that is here used as in Heb. Xii. 10, describing holiness in the abstract as the attribute of an object, butanother word (also used in 2 Cor. Vii. 1 and 1 Thess. Iii. 13)expressing the habit of holiness in its action--practical holiness orsanctity. [11] Paul used this word, because He wished to emphasize thethought, that Christ's resurrection was distinctly the result of thatlife of holiness and self-sanctifying which had culminated in His death. It was the spirit of the life of holiness which he had lived, in thepower of which He was raised again. He teaches us that that life anddeath of self-sanctification, in which alone our sanctification stands, was the root and ground of His resurrection, and of its declaration thatHe was the Son of God with power, the first begotten from the dead. Theresurrection was the fruit which that Life of Holiness bore. And so the Life of Holiness becomes the property of all who arepartakers of the resurrection. The Resurrection Life and the Spirit ofHoliness are inseparable. Christ sanctified Himself in death, that weourselves might be sanctified in truth: when in virtue of the Spirit ofsanctity He was raised from the dead, that Spirit of holiness was provedto be the power of Resurrection Life, and the Resurrection Life to be aLife of Holiness. As a believer you have part in this Resurrection Life. You have been'begotten again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. ' Youare 'risen with Christ. ' You are commanded 'to reckon yourself to bealive unto God in Christ Jesus. ' But the life can work in power only asyou seek to know it, to yield to it, to let it have full possession andmastery. And if it is to do this, one of the most important things foryou to realize is, that as it was in virtue of the Spirit of holinessthat Christ was raised, so the Spirit of that same holiness must be inyou the mark and the power of your life. Study to know and possess theSpirit of holiness as it was seen in the life of your Lord. And wherein did it consist? Its secret was, we are told: 'Lo, I am cometo do Thy will, O God. ' 'In the which will, ' as done by Christ, 'we havebeen sanctified by the one offering of the body of Jesus Christ. ' Thiswas Christ's sanctifying Himself, in life and in death; this was whatthe Spirit of holiness wrought in Him; this is what the same Spirit, theSpirit of the life in Christ Jesus, will work in us: a life in the willof God is a life of holiness. Seek earnestly to grasp this clearly. Christ came to reveal what true holiness would be in the conditions ofhuman life and weakness. He came to work it out for you, that He mightcommunicate it to you by His Spirit. Except you intelligently apprehendand heartily accept it, the Spirit cannot work it in you. Do seek withyour whole heart to take hold of it: the will of God unhesitatinglyaccepted, is the power of holiness. It is in this that any attempt to be holy as Christ is holy, with and inHis Holiness, must have its starting-point. Many seek to take singleportions of the life or image of Christ for imitation, and yet failgreatly in others. They have not seen that the self-denial, to whichJesus calls, really means the denial of self, in the full meaning ofthat word. In not one single thing is the will of self to be done:Jesus, as He did the will of the Father only, must rule, and not self. To 'stand perfect and complete in all the will of God' must be thepurpose, the prayer, the expectation of the disciple. There need be nofear that it is not possible to know the will of the Father ineverything. 'If any man will do, he shall know. ' The Father will notkeep the willing child in ignorance of His will. As the surrender to theSpirit of holiness, to Jesus and the dominion of His holy life, becomesmore simple, sin and self-will will be discovered, the spiritualunderstanding will be opened up, and the law written in the inward partsbecome legible and intelligible. There need be no fear that it is notpossible to do the will of the Father when it is known. When once thegrief of failure and sin has driven the believer into the experience ofRom. Vii. , and the 'delight in the law of God after the inward man' hasproved its earnestness in the cry, 'O wretched man that I am, 'deliverance will come through Jesus Christ. The Spirit works not only towill but to do; where the believer could only complain, 'To perform thatwhich is good, I find not, ' He gives the strength and song, 'The law ofthe Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sinand death. ' In this faith, that it is possible to know and do the will of God in allthings, take over from Him, in whom alone you are holy, as yourlife-principle; 'I come to do Thy will, O God. ' It is the principle ofthe resurrection life: without it Jesus had never been raised again. Itis the principle of the new life in you. Accept it; study it; realizeit; act it out. Many a believer has found that some simple words ofdedication, expressive of the purpose in everything to do God's will, have been an entrance into the joy and power of the resurrection lifepreviously unknown. The will of God is the complete expression of Hismoral perfection, His Divine Holiness. To take one's place in the centreof that will, to live it out, to be borne and sustained by it, was thepower of that life of Jesus that could not be held of death, that couldnot but burst out in resurrection glory. What it was to Jesus it will beto us. Holiness is Life: this is the simplest expression of the truth our textteaches. There can be no holiness until there be a new life implanted. The new life cannot grow and break forth in resurrection power, cannotbring forth fruit, but as it grows in holiness. As long as the believeris living the mixed life, part in the flesh and part in the spirit, withsome of self and some of Christ, he seeks in vain for holiness. It isthe New Life that is the holy life: the full apprehension of it infaith, the full surrender to it in conduct, will be the highway ofholiness. Jesus lived and died and rose again to prepare for us a newnature, to be received day by day in the obedience of faith: we 'haveput on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness andtrue holiness. ' Let the inner life, hid with Christ in God, hid alsodeep in the recesses of our inmost being, be acknowledged, be waited on, be yielded to, it will work itself out in all the beauties of holiness. There is more. This life is not like the life of nature, a blind, non-conscious principle, involuntarily working out its ideal inunresisting obedience to the law of its being. There is the Spirit ofthe life in Christ Jesus--the Spirit of holiness--the Holy Spiritdwelling in us as a Divine Person, entering into fellowship with us, andleading us into the fellowship of the Living Christ. It is this fillsour life with hope and joy. The Risen Saviour breathed the Holy Spiriton His disciples: the Spirit brings the Risen One into the field, intoour hearts, as a personal friend, as a Living Guide and Strengthener. The Spirit of holiness is the Spirit, the Presence, and the Power of theLiving Christ. Jesus said of the Spirit, 'Ye know Him. ' Is not our greatneed to know this Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, of His Holiness andof ours? How can we 'walk after the Spirit' and follow His leading, ifwe know not Him and His voice and His way? Let us learn one more lesson from our text. _It is out of the grave ofthe flesh and the will of self that the Spirit of holiness breaks out inresurrection power. _ We must accept death to the flesh, death to selfwith its willing and working, as the birthplace of our experience of thepower of the Spirit of holiness. In view of each struggle with sin, ineach exercise of faith or prayer, we must enter into the death of Jesus, the death to self, and as those who say, 'we are not sufficient to thinkanything as of ourselves, ' in quiet faith expect the Spirit of Christ todo His work. The Spirit will work, strengthening you mightily in theinner man, and building up within you an holy temple for the Lord. Andthe time will come, if it has not come to you yet, and it may be nearerthan you dare hope, when the conscious indwelling of Christ in yourheart by faith, the full revelation and enthronement of Him as ruler andkeeper of heart and life, shall have become a personal experience. According to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, will the Son of God be declared with power in the kingdom that is withinyou. BE YE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. Most Holy Lord God! we do bless Thee that Thou didst raise Thy Son fromthe dead and give Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in Thee. Thou didst make His resurrection the power of eternal life in us, andnow, even as He was raised, so we may walk in newness of life. As theSpirit of holiness dwelt and wrought in Him, it dwells and works in us, and becomes in us the Spirit of life. O God! we beseech Thee to perfect Thy work in Thy saints. Give them adeeper sense of the holy calling with which Thou hast called them inChrist, the Risen One. Give all to accept the Spirit of His life onearth, delight in the will of God, as the spirit of their life. Maythose who have never yet fully accepted this be brought to do it, and infaith of the power of the new life to say, I accept the will of God asmy only law. May the Spirit of holiness be the spirit of their lives! Father! we beseech Thee, let Christ thus, in ever increasing experienceof His resurrection power, be revealed in our hearts as the Son of God, Lord and Ruler within us. Let His life within inspire all the outerlife, so that in the home and society, in thought and speech and action, in religion and in business, His life may shine out from us in thebeauty of holiness. Amen. 1. Scripture regards the resurrection in two different aspects. In one view, it is the title to the new life, the source of our justification. (Rom. Iv. 25, 1 Cor. Xv. 17. ) In another it is our regeneration, the power of the new life working in us, the source of our sanctification. (Rom. Vi. 4; 1 Pet. I. 3. ) Pardon and holiness are inseparable; they have the same source, union with the Risen Living Christ. 2. The blessedness to the disciples of having a Risen Christ was this: He, whom they thought dead, came and _revealed Himself_ to them. Christ lives to reveal Himself to thee and to me; wait on Him, trust Him for this. He will reveal Himself to thee as thy sanctification. See to it that thou hast Him in living possession, and thou hast His Holiness. 3. The life of Christ is the holiness of Christ. The reason we so often fail in the pursuit of holiness is that the old life, the flesh, in its own strength seeks for holiness as a beautiful garment to wear and enter heaven with. It is the daily death to self out of which the life of Christ rises up. 4. To die thus, to live thus in Christ, to be holy--how can we attain it? It all comes '_according to the Spirit of holiness_. ' Have the Holy Spirit within thee. Say daily, 'I believe in the Holy Ghost. ' 5. _Holy in Christ. _ When Christ lives in us, and His mind, as it found expression in His words and work on earth, enters and fills our will and personal consciousness, then our union with Him becomes what He meant it to be. It is the Spirit of His holy conduct, the Spirit of His sanctity, must be in us. [11] See Note F. Twentieth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Liberty. 'Being made _free from sin_, ye became servants of righteousness: now present your members as servants of righteousness _unto sanctification_. Now being made _free from sin_, and become servants unto God, ye have your fruit _unto sanctification_, and the end eternal life. '--Rom. Vi. 18, 19, 22. 'Our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus. '--Gal. Ii. 4. 'With freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. '--Gal. V. 1. There is no possession more precious or priceless than liberty. There isnothing more inspiring and elevating; nothing, on the other hand, moredepressing and degrading than slavery. It robs a man of what constituteshis manhood, the power of self-decision, self-action, of being and doingwhat he would. Sin is slavery; the bondage to a foreign power that has obtained themastery over us, and compels often a most reluctant service. Theredemption of Christ restores our liberty and sets us free from thepower of sin. If we are truly to live as redeemed ones, we need not onlyto look at the work Christ did to accomplish our redemption, but toaccept and realize fully how complete, how sure, how absolute theliberty is wherewith He hath made us free. It is only as we '_standfast_ in our liberty in Christ Jesus, ' that we can have our fruit untosanctification. It is remarkable how seldom the word _holy_ occurs in the great argumentof the Epistle to the Romans, and how, where twice used in chap. Vi. Inthe expression 'unto sanctification, ' it is distinctly set forth as theaim and fruit to be reached through a life of righteousness. The twicerepeated 'unto sanctification, ' pointing to a result to be obtained, ispreceded by a twice repeated 'being made free from sin and becomeservants of righteousness. ' It teaches us how the liberty from the powerof sin and the surrender to the service of righteousness are not yet ofthemselves holiness, but the sure and only path by which it can bereached. A true insight and a full entering into our freedom from sin inChrist are indispensable to a life of holiness. It was when Israel wasfreed from Pharaoh that God began to reveal Himself as the Holy One: itis as we know ourselves 'freed from sin, ' delivered from the hand of allour enemies, that we shall serve God in righteousness and holiness allthe days of our life. '_Being made free from sin_:' to understand this word aright, we mustbeware of a twofold error. We must neither narrow it down to less, norimport into it more, than the Holy Spirit means by it here. Paul isspeaking neither of an imputation nor an experience. We must not limitit to being made free from the curse or punishment of sin. The contextshows that he is speaking, not of our judicial standing, but of aspiritual reality, our being in living union with Christ in His deathand resurrection, and so being entirely taken out from under thedominion or power of sin. 'Sin shall not have dominion over you. ' Nor ishe as yet speaking of an experience, that we feel that we are free fromall sin. He speaks of the great objective fact, Christ's having finallydelivered us from the power which sin had to compel us to do its willand its works, and urges us, in the faith of this glorious fact, boldlyto refuse to listen to the bidding or temptation of sin. To know ourliberty which we have in Christ, our freedom from sin's mastery andpower, is the way to realize it as an experience. In olden times, when Turks or Moors often made slaves of Christians, large sums were frequently paid for the ransom of those who were inbondage. But it happened more than once, away in the interior of theslave country, that the ransomed ones never got the tidings; the masterswere only too glad to keep it from them. Others, again, got the tidings, but had grown too accustomed to their bondage to rouse themselves forthe effort of reaching the coast. Slothfulness or hopelessness kept themin slavery; they could not believe that they would be able ever insafety to reach the land of liberty. The ransom had been paid; in truththey were free; and yet in their experience, by reason of ignorance orwant of courage, they were still in bondage. Christ's redemption has socompletely made an end of sin and the legal power it had over us, --for'the strength of sin is the law, '--that in very deed, in the deepestreality, sin has no power to compel our obedience. It is only as weallow it again to reign, as we yield ourselves again as its servants, that it can exercise the mastery. Satan does his utmost to keepbelievers in ignorance of the completeness of this their freedom fromhis slavery. And because believers are so content with their ownthoughts of what redemption means, and so little long and plead to seeit and possess it in its fulness of deliverance and blessing, theexperience of the extent to which the freedom from sin can be realizedis so feeble. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ' It isby the Holy Spirit, His light and leading within, humbly watched for andyielded to, that this liberty becomes our possession. In the sixth chapter Paul speaks of freedom from sin, in chap. Vii. (vers. 3, 4, 6) of freedom from the law, as both being ours in Christand union with Him. In chap. Viii. (ver. 2) he speaks of this freedom asbecome ours in experience. He says, 'The law of the Spirit of life inChrist Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. ' Thefreedom which is ours in Christ, must become ours in personalappropriation and enjoyment through the Holy Spirit. The latter dependson the former: the fuller the faith, the clearer the insight, the moretriumphant the glorying in Christ Jesus and the liberty with which Hehas made us free, the speedier and the fuller the entrance into theglorious liberty of the children of God. As the liberty is in Christalone, so it is the Spirit of Christ alone that makes it ours inpractical possession, and keeps us dwelling in it: 'the spirit of thelife in Christ Jesus _hath made me free_ from the law of sin and death. ''Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ' As the Spiritreveals Jesus to us as Lord and Master, the new Master, who alone hasought to say over us, and leads us to yield ourselves, to present ourmembers, to surrender our whole life to the service of God in Christ, our faith in the freedom from sin becomes a consciousness and arealization. Believing in the completeness of the redemption, thecaptive goes forth as 'the Lord's freedman. ' He knows now that sin hasno longer power for one moment to command obedience. It may seek toassert its old right; it may speak in the tone of authority; it mayfrighten us into fear and submission; power it has none over us, exceptas we, forgetting our freedom, yield to its temptation, and ourselvesgive it power. We are the Lord's freedmen. 'We have our liberty in Christ Jesus. ' InRom. Vii. Paul describes the terrible struggles of the soul who stillseeks to fulfil the law, but finds itself utterly helpless; sold undersin, a captive and a slave, without the liberty to do what the wholeheart desires. But when the Spirit takes the place of the law, thecomplaint, 'O wretched man that I am, ' is changed into the song ofvictory: 'I thank God, through Jesus Christ, the law of the Spirit oflife hath made me free. ' What numberless complaints of insufficient strength to do God's will, ofunsuccessful effort and disappointed hopes, of continual failure, re-echo in a thousand different forms the complaint of the captive, 'Owretched man that I am!' Thank God! there is deliverance. 'With freedomdid Christ set us free! Stand fast therefore, and be not entangled againin a yoke of bondage. ' Satan is ever seeking to lay on us again the yokeeither of sin or the law, to beget again the spirit of bondage, as ifsin or the law with their demands somehow had power over us. It is notso: be not entangled; stand fast in the liberty with which Christ hasmade you free. Let us listen to the message: 'Being made free from sin, ye became servants unto righteousness; now yield your members servantsto righteousness _unto sanctification_. ' 'Having been made free fromsin, and having been enslaved unto God, ye have your fruit _untosanctification_. ' To be holy, you must be free, perfectly free; free forJesus to rule you, to lead you; free for the Holy Spirit to dispose ofyou, to breathe in you, to work His secret, gentle, but mighty work, sothat you may grow up unto all the liberty Jesus has won for you. Thetemple could not be sanctified by the indwelling of God, except as itwas free from every other master and every other use, to be for Him andHis service alone. The inner temple of our heart cannot be truly andfully sanctified, except as we are free from every other master andpower, from every yoke of bondage, or fear, or doubt, to let His Spiritlead us into the perfect liberty which has its fruit in true holiness. Being made free from sin, having become servants unto righteousness, yehave your fruit unto holiness, and the end life everlasting. Freedom, Righteousness, Holiness--these are the steps on the way to the comingglory. The more deeply we enter by faith into our liberty, which we havein Christ, the more joyfully and confidently we present our members toGod as instruments of righteousness. The God is the Father whose will wedelight to do, whose service is perfect liberty. The Redeemer is theMaster, to whom love binds us in willing obedience. The liberty is notlawlessness: 'we are delivered from our enemies, that we may serve Himin righteousness and holiness all the days of our life. '[12] The liberty is the condition of the righteousness; and this again of theholiness. The doing of God's will leads up into that fellowship, thatheart sympathy with God Himself, out of which comes that reflection ofthe Divine Presence, which is Holiness. Being made free from sin, beingmade the slaves of righteousness and of God, we have our fruit untoholiness, and the end--the fruit of holiness becomes, when ripe, theseed of--everlasting life. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Most glorious God! I pray Thee to open my eyes to this wonderful libertywith which Christ has made me free. May I enter fully into Thy word, that sin shall have no dominion over me because I am not under the lawbut under grace. May I know my liberty which I have in Christ Jesus, andstand fast in it. Father! Thy service is perfect liberty: reveal this too to me. Thou artthe infinitely Free, and Thy will knows no limits but what its ownperfection has placed. And Thou invitest us into Thy will, that we maybe free as Thou art. O my God! show me the beauty of Thy will, as itfrees me from self and from sin, and let it be my only blessedness. Letthe service of righteousness so be a joy and a strength to me, havingits fruit unto sanctification, leading me into Thy Holiness. Blessed Lord Jesus! my Deliverer and my Liberty, I belong to Thee. Igive myself to Thy will, to know no will but Thine. Master! Thee andThee alone would I serve. I have my liberty in Thee! be Thou my Keeper. I cannot stand for one moment out of Thee. In Thee I can stand fast: inThee I put my trust. Most Holy God! as Thy free, obedient, loving child, Thou wilt make meholy. Amen. 1. Liberty is the power to carry out unhindered the impulse of our nature. In Christ the child of God is free from every power that could hinder his acting out the law of his new nature. 2. This liberty is of faith (Gal. V. 5, 6). By faith in Christ I enter into it, and stand in it. 3. This liberty is of the Holy Spirit. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ' 'If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. ' A heart filled with the Spirit is made free indeed. But we are not made free that we may do our own will. No, made _free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit_. 'Where the Spirit is, there is liberty. ' 4. This liberty is in love. 'Ye were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants, one to another. ' The freedom with which the Son makes free is a freedom to become like Himself, to love and to serve. 'Though I was free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. ' This is the liberty of love. 5. 'Being made free from sin, ye became _servants of righteousness_ unto sanctification. ' 'Let my people go, that they may serve me. ' It is only the man that doeth righteousness that can become holy. 6. This liberty is a thing of joy and singing. 7. This liberty is the groundwork of holiness. The Redeemer who makes free is God the Holy One. As the Holy Spirit He leads into the full possession of it. To be so free from everything that God can take complete possession, is to be holy. [12] See Note G. Twenty-first Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Happiness. 'The kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Ghost. '--Rom. Xiv. 17. 'The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost. '--Acts xiii. 52. 'Then Nehemiah said, This day is _holy_ unto the Lord: neither be ye sorry, for the _joy_ of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites stilled the people, saying, Hold your peace; for the day is _holy_; neither be ye grieved. And all the people went their way to make great _mirth_, because they had understood the words. '--Neh. Viii. 10-12. The deep significance of joy in the Christian life is hardly understood. It is too often regarded as something secondary; whereas its presence isessential as the proof that God does indeed satisfy us, and that Hisservice is our delight. In our domestic life we do not feel satisfied ifall the proprieties of deportment are observed, and each does his dutyto the other; true love makes us happy in each other; as love gives outits warmth of affection, gladness is the sunshine that fills the homewith its brightness. Even in suffering or poverty, the members of aloving family are a joy to each other. Without this gladness, especially, there is no true obedience on the part of the children. Itis not the mere fulfilment of a command, or performance of a service, that a parent looks to; it is the willing, joyful alacrity with which itis done that makes it pleasing. It is just so in the intercourse of God's children with their Father. Even in the effort after a life of consecration and gospel obedience, weare continually in danger of coming under the law again, with its, Thoushalt. The consequence always is failure. The law only worketh wrath; itgives neither life nor strength. It is only as long as we are standingin the joy of our Lord, in the joy of our deliverance from sin, in thejoy of His love, and what He is for us, in the joy of His presence, thatwe have the power to serve and obey. It is only when made free fromevery master, from sin and self and the law, and only when rejoicing inthis liberty, that we have the power to render service that issatisfying either to God or to ourselves. 'I will see you again, ' Jesussaid, 'and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy shall no man take fromyou. ' Joy is the evidence and the condition of the abiding personalpresence of Jesus. If holiness be the beauty and the glory of the life of faith, it ismanifest that here especially the element of joy may not be wanting. Wehave already seen how the first mention of God as the Holy One was inthe song of praise on the shore of the Red Sea; how Hannah and Mary intheir moments of inspiration praised God as the Holy One; how the nameof the Thrice Holy in heaven comes to us in the song of the seraphs; andhow before the throne both the living creatures and the conqueringmultitude who sing the song of the Lamb, adore God as the Holy One. Weare to 'worship Him in the beauty of holiness, ' 'to sing praise at theremembrance of His Holiness;' it is only in the spirit of worship andpraise and joy that we fully can know God as holy. Much more, it is onlyunder the inspiration of adoring love and joy that we can ourselves bemade holy. It is as we cease from all fear and anxiety, from all strainand effort, and rest with singing in what Jesus is in His finished workas our sanctification, as we rest and rejoice in Him, that we shall bemade partakers of His Holiness. It is the day of rest, is the day thatGod has blessed, the day of blessing and gladness; and it is the day Heblessed that is His holy day. Holiness and blessedness are inseparable. But is not this at variance with the teaching of Scripture and theexperience of the saints? Are not suffering and sorrow among God'schosen means of sanctification? Are not the promises to the broken inheart, the poor in spirit, and the mourner? Are not self-denial and theforsaking of all we have, the crucifixion with Christ and the dyingdaily, the path to holiness? and is not all this more matter of sorrowand pain than of joy and gladness? The answer will be found in the right apprehension of the life offaith. Faith lifts above, and gives possession of, what is the veryopposite of what we feel or experience. In the Christian life there isalways a paradox: what appear irreconcilable opposites are found side byside at the same moment. Paul expresses it in the words, 'As dying, and, behold, we live; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet makingmany rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. ' And elsewherethus, '_When_ I am weak, _then_ am I strong. ' The apparent contradictionhas its reconciliation, not only in the union of the two lives, thehuman and the Divine, in the person of each believer, but specially inour being, at one and the same moment, partakers of the death and theresurrection of Christ. Christ's death was one of pain and suffering, areal and terrible death, a rending asunder of the bonds that united souland body, spirit and flesh. The power of that death works in us: we mustlet it work mightily if we are to live holy; for in that death Hesanctified Himself, that we ourselves might be sanctified in truth. Ourholiness is, like His, in the death to our own will, and to all our ownlife. But--this we must seek to grasp--we do not approach death from theside from which Christ met it, as an enemy to be conquered, as asuffering to be borne, before the new life can be entered on. No, thebeliever who knows what Christ is as the Risen One, approaches death, the crucifixion of self and the flesh and the world, from theresurrection side, the place of victory, in the power of the LivingChrist. When we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into Hisdeath and resurrection as ours; and Christ Himself, the Risen LivingLord, leads us triumphantly into the experience of the power of Hisdeath. And so, to the believer who truly lives by faith, and seeks notin his own strugglings to crucify and mortify the flesh, but knows theliving Lord, the deep resurrection joy never for a moment forsakes Him, but is his strength for what may appear to others to be only painfulsacrifice and cross-bearing. He says with Paul, 'I glory in the crossthrough which I have been crucified. ' He never, as so many do, asksPaul's question, 'Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?'without sounding the joyful and triumphant answer as a presentexperience, 'I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. ' 'Thanks be toGod, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ. ' It is the joy of aPresent Saviour, of the experience of a perfect salvation, the joy of aresurrection life, which alone gives the power to enter deeply and fullyinto the death that Christ died, and yield our will and our life to bewholly sanctified to God. In the joy of that life, from which the powerof the death is never absent, it is possible to say with the Apostleeach moment, 'As dying, and, behold, we live; as sorrowful, yet alwaysrejoicing. ' Let us seek to learn the two lessons: Holiness is essential to truehappiness; happiness essential to true holiness. _Holiness is essentialto true happiness. _ If you would have joy, the fulness of joy, anabiding joy which nothing can take away, be holy as God is holy. Holiness is blessedness. Nothing can darken or interrupt our joy butsin. Whatever be our trial or temptation, the joy of Jesus of whichPeter says, 'in whom ye now rejoice with joy unspeakable, ' can more thancompensate and outweigh. If we lose our joy, it must be sin. It may bean actual transgression, or an unconscious following of self or theworld; it may be the stain on conscience of something doubtful, or itmay be unbelief that would live by sight, and thinks more of itself andits joy than of the Lord alone: whatever it be, nothing can take awayour joy but sin. If we would live lives of joy, assuring God and man andourselves that our Lord is everything, is more than all to us, oh, letus be holy! Let us glory in Him who is our holiness: in His presence isfulness of joy. Let us live in the Kingdom which is joy in the HolyGhost; the Spirit of holiness is the Spirit of joy, because He is theSpirit of God. It is the saints, God's holy ones, who will shout forjoy. And _happiness is essential to true holiness_. If you would be a holyChristian, you must be a happy Christian. Jesus was anointed by God with'the oil of gladness, ' that He might give us 'the oil of joy. ' In allour efforts after holiness, the wheels will move heavily if there be notthe oil of joy; this alone removes all strain and friction, and makesthe onward progress easy and delightful. Study to understand the Divineworth of joy. It is the evidence of your being in the Father'spresence, and dwelling in His love. It is the proof of your beingconsciously free from the law and the strain of the spirit of bondage. It is the token of your freedom from care and responsibility, becauseyou are rejoicing in Christ Jesus as your Sanctification, your Keeper, and your Strength. It is the secret of spiritual health and strength, filling all your service with the childlike happy assurance that theFather asks nothing that He does not give strength for, and that Heaccepts all that is done, however feebly, in this spirit. True happinessis always self-forgetful: it loses itself in the object of its joy. Asthe joy of the Holy Ghost fills us, and we rejoice in God the Holy One, through our Lord Jesus Christ, as we lose ourselves in the adoration andworship of the Thrice Holy, we become holy. This is, even here in thewilderness, 'the Highway of Holiness: the ransomed of the Lord shallcome with singing; the redeemed shall walk there; everlasting joy shallbe upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness. ' Do all God's children understand this? that holiness is just anothername, the true name, that God gives for happiness; that it is indeedunutterable blessedness to know that God does make us holy, that ourholiness is in Christ, that Christ's Holy Spirit is within us. There isnothing so attractive as joy: have believers understood it that this isthe joy of the Lord--to be holy? Or is not the idea of strain, andsacrifice, and sighing, of difficulty and distance so prominent, thatthe thought of being holy has hardly ever made the heart glad? If it hasbeen so, let it be so no longer. 'Thou shalt glory in the Holy One ofIsrael:' let us claim this promise. Let the believing assurance that ourLoving Father, and our Beloved Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, who indove-like gentleness rests within us, have engaged to do the work, andare doing it, fill us with gladness. Let us not seek our joy in what wesee in ourselves of holiness: let us rejoice in the Holiness of God inChrist as ours; let us rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. So shall ourjoy be unspeakable and unceasing; so shall we give Him the glory. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Most Blessed God! I beseech Thee to reveal to me and to all Thy childrenthe secret of rejoicing in Thee, the Holy One of Israel. Thou seest how much of the service of Thine own dear children is stillin the spirit of bondage, and how many have never yet believed that theHighway of Holiness is one on which they may walk with singing, andshall obtain joy and gladness. O Father! teach Thy children to rejoicein Thee. I ask Thee especially to teach us that, in deep poverty of spirit, inhumility and contrition and utter emptiness, in the consciousness thatthere is no holiness in us, we can sing all the day of Thy Holiness asours, of Thy glory which Thou layest upon us, and which yet all the timeis Thine alone. O Father! open wide to Thy children the blessed mysteryof the Kingdom, even the faith which sees all in Christ and nothing initself; which indeed has and rejoices in all in Him; which never has orrejoices in ought in itself. Blessed God, in Thy Word Thou hast said, 'The meek shall increase theirjoy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One ofIsrael. ' Oh, give us, by Thy Holy Spirit, in meekness and poverty ofspirit, to live so in Christ, that His Holiness may be ourever-increasing joy, and that in Thyself, the Holy One of Israel, we mayrejoice all the day. And may all see in us what blessedness it is tolive as God's holy ones. Amen. 1. The great hindrance to joy in God is expecting to find something in ourselves to rejoice over. At the commencement of this pursuit of holiness we always expect to see a great change wrought in ourselves. As we are led deeper into what faith, and the faith-life is, we understand how, though we do not see the change as we expected, we may yet rejoice with joy unspeakable in what Jesus is. This is the secret of holiness. 2. Joy must be cultivated. To rejoice is a command more frequently given than we know. It is part of the obedience of faith, to rejoice when we do not feel like doing so. Faith rejoices and sings, because God is holy. 3. 'Filled with joy and the Holy Ghost, ' 'The Kingdom is joy in the Holy Ghost. ' The Holy Spirit, the Blessed Spirit of Jesus is within thee, a very fountain of living water, of joy and gladness. Oh, seek to know Him, who dwells in thee, to work all that Jesus has for thee: He will be in thee the Spirit of faith and of joy. 4. Love and joy ever keep company. Love, denying and forgetting itself for the brethren and the lost, living in them, finds the joy of God. 'The kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Ghost. ' Twenty-second Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. In Christ our Sanctification. 'Of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption; that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. '--1 Cor. I. 30, 31. These words lead us on now to the very centre of God's revelation of theway of holiness. We know the steps of the road leading hither. He isholy, and holiness is His. He makes holy by coming near. His presence isholiness. In Christ's life, the holiness that had only been revealed insymbol, and as a promise of good things to come, had really takenpossession of a human will, and been made one with true human nature. InHis death every obstacle had been removed that could prevent thetransmission of that holy nature to us: Christ had truly become oursanctification. In the Holy Spirit the actual communication of thatholiness took place. And now we want to understand what the work is theHoly Spirit does, and how He communicates this holy nature to us: whatour relation is to Christ as our sanctification, and what the positionwe have to take up toward Him, that in its fulness and its power it maydo its work for us. The Divine answer to this question is, 'Of God are ye _in Christ_. ' Theone thing we need to apprehend is, what this our position and life inChrist is, and how that position and life may on our part be acceptedand maintained. Of this we may be sure, that it is not something that ishigh and beyond our reach. There need be no exhausting effort orhopeless sighing, 'Who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bringChrist down from above?' It is a life that is meant for the sinful andthe weary, for the unworthy and the impotent. It is a life that is thegift of the Father's love, and that He Himself will reveal in each onewho comes in childlike trust to Him. It is a life that is meant for ourevery-day life, that in every varying circumstance and situation willmake and keep us holy. 'Of God are ye _in Christ_. ' Ere our Blessed Lord left the world, Hespake: Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world. And it iswritten of Him: 'He that descended is the same that ascended far aboveall the heavens, that He might fill all things. ' 'The Church is Hisbody, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. ' In the Holy Spiritthe Lord Jesus is with His people here on earth. Though unseen, and notin the flesh, His Personal Presence is as real on earth as when Hewalked with His disciples. In regeneration the believer is taken out ofhis old place 'in the flesh;' he is no longer in the flesh, but in thespirit (Rom. Viii. 9); he is really and actually in Christ. The livingChrist is around him by His holy Presence. Wherever and whatever he be, however ignorant of his position or however unfaithful to it, there heis in Christ. By an act of Divine and omnipotent grace, he has beenplanted into Christ, encircled on every side by the Power and the Loveof Him who filleth all things, whose fulness specially dwells in Hisbody here below, the Church. And how can one who is longing to know Christ fully as hissanctification, come to live out what God means and has provided inthis--'in Christ'? The first thing that must be remembered is that it isa thing of faith and not of feeling. The promise of the indwelling andthe quickening of the Holy One is to the humble and contrite. Just whenI feel most deeply that I am not holy, and can do nothing to make myselfholy, when I feel ashamed of myself, just then is the time to turn fromself and very quietly to say: I am in Christ. Here He is all around me. Like the air that surrounds me, like the light that shines on me, hereis my Lord Jesus with me in His hidden but Divine and most realpresence. My faith must in quiet rest and trust bow before the Father, of whom and by whose Mighty Grace I am in Christ: He will reveal it tome with ever-growing clearness and power. He does it as I believe, andin believing open my whole soul to receive what is implied in it: thesense of sinfulness and unholiness must become the strength of my trustand dependence. In such faith I abide in Christ. But because it is of faith, therefore it is of the Holy Spirit. _Of God_are ye _in Christ_. It is not as if God placed and planted us in Christ, and left it to us now to maintain the union. No, God is the Eternal One, the God of the everlasting life, who works every moment in a power thatdoes not for one moment cease. What God gives, He continues with anever-ceasing giving. It is He who by the Holy Spirit makes this life inChrist a blessed reality in our consciousness. 'We have received theSpirit of God that we might _know_ the things that are freely given usof God. ' Faith is not only dependent on God for the gift it is toaccept, but for the power to accept. Faith not only needs the Son as itsfilling and its food; it needs the Spirit as its power to receive andhold. And so the blessed possession of all that it means to be in Christour sanctification comes as we learn to bow before God in believingprayer for the mighty workings of the Spirit, and in the deep childliketrust that He will reveal and glorify in us this Christ oursanctification in whom we are. And how will the Spirit reveal this Christ in whom we are? It willspecially be as the Living One, the Personal Friend and Master. Christis not only our Example and our Ideal. His life is not only anatmosphere and an inspiration, as we speak of a man who mightilyinfluences us by his writings. Christ is not only a treasury and afulness of grace and power, into which the Spirit is to lead us. ButChrist is the Living Saviour, with a heart that beats with a love thatis most tenderly human, and yet Divine. It is in this love He comesnear, and into this love He receives us, when the Father plants us intoHim. In the power of a personal love He wishes to exercise influence, and to attach us to Himself. In that love of His we have the guaranteethat His Holiness will enter us; in that love the great power by whichit enters. As the Spirit reveals to us where we are dwelling, in Christand His love, and that this Christ is a living Lord and Saviour, therewakens within us the enthusiasm of a personal attachment, and thedevotion of a loving allegiance, that make us wholly His. And it becomespossible for us to believe that we can be holy: we feel sure that in thepath of holiness we can go from strength to strength. Such believing insight into our relation to Christ as being in Him, andsuch personal attachment to Him who has received us into His love andkeeps us abiding there, becomes the spring of a new obedience. The willof God comes to us in the light of Christ's life and His love--eachcommand first fulfilled by Him, and then passed on to us as the sure andmost blessed help to more perfect fellowship with the Father and HisHoliness. Christ becomes Lord and King in the soul, in the power of theHoly Spirit, guiding the will into all the perfect will of God, andproving Himself to be its sanctification, as He crowns its obediencewith ever larger inflow of the Presence and the Holiness of God. Is there any dear child of God at all disposed to lose heart as hethinks of what manner of man he ought to be in all holy living, let mecall him to take courage. Could God have devised anything more wonderfulor beautiful for such sinful, impotent creatures? Just think, Christ, God's own Son, made to be sanctification to you. The Mighty, Loving, Holy Christ, sanctified through suffering that He might have sympathywith you, given to make you holy. What more could you desire? Yes, thereis more: '_Of God you are in Him. _' Whether you understand it or not, however feebly you realize it, there it is, a thing most Divinely trueand real. You are in Christ, by an act of God's own Mighty Power. Andthere, in Christ, God Himself longs to establish and confirm you to theend. And you have, greatest wonder of all, the Holy Spirit within you toteach you to know, and believe, and receive, all that there is in Christfor you. And if you will but confess that there is in you no wisdom orpower for holiness, none at all, and allow Christ, 'the Wisdom of Godand the Power of God, ' by the Holy Spirit within you, to lead you on, and prove how completely, how faithfully, how mightily, He can be yoursanctification, He will do it most gloriously. O my brother! come and consent more fully to God's way of holiness. LetChrist be your sanctification. Not a distant Christ to whom you look, but a Christ very near, all around you, in whom you are. Not a Christafter the flesh, a Christ of the past, but a present Christ in the powerof the Holy Ghost. Not a Christ whom you can know by your wisdom, butthe Christ of God, who is a Spirit, and whom the Spirit within you, asyou die to the flesh and self, will reveal in power. Not a Christ suchas your little thoughts can frame a conception of, but a Christaccording to the greatness of the heart and the love of God. Oh, comeand accept this Christ, and rejoice in Him! Be content now to leave allyour feebleness, and foolishness, and faithlessness to Him, in the quietconfidence that He will do for you more than you can think. And so letit henceforth be, as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory inthe Lord. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Most Blessed Father! I bow in speechless adoration before the holymystery of Thy Divine Love. . . . Oh, forgive me, that I have known and believed it so little as it isworthy of being known and believed. Accept my praise for what I have seen and tasted of its Divineblessedness. Accept, Lord God! of the praise of a glad and loving heartthat only knows that it never can praise Thee aright. And hear my prayer, O my Father! that in the power of Thy Holy Spirit, who dwells in me, I may each day accept and live out fully what Thouhast given me in Christ my sanctification. May the unsearchable richesthere are in Him be the daily supply for my every need. May HisHoliness, His delight in Thy will, indeed become mine. Teach me, aboveall, how this can most surely be, because I am, through the work ofThine Almighty Quickening Power, in Him, kept there by Thyself. MyFather! my faith cries out: I can be holy, blessed be my Lord Jesus! In this faith I yield myself to Thee, Lord Jesus, my King and Master, todo Thy will alone. In everything I do, great or small, I would act asone sanctified in Jesus, united to God's will in Him. It is Thou alonecanst teach me to do this, canst give me strength to perform it. But Itrust in Thee--art Thou not Christ my sanctification? Blessed Lord! I dotrust Thee. Amen. 1. Christ, as He lived and died on earth, is our sanctification. His life, the Spirit of His life, is what constitutes our holiness. To be in perfect harmony with Christ, to have His mind, is to be holy. 2. Christ's Holiness had two sides. God sanctified Him by His Spirit: Christ sanctified Himself by following the leading of the Spirit, by giving up His will to God in everything. So God has made us holy in Christ; and so we follow after and perfect holiness by yielding ourselves to God's Spirit, by giving up our will and living in the will of God. 3. It is well that we take in every aspect of what God has revealed of holiness in His word. But let us never weary ourselves by seeking to grasp all completely. Let us even return to the simplicity that is in Jesus. To bow at His feet, to believe that He knows all we need, and has it all, and loves to give it all, is rest. And holiness is resting in Jesus the rest of God. Let all our thoughts be gathered up into this one: Jesus, Blessed Jesus. 4. This holy life in Christ is for to-day, when you read this. For to-day He is made of God unto you sanctification: to-day He will indeed be your holiness. Believe in Him for it; trust Him, praise Him. And remember: _you are in Him_. Twenty-third Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and the Body. 'The temple of God is _holy_, which temple ye are. _The body_ is for the Lord, and the Lord for _the body_. Know ye not that your _body_ is the temple of _the Holy Ghost_ which is in you; therefore glorify God in your _body_. '--1 Cor. Iii. 16, vi. 13, 19. 'She that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, that she may be _holy_ both _in body_ and spirit. '--1 Cor. Vii. 34. 'Present your _bodies_ a living sacrifice, _holy_, acceptable to God. '--Rom. Xii. 1. Coming into the world, our Blessed Lord spake: '_A body_ didst Thouprepare for me; lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. ' Leaving this worldagain, it was in His own _body_ that He bore our sins upon the tree. Soit was in the body, no less than in soul and spirit, that He did thewill of God. And therefore it is said, 'By which will we have beensanctified through the offering _of the body_ of Jesus Christ once forall. ' When praying for the Thessalonians and their sanctification, Paul says, 'And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spiritand soul and body be preserved entire, without blame, at the coming ofour Lord Jesus Christ. ' Of himself he had spoken as 'always bearingabout _in the body_ the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus maybe manifested _in our body_. For we which live are always delivered untodeath for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested _inour mortal flesh_. ' His earnest expectation and hope was, 'that Christbe magnified _in my body_, whether by life or by death. ' The relationbetween body and spirit is so intimate, the power of sin in the spiritcomes so much through the body, the body is so distinctly the objectboth of Christ's redemption and the Holy Spirit's renewal, that ourstudy of holiness will be seriously defective if we do not take in theteaching of Scripture on holiness in the body. It has been well said that the body is, to the soul and spirit dwellingand acting within it, like the walls of the city. Through them the enemyenters in. In time of war, everything yields to the defence of thewalls. It is often because the believer does not know the importance ofkeeping the walls defended, keeping the body sanctified, that he failsin having the soul and spirit preserved blameless. Or it is because hedoes not understand that the guarding and sanctifying of the body in allits parts must be as distinctly a work of faith, and as directly throughthe mighty power of Jesus and the indwelling of the Spirit, as therenewing of the inner life, that progress in holiness is so feeble. Therule of the city we entrust to Jesus: but the defence of the walls wekeep in our own hands; the King does not keep us as we expected, and wecannot discover the secret of failure. It is the God of peace _Himself_, who sanctifies wholly, who must preserve spirit and soul _and body_entire and without blame. The tabernacle with its wood, the temple withits stone, were as holy as all included within their walls: God's holyones need the body to be holy. To realize the full meaning of this, let us remember how it was throughthe body sin entered. 'The woman saw that the tree was good for food, 'this was the temptation in the flesh; through this the soul was reached, 'it was a delight to the eyes;' through the soul it then passed into thespirit, 'and to be desired to make one wise. ' In John's description ofwhat is in the world (1 John ii. 15), we find the same threefolddivision, 'the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride oflife. ' And the three temptations of Jesus by Satan correspond exactly:he first sought to reach Him through the body, in the suggestion tosatisfy His hunger by making bread; the second (see Luke iv. ) appealedto the soul, in the vision of the kingdoms of this world and theirglory; the third to the spirit, in the call to assert and prove HisDivine Sonship by casting Himself down. Even to the Son of God the firsttemptation came, as to Adam and all in the world, as lust of the flesh, the desire to gratify the natural and lawful appetite of hunger. Wecannot note too carefully that it was on a question of eating whatappeared good for food that man's first sin was committed, and that thatsame question of eating to satisfy hunger was the battleground on whichthe Redeemer's first encounter with Satan took place. It is on thequestion of eating and drinking what is good and lawful that moreChristians than are aware of it are foiled by Satan. To have everyappetite of the body under the rule and regulation of the Holy Spiritappears to some needless, to others too difficult. And yet it must be, if the body is to be holy, as God's temple, and we are to glorify Him inour body and our spirit. The first approaches of sin are made throughthe body: in the body the complete victory will be gained. What Scripture teaches as to the intimacy of the connection between thebody and spirit, physiology confirms. What appear at first merelyphysical transgressions leave a stain and have a degrading influence onthe soul, and through it drag down the spirit. And on the other side, spiritual sins, sins of thought and imagination and disposition, passthrough the soul into the body, fix themselves in the nervousconstitution, and express themselves even in the countenance and thehabits or tendencies of the body. Sin must be combated not only in theregion of the spirit: if we are to perfect holiness, we must cleanseourselves from all defilement of flesh _and_ spirit. 'If through theSpirit ye do make dead the deeds of _the body_, ye shall live. ' If weare indeed to be cleansed from sin and made holy unto God, the body, asthe outworks, must very specially be secured from the power of Satanand of sin. And how is this to be done? God has made very special provision forthis. Holy Scripture speaks so explicitly of the Holy Spirit, the Spiritthat communicates holiness, in connection with the body. At first sightit looks as if the word, your bodies, were simply used as equivalent to, your persons, yourselves. But as the deeper insight into the power ofsin in the body, and the need of a deliverance specially there, quickensour perception, we see what is meant by the body being the temple of theHoly Spirit. We notice how very specially it is of sins in the body thatPaul speaks as defiling God's holy temple; and how it is through thepower of the Holy Ghost in the body that he would have us glorify God. 'Know ye not that _your body_ is the temple of the Holy Ghost: glorifyGod therefore, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in _your body_. ' TheHoly Spirit must not only exercise a restraining and regulatinginfluence on the appetites of the body and their gratification, so thatthey be in moderation and temperance, --this is only the negativeside, --but there must be a positively spiritual element, making theexercise of natural functions a service of holy joy and liberty to theglory of God; no longer a threatened hindrance to the life of obedienceand fellowship, but a means of grace, a real help to the spiritual life. It is only in a body that is full of the holy life, very entirelypossessed of God's Spirit, that this will be the case. And how can this be obtained? In the true Christian life, self-denial isthe path to enjoyment, renunciation to possession, death to life. Aslong as there is ought that we think we have liberty and power to use orenjoy aright, if we but do so in moderation, we have not yet seen orconfessed our own unholiness, or the need of the entire renewing of theHoly Spirit. It is not enough to say, 'Every creature of God is good, ifit be received with thanksgiving;' we must remember the addition, 'forit is sanctified by the word and by prayer. ' This sanctifying of everycreature and its use is a thing as real and solemn as the sanctifying ofourselves. And this will only be where, if need be, we sacrifice thegift and the liberty to use it, until God gives us the power truly touse it to His glory alone. Of one of the most sacred of Divineinstitutions, marriage, Paul, who so denounces those who would forbid tomarry, says distinctly that there may be cases in which a voluntarycelibacy may be the surest and acceptable way of being 'holy both inbody and spirit. ' When to be holy as God is holy indeed becomes thegreat desire and aim of life, everything will be cherished or given upas it promotes the chief end. The actual and active presence of the HolySpirit in the life of the body will be the fire that is kept burningcontinually on the altar. And how is this to be attained? Of the body as of the spirit it is God, God in Christ, who is our Keeper and our Sanctifier. The guarding ofthe walls of the city must be entrusted to Him who rules within. 'I ampersuaded that He is able to guard my deposit, ' to keep that which Ihave committed to Him, must become as definitely true of the body, andof each of its functions of which we are conscious that it is theoccasion of doubt or of stumbling, as it has been of the soul weentrusted to Him for salvation. A fixed deposit in a bank is money givenaway out of my hands to be kept there: the body or any part of it thatneeds to be made holy must be a deposit with Jesus. Faith must trust Hisacceptance and guarding of it; prayer and praise must daily afresh renewthe assurance, must confirm the committal of the deposit, and maintainthe fellowship with Jesus. Abiding thus in Him and His Holiness, weshall receive, in a life of trust and joy, the power to prove, even inthe body, how fully and wholly we are in Him who is made unto ussanctification, how real and true the Holiness of God is in His people. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Blessed Lord! who art my sanctification, I come to Thee now with a veryspecial request. O Thou who didst in Thine own body bear our sins on thetree, and of whom it is written, 'We have been sanctified through theoffering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, ' be pleased to revealto me how my body may to the full experience the power of Thy wonderfulredemption. I do desire in soul and body to be holy to the Lord. Lord! I have too little understood that my body is the temple of theHoly Ghost, that there is nothing in it that can be matter ofindifference, that its every state and function is to be holiness to theLord. And where I saw that this should be so, I have still sought myselfto guard from the enemy's approaches these the walls of the city. Iforgot how this part of my being too could alone be kept and sanctifiedby faith, by Thy taking and keeping charge of what faith entrusted toThee. Lord Jesus! I come now to surrender this body with all its needs intoThy hands. In weariness and nervousness, in excitement and enjoyment, inhunger and want, in health and plenty, O my holy Saviour, let my body bein Thy keeping every moment. Thou callest us, 'being made free from sin, to present our members as servants of righteousness untosanctification. ' Saviour! in the faith of the freedom from sin which Ihave in Thee, I present every member of my body to Thee: I believe theSpirit of life in Thee makes me free from the law of sin in my members. Whether living or dying, be Thou magnified in my body. Amen. 1. In the tabernacle and temple, the material part was to be in harmony with, and the embodiment of, the holiness that dwelt within. It was therefore all made according to the pattern shown in the mount. In the two last chapters of Exodus, we have eighteen times 'as the Lord commanded. ' Everything, even in the exterior, was the embodiment of the will of God. Even so our body, as God's temple, must in everything be regulated by God's word, quickened and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 2. As part of this holiness in the body, Scripture mentions dress. Speaking of the 'outward adorning of plaiting the hair, of wearing jewels, or the putting on of apparel, ' as inconsistent with 'the apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, ' Peter says, 'After this manner aforetime _the holy women_, who hoped in God, adorned themselves. ' Holiness was seen in their dressing; their body was the temple of the Holy Spirit. 3. 'If ye through the Spirit do make dead the deeds of _the body_, ye shall live. ' His quickening energy must reign through the whole. We are so accustomed to connect the spiritual with the ideal and invisible, that it will need time and thought and faith to realize how the physical and the sensible influence our spiritual life, and must be under the mastery and inspiration of God's Spirit. Even Paul says, 'I buffet _my body_, and bring it into bondage, lest I myself should be rejected. ' 4. If God actually breathed His Spirit into the body of Adam formed out of the ground, let it not be thought strange that the Holy Spirit should now animate our bodies too with His sanctifying energy. 5. 'Corporeality is the end of the ways of God. ' This deep saying of an old divine reminds us of a much neglected truth. The great work of God's Spirit is to ally Himself with matter, and form it into a spiritual body for a dwelling for God. In our body the Holy Spirit will do it, if He gets complete possession. 6. It is on this truth of the Holy Spirit's power in the body that what is called Faith-healing rests. Through all ages, in times of special spiritual quickening, God has given it to some to see how Christ would make, even here, the body partaker of the life and power of the Spirit. To those who do see it, the link between Holiness and Healing is a very close and blessed one, as the Lord Jesus takes possession of the body for Himself. Twenty-fourth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Cleansing. 'Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us _cleanse_ ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting _holiness_ in the fear of God. '--2 Cor. Vii. 1. That holiness is more than cleansing, and must be preceded by it, istaught us in more than one passage of the New Testament. 'Christ lovedthe Church, and gave Himself up for it, that He might _sanctify_ it, having _cleansed_ it by the washing of water with the word. ' 'If a man_cleanse_ himself from these, he shall be a vessel _sanctified_. ' Thecleansing is the negative side, the being separate and not touching theunclean thing, the removal of impurity; the sanctifying is the positiveunion and fellowship with God, and the participation of the graces ofthe Divine life and holiness (2 Cor. Vi. 17, 18). So we read too of thealtar, that God spake to Moses: 'Thou shalt _cleanse_ the altar, whenthou makest atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it, to _sanctify_it' (Ex. Xxix. 36). Cleansing must ever prepare the way, and oughtalways to lead on to holiness. Paul speaks of a twofold defilement, of flesh and spirit, from which wemust cleanse ourselves. The connection between the two is so close, thatin every sin both are partakers. The lowest and most carnal form of sinwill enter the spirit, and, dragging it down into partnership in crime, will defile and degrade it. And so will all defilement of spirit incourse of time show its power in the flesh. Still we may speak of thetwo classes of sins as they owe their origin more directly to the fleshor the spirit. '_Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh. _' The functionsof our body may be classed under the three heads of the nourishment, thepropagation, and the protection of our life. Through the first the worlddaily solicits our appetite with its food and drink. As the fruit goodfor food was the temptation that overcame Eve, so the pleasures ofeating and drinking are among the earliest forms of defilement of theflesh. Closely connected with this is what we named second, and which isin Scripture specially connected with the word flesh. We know how inParadise the sinful eating was at once followed by the awakening ofsinful lust and of shame. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paulclosely connects the two (1 Cor. Vi. 13, 15), as he also linksdrunkenness and impurity (1 Cor. Vi. 9, 10). Then comes the third formin which the vitality of the body displays itself: the instinct ofself-preservation, setting itself against everything that interfereswith our pleasures and comfort. What is called temper, with its fruitsof anger and strife, has its roots in the physical constitution, and isone among the sins of the flesh. From all this, the Christian, who wouldbe holy, must most determinedly cleanse himself. He must yield himselfto the searching of God's Spirit, to be taught what there is in theflesh that is not in harmony with the temperance and self-controldemanded both by the law of nature and the law of the Spirit. He mustbelieve, what Paul felt that the Corinthians so emphatically needed tobe taught, that the Holy Spirit dwells in the body, making its membersthe members of Christ, and in this faith put off the works of the flesh;he must cleanse himself from all defilement of flesh. '_And of spirit. _' As the source of all defilement of the flesh isself-gratification, so self-seeking is at the root of all defilement ofthe spirit. In relation to God, it manifests itself in idolatry, be itin the worship of other gods after our own heart, the love of the worldmore than God, or the doing our will rather than His. In relation to ourfellow-men it shows itself in envy, hatred, and want of love, coldneglect or harsh judging of others. In relation to ourselves it is seenas pride, ambition, or envy, the disposition that makes self the centreround which all must move, and by which all must be judged. For the discovery of such defilement of spirit, no less than of the sinsof the flesh, the believer needs the light of the Holy Spirit; that theuncleanness may indeed be cleansed out and cast away for ever. Evenunconscious sin, if we are not earnestly willing to have it shown to us, will most effectually prevent our progress in the path of holiness. '_Beloved! let us cleanse ourselves. _' The cleansing is sometimes spokenof as the work of God (Acts xv. 9; 1 John i. 9); sometimes as that ofChrist (John xv. 3; Eph. V. 26; Tit. Ii. 14). Here we are commanded tocleanse ourselves. God does His work in us by the Holy Spirit; the HolySpirit does His work by stirring us up and enabling us to do. The Spiritis the strength of the new life; in that strength we must set ourselvesdeterminedly to cast out whatever is unclean. 'Come out, and be yeseparate, and touch not the unclean thing. ' It is not only the doingwhat is sinful, it is not only the willing of it, that the Christianmust avoid, but even the touching it: the involuntary contact with itmust be so unbearable as to force the cry, O wretched man that I am! andto lead on to the deliverance which the Spirit of the life of Christdoes bring. And how is this cleansing to be done? When Hezekiah called the prieststo sanctify the temple that had been defiled, we read (2 Chron. Xxix. ), 'The priests went in unto the inner part of the house of the Lord tocleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found. ' Onlythen could the sin-offering of atonement and the burnt-offering ofconsecration, with the thankofferings, be brought, and God's service berestored. Even thus must all that is unclean be looked out, and broughtout, and utterly cast out. However deeply rooted the sin may appear, rooted in constitution and habit, we must cleanse ourselves of it if wewould be holy. 'If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, theblood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. ' As we bring out every sinfrom the inner part of the house into the light of God and walk in thelight, the precious blood that justifies will work mightily to cleansetoo: the blood brings into living contact with the life and the love ofGod. Let us come into the light with the sin: the blood will prove itsmighty power. Let us cleanse ourselves in yielding ourselves to thelight to reveal and condemn, to the blood to cleanse and sanctify. 'Let us cleanse ourselves, _perfecting holiness in the fear of theLord_. ' We read in Hebrews (x. 14), 'Christ hath perfected forever themthat are sanctified. ' As we have so often seen that what God has madeholy man must make holy too, as he accepts and appropriates the holinessGod has bestowed, so here with the perfection which the saints have inChrist. We must perfect holiness: holiness must be carried out into thewhole of life, and carried on even to its end. As God's holy ones, wemust go on to perfection, perfecting holiness. Do not let us be afraidof the word. Our Blessed Lord used it when He gave us the command, 'Beye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. ' A child strivingafter the perfection in knowledge of his profession, which he hopes toattain when he has finished school, is told by his teacher that the wayto the perfection he hopes for at the end of his course is to seek to beperfect in the lessons of each day. To be perfect in the small portionof the work that each hour brings, is the path to the perfection thatwill crown the whole. The Master calls us to a perfection like that ofthe Father: He hath already perfected us in Himself: He holds out theprospect of perfection ever growing. His word calls us here day by dayto be perfecting holiness. Let us seek in each duty to be whole-heartedand entire. Let us, as teachable scholars, in every act of worship orobedience, in every temptation and trial, do the very best which God'sSpirit can enable us to do. 'Let patience have its perfect work, that yemay be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. ' 'The God of peace makeyou perfect in every good work to do His will. ' '_Having therefore these promises_, beloved, let us cleanse ourselvesfrom all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fearof God. ' It is faith that gives the courage and the power to cleansefrom all defilement, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. It is asthe promises of the Divine love and indwelling (2 Cor. Vi 16-18) aremade ours by the Holy spirit, that we shall share the victory whichovercometh the world, even our faith. In the path along which we havealready come, from the rest in Paradise down through Holy Scripture, wehave seen the wondrous revelation of these promises in ever-growingsplendour. That God the Holy One will make us holy; that God the HolyOne will dwell with the lowly; that God in His Holy One has come to beour holiness; that God has planted us in Christ that He may be oursanctification; that God, who chose us in sanctification of the Spirit, has given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and now watches over us inHis love to work out through Him His purposes and to perfect ourholiness: such are the promises that have been set before us. 'Havingtherefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from allfilthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. ' Beloved brother! see here again God's way of holiness. Arise and step onto it in the faith of the promise, fully persuaded that what He hathpromised He is mighty to perform. Bring out of the inner part of thehouse all uncleanness; bring it into the light of God; confess it andcast it at His feet, who takes it away, and cleanses you in His blood. Yield yourself in faith to perfect, in Christ your Strength, theHoliness to which you are called. As your Father in heaven is perfect, give yourself to Him as a little child to be perfect too in your dailylessons and your daily walk. Believe that your surrender is accepted:that the charge committed to Him is undertaken. And give glory to Himwho is able to do above what you can ask or think. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Holy Lord Jesus! Thou didst give Thyself for us, that, having cleansedus for Thyself as Thine own, Thou mightest sanctify us and present us toThyself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Blessed be Thy Name for the wonderful love. Blessed be Thy Name for thewonderful cleansing. Through the washing by the word and the washing inthe blood, Thou hast made us clean every whit. And as we walk in thelight, Thou cleansest every moment. With these promises, in the power of Thy word and blood, Thou callest usto cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. BlessedLord! graciously reveal in Thy Holy Light all that is defilement, evenits most secret working. Let me live as one who is to be presented toThee without spot or wrinkle or any such thing--cleansed with a Divinecleansing, because Thou gavest Thyself to do it. Under the living powerof Thy word and blood, applied by the Holy Spirit, let my way be clean, and my hands clean, my lips clean, and my heart clean. Cleanse methoroughly, that I may walk with Thee in white here on earth, keeping mygarments unspotted and undefiled. For Thy great love's sake, my BlessedLord. Amen. 1. Cleansing has almost always one aim: a cleansed vessel is fit for use. Spiritual work done for God, with the honest desire that He may through His Spirit use us, will give urgency to our desire for cleansing. A vessel not cleansed cannot be used: is not this the reason that there are some workers God cannot bless? 2. _All_ defilement: one stain defiles. 'Let us cleanse ourselves from _all_ defilement. ' 3. No cleansing without Light. Open the heart for the Light to shine in. 4. No cleansing like fire. Give the defilement over to the fire of His Holiness, the fire that consumes and purifies. Give it into the death of Jesus, to Jesus Himself. 5. 'Perfecting holiness in _the fear of God_:' it is a solemn work. Rejoice with trembling--work out your salvation with fear and trembling. 6. 'Having these promises, ' it is a blessed work to cleanse ourselves--entering into the promises, the purity, the love of our Lord. The fear of God need never hinder the faith in Him. And true faith will never hinder the practical work of cleansing. 7. _If we walk in the light, the blood cleanseth. _ The light reveals; we confess and forsake, and accept the blood; so we cleanse ourselves. Let there be a very determined purpose to be clean from all defilement, everything that our Father considers a stain. Twenty-fifth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holy and Blameless. 'Ye are witnesses, and God also, how _holily_ and justly and _unblameably_ we behaved ourselves among you that believe. --The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, to the end He may stablish your hearts _unblameable in holiness_ before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His _holy ones_. '--1 Thess. Ii. 10, iii. 12, 13. 'He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be _holy and without blemish_ before Him _in love_. '--Eph. I. 4. There are two Greek words, signifying nearly the same, used frequentlyalong with the word holy, and following it, to express what the result andeffect of holiness will be as manifested in the visible life. The one istranslated without blemish, spotless, and is that also used of our Lordand His sacrifice, the Lamb without blemish (Heb. Ix. 14; 1 Pet. I. 19). It is then used of God's children with holy--holy and without blemish(Eph. I. 4, 5, 27; Col. I. 22; Phil. Ii. 15; Jude 24; 2 Pet. Iii. 14). Theother is without blame, faultless (as in Luke i. 6; Phil ii. 15, iii. 6), and is also found in conjunction with holy (1 Thess. Ii. 10, iii. 13, v. 23). In answer to the question as to whether this blamelessness hasreference to God's estimate of the saints or men's, Scripture clearlyconnects it with both. In some passages (Eph. I. 4, v. 27; Col. I. 22;1 Thess. Iii. 15; 2 Pet. Iii. 14) the words 'before Him, ' 'to Himself, ''before our God and Father, ' indicate that the first thought is of thespotlessness and faultlessness in the presence of a Holy God, which isheld out to us as His purpose and our privilege. In others (such as Phil. Ii. 15; 1 Thess. Ii. 10), the blamelessness in the sight of men stands inthe foreground. In each case the word may be considered to include bothaspects: without blemish and without blame must stand the double test ofthe judgment of God and man too. And what is now the special lesson which this linking together of thesetwo words in Scripture, and the exposition of holy by the addition ofblameless, is meant to teach us? A lesson of deep importance. In thepursuit of holiness, the believer, the more clearly he realizes what adeep spiritual blessing it is, to be found only in separation from theworld, and direct fellowship with God, to be possessed fully onlythrough a real Divine indwelling, may be in danger of looking tooexclusively to the Divine side of the blessing, in its heavenly andsupernatural aspect. He may forget how repentance and obedience, as thepath leading up to holiness, must cover every, even the minutest detailof daily life. He may not understand how faithfulness to the leadingsof the Spirit, in such measure as we have Him already, faithfulness toHis faintest whisper in reference to ordinary conduct, is essential toall fuller experience of His power and work as the Spirit of holiness. He may, above all, not have learnt how, not only obedience to what heknows to be God's will, but a very tender and willing teachableness toreceive all that the Spirit has to show him of his imperfections and theFather's perfect will concerning him, is the only condition on which theHoliness of God can be more fully revealed to us and in us. And so, while most intent on trying to discover the secret of true and fullholiness from the Divine side, he may be tolerating faults which allaround him can notice, or remaining, --and that not without sin, becauseit comes from the want of perfect teachableness, --ignorant of graces andbeauties of holiness with which the Father would have had him adorn thedoctrine of holiness before men. He may seek to live a very holy, andyet think little of a perfectly blameless life. There have been such saints, holy but hard, holy but distant, holy butsharp in their judgments of others; holy, but men around said, unlovingand selfish; the half-heathen Samaritan more kind and self-sacrificingthan the holy Levite and priest. If this be true, it is not the teachingof Holy Scripture that is to blame. In linking holy and without blemish(or without blame) so closely, the Holy Spirit would have led us toseek for the embodiment of holiness as a spiritual power in theblamelessness of practice and of daily life. Let every believer whorejoices in God's declaration that he is holy in Christ seek also toperfect holiness, reach out after nothing less than to be 'unblameablein holiness. ' That this blamelessness has very special reference to our intercoursewith our fellow-men we see from the way in which it is linked with love. So in Eph. I. 4, 'That we should be holy and without blemish before Him_in love_. ' But specially in that remarkable passage: 'The Lord make youto _increase and abound in love_ toward one another, and toward all men, _to the end He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness_. ' Theholiness and the blamelessness, the positive hidden Divinelife-principle, and the external and human life-practice--both are tofind their strength, by which we are to be established in them, in ourabounding and ever-flowing love. Holiness and lovingness--it is of deep importance that these wordsshould be inseparably linked in our minds, as their reality in ourlives. We have seen, in the study of the holiness of God, how love isthe element in which it dwells and works, drawing to itself and makinglike itself all that it can get possession of. Of the fire of Divineholiness love is the beautiful flame, reaching out to communicate itselfand assimilate to itself all it can lay hold of. In God's children trueholiness is the same; the Divine fire burns to bring into its ownblessedness all that comes within its reach. When Jesus sanctifiedHimself that we might be sanctified in truth, that was nothing but lovegiving itself to the death that the sinful might share His holiness. Selfishness and holiness are irreconcilable. Ignorance may think ofsanctity as a beautiful garment with which to adorn itself before God, while underneath there is a selfish pride saying, 'I am holier thanthou, ' and quite content that the other should want what it boasts of. True holiness, on the contrary, is the expulsion and the death ofselfishness, taking possession of heart and life to be the ministers ofthat fire of love that consumes itself, to reach and purify and saveothers. Holiness is love. Abounding love is what Paul prays for as thecondition of unblameable holiness. It is as _the Lord makes_ us toincrease and abound in love, that _He can establish_ our heartsunblameable in holiness. The Apostle speaks of a twofold love, 'love toward each other, andtoward all men. ' Love to the brethren was what our Lord Himself enjoinedas the chief mark of discipleship. And He prayed the Father for it asthe chief proof to the world of the truth of His Divine mission. It isin the holiness of love, in a loving holiness, that the unity of thebody will be proved and promoted, and prepared for the fuller workingsof the Holy Spirit. In the Epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians, division and distance among believers are named as the sure proof of thelife of self and the flesh. Oh, let us, if we would be holy, begin bybeing very gentle, and patient, and forgiving, and kind, and generous inour intercourse with all the Father's children. Let us study the Divineimage of the love that seeketh not its own, and pray unceasingly thatthe Lord may make us to abound in love to each other. The holiest willbe the humblest and most self-forgetting, the gentlest and mostself-denying, the kindest and most thoughtful of others for Jesus' sake. 'Put on therefore, as God's elect, _holy and beloved_, a heart ofcompassion, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering' (Col. Iii. 12, 13). And then the love toward all men. A love proved in the conduct andintercourse of daily life. A love that not only avoids anger and eviltemper and harsh judgments, but exhibits the more positive virtue ofactive devotion to the welfare and interests of all. A charitable lovethat cares for the bodies as well as the souls. A love that not only isready to help when it is called, but that really gives itself up toself-denial and self-sacrifice to seek out and relieve the needs of themost wretched and unworthy. A love that does indeed take Christ's love, that brought Him from heaven and led Him to choose the cross, as theonly law and measure for its conduct, and makes everything subordinateto the Godlike blessedness of giving, of doing good, of embracing andsaving the needy and lost. Thus abounding in love, we shall beunblameable in holiness. It is in Christ we are holy; of God we are in Christ, who is made ofGod unto us sanctification: it is in this faith that Paul prays that theLord, our Lord Jesus, may make us increase and abound in love. TheFather is the fountain, He is the channel; the Holy Spirit is the livingstream. And He is our Life, through the Spirit. It is by faith in Him, by abiding in Him and in His love, by allowing, in close union with Him, the Spirit to shed abroad the love of God, that we shall receive theanswer to our prayer, and shall by Himself be established unblameable inholiness. Let it be with us a prayer of faith that changes into praise:Blessed be the Lord, who will make us increase and abound in love, andwill establish us unblameable in holiness before our God and Father, atthe coming of our Lord Jesus with His holy ones. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Most Gracious God and Father! again do I thank Thee for that wondroussalvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, which has made us holyin Christ. And I thank Thee that the Spirit can so make us partakers ofthe life of Christ, that we too may be unblameable in holiness. And thatit is the Lord Himself who makes us to increase and abound in love, tothe end our hearts may be so established; that the abounding love andthe unblameable holiness are both from Him. Blessed Lord and Saviour! I come now to claim and take as my own, whatThou art able to do for me. I am holy only in Thee; in Thee I am holy. In Thee there is for me the power to abound in love. O Thou, in whom thefulness of God's love abides, and in whom I abide, the Lord, my Lord, make me to abound in love. In union with Thee, in the life of faith inwhich Thou livest in me, it can be and it shall be. By the teaching ofThy Holy Spirit lead me in all the footsteps of Thy self-denying love, that I too may be consumed in blessing others. And thus, Lord! mightily establish my heart to be unblameable inholiness. Let self perish at Thy presence. Let Thy Holiness, givingitself to make the sinner holy, take entire possession, until my heartand life are sanctified wholly, and my whole spirit and soul and body bepreserved blameless unto Thy coming. Amen. 1. Let us pray very earnestly that our interest in the study of holiness may not be a thing of the intellect or the emotions, but of the will and the life, seen of all men in the daily walk and conversation. 'Abounding in love, ' 'unblameable in holiness, ' will give favour with God and man. 2. 'God is Love;' Creation is the outflow of love. Redemption is the sacrifice and the triumph of love. Holiness is the fire of love. The beauty of the life of Jesus is love. All we enjoy of the Divine we owe to love. Our holiness is not God's, is not Christ's, if we do not love. 3. 'Love seeketh not its own. ' 'Love never faileth. ' 'Love is the fulfilling of the law. ' 'The greatest of these is love. ' 'The end of the commandment is love. ' To love God and man is to be holy. In the intercourse of daily life, holiness can have its simple and sweet beginnings and its exercise; so, in its highest attainment, holiness is love made perfect. 4. Faith has all its worth from love, from the love of God, whence it draws and drinks, and the love to God and man which streams out of it. Let us be strong in faith, then shall we abound in love. 5. 'The love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which was given unto us. ' Let this be our confidence. Twenty-sixth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and the Will of God. 'This is _the will of God_, even your _sanctification_. '--1 Thess. Iv. 3. 'Lo, I am come to do _Thy will_. By _which will_ we have been _sanctified_, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. '--Heb. X. 9, 10. In the will of God we have the union of His Wisdom and Power. The Wisdomdecides and declares what is to be: the Power secures the performance. The declarative will is only one side; its complement, the executivewill, is the living energy in which everything good has its origin andexistence. So long as we only look at the will of God in the formerlight, as law, we feel it a burden, because we have not the power toperform--it is too high for us. When faith looks to the Power that worksin God's will, and carries it out, it has the courage to accept it andfulfil it, because it knows God Himself is working it out. The surrenderin faith to the Divine will as Wisdom thus becomes the pathway to theexperience of it as a Power. 'He doeth according to His will, ' is thenthe language not only of forced submission, but of joyful expectation. 'This is the will of God, your sanctification. ' In the ordinaryacceptation of these words, they simply mean that among many otherthings that God has willed, sanctification is one; it is something inaccordance with His will. This thought contains teaching of great value. God very distinctly and definitely has willed your sanctification: yoursanctification has its source and certainty in its being God's will. Weare 'elect in sanctification of the Spirit, ' 'chosen to be holy;' thepurpose of God's will from eternity, and His will now, is oursanctification. We have only to think of what we said of God's willbeing a Divine power that works out what His wisdom has chosen, to seewhat strength this truth will give to our faith that we shall be holy:God wills it, and will work it out for all and in all who do not resistit, but yield themselves to its power. Seek your sanctification, notonly in the will of God, as a declaration of what He wants you to be, but as a revelation of what He Himself will work out in you. There is, however, another most precious thought suggested. If oursanctification be God's will, its central thought and its contents, _every part of that will_ must bear upon it, and the sure entrance tosanctification will be the hearty acceptance of the will of God in allthings. To be one with God's will is to be holy. Let him who would beholy take his place here and 'stand in all the will of God. ' He willthere meet God Himself, and be made partaker of His Holiness, becauseHis will works out its purpose in power to each one who yields himselfto it. Everything in a life of holiness depends upon our being in theright relation to the will of God. There are many Christians to whom it appears impossible to think oftheir accepting all the will of God, or of their being one with it. Theylook upon the will of God in its thousand commands, and its numberlessprovidential orderings. They have sometimes found it so hard to obey onesingle command, or to give up willingly to some light disappointment. They imagine that they would need to be a thousandfold holier andstronger in grace, before venturing to say that they do accept all God'swill, whether to do or to bear. They cannot understand that all thedifficulty comes from their not occupying the right standpoint. They arelooking at God's will as at variance with their natural will, and theyfeel that that natural will will never delight in all God's will. Theyforget that the new man has a renewed will. This new will delights inthe will of God, because it is born of it. This new will sees the beautyand the glory of God's will, and is in harmony with it. If they areindeed God's children, the very first impulse of the spirit of a childis surely to do the will of the Father in heaven. And they have but toyield themselves heartily and wholly to this spirit of sonship, and theyneed not fear to accept God's will as theirs. The mistake they make is a very serious one. Instead of living by faiththey judge by feeling, in which the old nature speaks and rules. Ittells them that God's will is often a burden too hard to be borne, andthat they never can have the strength to do it. Faith speaksdifferently. It reminds us that God is Love, and that His will isnothing but Love revealed. It asks if we do not know that there isnothing more perfect or beautiful in heaven or earth than the will ofGod. It shows us how in our conversion we have already professed toaccept God as Father and Lord. It assures us, above all, that if we willbut definitely and trustingly give ourselves to that will which is Love, it will as Love fill our hearts and make us delight in it, and so becomethe power that enables us joyfully to do and to bear. Faith reveals tous that the will of God is the power of His love, working out its planin Divine beauty in each one who wholly yields to it. And which shall we now choose? And where shall we take our place? Shallwe attempt to accept Christ as a Saviour without accepting His will?Shall we profess to be the Father's children, and yet spend our life indebating how much of His will we shall perform? Shall we be content togo on from day to day with the painful consciousness that our will isnot in harmony with God's will? Or shall we not at once and for evergive up our will as sinful to His, --to that Will which He has alreadywritten on our heart? This is a thing that is possible. It can be done. In a simple, definite transaction with God, we can say that we do acceptHis holy will to be ours. Faith knows that God will not pass such asurrender unnoticed, but accept it. In the trust that He now takes us upinto His will, and undertakes to breathe it into us, with the love andthe power to perform it--in this faith let us enter into God's will, andbegin a new life; standing in, abiding in the very centre of this mostholy will. Such an acceptance of God's will prepares the believer, through the HolySpirit, to recognise and know that will in whatever form it comes. Thegreat difference between the carnal and the spiritual Christian is thatthe latter acknowledges God, under whatever low and poor and humanappearances He manifests Himself. When God comes in trials which can betraced to no hand but His, he says, 'Thy will be done. ' When trials comethrough the weakness of men or his own folly, when circumstances appearunfavourable to his religious progress, and temptations threaten to betoo much for him and to overcome him, he learns first of all to see Godin everything, and still to say, 'Thy will be done. ' He knows that achild of God cannot possibly be in any situation without the will of HisHeavenly Father, even when that will has been to leave him to his ownwilfulness for a time, or to suffer the consequences of his own orothers' sin. He sees this, and in accepting his circumstances as thewill of God to try and prove him, he is in the right position for nowknowing and doing what is right. Seeing and honouring God's will thus ineverything, he learns always to abide in that will. He does so also by doing that will. As his spiritual discernment growsto say of whatever happens, 'All things are of God, ' so he grows too inwisdom and spiritual understanding to know the will of God as it is tobe done. In the indications of conscience and of Providence, in theteaching of the word and the Spirit, he learns to see how God's will hasreference to every part and duty of life, and it becomes his joy, in allthings, to live, 'doing the will of God from the heart, as unto the Lordand not unto men. ' 'Labouring fervently in prayer to stand complete andfully assured in all the will of God, ' he finds how blessedly the Fatherhas accepted his surrender, and supplies all the light and strength thatis needed that His will may be done by him on earth as it is in heaven. Let me ask every reader to say to a Holy God, whether he has indeedgiven himself to Him to be made holy? Whether he has accepted, andentered into, and is living in, the good and perfect will of God? Thequestion is not, whether, when affliction comes, he accepts theinevitable and submits to a will he cannot resist. But whether he haschosen the will of God as his chief good, and has taken thelife-principle of Christ to be his: 'I delight to do Thy will, O God. 'This was the holiness of Christ, in which He sanctified Himself and us, the doing God's will. 'In which will we have been sanctified. ' It isthis will of God which is our sanctification. Brother! are you in earnest to be holy? wholly possessed of God? Here isthe path. I plead with you not to be afraid or to hold back. You havetaken God to be your God; have you really taken His will to be yourwill? Oh, think of the privilege, the blessedness, of having one willwith God! and fear not to surrender yourself to it most unreservedly. The will of God is, in every part of it, and in all its Divine power, your sanctification. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Blessed Father! I come to say that I see that Thy will is mysanctification, and there alone I would seek it. Graciously grant that, by Thy Holy Spirit which dwelleth in me, the glory of that will, and theblessedness of abiding in it, may be fully revealed to me. Teach me to know it as the Will of Love, purposing always what is thevery best and most blest for Thy child. Teach me to know it as the Willof Omnipotence, able to work out its every counsel in me. Teach me toknow it in Christ, fulfilled perfectly on my behalf. Teach me to know itas what the Spirit wills and works in each one who yields to Him. O my Father! I acknowledge Thy claim to have Thy will alone done, and amhere for it to do with me as Thou pleasest. With my whole heart I enterinto it, to be one with it for ever. Thy Holy Spirit can maintain thisoneness without interruption. I trust Thee, my Father, step by step, tolet the light of Thy will shine in my heart and on my path, through thatSpirit. May this be the holiness in which I live, that I forget and lose self inpleasing and honouring Thee. Amen. 1. Make it a study, in meditation and prayer and worship, to get a full impression of the Majesty, the Perfection, the Glory of the Will of God, with the privilege and possibility of living in it. 2. Study it, too, as the expression of an infinite Love and Fatherliness; its every manifestation full of loving-kindness. Every providence is _God's will_; whatever happens, meet God in it in humble worship. Every precept is _God's will_; meet God in it with loving obedience. Every promise is _God's will_; meet God in it with full trust. A life in the will of God is rest and strength and blessing. 3. And forget not, above all, to believe in its Omnipotent Power. _He worketh all things after the counsel of His will. _ In nature and those who resist Him, without their consent. In His children, according to their faith, and as far as they will it. Do believe that the will of God will work out its counsel in you, as you trust it to do so. 4. This will is Infinite Benevolence and Beneficence revealed in the self-sacrifice of Jesus. Live for others: so can you become an instrument for the Divine will to use (Matt. Xviii. 14; John vi. 39, 40). Yield yourselves to this redeeming will of God, that it may get full possession, and work out through you too its saving purpose. 5. Christ is just the embodiment of God's will: He is, God's will done. Abide in Him, by abiding in, by doing heartily and always, the will of God. A Christian is, like Christ, a man given up to the Will of God. Twenty-seventh Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Service. 'If a man therefore cleanse himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, _sanctified_, meet _for the Master's use_, prepared _unto every good work_. '--2 Tim. Ii. 21. 'A _holy_ priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices. A _holy_ nation, that ye may _show forth the excellences of Him_ who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. '--1 Pet. Ii. 5, 9. Through the whole of Scripture we have seen that whatever God sanctifiesis to be used in the service of His Holiness. His Holiness is aninfinite energy that only finds its rest in making holy: to therevelation of what He is in Himself, 'I the Lord _am holy_, ' Godcontinually adds the declaration of what He does, 'I am the Lord that_make holy_. ' Holiness is a burning fire that extends itself, that seeksto consume what is unholy, and to communicate its own blessedness to allthat will receive it. Holiness and selfishness, holiness and inactivity, holiness and sloth, holiness and helplessness, are utterlyirreconcilable. Whatever we read of as holy, was taken into the serviceof the Holiness of God. Let us just look back on the revelation of what is holy in Scripture. The seventh day was made holy, that in it God might make His peopleholy. The tabernacle was holy, to serve as a dwelling for the Holy One, as the centre whence His Holiness might manifest itself to the people. The altar was most holy, that it might sanctify the gifts laid on it. The priests with their garments, the house with its furniture andvessels, the sacrifices and the blood, --whatever bore the name of holyhad a use and a purpose. Of Israel, whom God redeemed from Egypt thatthey might be a _holy_ nation, God said, 'Let my people go, that theymay _serve_ me. ' The holy angels, the holy prophets and apostles, theholy Scriptures, --all bore the title as having been sanctified for theservice of God. Our Lord speaks of Himself 'as the Son, whom the Father_sanctified and sent_ into the world. ' And when He says, 'I sanctifymyself, ' He adds at once the purpose: it is in the service of the Fatherand His redeemed ones, --'that they themselves may be sanctified intruth. ' And can it be thought possible, now that God, in Christ the HolyOne, and in the Holy Spirit, is accomplishing His purpose, and gatheringa people of saints, 'holy ones, ' 'made holy in Christ, ' that nowholiness and service would be put asunder? Impossible! Here first weshall fully realize how essential they are to each other. Let us try andgrasp their mutual relation. We are only made holy that we may serve. We can only serve as we are holy. _Holiness is essential to effectual service. _ In the Old Testament wesee degrees of holiness, not only in the holy places, but as much in theholy persons. In the nation, the Levites, the priests, and then the HighPriest, there is an advance from step to step: as in each succeedingstage the circle narrows, and the service is more direct and entire, sothe holiness required is higher and more distinct. It is even so in thismore spiritual dispensation: the more of holiness, the greater thefitness for service; the more there is of true holiness, the more thereis of God, and the more true and deep is the entrance He has had intothe soul. The hold He has on the soul to use it in His service is morecomplete. In the Church of Christ there is a vast amount of work done which yieldsvery little fruit. Many throw themselves into work in whom there is butlittle true holiness, little of the Holy Spirit. They often work mostdiligently, and, as far as human influence is concerned, mostsuccessfully. And yet true spiritual results in the building up of aholy temple in the Lord are but few. The Lord cannot work in them, because He has not the mastery of their inner life. His personalindwelling and fellowship, the rest of His Holy Presence, His Holinessreigning and ruling in the heart and life, --to all these they arecomparative strangers. It has been rightly said that work is the curefor spiritual poverty and disease; to some believers who had beenseeking holiness apart from service, the call to work has been anunspeakable blessing. But to many it has only been an additional blindto cover up the terrible want of heart-holiness and heart-fellowshipwith the living God. They have thrown themselves into work moreearnestly than ever, and yet have not in their heart the rest-giving andrefreshing witness that their work is acceptable and accepted. My brother! listen to the message. 'If a man _cleanse_ himself, he shallbe a vessel unto honour, _sanctified_, _meet_ for the Master's use, _prepared_ unto every good work. ' You cannot have the law of servicemore clearly or beautifully laid down. A vessel of honour, one whom theKing will delight to honour, must be a vessel _cleansed_ from alldefilement of flesh and spirit. Then only can it be a _sanctified_vessel, possessed and indwelt by God's Holy Spirit. So it becomes _meetfor the Master's use_. He can use it, and work in it, and wield it. Andso, clean and holy, and yielded into the Master's hands, we are Divinelyprepared for every good work. Holiness is essential to service. Ifservice is to be acceptable to God, and effectual for its work on souls, and to be a joy and a strength to ourselves, we must be holy. The willof God must first live in us, if it is to be done by us. How many faithful workers there are, mourning the want of power; longingand praying for it, and yet not obtaining it! They have spent theirstrength more in the outer court of work and service, than in the innerlife of fellowship and faith. They truly have never understood thatonly as the Master gets possession of them, as the Holy Spirit has themat His disposal, can He use them, can they have true power. They oftenlong and cry for what they call a baptism of power. They forget that theway to have God's power in us is for ourselves to be in His power. Putyourself into the power of God; let His holy will live in you; live init and in obedience to it, as one who has no power to dispose ofhimself; let the Holy Spirit dwell within, as in His Holy Temple, revealing the Holy One on the throne, ruling all; He will without failuse you as a vessel of honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use. Holiness is essential to effectual service. _And service is no less essential to true holiness. _ We have repeated itso often: Holiness is an energy, an intense energy of desire andself-sacrifice, to make others partakers of its own purity andperfection. Christ sacrificed Himself--wherein did that sacrificeconsist, and what was its aim? He sanctified Himself that we might besanctified too. A holiness that is selfish is a delusion. True holiness, God's holiness in us, works itself out in love, in seeking and lovingthe unholy, that they may become holy too. Self-sacrificing love is ofthe very essence of holiness. The Holy One of Israel is its Redeemer. The Holy One of God is the dying Saviour. The Holy Spirit of God makesholy. There is no holiness in God but what is most actively engaged inloving and saving and blessing. It must be so in us too. Let everythought of holiness, every act of faith or prayer, every effort inpursuit of it, be animated by the desire and the surrender to theHoliness of God for use in the attaining of its object. Let your wholelife be one distinctly and definitely given up to God for His use andservice. Your circumstances may appear to be unfavourable. God mayappear to keep the door closed against your working for Him in the wayyou would wish; your sense of unfitness may be painful. Still, let it bea matter settled between God and the soul, that your longing forholiness is that you may be fitter for Him to use, and that what He hasgiven you of His Holiness in Christ and the Spirit is all at Hisdisposal, waiting to be used. Be ready for Him to use; live out, in adaily life of humble, self-denying, loving service of others, what graceyou have received. You will find that in the union and interchange ofworship and work, God's Holiness will rest upon you. 'The Father _sanctified_ the Son, _and sent_ Him into the world. ' Theworld is the place for the sanctified one, to be its light, its salt, its life. We are 'sanctified in Christ Jesus, ' and sent into the worldtoo. Oh, let us not fear to accept our position--our double position; inthe world, and in Christ! In the world, with its sin and sorrow, withits thousands of needs touching us at every point, and its millions ofsouls all waiting for us. And in Christ too. For the sake of that worldwe 'have been sanctified in Christ, ' we are 'holy in Christ, ' we have'the spirit of sanctification' dwelling in us. As a holy salt in asinful world, let us give ourselves to our holy calling. Let us comenearer and nearer to God who has called us. Let us root deeper anddeeper in Christ our sanctification, in whom we are of God. Let us entermore firmly and more fully into that faith in Him in whom we are, bywhich our whole life will be covered and taken up in His. Let us beseechthe Father to teach us that His Holy Spirit does dwell in us everymoment, making, if we live by faith, Christ with His Holiness, our home, our abode, our sure defence, and our infinite supply. As He which hathcalled us is holy, let us be holy in His own Son, through His ownSpirit, and the fire of His Holy Love will work through us its work ofjudging and condemning, of saving and sanctifying. A sanctified soul Godwill use to save. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Blessed Master! I thank Thee for being anew reminded of the purpose ofThy Redeeming Love. Thou gavest Thyself that Thou mightest cleanse forThyself a people of Thine own, zealous in good works. Thou wouldest makeof each of us a vessel of honour, cleansed and sanctified, meet for Thyuse, and prepared for every good work. Blessed Lord! write the lessons of Thy word deep in my heart. Teach meand all Thy people that if we would work for Thee, if we would haveThee work in us, and use us, we must be very holy, holy as God is holy. And that if we would be holy, we must be serving Thee. It is Thy ownSpirit, by which Thou dost sanctify us to use us, and dost sanctify inusing. To be entirely possessed of Thee is the path to sanctity andservice both. Most Holy Saviour! we are in Thee as our sanctification: in Thee wewould abide. In the rest of a faith that trusts Thee for all, in thepower of a surrender that would have no will but Thine, in a love thatwould lose itself to be wholly Thine, Blessed Jesus, we do abide inThee. In Thee we are holy: in Thee we shall bear much fruit. Oh, be pleased to perfect Thine own work in us! Amen. 1. It is difficult to make it clear in words how growth in holiness will simply reveal itself as an increasing simplicity and self-forgetfulness, accompanied by the restful and most blessed assurance that God has complete possession of us and will use us. We pass from the stage in which work presses as an obligation; it becomes the joy of fruit-bearing; faith's assurance that He is working out His will through us. 2. It has sometimes been said that people might be better employed in working for God than attending Holiness Conventions. This is surely a misunderstanding. It was before the throne of the Thrice Holy One, and as he heard the Seraphim sing of God's Holiness, that the prophet said, 'Here am I, send me. ' As the mission of Moses, and Isaiah, and the Son, whom the Father _sanctified and sent_, each had its origin in the revelation of God's Holiness, our missions will receive new power as they are more directly born out of the worship of God as the Holy One, and baptized into the Spirit of Holiness. 3. Let every worker take time to hear God's double call. If you would work, be very holy. If you would be holy, give yourself to God to use in His work. 4. Note the connection between 'sanctified' and 'meet for _the Master's use_. ' True holiness is being possessed of God; true service being used of God. How much service there is in which we are the chief agents, and ask God to help and to bless us. True service is being yielded up to the Master _for Him to use_. Then the Holy Ghost is the Agent, and we are the Instruments of His will. Such service is Holiness. 5. 'I sanctify _Myself_, that _they also_:' a reference to others is the root principle of all true holiness. Twenty-eighth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. The Way into the Holiest. 'Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into _the Holiest_ by _the blood_ of Jesus, by _the way_ which He dedicated, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh: and having a _great Priest_ over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart, in fulness of faith. '--Heb. X. 19-22. When the High Priest once a year entered into the second tabernaclewithin the veil, it was, we are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 'theHoly Ghost signifying that the way into _the Holiest of all_ was not yetmade manifest. ' When Christ died, the veil was rent; all who wereserving in the holy place had free access at once into the Most Holy;the way into the Holiest of all was opened up. When the Epistle passesover to its practical application (x. 19), all its teaching is summed upin the words: 'Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into _theHoliest_, let us draw near. ' Christ's redemption has opened the way tothe Holiest of all: our acceptance of it must lead to nothing less thanour drawing near and entering in. The words of our text suggest to usfour very precious thoughts in regard to the place of access, the rightof access, the way of access, the power of access. _The place of access. _ Whither are we invited to draw nigh? 'Havingboldness to enter into _the Holiest_. ' The priests in Israel might enterthe holy place, but were always kept excluded from the Holiest, God'simmediate presence. The rent veil proclaimed liberty of access into thatPresence. It is there that believers as a royal priesthood are now tolive and walk. Within the veil, in the very Holiest of all, in the sameplace, the heavenlies, in which God dwells, in God's very Presence, isto be our abode--our home. Some speak as if the, 'Let us draw near, 'meant prayer, and that in our special approach to God in acts of worshipwe enter the Holiest. No; great as this privilege is, God has meantsomething for us infinitely greater. We are to draw near, and dwellalways, to live our life and do our work within the sphere, theatmosphere, of the inner sanctuary. It is God's Presence makes holyground; God's immediate Presence in Christ makes any place the Holiestof all: and this is it into which we are to draw nigh, and in which weare to abide. There is not a single moment of the day, there is not acircumstance or surrounding, in which the believer may not be keptdwelling in the secret place of the Most High. As by faith he entersinto the completeness of his reconciliation with God, and the realityof his oneness with Christ, as he thus, abiding in Christ, yields to theHoly Spirit to reveal within the Presence of the Holy One, the Holiestof all is around him, he is indeed in it. With an uninterrupted accesshe draws near. [13] _The right of access. _ The thought comes up, and the question is asked:Is this not simply an ideal? can it be a reality, an experience in dailylife to those who know how sinful their nature is? Blessed be God! it ismeant to be. It is possible, because our right of access rests not inwhat we are, but in the blood of Jesus. 'Having _boldness_ to enter intothe Holiest _by the blood_ of Jesus, let us draw near. ' In the Passoverwe saw how redemption, and the holiness it aimed at, were dependent onthe blood. In the sanctuary, God's dwelling, we know how in each part, the court, the holy place, the Most Holy, the sprinkling of blood waswhat alone secured access to God. And now that the blood of Jesus hasbeen shed--oh! in what Divine power, what intense reality, whateverlasting efficacy, we now have access into the Holiest of all, theMost Holy of God's heart and His love! We are indeed brought nigh by theblood. We have boldness to enter by the blood. 'The worshippers, beingonce cleansed, have no more conscience of sins. ' Walking in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses in the power of an endless life, with acleansing that never ceases. No consciousness of unworthiness orremaining sinfulness need hinder the boldness of access: the liberty todraw near rests in the never-failing, ever-acting, ever-living efficacyof the Precious Blood. It is possible for a believer to dwell in theHoliest of all. _The way of access. _ It is often thought that what is said of _the newand living way_, dedicated for us by Jesus, means nothing different fromthe boldness through His blood. This is not the case. The words mean agreat deal more. 'Having boldness _by the blood_ of Jesus, let us drawnear _by the way_ which He dedicated for us. ' That is, He opened for usa way to walk in, as He walked in it, 'a new and living way, through theveil, that is to say, His flesh. ' The way in which Christ walked when Hegave His blood, is the very same in which we must walk too. That way isthe way of the Cross. There must not only be faith in Christ'ssacrifice, but fellowship with Him in it. That way led to the rending ofthe veil of the flesh, and so through the rent veil of the flesh, in toGod. And was the veil of Christ's holy flesh rent that the veil of oursinful flesh might be spared? Verily, no. He meant us to walk in thevery same way in which He did, following closely after Himself. Hededicated for us a new and living way through the veil, that is, Hisflesh. As we go in through the rent veil of _His flesh_, we find in itat once the need and the power for our flesh being rent too: followingJesus ever means conformity to Jesus. It is Jesus with the rent flesh, in whom we are, in whom we walk. [14] There is no way to God but throughthe rending of the flesh. In acceptance of Christ's life and death byfaith as the power that works in us, in the power of the Spirit whichmakes us truly one with Christ, we all follow Christ as He passes onthrough the rent veil, that is, His flesh, and become partakers with Himof His crucifixion and death. The way of the cross, 'by which I havebeen crucified, ' is the way through the rent veil. Man's destiny, fellowship with God in the power of the Holy Spirit, is only reachedthrough the sacrifice of the flesh. And here we find now the solution of a great mystery--why so manyChristians remain standing afar off, and never enter this Holiest ofall; why the holiness of God's Presence is so little seen on them. Theythought that it was only in Christ that the flesh needed to be rent, notin themselves. They thought that the liberty they had in the blood wasthe new and living way. They knew not that the way into true and fullholiness, into the Holiest of all, that the full entrance into thefellowship of the holiness of the Great High Priest, was only to bereached through the rent veil of the flesh, through conformity to thedeath of Jesus. This is in very deed the way He dedicated for us. He isHimself the way; into His self-denial, His self-sacrifice, Hiscrucifixion, He takes up all who long to be holy with His Holiness, holyas He is holy. _The power of access. _ Does any one shrink back from entering the veryHoliest for fear of this rending of the flesh, because he doubts whetherhe could bear it, whether he could indeed walk in such a path? Let himlisten once more. Hear what follows: 'And _having a Great Priest_ overthe House of God, let us draw near. ' We have not only the Holiest of allinviting us, and the blood giving us boldness, and the way through therent veil consecrated for us, but the Great Priest over the House ofGod, the Blessed Living Saviour, to draw, to help, and to welcome us. Heis our Aaron. On His heart we see our name, because He only lives tothink of us, and pray for us. On His forehead we see God's name, 'Holyto the Lord, ' because in His Holiness the sins of our holy things arecovered. _In Him_ we are accepted and sanctified; God receives us asholy ones. In the power of His love and His Spirit, in the power of Himthe Holy One, in the joy of drawing nearer to Him and being drawn byHim, we gladly accept the way He has dedicated, and walk in His holyfootsteps of self-denial and self-sacrifice. We see how the flesh is thethick veil that separates from the Holy One who is a Spirit, and itbecomes an unceasing and most fervent prayer, that the crucifixion ofthe flesh may, in the power of the Holy Spirit, be in us a blessedreality. With the glory of the Holiest of all shining out on us throughthe opened veil, and the Precious Blood speaking so loudly of boldnessof access, and the Great Priest beckoning us with His loving Presence todraw near and be blessed, --with all this, we dare no longer fear, butchoose the way of the rent veil as the path we love to tread, and giveourselves to enter in and dwell within the veil, in the very Holiest ofall. And so our life here will be the earnest of the glory that is to come, as it is written--note how we have the four great thoughts of our textover again--'These are they which came out of great tribulation, ' thatis, by the way of the rent flesh; 'and they washed their robes, and madethem white in the blood of the Lamb, ' their boldness through the blood;'therefore are they before the throne of God, ' their dwelling in theHoliest of all; 'the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall betheir Shepherd, ' the Great Priest still the Shepherd, Jesus Himselftheir all in all. Brother! do you see what holiness is, and how it is to be found? It isnot something wrought in yourself. It is not something put on you fromwithout. Holiness is the Presence of God resting on you. Holiness comesas you consciously abide in that Presence, doing all your work, andliving all your life as a sacrifice to Him, acceptable through JesusChrist, sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Oh, be no longer fearful, as ifthis life were not for you! Look to Jesus; having a Great Priest overthe House of God, let us draw near. Be occupied with Jesus. Our Brotherhas charge of the Temple; He has liberty to show us all, to lead us intothe secret of the Father's presence. The entire management of the Templehas been given into His hands with this very purpose, that all thefeeble and doubting ones might come with confidence. Only trust yourselfto Jesus, to His leading and keeping. Only trust Jesus, God's Holy One, your Holy One; it is His delight to reveal to you what He has purchasedwith His blood. Trust Him to teach you the ordinances of the sanctuary. 'That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the Houseof God, ' He has been given. _Having a Great Priest_, let us enter in, let us dwell in the Holiest of all. In the power of the blood, in thepower of the new and living way, in the power of the Living Jesus, letthe Holiest of all, the Presence of God, be the home of our soul. Youare 'Holy in Christ;' in Christ you are in God's Holy Presence and Love;just stay there. BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. Most Holy God! how shall I praise Thee for the liberty to enter into theHoliest of all, and dwell there? And for the precious Blood, that bringsus nigh? And for the new and living way, through the rent veil of thatflesh which had separated us from Thee, in which my flesh now too hasbeen crucified? And for the Great Priest over the House of God, ourLiving Lord Jesus, with Whom and in Whom we appear before Thee? Glory beto Thy Holy Name for this wonderful and most complete redemption. I beseech Thee, O my God! give me, and all Thy children, some rightsense of how really and surely we may live each day, may spend our wholelife, within the veil, in Thine own Immediate Presence. Give us thespirit of revelation, I pray Thee, that we may see how, through the rentveil, the glory of Thy Presence streameth forth from the Most Holy intothe holy place; how, in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the kingdomof heaven came to earth, and all who yield themselves to that Spirit mayknow that in Christ they are indeed so near, so very near to Thee. O Blessed Father! let Thy Spirit teach us that this indeed is the holylife: a life in Christ the Holy One, always in the Light and thePresence of Thy Holy Majesty. Most Holy God! I draw nigh. In the power of the Holy Spirit I enter in. I am now in the Holiest of all. And here I would abide in Jesus, myGreat Priest--here, in the Holiest of all. Amen. 1. To abide in Christ is to dwell in the Holiest of all. Christ is not only the Sacrifice, and the Way, and the Great Priest, but also Himself the Temple. 'The Lamb is the Temple. ' As the Holy Spirit reveals my union to Christ more clearly, and heart and will lose themselves in Him, I dwell in the Holy Presence, which is the Holiest of all. You are 'holy in Christ'--draw near, enter in with boldness, and take possession--have no home but in the Holiest of all. 2. 'Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it. ' _He gave Himself!_ Have you caught the force of that word? Because He would have no one else do it, because none could do it; to sanctify His Church, _He gave Himself_ to do it. And so it is His own special beloved work to sanctify the Church He loved. Just accept Himself to do it. He can and will make you holy, that He may present you to _Himself_ glorious, without spot or wrinkle. Let that word _Himself_ live in you. The whole life and walk in the House of God is in His charge. _Having_ a Great Priest, let us draw near. 3. This entrance into the Holiest of all--an ever fresh and ever deeper entrance--is, at the same time, an ever blessed resting in the Father's Presence. Faith in the blood, following in the way of the rent flesh, and fellowship with the Living Jesus, are the three chief steps. 4. Enter into the Holiest of all, and dwell there. It will enter into thee, and transform thee, and dwell in thee. And thy heart will be the Holiest of all, in which He dwells. 5. Have we not at times been lifted, by an effort of thought and will, or in the fellowship of the saints, into what seemed the Holiest of all, and speedily felt that the flesh had entered there too? It was because we entered not by the new way of life--the way through death to life--the way of the rent veil of the flesh. O our crucified Lord! teach us what this means; give it us; be it Thyself to us. 6. Let me remember that my access into the Holiest is as a Priest. Let me dwell before the Lord all the day as an Intercessor, offering, unceasingly, pleadings which are acceptable in Christ. May God's Church be like her of whom it is written, 'She departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. ' It is for this we have access to the Holiest of all. [13] So near, so very near to God, I cannot nearer be; For in the person of His Son, I am as near as He. [14] 'Christ suffered, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit. ' 'Forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also with the same mind. ' The flesh and the Spirit are antagonistic: as the flesh dies, the Spirit lives. Twenty-ninth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Chastisement. 'He chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of _His holiness_. Follow after _sanctification_, without which no man shall see the Lord. '--Heb. Xii. 10, 14. There is perhaps no part of God's word which sheds such Divine lightupon suffering as the Epistle to the Hebrews. It does this because itteaches us what suffering was to the Son of God. It perfected Hishumanity. It so fitted Him for His work as the Compassionate HighPriest. It proved that He, who had fulfilled God's will in sufferingobedience, was indeed worthy to be its executor in glory, and to sitdown on the right hand of the Majesty on high. 'It became God, inbringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation_perfect_ through _sufferings_. ' 'Though He was a Son, yet _learned_ He_obedience_ by the things which He _suffered_, and having been made_perfect_, became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obeyHim. ' As He said Himself of His suffering, 'I sanctify myself, ' so wesee here that His sufferings were indeed to Him the pathway toperfection and holiness. What Christ was and won was all for us. The power which suffering wasproved to have in Him to work out perfection, the power which Heimparted to it in sanctifying Himself through suffering, is the power ofthe new life that comes from Him to us. In the light of His example wecan see, in the faith of His power we too can prove, that suffering isto God's child the token of the Father's love, and the channel of Hisrichest blessing. To such faith the apparent mystery of suffering isseen to be nothing but a Divine need--the light affliction that worksout--yea, _works out_ and actually effects the exceeding weight ofglory. We agree not only to what is written, 'It _became_ Him to makethe Author of salvation perfect through suffering, ' but understandsomewhat how Divinely becoming and meet it is that we too should besanctified by suffering. 'He chasteneth us for our profit, that we should be made partakers ofHis holiness. ' Of all the precious words Holy Scripture has for thesorrowful, there is hardly one that leads us more directly and moredeeply into the fulness of blessing that suffering is meant to bring. Itis _His Holiness_, God's own Holiness, we are to be made partakers of. The Epistle had spoken very clearly of our sanctification from itsDivine side, as wrought out for us, and to be wrought in us, by JesusHimself. 'He which sanctifieth and they which are sanctified are all ofone. ' 'We have been sanctified by the one offering of Christ. ' In ourtext we have the other side, the progressive work by which we arepersonally to accept and voluntarily to appropriate this DivineHoliness. In view of all there is in us that is at variance with God'swill, and that must be discovered and broken down, before we understandwhat it is to give up our will and delight in God's; in view of thepersonal fellowship of suffering which alone can lead to the fullappreciation of what Jesus bore and did for us; in view, too, of thefull personal entrance into and satisfaction with the love of God as oursufficient portion; chastisement and suffering are indispensableelements in God's work of making holy. In these three aspects we shallsee how what the Son needed is what we need, how what was of suchunspeakable value to the Son will to us be no less rich in blessing. _Chastisement leads to the acceptance of God's will. _ We have seen howGod's will is our sanctification; how it is in the will of God Christhas sanctified us; yea more, how He found the power to sanctify us insanctifying Himself by the entire surrender of His will to God. His 'Idelight to do Thy will' derived its worth from His continual 'Not mywill. ' And wherever God comes with chastisement or suffering, the veryfirst object He has in view is, to ask and to work in us union with Hisown blessed will, that through it we may have union with Himself andHis love. He comes in some one single point in which His will crossesour most cherished affection or desire, and asks the surrender of whatwe will to what He wills. When this is done willingly and lovingly, Heleads the soul on to see how the claim for the sacrifice in theindividual matter is the assertion of a principle--that in everythingHis will is to be our one desire. Happy the soul to whom affliction isnot a series of single acts of conflict and submission to single acts ofHis will, but an entrance into the school where we prove and approve allthe good and perfect and acceptable will of God. It has sometimes appeared, even to God's children, as if affliction werenot a blessing: it so rouses the evil nature, and calls forth all theopposition of the heart against God's will, that it has brought the lossof the peace and the piety that once appeared to reign. Even in suchcases it is working out God's purpose. 'That He might humble thee, toprove thee, to know what was in thine heart, ' is still His object inleading into the wilderness. To an extent we are not aware of, ourreligion is often selfish and superficial: when we accept the teachingof chastisement in discovering the self-will and love of the world whichstill prevails, we have learnt one of its first and most needfullessons. This lesson has special difficulty when the trial does not come directfrom God, but through men or circumstances. In looking at secondcauses, and in seeking for their removal, in the feeling of indignationor of grief, we often entirely forget to see God's will in everythingHis Providence allows. As long as we do so, the chastisement isfruitless; and perhaps only hardens the more. If, in our study of thepathway of Holiness, there has been awakened in us the desire to acceptand adore, and stand complete in, _all the will_ of God, let us in thevery first place seek to recognise that will in everything that comes onus. The sin of him who vexes us is not God's will. But it is God's willthat we should be in that position of difficulty to be tried and tested. Let our first thought be: this position of difficulty is my Father'swill for me: I accept that will as my place now where He sees it fit totry me. Such acceptance of the trial is the way to turn it intoblessing. It will lead on to an ever clearer abiding in all the will ofGod all the day. _Chastisement leads to the fellowship of God's Son. _ The will of God outof Christ is a law we cannot fulfil. The will of God in Christ is a lifethat fills us. He came in the name of our fallen humanity, and acceptedall God's will as it rested on us, both in the demands of the law, andin the consequences which sin had brought upon man. He gave Himselfentirely to God's will, whatever it cost Him. And so He paved for us away through suffering, not only through it in the sense of past it andout of it, but by means and in virtue of it, into the love and glory ofthe Father. And it is in the power which Christ gives in fellowshipwith Himself that we too can love the way of the Cross, as the best andmost blessed way to the Crown. Scripture says that the will of God isour sanctification, and also that Christ is our Sanctification. It isonly in Christ that we have the power to love and rejoice in the will ofGod. In Him we have the power. He became our Sanctification once for allby delighting to do that will; He becomes our Sanctification in personalexperience, by teaching us to delight to do it. He learned to do it; Hecould not become perfect in doing it otherwise than by suffering. Insuffering He draws nigh; He makes our suffering the fellowship of Hissuffering; and in it makes Himself, who was perfected through suffering, our Sanctification. O ye suffering ones! all ye whom the Father is chastening! come and seeJesus suffering, giving up His will, being made perfect, sanctifyingHimself. _His suffering is the secret of His Holiness, of His Glory, ofHis Life. _ Will you not thank God for anything that can admit you intothe nearer fellowship of your blessed Lord? Shall we not accept everytrial, great or small, as the call of His love to be one with Himself inliving only for God's will. This is Holiness, to be one with Jesus as Hedoes the will of God, to abide in Jesus who was made perfect throughsuffering. _Chastisement leads to the enjoyment of God's love. _ Many a father hasbeen surprised as he made his first experience of how a child, afterbeing punished in love, began to cling to him more tenderly thanbefore. Even so, while to those who live at a distance from theirFather, the misery in this world appears to be the one thing that shakestheir faith in God's Love, it is just through suffering that Hischildren learn to know the Reality of that Love. The chastening is sodistinctly a father's prerogative; it leads so directly to theconfession of its needfulness and its lovingness; it wakens sopowerfully the longing for pardon and comfort and deliverance, that itdoes indeed become, strange though this may seem, one of the surestguides into the deeper experience of the Divine Love. Chastening is theschool in which the blessed lesson is learnt that the will of God is allLove, and that Holiness is the fire of Love, consuming that it maypurify, destroying the dross only that it may assimilate into its ownperfect purity all that yields itself to the wondrous change. 'We know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love:and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God in Him. ' Man'sdestiny is fellowship with God, the fellowship, the mutual indwelling oflove. It is only by faith that this Love of God can be known. And faithcan only grow by exercise, can only thrive in trial: when visible thingsfail, its energy is roused to yield itself to be possessed by theInvisible, by the Divine. Chastisement is the nurse of faith; one of itschosen attendants, to lead deeper into the Love of God. This is the newand living way, the way of the rent flesh in fellowship with Jesusleading up into the Holiest of all. There it is seen how the Justicethat will not spare the child, and the Love that sustains and sanctifiesit, are both one in the Holiness of God. 0 ye chastened saints! who are so specially being led in the way thatgoes through the rent veil of the flesh, you have boldness to enter in. Draw near; come and dwell in the Holiest of all. Make your abode in theHoliest of all: there you are made partakers of _His_ Holiness. Chastisement is bringing your heart into unity with God's Will, God'sSon, God's Love. Abide in God's Will. Abide in God's Son. Abide in God'sLove. Dwell, within the veil, in the Holiest of all. BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Most Holy God! once again I bless Thee for the wondrous revelation ofThy Holiness. Not only have I heard Thee speak, 'I am holy, ' but Thouhast invited me to fellowship with Thyself: 'Be holy, as I am holy. 'Blessed be Thy name! I have heard more even: 'I make holy, ' is Thy wordof promise, pledging Thine own Power to work out the purpose of ThyLove. I do thank Thee for what Thou hast revealed in Thy Son, in ThySpirit, in Thy Word, of the path of Holiness. But how shall I bless Theefor the lesson of this day, that there is not a loss or sorrow, not apain or care, not a temptation or trial, but Thy love also means it, andmakes it, to be a help in working out the holiness of Thy people. Through each Thou drawest to Thyself, that they may taste how, inaccepting Thy Will of Love, there is blessing and deliverance. Blessed Father! Thou knowest how often I have looked upon thecircumstances and the difficulties of this life as hindrances. Oh, letthem all, in the light of Thy holy purpose to make us partakers of ThyHoliness, in the light of Thy Will and Thy Love, from this hour behelps. Let, above all, the path of Thy Blessed Son, proving howsuffering is the discipline of a Father's love, and surrender the secretof holiness, and sacrifice the entrance to the Holiest of all, be sorevealed that in the power of His Spirit and His grace that path maybecome mine. Let even chastening, even the least, be from Thine ownhand, making me partaker of Thy Holiness. Amen. 1. How wonderful the revelation in the Epistle to the Hebrews of the holiness and the holy making power of suffering, as seen in the Son of God! 'He _learned obedience_ by the things which He suffered. ' 'It became God to make the Author of our salvation _perfect_ through suffering, for both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. ' 'In that He Himself hath suffered, He is _able to succour_. ' 'We behold Jesus, because of the suffering of death, _crowned with glory_ and honour. ' Suffering is the way of the rent veil, the new and living way Jesus walked in and opened for us. Let all sufferers study this. Let all who are 'holy in Christ' here learn to know the Christ _in whom_ they are holy, and the way in which He sanctified Himself and sanctifies us. 2. If we begin by realizing the sympathy of Jesus with us in our suffering, it will lead us on to what is more: sympathy with Jesus in His suffering, fellowship with Him to suffer even as He did. 3. Let suffering and holiness be inseparably linked, as in God's mind and in Christ's person, so in your life through the Spirit. 'It became God to make Him perfect through suffering; for both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. ' Let _every trial_, small or great, be the touch of God's hand, laying hold on you, to lead you to holiness. Give yourself into that hand. 4. 'Insomuch as ye are partakers of _Christ's sufferings_, rejoice; for _the Spirit of glory_ and of God resteth on you. ' Thirtieth Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. The Unction from the Holy One. 'And ye have _an anointing from the Holy One_, and ye know all things. And as for you, the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in Him. '--1 John ii. 20, 27. In the revelation by Moses of God's Holiness and His way of making holy, the priests, and specially the high priests, were the chief expressionof God's Holiness in man. In the priests themselves, the holy anointingoil was the one great symbol of the grace that made holy. Moses was tomake an holy anointing oil: 'And thou shalt take of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron and upon his sons, and he shall be hallowed, and his sons with him. ' 'This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me. Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured; neither shall ye make any otherlike it; it is holy, it shall be holy unto you' (Exod. Xxix. 21, xxx. 25-32). With this the priests, and specially the high priests, were tobe anointed and consecrated: 'He that is the high priest among you, uponwhose head the anointing oil was poured, shall not go out of the holyplace, nor profane the holy place of his God; for _the crown of theanointing oil of his God_ is upon him' (Lev. Xxi. 10, 12). And even soit is said of David, as type of the Messiah, 'Our king is _of the HolyOne of Israel_. I have found David, my servant; with my _holy oil_ haveI anointed him. ' We know how the Hebrew name _Messiah_, and the Greek _Christ_, hasreference to this. So, in the passage just quoted, the Hebrew is, 'withmy holy oil I have _messiahed_ him. ' And so in a passage like Acts x. 38: 'Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, whom God _christed_ with the HolyGhost and with power. ' Or Ps. Xlv. : 'God hath _messiahed_ thee with theoil of gladness above thy fellows;' in Heb. I. 9, 'Thy God hath_christed_ thee with the oil of gladness. ' And so (as one of ourReformed Catechisms, the Heidelberg, has it, in answer to the question, Why art thou called a Christian?) we are called Christians, because weare fellow-partakers with Him of His christing, His anointing. This isthe anointing of which John speaks, the chrisma or christing of the HolyOne. The Holy Spirit is the holy anointing which every believerreceives: what God did to His Son to make Him the Christ, He does to meto make me a Christian. 'Ye have the anointing of the Holy One. ' 1. _Ye have an anointing from the Holy One. _ It is as the Holy One thatthe Father gives the anointing: that wherewith He anoints is called theoil of holiness, the Holy Spirit. Holiness is indeed a Divine ointment. Just as there is nothing so subtle and penetrating as the odour withwhich the ointment fills a house, so holiness is an indescribable, all-pervading breath of heavenliness which pervades the man on whom theanointing rests. Holiness does not consist in certain actions: this isrighteousness. Holiness is the unseen and yet manifest presence of theHoly One resting on His anointed. Direct from the Holy One, theanointing is alone received, or rather, only in the abiding fellowshipwith Him in Christ, who is the Holy One of God. And who receives it? Only he who has given himself entirely to be holyas God is holy. It was the priest, who was separated to be holy to theLord, who received the anointing: upon other men's flesh it was not tobe poured. How many would fain have the precious ointment for the sakeof its perfume to themselves! No, only he who is wholly consecrated tothe service of the Holy One, to the work of the sanctuary, may receiveit. If any one had said: I would fain have the anointing, but not bemade a priest; I am not ready to go and always be at the call of sinnersseeking their God, he could have no share in it. Holiness is the energythat only lives to make holy, and to bless in so doing: the anointing ofthe Holy One is for the priest, the servant of God Most High. It is onlyin the intensity of a soul truly roused and given up to God's glory, God's kingdom, God's work, that holiness becomes a reality. The holygarments were only prepared for priests and their service. In all ourseekings after holiness, let us remember this. As we beware of the errorof thinking that work for Christ will make holy, let us also watchagainst the other, the straining after holiness without work. It is thepriest who is set apart for the service of the holy place and the HolyOne, it is the believer who is ready to live and die that the Holinessof God may triumph among men around him, who will receive the anointing. 2. '_The anointing teacheth you. _' The new man is created in_knowledge_, as well as in righteousness and holiness. Christ is made tous _wisdom_, as well as righteousness and sanctification. God's serviceand our holiness are above all to be a free and full, an intelligent andmost willing, approval of His blessed will. And so the anointing, to fitus for the service of the sanctuary, teaches us to know all things. Justas the perfume of the ointment is the most subtle essence, somethingthat has never yet been found or felt, except as it is smelt, so thespiritual faculty which the anointing gives is the most subtle there canbe. It makes 'quick of scent in the fear of the Lord:' it teaches us bya Divine instinct, by which the anointed one recognises what has theheavenly fragrance in it, and what is of earth. It is the anointing thatmakes the Word and the name of Jesus in the Word to be indeed asointment poured forth. The great mark of the anointing is thus, teachableness. It is the greatmark of Christ, the Holy One of God, the Anointed One, that He listens:'I speak not of myself; as I hear, so I speak. ' And so it is of the HolySpirit too: 'He shall not speak out of Himself: whatsoever He shallhear, that shall He speak. ' It cannot be otherwise: one anointed withthe anointing of this Christ, with this Holy Spirit, will be teachable, will listen to be taught. 'The anointing teacheth. ' 'And ye need notthat any one teach you: but the anointing teacheth you concerning allthings. ' 'They shall be all taught of God, ' includes every believer. Thesecret of true holiness is a very direct and personal relation to theHoly One: all the teaching through the word or men made entirelydependent on and subordinate to the personal teaching of the Holy Ghost. The teaching comes through the anointing. Not, in the first place, inthe thoughts or feelings, but in that all-pervading fragrance whichcomes from the fresh oil having penetrated the whole inner man. 3. '_And the anointing abideth in you. _' '_In you. _' In the spirituallife it is of deep importance ever to maintain the harmony between theobjective and the subjective: God in Christ above me, God in the Spiritwithin me. In us, not as in a locality, but _in us_, as one with us, entering into the most secret part of our being, and pervading all, dwelling in our very body, the anointing abideth _in us_, forming partof our very selves. And this just in proportion as we know it and yieldourselves to it, as we wait and are still to let the secret fragrancepermeate our whole being. And this, again, not interruptedly, but as acontinuous and unvarying experience. Above circumstances and feelings, 'the anointing abideth. ' Not, indeed, as a fixed state or as somethingin our own possession; but, according to the law of the new life, in thedependence of faith on the Holy One, and in the fellowship of Jesus. 'Iam anointed with fresh oil, '--this is the objective side; every newmorning the believer waits for the renewal of the Divine gift from theFather. 'The anointing abideth in you, '--this is the subjective side;the holy life, the life of faith and fellowship, the anointing, isalways, from moment to moment, a spiritual reality. The holy anointingoil, always fresh, the anointing abiding always, is the secret ofholiness. 4. '_And even as it taught you, ye abide in Him. _' Here we have againthe Holy Trinity: the Holy One, from whom the holy anointing comes; theHoly Spirit, who is Himself the anointing; and Christ, the Holy One ofGod, in whom the anointing teaches us to abide. In Christ the unseenholiness of God was set before us, and brought nigh: it became human, vested in a human nature, that it might be communicated to us. Within usdwells and works the Holy Spirit, drawing us out to the Christ of God, uniting us in heart and will to Him, revealing Him, forming Him withinus, so that His likeness and mind are embodied in us. It is thus weabide in Christ: the holy anointing of the Holy One teacheth it to us. It is this that is the test of the true anointing: abiding in Christ, asHe meant it, becomes truth in us. Here is the life of holiness as theThrice Holy gives it: the Father, the first, the Holy One, making holy;the Son, the second, His Holy One, in whom we are; the Spirit, thethird, who dwells in us, and through whom we abide in Christ, and Christin us. Thus it is that the Thrice Holy makes us holy. Let us study the Divine anointing. It comes from the Holy One. There isno other like it. It is God's way of making us holy--His holy priests. It is God's way of making us partakers of holiness in Christ. Theanointing, received of Him day by day, abiding in us, teaching us allthings, especially teaching us to abide in Christ, must be on us everyday. Its subtle, all-pervading power must go through our whole life: theodour of the ointment must fill the house. Blessed be God, it can do so!The anointing that abideth makes the abiding in Christ a reality and acertainty; and God Himself, the Holy One, makes the abiding anointing areality and a certainty too. To His Holy Name be the praise! BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. O Thou, who art the Holy One, I come to Thee now for the renewedanointing. O Father! this is the one gift Thy child may most surelycount on--the gift of Thy Holy Spirit. Grant me now to sing, 'Thouanointest my head;' 'I am anointed with fresh oil. ' I desire to confess with deep shame that Thy Spirit has been sorelygrieved and dishonoured. How often the fleshly mind has usurped Hisplace in Thy worship! How much the fleshly will has sought to do Hiswork! O my Father! let Thy light shine through me to convince me verydeeply of this. Let Thy judgment come on all that there is of humanwilling and running. Blessed Father! grant me, according to the riches of Thy glory, even nowto be strengthened with might by Thy Spirit in the inner man. Strengthenmy faith to believe in Christ for a full share in His anointing. Oh, teach me day by day to wait for and receive the anointing with freshoil! O my Father! draw me and all Thy children to see that for the abiding inChrist we need the abiding anointing. Father! we would walk humbly, inthe dependence of faith, counting upon the inner and ever-abidinganointing. May we so be a sweet savour of Christ to all. Amen. 1. I think I know now the reason why at times we fail in the abiding. We think and read, we listen and pray, we try to believe and strive to look to Jesus only, and yet we fail. What was wanting was this: 'His anointing teacheth you; _even as_ it taught you, ye abide in him;' so far, and no farther. 2. The washing always precedes the anointing: we cannot have the anointing if we fail in the cleansing. When cleansed and anointed we are fit for use. 3. Would you have the abiding anointing? Yield yourself wholly to be sanctified and made meet for the Master's use: dwell in the Holiest of all, in God's presence: accept every chastisement as a fellowship in the way of the rent flesh: be sure the anointing will flow in union with Jesus. 'It is like the precious ointment upon the head of Aaron, that went down to the skirts of his garments. ' 4. The anointing is the Divine eye-salve, opening the eyes of the heart to know Jesus. So it teaches to abide in Him. I am sure most Christians have no conception of the danger and deceitfulness of a thought religion, with sweet and precious thoughts coming to us in books and preaching, and little power. The teaching of the Holy Spirit is in the heart first; man's teaching in the mind. Let all our thinking ever lead us to cease from thought, and to open the heart and will to the Spirit to teach there in His own Divine way, deeper than thought and feeling. Unseen, within the veil, the Holy Spirit abideth. Be silent and still, believe and expect, and cling to Jesus. 5. Oh that God would visit His Church, and teach His children what it is to wait for, and receive, and walk in the full anointing, the anointing that abideth and teacheth to abide! Oh that the truth of the personal leading of the Holy Spirit in every believer were restored in the Church! He is doing it; He will do it. Thirty-first Day. HOLY IN CHRIST. Holiness and Heaven. 'Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of men ought ye to be in all _holy_ living and godliness?'--2 Pet. Iii. 11. 'Follow after _the sanctification_ without which no man shall see the Lord. '--Heb. Xii. 14. 'He that is _holy_, let him be made _holy_ still. . . . The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the _holy ones_. Amen. '--Rev. Xxii. 11, 21. O my brother, we are on our way to see God. We have been invited to meetthe Holy One face to face. The infinite mystery of holiness, the gloryof the Invisible God, before which the seraphim veil their faces, is tobe unveiled, to be revealed to us. And that not as a thing we are tolook upon and to study. But we are to see the Thrice Holy One, theLiving God Himself. God, the Holy One, will show Himself to us: we areto see God. Oh, the infinite grace, the inconceivable blessedness! weare to see God. We are to see God, the Holy One. And all our schooling here in the lifeof holiness is simply the preparation for that meeting and that vision. 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ' 'Follow afterthe sanctification, without which no man shall see the Lord. ' Since thetime when God said to Israel, 'Be ye holy, as I am holy, ' Holiness wasrevealed as the only meeting-place between God and His people. To beholy was to be the common ground on which they were to stand with Him;the one attribute in which they were to be like God; the one thing thatwas to prepare them for the glorious time when He would no longer needto keep them away, but would admit them to the full fellowship of Hisglory, to have the word fulfilled in them: 'He that is holy, let him bemade yet more holy. ' In his second epistle, Peter reminds believers that the coming of theday of the Lord is to be preceded and accompanied by the most tremendouscatastrophe--the dissolution of the heavens and the earth. He makes it aplea with them to give diligence that they may be found without spot andblameless in His sight. And he asks them to think and say, under thedeep sense of what the coming of the day of God would be and wouldbring, what the life of those ought to be who look for such things:'What manner of person ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness?'Holiness must be its one, its universal characteristic. At the close ofour meditations on God's call to Holiness, we may take Peter's question, and in the light of all that God has revealed of His Holiness, and allthat waits still to be revealed, ask ourselves, 'What manner of menought we to be in all holy living and godliness?' Note first the meaning of the question. In the original Greek, the wordsliving and godliness are plural. Alford says, '_In holy behaviours andpieties_; the plurals mark the holy behaviour and piety _in all itsforms and examples_. ' Peter would plead for a life of holiness pervadingthe whole man: our behaviours towards men, and our pieties towards God. True holiness cannot be found in anything less. Holiness must be theone, the universal characteristic of our Christian life. In God we haveseen that holiness is the central attribute, the comprehensiveexpression for Divine perfection, the attribute of all the attributes, the all-including epithet by which He Himself, as Redeemer and Father, His Son and His Spirit, His Day, His House, His Law, His Servants, HisPeople, His Name, are marked and known. Always and in everything, inJudgment as in Mercy, in His Exaltation and His Condescension, in HisHiddenness and His Revelation, always and in everything, God is the HolyOne. And the Word would teach us that the reign of Holiness, to be trueand pleasing to God, must be supreme, must be in all holy living andgodliness. There must not be a moment of the day, nor a relation inlife; there must be nothing in the outer conduct, nor in the inmostrecesses of the heart; there must be nothing belonging to us, whetherin worship or in business, that is not holy. The Holiness of Jesus, theHoliness which comes of the Spirit's anointing, must cover and pervadeall. Nothing, nothing may be excluded, if we are to be holy; it must beas Peter said when he spoke of God's call--holy in all manner of living;it must be as he says here--'in all holy living and godliness. ' To usethe significant language of the Holy Spirit: Everything must be done, 'worthily of the holy ones, ' 'as becometh holy ones' (Rom. Xvi. 3; Eph. V. 3). Note, too, the force of the question. Peter says, 'Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things. ' Yes, let us think what thatmeans. We have been studying, down through the course of Revelation, the wondrous grace and patience with which God has made known and madepartaker of His holiness, all in preparation for what is to come. Wehave heard God, the Holy One, calling us, pleading with us, commandingus to be holy, as He is holy. And we expect to meet Him, and to dwellthrough eternity in His Light, holy as He is holy. It is not a dream; itis a living reality; we are looking forward to it, as the only one thingthat makes life worth living. We are looking forward to Love to welcomeus, as with the confidence of childlike love we come as His holy ones tocry, Holy Father! We have learnt to know Jesus, the Holy One of God, our Sanctification. We are living in Him, day by day, as those who are holy in Christ Jesus. We are drawing on His Holiness without ceasing. We are walking in thatwill of God which He did, and which He enables us to do. And we arelooking forward to meet Him with great joy, 'when He shall come to beglorified in the holy ones, and to be admired in all them that believe. 'We have within us the Holy Spirit, the Holiness of God in Christ comedown to be at home within us, as the earnest of our inheritance. He, theSpirit of Holiness, is secretly transforming us within, sanctifying ourspirit, soul, and body, to be blameless at His coming, and making usmeet for the inheritance of the holy ones in light. We are lookingforward to the time when He shall have completed His work, when the bodyof Christ shall be perfected, and the bride, all filled and streamingwith the life and glory of the Spirit within her, shall be set with Himon His throne, even as He sat with the Father on His throne. We hopethrough eternity to worship and adore the mystery of the Thrice HolyOne. Even here it fills our souls with trembling joy and wonder: whenGod's work of making holy is complete, how we shall join in the song, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which wast, and art, and art tocome!' In preparation for all this the most wonderful events are to take place. The Lord Jesus Himself is to appear, the power of sin and the world isto be destroyed; this visible system of things is to be broken up; thepower of the Spirit is to triumph through all creation; there is to be anew heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And holinessis then to be unfolded in ever-growing blessedness and glory in thefellowship of the Thrice Holy: 'He that is holy, let him be holy yetmore. ' Surely it but needs the question to be put for each believer tofeel and acknowledge its force: 'Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye lookfor these things, what manner of men ought ye to be in all holy livingand godliness?' And note now the need and the point of the question. 'What manner ofpersons ought ye to be?' But is such a question needed? Can it be thatGod's holy ones, made holy in Christ Jesus, with the very spirit ofholiness dwelling with them, on the way to meet the Holy One in HisGlory and Love, can it be that they need the question? Alas! alas! itwas so in the time of Peter; it is but too much so in our days too. Alas! how many Christians there are to whom the very word Holy, thoughit be the name by which the Father, in His New Testament, loves to callHis children more than any other, is strange and unintelligible. Andagain, alas! for how many Christians there are for whom, when the wordis heard, it has but little attraction, because it has never yet beenshown to them as a life that is indeed possible, and unutterablyblessed. And yet again, alas! for how many are there not, even workersin the Master's service, to whom the 'all holy living and godliness' isyet a secret and a burden, because they have not yet consented to giveup all, both their will and their work, for the Holy One to take andfill with His Holy Spirit. And yet once more, alas! as the cry comes, even from those who do know the power of a holy life, lamenting theirunfaithfulness and unbelief, as they see how much richer their entranceinto the Holy Life might have been, and how much fuller the blessingthey still feel so feeble to communicate to others. Oh, the question isneeded! Shall not each of us take it, and keep it, and answer it by theHoly Spirit through whom it came, and then pass it on to our brethren, that we and they may help each other in faith, and live in joy and hopeto give the answer our God would have? 'Seeing that these things are, then, all to be dissolved, what manner ofpersons ought we to be in all holy living and godliness?' Brethren! thetime is short. The world is passing away. The heathen are perishing. Christians are sleeping. Satan is active and mighty. God's holy ones arethe hope of the Church and the world. It is they their Lord can use. 'What manner of persons shall we be in all holy living and godliness!'Shall we not seek to be such as the Father commands, 'Holy, as He isholy'? Shall we not yield ourselves afresh and undividedly to Him who isour Sanctification, and to His Blessed Spirit, to make us holy in allbehaviours and pieties? Oh! shall we not, in thought of the love of ourLord Jesus, in thought of the coming glory, in view of the coming end, of the need of the Church and the world, give ourselves to be holy as Heis holy, that we may have power to bless each believer we meet with themessage of what God will do, and that in concert with them we may be alight and a blessing to this perishing world? I close with the closing words of God's Blessed Book, 'He whichtestifieth these things saith, Yea, I come quickly. Amen: Come, LordJesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the holy ones. Amen. ' BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY. Most Holy God! who hast called us to be holy, we have heard Thy voiceasking, What manner of persons we ought to be in all holy living andgodliness? With our whole soul we answer in deep contrition andhumility: Holy Father! we ought to be so different from what we havebeen. In faith and love, in zeal and devotion, in Christlike humilityand holiness, O Father! we have not been, before Thee and the world, what we ought to be, what we could be. Holy Father! we now pray for allwho unite with us in this prayer, and implore of Thee to grant a greatrevival of True Holiness in us and in all Thy Church. Visit, we beseechThee, visit all ministers of Thy word, that in view of Thy coming theymay take up and sound abroad the question, What manner of persons oughtye to be? Lay upon them, and all Thy people, such a burden undersurrounding unholiness and worldliness, that they may not cease to cryto Thee. Grant them such a vision of the highway of holiness, the newand living way in Christ, that they may preach Christ our Sanctificationin the power and the joy of the Holy Ghost, with the confident andtriumphant voice of witnesses who rejoice in what Thou dost for them. O God! roll away the reproach of Thy people, that their profession doesnot make them humbler or holier, more loving, and more heavenly thanothers. O Holy God! give Thou Thyself the answer to Thy question, and teach usand the world what manner of persons Thy people can be, in the day ofThy power, in the beauty of holiness. We bow our knee to Thee, O Father, that Thou wouldst grant us, according to the riches of Thy glory, to bemightily strengthened in the inner man by the Spirit of Holiness. Amen. 1. What manner of men ought ye to be in all the holy living? This is a question God has written down for us. Might it not help us if we were to write down the answer, and say how holy we think we ought to be? The clearer and more distinct our views are of what God wishes, of what He has made possible, of what in reality _ought_ to be, the more definite our acts of confession, of surrender, and of faith can become. 2. Let every believer, who longs to be holy, join in the daily prayer that God would visit His people with a great outpouring of the Spirit of Holiness. Pray without ceasing that every believer may live as a holy one. 3. 'Seeing that _ye look for_ these things. ' Our life depends, in more than one sense, upon what we look at. 'We look not at the things which are seen. ' It is only as we look at the Invisible and Spiritual, and come under its power, that we shall be what we ought to be in all holy living and godliness. 4. _Holy in Christ. _ Let this be our parting word. However strong the branch becomes, however far away it reaches round the home, out of sight of the vine, all its beauty and all its fruitfulness ever depend upon that one point of contact where it grows out of the vine. So be it with us too. All the outer circumference of my life has its centre in the ego--the living, conscious I myself, in which my being roots. And this I is rooted in Christ. Down in the depths of my inner life, there is Christ holding, bearing, guiding, quickening me into holiness and fruitfulness. In Him I am, In Him I will abide. His will and commands will I keep; His Love and Power will I trust. And I will daily seek to praise God that I am Holy in Christ. NOTES. NOTE A. Holiness as Proprietorship. In a little book--_Holiness, as understood by the Writers of the Bible;A Bible Study by Joseph Agar Beet_--the thought that by Holiness ismeant our relation to God, and the claim He has upon us, has been verycarefully worked out. Holy ground was such because 'it stood in _specialrelation_ to Himself. ' The first-born 'were to stand _in a specialrelation to God as His property_. ' So with the entire nation; when Goddeclares that they shall be holy, He means 'that they shall render toHim the devotion He requires. ' 'All holy objects stand in a specialrelation to God as His property. ' The priests are said to sanctifythemselves; they did this 'by formally placing themselves at God'sdisposal, or by separating themselves from whatever was inconsistentwith the service of God. ' 'When God declares He is holy, the word mustrepresent the same idea in the hundreds of passages in which it ispredicated of men and things. ' 'Holiness is _God's claim to theownership_ of men and things; and the objects claimed were called holy. Now, _God's claim_ was a new and wondrous revelation of His nature. ToAaron God was now the Great Being who had claimed from him a lifelongand exclusive service. _This claim_ was a new era, not only in hiseveryday life, but in his conception of God. Consequently the word_holy_, which expressed _Aaron's relation to God_, was suitably used toexpress _God's relation to Aaron_. In other words, to Aaron and IsraelGod was holy in the sense that He claimed the exclusive ownership of theentire nation. When men yielded to God the devotion He claimed, theywere said to sanctify God. ' 'Jehovah and Israel stood in specialrelation to each other; therefore Jehovah was _the Holy One of Israel_, and Israel was _Holy to Jehovah_. This mutual relation rested upon God'sclaim that Israel should specially be His; and this claim implied thatin a special manner He would belong to Israel. This claim was amanifestation of the nature of God. ' 'The peculiar relation arises fromGod's own claim, in consequence of which they stand in a new and solemnrelation to Him. This may be called objective holiness. This is the mostcommon sense of the word. In this sense God sanctified these objects forHimself. But since some of these objects were intelligent beings, andthe others were in control of such, the word sanctify denotes theseones' formal surrender of themselves and their possessions to God. Thismay be called subjective holiness. From the word holy predicated of God, we learn that God's claim was not merely occasional, but an outflow ofHis Essence. As the one Being who claims unlimited and absoluteownership and supreme devotion, God is the Holy One. ' In the New Testament the Spirit of God claims the epithet holy 'as beingin a very special manner the source and influence of which God is theone and only aim. ' Here 'our conception of the holiness of God increaseswith our increasing perception of the greatness of His claim upon us, and that this claim springs from the very essence of God. In theincarnate Son of God we see the full development and realization of theBiblical idea of holiness. We find Him standing in a special relation toGod, and living a life of which the one and only aim is to advance thepurposes of God. ' We see in Him 'holiness in its highest degree, _i. E. _the highest conceivable devotion to God and to the advancement of Hiskingdom. ' 'In virtue of His intelligent, hearty, continuedappropriation of the Father's purpose, and in virtue of its realizationin all the details of the Saviour's life, He was called _the Holy One ofGod_. ' 'The word _saint_ is very appropriate as a designation of the followersof Christ; for it declares what God requires them to be. By calling Hispeople _saints_, God declares His will that we live a life of which Heis the one and only aim. This is the objective holiness of the Church ofChrist. In some passages holiness is set before the people of God as astandard for their attainment. In these passages _holy_ denotes arealization in man of God's purpose that he live a life of which God isthe one and only aim. This is the subjective holiness of God's people. 'Holiness is God's claim that His creatures use all their powers andopportunities to work out His purposes. Holiness, thus understood, is anattribute of God. For His claim springs from His nature, even from thatlove which is the very essence of God. His love to us moves Him to claimour devotion; for only by absolute devotion to Him can we attain ourhighest happiness. ' 'Though without purity we cannot be subjectively holy, yet holiness ismuch more than purity. Purity is a mere negative excellence; holinessimplies the most intense mental and bodily activity of which we arecapable. For it is the employment of all our powers and opportunities toadvance God's purposes. ' The question 'How we become holy, ' is answered thus: 'Our devotion toGod is a result of inward spiritual contact with Him who once lived ahuman life on earth, and now lives a glorified human life on the throne, simply and only to work out the Father's purposes. We live for Godbecause Christ does so, and because Christ lives in us, and we in Him:the Spirit of Christ is the Agent of the spiritual contact with Christwhich imparts to us His life, and reproduces in us His life. He is thebearer of the power as well as of the holiness of Christ. ' 'That God claims from His people unreserved devotion to Himself, andthat what He claims He works in all who believe it, by His own poweroperating through the inward presence of the Holy Spirit, placing us inspiritual contact with Christ, is the great doctrine of sanctificationby faith. ' The same view, that holiness is a relation, had previously been workedout very elaborately by Diestel. In what has been said on redemption andproprietorship as related to holiness (see 'Sixth Day'), we have seenwhat truth there is in the thought. But holiness is something more. Whatis holy is not only God-devoted, but God-accepted, God-appropriated, God-possessed. God not only possesses the heart, but absolutely occupiesand fills it with His life. It is this makes it holy. However much truth there be in the above exposition, it hardly meets ourdesire for an insight into what is one of the highest attributes of thevery Being of God. When the seraphs worship Him as the Holy One, and intheir Thrice Holy reflect something of the deepest mystery of Godhead, it surely means more than merely the expression of God's claim asSovereign Proprietor of all. The mistake appears to originate in taking first the meaning of the word_holy_ from earthly objects, and then from that deducing that holinessin God cannot mean more than it does when applied to men. The Scripturespoint to the opposite way. When Old and New Testaments say, 'Be ye holy, for I am holy, I make holy, ' they point to God's Holiness as the first, both the reason and the source of ours. We ought first to discover whatholiness in God is. When we read at creation of God's _sanctifying_ theSabbath day, we have to do, not with a thought or word of Moses as towhat God had done, but with a Divine revelation of a Power in Godgreater and more wonderful than creation, the Power which is later onrevealed as the deepest mystery of the Divine Being. This Holiness in God, as it appears to me, cannot be a mere relation. To indicate a relation, tells me nothing positively about the personalcharacter or worth of the related parties. To say that when Godsanctifies men He claims them as His own, does not say what the natureis of the work He does for them and in them, or what the Power by whichHe does it. And yet that word ought to reveal to me what it is that Godbestows. To say that that claim has its root in His very nature, and inHis love, and that holiness is therefore an attribute, makes it anattribute, not like love or wisdom, immanent in the Divine Being, erecreatures were, but simply an effect of Love, moving God to claim Hiscreatures as His special possession. We should then have no attributeexpressive of God's moral perfection. Nor would the word holy of the Sonand the Spirit any longer indicate that deep and mysteriouscommunication of the very nature and life of God in which sanctificationhas its glory. In the Divine holiness we have the highest andinconceivably glorious revelation of the very essence of the DivineBeing; in the holiness of the saints the deepest revelation of thechange by which their inmost nature is renewed into the likeness of God. NOTE B. On the Word for Holiness. The proper meaning of the Hebrew word for holy, _kadosh_, is matter ofuncertainty. It may come from a root signifying to shine. (So Gesenius, Oehler, Fürst, and formerly Delitzsch, on Heb. Ii. 11. ) Or from anotherdenoting new and bright (Diestel), or an Arabic form meaning to cut, toseparate. (So Delitzsch now, on Ps. Xxii. 4. ) Whatever the root be, thechief idea appears to be not only separate or set apart, for which theHebrew has entirely different words, but that by which a thing that isseparated from others for its worth is distinguished above them. Itindicates not only separation as an act or fact, but the superiority orexcellence in virtue of which, either as already possessed or soughtafter, the separation takes place. In his _Lexicon of New Testament Greek_, Cremer has an exhaustivearticle on the Greek _hagios_, pointing out how holiness is an entirelyBiblical idea, and 'how the scriptural conceptions of God's Holiness, notwithstanding the original affinity, is diametrically opposite to allthe Greek notions; and how, whereas these very views of holiness excludefrom the gods all possibility of love, the scriptural conception ofholiness unfolds itself only when in closest connection with Divinelove. ' It is a most suggestive thought that we owe both the word and thethought distinctly to revelation. Every other attribute of God has somenotion to correspond with it in the human mind: the thought of holinessis distinctly Divine. Is not this the reason that, though God has sodistinctly in the New Testament called His people holy ones, the word_holy_ has so little entered into the daily language and life of theChristian Church? NOTE C. The Holiness of God. There is not a word so exclusively scriptural, so distinctly Divine, asthe word holy in its revelation and its meaning. As a consequence ofthis its Divine origin, it is a word of inexhaustible significance. There is not one of the attributes of God which theologians have foundit so difficult to define, or concerning which they differ so much. Ashort survey of the various views that have been taken may teach us howlittle the idea of the Divine Holiness can be comprehended or exhaustedby human definition, and how it is only in the life of fellowship andadoration that the holiness which passes all understanding can, as atruth and a reality, be apprehended. 1. The most external view, in which the ethical was very much lost sightof, is that in which holiness is identified with God's Separateness fromthe creation, and elevation above it. Holiness was defined as theincomparable Glory of God, His exclusive adorableness, His infiniteMajesty. Sufficient attention was not paid to the fact that though allthese thoughts are closely connected with God's Holiness, they are but aformal definition of the results and surroundings of the Holiness, butdo not lead us to the apprehension of that wherein its real essenceconsists. 2. Another view, which also commences from the external, and makes thatthe basis of its interpretation, regards holiness simply as theexpression of a relation. Because what was set apart for God's servicewas called holy, the idea of separation, of consecration, of ownership, is taken as the starting-point. And so, because we are said to be holy, as belonging to God, God is holy as claiming us and belonging to us too. Instead of regarding holiness as a positive reality in the Divinenature, from which our holiness is to be derived, our holiness is madethe starting-point for expounding the Holiness of God. 'God is holy asbeing, within the covenant, not only the Proprietor, but the Property ofHis people, their highest good and their only rule' (Diestel). Of thisview mention has already been made in the note to 'Sixth Day, ' onHoliness as Proprietorship. 3. Passing over to the views of those who regard holiness as being amoral attribute, the most common one is that of purity, freedom fromsin. 'Holiness is a general term for the moral excellence of God. Thereis none holy as the Lord: no other being absolutely pure and free fromall limitations in His moral perfection. Holiness, on the one hand, implies entire freedom from moral evil; and, upon the other, absolutemoral perfection. ' (Hodge, _Syst. Theol. _) The idea of holiness as theinfinite Purity which is free from all sin, which hates and punishesit, is what in the popular conception is the most prominent idea. Thenegative stands more in the foreground than the positive. The view hasits truth and its value from the fact that in our sinful state the firstimpression the Holiness of God must make is that of fear and dread inthe consciousness of our sinfulness and unholiness. But it does not tellus wherein this moral excellence or perfection of God really consists. 4. It is an advance on this view when the attempt is made to define whatthis perfection of God is. A thing is perfect when it is in everythingas it ought to be. It is easy thus to define perfection, but not so easyto define what the perfection of any special object is: this needs theknowledge of what its nature is. And we have to rest content with verygeneral terms defining God's Holiness as the essential and absolutegood. 'Holiness is the free, deliberate, calm, and immutable affirmationof Himself, who is goodness, or of goodness, which is Himself' (Godet_on John_ xvii. 11). 'Holiness is that attribute in virtue of whichJehovah makes Himself the absolute standard of Himself, of His being andrevelation. ' (Kubel. ) 5. Closely allied to this is the view that holiness is not so much anattribute, but the 'whole complex of that which we are wont to look atand represent singly in the individual attributes of God. ' So Bengellooked upon holiness as the Divine nature, in which all the attributesare contained. In the same spirit what Howe says of holiness as theDivine beauty, the result of the perfect harmony of all the attributes, 'Holiness is intellectual beauty. Divine holiness is the most perfectbeauty, and the measure of all other. The Divine Holiness is the mostperfect pulchritude, the ineffable and immortal pulchritude, that cannotbe declared by words, or seen by eyes. This may therefore be called atranscendental attribute that, as it were, runs through the rest, andcasts a glory upon every one. It is an attribute of attributes. Theseare fit predications, _holy_ power, _holy_ love. And so it is the verylustre and glory of His other perfections. He is glorious in holiness. '(Howe in _Whyte's Shorter Catechism_. ) This was the aspect of the DivineHoliness on which Jonathan Edwards delighted to dwell. 'The mutual loveof the Father and the Son makes the third, the personal Holy Spirit, orthe Holiness of God, which is His infinite beauty. ' 'By thecommunication of God's Holiness the creature partakes of God's moralexcellence, which is perfection, the beauty of the Divine nature. ''Holiness comprehends all the true moral excellence of intelligentbeings. So the Holiness of God is the same with the moral excellency ofthe Divine nature, comprehending all His perfections, His righteousness, faithfulness, and goodness. There are two kinds of attributes in God, according to our way of conceiving Him: His _moral_ attributes, whichare summed up in His Holiness, and His _natural_, as strength, knowledge, etc. , which constitute His greatness. Holy persons, in theexercise of holy affection, love God in the first place for the beautyof His Holiness. ' 'The holiness of an intelligent creature is that whichgives beauty to all his natural perfections. And so it is in God:holiness is in a peculiar manner the beauty of the Divine being. Hencewe often read of the beauty of holiness (Ps. Xxix. 2, xcvi. 9, cx. 3). This renders all the other attributes glorious and lovely. ' 'Therefore, if the true loveliness of God's perfections arise from the loveliness ofHis Holiness, the true love of all His perfections will arise from thelove of His Holiness. And as the beauty of the Divine nature primarilyconsists in God's Holiness, so does the beauty of all Divine things. ' 6. In speaking of God's Holiness as denoting the essential good, theabsolute excellence of His nature, some press very strongly the_ethical_ aspect. The good in God must not be from mere natural impulseonly, flowing from the necessity of His nature, without being freelywilled by Himself. 'What is naturally good is not the true realizationof the good. The actual and living will to be the good He is, must alsohave its place in God, otherwise God would only be naturally ethical. Only in the will which consciously determines itself, is there thepossibility given of the ethical. The ethical has such a power in Godthat He is the holy Power, who cannot and will not renounce Himself, whomust be, and would be thought to be, the holy necessity of the goodnesswhich is Himself, --to be the Holy. The love of God is essentially holy;it desires and preserves the ethically necessary or holy, which God is. '(Dorner, _System_, vol. I. ) 7. It was felt in such views that there was not a sufficientacknowledgment of the truth that it is especially as the Holy One thatGod is called the Redeemer, and that He does the work of love to makeholy. This led to the view that holiness and love are, if not identical, at least correlated expressions. 'God is holy, exalted above all thepraise of the creature in His incomparable praise-worthiness, on accountof His free and loving condescension to the creature, to manifest in itthe glory of His love. ' 'God is holy, inasmuch as love in Him hasrestrained and conquered the righteous wrath (as Hosea says, xi. 9), andjudgment is exercised only after every way of mercy has been tried. Thisholiness is disclosed in the New Testament name, as exalted as it iscondescending, of Father. ' (Stier _on John_ xvii. ) 8. The large measure of truth in this view is met by an expression inwhich the true aspects of the Holiness of God are combined. It isdefined as being the harmony of self-preservation andself-communication. As the Holy One, God hates sin, and seeks to destroyit. As the Holy One, He makes the sinner holy, and then takes him upinto His love. In maintaining His love, He never for a moment loses HisDivine purity and perfection; in maintaining His righteousness, He stillcommunicates Himself to the fallen creature. Holiness is the Divineglory, of which love and righteousness are the two sides, and which intheir work on earth they reveal. 'Holiness is the self-preservation of God, whereby He keeps Himselffree from the world without Him, and remains consistent with Himself andfaithful to His Being, and whereby He, with this view, creates a Divineworld that lives for Himself alone in the organization of His Church. '(Lange. ) 'The Holiness of God is God's self-preservation, or keeping to Himself, in virtue of which He remains the same in all relationships which existwithin His Deity, or into which He enters, never sacrifices what isDivine, or admits what is not Divine. But this is only one aspect. God'sHoliness would not be holiness, but exclusiveness, if it did not providefor God's entering into manifold relations, and so revealing andcommunicating Himself. Holiness is therefore the union andinterpretation of God's keeping to Himself and communicating Himself; ofHis nearness and His distance; of His exclusiveness and Hisself-revelation; of separateness and fellowship. ' (Schmieder. ) 'The Divine Holiness is mainly seclusion from the impurity andsinfulness of the creature, or, expressed positively, the cleanness andpurity of the Divine nature, which excludes all connection with thewicked. In harmony with this, the Divine Holiness, as an attribute ofrevelation, is not merely an abstract power, but is the Divineself-representation and self-testimony for the purpose of giving to theworld the participation in the Divine life. ' (Oehler, _Theol. Of O. T. _i. 160. ) 'Opposition to sin is the first impression which man receives of God'sHoliness. Exclusion, election, cleansing, redemption--these are the fourforms in which God's Holiness appears in the sphere of humanity; and wemay say that God's Holiness signifies _His opposition to sin manifestingitself in atonement and redemption, or in judgment_. Or as holiness, sofar as it is embodied in law, must be the highest moral perfection, wemay say, "_holiness is the purity of God manifesting itself in atonementand redemption, and correspondingly in judgment_. " By this view all theabove elements are done justice to; holiness asserts itself in judgingrighteousness, and in electing, purifying, and redeeming love, and thusit appears as the impelling and formative principle of the revelation ofredemption, without a knowledge of which an understanding of therevelation is impossible, and by the perception of which it is seen inits full, clear light. God is light: this is a full and exhaustive NewTestament phrase for God's Holiness' (1 John i. 5). (Cremer. ) This view is brought out with special distinctness in the writings of J. T. Beck. 'It is God's Holiness which, taking the good which was given increation in strict faithfulness to that good and perfect will of God, asthe eternal life-purpose of love, in righteousness and mercy carried outto its completion in God Himself to a life of perfection. God does thisas the Alone Holy. In the world of sin Divine _love_ can only bringdeliverance by a mediation in which it is reconciled to the Divine_wrath_ within _their common centre, the Holiness of God_, in such a waythat while wrath manifests its destroying reality, love shall prove itsrestoring power in the life it gives. ' (Beck, _Lehrwissenschaft_, 168, 547. ) 'Holiness is the sum and substance of the Divine life, as, in comparisonwith all that is created, it exists as a perfect life, but as it, at thesame time, opens itself to the creature to take it up into a Godlikeperfection--that is, to be holy as God is holy. Holiness is thus so farfrom being in opposition to the Divine love that it is its essentialfeature or norm, and the actual contents of love. In holiness there iscombined the Divine self-existence as a perfection of life, and theDivine self-exertion in the realizing a Godlike perfection of life inthe world. Holiness as an attribute of the Divine Being is His pure andinviolably self-contained personality in its absolute perfection. Henceit is that in holiness, as the absolute unity and purity of the DivineBeing and working, all the attributes of Divine revelation centre. Andso holiness, as expressive of the Being of God, qualifies the love asessentially Divine. 'Love is the groundform of the Divine will, but as such it receives itsDivine filling and character from the Divine Holiness, as the Divineself-existence and self-exertion. As such the Divine will manifestsitself in two modes--in its pure love as _Goodness_, in its holy harmonyas _Righteousness_. These two do not exist separately, but permeate eachother in reciprocal immanence, just as God in His Holiness is love, andin His love is holiness. In goodness the Divine love shows itself as thepleasure in well-being. But in this goodness the righteousness of God, to secure the well-doing, also acts. ' (J. T. Beck, _Glaubenslehre_. ) 'God is holy, separate from all darkness and sin, but not in isolatedmajesty banishing the imperfect and the sinful from His presence: forGod is light, God is love. It is the nature of light to communicateitself. Remaining pure and bright, undiminished and unsullied, itovercomes darkness and kindles light. The Holiness of God is likewisementioned in Scripture, mostly in connection with love, communicatingitself and drawing into itself. "I am holy"--but God does not remainalone, separate--"be ye also holy. "' (Saphir _on Hebrews_ xii. ) 'When we think of God as light and love, we realize most fully the ideaof holiness, combining _separateness_ and _purity_ with _communion_. '(Saphir, _The Lord's Prayer_, p. 128. ) 'It is especially as the spirit of His Church, and as dwelling in thehuman heart, that God is the Holy One. ' (Nitsch. ) That in the Holiness of God we have the union of love and righteousness, has been perhaps put by no one more clearly than Godet. In his_Commentary on Romans_ iii. 25, 26, he writes:-- 'The necessity of the expiatory sacrifice arises from His whole Divinecharacter; in other words, from His Holiness, the principle at once ofHis love and righteousness, and not of His righteousness exclusively. ' 'In this question we have to do not with God in His essence, but withGod in His relation to free man. Now the latter is not holy to beginwith; the use which he makes of his liberty is not yet regulated bylove. The attribute of righteousness, and the firm resolution tomaintain the Divine _holiness_, must therefore appear as a necessarysafeguard as soon as liberty comes on the stage, and with it thepossibility of disorder; and this attribute must remain in exercise aslong as the educational period of the creature lasts--that is to say, until he has reached perfection in love. Then all these factors--right, law, justice--will return to their latent state. . . . 'It is common to regard _love_ as the fundamental feature of the Divinecharacter; in this way it is very difficult to reach the attribute ofrighteousness. Most thinkers, indeed, do not reach it at all. This onefact should show the error in which they are entangled. _Holy, holy, holy_, say the creatures nearest to God, and not _Good, good, good_. Holiness, such is the essence of God; and holiness is the absolute loveof the good, the absolute horror of the evil. From this it is notdifficult to deduce both love and righteousness. Love is the goodwill ofGod toward all free beings who are destined to realize the good. Lovegoes out to the individuals, as holiness itself to the good which theyought to produce. Righteousness, on the other hand, is the firm purposeof God to maintain the normal relations between all these creatures byHis blessings and punishments. It is obvious that righteousness isincluded, no less than love itself, in the fundamental feature of theDivine character, holiness. It is no offence, therefore, by God to speakof His justice and His rights. It is, on the contrary, a glory to God, who knows that in preserving His place He is securing the good ofothers. For God, in maintaining His supreme dignity, preserves to Hiscreatures _their most precious treasure_, a God worthy of their respectand love. ' And in his _Defence of the Christian Faith_ Godet writes, on 'ThePerfect Holiness of Jesus Christ, ' as follows:-- 'The supernatural in its highest form is not the miraculous, it isholiness. In the miraculous we see Omnipotence breaking forth to actupon the material world in the interests of the moral order. Butholiness is morality itself in its sublimest manifestation. What isgoodness? It has recently been said, with a precision which leavesnothing to be desired, Goodness is not an entity--a thing. It is a lawdetermining the relations between things, relations which have to berealized by free wills. Perfect good is therefore the realization, atonce normal and free, of the right relations to one another of allbeings; each being occupying, by virtue of this relation, that place inthe great whole, and playing that part in it, which befits it. 'Now, just as in a human family there is one central relation on whichall the rest depend, --that of the father to all the members of thislittle whole, --so is there in the universe one supreme position, whichis the support of all the rest, and which, in the interest of allbeings, must be above all others preserved intact--that of God. And justhere, in the general sphere of good, is the special domain of holiness. Holiness in God Himself is His fixed determination to maintain intactthe order which ought to reign among all beings that exist, and to bringthem to realize that relation to each other which ought to bind themtogether in a great unity, and consequently to preserve, above all, intact and in its proper dignity, His own position relatively to freebeings. The Holiness of God thus understood comprehends two things--theimportation of all the wealth of His own Divine life to each free beingwho is willing to acknowledge His sovereignty, and who sincerelyacquiesces in it; and the withholding or the withdrawal of that perfectlife from every being who either attacks or denies that sovereignty, andwho seeks to shake off that bond of dependence by which he ought to bebound to God. Holiness in the creature is its own voluntary acquiescencein the supremacy of God. The man who, with all the powers of his nature, does homage to God as the Supreme, the absolute Being, the only One whoveritably is; the man who, in His presence, voluntarily prostrateshimself in the sense of his own nothingness, and seeks to draw all hisfellow-creatures into the same voluntary self-annihilation, in so doingputs on the character of holiness. This holiness comprehends in him, asit does in God, love and righteousness; love by which he rejoices inrecognising God, and all beings who surround God, as placed where theyare by Him. He loves them and wills their existence, because he lovesand wills the existence of God, and at the same time of all that Godwills and loves; and righteousness, by which he respects and, as much asin him lies, causes others to respect God, and the sphere assigned byGod to each being. Such is holiness as it exists in God and in man: inGod it is His own inflexible self-assertion; in man it is his inflexibleassertion of God. 'It is in Jesus that human nature sees how man can assert God and allthat God asserts, not only humbly, but joyously and filially, with allthe powers of his being, and even to the complete sacrifice of_himself_. ' Careful reflection will show us that in each of the above views there isa measure of truth. It will convince us how the very difficulty offormulating to human thought the conception of the Divine Holinessproves that it is the highest expression for that ineffable andinconceivable glory of the Divine Being which constitutes Him theInfinite and Glorious God. Every attribute of God--wisdom and power, righteousness and love--has its image in human nature, and was in thereligion or the philosophy of the heathen connected with the idea ofGod. From ourselves, when we take away the idea of imperfection, we canform some conception of what God is. But holiness is that which ischaracteristically Divine, the special contents of a Divine revelation. Let us learn to confess that however much we may seek, now from one, then from another side, to grasp the thought, the holiness of God issomething that transcends all thought, a glory not so much to bethought, as to be known, in adoration and fellowship. Scripture speaksnot so much of holiness, as the Holy One. It is as we worship and fear, obey and love; it is in a life with God, that something of the mysteryof His glory will be unfolded. As the Divine light shines in us andthrough us, will the Holy One be revealed. NOTE D. 'Our holiness does not consist in our changing and becoming betterourselves: it is rather _He_, He Himself, born and growing in us, insuch a way as to fill our hearts, and to drive out our natural self, "our old man, " which cannot itself improve, and whose destiny is only toperish. 'And how is this kind of incarnation effected, by which Christ Himselfbecomes our new self? By a process of a free and moral nature, describedby Jesus in words which surprise, because they place His sanctificationupon nearly the same footing as our own: "As the living Father hath sentme, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me shall live by me. " 'Jesus derived the nourishment of His life from the Father who had sentHim: He lived by the Father. The meaning of that, doubtless, is, thatevery time He had to act or speak, He first effaced Himself; then leftit to the Father to think, to will, to act, to be everything in Him. Similarly, when we are called upon to do any act, or speak any word, wemust first efface ourselves in presence of Jesus; and after havingsuppressed in ourselves, by an act of the will, every wish, everythought, every act of our own self, we are to leave it to Jesus tomanifest in us His will, His wisdom, His power. Then it is that we liveby Him, as He lives by the Father. The process is identical in Jesus andin us. Only in Jesus it was carried on with God directly, because He wasin immediate communion with Him; whilst in our case the transaction iswith Jesus, because it is with Him that the believer holds directcommunication, and through Him that we can find and possess the livingFather. In that lies _the secret_, generally so little understood, _ofChristian sanctification_. ' (Godet, _Biblical Studies, N. T. _, p. 190. ) NOTE E. Let me once more refer all students of holiness to Marshall onSanctification, and specially his third and fourth chapters. If theywill compare him with our modern works--say, for instance, _God's Way ofHoliness_, by so eminent an author as Dr. H. Bonar--they cannot but bestruck by the prominence which Marshall gives to the one thought, thatour holiness, a holy nature, is provided in Jesus, and that as faithaccepts and maintains our union with Jesus in personal intercourse, sanctification is by faith. While, in other works, the union to Jesus, and faith in Him, are but incidentally mentioned, and the chief stressis laid upon duties and the motives which urge to their performance, Marshall points out how motives never can supply the strength we need:it is the power of Christ's life in us, it is Christ Himself, as we byfaith are rooted in Him, who works all our works in us. An abridgment of the work, for popular use, is published by Nisbet & Co. NOTE F. Note from Bengel on Rom. I. 4. '_According to the Spirit of Holiness. _ The word _hagios_, holy, whenGod is spoken of, not only denotes the blameless rectitude in action, but the very Godhead, or to speak more properly, the _divinity_, orexcellence of the Divine nature. Hence _hagiosune_ (the word here used)has a kind of middle sense between _hagiotes_, holiness, and_hagiasmos_, sanctification. Comp. Heb. Xii. 10 (_hagiotes_ orholiness), v. 14 (_hagiasmos_ or sanctification). So that there are, asit were, three degrees: _sanctification_, _sanctity of life_, _holiness_. Holiness is ascribed to the Father, the Son, and the HolyGhost. And since here the Holy Spirit is not mentioned, but the spiritof holiness (prop. Sanctity, _hagiosune_), we must further inquire whatthis remarkable expression denotes. The name spirit is expressly andvery frequently given to the Holy Spirit; but God is also called aspirit; and the Lord Jesus Christ is called a spirit, but in contrast tothe latter. (2 Cor. Iii. 17. ) With this we must compare the fact that, as in this passage, so often the antithesis of flesh and spirit is foundwhere Christ is spoken of. (1 Tim. Iii. 16; 1 Pet. Iii. 18. ) In thesepassages the Spirit is applied to whatever belongs to Christ (apart fromthe flesh, although this was pure and holy, and above the flesh), through His generation of the Father, who sanctified Him: in short, HisGodhead itself. For here, _flesh_ and _spirit_, and chap. Ix. 5, _flesh_and _Godhead_, stand in mutual contrast. This spirit is here called notthe spirit of holiness, the usual title of the Holy Spirit; but it iscalled in this passage _the spirit of sanctity_, to suggest at once theefficacy of that holiness or divinity, which led of necessity to theSaviour's resurrection, and by which it was most forcibly illustrated, and also that spiritual and holy, or Divine power of Jesus who has beenglorified and yet retained a spiritual body. Before the resurrection thespirit was concealed under the flesh; after the resurrection the spiritof sanctity concealed the flesh. In reference to the former, He was wontto call Himself the Son of man; in reference to the latter, He is knownas the Son of God. ' Beck, in his _Lehrwissenschaft_, p. 604, puts it very clearly, thus-- 'Inasmuch as the innocence and purity of Christ were not present in Hissufferings and death as a quiescent attribute, but were in full actionin the indestructible life-power of the Spirit, as He sanctified His ownself to God for us ("through the eternal spirit, " Heb. Ix. 14--therefore, in Rom. I. 4, _hagiosune_, the habit of holiness in itsaction or sanctity, not _hagiotes_, only an inner attribute, or_hagiasmos_, holiness in its formation)--His suffering effected aneverlasting redemption. ' NOTE G. 'Freed' and 'Possessed'--The Twofold Result ofRedemption. (_From an address by Pastor Stockmaiev. _) 'Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, andpurify unto Himself _a people for His own possession_, zealous of goodworks. ' 'In the redemption work of our Saviour Jesus Christ, there are twodefinite parts. You will never find the secret of abiding in Christ, solong as you cannot see these two definite distinct parts. The first is"Jesus for me, " the other "I for Jesus. " Blessed be our Saviour that Hecame for sinners. _He for us. _ Blessed be the Lord that there isredemption from penalty; but that is not yet all that redemption means. You must have a clear apprehension of the second part of redemption, bythat same Holy Ghost who is the guide to introduce us into the fullpossession of all that Christ, living and dying, has wrought out for us. He gave Himself that He might redeem us from all iniquity--not that wemight have the pleasure of being pleased with our own purity orholiness, or such things; but that He might have us altogether forHimself, to purify _unto Himself_, for Himself, not for Himself andthemselves, but _unto Himself_, a people of His own possession. 'What is now redemption?--freedom from self, even spiritual self. We arenot to be our own centre, the centre of our joy, our progress, having inour poor weak hands the threads of our spiritual life. There is no realspiritual life but Christ's life, and He must have the care of italtogether from the beginning to the end. Lift up your eyes, dearbrethren, you who were creeping on the ground. We are made for the gloryof God, to be possessed by Jesus. The Lord God found a way, in givingHis Son, the Lamb of God, His Lamb, to get such selfish people, who evenin the line of the Christian life found means to seek and to nourishself, to get such people into His own real practical possession, to bepossessed by Jesus. That is redemption, and that only; that is liberty, and that is reality; that is what satisfies, not to be satisfied withany experiences of your own, but to let go your experiences, and to say, I am free, so free as the people of Israel were coming out of Egypt, free to serve God. "Let my people go, that they may serve me. " You arefree, free through the blood of Christ, free through the power of theHoly Ghost--no flesh, no hand, no self being able to keep you back. TheLord has stretched out His arms upon all the powers who had kept us inthe bondage of Egypt, and He triumphed over them. You are free as thebird of the air to live in Jesus--that is freedom; you are free in yourdaily life, free in the deepest, inmost depths of your being, free forJesus, possessed by Him, a people of His own possession. Let my peoplego, said God. So, I have given my blood, said Jesus; and no flesh, nosin, no self can claim against the blood of Jesus. He has redeemed untoHimself, not for us, a people of His own possession. . . . 'You are inquiring about the secret of abiding in Jesus. Have you notseen this in the 15th of John, that abiding and bearing fruit areinseparable? You cannot abide in Jesus for His joy, _and your inwardsatisfaction_. The secret of abiding is to stand as a redeemed one, asfirmly in the second part of redemption as the first. I am now livingfor Jesus, and I have only to ask, Lord, what wilt Thou have done now? Iam for Thee. I am for Jesus. I have only to follow, to follow as asanctified one, as a possessed one, as one who is no more living forhimself, who has given his life up into the hands of Jesus. Oh, howthese questions of abiding become simple! It is not mysticism; it is notsome special experience. It is simply a fact. I need Jesus for everymoment, and my temptations as well as my duties become opportunities ofrealizing this life of fellowship with Christ. Oh, yes, this isredemption! Oh, mighty power of God the Father, God the Son, God theHoly Ghost, engaged to keep such a weak, helpless, unfaithful thing asyou and myself in the centre of life! Sealed by the Holy Ghost, and Godwill never break His own seal. ' THE END. MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.