UD 1:20The great practical security of the believer against the evil working of the enemy is, that he is himself
indwelt of God. As it is the fearful, but also the
universal character of the natural man to obey the influence of him who is the prince of the power of the air, so, on the other hand, it is they who are led by the Spirit of God who are effectively the children of God. They yield themselves, in the sweet enjoyment of the liberty of redemption, to the self-same guidance as that to which Jesus willingly submitted, when, in gracious humiliation, He
obeyed for our sakes (
Eph. 2:22Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2); Rom. 8.14;
Luke 4:11And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, (Luke 4:1)).
The house has now changed masters. He who once ruled it undisturbed, and kept secure possession of his goods, has been dislodged by rightful conquest; and the victorious Redeemer has become the everlasting owner of the spoil. "Ye are Christ's" is now the assuring testimony of the Holy Ghost to those, who, from the once hopeless bondage of sin and darkness, have been called by the voice of Jesus into the new and marvelous light of the Divine glory. They are become sons of God, through the grace of Him who made Himself the Son of Man, that in their stead He might strive lawfully and win the crown of their redemption. As their triumphant Captain of salvation, He has made them free from that first bondage, that they might become the fellows of His own rich blessedness as the Beloved of the Father.
It is by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Adoption, that all true Christian experience is regulated, and the whole tenor of it is determined. As sons we suffer, and as sons we rejoice. If we know our standing, we find it to be purely filial. Hence the Holy Ghost, who bears us witness of this blessed assurance, becomes the forming power of the Christian character. For He is not only the original communicator of life to our souls, but also the active power of its sustainment and its exercise. It is for this reason that all these varied sentiments and emotions which distinguish the believer from the natural man, are attributed in Scripture to the Spirit as their effective cause. Dwelling in our hearts, according to the purity and knowledge of the Divine nature, He sometimes brings heaviness into the soul, through the discovery of evil and infirmity, while His end is always the practical sanctification of the children, by leading them more and more fully into the knowledge and enjoyment through the faith of Jesus, of their own sure portion in the love of God.
The believer's condition, as a justified heir of salvation, is not only peace but also light. "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye the light in the Lord" (Eph. 5:88For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (Ephesians 5:8)). It is in Christ that they are beheld, in the view of the Spirit, in all the purity of the Divine righteousness. Such is the believer's standing. The walk of such is expected to agree with their vocation, whose calling is into living union with their risen and glorified Head. And so it is added: "Walk as children of the light... proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." The conscious enjoyment of this wonderful position, as well as that devotedness of heart which makes the pleasure of the Lord to be the chief desire of the really growing Christian, is effected by the gracious operation of the Spirit. Being Himself pure light as well as love, He morally transforms the subjects of the better ministration of life and righteousness into the likeness of that abiding glory, upon which, because it displays itself in the person of the Savior, they can now look steadfastly with unveiled face (2 Cor. 3:8-188How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 11For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. 12Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 15But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. 16Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 17Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:8‑18)).
As praise is the just expression of that peace and joy which the knowledge of the God of hope excites in our hearts (Rom. 15:1313Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:13); Heb. 13:1515By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)), so the natural utterance of spiritual desire is prayer. But it is evident that the tone and quality of Christian supplication will vary according to the measure and present activity of the Spirit's operation in the soul. The God of patience, who is in us by His Spirit, can go very low in search of what He desires to hear from us in prayer. The vague and sorrowful expression of inward conflict and distress is aided by the groaning sympathy of the Spirit of grace (Rom. 8:2626Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26)). On the other hand, the intelligent, and therefore fervent aspirations of a heart, whose knowledge both of present things and things to come is according to the full revelation of the word of truth, are dictated and directed by the same Spirit, as the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God (Eph. 1:1717That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: (Ephesians 1:17)). Whether, while reminding us of our personal necessities, or those of the suffering body of Christ at large, or while animating our hope and stirring within us more zealous desires for the glory of God, the Holy Ghost invariably leads the suppliant, whose heart He fills, to Jesus. It is He who is the Author and Finisher of faith.
True prayer in the Spirit must embrace, as its final object, the fulfillment of the purposes of God. Its scope, therefore, will vary with the progress of the children in the way of God. Displaying to the heart of faith the finished glory of the Savior in the heavens, the Comforter not only feeds the Church with the last hope of future entrance into the enjoyment of that rest, but acts meanwhile within her as the monitor and guide of her obedience. By showing us the things of Christ, He makes us know the hope of our heavenly calling as a present truth, while He enables us also to anticipate the future manifestation of the glory of Jesus, in fulfillment of the sure word of prophecy. The world to come-the liberation of the groaning creation-the abasement and effectual expression of the evil which afflicts, as yet, that earth which God has ordained to be a witness of His own power and goodness, when its dominion shall have been committed to the hands of its true Governor-such things, being comprehended in the promises of God, are a part of the natural aliment of the believing soul. They form, therefore, subjects for prayer in the Spirit; for all that pertains to Jesus must be the desire of the heart, in which the Spirit of adoption dwells. Moreover, by unfolding to us the divine instructions of the word, that Spirit enables us (because we have the mind of Christ) to think rightly, and judge safely of the progress of that evil world in the midst of which we walk, as strangers, through the love of Him who has redeemed us for Himself (John 17:14-1614I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14‑16)).
It is remarkable, that. while the exhortation to continual prayer is addressed repeatedly in Scripture to the saints, it is in this passage only, that the full expression " Praying in the Holy Ghost" is found. If we observe the context in which it stands at the commencement of that striking valedictory exhortation with which Jude closes his stern prophetic warning of the Christian apostasy, we can hardly fail to see that there is a highly characteristic force in this expression. The faith in which we are there exhorted to build ourselves up, is called emphatically "our most holy faith." The prayer by which we are to make known our requests to God, in the midst of the growing evil of the times, is to be "in the Holy Ghost."
The reason of this emphasis it is not hard to see. For it is as truth grows less and less estimable in the eyes of man that its priceless value is more thoroughly felt and understood by those who find in it their life and hope. God sympathizes perfectly with this feeling, in itself a gracious affection of the new nature, which clings with fresh tenacity to Jesus as His precious name becomes more vile and dishonored in the world. While contemplating a time when sound doctrine would no longer be endured, and Christian hope would have become a mere derision, His Spirit grows more earnest and emphatic in His commendation of the Gospel. "Most holy," is that precious faith affirmed to be, which purifies the heart of the believing sinner from the corruptions which are in the world through lust.
The distinctive truth of the Christian dispensation is the presence and power of the Holy Ghost in the church, as the divine Witness of the glory of the ascended Savior. With the progress of spiritual corruption in that dispensation, there would naturally be a growing insensibility to the nature and value of this characteristic doctrine. At its close, the spirit of error will, with a fearful though most just retributive effect, possess itself completely of the minds of those who could not be persuaded to the love of saving truth (2 Thess. 2:11, 1211And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:11‑12)). Men will then be scoffers, not carelessly but upon deliberation. They will give reasons for their disobedience to the faith (2 Peter 3. passim). They will be liars against God upon principle and conviction. In willing ignorance of his first acts of judgment, they will deride the Spirit's warnings as a weak and fabulous tradition.
Such will be, to speak generally, the temper and habit of men's minds when those perilous times shall fairly have set in, which form the last days of the Church's patience here below. It is in the midst of the common prevalence of men's unbridled evil, that those who are beloved of God are so earnestly exhorted to prayer in the Holy Ghost. For it is only thus that they can be preserved in practical separateness from that which God will judge.
But prayer in the Holy Ghost implies a full subjection both of heart and conscience to the word of God. And so, because that word is, to the believer, evermore the word of grace, not only needed warning, but also a more abundant fullness of consolation, will be received by those who, instead of living in pleasure upon the earth (James 5.5), are awaiting in sure hope and long tried patience the coining of the Son of God from heaven (Heb. 10:36-3936For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 37For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 38Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 39But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:36‑39)).
It is more especially with reference to this last effort, that the apostle Jude addresses us in the prospect of the dreary but inevitable fulfillment of the Spirit's testimonies concerning the closing hours of divine long-suffering. To keep ourselves in the love of God. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, is the trial of our faith and patience in these latter days. The effective means of both these things is watchful prayer (1 Peter 4:77But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. (1 Peter 4:7)).
To be holding truth doctrinally, and even founding right expectations on such views, is not enough. If faith is not active, edification is impossible. Thinking upon the name of Aim who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, reminds us of the faithful promises to which that gracious name is pledged. Those promises again, in their exceeding greatness and their preciousness, when pondered in simplicity of faith, prepare us for a riper communion with the God of hope, who has made himself to be in Christ the portion of our souls. The light of the divine glory shows itself in. its undying brightness to the eye of faith. Above the heavens, whither Satan, as the accuser of the brethren, has his present access, we perceive the glory of Him who is in readiness to come forth suddenly and take us to Himself. While man, in his madness and folly here below, is the daily grief and bitterness of our souls, man there, the man Christ Jesus, is the sure witness of our complete deliverance from the wrath which is coming on the children of disobedience, as well as the bright token of the manner of that love which the Father hath already bestowed on us in Him.
Thus for the vigilant believer the visible existence which surrounds him is but as a curtain which conceals for a season from his expectant gaze the glory which is ready to be revealed. Divine truth is with him to assure him of his coming joy, and to expound to him, meanwhile, the nature and necessity of those moral phenomena which, without such explanation as the word of God alone affords, would prove too perplexing and disheartening to be consistent with our peace. For grievous indeed is the burden under which we groan while in. the body. But in the sanctuary all is clear; and that sanctuary is the appointed station of the Christian all the long night of his patience here below (comp. for the principle, Psa. 134).
When engaged in the contemplation of that which is above us and yet for us, we are spiritually minded in a practical sense. Jesus is filling our thoughts and keeping them in happy exercise about Himself. Desire grows together with that love which, being of the Spirit, looks towards the Spirit's things. Hence, prayer will abound, and will be mingled with thanksgiving, while the exercise of this divine communion will tend, by its own sweet necessity, to the furtherance of spiritual fellowship among the saints. For faith in the Lord Jesus must produce, as its shadow and effect, love unto all the saints (Eph. 1:1515Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, (Ephesians 1:15)).
The desires of the. Spirit in the church can never willingly contract themselves within narrower limits than the perfect truth. What Christ loves, we love who are His. And because this love is absolute; and is the very life of those who are "of God," it is not extinguished, though it may be sorely tried by the abundance of still accumulating evil. The "comfort of love" may oftentimes be easily sighed for, in a day of multiplied division and much spiritual feebleness, but, as a living principle, it continues to be the taken of our personal interest in the things of Christ. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" (1 John 3:1414We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. (1 John 3:14)).
But at a time when Satan's work is nearly at its height, and the corruption of the general mass of Christian profession is complete, the Spirit's operation, in the true remnant, of the divine mercy, will naturally have reference to the special circumstances of the times. It has been always so.. Sighing and crying for the daily outrage and systematic desecration to which the truth of God is subjected, the few whom God preserves by grace are presented to us in the scriptures of the prophets, as speaking often to one another in the fear of the Lord. They slave in hope to the sure promises of Jehovah, who, in His covenanted faithfulness, shone on them from afar with reassuring hope and comfort, through the dark and heavy cloud of His impending judgments (Mic. 7). We also have our ministry of comfort. To us the written testimonies of the apostles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, are in the place of the prophet who spake audibly to the remnant of Jehovah's earthly people; while the indwelling Spirit of adoption, is as an unction of sure knowledge to the Father's little ones, to make them see and know the living truth, that by means of this they may continue to abide in Him (1 John 2). That Spirit is given to us as the Spirit, not of faint-heartedness and indecision, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:77For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)).
Prayer is not always an impulsive thing. It is more usually regarded in scripture as a deliberate action of the-spiritual understanding. Thus it is often found associated with ideas of labor, of perseverance, striving, etc. Like every other genuine spiritual exercise, it has its origin in the heart, in which the Spirit dwells. Faith in God is its producing cause. The known will of God must, therefore, be its regulating principle. While, therefore, it is shaped and colored by the particular exigencies which call forth from time to time the sympathies of the believer, whether as a member of the one body of Christ, or as an isolated man of God in the midst of a mixed world, prayer in the Spirit must be a habit of the really spiritual man. In point of earnestness and fervor, its flow will be languid or abundant, as the Christian is himself accustomed to be much or little in conscious fellowship with God.
It is, perhaps, on the whole, less needful to admonish one another to a diligent culture of personal communion with the Savior, in a wise appreciation of our daily and incessant need of Him, than that we should be kept in continual remembrance that the rule of our life as Christians is the will of God. We serve the Lord Christ. To serve the living and true God is our present occupation, while awaiting in sure hope the revelation of His son from heaven. The same spirit who attests our perfect freedom from all legal bondage and all guilty blame, through the effectual purging of our conscience by the blood of Christ, is our instructor in the way which God has chosen for our walk.
Hence the notion of inactive contemplation is excluded from the picture which the gospel spreads before us of true spiritual blessedness. " For we are not our own." But to recognize this truth is to accept a permanent responsibility to Him to whom we now belong. His mind, then, must be studied, or His will can neither be apprehended nor obeyed. His sayings, therefore, are His people's guides. But the sayings of Jesus are not limited to sentences of consolation and assurance to our guilty souls. While sustaining us in never-failing mercy as our great High priest, He admits us (because we are His brethren) into fellowship with His own thoughts. He confers with us, as friends, upon the general interests of God. The Father's things are His; and what He has received from Him He has communicated freely to His own. It is this that gives to true Christian service its lovely and ennobling character, dating its commencement as it does from the consciousness of that new and wondrous' relationship between the Sanctifier and the sanctified, from which also its entire competency is derived. The natural effect of this must always be, that in the mind of a growing Saint his own personal interests will be less habitually in his thoughts than the general interests of the body of Christ. Cheered and led on by the clear shining of the Savior's glory, he will feel that to run in the race on which grace has set him, is to increase his distance daily from the former things. He will look on the things of others rather than on his own; because prayer (Col. 4:22Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; (Colossians 4:2); Phil. 4:66Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (Philippians 4:6))-seeing that the very basis on which prayer proceeds is the covenanted grace in which we stand-is doubtless an intelligent exposition of our wants to God. Now these wants will vary, as has been already said, according to the spiritual growth and practical condition of the suppliant. When the Spirit is not hindered, He will surely produce in us an enlargement of divine knowledge and desire which will find its meet expression in our prayers. True, however, as this is, it must not be forgotten that all such intelligence is limited, and falls short in its measure both of the extent of our need, and of the perfect grace which meets it. "We know not what to pray for as we ought." But if so, we are comforted by the knowledge that we have to do with "one who is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think;" and that, too, according to the power that worketh in us. The mind of the Spirit in His groaning intercession for us is always in advance of our own consciousness (Eph. 3:2020Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, (Ephesians 3:20); Rom. 8:26, 2726Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26‑27)).
In proportion to the measure of existing evil, and spiritual danger, is the effective energy of the Holy Ghost displayed as the faithful watcher and guardian of the Church of Christ. God ever rises higher than the adversary as the defense and keeper of His own. His songs of deliverance are round about the righteous (made such and so preserved in Christ alone) all the long and dreary day of that " much tribulation" through which, as the companions of Christ's patience, they are called to enter into the kingdom which is ready to be revealed. He is, in Christ, His children's hiding-place and joy (Psa. 32:77Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. (Psalm 32:7); Rev. 1:99I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 1:9); Acts 14:2222Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)).
Hence prayer in the Holy Ghost will never savor of despondency. For, while the fearful nature of the evil in the midst of which our lot is cast is clearly apprehended, and a searching consciousness of that corporate as well as individual responsibility is acknowledged, the neglect of which has led, practically, to such results, the expectation of the children will not cease to be according to the grace in which they stand. They will continue, therefore, to rejoice in hope of the glory of God, amid the sorrowful confessions which the Spirit of truth must needs bring from their lips. They will be happily conscious, that while all that is sorrowful and humiliating is but momentary, the things which they desire by the Spirit are eternal. Already more than conquerors through Him who loves them, they will desire earnestly the day of manifested triumph. Pressing on with weary but still eager steps, they will look hopefully toward the goal. In their weakness they will find the grace of Christ a still sufficient strength. The world around them will be busy and in earnest in its wickedness; and they will be no less decided in their purpose to wait patiently for Christ. They will willingly occupy until He shall return. As God is more and more forgotten in the world, the riches of His glory according to the mystery of His heavenly calling will be more fervently admired and delighted in by those who are kept in their steadfastness by His unwearied grace. Their faith and hope will be in God (1 Peter 1:2121Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:21)).
At the present moment, there is nothing to which Christians have more need to turn their thoughts than the inquiry, how far the daily habit of their limes really tallies with the expressed mind of the Spirit respecting these latter times. The question is not what we think, but how we act: for faith is an active principle, and loves the labor unto which it leads. Doctrinal notions, on the other hand, are powerless for good, and only tend to blind the theorist to his responsibilities as a holder of the truth of God; because mere notion does not touch the conscience, though it may fill and interest the mind. No one will exert himself to pull another from the fire who is not thoroughly alive to the reality of the danger; as well as heartily interested in the sufferer. Now spiritual interests are analogous, in their activity, to natural ones. To attempt the rescue of a fellow creature from a perilous position, is to obey a natural impulse. To be unconscious of such a feeling, or to disregard its promptings, would argue an unnatural insensibility, or a selfishness beyond the ordinary measure. So also in spiritual things. If we really are awake to the evil of the day, and mindful of the snares by which the souls which Christ has purchased with His blood are often taken at the fowler's will, we shall not be indifferent. While warily attending to our own concerns, and endeavoring to bear without staggering the burden which belongs to each (Gal. 6:55For every man shall bear his own burden. (Galatians 6:5)), we shall be desirous of helping one another. Remembering that the battle is of God, we shall not cease to fight the good fight that we may keep the faith. While others work a lie we shall be doers of the truth.
Knowledge of every kind but one is cheap and easily attainable in our day. True knowledge of God remains indeed a secret still, except to the unworthy vessels of. His mercy who receive it from Himself through faith. But religious knowledge is abundant. Nothing is more common than to find a considerable fund of doctrinal information accompanied by much accuracy of general religious idea, in the minds of men who are, nevertheless, completely in the world. Evangelical theories may indeed be justly classed, in the present day, among the rudiments of the world, so easily are they embraced by -those who, in ignorance of the true meaning of the cross and the power of the resurrection, find Christian profession an honor rather than a reproach. Yet nothing is more certain than that the truth of the gospel is abidingly the abhorrence of the natural man. "If I please man," says the apostle; "I am not the servant of Christ." Christian opinions confer no life; divine grace does: and where it acts, it brings forth faith in Jesus as its echo from the living Christian's heart.
We love God if we are Christ's; but the friendship of the world is enmity with God. If, therefore, we are praying in the Holy Ghost, we shall not be desiring the things of the world. With respect to this, the Spirit's limitation is, that all that is not of the Father is of the world. Now nothing is of the Father which is not in the Son. In Him all fullness dwells. Essentially, the fullness of Godhead is in the man Christ Jesus. By appointment, also, He is heir of all. The treasures, therefore, of wisdom and knowledge are in Him not less than (rather comprising a part of) the riches of Divine salvation. Christ, then, will be the object of His search who seeks the Father's things. But if we are seeking Him and His, our eye and our heart will 'be for heaven not for earth: for Christ is not here but there. If in us by His Spirit, it is as the hope of glory, and the earnest of a life which is our own indeed but hid for us with Christ in God. The mists of death have gathered for us over earthly things, since the day we knew that we were crucified with Christ. To be minding; therefore, earthly things, is to be unthankfully forgetful of the grace in which we stand. For it is through death that we have come to life in Him who is gone into heaven for our sakes. But the eyes of the dead are closed to sublunary things. The world is crucified to the believer whose faith perceives, in the ascended Jesus, the substance of that blessedness of which he speaks. Christ is in heaven, and our interests are where He is. Our expectations also are from thence alone. Our work, meanwhile, is here, in the confession of a hope which makes the world uneasy wherever it is faithfully expressed; for we expect Him as the Savior whom the world knows only as the Judge.
The world will not be persuaded that the end of all things is at hand, so long as it is able to taunt those who say that they are crucified with Christ with a manifest relish for, and an eager interest in, earthly things:. for the world is not dull in its appreciation of the claims of Christ upon the conscience of His people, though it be (as alas! it must, or it would cease to be the world) incapable of rightly estimating that pure and living spring of genuine Christian conduct which lies hidden in the heart that knows the love of God. Assuredly, a lively dread of furthering in any way the devices of the enemy in his great work of deception, will not fail to stimulate to personal watchfulness and soberness of mind, the Christian who is habitually praying in the Holy Ghost.
It is well for us to remember, that if we are not walking in the Spirit, we are surely grieving Him: but we are not walking in the Spirit unless we are sanctifying the Lord Christ in our hearts, and so living in a conscious readiness to give to every inquirer a reason of our hope. Meekness and fear are the never-failing witnesses of spiritual walk (.1 Peter 3:1515But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (1 Peter 3:15)), while joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ is the inward habit of the spiritual mind (Rom. 5.11). Strife and fretfulness of spirit are the natural though sad effects of the pressure of an evil day upon the weak and earthen vessel (Psa. 73 passim). The sole security against these things is to be found in the secret of the Divine Presence. We willingly are still while conscious that God speaks and acts. The battle is His own; and our constancy and courage must oftener be shown in the patient endurance of an evil report, than in the 'victorious assertion of triumphant truth. Yet truth will surely triumph in the end. God will send it forth to victory in the manifested glory of His Christ. Till then we wait as men who know the manner of their patience, as well as the certainty of its expected end. It is, no doubt, a trying thing to see the house of Him who is the Author of peace and order turned into a spiritual chaos. To see evil clearly while conscious of disability to work deliverance, is a deeply mournful spiritual experience. The possession of light is not here an unmixed enjoyment; for it shines in a darkness which it shows indeed but cannot dissipate. But if truth brings with it its own peculiar trials, it is, on the other hand, the means by which we may walk safely and watch hopefully until the darkness of the night be passed: It is a holy sorrow which finds its pang in that which makes the world rejoice: but the morning light is even now at hand to turn that sorrow into everlasting joy. A.