most striking aspect. The inner man-its affections, faculties, and feelings; its powers of knowledge, love, and desire-strengthened with might by the Holy Ghost, by his enabling it to hold Christ in its affections, and to cling to him with the fibres of its faith. These fibres of faith, becoming more and more deeply rooted in Christ, as the roots of the tree become deepened in the soil, enable us more and more to comprehend the height and depth, the length and breadth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. Ever seeking to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, faith explores the height and depth, the length and breadth, of his fulness; gathering into the renewed mind the wisdom, the knowledge, and the truth of Christ; imbuing the soul of the new man with the kindness, the meekness, and the patience of Christ; diffusing through the affections of the new man the grace, the goodness, and the love of Christ: knowing that the new creature will never reach its manhood estate, until it be wholly, ceaselessly, and evermore filled with Christ. But of all the precious things of a precious Christ, on which faith delights to feed, none are so sweet to her taste as the love of Jesus. The love which he cherished for his Bride, when of yore he dwelt in the Father's bosom; the love which flowed with his life's blood to cleanse away her sin, and to fit her for himself; the love which now breathes the constant assurance, "I come quickly," and which rejoices in the "Amen" of her heart, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." From this eternal source she gathers daily strength to do and endure his will, while hoping and waiting for his appearing.

FAITHFUL WORDS.

BY

JOHN OFFORD,

OF PALACE GARDENS CHAPEL, KENSINGTON.

THE GREAT END OF THE INNER LIFE.

"To me to live is Christ."-PHIL. i. 21.

CHRIST is the centre and the fulness of the testimony of God in his inspired word. Moses wrote of him. Ancient type and story gather all their value and beauty from their adaptation to him. His experiences in life and in death are breathed by the Spirit throughout the Psalms; and in them are set forth the majesty and the blessedness of his millennial reign. Of him bear all the prophets witness, testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. To unfold the wonders of his person, the greatness of his work, the mystery of his death, and the riches of his redemption, the Spirit of Truth has come down to dwell in the church, and to act in the world. This is he whom the Father and the Holy Ghost alike delight to honour. The holy apostles, prophets, and evangelists of Pentecostal days were endowed with power from on high, to become witnesses unto him, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Paul was his

chosen vessel to bear his name to the nations, and to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches

of Christ. Jesus is the golden thread interwoven throughout the whole texture of divine truth,-the river of the water of life, springing out of the first promise to fallen man, and flowing through all the fields of divine revelation, clothing them with verdure, adorning them with beauty, and replenishing them with life. By the grace of the Spirit the apostle could say, "To me to live is Christ." Strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, Christ became the all-absorbing object of his affections, the moving spring of his thoughts and desires, the only rule of his actions, the sole aim of his existence, the one great subject of his ministry. He desired to live for no other purpose than to diffuse the savour of his name amongst the children of men. Blessed man! how our hearts burn within us as we ponder the fervid thoughts and feelings of his breast concerning his beloved! how our spirits throb with shame as we are struck with the contrast between the energy of his love and the feebleness of our own!

I. We may regard our apostle's assertion in its bearing upon his ministry. His abundant labours and his manifold sufferings had diminished his physical strength: besides which he was bound with a chain for the sake of the Gospel. Either of these facts might have issued in his removal from earth. Contemplating the apparent probability of that issue, he says, "I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; that your rejoicing

may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again." Thus was he willing to forego for awhile the far better blessing, that he might still minister Christ to his saints, and that Christ might yet for a season be magnified in his body in life, ere it should be yielded up to death. Christ was the great theme of the apostle's ministry, both to the lost and to the saved, both to the unrenewed child of wrath and to the new-born child of grace. To the one he preached Christ, that he might minister to him salvation and life; to the other he unfolded the fulness of Christ, that he might minister sustenance to the life received. To all classes of men in their natural state he had but one testimony, he delivered but one message "how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures;" and "that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all who believe are justified from all things." With the religious Jew and the philosophic Greek, with the Roman citizen and the Roman serf, he resolved not to know anything save Christ and him crucified;-foolishness indeed to them that perish; but to them that are saved, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Yet this resolve to speak only of Christ, and him crucified, had reference to the Corinthians, not as saints, but as lost sinners. The question at issue in Paul's mind was not one between the cross of Christ and the various other truths about Christ, but between the one great doctrine of the atonement and the religious and philosophic systems existing among men. His solemn

and deliberate determination, made before God and in the power of his Spirit, was, that salvation, through faith in the finished work and sacrifice of Christ, should constitute the burden of his testimony to fallen man. For him, to live as an apostle of the Lord Jesus, and as a preacher of the gospel of the grace of God,-for him thus to live was Christ.

Moreover, Christ was the substance and life of his teaching among the saints, as well as his preaching to sinners. He knew and taught no truth, he realized and described no experience, he enjoyed and set forth no blessing, he exhorted to no practical godliness, apart from Christ, who is the way and the truth, as well as the life. Did he lead the saints to the fountain of eternal love in the Father's heart, there he found Christ-there he learned that they had never been loved apart from Christ. Did he speak of the electing grace of God, he testified that it was "according as he had chosen us in Christ." Did he bear witness to the purpose of God, to bring his wanderers unto the adoption of children to himself, it was in and "through Jesus Christ." Did he without ceasing pray to God that his saints might know what was the hope unto which he had called them, and what were the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, he prayed that they might know all these things "in the knowledge of him,” their risen Lord and head. Would he show them their death to sin, to wrath, and to law, he declared that it was in the death of Christ alone that they had so died. Would he have them to realize that they were risen men and new creatures, he enlarged