blood of Jesus." By His own blood He entered therein once with our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience by the same blood we have access there continually, and only thus.

But there is another and more subtle error into which some have fallen. It is that of lingering by the way, instead of following it up to the goal. It is indeed impossible so to do, if we are really treading the way to be Christ's is necessarily to be God's, as He is.* But there is a regarding the work of Christ as an end rather than a means; there is a taking refuge in it from God in place of drawing near in it to God. Such a refuge will crumble to pieces around us. For instance,- -we never avail ourselves more fully of the Cross of Christ than when, having fallen into sin, we seek in humble confession the grace of absolution and forgiveness. But it makes all the difference how we regard this transaction. If it be as a process whereby we spiritually draw near to God, and regain that likeness to Him which our transgression has marred,-happy are we: according to our faith shall it be to us. But if our thought be simply the escaping the penal consequences of our sin, whether here or hereafter-then there is no more security for us than for the unmerciful servant in the Parable, that we shall not go out from our Lord's presence to refuse forgiveness to our brother, and to find the load of seeminglypardoned transgression rolled back again upon our souls.

So let us come by Christ; and come as forgiven sinners; and come to God. And then will His work be accomplished as our Mediator: for He died for us, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.

SUNDAY BEFORE EASTER.

The Mind that was in Christ Jesus.

Philippians ii. 5—11.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

THE meditation of this Scripture, which is indeed the Epistle of the day, may well prepare our thoughts for the Holy Week on which we have entered.

The Apostle has been exhorting the Philippians, that they do nothing through strife or vainglory; but that in lowliness of mind each esteem other better than themselves that they look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. As an example of such conduct he cites the Lord Himself. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." But he refers not merely, as ordinarily, to His life on earth as the occasion of His example. The " was in Christ Jesus" points farther back,-to the time before He was made in the likeness and found in the fashion of man.

He is described at this time as "being," that is, subsisting "in the form of God." What does this phrase mean?"Form" (μopon) sometimes signifies the appearance as distinct from the reality, as when we read of those who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. Does it mean this here? Not so. For "being in the form of God" is set against "took upon Him the form of a servant" and as the latter implies that He became really man, so the former must mean that He was really God. But yet the word “ form" is not used without a definite purpose: "being in the form of God" is not the same as "being in the nature of God," though that also is true. The form is the outward manifestation of the nature, the impression which it makes, its visible attributes, in a word, its "glory." It was this "form" of God of which He emptied Himself when He became man, which He exchanged for the form of a servant. He laid by His omniscience and His omnipotence, and came within the limitations of humanity. He grew in wisdom as in stature: He wrought no mighty work but by the Holy Ghost given to Him as man: He spake the words of God, because God gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him. He could not cease to subsist in the nature of God: but without the form of God He could and did for a while manifest Himself. He received it again when the glory of His ascension supplied the antithesis to the emptying of His incarnation. For so He had prayed" And now, O Father, glorify Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."

Being thus in the form of God, He "thought it not robbery to be equal with God." It is not well to introduce new translations: but this is a phrase which yields no

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meaning in its present rendering. It is not an additional characteristic to "being in the form of God," as if it were "and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God." It rather begins to describe the action of the Person thus characterized to which we are directed as our example. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery and so on. But it is difficult to see anything to imitate in the Son of God thinking it no robbery to be equal with the Father. Again, it is antithetically connected with the next clause by a "but." Yet the " but " is meaningless as it stands. "He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation." It is evident that we must seek another rendering of the words and it is the consentient judgment of the best modern scholars that we should read them thus-" He counted not His equality with God a thing to be grasped at." The word translated "robbery" does not essentially involve the thought of stealing: it means snatching or grasping for oneself, but not necessarily from another. And now the sense comes clearly out. We are to look not every man on his own things, but to think as Christ Jesus thought. Equality with God was one of His own things: but His thought was not how to keep fast hold of it and to enjoy it. He looked not on His own things, but on the things of others: and though He was rich yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. "Being in the form of God, He counted not His equality with God a thing to be grasped at, but emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant."

Many thoughts arise in our minds as we realize these words of the Apostle. One of them can hardly fail to

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be-how clear is his vision of the Godhead of the Lord Jesus, that doctrine which is sometimes supposed to have been the growth of a later age, an apotheosis born of Roman adulation or of Greek philosophy. Here it is in full existence in the eminently Hebrew mind of St. Paul and not announced by him as a new revelation, but assumed to be the living faith of the Church. What is there in the Nicene Creed which is not a legitimate expression of the fact he recognizes-the Saviour's equality with God? Then add to this the Godhead of the Holy Ghost also, and you have the whole basis of the Creed of St. Athanasius. Let men acknowledge nothing but humanity in Jesus Christ if they must. But let them be honest, and admit that St. Paul and St. John held a very different doctrine, and worshipped their Master as very and eternal God.

And now—" He counted not His equality with God a thing to be grasped at, but emptied Himself." We are so accustomed to this rendering in the place of the less impressive phrase, "made Himself of no reputation," that I make no apology for substituting it. It refers, as has been said, to the form of God in which He was subsisting. Of this He emptied Himself, He became poor. There is only one attitude in which we can stand before this surpassing mystery of love. As when we recite it in the Creed, we bow our heads and adore.

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"He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant." "Servant" is not merely equivalent to man," for the next clause affirms that He was 66 made in the likeness of men." It marks the contrast between the equality with God which He enjoyed before His incarnation, and the condition into which He then came. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, He is