and acquainted with griefs: yet, from whatever cause his sufferings arose, and however painfully they affected his heart, he bowed his spirit to them all as the dispensations of the hand of God, saying, "Even so, Father; for so it seemeth good in thy sight." As thus tried and proved by the temptations of Satan, and by the hatred of men, Jesus displayed the sweetest characteristics of the new life. The enmity, the wrongs, and the sorrows which he endured, only called forth the meekness, the lowliness, the long-suffering, the patience, the forbearance of the holy nature within him.

Now if we would live Christ, we must put on Christ in these two aspects of his character; his loving devotedness, and his passive submission, to the will of God; and in both prove our separateness from the world. That we may live Christ, in the entire consecration of ourselves to God, we have been made heavenly men. Born with Jesus, out of his grave, into sonship with God; quickened in him with heavenly life, we are no longer of earth, but of heaven; we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; we are not of the old creation, but of the new. All the principles of the high and holy life are implanted in us; and, as new and risen men, we take our position in the earth as witnesses for Christ. Again, that we may live Christ in his life of separation from the world, and in his walk of lowly submission, in suffering the will of his Father, we have become dead men. We have died with him upon the cross. Death -the cross of death-death with the crucified one -stands between us and the world, and has come in between our renewed spirits and our fallen flesh.

Possessed thus of heavenly life, and having become heavenly men;-dead thus through Christ to the flesh and the world, we are in a position to endeavour to live Christ amongst men. We are prepared to gather from heaven the principles wherewith to regulate our life on earth, and to realize the power of the cross to crucify the world to us, and us to the world. This is the rule of the new creature, adopted by Paul and commended to the Galatians, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, (the rule of the Christ-derived, new and heavenly life, and of death to the world through the cross,) peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." Now just so far as the heavenly principles of our holy Christ-life are carried out in our practical walk, and just so far as we realize and express the power of the cross to subdue the flesh, and to separate from the world, shall we live Christ in his life of active devotedness, and in his course of passive obedience unto his Father's will. For us so to live, will be for Christ to use our feet that he may again walk forth on earth on his errands of mercy and of love, and for him to look through our eyes with his wonted compassion and pity upon the miseries of mankind. For us so to live, will be for Christ to use our hands that he may still minister blessing to the children of want and sorrow, and for him to speak through our lips his words of grace, and truth, and life, to the children of darkness and of

death. For us so to live Christ, will be for that lowly one again to receive the unkindnesses and insults of evil men, and to repay them with love and forbearance; to suffer wrong and reproach, and to meet that wrong and reproach with meekness and kindness. For us so to live Christ, will be for him still to be reviled without reviling again, for him still to suffer, and threaten not; because all this shall take place in his members, who are a part of himself, and who represent him to the world, and because it is done and borne through his life in them. We conclude, then, that so far as our life in the flesh is the result of the power of the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us, and is the outflow of the life of Christ from our renewed spirits-of the holy sap from him the true Vine, and of the new life from him the living Head-for us to live is Christ: and that so far as our life in the flesh is not the outflow of the life of Christ, through the energy of the Holy Ghost, for us to live is not Christ, but that which is opposed to Christ, even our own wretched and un-Christ-like self.

We will endeavour to illustrate this truth, taking our examples from the scenes of daily life. Nothing is more common than for a suffering, dependent Christian to marvel why he is spared to live a life of weariness and pain, to be constantly requiring the sympathy and care of others, and apparently to be so useless in the church and in the world. He frequently hears of the removal from useful labour of the servants of Christ, while he still lingers in inactive helplessness, unable to understand the dealings of God with him. Now let us suppose that the perpetual chastisement which is laid upon that suffering

one is received with meek submission to the will of God; that, by the aid of the Holy Ghost, and through the sympathy of Jesus, and that "strengthened with all might according to God's glorious power," he is enabled to endure "with all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness." Let us suppose that, learning of the meek and lowly Lamb of God, he takes and bears this yoke of Jesus, saying, "Abba, Father, not my will, but thine be done." Supposing this to be so, we ask, Is not that meek submission to God's will, that uncomplaining spirit of calm resignation, that patient endurance of protracted suffering, the very essence of Christian life? and one of the most Christ-like things, presented to the eye of God, in this Christless world. For a suffering saint so to live is indeed Christ. Of many such hidden ones the Lord has said, "There are last which shall be first." And in the day when the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is, God will show how highly he estimates these precious qualities of the heavenly life. Let, then, the afflicted believer rejoice that he is, in this sense, accounted worthy to suffer for Christ, that he may thus live Christ according to the will of God. Again, the child of poverty may imagine that he has little opportunity to display the gracious character of Jesus. But let him remember that the life of his Saviour was one of poverty and of dependence; and that he glorified his Father by walking in the path which he, as the Lord of heaven and earth, chose for him; and therefore, that the poor believer is in the best position to track the footprints of the lowly Son of man. To know how to be hungry, and how to suffer need; to learn in whatso

ever state he is, therewith to be content; to accept with a thankful mind the lot assigned to him of God; and to do all this through Christ strengthening him, and because it is the sovereign pleasure of God, is for the poor Christian to follow close upon the footsteps of the heavenly man. To serve his master according to the flesh (be that master good and gentle, or be he froward), "in singleness of heart, as unto Christ; not with eye-service as a pleaser of men, but as a servant of Christ, doing. the will of God from the heart; with good will, doing service as to the Lord, and not to men," is to learn of him who was meek and lowly in heart, to take his yoke, and to manifest the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Nor is the Christian who has abundance of this world's good less able to live Christ. Regarding himself as a steward of the divine master, and calling nothing that he has his own, he may learn how to imitate Jesus in dispensing blessing to others. Let such Christians ponder the inspired words,— "Charge them that are rich......that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;" then would the eye of the poor bless them, and the heart of the mourner be glad for them; then would the widow and the fatherless in their affliction find that the hand of Jesus could still wipe away their tears, and minister to their wants. Or let them ponder that word of the Lord,-"I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations:" that when the Son of man shall say to you, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you