not speak of Israel as idolaters, or as corrupted among the nations; but I would refer to such as the captivity in the days of Haggai, who had returned from Babylon; who had sought the Lord's glory on their return; but being hindered, had now contented themselves with being in the right place, and had no longer thought of the temple, and of God's things, but simply and entirely of their own. They are in fact as "the slothful man, who will not roast what he took in hunting." They had surmounted all the difficulties; had braved everything, and had openly declared for God, according to His mind, in Jerusalem; but now they went away every one to his own house, and the house of the Lord lay waste! The point I desire to impress is, that those who are most right, are liable to religious selfishness, their altar is El-Elohe-Israel; and that their self-occupation is more damaging than the grossness of the ignorant, or unbelieving. Now, our Lord's disciples, in His day, were examples of the snare of self-occupation and selfseeking, of which I speak, more than the Pharisees. The latter were open and avowed opposers, never accepting or assenting to the truth, while the disciples were openly and boldly on the right ground; but were continually misinterpreting the Lord, and His purposes, simply and solely because their eyes rested on man, and not on God. Who tells the Lord to send away the hungry multitude? The disciples-they, who of all others, ought not to obstruct His will, or check His grace. Who pray Him to send away the Syrophenician, "for she crieth after us "? Was it not they, who ought to have understood His mind, and not to have attempted to thwart it, in its finest purposes? Where young children were brought to Him that He might touch them, who rebuked those that brought them? The disciples, "And when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased." Who suggest to Him to call down fire on the Samaritans but the disciples? Peter, the most earnest and foremost of them, rebukes Him when He foretells His rejection and death; which subjected him to the severest reproof from the Lord. "Get thee behind me, Satan, thou savourest not the

man.'

things which be of God, but the things which be of Do not all these instances pronounce to us, that being on the right ground and being nearest to the Lord, in zeal and affection, does not preserve from the self-thought, which one falls into, if the eye rests on man and not on God. I have not referred to every instance in which the disciples attempt to check, or compromise, the work of the Lord; but I have noticed enough to convince any true heart, that if the eye is turned to man, no knowledge, no zeal, or purpose, will preserve from false judgment, and false apprehension of the Lord's mind. No amount of enlightenment, or practical walk in the right path, will secure from perversion, if the eye is turned man-ward, instead of God-ward. Not only will a Mark return from Pamphylia, but a Barnabas will be carried away by the dissimulation of a Peter. "Of your own selves" (the elders), "shall men arise, speaking perverse things; to draw away disciples after them." Nothing can be more distinctly set before us in Scripture than the fact, that among the most advanced, and the most earnest, some have been turned aside, and have slipped from the true line, because, in a crisis, their eye considered for man, and not for God. While, on the other hand, when God simply controlled the vision of the soul, everything opened out according to His mind. And hence, in every time, there was a reaching forth, and a yearning, for that era of full blessing, when it shall literally be true-that "all things are of God." And it is in this connection, that the Apostle uses those wondrous words (2 Cor. v. 14). He had said that "if one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all; that they which live should henceforth not live unto themselves, but to him who died for them, and rose again." And then, to make this more decided, and unequivocal, he adds, "though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself, by Jesus Christ." Failure in saints is always attributable in one way, or

no more.

another, to the eye being turned to man, instead of to God; and there never can be any real strength or ability but as the eye rests simply on God.

But now, we are not struggling by faith outside the being, and the world, in which we are, as were the saints before the death of Christ; but by the Spirit of Christ, we are before God, on the ground that all is swept away. They (the saints of old) occupied a creation which had fallen from God, and which by faith they saw as, one day, to be set aside in resurrection. This was all faith could do before the death of Christ; but now we are on the ground of "all things being new, all things of God." The understanding of the difference between the faith of the most advanced saint before the death of Christ, and what it is now, is of great moment and value, both for our blessing and testimony. We have seen that the great and unfailing balk to the saint is man; and that in every instance, where any servant of God walked with Him, it was in proportion as God, in His own purpose, was before his soul. Be it an Enoch translated; an Abraham ascending Mount Moriah; the children of Israel passing through the Red Sea; or Peter walking on the water; one and all are great only in proportion as man is overlooked, and God only, and entirely, before the soul. But in each of these cases there was no knowledge of the ground where faith now puts the soul. With each of them it set them before God, and all was pure blessing; but it could, at best, be but as expectant of the removal of all that which stood in the way. There was, by faith, a flight above and beyond the old creation, but there could have been no clear or distinct perception of the fact of its removal, for it was not as yet removed, which is the only true place for faith now; for "old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new." Faith did carry a saint, before the death of Christ, unto God; but though it filled his soul with God, it could not give him a clear and positive assurance that old things had passed away, for they had not passed away; and faith, while connecting the soul with God, and blessing it in God, could not lead it to see and know, that there was an end to the flesh (even Christ in

the flesh) until the fact was accomplished. And the knowledge of this fact is the simple, yet momentous, difference between the saint who has only the faith in God which those before the death of Christ had, and the faith which saints now are entitled to have. The faith proper to me now, asserts not only that I am before God, but that there is nothing remaining which is not judged in the cross of Christ, and therefore judicially passed out of existence before Him; so that, on this ground, man in no wise appears. "Old things are passed away?' is not that the eye rests on God, stepping over the old creation; but it rests on God now, all the old things having passed away. There is nothing to cross, or to skip over; for all are removed, as judged in the cross; they have no recognised existence before God; and when I am in faith, I am entitled to see that no such thing exists; the ground is cleared; all things are of God.

وو

It

I fear many in the present day fall back to the faith known to the saints before the death of Christ; instead of dwelling in that proper to them now; realised, I suppose, in its blessed extent, by Stephen only, when he saw his place in the glory with Jesus. It is impossible to explain fully the difference; but the spiritual will at once see how morally important and wide is the difference. In the one case, I must, as it were, close my eyes to all I am in, and by faith remove myself away from it, because I am in the standing of the first Adam which is at enmity with God, and hateful to Him (Rom. vii.). The body of this death must depress me, and I necessarily have a conscience ever anxious and harassed, and seeking absolution in a satisfactory sacrifice; for there is no assurance, nor indeed could there be, of the judicial removal of it; and, consequently, if not removed, I am while in it, answerable for it according to God's claim on it; whereas I am by faith in Christ Jesus, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, and entitled to see the flesh as entirely removed, judicially terminated before God. And if I return to it, I have not to seek a sacrifice to atone for the delinquency of that which is a recognised, responsible existence; but I have, because Christ is my advocate, to take in confession God's side against myself,

and repudiate in toto that which, being judged and removed from God's eye in judgment, I have no right to return to, or acknowledge; and the more I am in His light, the more do I see, not only how blessed it would be to be borne over it, and at rest before Him, but that I I may search for it in vain; for "old things are passed away; behold, all are become new and all things are of God." Oh how blessed! My true standing now is, "the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." In the one case, I mourn over that which is unequal to its imposed responsibility; in the other, I denounce its intrusion with horror, because judged in the cross, and I return it, by the power of the spirit to the "burial" from which it had escaped.

Now, if this truth be clearly apprehended, it must produce very marked practical effects. Man, as man, would not be consulted or ministered to. Christ alone would be the guide, strength, and motive for everything. Now, as we have seen, there is no strength or rest, but as faith reaches above and apart from man; and this at every time, even when man was still standing on the ground of responsibility before God, and when there could be no escape from it. To be in a 66 dry and barren land, where no water is" was always the trial to faith. And the Lord says to His disciples, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." There was then a demand on the flesh. Though weak, its existence was owned as still responsible; and there was no escape from it. There must have been a very different exercise of soul then, when the flesh was required to please God (which, in the person of Jesus on earth, was truly fulfilled); and now, when we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. To understand clearly the consequences of being in the Spirit, and not in the flesh, is of great moment; for if there is confusion in the mind on this point, the conscience suffers accordingly. If I could realise ever so distinctly the goodness and love of God, as the disciples did in Christ (by Whom, while present, they were preserved from open evils, into which they,