the light of life and glory, then must their great surety enter that region of death and doom, and through his own death, and in his own life, and with his own living might, raise them thence up to the home of his Father in heaven. And this he did, in his death upon the cross, in his resurrection from the dead, and in his ascension to the right hand of God.

We

In our remarks on the believer's substitutional oneness with Christ in death, no reference was made to his substitution for us in his life on earth. refer to this now, that we may show the connection of his living obedience with our justification unto life. We say, justification unto life, because it is the shed blood alone that justifies us from sin and wrath; as it is written, "much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Yet the living obedience of Jesus has its special place in our becoming the righteousness of God in him. Christ was born as a substitute for sinners. For us he lived, obeyed, and died. Man not only needed an atoning sacrifice, to free him from guilt, and thus to deliver him from hell; but he also required a perfect obedience to constitute for him a righteousness, to entitle him to heaven. That obedience he could not render. Tried in every wayin innocence and in sin, without law, and under lawhe utterly failed. Hence, the need of the obedience of another, and that other the divine substitute. The scripture puts this truth before us thus: "For as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." And again, "Much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift

of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." The obedience of Christ thus becomes the righteousness of the guilty sinner, and his title to enter into life. Yet we may not separate the living obedience of our surety from his obedience unto death. From first to last, from the womb to the cross, there was but one obedience; entire, perfect, ceaseless, willing devotedness of body, soul, and spirit, in doing and in suffering, in life and in death, unto the will of God. In all this he acted as our substitute, and therefore his obedience is ours, and reckoned to us. Any difficulty as to the living and dying obedience of Jesus, being the one righteousness, through which we become united to Christ in life, and with him inherit glory, will be removed by a right understanding of Paul's statement to the Philippians. He 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." Now, on what ground did God exalt Jesus? Was it not on the ground of his taking our flesh, becoming a servant, humbling himself, and yielding perfect obedience to God, in life and in death? Assuredly it was so. But on whatever ground God exalted Christ, on that same ground he exalted his people; for he was their surety, and stood in their stead; and he claimed no exaltation apart from them. Moreover, the exaltation of Christ included his resurrection from the dead; hence it is clear that his resurrection was the result of his entire obedience in life and death; and that we rose in

him, and are exalted in him, because he both obeyed and died for us. My substitute in life, he took a place before God for me, and all that he was, as the perfectly obedient One, I am in the sight of the holy Judge. My surety in death, charged with my sins, he died for me; and I died in him under the wrath of God, and am freed from sin. The living and dying obedience which entitled him to rise from the dead, having been rendered for me, and the death which he died, having justified me from sin, I rose in him, and sit with him on high; and now having, by faith through his Spirit, received life from him, I am livingly united to him for ever Shall I not, then, live unto him? For me to live, should it not be Christ? Shall I resuscitate the old man from the depths wherein God has laid him, and parade the monstrous and unsightly thing before the eyes of God and man, and thus give the practical lie to the great judicial truth, that I am dead with Christ? Shall I defile the new man, and mar its pure and lovely features, by dwelling with the dead, in the mire of worldly lusts, and thus give the practical lie to the truth that I am risen with Christ? Or (and may he give my conscience to answer these questions unto him) shall I seek to realize my living union with Christ, and practically to become a Christ-like heavenly man on earth?

FAITHFUL WORDS.

BY

JOHN OFFORD,

OF PALACE GARDENS CHAPEL, KENSINGTON.

FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER.

"Our fellowship is with the Father."-1 JOHN i. 3. THE inner life is essential to fellowship with God. It requires its spiritual faculties to understand his thoughts: it needs its God-born affections to appreciate and to reciprocate his love; it demands its Christ-like feelings to sympathize with his desires. And fellowship with God is equally essential to the inner life. Its spiritual faculties can find no satisfying subject of contemplation save in God himself: its God-born affections can rest on nothing short of his infinite love: its Christ-like feelings turn from every other object disquieted and distressed. The inner life is for God; and God is for the inner life. Hence the Holy Spirit introduces this subject of fellowship with God, by a sublime testimony to him who is the eternal life. About to lead our spirits into the fulness of the heart of God, that Holy Spirit first directs us to him who came forth from that heart as the Father's great life-gift to the sons of men. "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, and was manifested to us." The eternal life himself, who was

in the bosom of the Father, came down to us, to give us life in himself; that, in the power of that life, we might in him for evermore have fellowship with the Father. It was beyond the power of God's Spirit to enable the soul of man, while dead in sins, to know communion with the living God. Its mental faculties, however exalted; its natural affections, however lovely after their kind, could have no sympathy of thought or emotion with the Divine Father; "for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Nor would it have sufficed, in order to this peculiar fellowship, that there should have been life-even life of the highest, purest, mental and spiritual nature—had it not been sonship life; a life bringing the spirit of man into the relationship of true childhood to God, as its Father. Paternal affections are the yearnings of the fatherhood nature toward its offspring filial affections are the responsive yearnings of the childhood nature towards its source. Hence no life but the sonship life can qualify the heart to know and enjoy the mysterious blessedness of fellowship with the Father. Regarding God as a Spirit, it is clear that no nature but a spirit-nature can commune with him. Regarding him as the Father of spirits, it is equally clear that no nature but the God-born nature can hold child-like fellowship with him. There were thoughts and purposes, deep hidden in the eternal heart, kept secret from the ages, which he could reveal to no creature-mind, until the many sons should be born unto him with