" Again a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth." We here get a very important principle of the divine life: what is our life, and whence its source. There are two parts of the manifestation of the divine life: what He was in His own person down here, and, now that He is exalted, what He manifests through and in us of the divine life. First. Christ the source of it for us: " the Word was made flesh," &c. Secondly. The manifestation through and in us. There we can correct every estimate we form of our own lives, because we have the perfect and wonderful model of it in Christ Himself, who is the power of it. He is the very eternal life that was with the Father, and He has given us that eternal life. He was the Creator as shown in John's gospel.
" In the beginning was the Word, and this Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him," &e. He was eternally with God before He created; " and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us;" and lie adds, "of his fullness have we all received." Two things are here. First. 44 The Word was made flesh;" as also in the Hebrews, " the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person;" as in Colossians, " the image of the invisible God," the perfect representation of what God was. " Have I been so long time with you, and yet had thou not known me, Philip? He that bath seen me, hath seen the Father." We get in His person the life itself that was with the Father from the beginning. He was the life-it was in Him. It is never said eternal life is in us, but it is given to us; that is a different thing. He Himself is our life. He has life in Himself. " God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." But the Son has life in Himself. My hand is alive, but my life is not in my hand. My hand lives by virtue of its union with my body; take it of and I shall
live still. So the Church, or an individual soul, lives by virtue of its union with Christ, the Head. It is in Him the reality of the life is. Secondly. When Christ was down here, all His instructions were the expressions of this life. It was not like a commandment given by the law, because the law exacted from man what was becoming, and what man ought to be in relation to God. It took the responsibility that attached to man's character as man, and did not go beyond it. But we get in Christ the manifestation of what God was to man; love acting in the midst of evil. It was no part of the law to love sinners; but it was the part of the Lord; He came down to love. Another thing is this; that in all His thoughts and tones of feeling for us, He went far beyond the mere letter of the law, for the law could not say, " Blessed are the poor in spirit;" that must arise from an estimate of God. The law could not notice " Blessed are the peacemakers;" but Christ was Him-. self the Prince of Peace, showing there was peace to be made. So the duties. There was a spirituality in the law beyond what we see, but there was a power of good in Christ that went beyond the evil. The law never manifested power over evil in the shape of love; but there was manifested in Christ the power of good over evil, and that was Christ's life. We get in all His actings the character and expression of what God was in man when on earth, and that is so lovely; He was the eternal life that was with the Father. John the Baptist who was next to Christ, and immediately preceded Him, of whom the Lord testified, " of them that are born of woman there has not been a greater than John the Baptist," came in the way of righteousness; and therefore went away from men altogether, and was in the desert and kept no company with any; was a herald before Christ to announce Him; had nothing to say to any; ate locusts and wild honey. But God, being the person who was offended, could come in grace near to them, and speak to them in the spirit of grace, which rises above and over-rides the evil and expresses what God is; and they said, " Never man spake like this man." Then it is said, " He went about doing good." In Him was found the activity of good, the suffering for righteousness' sake, the exercise of love, " love your brethren." There is another thing which specially characterizes the divine life of Christ, the discernment of it in those who possess this life, the power of discerning the Spirit of life in another. It has been said there requires much grace in oneself to discern little grace in another. There is an attractive power in grace which recognizes the Spirit of Christ in another. He could. say, " for as much as this man also is a child, of Abraham.".There was that which attracted in Christ. The moment a Christian recognizes divine life in another, in spite of difference of education, rank, and many other things, he will be drawn towards him, it is characteristic, he cannot help it. The moment a man discerns the spirit of Christ in another, there is a necessary attraction to it; at once they are united together in love. " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." The instant the spirit and character of Christ is manifested, there is necessarily an attraction where the spirit of Christ is. Then there is the blessed discernment of the traits of it. It is discerning Christ. " Love your enemies," that was manifest in Christ as a man; " If you love them that love you, what thank have ye?" You must be above your enemies, and love those that are good for nothing. In Christ we see God coming down and manifesting this life in a man on the earth so as to attract towards Him, and to bring into His presence in rest; and He says, " As I have loved you, you ought also to love one another." " Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." He overcometh evil with good; you must do as God does-love your enemies. It was that proved Him to be God, in that He could love that in which there was nothing loveable. In God, the spring of love is from Himself, but we need something to attract us. I am referring to the primary revelation, " that which was from the beginning;" and however much we may go on, we must come back after all to it; it is always perfect because it is God Himself that is manifested. You never can bring me to anything where God was manifested but to the living word of Christ, or the written word of Scripture. We have only to ask-is it that which you have heard from the beginning? if not, " it is evil seducers." If it is that which we have had from the beginning, that is God; and that must test everything, and that is the character of the word. Bring a sinner opposite the word and you learn what he is, as in the case of the poor Samaritan woman. The written word is the manifestation of Christ, and is " a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." It is not that man can judge God's word without judging himself, so if be judges it wrong, he is judged himself. You may talk about colors or light to a blind man, but if he is blind he will not understand you. It is his non-perception of light and color that proves he is blind. 14 He that believeth not is condemned already," he is incapable of seeing Christ was God manifested in the flesh, and the word judges himself. It must be so where God is manifested. If I am incapable of discerning what manifests Christ, and the word does not reach my soul, it is that which judges me. " The word that I speak the same shall judge you in the last day." All God's ways now are presenting His moral manifestation. It will next be His judicial manifestation. If the moral manifestation is not received, " the word that I have spoken shall judge him at the last day."
(To be continued)