To Me to Live Is Christ

HM 1:21IT is on my heart to say a few words upon this passage; and, first, there is instruction to be gleaned from the contrast, which the context contains, between " to live " and " to die." If living is Christ and dying is gain, it would seem that both life and death have to do with the same party; as he says immediately afterward, " If I live in the flesh," if I " abide in the flesh," and then, " I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." In both cases, himself as living in the body, and himself as quitting the body, was the individual spoken of. There was a present experience which he had as an individual, and a future close at hand; and he had his own wishes and thoughts about it, and his own private judgment too. I should like to leave this scene here below-but loving Him into whose presence I should then enter, and knowing how His interests are concerned in the people among whom I am, I judge I had, for their sakes, better stay-and so I know I shall stay.

There are blessings in heaven in Christ, which belong to all the children of God alike; and there are blessings and privileges which now belong to every believer down here. The Father's love, which has placed the Lord Jesus at His own right hand, has placed us in Him there. "In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me." And again, of every believer that is true, which the same verse states, " and I in you." Christ in God, and we in Him, and these things known to be so, characterize faith now. So all the shining of light into a heart is sealed by the Spirit in it, and He abides in us for evermore. Paul would not have allowed that any believer was separable from the Father's thoughts of Christ in heaven, first-born among many brethren, Head of His body the church, which is the complement of Him that filleth all in all. All the saints at Philippi had that true of them, and all had faith and the Spirit. But all could not, did not say (each one for himself)-to me, living is. Christ, and dying is gain. They could say, Christ in God and we in Him up there; and He in us down here: God's appropriation of us to Himself. But Paul went on, and could and did say: Not only has God made the riches of the person and work of Christ now up there to attach through faith and the Spirit to me down here but it is all appropriated in my heart and mind and life, so that, to me, living is Christ.

Could the saints who were preaching Christ, even of envy and strife, of contention (not sincerely), supposing to add affliction to Paul's bonds, have said so much? (chap. 1.) Could the "all who seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's," who were not "like- minded " (with the Apostle) have said so? (chap 2.) Could those who, loving not the cross of Christ, made Paul weep, who minded earthly things, have said so? (chap 3.) No: their faith and spirit was the same as Paul's. The same Father, the same Christ, the same Heaven, the same position up there, the same calling down here: but if, in the range of God's eternity and Heaven, there was now but one blessing common and open to all believers-Paul, in the range of his own being in time, now and down here on earth, could present himself as a vessel filled with Christ. How is it now with us, with me, with you, reader.? Can we say, "To me to live is Christ, as well as to die is gain?"

The expression is a remarkable one. To me to live is Christ. Christ was a person. To me, not to live is joyous, or merely fruitful in labor, well worth while. But to me to live is Christ. The person of Christ is so filling the mind and heart and life of Paul that, if he speaks of himself, the adjective he uses as the predicate of I'—(Paul renewed) is Christ. As to me, living is Christ. Surely, He in the Father (and known to us to be there) and we knowing that we are in Him there, and that He is in us down here, ought to lead to and result in the absorption of Him, and the manifestation of Him by us. According to the ought and duty of the new nature which we have, this is quite plain. There are three things which maybe noticed here as to man in action. He has motives (right or wrong-consistent or inconsistent); he has an energy; and he has an end or ends in what he does. Paul drew his motives from Christ. Christ was his motive. That which influenced him to get into action, which was the motive cause to Paul, was Christ. His energy was Christ. The end which he sought was Christ: and (not merely was Christ in the glory the point to which his whole course and journey tended but) he had for himself, to-day, down here, a present end, and that was that Christ might be magnified in His body, whether it be by life or by death.

Nothing, perhaps, shows the present privilege of the Christian more than his competency, through grace, to separate himself from himself, and to judge, as in the presence of God, both himself and all that passes within and from himself. When he was dead in trespasses and sin, walking 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-having his conversation...in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind-by nature a child of wrath even as others, he could not have done so. For the God of this world blinds the eyes of those which believe not. But now he can do so. This we see in 1 Cor. 11:28-31²⁸But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. ²⁹For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. ³⁰For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. ³¹For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. (1 Corinthians 11:28‑31). He can examine himself, test his motives, his energy, and the end that he has before him,-judge himself. And if he does this instrumentally, through the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, he has also in Heaven One who knows how to wield the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:-quick (or living,) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, a discerner of the thoughts and of the intents of the heart. " Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." What the instinct seeks, what the mind is upon, all the connecting links, and all the hidden sap found in those links, all the thinkings of the mind, all the intentions of the heart are all open to Him. Solemn but blessed truth. Had it not been so, nor Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor Samuel, nor David, nor Job could have been saved. Jehovah knows the heart in all its depths, windings, and folds. The Lord Jesus knows his own heart and mind and life; knows what ours were, what they are and what He has undertaken to make them to be. No film on His eye, no veil over our hearts can hinder His reading us as we are, according to truth; and He never swerves in His purposes to make us that which He has apprehended us for.

MOTIVES.-That there is a motive in us for everything we do, I do not doubt. There being a motive, and our knowing that there is one, or what it is, are very different things. Poor inconsiderate wretch that man is, while in nature, knowing not his responsibility, or that the eye of God is upon him, reading all his bad motives and seeing the absence of all good motives-inconsiderate man, I say, goes on, led he knows not whither: yet motive he has, and motive which is noted on high, motive which oft his mind gets a glimpse of and is ashamed of.

Paul shows us what his motive was. What it was that set him, according to the new nature, in movement, and kept him therein. Motive, which while it filled his heart with the liveliest sense of holy liberty and practical freedom, gave also the light of a sound judgment, by means of which his mind could sit in judgment upon all things and enable him, steadily and firmly, to resist all the evil of the world, the flesh, and Satan; giving no place, cost what it might, to, evil. The old "I " was reckoned by him crucified, dead, and buried together with Christ. The new " I" (not I, but Christ that dwelleth in me) was able to keep him, Paul, in full occupation (as a divinely-made freeman of Heaven) with the Christ whom God had revealed to him as being in Heaven.

What privilege, freedom, and service are blended together in him in 2 Cor. 5:13-16¹³For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. ¹⁴For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: ¹⁵And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. ¹⁶Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. (2 Corinthians 5:13‑16). What privilege" we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause." As though he had said: I praise not myself; though you may glorify God for what he has wrought in me. I have no time to think of myself—absorbedly occupied either with God in ecstacy, or soberly laboring for you (vers. 12, 13).

" For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again " (vers. 14, 15). Constraint is a strong word, Paul. Do you mean that you are led about captive, dragged against the current, led whither you would not? Yes and no-says Paul. Yes, as to my Saul-nature and its circumstances, if you will: no, as to my Paul-nature and its circumstances. But, of a truth, as to this constraint, there is, so far, no battle. It is the love of Christ, the love which He bears to me, as to one given to Him from before the foundation of the world; for whom he left divine glory in Heaven above and came down here,-became God manifest in the flesh, gave Himself (His love was stronger than death or than God's judgment against me);. as one to whom He has shown Himself,-He being gone on high; whom He loves and will love, even unto the end; one for whom He is about, a second time, to leave the Father's Throne and come and take to share His own Throne. The Eternal Lover of my soul, He draws me and I run after Him. Made willing in the day of His power, able to say, " I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine,"-I am drawn according to the new nature. No bondage

this, but the Heavenly and divine freedom of a son of God. But, then, if the love of CHRIST constrains on the one hand, (and who that ever tasted that, but what found that his heart was too narrow to contain the overflowing fullness of Christ's love to his people), it give joyous freedom and leads captive, as the magnet separates and draws out the needles whose heads are towards it from those whose points are towards it and the heads the other way; on the other hand, this is no unreasonable thing, "because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto. Him which died for them, and rose again " (ver. 14, 15.)

Instinct and love first, but sober conviction and calm judgment afterward. We were all dead in trespasses and sins, and He died under the penalty due to our sins: and, as here stated, he had an object in doing so, even the having of a people, now, who should live: and live (not unto themselves, but) unto Him which died for them. Paul's judgment was made up and settled; for himself, he meant to meet this object which Christ had in His mind when, seeing the moral death in which man was, He revealed to Paul His own death, which set Paul free, that he might live to Christ. Deliverance from moral death and the judgment against it, which had been borne by another, in order to have him not any longer, practically the slave of Satan (by indulgence in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life) weighed upon Paul to cut him off from all that Saul had been, and to be devoted to every claim of Christ over him. Here it is not love and joy and privilege only, according to the new nature; but intelligence and judgment, and a firm purpose to stand against all that was of the old man,-all that, in our circumstances, Satan would use to entangle us with, and to go out as in- dividuals meeting the mind of Christ, living to Him who died for us and rose again. Many only look at the constraint of love, Christ's love to us, as though that would do everything: not so Paul. The constraint of Christ's love was the ornament of his heart, the joy of his soul;-but, there was the battle too. The keeping under the body; the judging of flesh and spirit; clean separation from the world, and resisting of Satan too; enduring hardness as a good soldier of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Paul had faith, and had received the Spirit like us all; but Paul was, and stood down here, for Christ, even as Christ was up there on high for Paul. Paul was a lover of Christ and a servant of' Christ, and would be so, even as Christ had shown Himself to be the lover of Paul and the One that served him, in scenes and circumstances in which none but He could serve. He has loved and served us: can we add, and we love and serve Him?

The second passage I would turn to is Rom. 14 It shows us the extent to which this motive of living to the Lord alone is owned by God and Paul, in every detail of our lives here below: and that we are bound to own it in others, and honor it in them, even where their know- ledge and intelligence is defective. The spirit of life down here of a Christian is in seeing the Lord every where and doing everything as unto Him. The Lord will have his honor those who in conscience live to Him. One believes that he may eat all things.; another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Both are right as to their actions. Only "let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth' not judge him that eateth: for God bath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up; for God is able to make him stand." So as to days, as well as meats. " One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the. Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, THAT HE MIGHT BE LORD BOTH OF THE DEAD AND LIVING

(ver. 5-9). In righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost we have to serve Christ in all these things, in order to be well-pleasing to God. I have got to serve Christ amid all the weaknesses of those that are in His company with me. I must have faith, and have it for myself before God amid all the weaknesses' of unintelligent Christians around me. But I must insist upon every one of them

doing what he does as unto the Lord; living as unto Him.

And this is enforced by Paul, in the fact stated by him, that each of us must stand at the judgment seat of Christ-bow and confess to Him-give account to God of why we acted as we have done. A solemn and an important truth to induce us to look well to what the regulating motive of our actions down here is. Oh, how little do the Christians of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five think even of these things! Surely they therein forget their own mercies,-mercies of the wilderness-pilgrimage, under the guidance and eye of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But if " to me to live is Christ," points me first to Him as my motive, it secondly points me to Himself' Christ, likewise, for energy, the energy or power which a Christian wants to carry him right up against the current of all here below, and to enable him to stem the tide of difficulties from the world and self and. Satan here below.

This we have shown to us in 2 Cor. chap. 12. and also in chap. 1. It is the principle of resurrection from death.

Paul got his first lesson ere he entered upon service. Caught up into the third heavens by a power not his own, the body made nothing of, so that, whether he was in it or out of it, he could not tell; he found himself in and amid all the circumstances of the glory of Him that had loved him. But the Lord knew His captive better than the captive knew the captor. And the Lord would use Paul as a vessel and channel by which to set forth, not the knowledge of the glory, but the present grace of the Lord Himself. Lest he should be puffed up a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan is sent to buffet him. The inconsiderateness of the piety of a good man appears. He will go straight to the end at once. " Take away this thorn. Take away this thorn. Take away this thorn." Such is his prayer. Instead of which the Lord says: " My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." The Lord, knew all the secret counsel of God-all that Paul was-all the need His own heart felt to have Paul dependent upon and consciously and willingly dependent upon the everlasting arms which were underneath. He would not go at once to the end. Death and resurrection were the principle He had owned and acted upon all through His own course; He would have Paul, also, willingly to appropriate death and resurrection as the principle on which he meant to walk too. Would you rather be strong in yourself, and strong because there are no difficulties in the way, or crippled and crumpled up in weakness but strong because He that has bought you with His own blood is perfecting His strength in your weakness? Surely anything that makes me see the need, I have, and makes me willing to profit from the daily grace of a risen and ascended Lord, who is obliged to cripple Paul, yet has the heart to put His own arm under the cripple's weakness ever after, is most precious. Paul can now speak out freely: he had no account to give of the glory, none of that which he heard when in it; but now he can speak out freely. The stream of the water of life flows through his own soul and fills his circumstances. What can Satan, what the thorn, what the buffeting, avail to silence a man who finds that the living Christ of God, though in heaven, is now graciously perfecting His strength in the weakness of His servant. The triumph fills His soul, and He gathers from all around occasion for triumphing. " Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong." Such seems to me to have been the principle which the Lord taught Paul ere his service began; namely, that the power w' as God's in which he had to run; and that that power wrought in an unhuman way, a divine way-as in the Redeemer's own course-through death and resurrection. This was fourteen years before the first chapter of the epistle, in which he relates another thing-how, being in his work as apostle, when the question came out at Ephesus of whether idolatry could stand against the word of the gospel, he found himself thrown into prison. Had he forgotten the principle taught him fourteen years ago?-that he should have despaired even of life, being pressed out of measure beyond strength.

Well, if he did forget, the Lord, who was, all the while, nearer to him than his weakness and than any of his circumstances-yea, was using them too to show that the work was His and not Paul's-acts on his soul. And then he can write: " But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead." The expansive power of faith, too, is shown, sand a past deliverance leads to a calculation for the present and for all future needs. " Who delivered us from so

great a death, and Both deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us." " All things work together for good to them that love God " (Rom. 8:28²⁸And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)). And as to all circumstances—tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, the sword,—if they can reach us they can not reach Christ, to extinguish in His heart the love which He bears to us; nor hinder our saying, " Nay in all these things we are more 'than conquerors, through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us f'rom the love of God, which is in Christ

Jesus our Lord" (ver. 37-39). What can change Him, or remove from His heart the love which God bears to us in Christ? And what can take away the knowledge of it from us?

Man's way is to- prove his own competency and self-sufficiency by at once towering up to the point he desires to attain to; this he cannot do, if he is walking with God. God will not give His glory to another. And if He takes up a poor sinner, to lead him through foes and over difficulties, He will have the poor sinner to know that it is " not by might nor by power; but by My spirit" that the end is to be gained. And note here, that there is a present purpose gained by the Lord perfecting His strength in weakness. He gets glory now. And the servant gets honor too, as being thus used by the Lord for the display of His grace. To the Christian this application to himself, by the Lord, of the principle of death and resurrection, in daily experience, is a most precious thing. The cross is to the Jew a stumbling block, to the philosopher foolishness. But unto them who are called, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. No flesh shall glory in His presence. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor. 1).

There is nothing which more unsuspectingly lets self and worldliness into a godly soul than human energy. Paul set out with divine motives, and an object or end in his mind which were in perfect harmony with the energy which the Lord meant to be his, and the path that energy runs in. " He is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name before the Gentiles, and Kings, and the Children of Israel: for I will show him what great things he must suffer for my name's sake." (Acts 9:15,16¹⁵But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: ¹⁶For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. (Acts 9:15‑16)). Yet we find this special vessel breaking down. Whether the honor was too great for the vessel, or whether the service was too great for his measure of communion, he broke down: broke down too on the blessed side of over care for what his Master loved. It may be that he did not sufficiently keep before him the difference between obedience and fellowship, between serving his master and doing. But he would go up to Jerusalem; and would not be stopped by fear of bonds and imprisonment-was he not ready to die, also, at Jerusalem? And he went up, and shaving of heads, vows, appealing to the prejudices of the Pharisees against the Sadducees followed thereupon: things which were not according to the divine energy, and which had no savor of death and resurrection in them. But if he had overstept himself, his divine master allowed bonds and imprisonment to roll in, that in the crippled state of His servant He might Himself be able to show his grace, and to cheer His servant therewith. " And the night following, the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem,- so must thou bear witness also at Rome" (Acts 23:11¹¹And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. (Acts 23:11)). Perhaps the Lord saw that the bonds and the captivity which followed were, the best preparative for the testimony before the kings and rulers before whom Paul is now to appear,-and the best testimony, too, to them, as to their position and state. I am persuaded that it was so with Peter in his falls, whether in the denial of the Lord, or the compromise of the gospel at Antioch. He loved the Lord.: 0, how loyally! The end before him was in accordance with this motive power. But until he had judged the energy in which he ran, he could not judge the ways into which that energy would lead him, and did lead him. And when he came to his death, his own energy, plans, and doings were all to be set aside; and the Lord to have the honor of putting the crown of martyrdom upon His servant. " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou west young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither" thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he. saith unto him, Follow me." (John 21:18,19¹⁸Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. ¹⁹This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. (John 21:18‑19)). And Abraham in Egypt, and. in the matter of Hagar; and Isaac with his Rebecca; and Jacob at Jabbok; and David, and Job, etc., etc., in olden times; all had to learn the same lesson. False energy (not of faith) has not the Spirit,-and where we walk by sight, sense rules us, and our minds get hold of Plans and ways not of God. 0 how much of this lies at the root of the modern Christianity.

ENDS proposed by faith. THE end which God has proposed to faith now, is to meet the Lord at His second coming from the Throne, and then to be forever with Himself. This, as we may see, absorbed Paul's soul, in the 3rd chapter of the Philippians. But when it is so, he that hath this hope in him, those to whom He Himself is the hope, the mark of the prize of their high calling, necessarily purge themselves, even as He is pure. Thus a second end, as it were, becomes ours: we want to be found by Him without blame, as to our course down here, sanctified wholly in body, soul, and spirit. If we are to meet Him as our hope, we desire that we should be able to do so to the unhindered delight of Him who will say to those that are waiting and ready for Him: Well done, good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord.

This end was earnestly sought by Paul; and we see it in Phil. 1:20²⁰According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. (Philippians 1:20), as the one blessed ambition of his soul for himself in this life. " I know, that this shall turn to my salvation.... According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death." It filled his soul-it was an expectation earnestly occupying him as well as longed for. What? First, negatively, in no one particular to be put to shame.

Secondly, positively, and in a tone of soul harmoniously according with the greatness of the end which he had in view; "even with all boldness, as at all times, so at that particular moment also," (what is all this labored speech leading up to?) "that Christ shall be magnified in my body." Yes he would, and he sought that all the fullness that is in Christ might be set off, openly presented in him in the body down here. Magnified is a strong word.

Christ magnified is a very strong expression. But that was what Paul's end was; and if that was gained, as he felt assured it was, whether it was by life or by death he cared not. For to me to live is Christ. What could God do more for us than He has done; placed us in Christ in Himself; and placed Christ's Spirit in us. Paul saw and he attained to more, even to this, to such a simple consistency with the faith given, and such a subjection to the spirit, that he could say, I am for. Him down here, in the details of the wilderness life, as He is up there for me."

Oh! that Christians would lay this to heart and act upon it, and become letters of Christ, known and read of all men. I am persuaded that nothing but this will give the power of bearing much fruit. Christianity was not meant merely for the soul of individuals, but to purge the conscience and to cleanse the heart, so that the eye might become single, and that fruit might abound, and that our joy too might thus be full. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15:8-11⁸Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. ⁹As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. ¹⁰If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. ¹¹These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:8‑11)) ... ." Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" (John 15:14¹⁴Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. (John 15:14)) ... . " Ye have not

chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you" (John 15:16¹⁶Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16).) Even as the blessed Lord had said: " This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love bath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you " (John 15:12-15¹²This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. ¹⁵Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:12‑15)) " But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which hone other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father " (John 15:21-24²¹But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. ²²If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. ²³He that hateth me hateth my Father also. ²⁴If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. (John 15:21‑24)). Everything around us, now, is in ruins and declension; but the Christian has his own principles, and the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is in nowise changed. If ever there was a day when it was important for every professed follower of Christ to stand fast and to be true to his profession, I believe it is the present day. There is no answer to infidelity like the life of Christ displayed by the Christian. Nothing puts the madness of the infidel, and the folly of the superstitious, more to shame and silence than the humble, quiet, devoted walk of a thoroughgoing, heavenly-minded, divinely-taught Christian. It may be in the unlearned and poor and despised; but, like the scent of the lowly violet, it gives its perfume abroad, and both God and man take notice of it. Works, if only hypocritical doings, go for nothing; but works which are the genuine expression of living and walking with God in Christ, are of the same sort of value as the hands of a good clock. A good clock without hands is, for practical purposes, of no value; but the hands on the face tell the measure of the value of the works within, and tell the lapse of time. " We are His (God's) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God bath before ordained that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)). Now is the time for works and for overcoming; to him at least who has an ear to hear (Rev. 2;3, and compare with chap. 22. ver. 11, 12).

Let the friends-brethren in Christ-who avow that they are not of this world, even, as Christ was not of it, study Matt. 6:19-34¹⁹Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: ²⁰But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: ²¹For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. ²²The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. ²³But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! ²⁴No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. ²⁵Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? ²⁶Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? ²⁷Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? ²⁸And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: ²⁹And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? ³¹Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ³²(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. ³³But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. ³⁴Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:19‑34). It is a heart-searching portion but a most blessed one, too, as showing what the present practical comforts are which flow out from a single eye.. Let them seek and obtain that single eye, and they will find their portion, even now, in the wilderness to be large and abundant.