Again, we have a further Gospel in the Old Scriptures the gospel of the prophecies. What are they, but the assurance that when He sends them into captivity He himself shall be in union with them, there singing bright songs of hope under the very walls of their prison-house, songs of a coming Deliverer, and coming Victory?

Then in the New Testament we have the gospel of the person of Jesus Christ. God becomes incarnate because He would be in union with His people. There was no poor sinner that He would not touch, such was His yearning desire to draw all men unto Him. In that person of Christ every foe that we have as sinners-sin, death, disease, judgment, and guilt-all have been fought and defeated. The world, the flesh, and the devil, were overcome by the Son of God for us. There is yet further, the gospel of the passion, in which the Lord shows His deepest union with His people by His suffering and death upon the cross. After His death and resurrection there was the gospel of the spiritual presence, when He loved to walk and talk with Mary and the disciples going to Emmaus, and the rest. Last of all, there was the grand gospel of Pentecost.

Do we realise that this is the great desire of God -union with His people? Let me put it before you in this way. It was the sovereign grace of God the Father that procured it. It was the sovereign sacrifice of God the Son that secured it. It is the blessed indwelling of God the Holy Ghost that ensures it. God gave us as a gift to His Son. What a gift! We are in the covenant. "Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me." We are chosen in Christ, blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ, predestinated in Christ, accepted in Christ, redeemed in Christ, sealed in Christ. Everything is in Him. More than that, Christ Himself hath secured it. He was not satisfied until He had come to the cross of death for us. He was in great haste about it. "I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened till it is accomplished." It was on the cross that the real union of Christ and His people was begun. We are crucified together with Him, buried together, quickened together. I have often wondered how God the Father could quicken us together with Christ, the Holy One with the vile, the Spotless One with the sinner. We are raised up together with Him, and are seated on the very throne of God in the person of Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost ensures all this to us. He reveals

Christ to us. He worketh in us. He keeps us low down in the dust, in the place of death, teaching us that in ourselves we are nothing in the sight of God. What are the privileges, then, of this union? They are very great. There is the privilege of partnership. Through our union with Christ we are possessors of the Divine nature. Our inheritance is secured. Our Representative has gone up to heaven, and impersonates us there before the throne of God. He has gone there to administer His own will. He left all to His people-His peace, His joy, His work. Now He has gone on high to administer that will, to see that His people have all His blessed possessions. He is there to sanctify us, sending down upon us the streams of holy oil. He is there that He may fill all things. Bring out your empty vessels to-day. There are 3,000 here, I suppose. Let each one empty the vessels and bring them out, so that all may receive of the great fulness that is in Christ, and be filled. Let each bring a whole and an emptied heart, that each may receive a whole and a full Christ.

There is a further privilege through this union. We read in that wonderful chapter, John xiv., "Where I am, there may ye be also." There is oneness of place; but there is more: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the works that I do shall ye do also: and greater works shall ye do." Oh, the unselfishness of God! He will not do "the works," though He has done "the work." He leaves His people to do the works. He wants the branches to bear the fruit. There is the grand Root Vine, standing outside amid the storms, the punishment and the wrath that we deserve; inside there are the branches, in the shelter and the warmth of God's presence. On the branches hang all the fruit, the perfume, the beauty, the glory, because of the wonderful unselfishness of God. "The works that I do shall ye do also." What are they? The works of Christ were faith works, love works, and these His people may do. But these works were chiefly on the bodies of men. The Pentecostal works-works on the soul-are greater, and these His people are to do. What says the Master to us? Roll ye away the stone." "Loose him and let him go." So we have our part in the raising of men from the dead. Another privilege that comes from this union is life. "Because I live, ye shall live also." There is but one life between Christ and us. Let there be no confusion between His life and ours. Let ours be but

a manifestation of His, so that we may be able to say, I live, yet not I; it is Christ that liveth in me." So shall Christ actually live out His life in all its fulness and freedom, through His own redeemed though sinful people. There is another blessed privilege-the fellowship of His sufferings. We are to become absolute manifestations of Jesus in this world of sin and sorrow.

We have glanced at God's purpose in this union, at the process of it, and also at some of the privileges. What is our experience of it? Why is there not more blessed experience in the Church of God of this Divine union? How is there so little of it in each Christian? Is not our experience a feeble and fluctuating one because we have not a full Christ in us? The first thing, in order to increase this blessed experience, is to let Christ in all His fulness into our souls. He stands at the door and knocks. Let Him come in and fill each heart to-day. Let Him take possession of the whole being-every department of it, every chamber of it. Let Him answer the door of your lips; let Him look through the windows of your eyes; let Him control your will; let Him be Head in His own house. Be entirely at His disposal that is the highest life to live.

His, not knowing what He will do with you. Let Him bid you, and then do the thing He bids in His strength.

This also will help you to a greater experience of Union with Christ-not only let Him in, but let Him out. I believe the Church of Christ has been for many centuries suffering from the fearful disease of the congestion of Christ, if I may so speak. They have not given out Christ. If you want a deeper experience you must allow Him to break your alabaster box, so that the house may be filled with the odour of the ointment. You must have Christ, not asleep in the hinder part of the vessel (though you have given Him the only pillow), but you must have Him awake and at the helm, even in the commonest things of life. You think you can manage your little boat yourself, but Christ has fallen asleep on purpose to show you that you cannot do without Him, even in the small things of daily life. He does not hire out His attributes; He works His own work in you and me. It is not that we get hold of one of the attributes of God, and work that out; He comes into us and does the work Himself. It is not merely driving out the evil by the power of a new affection; I would rather say it is driving

out by the presence of the new Inhabitant. Let Him out. Let Him be seen. Do not shrink from it. The Church of God believes in the blessed privileges of the Gospel, but she does not reveal them. She is afraid to testify of them. She keeps them to herself. But we must give them out. We must not only admit the Christ, and submit to the Christ, and commit to the Christ, but we must also transmit the Christ. Let Him be revealed. I believe there is a great tidal wave breaking over the Church of God. The rivers of the water of life are rising higher. I have heard it said of fishermen, that when they hear the roar of a tidal wave they get their boats ready, and as soon as it comes they will be carried up ten miles inland without an oar or a sail, without toil or effort. So let us yield ourselves to God in holy trust and confidence. The sap shall rise from the Root into the branches, and every branch shall bear leaf and fruit to the glory of God. The Master has come, and calleth for us. Shall we not respond? Shall we not arise quickly, and go with Him?

"For ah! the Master is so fair,

His smile so sweet to banished men,
That they who meet it unaware

Can never rest on earth again.
And they who see Him risen afar

At God's right-hand to welcome them,
Forgetful stand of home and land,
Desiring fair Jerusalem."

Shall we not then obey His call? This is a blessed opportunity; do not let it slip. Covet earnestly the best gifts.

It

In a house not far from here I have seen a picture that is painted on the roof of one of the rooms. is so high that one can only see a confused vision of colour. But underneath it there is a table with a mirror inlaid; if you' gaze down into it you can see the picture brought out distinctly; every feature and every colour is given back in beautiful reflection. Let each one of us be mirrors, to receive the blessed image of God, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and to give back His features and attributes, so that we can say, "It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me." So shall we be like a sixpence lost in a shilling; you cannot take it out, and yet it is there. It is under the same image and the same inscription-Dei Gratia "By the grace of God I am what I am.' Nay, there is something more, and better than that, "By the grace of God I am what He is."

SECURITY.*

BY REV. DR. MONRO GIBSON.

"THERE is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." "Whosoever abideth in Me sinneth not." "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." These three texts set before us comprehensively the security of the believer in Christ Jesus. The first guarantees peace with God; the second, purity of life; and the third, eternal joy. All are conditioned on Union with Christ, and that a union of an altogether unique and peculiar kind. No kind of personal union with which we are familiar could be described in this way. We may be united to one another in various ways, and by ties of different degrees of strength and tenderness, but we never speak of being in one another. We may be bound to one another by ties of association, of connection, or contact, but the relation indicated here is more intimate than any of these.

The first thing we have to do then, in order to deal with the great subject before us, is to try and understand as clearly as possible the nature of the relation on which our security is based.

The texts I have quoted are all from the latter half of the New Testament. This is no mere accident. Texts of the same kind might be quoted by the hundred between the one in Romans and the one in Revelation, but not in the earlier part of the New Testament. How is this? Why had our Lord so little to say about a matter so important? In the four Gospels the relation of Christ to His people is set forth in varied ways. He is the Teacher; they are disciples. He is the Master; they are servants. He is a Leader; they are followers and so on. There are also tenderer relations referred to, "Whosoever doeth the will of my Father in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." But you may read page after page of the Gospels without finding any reference to intimate relationship expressed by the preposition"in Christ Jesus." To this rule, however, there is one notable exception. I refer to our Lord's last words in the upper chamber, before His Passion, to be found in the wonderful discourse recorded by John. This word is brought into special prominence, but even here it comes in by

* Address delivered at the late Mildmay Conference.

He was

From the way in which our Saviour introduces the idea, it is evident that the intimacy of this relation belongs to the dispensation of the Spirit. The words indicate a new way in which the presence of Christ was to be realised and experienced. As long as He was on the earth His presence with His people was manifested through sense. with them as they were with each other-sometimes together and sometimes apart. And His nearness or His distance made a very great difference to them. As we all know, they were strong in His presence; in His absence they were helpless and insecure. Now that His presence is to be entirely withdrawn, what would they do? No wonder that sorrow, and something akin to despair, filled their hearts at the prospect of the removal of that presence in which they had found safety and strength and joy. The substance of the comfort He gave them was just this: His presence was to be withdrawn in one sense and restored in another; withdrawn in an inferior degree, to be restored in a far better way; withdrawn in the flesh, to be restored in the Spirit; withdrawn as a human presence, to be restored as a Divine presence; withdrawn as a local and temporary presence, to be restored as an Omnipresence and a Perpetual presence.

Inasmuch as this is a matter of spiritual experience, known only to those who have received the Spirit, it is exceedingly difficult to speak of it in the words of ordinary speech. Hence the need of illustrations from the common things of life, in helping us to a right understanding of it. There is the use of the illustration of the vine and the branches, the appropriateness of which can be seen at a glance. The relation of the vine to the branches is not that of association merely, or of connection. The branch is not with the vine; it is in the vine. It lives the life of the vine. It is absolutely depen

every

There is another illustration used by our Lord, which perhaps expresses more closely the point of view given by the words in which He introduced the subject at the first. It is suggested by the word "Spirit," which means breath, or air, and also by the simile used by our Lord in the passage: "The wind bloweth where it listeth. . . . so is one that is born of the Spirit." The nearest analogue in nature to the spiritual, as distinguished from the bodily presence, and to the Omnipresence as distinguished from the local presence, is air. It suggests the spiritual because we cannot see it. When it is still we cannot feel it; therefore it is possible to be surrounded by it and yet not to be at all conscious of its presence. Then, whither can we go from its presence? If we ascend to Alpine heights, or go into the deepest mines, it is there. If we take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, there shall we find it. Not only are we always in it, but it is in us. It is as necessary to our life that the air should be in us, as that we should be in it.

In all this we have a very helpful illustration of what the presence of Christ in His people is, under the dispensation of the Spirit. Now we know that He is in the Father. His human presence here on earth, as He veiled His glory in mortal flesh-that human presence is withdrawn from us. So far as our power to recognise it is concerned, it is merged in the Divine. Instead of a local and temporary presence, it is now an Omnipresence and a Perpetual presence. It is like this elemental air, which fills all things, and therefore the preposition with becomes inadequate to express the intimacy and interpenetration of the new relationship. There is one respect in which the simile fails. We know that the natural air is in us, and we in it, by necessity; those who are in Christ, and He in them, are there by choice. Even with respect to this spiritual life, a parable

of spiritual things in the life of the lower creatures. Look at the history of the dragon-fly as an illustration of the point before us. It is born at the bottom of the water. For a considerable time it lives there, a narrow, low, greedy life; for this particular grub is said to be exceedingly voracious. It gropes about the submerged parts of aquatic plants, and lives on aquatic insects. It breathes the air only as other inhabitants of the water do, content to get out of the water such small quantities as manage to filter into it from above. So it lives in utter ignorance of any higher or better life, of any larger or more generous supply of the vital element by which it lives, until one day there comes a wondrous change. This cannot be better described than in the words of the Laureate :

"To-day I saw the dragon-fly

Come from the wells where he did lie.

"An inner impulse rent the veil

Of his old husk: from head to tail

Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
"He dried his wings: like gauze they grew :
Through crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew."

The same animal as before; but, oh, how different the life! "Old things have passed away, behold all things are become new." And the change cannot be more comprehensively expressed than by saying that it now lives in a new element. Formerly it lived in the water; now it lives in the air. Its old grub life is gone; its new ethereal, heavenly life, has begun. It is true that even when it lived under the water it could not get on without air; but it knew nothing about it; it simply took in so much water, and got the air out of it, which the water had absorbed.

And so, in the same way, even those that know not Christ, and have no experience of the power of His resurrection, are not independent of God whom Christ reveals. They are not conscious of His presence; and yet they could not live without Him; though they get from Him every breath they draw, they have no conscious relation to Him; in works they utterly deny Him-are just as much strangers to Him as the grub living at the bottom of the muddy pool is a stranger to the glorious sunshine in the upper air. But when by faith we take hold of Christ, we are lifted out of the muddy pool, crucified with Him, buried with Him, and risen