WHAT a discovery is it for us to make, in any measure, that the portion of Christ at the world's hands is our portion too. It knew Him not, and, in proportion as we are simple and true as children of God, it knows us not; and we, too, know it not. We know that it exists, but it and we have nothing in common. We are not of it, we do not approve it, and it is nothing to us, save in so far as we are inconsistent, allowing lust to come in and work.
We shall be like Him! With all the affections of children, and all their hopes-with all the schooling of God, with all the judgment of self, with all the true-hearted prayer that a saint pours out for himself, and for God's dear people-bow will the groans, nevertheless, come out from the heart-"So little attained so little of power!" Never mind; go on climbing up the hill. We shall be like Him. We shall yet have no taste for anything that He has not a taste for-no mind, save for that for which He has a mind. Like Christ clothed with immortality, incorruptibility and glory! And not only like Him outside, even in a scene where all can shine out without disturbance, but like Him all within, from the quickened soul upwards and outwards. All in harmony with Christ! What a word to have in one's heart, " I shall be" like Him! His name written on my forehead; I clothed upon with His likeness, for I shall see Him as He is.
Now we see through a glass darkly, and yet, if in any measure we see, we are molded into the same image; but then eye to eye-go onward. Onward in darkness? No, onward still in light, because it is onward to Christ. 'While the heart is occupied with Him, each step leads it nearer. Every spot that is unlike Christ becomes odious. We purify ourselves, even as He is pure.
It becomes us in these days to look to it, that we have the marks of God's children on us, both as answering to God, and also for the joy and comfort of our own souls.