1. The declaration is not limited to the time of, or after, his manifestation in the flesh. He was always the eternal life, and had ever the power to be the quickener of the dead. So saith the Holy Ghost. "That which was from the beginning ...the Word of life;... for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father." Out of the fulness of the life in him did the Eternal Spirit impart life to the saints of bygone ages; and out of that fulness have all we received life according to the life in him. So that the same character of spiritual life was found in Enoch as in Paul; in all the faithful of the dispensations that have been, and of that which is now. As God "has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," so will he make of one spirit-life all the generations of new-born men for to dwell in the new heaven and the new earth, as the first-fruits of his creatures. This incorruptible life -preceding, underlying, and surviving all the dispensations of time-will, after those dispensations shall have run their course, and fulfilled their ends, bring all who possess it into one perfect conformity to the image of God's Son. Christ himself is one, and all the varied experiences arising from his life in the saints on earth can produce no change in him. So is the life eternal one, and all the variety of the circumstances and conditions under which it may exist in time can in nowise affect the future, final, and perfected blessedness of the heirs of life. Its infant state before the flood; its state of nonage under the spirit of servitude in Israel; its spirit of

adoption state now-are but phases of its growth in a soil and climate unsuited to its heavenly nature; and all these differences shall vanish for ever, when the life shall be developed into its perfectly Christlike form, in the region of light and purity in the presence of God. The great fact here set forth constitutes the essential unity of all the saved; the one universal brotherhood of the whole family of faith: while it forbids the thought of essential distinctions amongst the hosts of redeemed men in their state of consummated bliss.

2. The eternal life now finds its source and headship in the risen humanity of the Lord Christ. It was in him, and he was known to the eye of faith as "The Life," while he tabernacled in human flesh. All its intrinsically holy and blessed properties existed in him, and all its perfect moral features were manifested by him, as he walked amongst men. He lived on earth the only perfect example of the moral loveliness of the new man that the world ever saw. The flesh found no place in him: Satan had nothing in him: the dove-like Holy Ghost loved to dwell, in all the fulness of his power, in the shrine of his holy humanity, finding in it a suited sphere for the unhindered action of his grace. And as Christ was "the life" while in flesh and blood, so that life flowed from him into every vessel of mercy called by his living voice as he sojourned amongst men. Hence he could say, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, HATH everlasting life;" and, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

But the full physical beauty and glory of the life were not seen till the man Christ Jesus rose from earth, and ascended to the right hand of the majesty of God on high. Once, for a brief moment, its refulgent brightness burst forth on the holy mount, but again it was veiled by the lowly, bodily form that descended to continue its walk on earth. Now, enshrined in the glory of Godhead, the humanity of Christ-spirit, soul, and body—reveals the wondrous nature and character of the life in which he has been begotten from the dead, as the first-born amongst the many brethren, and as the beginning of the new creation of God. In him it now dwells in all its exhaustless fulness, and from him it now shines forth in all its ineffable lustre. That risen Man, seated at God's right hand, who is the delight of the Eternal Father; that risen Man, who is the admiration of all holy angels,-who shall transfix the gaze of all risen saints for ever,-is the perfect exhibition of the purity, the goodliness, the power, and the glory of that peerless life, with which God begetteth unto himself the many sons whom Christ shall bring to glory. The life-giving power which always resided in the person of the Son of God has thus put forth its utmost energy, and realized its highest and completest development, under the hand of the Holy Ghost, in forming the glorified manhood of the risen Jesus.

That eternal life which was with the Father, which for a brief season dwelt in flesh and blood, and was seen, and handled, and felt by believing men, now sitteth enthroned in excellent glory, where it is hid with Christ in God.

3. It is with this life that every new-born child of

God is now quickened. This is the teaching of our text, "Christ liveth in me." Paul, as to his Adam nature, the old man, his moral evil flesh, had, under the hand of divine judgment, died with Christ. The floods of divine wrath had swept over the old man, as represented by Paul's substitute on the cross, and beneath the dread waters it was left for ever judicially dead. Yet Paul lived. Another life found place in him, as he by faith realized his death unto sin with Christ on the tree. The look that discovered that he had thus died with Jesus, brought into Paul's spirit a new moral and spiritual principle, which made him a new man. It was no mere change of some already existing natural thing: it was a new, heavenly, holy thing-the incorruptible seed. Now, whence was it? Of God the Father it was, we know; for "of his own will begat he us;" and we are "born of God." By God the Spirit it was, we know; for he is the Lord and giver of life; and "except ye be born of the Spirit, ye cannot enter the kingdom of God." Save of the Father's good pleasure, and of the Holy Spirit's special operation, no soul of man ever liveth anew; yet comes the question, What and whence is the life? What does the Holy Ghost, in fulfilling the Father's will, implant in the spirit which he regenerates, and whence does he bring it? Let the inspired apostle answer "Christ liveth in me." The life is of Christ and from Christ. It is incorruptible seed from him, the incorruptible root; it is living water from him, the living fountain; it is the nature and essence of the new man from him, the beginning and head of the new creation; it is "spirit" from him, the second Adam, who is a "quickening Spirit;" it is real, true,

and actual life from him who is "The Life," even "that Eternal Life." Thus the Father, in begetting us into a state of sonship, createth us anew, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, in Christ; and thus the Holy Ghost, in regenerating us by his power, imparteth to us the Christ-life, the life that is in the Head. "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life."

This truth, and the process of its accomplishment, cannot be illustrated by any natural fact, but it may be illustrated by contrasting it with nature. Our apostle has done this: "For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree...... and partakest of the root and fatness of the olive." The usual process is to graft a good branch into a wild stem, and for the good branch to appropriate to itself the sap from the root, making it subservient to the production of good fruit. The method of grace is to graft the wild olive branch into the good olive stem, and for the goodly sap to enter and to impregnate the wild branch, making it a new thing, and causing it to yield fruit of the nature of the parent root. The instant the Holy Ghost conveys the life of Christ into the sinner's spirit, he unites him to Christ, as the head of the body, and thus makes him an abiding partaker of the root and fatness of the good olive tree. For this reason our apostle calls