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Abide in Chr

ist by
Andr ew Mur r
ay
Pr
eface
Dur ing the life of Jesus on ear th, the wor d He chiefly used when speaking of the r elations of
the disciples to Himself was: "Follow me." When about to leave for heaven, He gave them a new wor
d, in which their mor e intimate and spir itual union with Himself in glor y should be expr essed. That
chosen wor d was: "Abide in me."
It is to be fear ed that ther e ar e many ear nest follower s of Jesus fr om whom the meaning of this
wor d, with the blessed exper ience it pr omises, is ver y much hidden. While tr usting in their
Saviour for par don and for help, and seeking to some extent to obey Him, they have har dly r
ealized to what closeness of union, to what intimacy of fellowship, to what wondr ous oneness of life
and inter est, He invited them when He said, "Abide in me." This is not only an unspeakable loss to
themselves, but the Chur ch and the wor ld suffer in what they lose.
If we ask the r eason why those who have indeed accepted the Saviour, and been made par taker s of
the r enewing of the Holy Ghost, thus come shor t of the full salvation pr epar ed for them, I am sur
e the answer will in ver y many cases be, that ignor ance is the cause of the unbelief that fails
of the inher itance. If, in our or thodox Chur ches, the abiding in Chr ist, the living union with
Him, the exper ience of His daily and hour ly pr esence and keeping, wer e pr eached with the same
distinctness and ur gency as His atonement and par don thr ough His blood, I am confident that
many would be found to accept with gladness the invitation to such a life, and that its influence
would be manifest in their exper ience of the pur ity and the power, the love andthe joy, the fr uit
- bear ing, and all the blessedness which the Saviour connected with the abiding in Him.
It is with the desir e to help those who have not yet fully under stood what the Saviour meant with
His command, or who have fear ed that it was a life beyond their r each, that these meditations ar e
now published. It is only by fr equent r epetition that a child lear ns its lessons. It is only by
continuously fixing the mind for a time on some one of the lessons of faith, that the believer is gr
adually helped to take and thor oughly assimilate them. I have the hope that to some, especially
young believer s, it will be a help to come and for a month day after day spell over the pr ecious
wor ds, "Abide in me," with the lessons connected with them in the par able of the Vine. Step by
step we shall get to see how tr uly this pr omise - pr ecept is meant for us, how sur ely gr ace is pr
ovided to enable us to obey it, how indispensable the exper ience of its blessing is to a healthy
Chr istian life, and how unspeakable the blessings ar e that flow fr om it. As we listen, and
meditate, and pr ayas we sur r ender our selves, and accept in faith the whole Jesus as He offer s
Himself to us in it - the Holy Spir it will make the wor d to be spir it and life; this wor d of Jesus,
too, will become to us the power of God unto salvation, and thr ough it will come the faith that gr
asps the long desir ed blessing.

I pr ay ear nestly that our gr acious Lor d may be pleased to bless this little book, to help those who
seek to know Him fully, as He has alr eady blessed it in its or iginal issue in a differ ent (the
Dutch) language. I pr ay still mor e ear nestly that He would, by whatever means, make the
multitudes of His dear childr en who ar e still living divided lives, to see how He claims them
wholly for Himself, and

how the wholehear ted sur r ender to abide in Him alone br ings the joy unspeakable and full of glor
y. Oh, let each of us who has begun to taste the sweetness of this life, yield himself wholly to be
a witness to the gr ace and power of our Lor d to keep us united with Himself, and seek by wor d
and walk to win other s to follow Him fully. It is only in such fr uitbear ing that our own abiding
can be maintained.
In conclusion, I ask to be per mitted to give one wor d of advice to my r eader. It is this. It needs time
to gr ow into Jesus the Vine: do not expect to abide in Him unless you will give Him that time. It is
not enough to r ead God's Wor d, or meditations as her e offer ed, and when we think we have hold
of the thoughts, and have asked God for His blessing, to go out in the hope that the blessing will
abide. No, it needs day by day time with Jesus and with God. We all know the need of time for our
meals each day - ever y wor kman claims his hour for dinner ; the hur r ied eating of so much food is
not enough. If we ar e to live thr ough Jesus, we must feed on Him (John 6:57); we must thor
oughly take in and assimilate that heavenly food the Father has given us in His life. Ther efor e, my
br other, who would lear n to abide in Jesus, take time each day, er e you r ead, and while you r ead,
and after you r ead, to put your self into living contact with the living Jesus, to yield your self
distinctly and consciously to His blessed influence; so will you give Him the oppor tunity of taking
hold of you, of dr awing you up and keeping you safe in His almighty life.
And now, to all God's childr en whom He allows me the pr ivilege of pointing to the Heavenly Vine,
I offer my fr ater nal love and salutations, with the pr ayer that to each one of them may be given the r
ich and full exper ience of the blessedness of abiding in Chr ist. And may the gr ace of Jesus, and the
love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spir it, be their daily por tion. Amen. Andr ew Mur r ay
Chapter 1
All You Who have come to Him
"Come unto me." - MATT.11:28
"Abide in me." - JOHN 15:4
IT IS to you who have hear d and hear kened to the call, "Come unto me," that this new
invitation comes, "Abide in me." The message comes fr om the same loving Saviour. You doubtless
have never r epented having come at His call. You exper ienced that His wor d was tr uth; all His
pr omises He fulfilled; He made you par taker s of the blessings and the joy of His love. Was not His
welcome most hear ty, His par don full and fr ee, His love most sweet and pr ecious? You mor e than
once, at your fir st coming to Him, had r eason to say,

"The half was not told


me."
And yet you have had to complain of disappointment: as time went on, your expectations wer e
not r ealized. The blessings you once enjoyed wer e lost; the love and joy of your fir st meeting with
your Saviour, instead of deepening, have become faint and feeble. And often you have wonder ed
what the r eason could be, that with such a Saviour, so mighty and so loving, your exper ience of
salvation should not have been a fuller one.

The answer is ver y simple. You wander ed fr om Him. The blessings He bestows ar e all connected
with

His "Come to ME," and ar e only to be enjoyed in close fellowship with Himself. You either did
not fully under stand, or did not r ightly r emember, that the call meant, "Come to me to stay with
me." And yet this was in ver y deed His object and pur pose when fir st He called you to Himself. It
was not to r efr esh you for a few shor t hour s after your conver sion with the joy of His love and
deliver ance, and then to send you for th to wander in sadness and sin. He had destined you to
something better than a shor t - lived blessedness, to be enjoyed only in times of special ear
nestness and pr ayer, and then to pass away, as you had to r etur n to those duties in which far the gr
eater par t of life has to be spent. No, indeed; He had pr epar ed for you an abiding dwelling with
Himself, wher e your whole life and ever y moment of it might be spent, wher e the wor k of your
daily life might be done, and wher e all the while you might be enjoying unbr oken communion with
Himself. It was even this He meant when to that fir st wor d, "Come to me," He added this, "Abide
in me." As ear nest and faithful, as loving and tender, as the compassion that br eathed in that blessed
"Come," was the gr ace that added this no less blessed "Abide." As mighty as the attr action with
which that fir st wor d dr ew you, wer e the bonds with which this second, had you but listened to it,
would have kept you. And as gr eat as wer e the blessings with which that coming was r ewar ded,
so lar ge, yea, and much gr eater, wer e the tr easur es to which that abiding would have given you
access.
And obser ve especially, it was not that He said, "Come to me and abide with me," but, "Abide in
me." The inter cour se was not only to be unbr oken, but most intimate and complete. He opened His
ar ms, to pr ess you to His bosom; He opened His hear t, to welcome you ther e; He opened up all
His divine fulness of life and love, and offer ed to take you up into its fellowship, to make you
wholly one with Himself. Ther e was a depth of meaning you cannot yet r ealize in His wor ds: "Abide
IN ME."
And with no less ear nestness than He had cr ied, "Come to me," did He plead, had you but noticed
it, "Abide in me." By ever y motive that had induced you to come, did He beseech you to abide. Was it
the fear of sin and its cur se that fir st dr ew you? the par don you r eceived on fir st coming could,
with all the blessings flowing fr om it, only be confir med and fully enjoyed on abiding in Him.
Was it the longing to know and enjoy the Infinite Love that was calling you? the fir st coming
gave but single dr ops to taste'tis only the abiding that can r eally satisfy the thir sty soul, and give to
dr ink of the r iver s of pleasur e that ar e at His r ight hand. Was it the wear y longing to be made fr
ee fr om the bondage of sin, to become pur e and holy, and so to find r est, the r est of God for the
soul? this too can only be r ealized as you abide in Him - only abiding in Jesus gives r est in Him.
Or if it was the hope of an inher itance in glor y, and an ever lasting home in the pr esence of the
Infinite One: the tr ue pr epar ation for this,as well as its blessed for etaste in this life, ar e gr anted
only to those who abide in Him. In ver y tr uth, ther e is nothing that moved you to come, that does
not plead with thousandfold gr eater for ce: "Abide in Him." You did well to come; you do better to
abide. Who would, after seeking the King's palace, be content to stand in the door, when he is invited
in to dwell in the King's pr esence, and shar e with Him in all the glor y of His r oyal life? Oh, let us
enter in and abide, and enjoy to the full all the r ich supply His wondr ous love hath pr epar ed for
us!

And yet I fear that ther e ar e many who have indeed come to Jesus, and who yet have mour nfully
to confess that they know but little of this blessed abiding in Him. With some the r eason is, that
they never fully under stood that this was the meaning of the Saviour 's call. With other s, that
though they hear d the wor d, they did not know that such a life of abiding fellowship was
possible, and indeed within their r each. Other s will say that, though they did believe that such a life

was possible, and seek after it, they have never yet succeeded discover ing the secr et of its attainment.
And other s, again, alas! will confess that it is their own unfaithfulness that has kept them fr om the
enjoyment of the blessing.

When the Saviour would have kept them, they wer e not found r eady to stay; they wer e not pr epar ed
to give up ever ything, and always, only, wholly to side in Jesus.
To all such I come now in the name of Jesus, their Redeemer and mine, with the blessed message:
"Abide in me. " In His name I invite them to come, and for a season meditate with me daily on
its meaning, its lessons, its claims, and its pr omises. I know how many, and, to the young believer,
how difficult, the questions ar e which suggest themselves in connection with it. Ther e is
especially the question, with its var ious aspects, to the possibility, in the midst of wear ying wor
k and continual distr action, of keeping up, or r ather being kept in, the abiding communion. I do
not under take to r emove all difficulties; this Jesus Chr ist Himself alone must do by His Holy Spir
it. But what I would fain by the gr ace of God be per mitted to do is, to r epeat day by day the
Master 's blessed command, "Abide in me," until it enter the hear t and find a place ther e, no mor e
to be for gotten or neglected. I would fain that in the light of Holy Scr iptur e we should
Meditate on its meaning, until the under standing, that gate to the hear t, opens to appr ehend
something of what it offer s and expects. So we shall discover the means of its attainment, and lear n
to know what keeps us fr om it, and what can help us to it. So we shall feel its claims, and be
compelled to acknowledge that ther e can be no tr ue allegiance to our King without simply and
hear tily accepting this one, too, of His commands. So we shall gaze on its blessedness, until desir
e be inflamed, and the will with all its ener gies be r oused claim and possess the unspeakable
blessing.
Come, my br ethr en, and let us day by day set our selves at His feet, and meditate on this wor d of
His, with an eye fixed on Him alone. Let us set our selves quiet tr ust befor e Him, waiting to hear
His holy voice - the still small voice that is mightier than the stor m that r ends the r ocks - br
eathing its quickening spir it within us, as He speaks: "Abide in me." The soul that tr uly hear s Jesus
Himself speak the wor d, r eceives with the wor d the power to accept and to hold the blessing He offer
s.
And it may please Thee, blessed Saviour, indeed, to speak to us; let each of us hear Thy blessed voice.
May the feeling of our deep need, and the faith of Thy wondr ous love, combined with the sight of the
wonder fully blessed life Thou ar t waiting to bestow upon us, constr ain us to listen and to obey,
as often as Thou speakest: "Abide in me." Let day by day the answer fr om our hear t be clear er and
fuller : "Blessed Saviour, do abide in Thee. "
Chapter 2

And you shall find Rest for your Souls


"Come unto me, and I will give you r est. Take my yoke upon you, and lear n of me; and ye shall
find r est to your souls - MATT.11:28 - 29
REST for the soul: Such was the fir st pr omise with which the Saviour sought to win the heavy laden sinner. Simple though it appear s, the pr omise is indeed as lar ge and compr ehensive as can
be found. Rest for the soul - does it not imply deliver ance fr om ever y fear, the supply of ever
y want, the fulfilment of ever y desir e? And now nothing less than this is the pr ize with which the
Saviour woos back the wander ing one - who is mour ning that the r est has notbeen so abiding or
so full as it had hoped - to come back and abide in Him. Nothing but this was the r eason that the r

est has either not been found, or, if found, has been distur bed or lost again: you did not abide with,
you did not abide in Him.

Have you ever noticed how, in the or iginal invitation of the Saviour to come to Him, the pr omise
of r est was r epeated twice, with such a var iation in the conditions as might have suggested that
abiding r est could only be found in abiding near ness. Fir st the Saviour says, "Come unto me, and I
will give you r est"; the ver y moment you come, and believe, I will give you r est - the r est of
par don and acceptance - the r est in my love. But we know that all that God bestows needs time to
become fully our own; it must be held fast, and appr opr iated, and assimilated into our inmost
being; without this not even Chr ist's giving can make it our ver y own, in full exper ience and
enjoyment. And so the Saviour r epeats His pr omise, in wor ds which clear ly speak not so much of
the initial r est with which He welcomes the wear y one who comes, but of the deeper and per
sonally appr opr iated r est of the soul that abides with Him. He now not only says, "Come unto me,"
but "Take my yoke upon you and lear n of me"; become my scholar s, yield our selves to my tr
aining, submit in all things to my will, let your whole life be one with mine - in other wor ds, Abide
in me. And then He adds, not only, "I will give," but "ye shall find r est to your souls." The r est He
gave at coming will become something you have r eally found and made your ver y own - the
deeper the abiding r est which comes fr om longer acquaintance and closer fellowship, fr om entir e
sur r ender and deeper sympathy. "Take my yoke, and lear n of me," "Abide in me" - this is the path to
abiding r est.
Do not these wor ds of the Saviour discover what you have per haps often sought in vain to know,
how it is that the r est you at times enjoy is so often lost. It must have been this: you had not under
stood how entir e sur r ender to Jesus is the secr et of per fect r est. Giving up one's whole life to
Him, for Him alone to r ule and or der it; taking up His yoke, and submitting to be led and taught,
to lear n of Him; abiding in Him, to be and do only what He wills - these ar e the conditions of
discipleship without which ther e can be no thought of maintaining the r est that was bestowed on fir st
coming to Chr ist. The r est is in Chr ist, and not something He gives apar t fr om Himself, and so it is
only in having Him that the r est can r eally be kept and enjoyed.
It is because so many a young believer fails to lay hold of this tr uth that the r est so speedily
passes away. With some it is that they r eally did not know; they wer e never taught how Jesus
claims the undivided allegiance of the whole hear t and life; how ther e is not a spot in the whole
of life over which He does not wish to r eign; how in the ver y least things His disciples must only
seek to please Him. They did not know how entir e the consecr ation was that Jesus claimed. With
other s, who had some idea of what a ver y holy life a Chr istian ought to lead, the mistake was a
differ ent one: they could not believe such a life to be a possible attainment. Taking, and bear ing, and
never for a moment laying aside the yoke of Jesus, appear ed to them to r equir e such a str ain of
effor t, and such an amount of goodness, as to be altogether beyond their r each. The ver y idea of
always, all the day, abiding in Jesus, was too highsomething they might attain to after a life of
holiness and gr owth, but cer tainly not what a feeble beginner was to star t with. They did not know
how, when Jesus said, "My yoke is easy," He spoke the tr uth; how just the yoke gives the r est,
because the moment the soul yields itself to obey, the Lor d Himself gives the str ength and joy to do
it. They did not notice how, when He said, "Lear n of me," He added, "I am meek and lowly in hear
t," to assur e them that His gentleness would meet their ever y need, and bear them as a mother
bear s her feeble child. Oh, they did not know that when He said, "Abide in me," He only asked the
sur r ender to Himself, His almighty love would hold them fast, and keep and bless them. And so, as
some had er r ed fr om the want of full consecr ation, so these failed because they did not fully tr ust.
These two, consecr ation and faith, ar e the essential elements of the Chr istian life - the giving up
all to Jesus, the r eceiving al fr om Jesus. They ar e implied in each other ; they ar e united in the one
wor d - sur r ender. A full sur r ender is to obey as well as to tr ust, to tr ust as well as to obey.

With such misunder standing at the outset, it is no wonder that the disciple life was not one of such
joy or str ength as had been hoped. In some things you wer e led into sin without knowing it, because
you had not lear ned how wholly Jesus wanted to r ule you, and how you could not keep r ight for a
moment unless you had Him ver y near you. In other things you knew what sin was, but had not the
power to conquer, because you did not know or believe how entir ely Jesus would take char ge of
you to keep and to help you. Either way, it was not long befor e the br ight joy of your fir st love was
lost, and your path, instead of being like the path of the just, shining mor e and mor e unto the per
fect day, became like Isr ael's wander ing in the deser t ever on the way, never ver y far, and yet
always coming shor t of the pr omised r est. Wear y soul, since so many year s dr iven to and fr o
like the panting har t, O come and lear n this day the lesson that ther e is a spot wher e safety and
victor y, wher e peace and r est, ar e always sur e, and that that spot is always open to thee - the hear t
of Jesus.
But, alas! I hear someone say, it is just this abiding in Jesus, always bear ing His yoke, to lear n of
Him, that is so difficult, and the ver y effor t to attain to this often distur bs the r est even mor e than
sin or the wor ld. What a mistake to speak thus, and yet how often the wor ds ar e hear d! Does
it wear y the tr aveller to r est in the house or on the bed wher e he seeks r epose fr om his fatigue? Or
is it a labour to a little child to r est in its mother 's ar ms? Is it not the house that keeps the tr aveller
within its shelter ? do not the ar ms of the mother sustain and keep the little one? And so it is with
Jesus. The soul has but to yield itself to Him, to be still and r est in the confidence that His love has
under taken, and that His faithfulness will per for m, the wor k of keeping it safe in the shelter of His
bosom. Oh, it is because the blessing is so gr eat that our little hear ts cannot r ise to appr ehend it; it
is as if we cannot believe that Chr ist, the Almighty One, will in ver y deed teach and keep us all the
day. And yet this is just what He has pr omised, for without this He cannot r eally give us r est. It is
as our hear t takes in this tr uth that, when He says, "Abide in me," "Lear n of me," He r eally means
it, and that it is His own wor k to keep us abiding when we yield our selves to Him, that we shall
ventur e to cast our selves into the ar ms of His love, and abandon our selves to His blessed keeping.
It is not the yoke, but r esistance to the yoke, that makes the difficulty; the whole - hear ted sur r
ender to Jesus, as at once our Master and our Keeper, finds and secur es the r est.
Come, my br other, and let us this ver y day commence to accept the wor d of Jesus in all simplicity.
It is a distinct command this: "Take my yoke, and lear n of me, " "Abide in me. " A command has to
be obeyed. The obedient scholar asks no questions about possibilities or r esults; he accepts ever y or
der in the confidence that his teacher has pr ovided for al that is needed. The power and the per sever
ance to abide in the r est, and the blessing in abiding - it belongs to the Saviour to see to this; 'tis
mine to obey, 'tis His to pr ovide. Let us this day in immediate obedience accept the command,
and answer boldly,

"Saviour, I abide in Thee. At Thy bidding I take Thy yoke; I under take the duty without delay; I
abide in Thee." Let each consciousness of failur e only give new ur gency to the command, and
teach us to listen mor e ear nestly than ever till the Spir it again give us to hear the voice of Jesus
saying, with a love and author ity that inspir e both hope and obedience, "Child, abide in me." That
wor d, listened to as coming fr om Himself, will be an end of all doubting - a divine pr omise of
what shall sur ely be gr anted. And with ever - incr easing simplicity its meaning will be inter pr
eted. Abiding in Jesus is nothing but the giving up of oneself to be r uled and taught and led, and
so r esting in the ar ms of Ever lasting Love.

Blessed r est! the fr uit and the for etaste and the fellowship of God's own r
est!

found of them who thus come to Jesus to abide in Him. It is the peace of God, the gr eat calm of
the eter nal wor ld, that passeth all under standing, and that keeps the hear t and mind. With this
gr ace secur ed, we have str ength for ever y duty, cour age for ever y str uggle, a blessing in ever y
cr oss, and the joy of life eter nal in death itself.
O my Saviour ! if ever my hear t should doubt or fear again, as if the blessing wer e too gr eat to
expect, or too high to attain, let me hear Thy voice to quicken my faith and obedience: "Abide in
me"; "Take my yoke upon you, and lear n of me; ye shall find r est to your souls."
Chapter 3
Tr usting Him to keep
you
"I follow after, if that I may appr ehend that for which I also am appr ehended of Chr ist Jesus. "
- PHIL.3:12
MORE than one admits that it is a sacr ed duty and a blessed pr ivilege to abide in Chr ist, but shr
inks back continually befor e the question: Is it possible, a life of unbr oken fellowship with
theSaviour ? Eminent Chr istians, to whom special oppor tunities of cultivating this gr ace have been
gr anted, may attain to it; for the lar ge major ity of disciples, whose life, by a divine
appointment, is so fully occupied with the affair s of this life, it can scar ce be expected. The mor
e they hear of this life, the deeper their sense of its glor y and blessedness, and ther e is nothing
they would not sacr ifice to be made par taker s of it. But they ar e too weak, too unfaithful - they
never can attain to it.
Dear souls! how little they know that the abiding in Chr ist is just meant for the weak, and
so beautifully suited to their feebleness. It is not the doing of some gr eat thing, and does not demand
that we fir st lead a ver y holy and devoted life. No, it is simply weakness entr usting itself to a
Mighty One to be kept - the unfaithful one casting self on One who is altogether tr ustwor thy and tr
ue. Abiding in Him is not a wor k that we have to do as the condition for enjoying His salvation, but
a consenting to let Him do all for us, and in us, and thr ough us. It is a wor k He does for usthe fr uit
and the power of His r edeeming love. Our par t is simply to yield, to tr ust, and to wait for what
He has engaged to per for m.
It is this quiet expectation and confidence, r esting on the wor d of Chr ist that in Him ther e is an
abiding place pr epar ed, which is so sadly wanting among Chr istians. They scar ce take the time or
the tr ouble to r ealize that when He says "Abide IN ME," He offer s Himself, the Keeper of Isr ael
that slumber s not nor sleeps, with all His power and love, as the living home of the soul, wher e
the mighty influences of His gr ace will be str onger to keep than all their feebleness to lead astr
ay. The idea they have of gr ace is thisthat their conver sion and par don ar e God's wor k, but that
now, in gr atitude to God, it is their wor k to live as Chr istians, and follow Jesus. Ther e is always
the thought of a wor k that has to be done, and even though they pr ay for help, still the wor k is
their s. They fail continually, and become hopeless; and the despondency only incr eases the
helplessness. No, wander ing one; as it was Jesus who dr ew you when He spake "Come," so it is
Jesus who keeps you when He says "Abide." The gr ace to come and the gr ace to abide ar e alike
fr om Him alone. That wor d Come, hear d, meditated on, accepted, was the cor d of love that dr ew
you nigh; that wor d Abide is even so the band with which He holds you fast and binds you to

Himself. Let the soul but take time to listen to the voice of Jesus. "In me," He says, "is thy place - in
my almighty ar ms. It is I who love thee so, who speak Abide in me; sur ely thou canst tr ust me."
The voice of Jesus enter ing and dwelling in the soul cannot but call for

the r esponse: "Yes, Saviour, in Thee I can, I will


abide."
Abide in me: These wor ds ar e no law of Moses, demanding fr om the sinful what they cannot per for
m. They ar e the command of love, which is ever only a pr omise in a differ ent shape. Think of this
until all feeling of bur den and fear and despair pass away, and the fir st thought that comes as you
hear of abiding in Jesus be one of br ight and joyous hope: it is for me, I know I shall enjoy it. You
ar e not under the law, with its inexor able Do, but under gr ace, with its blessed Believe what Chr ist
will do for you. And if the question be asked, "But sur ely ther e is something for us to do?" the
answer is, "Our doing and wor king ar e but the fr uit of Chr ist's wor k in us." It is when the
soul becomes utter ly passive, looking and r esting on what Chr ist is to do, that its ener gies ar e
stir r ed to their highest activity, and that we wor k most effectually because we know that He wor ks
in us. It is as we see in that wor d IN ME the mighty ener gies of love r eaching out after us to have
us and to hold us, that all the str ength of our will is r oused to abide in Him.
This connection between Chr ist's wor k and our wor k is beautifully expr essed in the wor ds of Paul:
"I follow after, if that 1 may appr ehend that wher eunto I also am appr ehended of Chr ist Jesus." It
was because he knew that the mighty and the faithful One had gr asped him with the glor ious pur
pose of making him one with Himself, that he did his utmost to gr asp the glor ious pr ize. The
faith, the exper ience, the full assur ance, "Chr ist hath appr ehended me," gave him the cour age and
the str ength to pr ess on and appr ehend that wher eunto he was appr ehended. Each new insight of
the gr eat end for which Chr ist had appr ehended and was holding him, r oused him afr esh to aim at
nothing less.
Paul's expr ession, and its application to the Chr istian life, can be best under stood if we think of
a father helping his child to mount the side of some steep pr ecipice. The father stands above, and
has taken the son by the hand to help him on. He points him to the spot on which he will help him to
plant his feet, as he leaps upwar d. The leap would be too high and danger ous for the child alone;
but the father 's hand is his tr ust, and he leaps to get hold of the point for which his father has taken
hold of him. It is the father 's str ength that secur es him and lifts him up, and so ur ges him to use
his utmost str ength.
Such is the r elation between Chr ist and you, O weak and tr embling believer
!
Fix fir st your eyes on the wher eunto for which He has appr ehended you. It is nothing less than a
life of abiding, unbr oken fellowship with Himself to which He is seeking to lift you up. All that you
have alr eady r eceived - par don and peace, the Spir it and His gr ace - ar e but pr eliminar y to this.
And all that you see pr omised to you in the futur eholiness and fr uitfulness and glor y ever
lasting - ar e but its natur al outcome. Union with Himself, and so with the Father, is His highest
object. Fix your eye on this, and gaze until it stand out befor e you clear and unmistakeable: Chr ist's
aim is to have me abiding in Him.

And then let the second thought enter your hear t: Unto this 1 am appr ehended of Chr ist. His
almighty power hath laid hold on me, and offer s now to lift me up to wher e He would have me.
Fix your eyes on Chr ist. Gaze on the love that beams in those eyes, and that asks whether you cannot
tr ust Him, who sought and found and br ought you nigh, now to keep you. Gaze on that ar m
of power, and say whether you have r eason to be assur ed that He is indeed able to keep you abiding
in Him.

And as you think of the spot whither He pointsthe blessed wher eunto for which He appr
ehended youand keep your gaze fixed on Himself, holding you and waiting to lift you up, O say, could
you not

this ver y day take the upwar d step, and r ise to enter upon this blessed life of abiding in Chr ist?
Yes, begin at once, and say, "O my Jesus, if Thou biddest me, and if Thou engagest to lift and
keep me ther e, I will ventur e. Tr embling, but tr usting, I will say: Jesus, I do abide in Thee. "
My beloved fellow - believer, go, and take time alone with Jesus, and say this to Him. I dar e not
speak to you about abiding in Him for the mer e sake of calling for th a pleasing r eligious
sentiment. God's tr uth must at once be acted on. O yield your self this ver y day to the blessed
Saviour in the sur r ender of the one thing He asks of you: give up your self to abide in Him. He
Himself will wor k it in you. You can tr ust Him to keep you tr usting and abiding.
And if ever doubts again ar ise, or the bitter exper ience of failur e tempt you to despair, just r
emember wher e Paul found His str ength: "I am appr ehended of Jesus Chr ist." In that assur ance
you have a fountain of str ength. Fr om that you can look up to the wher eunto on which He has set
His hear t, and set your s ther e too. Fr om that you gather confidence that the good wor k He bath
begun He will also per for m. And in that conndence you will gather cour age, day by day, afr esh to
say, " follow on, that I may also appr ehend that for which I am appr ehended of Chr ist Jesus.' It is
because Jesus has taken hold of me, and because Jesus keeps me, that I dar e to say: Saviour, I abide in
Thee. "
Chapter 4
As the Br anch in the
Vine
"I am the vine, ye ar e the br anches." - JOHN
15:5
It was in connection with the par able of the Vine that our Lor d fir st used the expr ession, "Abide
in me." That par able, so simple, and yet so r ich in its teaching, gives us the best and most
complete illustr ation of the meaning of our Lor d's command, and the union to which He invites us.
The par able teaches us the natur e of that union. The connection between the vine and the br anch is
a living one. No exter nal, tempor ar y union will suffice; no wor k of man can effect it: the br
anch, whether an or iginal or an engr afted one, is such only by the Cr eator 's own wor k, in vir tue
of which the life, the sap, the fatness, and the fr uitfulness of the vine communicate themselves to
the br anch. And just so it is with the believer too. His union with his Lor d is no wor k of human
wisdom or human will, but an act of God, by which the closest and most complete life - union is
effected between the Son of God and the sinner. "God hath sent for th the Spir it of His Son into
your hear ts." The same Spir it which dwelt and still dwells in the Son, becomes the life of the
believer ; in the unity of that one Spir it, and the fellowship of the same life which is in Chr ist, he is
one with Him. As between the vine and br anch, it is a life - union that makes them one.

The par able teaches us the completeness of the union. So close is the union between the vine and
the br anch, that each is nothing without the other, that each is wholly and only for the other.
Without the vine the br anch can do nothing. To the vine it owes its r ight of place in the vineyar d,
its life and its fr uitfulness. And so the Lor d says,

"Without me ye can do nothing." The believer can each day be pleasing to God only in that which he
does thr ough the power of Chr ist dwelling in him. The daily inflowing of the life - sap of the
Holy Spir it is his only power to br ing for th fr uit. He lives alone in Him and is for each moment
dependent

on Him alone.
Without the br anch the vine can also do nothing. A vine without br anches can bear no fr uit. No
less indispensable than the vine to the br anch, is the br anch to the vine. Such is the
wonder ful condescension of the gr ace of Jesus, that just as His people ar e dependent on Him,
He has made Himself dependent on them. Without His disciples He cannot dispense His blessing to
the wor ld; He cannot offer sinner s the gr apes of the heavenly Canaan. Mar vel not! It is His own
appointment; and this is the high honour to which He has called His r edeemed ones, that as
indispensable as He is to them in heaven, that fr om Him their fr uit may be found, so indispensable
ar e they to Him on ear th, that thr ough them His fr uit may be found. Believer s, meditate on this,
until your soul bows to wor ship in pr esence of the myster y of the per fect union between Chr ist and
the believer.
Ther e is mor e: as neither vine nor br anch is anything without the other, so is neither anything
except for the other.
All the vine possesses belongs to the br anches. The vine does not gather fr om the soil its fatness
and its sweetness for itself - all it has is at the disposal of the br anches. As it is the par ent, so it
is the ser vant of the br anches. And Jesus, to whom we owe our life, how completely does He give
Himself for us and to us: "The glor y Thou gavest me, I have given them"; "He that believeth in me,
the wor ks that I do shall he do also; and gr eater wor ks shall he do." All His fullness and all His r
iches ar e for thee, O believer ; for the vine does not live for itself, keeps nothing for itself, but
exists only for the br anches. All that Jesus is in heaven, He is for us: He has no inter est ther e separ
ate fr om our s; as our r epr esentative He stands befor e the Father.
And all the br anch possesses belongs to the vine. The br anch does not exist for itself, but to bear fr
uit that can pr oclaim the excellence of the vine: it has no r eason of existence except to be of ser vice
to the vine. Glor ious image of the calling of the believer, and the entir eness of his consecr ation
to the ser vice of his Lor d. As Jesus gives Himself so wholly over to him, he feels himself ur
ged to be wholly his Lor d's. Ever y power of his being, ever y moment of his life, ever y thought
and feeling, belong to Jesus, that fr om Him and for Him he may br ing for th fr uit. As he r ealizes
what the vine is to the br anch, and what the br anch is meant to be to the vine, he feels that he has but
one thing to think of and to live for, and that is, the will, the glor y, the wor k, the kingdom of
his blessed Lor d - the br inging for th of fr uit to the glor y of His name.

The par able teaches us the object of the union. The br anches ar e for fr uit and fr uit alone.
"Ever y br anch that bear eth not fr uit He taketh away." The br anch needs leaves for the maintenance
of its own life, and the per fection of its fr uit: the fr uit itself it bear s to give away to those ar ound.
As the believer enter s into his calling as a br anch, he sees that he has to for get himself, and to
live entir ely for his fellowmen. To love them, to seek for them, and to save them, Jesus came: for
this ever y br anch on the Vine has to live as much as the Vine itself. It is for fr uit, much fr uit, that
the Father has made us one with Jesus.
Wondr ous par able of the Vine - unveiling the myster ies of the Divine love, of the heavenly life, of
the wor ld of Spir it - how little have I under stood thee!
Jesus the living Vine in heaven, and I the living br anch on ear th! How - little have I under stood
how gr eat my need, but also how per fect my claim, to all His fullness! How little under stood, how

gr eat His need, but also how per fect His claim, to my emptiness! Let me, in its beautiful light,
study the

wondr ous union between Jesus and His people, until it becomes to me the guide into full communion
with my beloved Lor d. Let me listen and believe, until my whole being cr ies out, "Jesus is indeed
to me the Tr ue Vine, bear ing me, nour ishing me, supplying me, using me, and filling me to the
full to make me br ing for th fr uit abundantly." Then shall I not fear to say, "I am indeed a br anch to
Jesus, the Tr ue Vine, abiding in Him, r esting on Him, waiting for Him, ser ving Him, and
living only that thr ough me, too, He may show for th the r iches of His gr ace, and give His fr uit to a
per ishing wor ld."
It is when we tr y thus to under stand the meaning of the par able, that the blessed command spoken
in connection with it will come home to us in its tr ue power. The thought of what the vine is to
the br anch, and Jesus to the believer, will give new for ce to the wor ds, "Abide in me!" It will be as
if He says, "Think, soul, how completely I belong to thee. I have joined myself insepar ably to thee;
all the fulness and fatness of the Vine ar e thine in ver y deed. Now thou once ar t in me, be assur ed
that all I have is wholly thine. It is my inter est and my honour to have thee a fr uitful br anch; only
Abide in me. Thou ar t weak, but I am str ong; thou ar t poor, but I am r ich. Only abide in me; yield
thyself wholly to my teaching and r ule; simply tr ust my love, my gr ace, my pr omises. Only believe;
I am wholly thine; I am the Vine, thou ar t the br anch. Abide in me.
What sayest thou, 0 my soul? Shall I longer hesitate, or withhold consent? Or shall I not, instead of
only thinking how har d and how difficult it is to live like a br anch of the Tr ue Vine, because I
thought of it as something I had to accomplish - shall I not now begin to look upon it as the most
blessed and joyful thing under heaven? Shall I not believe that, now I once am in Him, He Himself
will keep me and enable me to abide? On my par t, abiding is nothing but the acceptance of my
position, the consent to be kept ther e, the sur r ender of faith to the str ong Vine still to hold the
feeble br anch. Yes, I will, I do abide in Thee, blessed Lor d Jesus.
O Saviour, how unspeakable is Thy love! "Such knowledge is too wonder ful for me: it is high, I
cannot attain unto it." I can only yield myself to Thy love with the pr ayer that, day by day,
Thou wouldest unfold to me somewhat of its pr ecious myster ies, and so encour age and str
engthen Thy loving disciple to do what his hear t longs to do indeed - ever, only, wholly to abide in
Thee.
Chapter 5
As you came to Him by Faith

"As ye have r eceived Chr ist Jesus the Lor d, so walk ye in Him: r ooted and built up in Him,
and stablished in the faith, abounding ther ein. "CoL.2:6 - 7
N THESE wor ds the apostle teaches us the weighty lesson, that it is not only by faith that we fir
st come to Chr ist and ar e united to Him, but that it is by faith that we ar e to be r ooted and
established in our union with Chr ist. Not less essential than for the commencement, is faith for the
pr ogr ess of the spir itual life. Abiding in Jesus can only be by faith.
Ther e ar e ear nest Chr istians who do not under stand this; or, if they admit it in theor y, they
fail to r ealize its application in pr actice. They ar e ver y zealous for a fr ee gospel, with our fir st
acceptance of Chr ist, and justification by faith alone. But after this they think ever ything depends
on our diligence and faithfulness. While they fir mly gr asp the tr uth, "The sinner shall be justified
by faith," they have har dly found a place in their scheme for the lar ger tr uth, "The just shall live

by faith." They have never under stood what a per fect Saviour Jesus is, and how He will each day
do for the sinner just as

much as He did the fir st day when he came to Him. They know not that the life of gr ace is always
and only a life of faith, and that in the r elationship to Jesus the one daily and unceasing duty of the
disciple is to believe, because believing is the one channel thr ough which divine gr ace and str ength
flow out into the hear t of man. The old natur e of the believer r emains evil and sinful to the last; it is
only as he daily comes, all empty and helpless, to his Saviour to r eceive of His life and str ength,
that he can br ing for th the fr uits of r ighteousness to the glor y of God. Ther efor e it is: "As ye
have r eceived Chr ist Jesus the Lor d, so walk ye in Him: r ooted in Him, and stablished in the
faith, abounding ther ein." As you came to Jesus, so abide in Him, by faith.
And if you would know how faith is to be exer cised in thus abiding in Jesus, to be r ooted mor e
deeply and fir mly in Him, you have only to look back to the time when fir st you r eceived
Him. You r emember well what obstacles at that time ther e appear ed to be in the way of your
believing. Ther e was fir st your vileness and guilt: it appear ed impossible that the pr omise of par
don and love could be for such a sinner. Then ther e was the sense of weakness and death: you felt
not the power for the sur r ender and the tr ust to which you wer e called. And then ther e was
the futur e: you dar ed not under take to be a disciple of Jesus while you felt so sur e that you
could not r emain standing, but would speedily again be unfaithful and fall. These difficulties wer e
like mountains in your way. And how wer e they r emoved? Simply by the wor d of God. That wor d,
as it wer e, compelled you to believe that, notwithstanding guilt in the past, and weakness in the pr
esent, and unfaithfulness in the futur e, the pr omise was sur e that Jesus would accept and save you.
On that wor d you ventur ed to come, and wer e not deceived: you found that Jesus did indeed accept
and save.
Apply this, your exper ience in coming to Jesus, to the abiding in Him. Now, as then, the temptations
to keep you fr om believing ar e many. When you think of your sins since you became a disciple,
your hear t is cast down with shame, and it looks as if it wer e too much to expect that Jesus should
indeed r eceive you into per fect intimacy and the full enjoyment of His holy love. When you
think how utter ly, in times past, you have failed in keeping the most sacr ed vows, the
consciousness of pr esent weakness makes you tr emble at the ver y idea of answer ing the Saviour 's
command with the pr omise, "Lor d, fr om hencefor th I will abide in Thee. " And when you set befor
e your self the life of love and joy, of holiness and fr uitfulness, which in the futur e ar e to flow fr om
abiding in Him, it is as if it only ser ves to make you still mor e hopeless: you, at least, can never
attain to it. You know your self too well. It is no use expecting it, only to be disappointed; a life
fully and wholly abiding in Jesus is not for you.

Oh that you would lear n a lesson fr om the time of your fir st coming to the Saviour ! Remember,
dear soul, how you then wer e led, contr ar y to all that your exper ience, and your feelings, and
even your sober judgment said, to take Jesus at His wor d, and how you wer e not disappointed. He
did r eceive you, and par don you; He did love you, and save you - you know it. And if He did this
for you when you wer e an enemy and a str anger, what think you, now that you ar e His own, will
He not much mor e fulfil His pr omise? Oh that you would come and begin simply to listen to His
wor d, and to ask only the one question: Does He r eally mean that I should abide in Him? The
answer His wor d gives is so simple and so sur e: By His almighty gr ace you now ar e in Him; that
same almighty gr ace will indeed enable you to abide in Him. By faith you became par taker s of the
initial gr ace; by that same faith you can enjoy the continuous gr ace of abiding in Him.

And if you ask what exactly it is that you now have to believe that you may abide in Him, the answer is
not difficult. Believe fir st of all what He says: "I am the Vine." The safety and the fr uitfulness of
the

br anch depend upon the str ength of the vine. Think not so much of your self as a br anch, nor of
the abiding as your duty, until you have fir st had your soul filled with the faith of what Chr ist as the
Vine is. He r eally will be to you all that a vine can be - holding you fast, nour ishing you, and
making Himself ever y moment r esponsible for your gr owth and your fr uit. Take time to know,
set your self hear tily to believe: My Vine, on whom I can depend for all I need, is Chr ist. A lar ge, str
ong vine bear s the feeble br anch, and holds it mor e than the br anch holds the vine. Ask the Father
by the Holy Ghost to r eveal to you what a glor ious, loving, mighty Chr ist this is, in whom you have
your place and your life; it is the faith in what Chr ist is, mor e than anything else, that will keep you
abiding in Him. A soul filled with lar ge thoughts of the Vine will be a str ong br anch, and will
abide confidently in Him. Be much occupied with Jesus, and believe much in Him, as the Tr ue Vine.
And then, when Faith can well say, "He is my Vine," let it fur ther say, "I am His br anch, I am in Him."
I speak to those who say they ar e Chr ist's disciples, and on them I cannot too ear nestly pr ess
the impor tance of exer cising their faith in saying, "I am in Him." It makes the abiding so simple.
If I r ealize clear ly as I meditate: Now I am in Him, I see at once that ther e is nothing wanting but
just my consent to be what He has made me, to r emain wher e He has placed me. 1 am in Chr ist:
This simple thought, car efully, pr ayer fully, believingly utter ed, r emoves all difficulty as if ther e
wer e some gr eat attainment to be r eached. No, 1 am in Chr ist, my blessed Saviour. His love has
pr epar ed a home for me with Himself, when He says, "Abide in my love"; and His power has under
taken to keep the door, and to keep me in, if I will but consent. 1 am in Chr ist: I have now but to
say, "Saviour, I bless Thee for this wondr ous gr ace. I consent; I yield myself to Thy gr acious
keeping; I do abide in Thee."
It is astonishing how such a faith will wor k out all that is fur ther implied in abiding in Chr ist. Ther e
is in the Chr istian life gr eat need of watchfulness and of pr ayer, of selfdenial and of str iving,
of obedience and of diligence. But "all things ar e possible to him that believeth." "This is the victor y
that over cometh, even our faith." It is the faith that continually closes its eyes to the weakness
of the cr eatur e, and finds its joy in the sufficiency of an Almighty Saviour, that makes the soul str
ong and glad. It gives itself up to be led by the Holy Spir it into an ever deeper appr eciation of that
wonder ful Saviour whom God bath given us - the Infinite Immanuel. It follows the leading of the
Spir it fr om page to page of the blessed Wor d, with the one desir e to take each r evelation of what
Jesus is and what He pr omises as its nour ishment and its life. In accor dance with the pr omise, "if
that which ye have hear d fr om the beginning abide in you, ye shall also abide in the Father and the
Son," it lives by ever y wor d that pr oceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so it makes the soul str
ong with the str ength of God, to be and to do all that is needed for abiding in Chr ist.

Believer, you would abide in Chr ist: only believe. Believe always; believe now. Bow even now befor
e your Lor d, and say to Him in childlike faith, that because He is your Vine, and you ar e His br
anch, you will this day abide in Him.

NOTE
" am the Tr ue Vine.' He who offer s us the pr ivilege of an actual union with Himself is the gr eat
I AM, the almighty God, who upholds all things by the wor d of His power. And this almighty
God r eveals Himself as our per fect Saviour, even to the unimaginable extent of seeking to r
enew our fallen natur es by gr afting them into His own Divine natur e.
"To r ealize the glor ious Deity of Him whose call sounds for th to longing hear ts with such
exceeding sweetness, is no small step towar ds gaining the full pr ivilege to which we ar e invited.
But longing is by itself of no use; still less can ther e be any pr ofit in r eading of the blessed r esults to
be gained fr om a close and per sonal union with our Lor d, if we believe that union to be pr actically
beyond our r each. His wor ds ar e meant to be a living, an eter nal, pr ecious r eality. And this they can
never become unless we ar e sur e that we may r easonably expect their accomplishment. But
what could make the accomplishment of such an idea possible - what could make it r easonable
to suppose that we poor, weak, selfish cr eatur es, full of sin and full of failur es, might be saved
out of the cor r uption of our natur e and made par taker s of the holiness of our Lor d - except the
fact, the mar vellous, unalter able fact, that He who pr oposes to us so gr eat a tr ansfor mation is
Himself the ever lasting God, as able as He is willing to fulfil His own wor d. In meditating,
ther efor e, upon these utter ances of Chr ist, containing as they do the ver y essence of His
teaching, the ver y concentr ation of His love, let us, at the outset, put away all tendency to doubt.
Let us not allow our selves so much as to question whether such er r ing disciples as we ar e can be
enabled to attain the holiness to which we ar e called thr ough a close and intimate union with our
Lor d. If ther e be any impossibility, any falling shor t of the pr oposed blessedness, it will ar ise
fr om the lack of ear nest desir e on our par t. Ther e is no lack in any r espect on His par t who puts
for th the invitation; with GOD ther e can be no shor tcoming in the fulfilment of His pr
omise."The Life of Fellowship; Meditations on John 15:1,11 by A. M. James.
It is per haps necessar y to say, for the sake of young or doubting Chr istians, that ther e is
something mor e necessar y than the effor t to exer cise faith in each separ ate pr omise that is br
ought under our notice. What is of even gr eater impor tance is the cultivation of a tr ustful
disposition towar ds God, the habit of always thinking of Him, of His ways and His wor ks, with br
ight confiding hopefulness. In such soil alone can the individual pr omises str ike r oot and gr ow up.
In a little wor k published by the Tr act Society, Encour agements to Faith, by James Kimball, ther e
will be found many most suggestive and helpful thoughts, all pleading for the r ight God has to
claim that He shall be tr usted. The Chr istian's Secr et of a Happy Life is another little wor k that
has been a gr eat help to many. Its br ight and buoyant tone, its loving and unceasing r epetition of
the keynote - we may indeed depend on Jesus to do all He has said, and mor e than we can think has br eathed hope and joy into many a hear t that was almost r eady to despair of ever getting on. In
Fr ances Haver gal's Kept, for the Master 's Use, ther e is the same healthful, hope - inspir ing tone.

Chapter 6
God Himself has United you to
Him

"OF GOD ARE YE IN CHRIST JESUS, who was made unto us wisdom fr om God, both r
ighteousness and sanctification, and r edemption." - I COR.1:30

(R.V.
g.).

mar

"My Father is the husbandman. " - JOHN 15:1


Ye ar e in Chr ist Jesus." The believer s at Cor inth wer e still feeble and car nal, only babes in Chr ist.
And yet Paul wants them, at the outset of his teaching, to know distinctly that they ar e in Chr ist
Jesus. The whole Chr istian life depends on the clear consciousness of our position in Chr ist. Most
essential to the abiding in Chr ist is the daily r enewal of our faith's assur ance, "I am in Chr ist
Jesus." All fr uitful pr eaching to believer s must take this as its star tingpoint:
"Ye ar e in Chr ist
Jesus."
But the apostle has an additional thought, of almost gr eater impor tance:
"OE
GOD ar e ye in Chr ist Jesus." He would have us not only r emember our union to Chr ist, but
specially that it is not our own doing, but the wor k of God Himself. As the Holy Spir it teaches us to r
ealize this, we shall see what a sour ce of assur ance and str ength it must become to us. If it is of
God alone that I am in Chr ist, then God Himself, the Infinite One, becomes my secur ity for all I
can need or wish in seeking to abide in Chr ist.
Let me tr y to under stand what it means, this wonder ful "OF GOD in Chr ist." In becoming par taker s
of the union with Chr ist, ther e is a wor k God does and a wor k we have to do. God does His wor
k by moving us to do our wor k. The wor k of God is hidden and silent; what we do is something
distinct and tangible. Conver sion and faith, pr ayer and obedience, ar e conscious acts of which we
can give a clear account; while the spir itual quickening and str engthening that come fr om above ar
e secr et and beyond the r each of human sight. And so it comes that when the believer tr ies to say,
"I am in Chr ist Jesus," he looks mor e to the wor k he did, than to that wondr ous secr et wor k of
God by which he was united to Chr ist. Nor can it well be other wise at the commencement of the
Chr istian cour se. "I know that I have believed," is a valid testimony. But it is of gr eat consequence
that the mind should be led to see that at the back of our tur ning, and believing, and accepting of
Chr ist, ther e was God's almighty power doing its wor k - inspir ing our will, taking possession of
us, and car r ying out its own pur pose of love in planting us into Chr ist Jesus. As the believer enter s
into this, the divine side of the wor k of salvation, he will lear n to pr aise and to wor ship with new
exultation, and to r ejoice mor e than ever in the divineness of that salvation he has been made par
taker of. At each step he r eviews, the song will come, "This is the Lor d's doing"Divine
Omnipotence wor king out what Eter nal Love had devised. "OF

GOD I am in Chr ist


Jesus."
The wor ds will lead him even fur ther and higher, even to the depths of eter nity. "Whom He
hath pr edestinated, them He also called." The calling in time is the manifestation of the pur pose in
eter nity. Er e the wor ld was, God had fixed the eye of His sover eign love on you in the election of
gr ace, and chosen you in Chr ist. That you know your self to be in Chr ist, is the steppingstone by
which you r ise to under stand in its full meaning the wor d,

"OF GOD I am in Chr ist Jesus." With the pr ophet, your language will be, "The Lor d hath appear ed
of old unto me: yea, I have loved thee with an ever lasting love, ther efor e with lovingkindness
have I dr awn thee." And you will r ecognise your own salvation as a par t of that "myster y of
His will,

accor ding to the good pleasur e of His will which He pur posed in Himself," and join with the
whole body of believer s in Chr ist as these say, "In whom we also have obtained an inher
itance, being pr edestinated accor ding to the pur pose of Him who wor keth all things after the
counsel of His own will." Nothing will mor e exalt fr ee gr ace, and make man bow ver y low befor e
it, than this knowledge of the myster y "OF
GOD
ist."

in

Chr

It is easy to see what a mighty influence it must exer t on the believer who seeks to abide in Chr
ist. What a sur e standing - gr ound it gives him, as he r ests his r ight to Chr ist and all His
fulness on nothing less than the Father 's own pur pose and wor k! We have thought of Chr ist as the
Vine, and the believer as the br anch; let us not for get that other pr ecious wor d, "My Father is the
husbandman." The Saviour said, "Ever y plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be r
ooted up"; but ever y br anch gr afted by Him in the Tr ue Vine, shall never be plucked out of His
hand. As it was the Father to whom Chr ist owed all He was, and in whom He had all His str ength
and His life as the Vine, so to the Father the believer owes his place and his secur ity in Chr ist. The
same love and delight with which the Father watched over the beloved Son Himself, watch over ever
y member of His body, ever y one who is in Chr ist Jesus.
What confident tr ust this faith inspir es - not only as to the being kept in safety to the end, but
specially as to the being able to fulfil in ever y point the object for which I have been united to
Chr ist. The br anch is as much in the char ge and keeping of the husbandman as the vine; his
honour as much concer ned in the wellbeing and gr owth of the br anch as of the vine. The God who
chose Chr ist to be Vine fitted Him thor oughly for the wor k He had as Vine to per for m. The God
who has chosen me and planted me in Chr ist, has ther eby engaged to secur e, if I will but let Him,
by yielding myself to Him, that I in ever y way be wor thy of Jesus Chr ist. Oh that I did but fully r
ealize this! What confidence and ur gency it would give to my pr ayer to the God and Father of Jesus
Chr ist!
How it would quicken the sense of dependence, and make me see that pr aying without ceasing
is indeed the one need of my life - an unceasing waiting, moment by moment, on the God who
has united me to Chr ist, to per fect His own divine wor k, to wor k in me both to will and to do of His
good pleasur e.

And what a motive this would be far the highest activity in the maintenance of a fr uitful br anch life! Motives ar e mighty power s; it is of infinite impor tance to have them high and clear. Her e sur
ely is the highest: "You ar e God's wor kmanship, cr eated in Chr ist Jesus unto good wor ks": gr
afted by Him into Chr ist, unto the br inging for th of much fr uit. Whatever God cr eates is
exquisitely suited to its end. He cr eated the sun to give light: how per fectly it does its wor k! He cr
eated the eye to see: how beautifully it fulfils its object! He cr eated the new man unto good wor
ks: how admir ably it is fitted for its pur pose.
OF GOD I am in Chr ist: cr eated anew, made a br anch of the Vine, fitted for fr uit - bear ing.
Would to God that believer s would cease looking most at their old natur e, and complaining of
their weakness, as if God called them to what they wer e unfitted for ! Would that they would
believingly and joyfully accept the wondr ous r evelation of how God, in uniting them to Chr ist, has
made Himself char geable for their spir itual gr owth and fr uitfulness! How all sickly hesitancy and

sloth would disappear, and under the influence of this mighty motive - the faith in the faithfulness
of Him of whom they ar e in Chr ist - their whole natur e would r ise to accept and fulfil their glor
ious destiny!

O my soul! yield your self to the mighty influence of this wor d: "OF GOD ye ar e in Chr ist Jesus." It
is the same GOD of WHOM Chr ist is made all that He is for us, of WHOM we also ar e in Chr ist,
and will most sur ely be made what we must be to Him. Take time to meditate and to wor ship,
until the light that comes fr om the thr one of God has shone into you, and you have seen your union
to Chr ist as indeed the wor k of His almighty Father. Take time, day after day, and let, in your
whole r eligious life, with all it has of claims and duties, of needs and wishes, God be ever ything.
See Jesus, as He speaks to you,
"Abide in me," pointing upwar d and saying, "My FATHER IS
THE
HUSBANDMAN Of Him you ar e in me, thr ough Him you abide in me, and to Him and to His glor
y shall be the fr uit you bear." And let your answer be, Amen, Lor d! So be it. Fr om eter nity Chr ist
and I wer e or dained for each other ; insepar ably we belong to each other : it is God's will; I shall
abide in Chr ist. It is of God I am in Chr ist Jesus.
Chapter 7
As your Wisdom
"Of God ar e ye in Chr ist Jesus, who was made unto us WISDOM fr om God, both r ighteousness
and sanctification, and r edemption." - I COR.1:30 (R.V. mar g.).
JESUS CHRIST is not only Pr iest to pur chase, and King to secur e, but also Pr ophet to r eveal to us
the salvation which God bath pr epar ed for them that love Him. Just as at the cr eation the light was
fir st called into existence, that in it all God's other wor ks might have their life and beauty, so in
our text wisdom is mentioned fir st as the tr easur y in which ar e to be found the thr ee pr ecious gifts
that follow. The life is the light of man; it is in r evealing to us, and making us behold the glor y of
God in His own face, that Chr ist makes us par taker s of eter nal life. It was by the tr ee of knowledge
that sin came; it is thr ough the knowledge that Chr ist gives that salvation comes. He is made of God
unto us wisdom. In Him ar e hid all the tr easur es of wisdom and knowledge.
And of God you ar e in Him, and have but to abide in Him, to be made par taker of these tr easur es
of wisdom. In Him you ar e, and in Him the wisdom is; dwelling in Him, you dwell in the ver y
fountain of all light; abiding in Him, you have Chr ist the wisdom of God leading your whole spir
itual life, and r eady to communicate, in the for m of knowledge, just as much as is needful for you to
know. Chr ist is made unto us wisdom: you ar e in Chr ist.

It is this connection between what Chr ist has been made of God to us, and how we have it only as
also being in Him, that we must lear n to under stand better. We shall thus see that the blessings pr
epar ed for us in Chr ist cannot be obtained as special gifts in answer to pr ayer apar t fr om the
abiding in Him. The answer to each pr ayer must come in the closer union and the deeper abiding
in Him; in Him, the unspeakable gift, all other gifts ar e tr easur ed up, the gift of wisdom and
knowledge too.
How often have you longed for wisdom and spir itual under standing that you might know God
better, whom to know is life eter nal! Abide in Jesus: your life in Him will lead you to that
fellowship with God in which the only tr ue knowledge of God is to be had. His love, His power,
His infinite glor y will, as you abide in Jesus, be so r evealed as it hath not enter ed into the hear t of

man to conceive. You may not be able to gr asp it with the under standing, or to expr ess it in wor ds;
but the knowledge which

is deeper than thoughts or wor ds will be given - the knowing of God which comes of being known of
Him.
"We pr each Chr ist cr ucified unto them which ar e called, Chr ist the power of God, and the wisdom
of
God."
Or you would fain count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Chr ist your
Lor d. Abide in Jesus, and be found in Him. You shall know Him in the power of His r esur r ection
and the fellowship of His suffer ings. Following Him, you shall not walk in dar kness, but have the
light of life. It is only when God shines into the hear t, and Chr ist Jesus dwells ther e, that the
light of the knowledge of God in the face of Chr ist can be seen.
Or would you under stand his blessed wor k, as He wr ought it on ear th, or wor ks it fr om heaven by
His Spir it? Would you know how Chr ist can become our r ighteousness, and our sanctification,
and r edemption? It is just as br inging, and r evealing, and communicating these that He is made
unto us wisdom fr om God. Ther e ar e a thousand questions that at times come up, and the attempt
to answer them becomes a wear iness and a bur den. It is because you have for gotten you ar e in
Chr ist, whom God has made to be your wisdom. Let it be your fir st car e to abide in Him in
undivided fer vent devotion of hear t; when the hear t and the life ar e r ight, r ooted in Chr ist,
knowledge will come in such measur e as Chr ist's own wisdom sees meet. And without such abiding
in Chr ist the knowledge does not r eally pr ofit, but is often most hur tful. The soul satisfies itself
with thoughts which ar e but the for ms and images of tr uth, without r eceiving the tr uth itself in
its power. God's way is ever fir st to give us, even though it be but as a seed, the thing itself, the life
and the power, and then the knowledge. Man seeks the knowledge fir st, and often, alas! never gets
beyond it. God gives us Chr ist, and in Him hid the tr easur es of wisdom and knowledge. O let us be
content to possess Chr ist, to dwell in Him, to make Him our life, and only in a deeper sear ching
into Him, to sear ch and find the knowledge we desir e. Such knowledge is life indeed.
Ther efor e, believer, abide in Jesus as your wisdom, and expect fr om Him most confidently
whatever teaching you may need for a life to the glor y of the Father. In all that concer ns your
spir itual life, abide in Jesus as your wisdom. The life you have in Chr ist is a thing of infinite sacr
edness, far too high and holy for you to know how to act it out. It is He alone who can guide
you, as by a secr et spir itual instinct, to know what is becoming your dignity as a child of God,
what will help and what will hinder your inner life, and specially your abiding in Him. Do not
think of it as a myster y or a difficulty you must solve. Whatever questions come up as to the
possibility of abiding per fectly and uninter r uptedly in Him, and of r eally obtaining all the blessing
that comes fr om it, always r emember : He knows, all is per fectly clear to Him, and He is my
wisdom. Just as much as you need to know and ar e capable of appr ehending, will be
communicated, if you only tr ust Him. Never think of the r iches of wisdom and knowledge hid in
Jesus as tr easur es without a key, or of your way as a path without a light. Jesus your wisdom is
guiding you in the r ight way, even when you do not see it.

In all your inter cour se with the blessed Wor d, r emember the same tr uth: abide in Jesus, your
wisdom. Study much to know the wr itten Wor d; but study mor e to know the living Wor d, in
whom you ar e of God. Jesus, the wisdom of God, is only known by a life of implicit confidence
and obedience. The wor ds He speaks ar e spir it and life to those who live in Him. Ther efor e, each

time you r ead, or hear, or meditate upon the Wor d, be car eful to take up your tr ue position.
Realize fir st your oneness with Him who is the wisdom of God; know your self to be under His dir
ect and special tr aining; go to the

Wor d abiding in Him, the ver y fountain of divine light - in His light you shall see
light.
In all your daily life its ways and its wor k, abide in Jesus as your wisdom. Your body and your daily
life shar e in the gr eat salvation: in Chr ist, the wisdom of God, pr ovision has been made for
their guidance too. Your body is His temple, your daily life the spher e for glor ifying Him: it is to
Him a matter of deep inter est that all your ear thly concer ns should be guided ar ight. Only
tr ust His sympathy, believe His love, and wait for His guidance - it will be given. Abiding in
Him, the mind will be calmed and fr eed fr om passion, the judgment clear ed and str engthened,
the light of heaven will shine on ear thly things, and your pr ayer for wisdom, like Solomon's, will be
fulfilled above what you ask or think.
And so, especially in any wor k you do for God, abide in Jesus as your wisdom. "We ar e cr eated
in Chr ist Jesus unto good wor ks, which God bath befor e or dained that we should walk in them";
let all fear or doubt lest we should not know exactly what these wor ks ar e, be put far away. In Chr
ist we ar e cr eated for them: He will show us what they ar e, and how to do them. Cultivate the habit
of r ejoicing in the assur ance that the divine wisdom is guiding you, even wher e you do not yet see
the way.

All that you can wish to know is per fectly clear to Him. As Man, as Mediator, He has access to
the counsels of Deity, to the secr ets of Pr ovidence, in your inter est, and on your behalf. If you
will but tr ust Him fully, and abide in Him entir ely, you can be confident of having uner r ing
guidance.
Yes, abide in Jesus as your wisdom. Seek to maintain the spir it of waiting and dependence, that
always seeks to lear n, and will not move but as the heavenly light leads on. Withdr aw your self
fr om all needless distr action, close your ear s to the voices of the wor ld, and be as a docile
lear ner, ever listening for the heavenly wisdom the Master has to teach. Sur r ender all your own
wisdom; seek a deep conviction of the utter blindness of the natur al under standing in the things of
God; and both as to what you have to believe and have to do, wait for Jesus to teach and to guide.
Remember that the teaching and guidance come not fr om without: it is by His life in us that the
divine wisdom does His wor k. Retir e fr equently with Him into the inner chamber of the hear t,
wher e the gentle voice of the Spir it is only hear d if all be still. Hold fast with unshaken
confidence, even in the midst of dar kness and appar ent deser tion, His own assur ance that He is
the light and the leader of His own. And live, above all, day by day in the blessed tr uth that, as He
Himself, the living Chr ist Jesus, is your wisdom, your fir st and last car e must ever be this alone to abide in Him. Abiding in Him, His wisdom will come to you as the spontaneous outflowing of a
life r ooted in Him. I am, I abide in Chr ist, who was made unto us wisdom fr om God; wisdom will
be given me.

Chapter 8
As your Righteousness
"Of God ar e ye in Chr ist Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom fr om God, both
RIGHTEOUSNESS

and sanctification, and r edemption." - I


Cor.1:30
(R.V.
g.).

mar

THE fir st of the gr eat blessings which Chr ist our wisdom r eveals to us as pr epar ed in Himself,
is - r ighteousness. It is not difficult to see why this must be fir st.

Ther e can be no r eal pr osper ity or pr ogr ess in a nation, a home, or a soul, unless ther e be peace.
As not even a machine can do its wor k unless it be in r est,secur ed on a good foundation, quietness
and assur ance ar e indispensable to our mor al and spir itual wellbeing. Sin had distur bed all our r
elations; we wer e out ofhar mony with our selves, with men, and with God. The fir st r equir ement of
a salvation that should r eally br ing blessedness to us was peace. And peace can only come with r
ight. Wher e ever ything is as God would have it, in God's or der and in har mony with His will,
ther e alone can peace r eign. Jesus Chr ist came tor estor e peace on ear th, and peace in the
soul, by r estor ing r ighteousness. Because He is Melchizedek, King of r ighteousness, He r eigns as
King of Salem, King of peace (Heb.7:2). He so fulfils the pr omise the pr ophets held out:
"A king shall r eign in r ighteousness: and the wor k of r ighteousness shall be peace, and the effect
of r ighteousness, quietness and assur ance for ever " (Isa.32:1,17). Chr ist is made of God unto us r
ighteousness; of God we ar e in Him as our r ighteousness; we ar e made the r ighteousness of God
in Him. Let us tr y to under stand what this means.
When fir st the sinner is led to tr ust in Chr ist for salvation, he, as a r ule, looks mor e to His wor k
than
His
per
son.
As he looks at the Cr oss, and Chr ist suffer ing ther e, the Righteous One for the unr ighteous, he sees
in that atoning death the only but sufficient foundation for his faith in God's par doning mer cy.
The substitution, and the cur se - bear ing, and the atonement of Chr ist dying in the stead of sinner
s, ar e what give him peace. And as he under stands how the r ighteousness which Chr ist br ings
becomes his ver y own, and how, in the str ength of that, he is counted r ighteous befor e God, he
feels that he has what he needs to r estor e him to God's favour : "Being justified by faith, we have
peace with God." He seeks to wear this r obe of r ighteousness in the ever r enewed faith in the glor
ious gift of r ighteousness which has been bestowed upon him.
But as time goes on, and he seeks to gr ow in the Chr istian life, new needs ar ise. He wants
to under stand mor e fully how it is that God can thus justify the ungodly on the str ength of
the r ighteousness of another. He finds the answer in the wonder ful teaching of Scr iptur e as to
the tr ue union of the believer with Chr ist as the second Adam. He sees that it is because Chr ist
had made Himself one with His people, and they wer e one with Him; that it was in per fect accor
dance with all law in the kingdom of natur e and of heaven, that each member of the body should have
the full benefit of the doing and the suffer ing as of the life of the head. And so he is led to feel that
it can only be in fully r ealizing his per sonal union with Chr ist as the Head, that he can fully exper
ience the power of His r ighteousness to br ing the soul into the full favour and fellowship of the
Holy One. The wor k of Chr ist doesnot become less pr ecious, but the Per son of Chr ist mor e so;
the wor k leads up into the ver y hear t, the lose and the life of the Godman.

And this exper ience sheds its light again upon Scr iptur e. It leads him to notice, what he had scar
ce r emar ked befor e, how distinctly the r ighteousness of God, as it becomes our s, is connected
with the Per son of the Redeemer.

"This is His name wher eby HE shall be called, JEHOVAH OUR


RIGHTEOUSNESS." "IN JEHOVAH have I r ighteousness and str ength."
"OF
God is HE made unto us r ighteousness." "That we might be made the r ighteousness of God IN
HIM." "That I may be found IN HIM, having the r ighteousness of God." He sees how
insepar able

r ighteousness and life in Chr ist ar e fr om each other : "The r ighteousness of one comes upon all
unto justification of life." "They which r eceive the gift of r ighteousness shall r eign in life by one,
Jesus Chr ist." And he under stands what deep meaning ther e is in the key - wor d of the
Epistle to the Romans: "The r ighteous shall live by faith." He is not now content with only thinking
of the imputed r ighteousness as his r obe; but, putting on Jesus Chr ist, and seeking to be wr apped up
in, to be clothed upon with Himself and His life, he feels how completely the r ighteousness of God
is his, because the Lor d our r ighteousness is his. Befor e he under stood this, he too often felt it
difficult to wear his white r obe all the day: it was as if he specially had to put it on when he came into
God's pr esence to confess his sins, and seek new gr ace. But now the living Chr ist Himself is his r
ighteousness - that Chr ist who watches over, and keeps and loves us as His own; it is no longer an
impossibility to walk all the day enr obed in the loving pr esence with which He cover s His people.
Such an exper ience leads still fur ther. The life and the r ighteousness ar e insepar ably linked, and
the believer becomes mor e conscious than befor e of a r ighteous natur e planted within him. The new
man cr eated in Chr ist Jesus, is
"cr eated in r ighteousness and tr ue holiness." "He that doeth r ighteousness is r ighteous, even as He
is r ighteous." The union to Jesus has effected a change not only in the r elation to God, but in
the per sonal state befor e God. And as the intimate fellowship to which the union has opened up the
way is maintained, the gr owing r enewal of the whole being makes r ighteousness to be his ver y natur
e.
To a Chr istian who begins to see the deep meaning of the tr uth, "HE is made to us r ighteousness," it
is har dly necessar y to say, "Abide in Him." As long as he only thought of the r ighteousness of
the substitute, and our being counted judicially r ighteous for His sake, the absolute necessity of
abiding in Him was not appar ent. But as the glor y of "Jehovah our r ighteousness" unfolds to the
view, he sees that abiding in Him per sonally is the only way to stand, at all times, complete and
accepted befor e God, as it is the only way to r ealize how the new and r ighteous natur e can be str
engthened fr om Jesus our Head. To the penitent sinner the chief thought was the r ighteousness
which comes thr ough Jesus dying for sin; to the intelligent and advancing believer, Jesus, the
Living One, thr ough whom the r ighteousness comes, is ever ything, because having Him he has the
r ighteousness too.
Believer, abide in Chr ist as your r ighteousness. You bear about with you a natur e altogether cor r
upt and vile, ever seeking to r ise up and dar ken your sense of acceptance, and of access to unbr
oken fellowship with the Father. Nothing can enable you to dwell and walk in the light of God,
without even the shadow of a cloud between, but the habitual abiding in Chr ist as your r
ighteousness. To this you ar e called. Seek to walk wor thy of that calling. Yield your self to the
Holy Spir it to r eveal to you the wonder ful gr ace that per mits you to dr aw nigh to God, clothed in
a divine r ighteousness. Take time to r ealize that the King's own r obe has indeed been put on, and
that in it you need not fear enter ing His pr esence. It is the token that you ar e the man whom
the King delights to honour. Take time to r emember that as much as you need it in the palace, no
less do you r equir e it when He sends you for th into the wor ld, wher e you ar e the King's
messenger and r epr esentative. Live your daily life in the full consciousness of being r ighteous in
God's sight, an object of delight and pleasur e in Chr ist. Connect ever y view you have of Chr ist in
His other gr aces with this fir st one: "Of God He is made to you r ighteousness." This will keep
you in per fect peace. Thus shall you enter into, and dwell in, the r est of God. So shall your inmost
being be tr ansfor med into being r ighteous and doing r ighteousness. In your hear t and life it

will become manifest wher e you dwell; abiding in Jesus Chr ist, the Righteous One, you will shar e
His position, His char acter, and His blessedness: "Thou lovest r ighteousness, and

hatest iniquity: ther efor e God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows." Joy and gladness above measur e will be your por tion.
Chapter 9
As your Sanctificatiion
"Of God ar e ye in Chr ist Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom fr om God, both r ighteousness
and
SANCTIFICATION, and r edemption." I COR.1:30(R.V. mar
g.).
"Paul unto the Chur ch of God which is at Cor inth to them that ar e sanctified in Chr ist Jesus, called
to be saints" ; - thus the chapter opens in which we ar e taught that Chr ist is our sanctification. In the
Old Testament, believer s wer e called the r ighteous; in the New Testament they ar e called saints,
the holy ones, sanctified in Chr ist Jesus. Holy is higher than r ighteous. I Holy in God has r efer
ence to His inmost being; r ighteous, to His dealings with His cr eatur es. In man, r ighteousness is
but a stepping stone to holiness. It is in this he can appr oach most near to the per fection of' God
(comp. Matt.5:48; I Pet.1:16). In the Old Testament r ighteousness was found, while holiness was
only typified; ill Jesus Chr ist, the Holy One, and in His people, His saints or holy ones, it is fir st r
ealized.
As in Scr iptur e, and in our text, so in per sonal exper ience r ighteousness pr ecedes holiness. When
fir st the believer finds Chr ist as his r ighteousness, he has such joy in the new - made discover y
that the study of holiness har dly has a place. But as he gr ows, the desir e for holiness makes itself
felt, and he seeks to know what pr ovision his God has made for supplying that need. A super ficial
acquaintance with God's plan leads to the view that while justification is God's wor k, by
faith in Chr ist, sanctification is our wor k, to be per for med under the influence of the gr
atitude we feel for the deliver ance we have exper ienced, and by the aid of the Holy Spir it. But
the ear nest Chr istian soon finds how little gr atitude can supply the power. When he thinks that mor e
pr ayer will br ing it, he finds that, indispensable as pr ayer is, it is not enough. Often the believer
str uggles hopelessly for year s, until he listens to the teaching of the Spir it, as He glor ifies Chr
ist again, and r eveals Chr ist, our sanctification, to be appr opr iated by faith alone.
Chr ist is made of God unto us sanctification. Holiness is the ver y natur e of God, and that alone is
holy which God takes possession of and fills with Himself. God's answer to the question, How could
sinful man become holy?

is, "Chr ist, the Holy One of God." In Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the wor ld,
God's holiness was r evealed incar nate, and br ought within r each of man. "I sanctify myself for
them, that they also may be sanctified in tr uth." Ther e is no other way of our becoming holy, but
by becoming par taker s of the holiness of Chr ist.' And ther e is no other way of this taking
place than by our per sonal spir itual union with Him, so that thr ough His Holy Spir it His holy
life flows into us. "Of God ar e ye in Chr ist, who is made unto us sanctification." Abiding by faith
in Chr ist our sanctification is the simple secr et of a holy life. The measur e of sanctification
will depend on the measur e of abiding in Him; as the soul lear ns wholly to abide in Chr ist, the
pr omise is incr easingly fulfilled: "The ver y God of peace sanctify you wholly."

To illustr ate this r elation between the measur e of the abiding and the measur e of
sanctification exper ienced, let us think of the gr afting a tr ee, that instr uctive symbol of our
union to Jesus. The illustr ation is suggested by the Saviour 's wor ds, "Make the tr ee good, and his fr
uit good." I can gr aft a

tr ee so that only a single br anch bear s good fr uit, while many of the natur al br anches r emain,
and bear their old fr uit - a type of believer in whom a small par t of the life is sanctified, but in
whom, fr om ignor ance or other r easons, the car nal life still in many r espects has full dominion. I
can gr aft a tr ee so that ever y br anch is cut off, and the whole tr ee becomes r enewed to bear good
fr uit; and yet, unless I watch over the tendency of the stems to give spr outs, they may again r ise
and gr ow str ong, and, r obbing the new gr aft of the str ength it needs, make it weak. Such ar e
Chr istians who, when appar ently power fully conver ted, for sake all to follow Chr ist, and
yet after a time, thr ough unwatchfulness, allow old habits to r egain their power, and whose
Chr istian life and fr uit ar e but feeble. But if I want a tr ee wholly made good, I take it when young,
and, cutting the stem clean off on the gr ound, I gr aft it just wher e it emer ges fr om the soil. I watch
over ever y bud which the old natur e could possibly put for th, until the flow of sap fr om the old r
oots into the new stem is so complete, that the old life has, as it wer e, been entir ely conquer ed and
cover ed by the new. Her e I have a tr ee entir ely r enewed - emblem of the Chr istian who has lear nt
in entir e consecr ation to sur r ender ever ything for Chr ist, and in a wholehear ted faith wholly to
abide in Him.
If, in this last case, the old tr ee wer e a r easonable being that could co - oper ate with the gar dener,
what would his language be to it? Would it not be this: "Yield now your self entir ely to this new
natur e with which I have invested you; r epr ess ever y tendency of the old natur e to give buds or
spr outs; let all your sap and all your life - power s r ise up into this gr aft fr om yonder beautiful tr
ee, which I have put on you; so shallyou br ing for th sweet and much fr uit." And the language of
the tr ee to the gar dener would be: "When you gr aft me, O spar e not a single br anch; let ever
ything of the old self, even the smallest bud, be destr oyed, that I may no longer live in my own, but
in that other life that was cut off and br ought and put upon me, that I might be wholly new and
good." And, once again, could you after war ds ask the r enewed tr ee, as it was bear ing abundant fr
uit, what it could say of itself, its answer would be this: "In me, that is, in my r oots, ther e dwells no
good thing. I am ever inclined to evil; the sap I collect fr om the soil is in its natur e cor r upt, and r
eady to show itself in bear ing evil fr uit. But just when the sap r ises into the sunshine to r ipen into
fr uit, the wise gar dener has clothed me with a new life, thr ough which my sap is pur ified, and all
my power s ar e r enewed to the br inging for th of good fr uit. I have only to abide in that which I
have r eceived. He car es for the immediate r epr ession and r emoval of ever y bud which the old
natur e still would put for th."
Chr istian, fear not to claim God's pr omises to make you holy. Listen not to the suggestion that
the cor r uption of your old natur e would r ender holiness an impossibility. In your flesh dwells no
good thing, and that flesh, though cr ucified with Chr ist, is not yet dead, but will continually seek to
r ise and lead you to evil. But the Father is the Husbandman. He has gr afted the life of Chr ist on
your life. That holy life is mightier than your evil life; under the watchful car e of the Husbandman,
that new life can keep down the wor kings of the evil life within you. The evil natur e is ther e,
with its unchanged tendency to r ise up and show itself. But the new natur e is ther e too the living Chr ist, your sanctification, is ther eand thr ough Him all your power s can be sanctified
as they r ise into life, and be made to bear fr uit to the glor y of the Father.

And now, if you would live a holy life, abide in Chr ist your sanctification. Look upon Him as
the Holy One of God, made man that He might communicate to us the holiness of God. Listen
when Scr iptur e teaches that ther e is within you a new natur e, a new man, cr eated in Chr ist
Jesus in r ighteousness and tr ue holiness. Remember that this holy natur e which is in you is
singular ly fitted for living a holy life, and per for ming all holy duties, as much so as the old natur e

is for doing evil. Under stand that this holy natur e within you has its r oot and life in Chr ist in heaven,
and can only gr ow

and become str ong as the inter cour se between it and its sour ce is uninter r upted. And above all,
believe most confidently that Jesus Chr ist Himself delights in maintaining that new natur e within
you, and impar ting to it His own str ength and wisdom for its wor k. Let that faith lead you daily to
the sur r ender of all selfconfidence, and the confession of the utter cor r uption of all ther e is in you
by natur e. Let it fill you with a quiet and assur ed confidence that you ar e indeed able to do what the
Father expects of you as His child, under the covenant of His gr ace, because you have Chr ist str
engthening you. Let it teach you to lay your self and your ser vices on the altar as spir itual sacr
ifices, holy and acceptable in His sight, a sweet - smelling savour. Look not upon a life of holiness
as a str ain and an effor t, but as the natur al outgr owth of the life of Chr ist within you. And let ever
again a quiet, hopeful, gladsome faith hold itself assur ed that all you need for a holy life will most
assur edly be given you out of the holiness of Jesus. Thus will you under stand and pr ove what it is to
abide in Chr ist our sanctification.

NOTE
The thought that in the per sonal holiness of our Lor d a new holy natur e was for med to
be communicated to us, and that we make use of it by faith, is the centr alidea of Mar shall's
invaluable wor k, The Gospel Myster y of Sanctcation:
"One gr eat myster y is, that the holy fr ame and disposition wher eby our souls ar e fur nished
and enabled for immediate pr actice of the law, must be obtained by r eceiving it out of Chr ist's
fulness, as a thing alr eady pr epar ed and br ought to an existence ,for us in Chr ist, and tr easur ed
up in Him; and that, as we ar e justified by a r ighteousness wr ought out in Chr ist, and imputed
to us, so we ar e sanctified by such an holy fr ame and qualification as ar e fir st wr ought out and
completed in Chr ist for us, and then impar ted to us. As our natur al cor r uption was pr oduced or
iginally in the fir st Adam, and pr opagated fr om him to us, so our new natur e and holiness is
fir st pr oduced in Chr ist, and der ived fr om Him to us, or, as it wer e, pr opagated. So that we ar
e not at all to wor k together with Chr ist in making or pr oducing that holy fr ame in us, but only to
take it to our selves, and use it in our holy pr actice, as made r eady to our hands. Thus we have
fellowship with Chr ist, in r eceiving that holy fr ame of spir it that was or iginally in Him; for
fellowship is wher e sever al per sons have the same things in common. This myster y is so gr eat,
that notwithstanding all the light of the Gospel, we commonly think that we must get an holy fr
ame by pr oducing it anew in our selves, and by pur suing it and wor king it out of our own hear t" .
Chapter 10
As your Redemption
"Of God ar e ye in Chr ist Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom fr om God, both r ighteousness
and sanctification, and REDEMPTION." - I COR.1:30(R.V. mar g.).
HERE we have the top of the ladder, r eaching into heaven - the blessed end to which Chr ist and life
in Him is to lead. The wor d r edemption, though sometimes applied to our deliver ance fr omthe
guilt of sin, her e r efer s to our complete and final deliver ance fr om all its consequences, when the
Redeemer 's wor k shall become fully manifest, even to the r edemption of the body itself (comp.
Rom.8: 21 - 23 ; Eph.1.14; 4:30). The expr ession points us to the highest glor y to be hoped for
in the futur e, and ther efor e also to the highest blessing to be enjoyed in the pr esentin Chr ist.
We have seen how, as a Pr ophet, Chr ist is our wisdom, r evealing to us God and His love, with the
natur e and conditions of the salvation that love has pr epar ed. As a Pr iest, He is our r ighteousness,
r estor ing us to r ight r elations to God, and secur ing us His favour and fr iendship. As a King, He
is our sanctification, for ming and guiding us into the obedience to the Father 's holy will. As
these thr ee offices wor k out God's one pur pose, the gr and consummation will be r eached,the
complete deliver ance fr om sin and all its effects be accomplished, and r ansomed humanity r
egain all that it had ever lost.

Chr ist is made of God unto us r edemption. The wor d invites us to look upon Jesus, not only as
He lived onear th, teaching us by wor d and example, as He died, to r econcile us with God, as He
lives again, a victor ious King, r ising to r eceive His cr own, but as, sitting at the r ight hand of God,
He takes again the glor y which He had with the Father, befor e the wor ld began, and holds it ther

e for us. It consists in this, that ther e His human natur e, yea, His human body, fr eed fr om all the
consequences of

sin to which He once had been exposed, is now admitted to shar e the divine glor y. As Son of Man,
He dwells on the thr one and in the bosom of the Father : the deliver ance fr om what He had to suffer
fr om sin is complete and eter nal. The complete r edemption is found embodied in His own Per son:
what He as man is and has in heaven is the complete r edemption. HE is made of God to us r
edemption.
We ar e in Him as such. And the mor e intelligently and believingly we abide in Him as
our r edemption, the mor e shall we exper ience, even her e, of "the power s of the wor ld to come."
As our communion with Him becomes mor e intimate and intense, and we let the Holy Spir it r eveal
Him to us in His heavenly glor y, the mor e we r ealize how the life in us is the life of One who
sits upon the thr one of heaven. We feel the power of an endless life wor king in us. We taste the eter
nal life. We have the for etaste of the eter nal glor y.
The blessings flowing fr om abiding in Chr ist as our r edemption ar e gr eat. The soul is deliver ed fr
om all fear of death. Ther e was a time when even the Saviour fear ed death. But now no longer.
He has tr iumphed over death; even His body has enter ed into the glor y. The believer who abides in
Chr ist as his full r edemption, r ealizes even now his spir itual victor y over death. It becomes to him
the ser vant that r emoves the last r ags of the old car nal vestur e, er e he be clothed upon with the
new body of glor y. It car r ies the body to the gr ave, to lie ther e as the seed whence the new
body will ar ise the wor thy companion of the glor ified spir it.The r esur r ection of the body is no
longer a bar r en doctr ine, but a living expectation, and even an incipient exper ience, because the
Spir it of Him that r aised Jesus fr om the dead, dwells in the body as the pledge that even our
mor tal bodies shall be quickened (Rom.8:11 - 23). This faith exer cises its sanctifying influence in
the willing sur r ender of the sinful member s of the body to be mor tified and completely
subjected to the dominion of the Spir it, as pr epar ation for the time when the fr ail body shall be
changed and fashioned like to His glor ious body.
This full r edemption of Chr ist as extending to the body, has a depth of meaning not easily expr
essed. It was of man as a whole, soul and body that it is said that he was made in the image and
likeness of God. In the angels, God had cr eated spir its without mater ial bodies; in the cr eation of the
wor ld, ther e was matter without spir it. Man was to be the highest specimen of divine ar t: the
combination in one being, of matter and spir it in per fect har mony, as type of the most per fect union
between God and His own cr eation. Sin enter ed in, and appear ed to thwar t the divine plan: the
mater ial obtained a fear ful supr emacy over the spir itual. The Wor d was made ,flesh, the divine
fulness r eceived an embodiment in the humanity of Chr ist, that the r edemption might be a
complete and per fect one; that the whole cr eation, which now gr oaneth and tr availeth in pain
together, might be deliver ed fr om the bondage of cor r uption into the liber ty of the glor y of
the childr en of God. God's pur pose will not be accomplished, and Chr ist's glor y will not be
manifested fully, until the body, with that whole of natur e of which it is par t and head, has been tr
ansfigur ed by the power of the spir itual life, and made the tr anspar ent vestur e for showing for
th the glor y of the Infinite Spir it. Then only shall we under stand: "Chr ist Jesus is made unto us
(complete) r edemption."

Meantime we ar e taught to believe: "Of God ar e ye in Chr ist, as your r edemption." This is not
meant as a r evelation, to be left to the futur e; for the full development of the Chr istian life, our
pr esent abiding in Chr ist must seek to enter into and appr opr iate it. We do this as we lear n to tr
iumph over death. We do it as we lear n to look upon Chr ist as the Lor d of our body,
claiming its entir e consecr ation, secur ing even her e, if faith will claim it (Mar k 16:17 - 18),

victor y over the ter r ible dominion sin hath had in the body. We do this as we lear n to look on all
natur e as par t of the Kingdom of Chr ist, destined, even though it be thr ough a baptism of fir e, to par
take in His r edemption. We do it

as we allow the power s of the coming wor ld to possess us, and to lift us up into a life in the
heavenly places, to enlar ge our hear ts and our views, to anticipate, even her e, the things which
have never enter ed into the hear t of man to conceive.
Believer, abide in Chr ist as your r edemption. Let this be the cr own of your Chr istian life. Seek it
not fir st or only, apar t fr om the knowledge of Chr ist in His other r elations. But seek it tr uly as
that to which they ar e meant to lead you up. Abide in Chr ist as your r edemption. Nothing will fit
you for this but faithfulness in the pr evious steps of the Chr istian life. Abide in Him as your
wisdom, the per fect r evelation of all that God is and has for you. Follow, in the daily or der ing of
the inner and the outer life, with meek docility His teaching, and you shall be counted wor thy to have
secr ets r evealed to you which to most disciples ar e a sealed book. The wisdom will lead you into
the myster ies of complete r edemption. Abide in Him as your r ighteousness, and dwell clothed
upon with Him in that inner sanctuar y of the Father 's favour and pr esence to which His r
ighteousness gives you access. As you r ejoice in your r econciliation, you shall under stand how it
includes all things, and how they too wait the full r edemption; "for it pleased the Father by Him to r
econcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things on ear th or things in heaven."
And abide in Him as your sanctification; the exper ience of His power to make you holy, spir it and
soul and body, will quicken your faith in a holiness that shall not cease its wor k until the bells of
the hor ses and ever y pot in Jer usalem shall be holiness to the Lor d. Abide in Him as your r
edemption, and live, even her e, as the heir of the futur e glor y. And as you seek to exper ience in
your self to the full, the power of His saving gr ace, your hear t shall be enlar ged to r ealize the
position man has been destined to occupy in the univer se, as having all things made subject to him,
and you shall for your par t be fitted to live wor thy of that high and heavenly calling.
Chapter 11
The Cr ucified One
"I am cr ucified with Chr ist: never theless I live; yet not I, but Chr ist liveth in me." GAL.2:20. "We have been planted together in the likeness of his death. "Rom.6:5
"I am cr ucified with Chr ist." Thus the apostle expr esses his assur ance of his fellowship with Chr ist
in His suffer ings and death, and his full par ticipation in all the power and the blessing of thatdeath.
And so r eally did he mean what he said, andknow that he was now indeed dead, that he adds: "It
is no longer I that live, but Chr ist that liveth in me."How blessed must be the exper ience of such a
unionwith the Lor d Jesus! To be able to look upon His death as mine, just as r eally as it was
His - upon Hisper fect obedience to God, His victor y over sin, andcomplete deliver ance fr om its
power, as mine; and tor ealize that the power of that death does by faith wor k daily with a divine
ener gy in mor tifying the flesh, andr enewing the whole life into the per fect confor mity to the r
esur r ection life of Jesus! Abiding in Jesus, the Cr ucified One, is the secr et of the gr owth of that
new life which is ever begotten of the death of natur e.

Let us tr y to under stand this. The suggestive expr ession, "Planted into the likeness of His death,"
will teach us what the abiding in the Cr ucified One means. When a gr aft is united with the stock on
which it is to gr ow, we know that it must be kept fixed, it must abide in the place wher e the stock
has been cut, been wounded, to make an opening to r eceive the gr aft. No gr aft without wounding

the laying bar e and opening up of the inner life of the tr ee to r eceive the str anger br anch. It is
only thr ough such

wounding that access can be obtained to the fellowship of the sap and the gr owth and the life of
the str onger stem. Even so with Jesus and the sinner. Only when we ar e planted into the likeness
of His death shall we also be in the likeness of His r esur r ection, par taker s of the life and the power
ther e ar e in Him. In the death of the Cr oss Chr ist was wounded, and in His opened wounds a
place pr epar ed wher e we might be gr afted in. And just as one might say to a gr aft, and does pr
actically say as it is fixed in its place, "Abide her e in the wound of the stem, that is now to bear
you"; so to the believing soul the message comes, "Abide in the wounds of Jesus; ther e is the
place of union, and life, and gr owth. Ther e you shall see how His hear t was opened to r eceive you;
how His flesh was r ent that the way might be opened for your being made one with Him, and
having access to all the blessings flowing fr om His divine natur e."
You have also noticed how the gr aft has to be tor n away fr om the tr ee wher e it by natur e gr ew,
and to be cut into confor mity to the place pr epar ed for it in the wounded stem. Even so the believer
has to be made confor mable to Chr ist's death - to be cr ucified and to die with Him. The wounded
stem and the wounded gr aft ar e cut to fit into each other, into each other 's likeness. Ther e is a
fellowship between Chr ist's suffer ings and your suffer ings. His exper iences must become your
s. The disposition He manifested in choosing and bear ing the cr oss must be your s. Like Him,
you will have to give full assent to the r ighteous judgment and cur se of a holy God against sin.
Like Him, you have to consent to yield your life, as laden with sin and cur se,to death, and thr ough it
to pass to the new life. Like Him, you shall exper ience that it is only thr ough the self - sacr ifice of
Gethsemane and Calvar y that the path is to be found to the joy and the fr uit - bear ing of the
r esur r ection life. The mor e clear the r esemblance between the wounded stem and the wounded
gr aft, the mor e exactly their wounds fit into each other, the sur er and the easier, and the mor e
complete will be the union and the gr owth.
It is in Jesus, the Cr ucified One, I must abide. I must lear n to look upon the Cr oss as not only
an atonement to God, but also a victor y over the devil - not only a deliver ance fr om the guilt, but
also fr om the power of sin. I must gaze on Him on the Cr oss as wholly mine, offer ing Himself to r
eceive me into the closest union and fellowship, and to make me par taker of the full power of His
death to sin, and the new life of victor y to which it is but the gateway. I must yield myself to
Him in an undivided sur r ender, with much pr ayer and str ong desir e, implor ing to be admitted
into the ever closer fellowship and confor mity of His death, of the Spir it in which He died that death.
Let me tr y and under stand why the Cr oss is thus the place of union. On the Cr oss the Son of
God enter s into the fullest union with man - enter s into the fullest exper ience of what it says
to have become a son of man, a member of a r ace under the cur se. It is in death that the Pr
ince of life conquer s the power of death; it is in death alone that He can make me par taker of that
victor y. The life He impar ts is a life fr om the dead; each new exper ience of the power of that
life depends upon the fellowship of the death. The death and the life ar e insepar able. All the gr ace
which Jesus the Saving One gives is given only in the path of fellowship with Jesus the Cr ucified
One. Chr ist came and took my place; I must put myself in His place, and abide ther e. And ther e is
but one place which is both His and mine - that place is the Cr oss. His in vir tue of His fr ee choice;
mine by r eason of the cur se of sin. He came ther e to seek me; ther e alone I can find Him. When
He found me ther e, it was the place of cur sing; this He exper ienced, for "cur sed is ever y one that
hangeth on a tr ee." He made it a place of blessing; this I exper ienced, for Chr ist has deliver ed us
fr om the cur se, being made a cur se for us. When Chr ist comes in my place, He r emains what
He was, the beloved of the Father ; but in the fellowship with me He shar es my cur se and dies

my death. When I stand in His place, which is still always mine, I am still what I was by natur e, the
accur sed one, who deser ves to die; but as united to

Him, I shar e His blessing, and r eceive His life. When He came to be one with me He could not
avoid the Cr oss, for the cur se always points to the Cr oss as its end and fr uit. And when I seek to be
one with Him, I cannot avoid the Cr oss either, for nowher e but on the Cr oss ar e life and deliver
ance to be found. As inevitably as my cur se pointed Him to the Cr oss as the only place wher e He
could be fully united to me, His blessing points me to the Cr oss too as the only place wher e I can be
united to Him. He took my cr oss for His own; I must take His Cr oss as my own; I must be cr ucified
with Him. It is as I abide daily, deeply in Jesus the Cr ucified One, that I shall taste the sweetness of
His love, the power of His life, the completeness of His salvation.
Beloved believer ! it is a deep myster y, this of the Cr oss of Chr ist. I fear ther e ar e many Chr
istians who ar e content to look upon the Cr oss, with Chr ist on it dying for their sins, who have little
hear t for fellowship with the Cr ucified One. They har dly know that He invites them to it. Or they ar
e content to consider the or dinar y afflictions of life, which the childr en of the wor ld often have as
much as they, as their shar e of Chr ist's Cr oss. They have no conception of what it is to be cr ucified
with Chr ist, that bear ing the cr oss means likeness to Chr ist in the pr inciples which animated
Him in His path of obedience. The entir e sur r ender of all self - will, the complete denial to the
flesh of its ever y desir e and pleasur e, the per fect separ ation fr om the wor ld in all its ways of
thinking and acting, the losing and hating of one's life, the giving up of self and its inter ests for
the sake of other s - this is the disposition which mar ks him who has taken up Chr ist's Cr oss, who
seeks to say, "I am cr ucified with Chr ist; I abide in Chr ist, the Cr ucified One."
Would you in ver y deed please your Lor d, and live in as close fellowship with Him as His gr
ace could maintain you in? O pr ay that His Spir it lead you into this blessed tr uth: this secr et of the
Lor d for them that fear Him. We know how Peter knew and confessed Chr ist as the Son of the
living God while the Cr oss was still an offence (Matt.16:16,17,21,23). The faith that believes in
the blood that par dons, and the life that r enews, can only r each its per fect gr owth as it abides
beneath the Cr oss, and in living fellowship with Him seeks for per fect confor mity with Jesus the Cr
ucified.
O Jesus, our cr ucified Redeemer, teach us not only to believe on Thee, but to abide in Thee, to take
Thy Cr oss not only as the gr ound of our par don, but also as the law of our life. O teach us to love
it not only because on it Thou didst bear our cur se, but because on it we enter into the closest
fellowship with Thyself, and ar e cr ucified with Thee. And teach us, that as we yield our selves
wholly to be possessed of the Spir it in which Thou didst bear the Cr oss, we shall be made par taker
s of the power and the blessing to which the Cr oss alone gives access.

Chapter 12
God Himself will establish you
"He which stablisheth us with you in Chr ist, is God." - 2
COR.1:21
THESE wor ds of Paul teach us a much needed and most blessed tr uth - that just as our fir st
being united with Chr ist was the wor k of divine omnipotence, so we may look to the Father, too,
for being kept and being fixed mor e fir mly in Him. "The Lor d will per fect that which concer
neth me" - this expr ession of confidence should ever accompany the pr ayer, "For sake not the
wor k of Thine own hands." In all his longings and pr ayer s to attain to a deeper and mor e per

fect abiding in Chr ist, the believer must hold fast his confidence: "He which hath begun a good
wor k in you, will per for m it until the day of Jesus Chr ist." Ther e is nothing that will so help to r
oot and gr ound him in Chr ist as

this faith:
"He which stablisheth us in Chr ist is
God."
How many ther e ar e who can witness that this faith is just what they
need!
They continually mour n over the var iableness of their spir itual life. Sometimes ther e ar e hour s
and days of deep ear nestness, and even of blessed exper ience of the gr ace of God. But how little is
needed to mar their peace, to br ing a cloud over the soul! And then, how their faith is shaken! All
effor ts to r egain their standing appear utter ly fr uitless; and neither solemn vows, nor watching and
pr ayer, avail to r estor e to them the peace they for a while had tasted. Could they but under stand
how just their owneffor ts ar e the cause of their failur e, because it is God alone who can establish us
in Chr ist Jesus. They would see that just as in justification they had to cease fr om their own wor
king, and to accept in faith the pr omise that God would give them life in Chr ist, so now, in the matter
of their sanctification, their fir st need is to cease, fr om str iving themselves to establish the
connection with Chr ist mor e fir mly, and to allow God to do it. "God is faithful, by whom ye wer e
called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Chr ist." What they need is the simple faith that the
stablishing in Chr ist, day by day, is God's wor k - a wor k that He delights to do, in spite of all our
weakness and unfaithfulness, if we will but tr ust Him for it.
To the blessedness of such a faith, and the exper ience it br ings, many can testify. What peace and r
est, to know that ther e is a Husbandman who car es for the br anch, to see that it gr ows str onger, and
that its union with the Vine becomes mor e per fect, who watches over ever y hindr ance and
danger, who supplies ever y needed aid! What peace and r est, fully and finally to give up our abiding
into the car e of God, and never have a wish or thought, never to offer a pr ayer or engage in an exer
cise connected with it, without fir st having the glad r emembr ance that what we do is only the
manifestation of what God is doing in us! The establishing in Chr ist is His wor k: He accomplishes it
by stir r ing us to watch, and wait, and wor k. But this He can do with power only as we cease inter r
upting Him by our self - wor king - as we accept in faith the dependent postur e which honour s
Him and opens the hear t to let Him wor k. How such a faith fr ees the soul fr om car e and r
esponsibility! In the midst of the r ush and bustle of the wor ld's stir r ing life, amid the subtle and
ceaseless temptations of sin, amid all the daily car es and tr ials that so easily distr act and lead to
failur e, how blessed it would be to be an established Chr istianalways abiding in Chr ist! How blessed
even to have the faith that one can sur ely become it - that the attainment is within our r each!

Dear believer, the blessing is indeed within your r each. He that stablisheth you with us in Chr ist
is God. What I want you to take in is this - that believing this pr omise will not only give you
comfor t, but will be the means of your obtaining your desir e. You know how Scr iptur e teaches
us that in all God's leadings of His people faith has ever ywher e been the one condition of the
manifestation of His power. Faith is the ceasing fr om all natur e's effor ts, and all other
dependence; faith is confessed helplessness casting itself upon God's pr omise, and claiming its
fulfilment; faith is the putting our selves quietly into God's hands for Him to do His wor k. What
you and I need now is to take time, until this tr uth stands out befor e us in all its spir itual br
ightness: It is God Almighty, God the Faithful and Gr acious One, who has under taken to stablish
me in Chr ist Jesus.

Listen to what the Wor d teaches you: - "The Lor d shall establish thee an holy people unto
Himself"; "O Lor d God, stablish their hear t unto Thee"; "Thy God loved Isr ael, to establish
them for ever "; "Thou wilt establish the hear t of the humble"; "Now to Him that is of power to
establish you, be glor y

for ever "; "To the end He may establish your hear ts unblameable in holiness" ; "THE
LORD
IS FAITHFUL, who shall stablish you and keep you fr om all evil"; "The God of all gr ace, who
hath called us in Chr ist Jesus, make you per fect, stablish, str engthen, settle you." Can you take these
wor ds to mean anything less than that you too - however fitful your spir itual life has hither to been,
however unfavour able your natur al char acter or your cir cumstances may appear - can be
established in Chr ist Jesuscan become an established Chr istian? Let us but take time to
listen, in simple childlike teachableness, to these wor ds as the tr uth of God, and the confidence
will come: As sur elyas I am in Chr ist, I shall also, day by day, be established in Him.
The lesson appear s so simple; and yet the most of us take so long to lear n it. The chief r eason is,
that the gr ace the pr omise offer s is so lar ge, so God - like, so beyond all our thoughts, that we do
not take it r eally to mean what it says. The believer who has once come to see and accept what it br
ings, can bear witness to the wonder ful change ther e comes over the spir itual life. Hither to he had
taken char ge of his own welfar e; now he has a God to take char ge of it. He now knows himself to
be in the school of God, a Teacher who plans the whole cour se of study for each of His pupils with
infinite wisdom, and delights to have them come daily for the lessons He has to give. All he asks is to
feel himself constantly in God's hands, and to follow His guidance, neither lagging behind nor
going befor e. Remember ing that it is God who wor keth both to will and to do, he sees his only
safety to be in yielding himself to God's wor king. He lays aside all anxiety about his inner life
and its gr owth, because the Father is the Husbandman under whose wise and watchful car e each
plant is well secur ed. He knows that ther e is the pr ospect of a most blessed life of str ength and fr
uitfulness to ever y one who will take God alone and wholly as his hope.
Believer, you cannot but admit that such a life of tr ust must be a most blessed one. You say, per
haps, that ther e ar e times when you do, with your whole hear t, consent to this way of living, and do
wholly abandon the car e of your inner life to your Father. But somehow it does not last. You for
get again; and instead of beginning each mor ning with the joyous tr ansfer ence of all the needs and
car es of your spir itual life to the Father 's char ge, you again feel anxious, and bur dened, and
helpless. Is it not, per haps, my br other, because you have not committed to the Father 's car e
this matter , daily r emember ing to r enew your entir e sur r ender ? Memor y is one of the highest
power s in our natur e. By it day is linked to day, the unity of life thr ough all our year s is kept up,
and we know that we ar e still our selves. In the spir itual life, r ecollection is of infinite value. For
the sanctifying of our memor y, in the ser vice of our spir itual life, God has pr ovided most
beautifully. The Holy Spir it is the r emembr ancer, the Spir it of r ecollection. Jesus said, "He
shall br ing all things to your r emembr ance." "He which stablisheth us with you in Chr ist is God,
who hath also sealed us, and given the ear nest of the Spir it in our hear ts." It is just for the
stablishing that the Holy Remembr ancer has been given. God's blessed pr omises, and your
unceasing acts of faith and sur r ender accepting of them - He will enable you to r emember these
each day. The Holy Spir it isblessed be God - the memor y of the new man.

Apply this to the pr omise of the text: "He that stablisheth us in Chr ist is God." As you now, at
this moment, abandon all anxiety about your gr owth and pr ogr ess to the God who has under
taken to stablish you in the Vine, and feel what a joy it is to know that God alone has char ge, ask and
tr ust Him by the Holy Spir it ever to r emind you of this your blessed r elation to Him. He will do
it; and with each new mor ning your faith may gr ow str onger and br ighter : I have a God to see
that each day I become mor e fir mly united to Chr ist.

And now, beloved fellow - believer, "the God of all gr ace, who hath called us in Chr ist Jesus,
make you per fect, stablish, str engthen, settle you." What mor e can you desir e? Expect it
confidently, ask it fer vently. Count on God to do His wor k. And lear n in faith to sing the song, the
notes of which each new exper ience will make deeper and sweeter : "Now to Him, that is of
power to establish you, be glor y for ever. Amen." Yes, glor y to God, who has under taken to
establish us in Chr ist!
Chapter 13
Ever
Moment

"In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyar d of r ed wine. I the Lor d do keep it; I will water it
ever y moment: lest any hur t it, I will keep it night and day. " - ISA.27:2,3.
THE vineyar d was the symbol of the people of Isr ael, in whose midst the Tr ue Vine was to stand
The br anch is the symbol of the individual believer, who stands in the Vine. The song of the
vineyar d is also the song of the Vine and its ever y br anch. The command still goes for th to the
watcher s of the vineyar d
- would that they obeyed it, and sang till ever y feeble - hear ted believer had lear ned and joined
the joyful str ain - "Sing ye unto her : 1, JEHOVAH, Do KEEP IT; I will water it ever y moment:
lest any hur t it, I WILL KEEP it night and day."
What an answer fr om the mouth of God Himself to the question so often asked: Is it possible for
the believer always to abide in Jesus? Is a life of unbr oken fellowship with the Son of God
indeed attainable her e in this ear thly life? Tr uly not, if the abiding is our wor k, to be done in our
str ength. But the things that ar e impossible with men ar e possible with God. If the Lor d Himself
will keep the soul night and day, yea, will watch and water it ever y moment, then sur ely the
uninter r upted communion with Jesus becomes a blessed possibility to those who can tr ust God to
mean and to do what He says. Then sur ely the abiding of the br anch of the vine day and night,
summer and winter, in a never ceasing life - fellowship, is nothing less than the simple but cer tain pr
omise of your abiding in your Lor d.
In one sense, it is tr ue, ther e is no believer who does not always abide in Jesus; without this ther
e could not be tr ue life. "If a man abide not in me, he is cast for th." But when the Saviour gives
the command, "Abide in me," with the pr omise, "He that abideth in me br ingeth for th much fr
uit," He speaks of that willing, intelligent, and whole - hear ted sur r ender by which we accept His
offer, and consent to the abiding in Him as the only life we choose or seek. The objections r aised
against our r ight to expect that we shall always be able thus voluntar ily and consciously to abide
in Jesus ar e chiefly two.

The one is der ived fr om the natur e of man. It is said that our limited power s pr event our
being occupied with two things at the same moment. God's pr ovidence places many Chr istians in
business, wher e for hour s at a time the closest attention is r equir ed to the wor k they have to do.
How can such a man, it is asked, with his whole mind in the wor k he has to do, be at the same
time occupied with Chr ist, and keeping up fellowship with Him? The consciousness of abiding in
Jesus is r egar ded as r equir ing such a str ain, and such a dir ect occupation of the mind with

heavenly thoughts, that to enjoy the blessing would imply a withdr awing of oneself fr om all the or
dinar y avocations of life. This is the same er r or as dr ove the fir st monks into the wilder ness.

Blessed be God, ther e is no necessity for such a going out of the wor ld. Abiding in Jesus is not
a wor k that needs each moment the mind to be engaged, or the affections to be dir ectly and
actively occupied with it. It is an entr usting of oneself to the keeping of the Eter nal Love, in the faith
that it will abide near us, and with its holy pr esence watch over us and war d offpie evil, even when
we have to be most intently occupied with other things. And so the hear t has r est and peace
and joy in the consciousness of being kept when it cannot keep itself.
In or dinar y life, we have abundant illustr ation of the influence of a supr eme affection r eigning in
and guar ding the soul, while the mind concentr ates itself on wor k that r equir es its whole attention.
Think of the father of a family, separ ated for a time fr om his home, that he may secur e for his
loved ones what they need. He loves his wife and childr en, and longs much to r etur n to them. Ther e
may be hour s of intense occupation when he has not a moment to think of them, and yet his love is as
deep and r eal as when he can call up their images; all the while his love and the hope of making
them happy ur ge him on, and fill him with a secr et joy in his wor k. Think of a king: in the midst of
wor k, and pleasur e, and tr ial, he all the while acts under the secr et influence of the consciousness of
r oyalty, even while he does not think of it. A loving wife and mother never for one moment loses the
sense of her r elation to the husband and childr en: the consciousness and the love ar e ther e, amid
all her engagements. And shall it be thought impossible for the Ever lasting Love so to take and
keep possession of our spir its, that we too shall never for a moment lose the secr et consciousness:
We ar e in Chr ist, kept in Him by His almighty power. Oh, it is possible; we can be sur e it is. Our
abiding in Jesus is even mor e than a fellowship of love - it is a fellowship of life. In wor k or in r est,
the consciousness of life never leaves us. And even so can the mighty power of the Eter nal Life
maintain within us the consciousness of its pr esence. Or r ather, Chr ist, who is our life, Himself
dwells within us, and by His pr esence maintains our consciousness that we ar e in Him.
The second objection has r efer ence to our sinfulness. Chr istians ar e so accustomed to look
upon sinning daily as something absolutely inevitable, that they r egar d it as a matter of cour se that
no one can keep up abiding fellowship with the Saviour : we must sometimes be unfaithful and fail.
As if it was not just because we have a natur e which is naught but a ver y fountain of sin, that the
abiding in Chr ist has been or dained for us as our only but our sufficient deliver ance! As if it
wer e not the Heavenly Vine, the living, loving Chr ist, in whom we have to abide, and whose
almighty power to hold us fast is to be the measur e of our expectations! As if He would give us the
command, "Abide in me," without secur ing the gr ace and the power to enable us to per for m it! As
if, above all, we had not the Father as the Husbandman to keep us fr om falling, and that not in a lar
ge and gener al sense, but accor ding to His own pr ecious pr omise: "Night and day, ever y
moment!" Oh, if we will but look to our God as the Keeper of Isr ael, of whom it is said, "Jehovah
shall keep thee fr om all evil; He shall keep thy soul," we shall lear n to believe that conscious
abiding in Chr ist ever y moment, night and day, is indeed what God has pr epar ed for them that love
Him.

My beloved fellow - Chr istians, let nothing less than this be your aim. I know well that you may
not find it easy of attainment; that ther e may come mor e than one hour of wear y str uggle and
bitter failur e. Wer e the Chur ch of Chr ist what it should be - wer e older believer s to younger
conver ts what they should be, witnesses to God's faithfulness, like Caleb and Joshua, encour aging
their br ethr en to go up and possess the land with their, "We ar e well able to over come; if the Lor
d delight in us, then HE WILL BRING us into this land" - wer e the atmospher e which the young
believer br eathes as he enter s the fellowship of the saints that of a healthy, tr ustful, joyful

consecr ation, abiding in Chr ist would come as the natur al outgr owth of being in Him. But in the
sickly state in which such a gr eat

par t of thebody is, souls that ar e pr essing after this blessing ar e sor ely hinder ed by the depr
essing influence of the thought and the life ar ound them. It is not to discour age that I say this, but
to war n, and to ur ge to a mor e entir e casting of our selves upon the wor d of God Himself. Ther
e may come mor e than our hour in which you ar e r eady to yield to despair ; but be of good cour
age. Only believe. He who has put the blessing within your r each will assur edly lead to its
possession.
The way in which souls enter into the possession may differ. To some it may come as the gift of a
moment. In times of r evival, in the fellowship with other believer s in whom the Spir it is wor
king effectually, under the leading of some ser vant of God who can guide, and sometimes in
solitude too, it is as if all at once a new r evelation comes upon the soul. It sees, as in the light of
heaven, the str ong Vine holding and bear ing the feeble br anches so secur ely, that doubt becomes
impossible. It can only wonder how it ever could have under stood the wor ds to mean aught
else than this: To abide unceasingly in Chr ist is the por tion of ever y believer. It sees it; and to
believe, and r ejoice, and love, come as of itself.
To other s it comes by a slower and mor e difficult path. Day by day, amid discour agement
and difficulty, the soul has to pr ess for war d. Be of good cheer ; this way too leads to the r est. Seek
but to keep your hear t set upon the pr omise: "I THE LORD DO KEEP IT, night and day." Take fr om
His own lips the watchwor d: "Ever y moment." In that you have the law of His love, and the law of
your hope. Be content with nothing less. Think no longer that the duties and the car es, that the sor
r ows and the sins of this life must succeed in hinder ing the abiding life of fellowship. Take r ather
for the r ule of your daily exper ience the language of faith: I am per suaded that neither death with
its fear s, nor life with its car es, nor things pr esent with their pr essing claims, nor things to
come with their dar k shadows, nor height of joy, nor depth of sor r ow, nor any other cr eatur e,
shall be able, for one single moment, to separ ate us fr om the love of God which is in Chr ist Jesus
our Lor d, and in which He is teaching me to abide. If things look dar k and faith would fail, sing
again the song of the vineyar d: "I the Lor d do keep it; I will water it ever y moment: lest any hur t it,
I will keep it night and day." And be assur ed that, if Jehovah keep the br anch night and day, and water
it ever y moment, a life of continuous and unbr oken fellowship with Chr ist is indeed our pr ivilege.
Chapter 14
Day by Day

"And the people shall go out and gather the por tion of a day in his day." - Ex.16:4(mar
g.).
THE day's por tion in its day: Such was the r ule for God's giving and man's wor king in
the ingather ing of the manna. It is still the law in all the dealings of God's gr ace with His childr en.
A clear insight into the beauty and application of this ar r angement is a wonder ful help in under
standing how one, who feels himself utter ly weak, can have the confidence and the per sever ance to
hold on br ightly thr ough all the year s of his ear thly cour se. A doctor was once asked by a patient
who had met with a ser ious accident: "Doctor, how long shall I have to lie her e?" The answer,
"Only a day at a time," taught the patient a pr ecious lesson. It was the same lesson God had r ecor
ded for His people of all ages long befor e: The day's por tion in its day.
It was, without doubt, with a view to this and to meet man's weakness, that God gr aciously
appointed the change of day and night. If time had been given toman in the for m of one long unbr

oken day, it wouldhave exhausted and over whelmed him; the change ofday and night continually
r ecr uits and

r ecr eates hispower s. As a child, who easily makes himself master of a book, when each day only
the lesson for the day isgiven him, would be utter ly hopeless if the whole bookwer e given him at
once; so it would be with man, if ther e wer e no divisions in time. Br oken small and divided into fr
agments, he can bear them; only the car e and the wor k of each day have to be under taken
- the day's por tion in its day. The r est of the night fits him for making a fr esh star t with each
new mor ning; the mistakes of the past can be avoided, its lessons impr oved. And he has only each
day to be faithful for the one shor t day, and long year s and a long life take car e of themselves,
without the sense of their length or their weight ever being a bur den.
Most sweet is the encour agement to be der ived fr om this tr uth in the life of gr ace. Many a soul
is disquieted with the thought as to how it will be able to gather and to keep the manna needed for all
its year s of tr avel thr ough such a bar r en wilder ness. It has never lear nt what unspeakable comfor
t ther e is in the wor d: The day's por tion for its day. That wor d takes away all car e for the mor
r ow most completely. Only to - day is your s; to - mor r ow is the Father 's. The question: What secur
ity have you that dur ing all the year s in which you have to contend with the coldness, or
temptations, or tr ials of the wor ld, you will always abide in Jesus? is one you need, yea, you may
not ask. Manna, as your food and str ength, is given only by the day; faithfully to fill the pr esent is
your only secur ity for the futur e. Accept, and enjoy, and fulfil with your whole hear t the par t you
have this day to per for m. His pr esence and gr ace enjoyed to - day will r emove all doubt whether
you can entr ust the mor r ow to Him too.
How gr eat the value which this tr uth teaches us to attach to each single day!
We ar e so easily led to look at life as a gr eat whole, and to neglect the little
to
- day, to for get that the single days do indeed make up the whole, and that the value of each single
day depends on its influence on the whole. One day lost is a link br oken in the chain, which it often
takes mor e than another day to mend. One day lost influences the next,and makes its keeping mor e
difficult. Yea, one day lost may be the loss of what months or year s of car eful labour had
secur ed. The exper ience of many a believer could confir m this.
Believer ! would you abide in Jesus, let it be day by day. You have alr eady hear d the message:
Moment by moment; the lesson of day by day has something mor e to teach. Of the moments ther e
ar e many wher e ther e is no dir ect exer cise of the mind on your par t; the abiding is in the deeper r
ecesses of the hear t, kept by the Father, to whom you entr usted your self. But just this is the wor k
that with each new day has to be r enewed for the day - the distinct r enewal of sur r ender and tr ust
for the life of moment by moment. God has gather ed up the moments and bound them up into a
bundle, for the ver y pur pose that we might take measur e of them. As we look for war d in the mor
ning, or look back in the evening, and weigh the moments, we lear n how to value and how to use
them r ightly. And even as the Father, with each new mor ning, meets you with the pr omise of just
sufficient manna for the day for your self and those who have to par take with you, meet Him
with the br ight and loving r enewal of your acceptance of the position He has given you in His
beloved Son. Accustom your self to look upon this as one of the r easons for the appointment of day
and night. God thought of our weakness, and sought to pr ovide for it. Let each day have its value fr
om your calling to abide in Chr ist. As its light opens on your waking eyes, accept it on these ter ms:

A day, just one day only, but still a day, given to abide and gr ow up in Jesus Chr ist. Whether it be a
day of health or sickness, joy or sor r ow, r est or wor k, of str uggle or victor y, let the chief
thought with which you r eceive it in the mor ning thanksgiving be

this: "A day that the Father gave; in it I may, I must become mor e closely united to Jesus." As
the Father asks, "Can you tr ust me just for this one day to keep you abiding in Jesus, and Jesus to
keep you fr uitful?" you cannot but give the joyful r esponse: "I will tr ust and not be afr aid."
The day's por tion for its day was given to Isr ael in the mor ning ver y ear ly. The por tion was for
use and nour ishment dur ing the whole day, but the giving and the getting of it was the mor ning's
wor k. This suggests how gr eatly the power to spend a day ar ight, to abide all the day in Jesus,
depends on the mor ning hour. If the fir st - fr uits be holy, the lump is holy. Dur ing the day ther e
come hour s of intense occupation in the r ush of business or the thr ong of men, when only the
Father 's keeping can maintain the connection with Jesus unbr oken. The mor ning manna fed all the
day; it is only when the believer in the mor ning secur es his quiet time in secr et to r enew
distinctly and effectually loving fellowship with his Saviour, that the abiding can be kept up all
the day. But what cause for thanksgiving that it may be done! In the mor ning, with its fr eshness
and quiet, the believer can look out upon the day. He can consider its duties and its temptations, and
pass them thr ough befor ehand, as it wer e, with his Saviour, thr owing all upon Him who has under
taken to be ever ything to him. Chr ist is his manna, his nour ishment, his str ength, his life: he can
take the day's por tion for the day, Chr ist as his for all the needs the day may br ing, and go on in the
assur ance that the day will be one of blessing and of gr owth.
And then, as the lesson of the value and the wor k of the single day is being taken to hear t, the lear
ner is all unconsciously being led on to get the secr et of
"day by day continually" (Exodus 29:38). The blessed abiding gr asped by faith for each day apar t
is an unceasing and ever - incr easing gr owth. Each day of faithfulness br ings a blessing for the
next; makes both the tr ust and the sur r ender easier and mor e blessed. And so the Chr istian life gr
ows: as we give our whole hear t to the wor k ofeach day, it becomes all the day, and fr om that eve
day. And so each day separ ately, all the day continually, day by day successively, we abide in Jesus.
And the days make up the life: what once appear ed too high and too gr eat to attain, is given to
the soul that was content to take and use "ever y day his por tion" (Ezr a 3:4), "as the duty of ever y
day r equir ed." Even her e on ear th the voice is hear d: "Well done, good and faithful ser vant, thou
hast been faithful over few, I will make thee r uler over many: enter thou into the joy of thy Lor d."
Our daily life becomes a wonder ful inter change of God's daily gr ace and our daily pr aise:
"Daily He loadeth us with His benefits"; "that I may daily per for m my vows." We lear n to under
stand God's r eason for daily giving, as He most cer tainly gives, only enough, but also fully
enough, for each day. And we get into His way, the way of daily asking and expecting only enough,
but most cer tainly fully enough, for the day. We begin to number our days not fr om the sun's r
ising over the wor ld, or by the wor k we do or the food we eat, but the daily r enewal of the mir
acle of the manna - the blessedness of daily fellowship with Him who is the Life and the Light of
the wor ld. The heavenly life is as unbr oken and continuous as the ear thly; the abiding in Chr ist
each day has for that day br ought its blessing; we abide in Him ever y day, and all the day. Lor d,
make this the por tion of each one of us.

Chapter 15
At
Moment

this

"Behold, Now is the accepted time; behold, Now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor
6:2
THE thought of living moment by moment is of such centr al impor tancelooking at the abiding
in

Chr ist fr om our side - that we want once mor e to speak of it. And to all who desir e to lear n
the blessed ar t of living only a moment at a time, we want to say: The way to lear n it is to
exer cise your self in living in the pr esent moment. Each time your attention is fr ee to occupy
itself with the thought of Jesus - whether it be with time to think and pr ay, or only for a few
passing seconds - let your fir st thought be to say: Now, at this moment, I do abide in Jesus. Use
such time, not in vain r egr ets that you have not been abiding fully, or still mor e hur tful fear s
that you will not be able to abide, but just at once take the position the Father has given you: "I am in
Chr ist; this is the place God has given me. I accept it; her e I r est; I do now abide in Jesus." This
is the way to lear n to abide continually. You may be yet so feeble as to fear to say of each day, "I
am abiding in Jesus"; but the feeblest can, each single moment, say, as he consents to occupy his
place as a br anch in the vine, "Yes, I do abide in Chr ist." It is not a matter of feeling - it is not a
question of gr owth or str ength in the Chr istian life - it is the simple question whether the will at the
pr esent moment desir es and consents to r ecognise the place you have in your Lor d, and to accept it.
If you ar e a believer, you ar e in Chr ist. If you ar e in Chr ist, and wish to stay ther e it is your duty to
say, though it be but for a moment, "Blessed Saviour, I abide in Thee now; Thou keepest me now."

It has been well said that in that little wor d one of the deepest secr ets of the life of faith. At the close
of a confer ence on the spir itual life, a minister of exper ience r ose and spoke. He did not know
that he had lear nt any tr uth he did not know befor e, but he had lear nt how to use ar ight what he
had known. He had lear nt that it was his pr ivilege at each moment, whatever sur r ounding cir
cumstances might be, to say, "Jesus saves me now." This is indeed the secr et of r est and victor y. 1f I
can say, "Jesus is to me at this moment all that God gave Him to be - life, and str ength,peace" - I
have but as I say it to hold still, and r est, and r ealize it, and for that moment I have what I need. As
my faith sees how of God I am in Chr ist, and takesthe place in Him my Father has pr ovided, my soul
can peacefully settle down: Now I abide in Chr ist.
Believer ! when str iving to find the way to abide in Chr ist fr om moment to moment, r emember that
the gateway is: Abide in Him at this pr esent moment. Instead of wasting effor t in tr ying to get into a
state that will last, just r emember that it is Chr ist Himself the living, loving Lor d, who alone can
keep you, and is waiting to do so. Begin at once and act faith in Him for the pr esent moment: this is
the only way to be kept the next. To attain the life of per manent and per fect abiding is not or dinar
ily given at once as a possession for the futur e: it comes mostly step by step.Avail your self,
ther efor e, of ever y oppor tunity of exer cising the tr ust of the pr esent moment. Each time you bow
in pr ayer, let ther e fir st be an act of simple devotion:"Father, I am in Chr ist; I now abide in Him."
Each time you have, amidst the bustle of duty, the oppor tunity of self - r ecollection, let its fir st
involuntar y act be" "I am still in Chr ist, abiding in Him now." Even when over taken by sin, and
the hear t within is all distur bed and excited, O let your fir st look upwar ds be with the wor ds:

"Father, I have sinned; and yet I come - - though I blush to say it - as one who is in Chr ist. Father !
her e I am; I can take no other place; of God I am in Chr ist; I now abide in Chr ist." Yes, Chr istian
in ever y possible cir cumstance, ever y moment of the day, the voice is calling: Abide in me, do it
now. And even now, as you ar e r eading this, O come at once and enter upon the blessed life of
always abiding,, by doing it at once: do it now.
In the life of David ther e is a beautiful passage which may help to make this thought clear er
(2

Sam.3:17,18) David had been anointed king in Judah. The other tr ibes still followed Ish bosheth, Saul's son. Abner, Saul's chief captain, r esolves to lead the tr ibes of Isr ael to submit to
David, the God

- appointed king of the whole nation. He speaks to the elder s of Isr ael: "Ye sought for David in
times past to be king over you now, then, do it, for Jehovah hath spoken of David, saying, By the
hand of my ser vant David will I save my people Isr ael out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of
the hand of all their enemies." And they did it, and anointed David a second time to be king, now
over all Isr ael, as at fir st only over Judah (2 Sam.5:3) - a most instr uctive type of the way in which a
soul is led to the life of entir e sur r ender and undivided allegiance, to the full abiding.
Fir st you have the divided kingdom: Judah faithful to the king of God's appointment; Isr ael
still clinging to the king of its own choosing. As a consequence, the nation divided against itself,
and no power to conquer the enemies. Pictur e of the divided hear t. Jesus accepted as King in Judah,
the place of the holy mount, in the inner chamber of the soul; but the sur r ounding ter r itor y, the ever
y - day life, not yet br ought to subjection; mor e than half the life still r uled by self - will and its
hosts. And so no r eal peace within and no power over the enemies.
Then ther e is the longing desir e for a better state: "Ye sought for David in times past to be king
over you." Ther e was a time, when David had conquer ed the Philistines, that Isr ael believed in him;
but they had been led astr ay. Abner appeals to their own knowledge of God's will, that David must r
ule over all. So the believer, when fir st br ought to Jesus, did indeed want Him to be Lor d over all,
had hoped that He alone would be King. But, alas! unbelief and selfwill had come in, and Jesus
could not asser t His power over the whole life. And yet the Chr istian is not content. How he longs
sometimes without dar ing to hope that it can be - for a better time.
Then follows God's pr omise. Abner says: "The Lor d hath spoken, By the hand of David I will
save my people fr om the hand of all their enemies." He appeals to God's pr omise: as David had
conquer ed the Philistines, the near est enemy in time past, so he alone could conquer those far ther
off. He should save Isr ael fr om the hand of all their enemies. Beautiful type of the pr omise by which
the soul is now invited to tr ust Jesus for the victor y over ever y enemy, and a life of undistur bed
fellowship. "The Lor d hath spoken" - this is our only hope. On that wor d r ests the sur e
expectation (Luke 1:70 - 75): "As He spake, That we should be saved fr om the hand of all that hate
us, to per for m the oath which He swar e, that He would gr ant unto us that we, being deliver ed fr
om the hand of our enemies, should ser ve Him without fear, in holiness and r ighteousness befor e
Him, all the days of our life." David r eigning over ever y cor ner of the land, and leading a united
and obedient people on fr om victor y to victor y: this is the pr omise of what Jesus can do for us,
as soon as in faith in God's pr omise all is sur r ender ed to Him, and the whole life given up to be
kept abiding in Him.

"Ye sought for David in times past to be king over you," spake Abner, and added, "Then do it
now." Do it now is the message that this stor y br ings to each one of us who longs to give Jesus unr
eser ved supr emacy. Whatever the pr esent moment be, however unpr epar ed the message finds
you, however sad the divided and hopeless state of the life may be, still I come and ur ge Chr
ist's claim to an immediate sur r ender - this ver y moment. I know well that it will take time for
the blessed Lor d to asser t His power, and or der all within you accor ding to His will - to conquer
the enemies and tr ain all your power s for His ser vice. This is not the wor k of a moment. But
ther e ar e things which ar e the wor k of a moment - of this moment. The one is your sur r ender
of all to Jesus; your sur r ender of your self entir ely to live only in Him. As time goes on, and
exer cise has made faith str onger and br ighter, that sur r ender may become clear er and mor e
intelligent. But for this no one may wait. The only way ever to attain to it is to begin at once. Do it

now. Sur r ender your self this ver y moment to abide wholly, only, always in Jesus. It is the wor
k of a moment. And just so, Chr ist's r enewed

acceptance of you is the wor k of a moment. Be assur ed that He has you and holds you as His own,
and that each new
"Jesus, I do abide in Thee," meets with an immediate and most hear ty r esponse fr om the Unseen
One. No act of faith can be in vain. He does indeed anew take hold on us and dr aw us close to
Himself. Ther efor e, as often as the message comes, or the thought of it comes, Jesus says: Abide in
me, do it at once. Each moment ther e is the whisper : Do it now.
Let any Chr istian begin, then, and he will speedily exper ience how the blessing of the pr esent
moment is passed on to the next. It is the unchanging Jesus towhom he links himself; it is the power of
a divine life, in its unbr oken continuity, that takes possession of him. The do it now of the pr esent
moment
- a little thing though it seems - is nothing less than the beginning of the ever - pr esent now, which
is the myster y and the glor y of eter nity. Ther efor e, Chr istian, abide in Chr ist: do it now.
Chapter 16
For saking all for Him
"I have suffer ed the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Chr ist, and be
found
IN Him. PHIL.3:8 9.
WHEREVER ther e is life, ther e is a continual inter change of taking in and giving out, r eceiving
and r estor ing. The nour ishment I take is given out again in the wor k I do; the impr essions I r
eceive, in the thoughts and feelings I expr ess. The one depends on the other - the giving out ever
incr eases the power of taking in. In the healthy exer cise of giving and taking is all the enjoyment of
life.
It is so in the spir itual life too. Ther e ar e Chr istians who look on its blessedness as consisting all
in the pr ivilege of ever r eceiving; they know not how the capacity for r eceiving is only kept up
and enlar ged by continual giving up and giving out - how it is only in the emptiness that comes fr
om the par ting with what we have, that the divine fulness can flow in. It was a tr uth our Saviour
continually insisted on. When He spoke of selling all to secur e the tr easur e, of losing our life to
find it, of the hundr ed - fold to those who for sake all, He was expounding the need of selfsacr ifice
as the law of the Kingdom for Himself as well as for His disciples. If we ar e r eally to abide in Chr
ist, and to be found in Him - to have our life always and wholly in Him - we must each in our
measur e say with Paul, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Chr ist
Jesus my Lor d, that I may win Chr ist, and be POUND IN

Him."
Let us tr y and see what ther e is to be for saken and given up. Fir st of all, ther e is sin. Ther e can be
no tr ue conver sion without the giving up of sin. And yet, owing to the ignor ance of the young
conver t of what r eally is sin, of what the claims of God's holiness ar e, and what the extent to which
the power of Jesus can enable us to conquer sin, the giving up of sin is but par tial and super ficial.
With the gr owth of the Chr istian life ther e comes the want of a deeper and mor e entir e pur ging

out of ever ything that is unholy. And it is specially when the desir e to abide in Chr ist uninter r
uptedly, to be always found in Him, becomes str ong, that the soul is led to see the need of a new act
of sur r ender, in which it afr esh accepts and r atifies its death to sin in Chr ist, and par ts indeed
with ever ything that is sin. Availing

himself, in the str ength of God's Spir it, of that wonder ful power of our natur e by which the whole
of one's futur e life can be gather ed up and disposed of in one act of the will, the believer yields
himself to sin no mor e - to be only and wholly a ser vant of r ighteousness. He does it in the joyful
assur ance that ever y sin sur r ender ed is gain indeed - r oom for the inflowing of the pr esence
and the love of Chr ist.
Next to the par ting with unr ighteousness, is the giving up of selfr ighteousness. Though
contending most ear nestly against our own wor ks or mer its, it is often long befor e we come r eally
to under stand what it is to r efuse self the least place or r ight in the ser vice of God.
Unconsciously we allow the actings of our own mind and hear t and will fr ee scope in God's pr
esence. In pr ayer and wor ship, in Bible r eading and wor king for God, instead of absolute
dependence on the Holy Spir it's leading, self is expected to do a wor k it never can do. We ar e slow
to lear n the lesson, "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." As it is lear nt, and we see
how cor r uption extends to ever ything that is of natur e, we see that ther e can be no entir e abiding
in Chr ist without the giving up of all that is of self in r eligion - without giving it up to the death, and
waiting for the br eathings of the Holy Spir it as alone able to wor k in us what is acceptable in God's
sight.
Then, again, ther e is our whole natur al life, with all the power s and endowments bestowed upon us
by the Cr eator, with all the occupations and inter ests with which Pr ovidence has sur r ounded us. It
is not enough that, when once you ar e tr uly conver ted, you have the ear nest desir e to have all these
devoted to the ser vice of the Lor d. The desir e is good, but can neither teach the way nor give the str
ength to do it acceptably. Incalculable har m has been done to the deeper spir ituality of the Chur ch, by
the idea that when once we ar e God's childr en the using of our gifts in His ser vice follows as a
matter of cour se. No; for this ther e is indeed needed ver y special gr ace. And the way in which the
gr ace comes is again that of sacr ifice and sur r ender. I must see how all my gifts and power s ar e,
even though I be a child of God, still defiled by sin, and under the power of the flesh. I must feel that
I cannot at once pr oceed to use them for God's glor y. I must fir st lay them at Chr ist's feet, to be
accepted and cleansed by Him. I must feel myself utter ly power less to use them ar ight. I must see
that they ar e most danger ous to me, because thr ough them the flesh, the old natur e, self, will so
easily exer t its power. In this conviction I must par t with them, giving them entir ely up to the Lor
d. When He has accepted them, and set His stamp upon them, I r eceive them back, to hold them as
His pr oper ty, to wait on Him for the gr ace to use them ar ight day by day, and to have them act
only under His influence. And so exper ience pr oves it tr ue her e too, that the path of entir e consecr
ation is the path of full salvation. Not only is what is thus given up r eceived back again to become
doubly our own, but the for saking all is followed by the r eceiving all. We abide in Chr ist mor e
fully as we for sake all and follow Him. As I count all things loss for His sake, I am found IN Him.

The same pr inciple holds good of all the lawful occupations and possessions with which we ar
e entr usted of God. Such wer e the fish - nets on the Sea of Galilee, and the household duties of Mar
tha of Bethany - the home and the fr iends of many a one among Jesus' disciples. Jesus taught them in
ver y deed to for sake all for Him. It was no ar bitr ar y command, but the simple application of
a law in natur e to the Kingdom of His gr ace - that the mor e per fectly the old occupant is cast
out, the mor e complete can be the possession of the new, and the mor e entir e the r enewal of all
within.
This pr inciple has a still deeper application. The tr uly spir itual gifts which ar e the wor king of
God's own Holy Spir it within usthese sur ely need not be thus given up and sur r ender ed? They do

indeed; the inter change of giving up and taking in is a life pr ocess, and may not cease for a
moment. No sooner

does the believer begin to r ejoice in the possession of what he has, than the inflow of new gr ace
is r etar ded, and stagnation thr eatens. It is only into the thir st of an empty soul that the str eams of
living water s flow. Ever thir sting is the secr et of never thir sting. Each blessed exper ience we r
eceive as a gift of God, must at once be r etur ned back to Him fr om whom it came, in pr aise and
love, in self - sacr ifice and ser vice; so only can it be r estor ed to us again, fr esh and beautiful
with the bloom of heaven. Is not this the wonder ful lesson Isaac on Mor iah teaches us? Was he not
the son of pr omise, the God - given life, the wonder - gift of the omnipotence of Him who quickeneth
the dead?
(Rom.4:17). And yet even he had to be given up, and sacr ificed, that he might be r eceived back again
a thousandfold mor e pr ecious than befor e - a type of the Only - begotten of the Father, whose pur e
and holy life had to be given up er e He could r eceive it again in r esur r ection power, and could
make Ibis people par taker s of it. A type, too, of what takes place in the life of each believer, as,
instead of r esting content with past exper iences or pr esent gr ace, he pr esses on, for getting and
giving up all that is behind, and r eaches out to the fullest possible appr ehension of Chr ist His life.
And such sur r ender of all for Chr ist, is it a single step, the act and exper ience of a moment, or is it
a cour se of daily r enewed and pr ogr essive attainment? It is both. Ther e may be a moment in the
life of a believer when he gets a fir st sight, or a deeper insight, of this most blessed tr uth, and
when, made willing in the day of God's power, he does indeed, in an act of the will, gather up the whole
of life yet befor e him into the decision of a moment, and lay himself on the altar a living and an
acceptable sacr ifice. Such moments have often been the blessed tr ansition fr om a life of wander ing
and failur e to a life of abiding and power divine. But even then his daily life becomes, what the life
must be of each one who has no such exper ience, the unceasing pr ayer for mor e light on the
meaning of entir e sur r ender, the ever - r enewed offer ing up of all he has to God.
Believer, would you abide in Chr ist, see her e the blessed path. Natur e shr inks back fr om
such selfdenial and cr ucifixion in its r igid application to our life in its whole extent. But what natur
e does not love and cannot per for m, gr ace will accomplish, and make to you a life of joy and glor y.
Do you but yield up your self to Chr ist your Lor d; the conquer ing power of His incoming pr esence
will make it joy to cast out all that befor e was most pr ecious. "A hundr edfold in this life" this wor d
of the Master comes tr ue to all who, with whole - hear ted faithfulness, accept His commands to
for sake all. The blessed r eceiving soon makes the giving up most blessed too. And the secr et of a
life of close abiding will be seen to be simply this: As I give myself wholly to Chr ist, I find the
power to take Him wholly for myself; and as I lose myself and all I have for Him, He takes me
wholly for Himself, and gives Himself wholly to me.

Chapter 17
Thr ough the Holy Spir
it
"The anointing which ye have r eceived of him, abideth in you; and even as it hath taught you, ye
shall abide in him." - I JOHN 2:27.
How beautiful the thought of a life always abiding in Chr ist! The longer we think of it, the mor
e attr active it becomes. And yet how often it is that the pr ecious wor ds, "Abide in me," ar e hear d
by the young disciple with a sigh! It is as if he under stands so little what they r eally mean, and can r

ealize so little how this full enjoyment can be attained. He longs for some one who could make it
per fectly clear, and continually again r emind him that the abiding is in ver y deed within his r each.
If such an

one would but listen to the wor d we have fr om John this day, what hope and joy it would br ing!
It gives us the divine assur ance that we have the anointing of the Holy Spir it to teach us all things,
also to teach us how to abide in Chr ist.
Alas! someone answer s, this wor d does not give me comfor t, it only depr esses me mor e. For it
tells of another pr ivilege I so little know to enjoy: I do not under stand how the teaching of the
Spir it is givenwher e or how I can discer n His voice. If the Teacher is so unknown, no wonder that
the pr omise of His teaching about the abiding does not help me much.
Thoughts like these come fr om an er r or which is ver y common among believer s. They imagine
that the Spir it, in teaching them, must r eveal the myster ies of the spir itual life fir st to their
intellect, and after war ds in their exper ience. And God's way is just the contr ar y of this. What
holds tr ue of all spir itual tr uth is specially tr ue of the abiding in Chr ist: We must live and exper
ience tr uth in or der to know it. Life - fellowship with Jesus is the only school for the science of
heavenly things. "What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know her eafter," is a law of the
Kingdom, specially tr ue of the daily cleansing of which it fir st was spoken, and the daily
keeping. Receive what you do not compr ehend, submit to what you cannot under stand, accept
and expect what to r eason appear s a myster y, believe what looks impossible, walk in a way
which you know notsuch ar e the fir st lessons in the school of God. "If ye abide in my wor d, ye shall
under stand the tr uth": in these and other wor ds of God we ar e taught that ther e is a habit of mind
and life which pr ecedes the under standing of the tr uth. Tr ue discipleship consists in fir st
following, and then knowing the Lor d. The believing sur r ender to Chr ist, and the submission
to His wor d to expect what appear s most impr obable, is the only way to the full blessedness of
knowing Him.
These pr inciples hold specially good in r egar d to the teaching of the Spir it. That teaching consists
in His guiding the spir itual life within us to that which God has pr epar ed for us, without our
always knowing how. On the str ength of God's pr omise, and tr usting in His faithfulness, the
believer yields himself to the leading of the Holy Spir it, without claiming to have it fir st made
clear to the intellect what He is to do, but consenting to let Him do His wor k in the soul, and after
war ds to know what He has wr ought ther e. Faith tr usts the wor king of the Spir it unseen in the
deep r ecesses of the inner life. And so the wor d of Chr ist and the gift of the Spir it ar e to the
believer sufficient guar antee that He will be taught of the Spir it to abide in Chr ist. By faith he r
ejoices in what he does not see or feel: he knows, and is confident that the blessed Spir it within
is doing His wor k silently but sur ely, guiding him into the life of full abiding and unbr oken
communion. The Holy Spir it is the Spir it of life in Chr ist Jesus; it is His wor k, not only to br
eathe, but ever to foster and str engthen, and so to per fect the new life within. And just in pr opor
tion as the believer yields himself in simple tr ust to the unseen, but most cer tain law of the Spir it of
life wor king within him, his faith will pass into knowledge. It will be r ewar ded by the Spir it's
light r evealing in the Wor d what has alr eady been wr ought by the Spir it's power in the life.

Apply this now to the pr omise of the Spir it's teaching us to abide in Chr ist. The Holy Spir it is
indeed the mighty power of God. And He comes to us fr om the hear t of Chr ist, the bear er of Chr
ist's life, the r evealer and communicator of Chr ist Himself within us. In the expr ession, "the
fellowship of the Spir it," we ar e taught what His highest wor k is. He is the bond of fellowship
between the Father and the Son: by Him they ar e one. He is the bond of fellowship between all
believer s: by Him they ar e one. Above all, He is the bond of fellowship between Chr ist and

believer s ; He is the life - sap thr ough which Vine and br anch gr ow into r eal and living oneness:
by Him we ar e one. And we can be assur ed

of it, that if we do but believe in His pr esence and wor king, if we do but watch not to gr ieve
Him, because we know that He is in us, if we wait and pr ay to be filled with Him, He will teach us
how to abide. Fir st guiding our will to a whole - hear ted cleaving to Chr ist, then quickening our
faith into ever lar ger confidence and expectation, then br eathing into our hear ts a peace and
joy that pass under standing, He teaches us to abide, we scar ce know how. Then coming thr ough
the hear t and life into the under standing, He makes us know the tr uth - not as mer e thought - tr uth,
but as the tr uth which is in Chr ist Jesus, the r eflection into the mind of the light of what He has alr
eady made a r eality in the life. "The life was the light of men."
In view of such teaching, it is clear how, if we would have the Spir it to guide us into the abiding
life, our fir st need is - quiet r estful faith. Amid all the questionsand difficulties that may come
up in connection withour str iving to abide in Chr ist - amid all the longing wemay sometimes feel to
have a Chr istian of exper ience to aid us - amid the fr equent painful consciousness offailur e, of ignor
ance, of helplessness - do let us holdfast the blessed confidence: We have the unction of theHoly One
to teach us to abide in Him.
"THE ANOINTING which ye have r eceived of Him, ABIDETH IN you; andeven as it hath taught
you, YE SHALL ABIDE IN Him. "Make this teaching of His in connection with the abidinga
matter of special exer cise of faith. Believe that assur ely as you have par t in Chr ist, you have
His Spir ittoo. Believe that He will do His wor k with power, if only you do not hinder Him.
Believe that He is wor king,even when you cannot discer n it. Believe that He will.wor k mightily if
you ask this fr om the Father. It isimpossible to live the life of full abiding without being fullof the
the Holy Spir it; believe that the fulness of the Spir it is indeed your daily por tion. Be sur e and take
time in pr ayer to dwell at the footstool of the thr one of Godand the Lamb, whence flows the r iver of
the water of life. It is ther e, and only ther e, that you can be filled with the Spir it. Cultivate car
efully the habit of daily,yea, continually honour ing Him by the quiet, r estfulconfidence that He
is doing His wor k within. Let faithin His indwelling make you jealous of whatever could gr ieve
Him - the spir it of the wor ld or the actings ofself and the flesh. Let that faith seek its nour ishment in
the Wor d and all it says of the Spir it, His power, His comfor t, and His wor k. Above all, let that
faith in the Spir it's indwelling lead you specially, to look away to Jesus; as we have r eceived the
anointing of Him, it comes in ever str onger flow fr om Him as we ar e occupied with Him alone.
Chr ist is the Anointed One. As we look up to Him, the holy anointing comes, "the pr ecious
ointment upon the head of Aar on, that went down to the skir ts of his gar ments." It is faith in Jesus
that br ings the anointing; the anointing leads to Jesus, and to the abiding in Him alone.

Believer, abide in Chr ist, in the power of the Spir it. What think you, ought the abiding longer to be
a fear or a bur den? Sur ely not. Oh, if we did but know the gr aciousness of our Holy Comfor ter,
and the blessedness of wholly yielding our selves to His leading, we should indeed exper ience
the divine comfor t of having such a teacher to secur e our biding in Chr ist. The Holy Spir it was
given for this one pur pose - that the glor ious r edemption and life in Chr ist might with divine
power be conveyed and communicated to us. We have the Holy Spir it to make the living Chr ist, in
all His saving power, and in the completeness of His victor y over sin, ever pr esent within us. It is
this that constitutes Him the Comfor ter : with Him we need never mour n an absent Chr ist. Let us
ther efor e, as often as we r ead, or meditate, or pr ay in connection with this abiding in Chr ist, r
eckon upon it as a settled thing that we have the Spir it of God Himself within us, teaching, and
guiding, and wor king. Let us r ejoice in the confidence that we must succeed in our desir es,
because the Holy Spir it is wor king all the while with secr et but divine power in the soul that does
not hinder Him by its unbelief.

Chapter 18
In Stillness of Soul
"In r etur ning and r est shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your str ength. " Isaih
30:15
"Be silent to the Lor d, and wait patiently for him." Ps.37:7 "Tr uly my soul is silent unto God." - Ps.62:1
THERE is a view of the Chr istian life that r egar ds it as a sor t of par tner ship, in which God and
man have each to do their par t. It admits that it is but little that man can do, and that little defiled
with sin; still he must do his utmost - then only can he expect God to do His par t. To those who
think thus,it is extr emely difficult to under stand what Scr iptur e means when it speaks of our
being still and doing nothing, of our r esting and waiting to see the salvation of God. It
appear s to them a per fect contr adiction, when we speak of this quietness and ceasing fr om all
effor t as the secr et of the highest activity of man and all his power s. And yet this is just what Scr
iptur e does teach. The explanation of the appar ent myster y is to be found in this, that when God and
man ar e spoken of as wor king together, ther e is nothing of the idea of a par tner ship between two
par tner s who each contr ibute their shar e to a wor k. The r elation is a ver y differ ent one. The
tr ue idea is that of cooper ation founded on subor dination. As Jesus was entir ely dependent on
the Father for all His wor ds and all His wor ks, so the believer can do nothing of himself. What
he can do of himself is altogether sinful. He must ther efor e cease entir ely fr om his own doing,
and wait for the wor king of God in him. As he ceases fr om self - effor t, faith assur es him that
God does what He has under taken, and wor ks in him. And what God does is to r enew, to sanctify,
and waken all his ener gies to their highest power. So that just in pr opor tion as he yields himself a tr
uly passive instr ument in the hand of God, will he be wielded of God as the active instr ument of His
almighty power. The soul in which the wondr ous combination of per fect passivity with the highest
activity is most completely r ealized, has the deepest exper ience of what the Chr istian life is.
Among the lessons to be lear nt of those who ar e studying the blessed ar t of abiding in Chr ist, ther e
is none mor e needful and mor e pr ofitable than this one of stillness of soul. In it alone can we
cultivate that teachableness of spir it, to which the Lor d will r eveal His secr ets - that meekness
to which He shows His ways. It is the spir it exhibited so beautifully in all the thr ee Mar ys: In
her whose only answer to the most wonder ful r evelation ever made to human being was, "Behold
the handmaid of the Lor d; be it unto me accor ding to Thy wor d"; and of whom, as myster ies
multiplied ar ound her, it is wr itten: "Mar y kept all these things and ponder ed them in her hear t."
And in her who "sat at Jesus' feet, and hear d His wor d," and who showed, in the anointing Him
for His bur ial, how she had enter ed mor e deeply into the myster y of His death than even the
beloved disciple. And in her, too, who sought her Lor d in the house of the Phar isee, with tear s that
spake mor e than wor ds. It is a soul silent unto God that is the best pr epar ation for knowing Jesus,
and for holding fast the blessings He bestows. It is when the soul is hushed in silent awe and wor
ship befor e the Holy Pr esence that r eveals itself within, that the still small voice of the blessed Spir
it will be hear d.
Ther efor e, beloved Chr istian, as often as you seek to under stand better the blessed myster y of
abiding in Chr ist, let this be your fir st thought (Ps.62:5, mar g.): "My soul, only be silent unto

God; for my expectation is fr om Him." Do you in ver y deed hope to r ealize the wondr ous union
with the Heavenly

Vine?
Know that flesh and blood cannot r eveal it unto you, but only the Father in heaven. "Cease fr om
thine own wisdom." You have but to bow in the confession of your own ignor ance and
impotence; the Father will delight to give you the teaching of the Holy Spir it. If but your ear be
open, and your thoughts br ought into subjection, and your hear t pr epar ed in silence to wait upon
God, and to hear what He speaks, fie will r eveal to you His secr ets. And one of the fir st secr ets
will be the deeper insight into the tr uth, that as you sink low befor e Him in nothingness and
helplessness, in a silence and a stillness of soul that seeks to catch the faintest whisper of His love,
teachings will come to you which you had never hear d befor e for the r ush and noise of your own
thoughts and effor ts. You shall lear n how your gr eat wor k is to listen, and hear, and believe what
He pr omises; to watch and wait and see what He does; and then, in faith, and wor ship, and
obedience, to yield your self to His wor king who wor ks in you mightily.
One would think that no message could be mor e beautiful or welcome than this, that we may r est
and be quiet, and that our God will wor k for us and in us. And yet how far this is fr om being the case!
And how slow many ar e to lear n that quietness is blessedness, that quietness is str ength, that
quietness is the sour ce of the highest activity - the secr et of all tr ue abiding in Chr ist! Let us tr y to
lear n it, and to watch against whatever inter fer es with it. The danger s that thr eaten the soul's r est ar
e not a few.
Ther e is the dissipation of soul which comes fr om enter ing needlessly and too deeply into
the inter ests of this wor ld. Ever y one of us has his divine calling; and within the cir cle pointed
out by God Himself, inter est in our wor k and its sur r oundings is a duty. But even her e the Chr
istian needs to exer cise watchfulness and sobr iety. And still mor e do we need a holy temper ance in
r egar d to things not absolutely imposed upon us by God. If abiding in Chr ist r eally be our fir st
aim, let us bewar e of all needless excitement. Let us watch even in lawful and necessar y things
against the wondr ous power these have to keep the soul so occupied, that ther e r emains but little
power or zest for fellowship with God. Then ther e is the r estlessness and wor r y that come of car e
and anxiety about ear thly things; these eat away the life of tr ust, and keep the soul likea tr oubled
sea. Ther e the gentle whisper s of the Holy Comfor ter cannot be hear d.
No less hur tful is the spir it of fear and distr ust in spir itual things; with its appr ehensions and
its effor ts, it never comes r eally to hear what God has to say. Above all, ther e is the unr est that
comes of seeking in our own way and in our own str ength the spir itual blessing which comes
alone fr om above. The hear t occupied with its own plans and effor ts for doing God's will, and
secur ing the blessing of abiding in Jesus, must, fail continually. God's wor k is hinder ed by our
inter fer ence. He can do His wor k per fectly only when the soul ceases fr om its wor k. He will do
His wor k mightily in the soul that honour s Him by expecting Him to wor k both to will and to do.

And, last of all, even when the soul seeks tr uly to enter the way of faith, ther e is the impatience of
the flesh, which for ms its judgment of the life and pr ogr ess of the soul not after the divine but the
human standar d.
In dealing with all this, and so much mor e, blessed the man who lear ns the lesson of stillness,
and fully accepts God's wor d: "In quietness and confidence shall be your str ength." Each time he
listens to thewor d of the Father, or asks the Father to listen to his wor ds, he dar es not begin his Bible
r eading or pr ayer without fir st pausing and waiting, until the soul be hushed in the pr esence of

the Eter nal Majesty. Under a sense of the divine near ness, the soul, feeling how self is always r
eady to asser t

itself, and intr ude even into the holiest of all with its thoughts and effor ts, yields itself in a quiet act
of self - sur r ender to the teaching and wor king of the divine Spir it. It is still and waits in holy
silence, until all is calm and r eady to r eceive the r evelation of the divine will and pr esence. Its r
eading and pr ayer then indeed become a waiting on God with ear and hear t opened and pur ged to
r eceive fully only what He says.
"Abide in Chr ist!" Let no one think that he can do this if he has not daily his quiet time, his seasons
of meditation and waiting on God. In these a habit of soul must be cultivated, in which the believer
goes out into the wor ld and its distr actions, the peace of God, that passeth all under standing,
keeping the hear t and mind. It is in such a calm and r estful soul that the life of faith can str ike deep
r oot, that the Holy Spir it can give His blessed teaching, that the Holy Father can accomplish His
glor ious wor k. May each one of us lear n ever y day to say, "Tr uly my soul is silent unto God." And
may ever y feeling of the difficulty of attaining this only lead us simply to look and tr ust to Him
whose pr esence makes even the stor m a calm. Cultivate the quietness as a means to the abiding in
Chr ist; expect the ever deepening quietness and calm of heaven in the soul as the fr uit of abiding in
Him.
Chapter 19
In Affliction and Tr
ial
"Ever y br anch that bear est fr uit, he pur geth it, that it may br ing for th mor e fr uit." - JOHN
15:2.
IN THE whole plant wor ld ther e is not a tr ee to be found so specially suited to the image of man in
his r elation to God, as the vine. Ther e is none of which the fr uit and its juice ar e so full of spir
it, so quickening and stimulating. But ther e is also none of which the natur al tendency is so entir
ely evil - none wher e the gr owth is so r eady to r un into wood that is utter ly wor thless except for
the fir e. Of all plants, not one needs the pr uning knife so unspar ingly and so unceasingly. None is
so dependent on cultivation and tr aining, but with this none yields a r icher r ewar d to the
husbandman. In His wonder ful par able, the Saviour, with a single wor d, r efer s to this need of pr
uning in the vine, and the blessing it br ings. But fr om that single wor d what str eams of light
pour in upon this dar k wor ld, so full of suffer ing and of sor r ow to believer s! What tr easur es of
teaching and comfor t to the bleeding br anch in its hour of tr ial: "Ever y br anch that bear eth fr uit,
He pur geth it, that it may br ing for th mor e fr uit." And so He has pr epar ed His people, who ar
e so r eady when tr ial comes to be shaken in their confidence, and to be moved fr om their
abiding in Chr ist, to hear in each affliction the voice of a messenger that comes to call them to
abide still mor e closely. Yes, believer, mostspecially in times of tr ial,abide in Chr ist.

Abide in Chr ist! This is indeed the Father 's object in sending the tr ial. In the stor m the tr ee str
ikes deeper r oots in the soil; in the hur r icane the inhabitants of the house abide within, and r
ejoice in its shelter. So by suffer ing the Father would lead us to enter mor e deeply into the love
of Chr ist. Our hear ts ar e continually pr one to wander fr om Him; pr osper ity and enjoyment all
too easily satisfy us, dull our spir itual per ception, and unfit us for full communion with
Himself. It is an unspeakable mer cy that the Father comes with His chastisement, makes the
wor ld r ound us all dar k and unattr active, leads us to feel mor e deeply our sinfulness, and for
a time lose our joy in what was becoming so danger ous. He does it in the hope that, when we have

found our r est in Chr ist in time of tr ouble, we shall lear n to choose abiding in Him as our only
por tion; and when the affliction is r emoved, have so gr own mor e fir mly into Him, that in pr
osper ity He still shall be our only joy. So much has He set His hear t on this, that though He has
indeed no pleasur e in afflicting us, He will not

keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but ther eby guide His beloved child
to comehome and abide in the beloved Son. Chr istian! pr ay for gr ace to see in ever y tr ouble,
small or gr eat, the Father 's finger pointing to Jesus, and saying, Abide in Him.
Abide in Chr ist: so will you become par taker of all the r ich blessings God designed for you in
the affliction. The pur poses of God's wisdom will become clear to you, your assur ance of
the unchangeable love become str onger, and the power of His Spir it fulfil you the pr omise:
"He chasteneth us for our pr ofit, that we might be par taker s of His holiness." Abide in Chr ist:
and your cr oss becomes the means of fellowship with His cr oss, and access into its myster ies
- the myster y of the cur se which He bor e for you, of the death to sin in which you par take with
Him, of the love in which, as sympathizing High Pr iest, He descended into all your sor r ows.
Abide in Chr ist: gr owing in confor mity to your blessed Lor d in His suffer ings, deeper exper
ience of the r eality and the tender ness of His love will be your s. Abide in Chr ist: in the fier y
oven, one like the Son of Man will be seen as never befor e; the pur ging away of the dr oss and the
r efining of the gold will be accomplished, and Chr ist's own likeness r eflected in you. O abide in
Chr ist: the power of the flesh will be mor tified, the impatience and selfwill of the old natur e be
humbled, to make place for the meekness and gentleness of Chr ist. A believer may pass thr ough
much affliction, and yet secur e but little blessing fr om it all. Abiding in Chr ist is the secr et of
secur ing all that the Father meant the chastisement to br ing us.
Abide in Chr ist: in Him you shall find sur e and abundant consolation. With the afflicted comfor t
is often fir st, and the pr ofit of the affliction second. The Father loves us so, that with Him our r eal
and abiding pr ofit is His fir st object, but He does not for get to comfor t too. When He comfor ts it
is that He may tur n the bleeding hear t to Himself to r eceive the blessing in fellowship with Him;
when He r efuses comfor t, His object is still the same. It is in making us par taker s of His
holiness that tr ue comfor t comes. The Holy Spir it is the Comfor ter, not only because He can
suggest comfor ting thoughts of God's love, but far mor e, because He makes us holy, and br ings us
into close union with Chr ist and with God. He teaches us to abide in Chr ist; and because God is
found ther e, the tr uest comfor t will come ther e too. In Chr ist the hear t of the Father is r evealed,
and higher comfor t ther e cannot be than to r est in the Father 's bosom. In Him the fulness of
the divine love is r evealed, combined with the tender ness of a mother 's compassion - and what can
comfor t like this? In Him you see a thousand times mor e given you than you have lost; see how
God only took fr om you that you might have r oom to take fr om Him what is so much better. In
Him suffer ing is consecr ated, and becomes the for etaste of eter nal glor y; in suffer ing it is that
the Spir it of God and of glor y r ests on us. Believer ! would you have comfor t in affliction? Abide in Chr ist.

Abide in Chr ist: so will you bear much fr uit. Not a vine is planted but the owner thinks of the fr
uit, and the fr uit only. Other tr ees may be planted for or nament, for the shade, for the wood the vine only for the_ fr uit. And of each vine the husbandman is continually asking how it can br
ing for th mor e fr uit, much fr uit. Believer ! abide in Chr ist in times of affliction, and you shall br
ing for th mor e fr uit. The deeper exper ience of Chr ist's tender ness and the Father 's love will ur
ge you to live to His glor y. The sur r ender of self and selfwill in suffer ing will pr epar e you to
sympathize with the miser y of other s, while the softening that comes of chastisement will fit you
for becoming, as Jesus was, the ser vant of all. The thought of the Father 's desir e for fr uit in
the pr uning will lead you to yield your self afr esh, and mor e than ever, to Him, and to say that

now you have but one object in life - making known and conveying His wonder ful love to fellow men. You shall lear n the blessed ar t of

for getting self, and, even in affliction, availing your self of your separ ation fr om or dinar y life
to plead for the welfar e of other s. Dear Chr istian, in affliction abide in Chr ist. When you see it
coming, meet it in Chr ist; when it is come, feel that you ar e mor e in Chr ist than in it, for He is near
er you than affliction ever can be; when it is passing, still abide in Him. And let the one thought of the
Saviour, as He speaks of the pr uning, and the one desir e of the Father, as He does the pr uning,
be your s too: "Ever y br anch that bear eth fr uit, He pur geth, that it may br ing for th mor e fr uit."
So shall your times of affliction become your times of choicest blessing - pr epar ation for r
ichest fr uitfulness. Led into closer fellowship with the Son of God, and deeper exper ience of His
love and gr ace - established in the blessed confidence that He and you entir ely belong to each
other - mor e completely satisfied with Him and mor e wholly given up to Him than ever befor e with your own will cr ucified afr esh, and the hear t br ought into deeper har mony with God's will
- you shall be a vessel cleansed, meet for the Master 's use, pr epar ed for ever y good wor k. Tr ue
believer ! O tr y and lear n the blessed tr uth, that in affliction your fir st, your only, your blessed
calling is to abide in Chr ist. Be much with Him alone. Bewar e of the comfor t and the distr
actions that fr iends so often br ing. Let Jesus Chr ist Himself be your chief companion and
comfor ter. Delight your self in the assur ance that closer union with Him, and mor e abundant fr uit
thr ough Him, ar e sur e to be the r esults of tr ial, because it is the Husbandman Himself who is pr
uning, and will ensur e the fulfilment of the desir e of the soul that yields itself lovingly to His wor k.
Chapter 20
That you may bear much Fr uit
"He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same br ingeth for th much fr uit. Her ein is my Father glor
ified, that ye bear much fr uit." - JOHN 15:5, 8.
WE ALL know what fr uit is. The pr oduce of the br anch, by which men ar e r efr eshed and nour
ished. The fr uit is not for the br anch, but for those who come to car r y it away. As soon as the fr
uit is r ipe, the br anch gives it off, to commence afr esh its wor k of beneficence, and anew pr epar
e its fr uit for another season. A fr uit - bear ing tr ee lives not for itself, but wholly for those to
whom its fr uit br ings r efr eshment and life. And so the br anch exists only and entir ely for the sake
of the fr uit. To make glad the hear t of the husbandman is its object, its safety, and its glor y.

Beautiful image of the believer, abiding in Chr ist! He not only gr ows in str ength, the union with
the Vine becoming ever sur er and fir mer, he also bear s fr uit, yea, much fr uit. He has the power
to offer that to other s of which they can eat and live. Amid all who sur r ound him he becomes
like a tr ee of life, of which they can taste and be r efr eshed. He is in his cir cle a centr e of life and
of blessing, and that simply because he abides in Chr ist, and r eceives fr om Him the Spir it and the
life of which he can impar t to other s. Lear n thus, if you would bless other s, to abide in Chr ist,
and that if you do abide, you shall sur ely bless. As sur ely as the br anch abiding in a fr uitful vine
bear s fr uit, so sur ely, yea, much mor e sur ely, will a soul abiding in Chr ist with His fulness of
blessing be made a blessing.
The r eason of this is easily under stood. If Chr ist, the heavenly Vine, has taken the believer as
a br anch, then He has pledged Himself, in the ver y natur e of things, to supply the sap and spir it
and nour ishment to make it br ing for th fr uit.

"Fr om ME is thy fr uit found": these wor ds der ive new meaning fr om our par able. The soul need
but

have one car e - to abide closely, fully, wholly. He will give the fr uit. He wor ks all that is needed
to make the believer a blessing.
Abiding in Him, you r eceive of Him His Spir it of love and compassion towar ds sinner s, making
you desir ous to seek their good. By natur e the hear t is full of selfishness. Even in the believer,
his own salvation and happiness ar e often too much his only object. But abiding in Jesus, you
come into contact with His infinite love; its fir e begins to bur n within your hear t; you see the beauty
of love; you lear n to look upon loving and ser ving and saving your fellow - men as the
highest pr ivilege a disciple of Jesus can have. Abiding in Chr ist, your hear t lear ns to feel the wr
etchedness of the sinner still in dar kness, and the fear fulness of the dishonour done to your God.
With Chr ist you begin to bear the bur den of souls, the bur den of sins not your own. As you ar e
mor e closely united to Him, somewhat of that passion for souls which ur ged Him to Calvar y begins
to br eathe within you, and you ar e r eady to follow His footsteps, to for sake the heaven of your own
happiness, and devote your life to win the souls Chr ist has taught you to love. The ver y spir it of
the Vine is love; the spir it of love str eams into the br anch that abides in Him.
The desir e to be a blessing is but the beginning. As you under take to wor k, you speedily
become conscious of your own weakness and the difficulties in your way. Souls ar e not saved at your
bidding. You ar e r eady to be discour aged, and to r elax your effor t. But abiding in Chr ist, you r
eceive new cour age and str ength for the wor k. Believing what Chr ist teaches, that it is HE
who thr ough you will give His blessing to the wor ld, you under stand that you ar e but the
feeble instr ument thr ough which the hidden power of Chr ist does its wor k, that His str ength
may be per fected and made glor ious in your weakness. It is a gr eat step when the believer fully
consents to his own weakness, and the abiding consciousness of it, and so wor ks faithfully on, fully
assur ed that his Lor d is wor king thr ough him. He r ejoices that the excellence of the power is of
God, and not of us. Realizing his oneness with his Lor d, he consider s no longer his own weakness,
but counts on the power of Him of whose hidden wor king within he is assur ed. It is this secr et
assur ance that gives a br ightness to his look, and a gentle fir mness to his tone, and a per sever ance
to all his effor ts, which of themselves ar e gr eat means of influencing those he is seeking to win. He
goes for th in the spir it of one to whom victor y is assur ed; for this is the victor y that over cometh,
even our faith. He no longer counts it humility to say that God cannot bless his unwor thy effor ts. He
claims and expects a blessing, because it is not he, but Chr ist in him, that wor keth. The gr eat secr et
of abiding in Chr ist is the deep conviction that we ar e nothing, and He is ever ything. As this is
lear nt, it no longer seems str ange to believe that our weakness need be no hindr ance to His saving
power. The believer who yields himself wholly up to Chr ist for ser vice in the spir it of a simple,
childlike tr ust, will assur edly br ing for th much fr uit. He will not fear even to claim his shar e in
the wonder ful pr omise: "He that believeth on me, the wor ks that I do shall he do also; and gr eater
wor ks than these shall he do, because I go to the Father." He no longer thinks that He cannot have a
blessing, and must be kept unfr uitful, that he may be kept humble. He sees that the most heavily
laden br anches bow the lowest down. Abiding in Chr ist, he has yielded assent to the blessed agr
eement between the Vine and the br anches, that of the fr uit all the glor y shall be to the
Husbandman, the blessed Father.

Let us lear n two lessons. If we ar e abiding in Jesus, let us begin to wor k. Let us fir st seek to
influence those ar ound us in daily life. Let us accept distinctly and joyfully our holy calling, that
we ar e even now to live as the ser vants of the love of Jesus to our fellowmen. Our daily life

must have for its object the making of an impr ession favour able to Jesus. When you look at the br
anch, you see at once

the likeness to the Vine. We must live so that somewhat of the holiness and the gentleness of
Jesus may shine out in us. We must live to r epr esent Him. As was the case with Him when on ear th,
the life must pr epar e the way for the teaching. What the Chur ch and the wor ld both need is this:
men and women full of the Holy Ghost and of love, who, as the living embodiments of the gr ace and
power of Chr ist, witness for Him, and for His power on behalf of those who believe in Him.
Living so, with our hear ts longing to have Jesus glor ified in the souls He is seeking after, let us
offer our selves to Him for dir ect wor k. Ther e is wor k in our own home. Ther e is wor k among
the sick, the poor, and the outcast. Ther e is wor k in a hundr ed differ ent paths which the Spir it of
Chr ist opens up thr ough those who allow themselves to be led by Him. Ther e is wor k per haps for
us in ways that have not yet been opened up by other s. Abiding in Chr ist, let us wor k. Let us wor k,
not like those who ar e content if they now follow the fashion, and take some shar e in r eligious wor
k. No; let us wor k as those who ar e gr owing mor e like Chr ist, because they ar e abiding in Him,
and who, like Him, count the wor k of winning souls to the Father the ver y joy and glor y of heaven
begun on ear th.
And the second lesson is: If you wor k, abide in Chr ist. This is one of the blessings of wor k if done
in the r ight spir it - it will deepen your union with your blessed Lor d. It will discover your weakness,
and thr ow you back on His str ength. It will stir you to much pr ayer ; and in pr ayer for other s is
the time when the soul, for getful of itself, unconsciously gr ows deeper into Chr ist. It will make
clear er to you the tr ue natur e of br anch - life; its absolute dependence, and at the same
time its glor ious sufficiencyindependent of all else, because dependent on Jesus. If you wor k, abide
in Chr ist. Ther e ar e temptations and danger s. Wor k for Chr ist has sometimes dr awn away fr om
Chr ist, and taken the place of fellowship with Him. Wor k can sometimes give a for m of godliness
without the power. As you wor k, abide in Chr ist. Let a living faith in Chr ist wor king in you be
the secr et spr ing of all your wor k; this will inspir e at once humility and cour age. Let the Holy
Spir it of Jesus dwell in you as the Spir it of His tender compassion and His divine power. Abide in
Chr ist, and offer ever y faculty of your natur e fr eely and unr eser vedly to Him, to sanctify it for
Himself. If Jesus Chr ist is r eally to wor k thr ough us, it needs an entir e consecr ation of our selves
to Him, daily r enewed. But we under stand now, just this is abiding in Chr ist; just this it is that
constitutes our highest pr ivilege and happiness. To be a br anch bear ing much fr uit - nothing less,
nothing mor e - be this our only joy.
Chapter 21
So will you have Power in Pr ayer

"If ye abide in me, and my wor ds abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto
you. " - JOHN 15:7.
PRAYER is both one of the means and one of the fr uits of union to Chr ist. As a means it is
of unspeakable impor tance. All the things of faith, all the pleadings of desir e, all the year nings
after a fuller sur r ender, all the confessions of shor tcoming and of sin, all the exer cises in which
the soul gives up self and clings to Chr ist, find their utter ance in pr ayer. In each meditation on
abiding in Chr ist, as some new featur e of what Scr iptur e teaches concer ning this blessed life is
appr ehended, the fir st impulse of the believer is at once to look up to the Father and pour out the
hear t into His, and ask fr om Him the full under standing and the full possession of what he has been
shown in the Wor d. And it is the believer, who is not content with this spontaneous expr ession of

his hope, but who takes time in secr et pr ayer to wait until he has r eceived and laid hold of what he
has seen, who will r eally gr ow str ong in Chr ist. However feeble the soul's fir st abiding, its pr
ayer will be hear d, and it will find

pr ayer one of the gr eat means of abiding mor e


abundantly.
But it is not so much as a means, but as a fr uit of the abiding, that the Saviour mentions it in
the par able of the Vine. He does not think so much of pr ayer - as we, alas! too exclusively do - as a
means of getting blessing for our selves, but as one of the chief channels of influence by which, thr
ough us as fellow - wor ker s with God, the blessings of Chr ist's r edemption ar e to be dispensed to
the wor ld. He sets befor e Himself and us the glor y of the Father, in the extension of His Kingdom,
as the object for which we have been made br anches; and He assur es us that if we but abide in
Him, we shall be Isr aels, having power with God and man. Our s shall be the effectual, fer vent pr
ayer of the r ighteous man, availing much, like Elijah's for ungodly Isr ael. Such pr ayer will be the
fr uit of our abiding in Him, and the means of br inging for th much fr uit.
To the Chr istian who is not abiding wholly in Jesus, the difficulties connected with pr ayer ar e often
so gr eat as to r ob him of the comfor t and the str ength it could br ing. Under the guise of humility, he
asks how one so unwor thy could expect to have influence with the Holy One. He thinks of
God's sover eignty, His per fect wisdom and love, and cannot see how his pr ayer can r eally have any
distinct effect. He pr ays, but it is mor e because he cannot r est without pr ayer, than fr om a loving
faith that the pr ayer will be hear d. But what a blessed r elease fr om such questions and per plexities
is given to the soul who is tr uly abiding in Chr ist! He r ealizes incr easingly how it is in the r eal
spir itual unity with Chr ist that we ar e accepted and hear d. The union with the Son of God is a life
union: we ar e in ver y deed one with Him - our pr ayer ascends as His pr ayer. It is because we abide
in Him that we can ask what we will, and it is given to us.
Ther e ar e many r easons why this must be so. One is, that abiding in Chr ist, and having His wor
ds abiding in us, teach us to pr ay in accor dance with the will of God. With the abiding in Chr ist our
self - will is kept down, the thoughts and wishes of natur e ar e br ought into captivity to the
thoughts and wishes of Chr ist; likemindedness to Chr ist gr ows upon us - all our wor king and
willing become tr ansfor med into hannony with His. Ther e is deep and oft - r enewed hear t - sear
ching to see whether the sur r ender has indeed been entir e; fer vent pr ayer to the hear t - sear ching
Spir it that nothing may be kept back. Ever ything is yielded to the power of His life in us, that it
may exer cise its sanctifying influence even on or dinar y wishes and desir es. His Holy Spir it br
eathes thr ough our whole being; and without our being conscious how, our desir es, as the br
eathings of the divine life, ar e in confor mity with the divine will, and ar e fulfilled. Abiding in Chr
ist r enews and sanctifies the will: we ask what we will, and it is given to us.

In close connection with this is the thought, that the abiding in Chr ist teaches the believer in pr ayer
on y to seek the glor y of God. In pr omising to answer pr ayer, Chr ist's one thought (see John
14:13) is this, "that the Father may be glor ified in the Son." In His inter cession on ear th (John 17),
this was His one desir e and plea; in His inter cession in heaven, it is still His gr eat object. As the
believer abides in Chr ist, the Saviour br eathes this desir e into him. The thought, ONLY THE
GLORY of GOD, becomes mor e and mor e the keynote of the life hid in Chr ist. At fir st this
subdues, and quiets, and makes the soul almost afr aid to dar e enter tain a wish, lest it should not be
to the Father 's glor y. But when once its supr emacy has been accepted, and ever ything yielded to it,
it comes with mighty power to elevate and enlar ge the hear t, and open it to the vast field open to
the glor y of God. Abiding in Chr ist, the soul lear ns not only to desir e, but spir itually to discer n
what will be for God's glor y; and one of the fir st conditions of acceptable pr ayer is fulfilled in it

when, as the fr uit of its union with Chr ist, the whole mind is br ought into har mony with that of the
Son as He said: "Father, glor ify Thy name."

Once mor e: Abiding in Chr ist, we can fully avail our selves of the name of Chr ist. Asking in the
name of another means that that other author ized me and sent me to ask, and wants to be
consider ed as asking himself: he wants the favour done to him. Believer s often tr y to think of the
name of Jesus and His mer its, and to ar gue themselves into the faith that they will be hear d, while
they painfully feel how little they have of the faith of His name. They ar e not living wholly in
Jesus' name; it is only when they begin to pr ay that they want to take up that name and use it.
This cannot be. The pr omise "Whatsoever ye ask in my name," may not be sever ed fr om the
command, "Whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of the Lor d Jesus." If the name of Chr ist is to be
wholly at my disposal, so that I may have the full command of it for all I will, it must be because I
fir st put myself wholly at His disposal, so that He has fr ee and full command of me. It is the
abiding in Chr ist that gives the r ight and power to use His name with confidence. To Chr ist the
Father r efuses nothing. Abiding in Chr ist, I come to the Father as one with Him. His r ighteousness
is in me, His Spir it is in me; the Father sees the Son in me, and gives me my petition. It is not - as
so many think - by a sor t of imputation that the Father looks upon us as if we wer e in Chr ist,
though we ar e not in Him. No; the Father wants to see us living in Him: thus shall our pr ayer r
eally have power to pr evail. Abiding in Chr ist not only r enews the will to pr ay ar ight, but secur es
the full power of His mer its to us.
Again: Abiding in Chr ist also wor ks in us the faith that alone can obtain an answer. "Accor ding
to your faith be it unto you": this is one of the laws of the kingdom. "Believe that ye r eceive, and ye
shal have." This faith r ests upon, and is r ooted in the Wor d, but is something infinitely higher
than the mer e logical conclusion: God has pr omised, I shall obtain. No; faith, as a spir itual act,
depends upon the wor ds abiding in us as living power s, and so upon the state of the whole inner
life.Without fasting and pr ayer (Mar k 9:29), without humility and a spir itual mind (John 5:44),
without a wholehear ted obedience (1
John 3:22), ther e cannot be this living faith. But as the soul abides in Chr ist, and gr ows into
the consciousness of its union with Him, and sees how entir ely it is He who makes it and its
petition acceptable, it dar es to claim an answer because it knows itself one with Him. It was by faith it
lear nt to abide in Him; as the fr uit of that faith, it r ises to a lar ger faith in all that God has pr
omised to be and to do. It lear ns to br eathe its pr ayer s in the deep, quiet, confident assur ance:
We know we have the petition we ask of Him.
Abiding in Chr ist, fur ther, keeps us in the place wher e the answer can be bestowed. Some believer
s pr ay ear nestly for blessing; but when God comes and looks for them to bless them, they ar e not to
be found. They never thought that the blessing must not only be asked, but waited for, and r
eceived in pr ayer. Abiding in Chr ist is the place for r eceiving answer s. Out of Him the
answer would be danger ous - we should consume it on our lusts (Jas. iv. 3). Many of the r
ichest answer s - say for spir itual gr ace, or for power to wor k and to blesscan only come in the
shape of a lar ger exper ience of what God makes Chr ist to us. The fulness is IN Him; abiding in
Him is the condition of power in pr ayer, because the answer is tr easur ed up and bestowed in Him.

Believer, abide in Chr ist, for ther e is the school of pr ayer - mighty, effectual, answer - br
inging pr ayer. Abide in Him, and you shall lear n what to so many is a myster y: That the secr et of
the pr ayer of faith is the life of faith - the life that abides in Chr ist alone.
Chapter 22
And in His Love

"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: abide ye in my love." John 15:9.
Blessed Lor d, enlighten our eyes to see ar ight the glor y of this wondr ous wor d. Open to
our meditation the secr et chamber of THY LOVE, that our souls may enter in, and find ther e
their ever lasting dwelling - place. How else shall we know aught of a love that passeth knowledge?
Befor e the Saviour speaks the wor d that invites us to abide in His love, He fir st tells us what that
love is. What He says of it must give for ce to His invitation, and make the thought of not accepting
it an impossibility: "As the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you!"
"As the Father hath loved me." How shall we be able to for m r ight conceptions of this love? Lor
d, teach us. God is love. Love is His ver y being. Love is not an attr ibute, but the ver y essence of
His natur e, the centr e r ound which all His glor ious attr ibutes gather. It was because He was love
that He was the Father, and that ther e was a Son. Love needs an object to whom it can give itself
away, in whom it can lose itself, with whom it can make itself one. Because God is love, ther e must
be a Father and a Son. The love of the Father to the Son is that divine passion with which He delights
in the Son, and speaks, "My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The divine love is as a bur
ning fir e; in all its intensity and infinity it has but one object and but one joy, and that is the
onlybegotten Son. When we gather together all the attr ibutes of God - His infinity, His per fection,
His immensity, His majesty, His omnipotence
- and consider them but as the r ays of the glor y of His love, we still fail in for ming any conception
of what that love must be. It is a love that passeth knowledge.
And yet this love of God to His Son must ser ve, O my soul, as the glass in which you ar e to lear n
how Jesus loves you. As one of His r edeemed ones, you ar e His delight, and all His desir e is to
you, with the longing of a love which is str onger than death, and which many water s cannot
quench. His hear t year ns after you, seeking your fellowship and your love. Wer e it needed, He
could die again to possess you. As the Father loved the Son, and could not live without Him,
could not be God the blessed without Him - so Jesus loves you. His life is bound up in your s; you ar
e to Him inexpr essibly mor e indispensable and pr ecious than you ever can know. You ar e one
with Himself. "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you." What a love!

It is an eter nal love. Fr om befor e the foundation of the wor ld - God's Wor d teaches us this the pur pose had been for med that Chr ist should be the Head of His Chur ch, that He should have a
body in which His glor y could be set for th. In that eter nity He loved and longed for those who had
been given Him by the Father ; and when He came and told His disciples that He loved them, it
was indeed not with a love of ear th and of time, but with the love of eter nity. And it is with that
same infinite love that His eye still r ests upon each of us her e seeking to abide in Him, and in
each br eathing of that love ther e is indeed the power of eter nity. "I have loved thee with an ever
lasting love."
It is a per fect love. It gives all, and holds nothing back. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given
all things into His hand." And just so Jesus loves His own: all He has is their s. When it was
needed, He sacr ificed His thr one and cr own for you: He did not count His own life and blood too
dear to give for you. His r ighteousness, His Spir it, His glor y, even His thr one, all ar e your s. This
love holds nothing, nothing back, but, in a manner which no human mind can fathom, makes

you one with itself. O wondr ous love! to love us even as the Father loved Him, and to offer us
this love as our ever yday dwelling.

It is a gentle and most tender love. As we think of the love of the Father to the Son, we see in the
Son ever ything so infinitely wor thy of that love. When we think of Chr ist's love to us, ther e is
nothing but sin and unwor thiness to meet the eye. And the question comes: How can that love within
the bosom of the divine life and its per fections be compar ed to the love that r ests on sinner s?
Can it indeed be the same love? Blessed be God, we know it is so. The natur e of love is always
one, however differ ent the objects. Chr ist knows of no other law of love but that with which His
Father loved Him. Our wr etchedness only ser ves to call out mor e distinctly the beauty of love, such
as could not be seen even in heaven. With the tender est compassion He bows to our weakness,
with patience inconceivable He bear s with our slowness, with the gentlest loving - kindness He meets
our fear s and our follies. It is the love of the Father to the Son, beautified, glor ified, in its
condescension, in its exquisite adaptation to our needs.
And it is an unchangeable love. "Having loved His own which wer e in the wor ld, He loved them to
the end." "The mountains shall depar t, and the hills be r emoved, but my kindness shall not depar t
fr om thee." The pr omise with which it begins its wor k in the soul is this: "I shall not leave thee,
until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." And just as our wr etchedness was what fir st dr
ew it to us, so the sin, with which it is so often gr ieved, and which may well cause us to fear and
doubt, is but a new motive for it to hold to us all the mor e. And why? We can give no r eason but
this: "As the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you."
And now, does not this love suggest the motive, the measur e, and the means of that sur r ender
by which we yield our selves wholly to abide in Him?
This love sur ely supplies a motive. Only look and see how this love stands and pleads and pr
ays. Gaze, O gaze on the divine for m, the eter nal glor y, the heavenly beauty, the tender ly
pleading gentleness of the cr ucified love, as it str etches out its pier ced hands and says, "Oh, wilt
thou not abide with me?
wilt thou not come and abide in me?" It points you up to the eter nity of love whence it came to
seek you. It points you to the Cr oss, and all it has bor ne to pr ove the r eality of its affection, and to
win you for itself. It r eminds you of all it has pr omised to do for you, if you will but thr
ow your self unr eser vedly into its ar ms. It asks you whether, so far as you have come to dwell
with it and taste its blessedness, it has not done well by you. And with a divine author ity,
mingled with such an inexpr essible tender ness that one might almost think he hear d the tone of r
epr oach in it, it says, "Soul, as the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you: abide in my love."
Sur ely ther e can be but one answer to such pleading: Lor d Jesus Chr ist! her e I am. Hencefor th
Thy love shall be the only home of my soul: in Thy love alone will I abide.

That love is not only the motive, but also the measur e, of our sur r ender to abide in it. Love gives
all, but asks all. It does so, not because it gr udges us aught, but because without this it
cannot get possession of us to fill us with itself. In the love of the Father and the Son,it was so.
In the love of Jesus to us, it was so. In our enter ing into His love to abide ther e, it must be so too;
our sur r ender to it must have no other measur e than its sur r ender to us. O that we under stood
how the love that calls us has infinite r iches and fulness of joy for us, and that what we give up for
its sake will be r ewar ded a hundr edfold in this life! Or r ather, would that we under stood that it is
a LOVE with a height and a depth and a length and a br eadth that passes knowledge! How all

thought of sacr ifice or sur r ender would pass away, and our souls be filled with wonder at the
unspeakable pr ivilege of being loved with

such a love, of being allowed to come and abide in it for ever.


And if doubt again suggest the question: But is it possible, can I always abide in His love? listen how
that love itself supplies the only means for the abiding in Him: It is faith in that love which will enable
us to abide in it. If this love be indeed so divine, such an intense and bur ning passion, then sur ely I
can depend on it to keep me and to hold me fast. Then sur ely all my unwor thiness and feebleness
can be no hindr ance. If this love be indeed so divine, with infinite power at its command, I sur ely
have a r ight to tr ust that it is str onger than my weakness; and that with its almighty ar m it will
clasp me to its bosom, and suffer me to go out no mor e. I see how this is the one thing my God
r equir es of me. Tr eating me as a r easonable being endowed with the wondr ous power of willing
and choosing, He cannot for ce all this blessedness on me, but waits till I give the willing consent of
the hear t. And the token of this consent He has in His gr eat kindness or der ed faith to be - that
faith by which utter sinfulness casts itself into the ar ms of love to be saved, and utter weakness to be
kept and made str ong. O Infinite Love! Love with which the Father loved the Son! Love with which
the Son loves us! I can tr ust thee, I do tr ust thee. O keep me abiding in Thyself.
Chapter 23
As Chr ist in the
Father
"As the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love, even as I abide in my Father
's love." - JOHN 15:9,16
CHRIST had taught His disciples that to abide in Him was to abide in His love. The hour of
His suffer ing is nigh, and He cannot speak muchmor e to them. They doubtless have many questions
to ask as to what that abiding in Him and His love is. He anticipates and meets their wishes, and
gives them His OWN LIFE as the best exposition of His command. As example and r ule for their
abiding in His love, they have to look to His abiding in the Father 's love. In the light of His union
with the Father, their union with Him will become clear. His life in the Father is the law of their life in
Him.
The thought is so high that we can har dly take it in, and is yet so clear ly r evealed, that we dar e
not neglect it. Do we not r ead in John 6 (ver.57), "As I live by the Father, even so he that eateth
me, he shall live by me"? And the Saviour pr ays so distinctly (John 17:22), "that they may be one
even as we ar e one: I in them, and Thou in me." The blessed union of Chr ist with the Father and His
life in Him is the only r ule of our thoughts and expectations in r egar d to our living and abiding in
Him.

Think fir st of the or igin of that life of Chr ist in the Father. They wer e ONE - one in life and one
in love.In this His abiding in the Father had its r oot. Though dwelling her e on ear th, He knew
that He was one with the Father that the Father 's life was in Him, and His love on Him.
Without this, knowledge, abiding in the Father and His love would have been utter ly impossible.
And it is thus only that you can abide in Chr ist and His love. Know that you ar e one with Him - one
in the unity of natur e. By His bir th He became man, and took your natur e that He might be one with
you. By your new, bir th you become one with Him, and ar e made par taker of His divine natur e.
The link that binds you to Him is as r eal and close as bound Him to the Father - the link of a divine
life. Your claim on Him is as sur e and always availing as was His on the Father. Your union with
Him is as close.

And as it is the union of a divine life, it is one of an infinite love. In His life of humiliation on ear
th
He tasted the blessedness and str ength of knowing Himself the object of an infinite love, and
of

dwelling in it al the day; fr om His own example He invites you to lear n that her ein lies the secr et
of r est and joy. You ar e on with Him: yield. your self now to be loved by Him; le your eyes and
hear t open to the love that shines an pr esses in on you on ever y side. Abide in His love.
Think then too of the mode of that abiding in the Father and His love which is to be the law of your
life "I kept my Father 's commandments and abide in His love." His was a life of subjection
and dependence and yet most blessed. To our pr oud self - seeking natur e ,the thought of dependence
and subjection suggests the idea of humiliation and ser vitude; in the life of love which the Son of
God lived, and to which He invite us, they ar e the secr et of blessedness. The Son is not afr aid of
losing aught by giving up all to the Father for He knows that the Father loves Him, and can have no
inter est apar t fr om that of the beloved Son. He knows that as complete as is the dependence on His
par t is the communication on the par t of the Father of all He possesses. Hence when He had said,
"The Son can do nothing of Himself, except He see the Father do it," He adds at once, "Whatsoever
things the Father doeth, them also doeth the Son likewise: for the Father loveth the Son, and showeth
Him all things that Himself doeth." The believer who studies this life of Chr ist as the patter n and the
pr omise of what his may be, lear ns to under stand how the "Without me ye can do nothing, " is but the
for er unner of
"I can do all things thr ough Chr ist who str engtheneth me." We lear n to glor y in infir mities, to
take pleasur e in necessities and distr esses for Chr ist's sake; for
"when I am weak, then am I str ong." He r ises above the or dinar y tone in which so many Chr
istians speak of their weakness, while they ar e content to abide ther e, because he has lear nt fr om
Chr ist that in the life of divine love the emptying of self and the sacr ifice of our will is the sur est
way to have all we can wish or will. Dependence, subjection, self - sacr ifice, ar e for the Chr istian
as for Chr ist the blessed path of life. Like as Chr ist lived thr ough and in the Father, even so the
believer lives thr ough and in Chr ist.
Think of the glor y of this life of Chr ist in the Father 's love. Because He gave Himself wholly to
the Father 's will and glor y, the Father cr owned Him with glor y and honour. He acknowledged Him
as His only r epr esentative; He made Him par taker of His power and author ity; He exalted Him to
shar e His thr one as God. And even so will it be with him who abides in Chr ist's love. If Chr ist
finds us willing to tr ust our selves and our inter ests to His love, if in that tr ust we give up all car e
for our own will and honour, if we make it our glor y to exer cise and confess absolute dependence
onHim in all things, if we ar e content to have no life but in Him, He will do for us what the Father
did for Him. He will lay of His glor y on us: As the name of our Lor d is Jesus is glor ified in us,
we ar e glor ified in Him (2
Thess.i. i 2). He acknowledges us as His tr ue and wor thy r epr esentatives; He entr usts us with
His
power ; He admits us to His counsels, as He allows our inter cession to influence His r ule of
His Chur ch and the wor ld; He makes us the vehicles of His author ity and His influence over
men. His Spir it knows no other dwelling than such, and seeks no other instr uments for His
divine wor k. Blessed life of love for the soul that abides in Chr ist's love, even as He in the Father 's!

Believer ! abide in the love of Chr ist. Take and study His r elation to the Father as pledge of what
thine own can become. As blessed, as mighty, as glor ious as was His life in the Father, can your s be
in Him. Let this tr uth, accepted under the teaching of the Spir it in faith, r emove ever y vestige of

fear, as if abiding in Chr ist wer e a bur den and a wor k. In the light of His life in the Father, let it
hencefor th be to you a blessed r est in the union with Him, an over flowing fountain of joy and str
ength. To abide in His love, His mighty, saving, keeping, satisfying love, even as He abode in the
Father 's love - sur ely the

ver y gr eatness of our calling teaches us that it never can be a wor k we have to per for m; it must
be with us as with Him, the r esult of the spontaneous outflowing of a life fr om within, and the
mighty inwor king of the love fr om above. What we only need is this: to take time and study the
divine image of this life of love set befor e us in Chr ist. We need to have our souls still unto God,
gazing upon that life of Chr ist in the Father until the light fr om heaven falls on it, and we hear the
living voice of our Beloved whisper ing gently to us per sonally the teaching He gave to the
disciples. Soul, be still and listen; let ever y thought be hushed until the wor d has enter ed your hear t
too:
"Child! I love thee, even as the Father loved me. Abide in my love, even as I abide in the Father 's
love. Thy life on ear th in me is to be the per fect counter par t of mine in the Father."
And if the thought will sometimes come: Sur ely this is too high for us; can it be r eally tr ue?
only r emember that the gr eatness of the pr ivilege is justified by the gr eatness of the object He has
in view. Chr ist was the r evelation of the Father on ear th. He could not be this if ther e wer e not the
most per fect unity, the most complete communication of all the Father had to the Son. He could be
it because the Father loved Him, and He abode in that love. Believer s ar e the r evelation of Chr ist
on ear th. They cannot be this unless ther e be per fect unity, so that the wor ld can know that He loves
them and has sent them. But they can be it if Chr ist loves them with the infinite love that gives itself
and all it has, and if they abide in that love.
Lor d, show us Thy love. Make us with all the saints to know the love that passeth knowledge. Lor
d, show us in Thine own blessed life what it is to abide in Thy love. And the sight shall so win us,
that it will be impossible for us one single hour to seek any other life than the life of abiding in Thy
love.
Chapter 24
Obeying His Commanments
"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I kept my Father 's
commandments, and abide in his love." - JOHN 15:10.
How clear ly we ar e taught her e the place which good wor ks ar e to occupy in the life of the
believer ! Chr ist as the beloved Son was in the Father 's love. He kept His commandments, and so
He abode in the love. So the believer, without wor ks, r eceives Chr ist and is in Him; he keeps the
commandments, and so abides in the love. When the sinner, in coming to Chr ist, seeks to pr epar e
himself by wor ks, the voice of the Gospel sounds, "Not of wor ks." When once in Chr ist, lest the
flesh should abuse the wor d, "Not of wor ks," the Gospel lifts its voice as loud: "Cr eated in Chr ist
Jesus unto good wor ks" (see Eph.2:9,10). To the sinner out of Chr ist, wor ks may be his gr eatest
hindr ance, keeping him fr om the union with the Saviour. To the believer in Chr ist, wor ks ar e str
ength and blessing, for by them faith is made per fect (Jas.2:22), the union with Chr ist is cemented,
and the soul established and mor e deeply r ooted in the love of God. "If a man love me, he will keep
my wor ds, and my Father will love him." "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love."

The connection between this keeping the commandments and the abiding in Chr ist's love is
easily under stood. Our union with Jesus Chr ist is not a thing of the intellect or sentiment, but a r
eal vital union in hear t and life. The holy life of Jesus, with His feelings and. disposition, is br eathed

into us by the Holy Spir it. The believer 's calling is to think and feel and will just what Jesus thought
and felt and willed. He desir es to be par taker not only of the gr ace but also of the holiness of His
Lor d; or r ather,

he sees that holiness is the chief beauty of gr ace. To live the life of Chr ist means to him to
be deliver ed fr om the life of self; the will of Chr ist is to him the only path of liber ty fr om the
slaver y of his own evil self - will.
To the ignor ant or slothful believer ther e is a gr eat differ ence between the pr omises and
commands of Scr iptur e. The for mer he counts his comfor t and his food; but to him who is r
eally seeking to abide in Chr ist's love, the commands become no less pr ecious, As much as the pr
omises they ar e the r evelation of the divine love, guides into the deeper exper ience of the divine
life, blessed helper s in the path to a closer union with the Lor d. He sees how the har mony of our
will with His will is one of the chief elements of our fellowship with Him. The will is the centr al
faculty in the Divine as in the human being. The will of God is the power that r ules the whole mor
al as well as the natur al wor ld. How could ther e be fellowship with Him without delight in His
will? It is only as long as salvation is to the sinner nothing but a per sonal safety, that he can be car
eless or afr aid of the doing of God's will. No sooner is it to him what Scr iptur e and the Holy
Spir it r eveal it to be - the r estor ation to communion with God and confor mity to Him - than he
feels that ther e is no law mor e natur al or mor e beautiful than this: Keeping Chr ist's commandments
the way to abide in Chr ist's love. His inmost soul appr oves when he hear s the beloved Lor d
make the lar ger measur e of the Spir it, with the manifestation of the Father and the Son in
the believer, entir ely dependent upon the keeping of His commandments (John 14:15,16,21,23 ).
Ther e is another thing that opens to him a deeper, insight and Secur es a still mor e cor dial
acceptance of this tr uth. It is this, that in no other way did Chr ist Himself abide in the Father 's
love. In the life which Chr ist led upon ear th, obedience was a solemn r eality. The dar k and awful
power that led man to r evolt fr om his God, came upon Him too, to tempt Him. To Him as
man its offer s of self - gr atification wer e not matter s of indiffer ence; to r efuse them, He had to
fast and pr ay. He suffer ed, being tempted. Ile. spoke ver y distinctly of not seeking to do His own
will, as a sur r ender He had continually to make. He made the keeping of the Father 's
commandments the distinct object of His life, and so abode in His love. Does He not tell us, "I do
nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things. And He that sent me is with me;
He hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that ar e pleasing to Him." He thus opened to us
the only path to the blessedness of a life on ear th in the love of heaven; and when, as fr om our
vine, His Spir it flows in the br anches, this keeping the commands is one of the sur est and highest
elements of the life He inspir es.

Believer ! would you abide in Jesus, be ver y car eful to keep His commandments. Keep them in
the love of your hear t. Be not content to have them in the Bible for r efer ence, but have them tr
ansfer r ed by car eful study, by meditation and by pr ayer, by a loving acceptance, by the Spir it's
teaching, to the fleshy tables of the hear t. Be not content with the knowledge of some of the
commands, those most commonly r eceived among Chr istians, while other s lie unknown and
neglected. Sur ely, with your New Covenant pr ivileges, you would not be behind the Old Testament
saints who spoke so fer vently: "I esteem all thy pr ecepts concer ning all things to be r ight." Be
assur ed that ther e is still much of your Lor d's will that you do not yet under stand. Make Paul's pr
ayer for the Colossians your s for your self and all believer s, "that you might be filled with the
knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spir itual under standing"; and that of wr estling Epaphr as,
"that you may stand per fect and complete in all the will of God." Remember that this is one of the
gr eat elements of' spir itual gr owth -.a deeper insight into the will of God concer ning you.
Imagine not - that entir e consecr ation is the end - it is only the beginning

- of the tr uly holy life. See how Paul, after having (Rom. xii. r ) taught believer s to lay
themselves upon the altar, whole andholy bur nt - offer ings to their God, at once pr oceeds (ver. 2)
to tell ther e what the tr ue altar - life is: being ever mor e and mor e "r enewed in their mind to pr
ove what is the good and per fect and acceptable will of God." The pr ogr essive r enewal of the
Holy Spir it leads to gr owing like - mindedness to Chr ist; then comes a delicate power of spir
itual per ception - a holy instinct - by which the: soul "quick of under standing (mar g. -quick of
scent) in the fear of the Lor d," knows to r ecognise the meaning and the application of the Lor d's
commands to daily life in a way that r emains hidden to the or dinar y Chr istian. Keep them
dwelling r ichly within you, hide them within your hear t, and you shall taste the blessedness of the
man whose "delight is in the law of the Lor d, and in His law doth he meditate dayand night." Love
will assimilate into your inmost being the commands as lood fr om heaven. They will no longer
come to you as a law standing outside and against you, but as the living power which has tr ansfor
med your will into per fect har mony with all your Lor d r equir es.
And keep them in the obedience of your life. It has been your solemn vowhas it not? - no longer to
toler ate even a single sin: "I have swor n, and I will per for m it, that I will keep Thy r
ighteous judgments." Labour ear nestly in pr ayer to stand per fect and complete in all the will of
God. Ask ear nestly for the discover y of ever y secr et sin - of anything that is not in per fect har
mony with the will of God. Walk up to the light you have faithfully and tender ly, yielding your self
in an unr eser ved sur r ender to obey all that the Lor d has spoken. When Isr ael took that vow
(Exodus 19:8, 24:7), it was only to br eak it all too soon. The New Covenant gives the gr ace to
make the vow and to keep it too (Jer.31). Be car eful of disobedience even in little things.
Disobedience dulls the conscience, dar kens the soul, deadens our spir itual ener gies ther efor e
keep the commandments of Chr ist with implicit obedience. Be a soldier that asks for nothing but
the or der s of the commander.
And if even for a moment the commandments appear gr ievous, just r emember whose they ar e.
They ar e the commandments of Him who loves you. They ar e all love, they come fr om His love,
they lead to His love. Each new sur r ender to keep the commandments, each new sacr ifice in
keeping them, leads to deeper union with the will, the spir it, and the love of the Saviour. The double
r ecompense of r ewar d shall be your s - a fuller entr ance into the myster y of His love - a fuller
confor mity to His own blessed life. And you shall lear n to pr ize these wor ds as among your
choicest tr easur es: "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.

Chapter 25
Thay your Joy may be Full
"These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might abide in you, and that your joy might be
full.
-JOHN 15:11
ABIDING fully in Chr ist is a life of exquisite and over flowing happiness. As Chr ist gets
mor e complete possession of the soul, it enter s into the joy of its Lor d. His own joy, the joy of
heaven, becomes its own, and that in full measur e, and as an ever - abiding por tion. Just as joy
on ear th is ever ywher e connected with the vine and its fr uit, so joy is an essential char acter istic
of the life of the believer who fully abides in Chr ist, the heavenly Vine.

We all know the value of joy. It alone is the pr oof that what we have r eally satisfies the hear t. As
long

as duty, or self - inter est, or other motives influence me, men cannot know what the object of
my pur suit or possession is r eally wor th to me. But when it gives me joy, and they see me delight
in it, they know that to me at least it is a tr easur e. Hence ther e is nothing so attr active as joy, no pr
eaching so per suasive as the sight of hear ts made glad. Just this makes gladness such a mighty
element in the Chr istian char acter : ther e is no pr oof of the r eality of God's love and the blessing
He bestows, which men so soon feel the for ce of, as when the joy of God over comes all the tr ials
of life. And for the Chr istian's own welfar e, joy is no less indispensable: the joy of the Lor d is his
str ength; confidence, and cour age, and patience find their inspir ation in joy. With a hear t full of joy
no wor k can wear y, and no bur den can depr ess; God Himself is str ength and song.
Let us hear what the Saviour says of the joy of abiding in Him. He pr omises us His own joy:
"My joy." As the whole par able r efer s to the life His disciples should have in Him when
ascended to heaven, the joy is that of His r esur r ection life. This is clear fr om those other wor
ds of His (John
16:22): "I will see you again, and your hear t shall r ejoice, and your joy shall no man take fr om
you." It was only with the r esur r ection and its glor y that the power of the never - changing life
began, and only in it that the never - ceasing joy could have its r ise. With it was fulfilled the wor d:
"Ther efor e thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." The day of His
cr owning was the day of the gladness of His hear t. That joy of His was the joy of a wor k fully and
for ever completed, the joy of the Father 's bosom r egained, and the joy of souls r edeemed. These ar
e the elements of His joy; of them the abiding in Him makes us par taker s. The believer shar es so
fully His victor y and His per fect r edemption, that his faith can without ceasing sing the conquer or
's song: "Thanks be to God, who always causeth me to tr iumph." As the fr uit of this, ther e is the joy
of the undistur bed dwelling in the light of the Father 's love
- not a cloud to inter vene if the abiding be unbr oken. And then, with this joy in the love of the
Father, as a love r eceived, the joy of the love of souls, as love going out and r ejoicing over the lost.
Abiding in Chr ist, penetr ating into the ver y depths of His life and hear t, seeking for the most per
fect oneness, these the thr ee str eams of His joy flow into our hear ts. Whether we look backwar d
and see the wor k He has done, or upwar d and see the r ewar d He has in the Father 's love that
passeth knowledge, or for war d in the continual accessions of joy as sinner s ar e br ought home, His
joy is our s. With our feet on Calvar y, our eyes on the Father 's countenance, and our hands helping
sinner s home, we have His joy as our own.

And then He speaks of this joy as abiding - a joy that is never to cease or to be inter r upted for
a moment: "That my joy might abide in you." "Your joy no man taketh fr om you." This is what
many Chr istians cannot under stand. Their view of the Chr istian life is that it is a succession of
changes, now joy and now sor r ow. And they appeal to the exper iences of a man like the Apostle
Paul, as a pr oof of how much ther e may be of weeping, and sor r ow, and suffer ing. They have not
noticed how just Paul gives the str ongest evidence as to this unceasing joy. He under stood the par
adox of the Chr istian life as the combination at one and the same moment of all the bitter ness of ear
th and all the joy of heaven. "As sor r owful, yet always r ejoicing": these pr ecious golden wor ds
teach us how the joy of Chr ist can over r ule the sor r ow of the wor ld, can make us sing while we
weep, and can maintain in the hear t, even when cast down by disappointment or difficulties, a
deep consciousness of a joy that is unspeakable and full of glor y. Ther e is but one condition: "I
will see you again, and your hear t shall r ejoice, and your joy shall no man take fr om you." The
pr esence of Jesus, distinctly manifested, cannot but give joy. Abiding in Him consciously, how

can the soul but r ejoice and be glad? Even when weeping for the sins and the souls of other s, ther e
is the fountain of gladness spr inging up in the

faith of His power and love to save.


And this His own joy abiding with us, He wants to be full. Of the full joy our Saviour spoke thr ice
on the last night. Once her e in the par able of the Vine:
"These things have I spoken unto you that your joy might be full" ; and ever y deeper insight into
the wonder ful blessedness of being the br anch of such a Vine confir ms His Wor d. Then He
connects it (John 16:24) with our pr ayer s being answer ed: "Ask and ye shall r eceive,that your joy
may be full." To the spir itual mind, answer ed pr ayer is not only a means of obtaining cer tain
blessings, but something infinitely higher. It is a token of our fellowship with the Father and the
Son in heaven, of their delight in us, and our having been admitted and having had a voice in that
wondr ous inter change of love in which the Father and the Son hold counsel, and decide the daily
guidance of the childr en on ear th. To a soul abiding in Chr ist, that longs for manifestations of His
love, and that under stands to take an answer to pr ayer in its tr ue spir itual value, as a r esponse fr
om the thr one to all its utter ances of love and tr ust, the joy which it br ings is tr uly unutter able.
The wor d is found tr ue: "Ask and ye shall r eceive, and your joy shall be full." And then the
Saviour says, in His highpr iestly pr ayer to the Father (John 17:13), "These things I speak, that they
might have my joy fulfilled in themselves." It is the sight of the gr eat High Pr iest enter ing the
Father 's pr esence for us, ever living to pr ay and car r y on His blessed wor k in the power of an
endless life, that r emoves ever y possible cause of fear or doubt, and gives us the assur ance and
exper ience of a per fect salvation. Let the believer who seeks, accor ding to the teaching of John
15, to possess the full joy of abiding in Chr ist, and accor ding to John 16, the full joy of pr
evailing pr ayer, pr ess for war d to John 17. Let him ther e listen to those wondr ous wor ds of
inter cession spoken, that his joy might be full. Let him, as he listens to those wor ds, lear n the
love that even now pleads for him in heaven without ceasing, the glor iousobjects for which it is
pleading, and which thr ough its all - pr evailing pleading ar e hour ly being r ealized, and Chr ist's
joy will be fulfilled in him.
Chr ist's own joy, abiding joy, fulness of joy - such is the por tion of the believer who abides in Chr
ist. Why, O why is it that this joy has so little power to attr act? The r eason simply is: Men, yea,
even God'schildr en, do not believe in it. Instead of the abiding in Chr ist being looked upon as the
happiest life that ever can be led, it is r egar ded as a life of self - denial and of sadness. They for get
that the self
- denial and the sadness ar e owing to the not abiding, and that to those who once yield
themselves unr eser vedly to abide in Chr ist as a br ight and blessed life, their faith comes tr ue - the
joy of the Lor d is their s. The difficulties all ar ise fr om the want of the full sur r ender to a full
abiding.

Child of God, who seekest to abide in Chr ist, r emember what the Lor d says. At the close of
the par able of the Vine He adds these pr ecious wor ds: "These things have I spoken unto you, that
my joy might abide in you, and that your joy might be full." Claim the joy as par t of the br anch life
- not the fir st or chief par t, but as the blessed pr oof of the sufficiency of Chr ist to satisfy ever y
need of the soul. Be happy. Cultivate gladness. If ther e ar e times when it comes of itself, and the
hear t feels the unutter able joy of the Saviour 's pr esence, pr aise God for it, and seek to maintain
it. If at other times feelings ar e dull, and the exper ience of the joy not such as you could wish it,
still pr aise God for the life of unutter able blessedness to which you have been r edeemed. In this,
too, the wor d holds good: "Accor ding to your faith be it unto you." As you claim all the other gifts

in Jesus, ever claim this one too - not for your own sake, but for His and the Father 's glor y. "My
joy in you"; "that my joy may abide in you";

"my joy fulfilled in themselves" - these ar e Jesus' own wor ds. It is impossible to take Him wholly
and hear tily, and not to get His joy too. Ther efor e, "Rejoice ir e she Lor d always and again I say,
Rejoice."
Chapter 26
And in Love to the Br ethr
en
"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. " - JOHN 15:12.
"Like as the Father loved me, EVEN so I have loved you; LIKE As I have loved you, EVEN so love ye
one another." God became man; divine love began to r un in the channel of a human hear t; it
becomes the love of man to man. The love that fills heaven and eter nity is ever to be daily seen her e
in the life of ear th and of time.
"This is my commandment," the Saviour says, "That ye love one another, as I have loved you." He
sometimes spoke of commandments, but the love, which is the fulfilling of the law, is the all including one, and ther efor e is called His commandment - the new commandment. It is to be the gr
eat evidence of the r eality of the New Covenant, of the power of the new life r evealed in Jesus Chr
ist. It is to be the one convincing and indisputable token of discipleship:
"Her eby shall all men know that ye ar e my disciples" ; "That they may be one in us, that the wor
ld may believe" ; "That they may be made per fect in one, that the wor ld may know that Thou hast
loved them, as Thou hast loved me." To the believer seeking per fect fellowship with Chr ist, the
keeping of this commandment is at once the blessed pr oof that he is abiding in Him, and the path to
a fuller and mor e per fect union.
Let us tr y to under stand how this is so. We know that God is love, and that Chr ist came to r eveal
this, not as a doctr ine but as a life. His life, in its wonder ful self - abasement and self - sacr
ifice, was, above ever ything, the embodiment of divine love, the showing for th to men, in
such human manifestations as they could under stand, how God loves. In His love to the
unwor thy and the ungr ateful, in His humbling Himself to walk among men as a ser vant, in His
giving Himself up to death, He simply lived and acted out the life of the divine love which was in the
hear t of God. He lived and died to show us the love of the Father.

And now, just as Chr ist was to show for th God's love, believer s ar e to show for th to the wor ld
the love of Chr ist. They ar e to pr ove to men that Chr ist loves them, and in loving fills them with
a love that is not of ear th. They, by living and by loving just as He did, ar e to be per petual
witnesses to the love that gave itself to die. He loved so that even the Jews cr ied out, as at Bethany,
"Behold how He loved!" Chr istians ar e to live so that men ar e compelled to say, "See how
these Chr istians love one another." In their daily inter cour se with each other, Chr istians ar e
made a spectacle to God, and to angels, and to men; and in the Chr istlikeness of their love to each
other, ar e to pr ove what manner of spir it they ar e of. Amid all diver sity of char acter or of cr eed,
of language or of station, they ar e to pr ove that love has made them member s of one body, and of
each other, and has taught them each to for get and sacr ifice self for the sake of the other. Their
life of love is the chief evidence of Chr istianity, the pr oof to the wor ld that God sent Chr ist, and

that He has shed abr oad in them the same love with which He loved Him. Of all the evidences of Chr
istianity, this is the mightiest and most convincing.

This love of Chr ist's disciples to each other occupies a centr al position between their love to God
and to all men. Of their love to God, whom they cannot see, it is the test. The love to one unseen
may so easily be amer e sentiment, or even an imagination; in the inter cour se with God's childr
en, love to God is r eally called into exer cise, and shows itself in deeds that the Father accepts as
done to Himself. So alone can it be pr oved to be tr ue. The love to the br ethr en is the flower
and fr uit of the r oot, unseen in the hear t, of love to God. And this fr uit again becomes the
seed of love to all men: inter cour se with each other is the school in which believer s ar e tr ained
and str engthened to love their fellow - men, who ar e yet out of Chr ist, not simply with the liking
that r ests on points of agr eement, but with the holy love that takes hold of the unwor thiest, and
bear s with the most disagr eeable for Jesus' sake. It is love to each other as disciples that is ever
put in the for egr ound as the link between love to God alone and to men in gener al.
In Chr ist's inter cour se with His disciples this br other ly love finds the law of its conduct. As it
studies His for giveness and for bear ance towar ds His fr iends, with the seven times seven as its only
measur e - as it looks to His unwear ied patience and His infinite humility - as it sees the meekness
and lowliness with which He seeks to win for Himself a place as their ser vant, wholly devoted to
their inter ests - it accepts with gladness His command, "Ye should do as I have done" (John xiii. 1
5). Following His example, each lives not for Himself but for the other. The law of kindness is on
the tongue, for love has vowed that never shall one unkind wor d cr oss its lips. It r efuses not only to
speak, but even to hear or to think evil; of the name and char acter of the fellowChr istian it is mor e
jealous than of its own. My own good name I may leave to the Father ; my br other 's my Father
has entr usted to me. In gentleness and loving kindness, in cour tesy and gener osity, in self - sacr
ifice and beneficence, in its life of blessing and of beauty, the divine love, which has been shed
abr oad in the believer 's hear t, shines out as it shone in the life of Jesus.
Chr istian! what say you of this your glor ious calling to love like Chr ist? Does not your hear t bound
at the thought of the unspeakable pr ivilege of thus showing for th the likeness of the Eter nal Love?
Or ar e you r ather r eady to sigh at the thought of the inaccessible height of per fection to which
you ar e thus called to climb? Br other, sigh not at what is in ver y deed the highest token of the
Father 's love, that He has called us to be like Chr ist in our love, just as He was like the
Father in His love. Under stand that He who gave the command in such close connection with His
teaching about the Vine and the abiding in Him, gave us in that the assur ance that we have only to
abide in Him to be able to love like Him. Accept the command as a new motive to a mor e full
abiding in Chr ist. Regar d the abiding in Him mor e than ever as an abiding in His love; r ooted
and gr ounded daily in a love that passeth knowledge, you r eceive of its fulness, and lear n to love.
With Chr ist abiding in you, the Holy Spir it sheds abr oad the love of God in your hear t, and you
love the br ethr en, the most tr ying and unloveable, with a love that is not your own, but the love
of Chr ist in you. And the command about your love to the br ethr en is changed fr om a bur den into
a joy, if you but keep it linked, as Jesus linked it, to the command about His love to you: "Abide in
my love; love one another, as I have loved you."

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." Is not this now some of
the much fr uit that Jesus has pr omised we shall bear - in ver y deed a cluster of the gr apes of
Eshcol, with which we can pr ove to other s that the land of pr omise is indeed a good land? Let us
tr y in all simplicity and honesty to go out to our home to tr anslate the language of high faith
and heavenly enthusiasm into the plain pr ose of daily conduct, so that all men can under stand it.
Let our temper be under the r ule of the love of Jesus: He can not alone cur b it - He can make us

gentle and patient. Let the vow, that not an unkind wor d about other s shall ever be hear d fr om our
lips, be laid tr ustingly at

His feet. Let the gentleness that r efuses to take offence, that is always r eady to excuse, to think
and hope the best, mar k our inter cour se with all. Let the love that seeks not its own, but ever is r
eady to wash other s' feet, or even to give its life for them, be our aim as we abide in Jesus. Let our
life be one of selfsacr ifice, always studying the welfar e of other s, finding our highest joy in blessing
other s. And let us, in studying the divine ar t of doing good, yield our selves as obedient lear ner s to
the guidance of the Holy Spir it. By His gr ace, the most commonplace life can be tr ansfigur ed with
the br ightness of a heavenly beauty, as the infinite love of the divine natur e shines out thr ough our fr
ail humanity. Fellow
- Chr istian, let us pr aise God! We ar e called to love as Jesus loves, as God
loves.
"Abide in my love, and love as I have loved." Bless God, it is possible. The new holy natur e we
have, and which gr ows ever str onger as it abides in Chr ist the Vine, can love as He did. Ever y
discover y of the evil of the old natur e, ever y longing desir e to obey the command of our Lor d,
ever y exper ience of the power and the blessedness of loving with Jesus' love, will ur ge us to accept
with fr esh faith the blessed injunctions:"Abide in me, and I in you";
"Abide in my love."

Chapter 27
That you may not Sin
"In him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." - 1 JOHN 3:5,6.
"YE KNOW," the apostle had said, "that He was manifested to take away our sin," and had
thus indicated salvation fr om sin as the gr eat object for which the Son was made man. The
connection shows clear ly that the taking away has r efer ence not only to the atonement and fr
eedom fr om guilt, but to deliver ance fr om the power of sin, so that the believer no longer does it.
It is Chr ist's per sonal holiness that constitutes His power to effect this pur pose. He admits
sinner s into life union with Himself; the r esult is, that their life becomes like His. "In Him is no
sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not." As long as he abides, and as far as he abides, the
believer does not sin. Our holiness of life has its r oots in the per sonal holiness of Jesus. "If the r oot
be holy, so also ar e the br anches."
The question at once ar ises: How is this consistent with what the Bible teaches of the
abiding cor r uption of our human natur e, or with what John himself tells of the utter
falsehood of our pr ofession, if we say that we have no sin, that we have not singled? (see I John
1:8,10). It is just this passage which, if we look car efully at it, will teach us to under stand our
text ar ight. Note the differ ence in the two statements (ver. 8), "If we say that we have no sin," and
(ver.10), "If we say that we have not sinned." The two expr essions cannot be equivalent; the
second would then be an unmeaning r epetition of the fir st. Having sin in ver se 8 is not the
same as doing sin in ver se 10. Having sin is having a sinful natur e. The holiest believer must
each moment confess that he has sin within him - the flesh, namely, in which dwelleth no good
thing. Sinning or doing sin is something ver y differ ent: it is yielding to indwelling sinful natur e,
and falling into actual tr ansgr ession. And so we have two admissions that ever y tr ue believer must
make. The one is that he has still sin within him (ver. 8); the second, that that sin has in for mer
times br oken out into sinful actions (ver.10). No believer can say either, "I have no sin in me," or

"I have in time past never sinned." If we say we have no sin at pr esent, or that we have not sinned
in the past, we deceive our selves. But no confession, though we have sin in the pr esent, is
demanded that we ar e doing sin in the pr esent too; the confession of actual sinning r efer s to the
past. It may, as appear s fr om chapter 2:2, be in the pr esent also, but is

expected not to be. And so we see how the deepest confession of sin in the past (as Paul's of his having
been a per secutor ), and the deepest consciousness of having still a vile and cor r upt natur e in
the pr esent, may consist with humble but joyful pr aise to Him who keeps fr om stumbling.
But how is it possible that a believer, having sin in him - sin of such intense vitality, and such ter r
ible power as we know the flesh to have - that a believer having sin should yet not be doing sin?
The answer is: "In Him is no sin. He that abideth in Him sinneth not." When the abiding in Chr ist
becomes close and unbr oken, so that the soul lives fr om moment to moment in the per fect union
with the Lor d its keeper, He does, indeed, keep down the power of the old natur e, so that it
does not r egain dominion over the soul. We have seen that ther e ar e degr ees in the abiding. With
most Chr istians the abiding is so feeble and inter mittent, that sin continually obtains the
ascendency, and br ings the soul into subjection. The divine pr omise given to faith is: "Sin shall not
have dominion over you." But with the pr omise is the command: "Let not sin r eign in your mor tal
body." The believer who claims the pr omise in full faith has the power to obey the command,
and sin is kept fr om asser ting its supr emacy. Ignor ance of the pr omise, or unbelief, or
unwatchfulness, opens the door for sin to r eign. And so the life of many believer s is a cour se of
continual stumbling and sinning. But when the believer seeks full admission into, and a per
manent abode in Jesus, the Sinless One, then the life of Chr ist keeps fr om actual tr ansgr ession.
"In Him is no sin. He that abideth in Him sinneth not. " Jesus does indeed save him fr om his sin not by the r emoval of his sinful natur e, but by keeping him fr om yielding to it.
I have r ead of a young lion whom nothing could awe or keep down but the eye of his keeper. With
the keeper you could come near him, and he would cr ouch, his savage natur e all unchanged, and thir
sting for blood - tr embling at the keeper 's feet. You might put your foot on his neck, as long as the
keeper was with you. To appr oach him without the keeper would be instant death. And so it is that the
believer can have sin and yet not do sin. The evil natur e, the flesh, is unchanged in its enmity against
God, but the abiding pr esence of Jesus keeps it down. In faith the believer entr usts himself to the
keeping, to the indwelling, of the Son of God; he abides in Him, and counts on Jesus to abide in Him
too. The union and fellowship is the secr et of a holy life: "In Him is no sin; he that abideth in Him
sinneth not."
And now another question will ar ise: Admitted that the complete abiding in the Sinless One will
keep fr om sinning, is such abiding possible? May we hope to be able so to abide in Chr ist, say,
even for one day, that we may be kept fr om actual tr ansgr essions? The question has only to be fair ly
stated and consider ed - will suggest its own answer. When Chr ist commanded us to abide in Him,
and pr omised us such r ich fr uit - bear ing to the glor y of the Father, and such mighty power in our
inter cessions, can He have meant anything but the healthy, vigor ous, complete union of the br anch
with the vine? When He pr omised that as we abide in Him He would abide in us, could He mean
anything but that His dwelling in us would be a r eality of divine power and love? Is not this way of
saving fr om sin just that which will glor ify Him?keeping us daily humble and helpless in the
consciousness of the evil natur e, watchful and active in the knowledge of its ter r ible power,
dependent and tr ustful in the r emembr ance that only His pr esence can keep the lion down. O let us
believe that when Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you," He did indeed mean that, while we wer e
not to be fr eed fr om the wor ld and its tr ibulation, fr om the sinful natur e and its temptations, we
wer e at least to have this blessing fully secur ed to us - gr ace to abide wholly, only, even in our
Lor d. The abiding in Jesus makes it possible to keep fr om actual sinning; and Jesus Himself makes
it possible to abide in Him.

Beloved Chr istian! I do not wonder if the pr omise of the text appear s almost too high. Do not, I pr
ay,

let your attention be diver ted by the question as to whether it would be possible to be kept for
your whole life, or for so many year s, without sinning. Faith has ever only to deal with the
pr esent moment. Ask this: Can Jesus at the pr esent moment, as I abide in Him, keep me fr om
those actual tr ansgr essions which have been the stain and the wear iness of my daily life? You
cannot but say: Sur ely He can. Take Him then at this pr esent moment, and say, "Jesus keeps me
now, Jesus saves me now." Yield your self to Him in the ear nest and believing pr ayer to be kept
abiding, by His own abiding in you - and go into the next moment, and the succeeding hour s,
with this tr ust continually r enewed. As often as the oppor tunity occur s in the moments between
your occupations, r enew your faith in an act of devotion: Jesus keeps me now, Jesus saves me
now. Let failur e and sin, instead of discour aging you, only ur ge you still mor e to seek your safety
in abiding in the Sinless One. Abiding is a gr ace in which you can gr ow wonder fully, if you will
but make at once the complete sur r ender, and then per sever e with ever lar ger expectations. Regar
d it as His wor k to keep you abiding in Him, and His wor k to keep you fr om sinning. It is indeed
your wor k to abide in Him; but it is that, only because it is His wor k as Vine to bear and hold the
br anch. Gaze upon His holy human natur e as what He pr epar ed ,for you to be par taker of with
Himself, and you will see that ther e is something even higher and better than being kept fr om sin that is but the r estr aining fr om evil: ther e is the positive and lar ger blessing of being now a vessel
pur ified and cleansed, of being filled with His fulness, and made the channel of showing for th His
power, His blessing, and His glor y.

NOTE
IS
DAILY
NECESSITY?

SINNING

AN

INEVITABLE

"Why is it that, when we possess a Saviour whose love and lower ar e infinite, we ar e so often
filled with fear and despondency? We ar e wear ied and faint in our minds, because we do not look
stedfastly unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who is set down at the r ight hand of God unto Him whose omnipotence embr aces both heaven and ear th, who is str ong and mighty in His
feeble saints.
"While we r emember our weakness, we for get His all - sufficient power. While we acknowledge
that apar t fr om Chr ist we can do nothing, we do not r ise to the height or depth of Chr istian
humility: I can do all things thr ough Chr ist which str engtheneth me. While we tr ust in the power of
the death of Jesus to cancel the guilt of sin, we do not exer cise a r eliant and appr opr iating faith in
the omnipotence of the living Saviour to deliver us fr om the bondage and power of sin in our daily
life. We for get that Chr ist wor keth in us mightily, and that, one with Him, we possess str ength
sufficient to over come ever y temptation. We ar e apt either to for get our nothingness, and
imagine that in our daily path we can live without sin, that the duties and tr ials of our ever yday life
can be per for med and bor ne in our own str ength; or we do not avail our selves of the
omnipotence of Jesus, who is able to subdue all things to Himself, and to keep us fr om the daily
infir mities and falls which we ar e apt to imagine an inevitable necessity. If we r eally depended in
all things and at all times on Chr ist, we would in all things and at all times gain the victor y thr
ough Him whose power is infinite, and who is appointed by the Father to be the Captain of our
salvation. Then all our deeds would be wr ought, not mer ely befor e, but in God. We would then
do all things to the glor y of the Father, in the allpower ful name of Jesus, who is our sanctification.
Remember that unto Him all power is given in heaven and on ear th, and live by the constant exer
cise of faith in His power. Let us most fully believe that we have and ar e nothing, that with man it is
impossible, that in our selves we have no life which can br ing for th fr uit; but that Chr ist is all that abiding in Him, and His wor d dwelling in us, we can br ing for th . fr uit to the glor y of the
Father " - Fr om Chr ist and the Chur ch. Ser mons by Adolph Saphir. The italics ar e not in the or
iginal.
Chapter 28

As your
ength

Str

"All power is given UNTO ME in heaven and in ear th." MATT.28:18 "Be str ong IN THE LORD, and in the power of his
might." -EPH.6.10. "My power is made per fect in weakness." - 2
COR.12:9 (R.V.).

THERE is no tr uth mor e gener ally admitted among ear nest Chr istians than that of their
utter weakness. Ther e is no tr uth mor e gener ally misunder stood and abused. Her e, as elsewher
e, God's thoughts ar e heaven - high above man's thoughts.
The Chr istian often tr ies to for get his weakness: God wants us to r emember it, to feel it deeply.
The
Chr istian wants to conquer his weakness and to be fr eed fr om it: God wants us to r est and even r
ejoice

in it. The Chr istian mour ns over his weakness: Chr ist teaches His ser vant to say, "I take pleasur e
in infir mities; most gladly will I glor y in my infir mities." The Chr istian thinks his weakness his gr
eatest hindr ance in the life and ser vice of God: God tells us that it is the secr et of str ength and
success. It is our weakness, hear tily accepted and continually r ealized, that gives us our claim and
access to the str ength of Him who has said, "My str ength is made per fect in weakness."
When our Lor d was about to take His seat upon the thr one, one of His last wor ds was: "All power
is given unto me in heaven and on ear th." Just as His taking His place at the r ight hand of the power
of God was something new and tr ue - a r eal advance in the histor y of the God - man - so was
this clothing with all power. Omnipotence was now entr usted to the man Chr ist Jesus, that fr om
hencefor th thr ough the channels of human natur e it might put for th its mighty ener gies. Hence He
connected with this r evelation of what He was to r eceive, the pr omise of the shar e that His disciples
would have in it: When I am ascended, ye shall r eceive power fr om on high (Luke xxiv. 49; Acts i.
8). It is in the power of the omnipotent Saviour that the believer must find his str ength for life and for
wor k.
It was thus with the disciples. Dur ing ten days they wor shipped and waited at the footstool of
His thr one. They gave expr ession to their faith in Him as their Saviour, to their ador ation of Him as
their Lor d, to their love to Him as their Fr iend, to their devotion and r eadiness to wor k for Him
as their Master. Jesus Chr ist was the one object of thought, of love, of delight. In such wor ship of
faith and devotion their souls gr ew up into intensest communion with Him upon the thr one, and when
they wer e pr epar ed, the baptism of power came. It was power within and power ar ound.
The power came to qualify for the wor k to which they had yielded
themselves
- of testifying by life and wor d to their unseen Lor d. With some the chief testimony was to be that of
a holy life, r evealing the heaven and the Chr ist fr om whom it came. The power came to set up
the Kingdom within them, to give them the victor y over sin and self, to fit them by living exper
ience to testify to the power of Jesus on the thr one, to make men live in the wor ld as saints. Other
s wer e to give themselves up entir ely to the speaking in the naive of Jesus. But all needed and all r
eceived the gift of power, to pr ove that now Jesus had r eceived the Kingdom of the Father, all
power in heaven and ear th was indeed given to Him, and by Him impar ted to His people just as they
needed it, whether for a holy life or effective ser vice. They r eceived the gift of power, to pr ove
to the wor ld that the Kingdom of God, to which they pr ofessed to belong, was not in wor d but in
power. By having power within, they had power without and ar ound. The power of God was felt
even by those who would not yield themselves to it

(Acts
5:13).

2.43;

4:13;

And what Jesus was to these fir st disciples, He is to us too. Our whole life and calling as disciples
find their or igin and their guar antee in the wor ds: "All power is given to me in heaven and on ear
th." What He does in and thr ough us, He does with almighty power. What He claims or demands,
He wor ks Himself by that same power. All He gives, He gives with power. Ever y blessing He
bestows, ever y pr omise He fulfils, ever y gr ace He wor ks - all, all is to be with power. Ever
ything that comes fr om this Jesus on the thr one of power is to bear the stamp of power. The

weakest believer may be confident that in asking to be kept fr om sin, to gr ow in holiness, to br


ing for th much fr uit, be may count upon these his petitions being fulfilled with divine power. The
power is in Jesus; Jesus is our s with all His fulness; it is in us His member s that the power is to wor k
and be made manifest.

And if we want to know how the power is bestowed, the answer is simple: Chr ist gives His power
in us by giving His life in us. He does not, as so many believer s imagine, take the feeble life He finds
in them, and impar t a little str ength to aid them in their feeble effor ts. No; it is in giving His own
life in us that He gives us His power. The Holy Spir it came down to the disciples dir ect fr om the
hear t of their exalted Lor d, br inging down into them the glor ious life of heaven into which He
had enter ed. And so His people ar e still taught to be str ong in the Lor d and in the power of His
might. When He str engthens them, it is not by taking away the sense of feebleness, and giving in its
place the feeling of str ength. By no means. But in a ver y wonder ful way leaving and even incr
easing the sense of utter impotence, He gives them along with it the consciousness of str ength in
Him. "We have this tr easur e in ear then vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us." The feebleness and the str ength ar e side by side; as the one gr ows, the other too, until
they under stand the saying, "When I am weak, then am I str ong; I glor y in my infir mities, that the
power of Chr ist may r est on me."
The believing disciple lear ns to look upon Chr ist on the thr one, Chr ist the Omnipotent, as his life.
He studies that life in its infinite per fection and pur ity, in its str ength and glor y; it is the eter
nal life dwelling in a glor ified man. And when he thinks of his own inner life, and longs for
holiness, to live wellpleasing unto God, or for power to do the Father 's wor k, he looks up, and, r
ejoicing that Chr ist is his life, he confidently r eckons that that life will wor k mightily in him all he
needs. In things little and things gr eat, in the being kept fr om sin fr om moment to moment for
which he has lear ned to look, or in the str uggle with some special difficulty or temptation, the
power of Chr ist is the measur e of his expectation. He lives a most joyous and blessed life, not
because he is no longer feeble, but because, being utter ly helpless, he consents and expects to have the
mighty Saviour wor k in him.
The lessons these thoughts teach us for pr actical life ar e simple, but ver y pr ecious. The fir st is, that
all our str ength is in Chr ist, laid up and waiting for use. It is ther e as an almighty life, which is in
Him for us, r eady to flow in accor ding to the measur e in which it finds the channels open. But
whether its flow is str ong or feeble, whatever our exper ience of it be, ther e it is in Chr ist: All
power in heaven and ear th. Let us take time to study this. Let us get our minds filled with the
thought: That Jesus might be to us a per fect Saviour, the Father gave Him all power. That is the
qualification that fits Him for our needs: All the power of heaven over all the power s of ear th,
over ever y power of ear th in our hear t and life too.
The second lesson is: This power flows into us as we abide in close union with Him. When the union
is feeble, little valued or cultivated, the inflow of str ength will be feeble. When the union with Chr
ist is r ejoiced in as our highest good, and ever ything sacr ificed for the sake of maintaining it, the
power will wor k: "His str ength will be made per fect in our weakness." Our one car e must ther
efor e be to abide in Chr ist as our str ength. Our one duty is to be str ong in the Lor d,and in the
power of His might. Let our faith cultivate lar ge and clear appr ehensions of the exceeding gr
eatness of God's power in them that believe, even that power of the r isen and exalted Chr ist by
which He tr iumphed over ever y enemy (Eph. 1: 19 - 21). Let our faith consent to Gods wonder
ful and most blessed ar r angement: nothing but feebleness in us as our own, all the power in Chr
ist, and yet within our r each as sur ely as if it wer e in us. Let our faith daily go out of self and its
life into the life of Chr ist, placing our whole being at His disposal for Him to wor k in us. Let
our faith, above all, confidently r ejoice in the assur ance that He will in ver y deed, with His

almighty power, per fect His wor k in us. As we thus abide in Chr ist, the Holy Spir it, the Spir it of
His power, will wor k mightily in us, and we too shall sing, "JEHOVAH

is my str ength and song: IN JEHOVAH I have r ighteousness and str ength."
"1 can do all things thr ough Chr ist, which str engtheneth me."
Chapter 29
And not in Self
"In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." - Rom.
7:18.
To have life in Himself is the pr er ogative of God alone, and of the Son, to whom the Father hath
also given it. To seek life, not in itself, but in God, is the highest honour of the cr eatur e. To live in
and to himself is the folly and guilt of sinful man; to live to God in Chr ist, the blessedness of the
believer. To deny, to hate, to for sake, to lose his own life, such is the secr et of the life of faith. "I
live, yet NOT I, but Chr ist liveth in me"; "NOT I, but the gr ace of God which is with me": this is
the testimony of each one who has found out what it is to give up his own life, and to r eceive instead
the blessed life of Chr ist within us. Ther e is no path to tr ue life, to abiding in Chr ist, than that
which our Lor d went befor e us - thr ough death.
At the fir st commencement of the Chr istian life, but few see this. In the joy of par don, they
feel constr ained to live for Chr ist, and tr ust with the help of God to be enabled to do so. They ar e
as yet ignor ant of the ter r ible enmity of the flesh against God, and its absolute r efusal in the
believer to be subject to the law of God. They know not yet that nothing but death, the absolute sur r
ender to death of all that is of natur e, will suffice, if the life of God is to be manifested in them with
power. But bitter exper ience of failur e soon teaches them the insufficiency of what they have yet
known of Chr ist's power to save, and deep bear t - longings ar e awakened to know Him better. He
lovingly points them to His cr oss. He tells them that as ther e, in the faith of His death as their
substitute, they found their title to life, so ther e they shall enter into its fuller exper ience too. He
asks them if they ar e indeed willing to dr ink of the cup of which He dr ank - to be cr ucified and to
die with Him. He teaches them that in Him they ar e indeed alr eady cr ucified and deadall
unknowing, at conver sion they became par taker s of His death. But what they need now is to give
a full and intelligent consent to what they r eceived er e they under stood it, by an act of their own
choice to will to die with Chr ist.
This demand of Chr ist's is one of unspeakable solemnity. Many a believer shr inks back fr om it.
He can har dly under stand it. He has become so accustomed to a low life of continual stumbling,
that he har dly desir es, and still less expects, deliver ance. Holiness, per fect confor mity to Jesus,
unbr oken fellowship with His love,can scar cely be counted distinct ar ticles of his cr eed. Wher e
ther e is not intense longing to be kept to the utmost fr om sinning, and to be br ought into the
closest possible union with the Saviour, the thought of being cr ucified with Him can find no
entr ance. The only impr ession it makes is that of suffer ing and shame: such a one is content that
Jesus bor e the cr oss, and so won for him the cr own he hopes to wear. How differ ent the light in
which the believer who is r eally seeking to abide fully in Chr ist looks upon it. Bitter exper ience
has taught him how, both in the matter of entir e sur r ender and simple tr ust, his gr eatest enemy
in the abiding life, is SELF. Now it r efuses to give up its will; then again, by its wor king, it
hinder s God's wor k. Unless this life of self, with its willing and wor king, be displaced by the life
of Chr ist, with His willing and wor king, to abide in Him will be impossible. And then comes the

solemn question fr om Him who died on the cr oss: "Ar e you r eady to give up self to the death?"
You your self, the living per son bor n of God, ar e alr eady in me dead to sin and alive to God; but ar
e you r eady now, in the power of this death, to mor tify your

member s, to give up self entir ely to its death of the cr oss, to be kept ther e until it be
wholly destr oyed? The question is a hear t - sear ching one. Ain I pr epar ed to say that the old
self shall no longer have a wor d to say; that it shall not be allowed to have a single thought, however
natur al - not a single feeling, however gr atifying - not a single wish or wor k, however r ight?
Is this in ver y deed what He r equir es? Is not our natur e God's handiwor k, and may not our natur
al power s be sanctified to His ser vice? They may and must indeed. But per haps you have not yet
seen how the only way they can be sanctified is that they be taken fr om under the power of
self, and br ought under the power of the life of Chr ist. Think not that this is a wor k that you can
do, because you ear nestly desir e it, and ar e indeed one of His r edeemed ones. No, ther e is no way
to the altar of consecr ation but thr ough death. As you yielded your self a sacr ifice on God's altar as
one alive fr om the dead (Rom.6:13, 7:1), so each power of your natur e - each talent, gift,
possession, that is r eally to be holiness to the Lor d - must be separ ated fr om the power of sin and
self, and laid on the altar to be consumed by the fir e that is ever bur ning ther e. It is in the mor
tifying, the slaying of self, that the wonder ful power s with which God has fitted you to ser ve
Him, can be set fr ee for a complete sur r ender to God, and offer ed to Him to be accepted, and
sanctified, and used. And though, as long as you ar e in the flesh, ther e is no thought of being able
to say that self is dead, yet when the life of Chr ist is allowed to take full possession, self can be
so kept in its cr ucifixion place, and under its sentence of death, that it shall have ho dominion
over you, not for a single moment. Jesus Chr ist becomes your second self.
Believer ! would you tr uly and fully abide in Chr ist, pr epar e your self to par t for ever fr om self,
and not to allow it, even for a single moment, to have aught to say in your inner life. If you ar e
willing to come entir ely away out of self, and to allow Jesus Chr ist to become your life within you,
inspir ing all your thinking, feeling, acting, in things tempor al and spir itual, He is r eady to under
take the char ge. In the fullest and widest sense the wor d life ever can have, He will be your life,
extending His inter est and influence to each one, even the minutest, of the thousand things that
make up your daily life. To do this He asks but one thing: Come away out of self and its life, abide
in Chr ist and the Chr ist life, and Chr ist will be your life. The power of His holy pr esence will cast
out the old life.
To this end give up self at once and for ever. If you have never yet dar ed to do it, for fear you might
fail of your engagement, do it now, in view of the pr omise Chr ist gives you that His life will take
the place of the old life. Tr y and r ealize that though self is not dead, you ar e indeed dead to self.
Self is still str ong and living, but it has no power over you. You, your r enewed natur e - you, your
new self, begotten again in Jesus death in Chr ist has fr eed you completely fr om the contr ol of
self: it has no power over you, except as you, in ignor ance, or unwatchfulness, or unbelief,
consent to yield to its usur ped author ity. Come and accept by faith simply and hear tily the glor
ious position you have in Chr ist. As one who, in Chr ist, has a life dead to self, as one who is fr
eed fr om the dominion of self, and has r eceived His divine life to take the place of self, to be the
animating and inspir ing pr inciple of your life, ventur e boldly to plant the foot upon the neck of this
enemy of your s and your Lor d's. Be of good cour age, only believe; fear not to take the ir r
evocable step, and to say that you have once for all given up self to the death for which it has been
cr ucified in Chr ist (Rom.6:6). And tr ust Jesus the Cr ucified One to hold self to the cr oss, and to
fill its place in you with His own blessed r esur r ection life.
In this faith, abide in Chr ist! Cling to Him; r est on Him; hope on Him. Daily r enew your consecr
ation;

daily accept afr esh your position as r ansomed fr om your tyr ant, and now in tur n made a conquer
or.

Daily look with holy fear on the enemy, self, str uggling to get fr ee fr om the cr oss, seeking to
allur e you into giving it some little liber ty, or else r eady to deceive you by its pr ofession of
willingness now to do ser vice to Chr ist. Remember, self seeking to ser ve God is mor e danger
ous than self r efusing obedience. Look upon it with holy fear, and hide your self in Chr ist: in
Him alone is your safety. Abide thus in Him; He has pr omised to abide in you. He will teach
you to be humble and watchful. He will teach you to be happy and tr ustful. Br ing ever y inter est of
your life, ever y power of your natur e, all the unceasing flow of thought, and will, and feeling, that
makes up life, and tr ust Him to take the place that self once filled so easily and so natur ally.
Jesus Chr ist will indeed take possession of you and dwell in you; and in the r estfulness and
peace and gr ace of the new life you shall have unceasing joy at the wondr ous exchange that has
been made - the cor ning out of self to abide in Chr ist alone.

NOTE
In his wor k on Sanctification, Mar shall, in the twelfth chapter, on "Holiness thr ough faith alone,"
puts with gr eat for ce the danger in which the Chr istian is of seeking sanctification in the power
of the flesh, with the help of Chr ist, instead of looking for it to Chr ist alone, and r eceiving it fr om
Him by faith. He r eminds us how ther e ar e two natur es in the believer, and so two ways of seeking
holiness, accor ding as we allow the pr inciples of the one or other natur e to guide us. The one is the
car nal way, in which we put for th our utmost effor ts and r esolutions, tr usting Chr ist to help us in
doing so. The other the spir itual way, in which, as those who have died, and can do nothing, our
one car e is to r eceive Chr ist day by day, and at ever y step to let Him live and wor k in us.
"Despair of pur ging the flesh or natur al man of its sinful lusts and inclinations, and of pr
actising holiness by your willing sand r esolving to do the best that lieth in your own power, and tr
usting on the gr ace of God and Chr ist to help you in such r esolutions and endeavour s. Rather r
esolve to tr ust on Chr ist to wor k in you to will and to do by His own power accor ding to His own
good pleasur e. They that ar e convinced of their own sin and miser y do commonly fir st think to
tame the flesh, and to subdue and r oot out its lusts, and to make their cor r upt natur e to be better
- natur ed and inclined to holiness by their str uggling and wr estling with it; and if they can but
br ing their hear ts to a full pur pose and r esolution to do the best that lieth in them, they hope that
by such a r esolution they shall be able to achieve gr eat enter pr ises in the conquests of their
lusts and per for mance of the most difficult duties. It is the gr eat wor k of some zealous divines in
their pr eachings and wr itings to stir up people to this r esolution, wher ein they place the chiefest tur
ningpoint fr om sin to godliness. And they think that this is not contr ar y to the life of faith, because
they tr ust in the gr ace of God thr ough Chr ist to help them in all such r esolutions and endeavour s.
Thus they endeavour to r efor m their old state, and to be made per fect in the flesh, instead of
putting it off and walking accor ding to the new state in Chr ist. They tr ust on low car nal thins for
holiness, and upon the acts of their own will, their pur poses, r esolutions, and endeavour s, instead of
Chr ist; and they tr ust to Chr ist to help them in this car nal way; wher eas tr ue faith would teach them
that they ar e nothing, and that they do but labour in vain."
Chapter 30

As the Sur
Covenant

ety

of

the

"Jesus was made a sur ety of a better testament. " - Heb


7:22
0F THE old Covenant, Scr iptur e speaks as not being faultless, and God complains that Isr ael had
not continued in it; and so He r egar ded them not (Heb.8:7 - 9). It had not secur ed its appar ent
object, in uniting Isr ael and God: Isr ael had for saken Him, and He had not r egar ded Isr ael.
Ther efor e God pr omises to make a New Covenant, fr ee fr om the faults of the fir st, and
effectual to r ealize its pur pose. If it wer e to accomplish its end, it would need to secur e God's
faithfulness to His people, and His people's faithfulness to God. And the ter ms of the New Covenant
expr essly declar e that these two objects shall be attained. "I will put my laws into their mind":

thus God pr oposes to secur e their unchanging faithfulness to Him. "Their sins I will r emember
no mor e" (see Heb.8:10 - 12): thus He assur es His unchanging faithfulness to them. A par doning
God and an obedient people: these ar e the two par ties who ar e to meet and to be eter nally united in
the New Covenant.

The most beautiful pr ovision of this New Covenant is that of the sur ety in whom its fulfilment on
both par ts is guar anteed. Jesus was made the sur ety of the better covenant. To man He became sur
ety that God would faithfully fulfil His par t, so that man could confidently depend upon God to par
don, and accept, and never mor e for sake. And to God He likewise became sur ety that man would
faithfully fulfil his par t, so that God could bestow on him the blessing of the covenant. And the way in
which He fulfils His sur etyship is this: As one with God, and having the fulness of God dwelling in
His human natur e, He is per sonally secur ity to men that God will do what He has engaged. All
that God has is secur ed to us in Him as man. And then, as one with us, and having taken us up as
member s into His own body, He is secur ity to God that His inter ests shall be car ed for. All that
man must be and do is secur ed in Him. It is the glor y of the New Covenant that it has in the Per
son of the God - man its living sur ety, its ever lasting secur ity. And it can easily be under stood
how, in pr opor tion as we abide in Him as the sur ety of the covenant, its objects and its blessings will
be r ealized in us.
We shall under stand this best if we consider it in the light of one of the pr omises of the
New Covenant. Take that in Jer.32:40 : "I will make an ever lasting covenant with them, that 1 will
not tur n away fr om them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hear ts, that they shall not
depar t fr om me."
With what wonder ful condescension the infinite God her e bows Himself to our weakness! He is
the Faithful and Unchanging One, whose wor d is tr uth; and yet mor e abundantly to show to the
heir s of the pr omise the immutability of His counsel, He binds Himself in the covenant that He
will never change: "I will make an ever lasting covenant, that I will not tur n away fr om them."
Blessed the man who has thor oughly appr opr iated this, and finds his r est in the ever lasting
covenant of the Faithful One!
But in a covenant ther e ar e two par ties. And what if man becomes unfaithful and br eaks the
covenant? Pr ovision must be made, if the covenant is to be well or der ed in all things and sur e,
that this cannot be, and that man too r emain faithful. Man never can under take to give such an
assur ance. And see, her e God comes to pr ovide for this too. He not only under takes in the covenant
that He will never tur n fr om His people, but also to put His fear in their hear t, that they do not
depar t fr om Him. In addition to His own obligations as one of the covenanting par ties, He under
takes for the other par ty too: "I WILL CAUSE you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my
judgments and do them" (Ezek.36:27).Blessed the man who under stands this half of the covenant too!
He sees that his secur ity is not in the covenant which he makes with His God, and which he would
but continually br eak again. He finds that a covenant has been made, in which God stands good, not
only for Himself, but for man too. He gr asps the blessed tr uth that his par t in the covenant is to
accept what God has pr omised to do, and to expect the sur e fulfilment of the divine engagement to
secur e the faithfulness of His people to their God: "I will put my fear in their hear ts, that they shall
not depar t, fr om me."

It is just her e that the blessed wor k comes in of the sur ety of the covenant, appointed of the Father
to see to its maintenance and per fect fulfilment. To Him the Father hath said, "I have given thee
for a covenant of the people." And the Holy Spir it testifies, "All the pr omises of God IN Hint ar e
yea, and in Him ar e Amen, to the glor y of God by us." The believer who abides in Him hath a divine
assur ance for the fulfilment of ever y pr omise the covenant ever gave.

Chr ist was made sur ety of a better testament. It is as our Melchisedec that Chr ist is sur ety (see
Heb.7). Aar on and his sons passed away; of Chr ist it is witnessed that He liveth. He is pr iest in the
power of an

endless life. Because He continueth ever, He hath an unchangeable pr iesthood. And because He
ever liveth to make inter cession, He can save to the utter most, He can save completely. It is because
Chr ist is the Ever - living One that His sur etyship of the covenant is so effectual. He liveth ever
to make inter cession, and can ther efor e save completely. Ever y moment ther e r ise up fr om His
holy pr esence to the Father, the unceasing pleadings which secur e to His people the power s and the
blessings of the heavenly life. And ever y moment ther e go out fr om Him downwar d to His
people, the mighty influences of His unceasing inter cession, conveying to them uninter r
uptedly the power of the heavenly life. As sur ety with us for the Father 's favour, He never ceases
to pr ay and pr esent us befor e Him; as sur ety with the Father for us, He never ceases to wor k, and r
eveal the Father within us.
The myster y of the Melchisedec pr iesthood, which the Hebr ews wer e not able to r eceive
(Heb.5:10 14), is the myster y of the r esur r ection life. It is in this that the glor y of Chr ist as sur ety of the
covenant consists: He ever liveth. He per for ms His wor k in heaven in the power of a divine, an
omnipotent life. He ever liveth to pr ay; not a moment that as sur ety His pr ayer s do not r ise
Godwar d to secur e the Father 's fulfilment to us of the covenant. He per for ms His wor k on ear th
in the power of that same life; not a moment that His answer ed pr ayer s - the power s of the
heavenly wor ld - do not flow downwar d to secur e for His Father our fulfilment of the
covenant. In the eter nal life ther e ar e no br eaksnever a moment's inter r uption; each moment
has the power of eter nity in it. He ever, ever y moment, liveth to pr ay. He ever, ever y
moment, liveth to bless. He can save to the utter most, completely and per fectly, because He
ever liveth to pr ay.
Believer ! come and see her e how the possibility of abiding in Jesus ever y moment is secur ed by
the ver y natur e of this ever living pr iesthood of your sur ety. Moment by moment, as His inter
cession r ises up, its efficacy descends. And because Jesus stands good for the fulfilment of the
covenant "I will put my fear in their hear t, and they shall not depar t fr om me" - He cannot affor d to leave
you one single moment to your self. He dar e not do so, or He fails of His under taking. Your
unbelief may fail of r ealizing the blessing; He cannot be unfaithful. If you will but consider Him,
and the power of that endless life after which He was made and is a High Pr iest, your faith will r
ise to believe that an endless, ever - continuing, unchangeable life of abiding in Jesus, is nothing less
than what is waiting you.
It is as we see what Jesus is, and is to us, that the abiding in Him will become the natur al
and spontaneous r esult of our knowledge of Him. If His life unceasingly, moment by moment, r ises
to the Father for us, and descends to us fr om the Father, then to abide moment by moment is
easy and simple. Each moment of conscious inter cour se with Him we simply say, "Jesus, sur ety,
keeper, ever - living Saviour, in whose life I dwell, I abide in Thee. " Each moment of need, or dar
kness, or fear, we still say, "O thou gr eat High Pr iest, in the power of an endless, unchangeable
life, I abide in Thee. " And for the moments when dir ect and distinct communion with Him
must give place to needful occupations, we can tr ust His sur etyship, His unceasing pr iesthood,
in its divine efficacy, and the power with which He saves to the utter most, still to keep us abiding
in Him.

Chapter 31

The
One

Glor

ified

"Your life is hid with Chr ist in God. When Chr ist, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with him in glor y." - COL.3:3 - 4

HE THAT abides in Chr ist the Cr ucified One, lear ns to know what it is to be cr ucified with Him,
and in Him to be indeed dead unto sin. He that abides in Chr ist the Risen and Glor ified One,
becomes in the same way par taker of His r esur r ection life, and of the glor y with which He has now
been cr owned in heaven. Unspeakable ar e the blessings which flow to the soul fr om the union
with Jesus in His glor ified life.
This life is a life of per fect victor y and r est. Befor e His death, the Son of God had to suffer and
to str uggle, could be tempted and tr oubled by sin and its assaults as the Risen One, He has tr
iumphed over sin; and, as the Glor ified One, His humanity has enter ed into par ticipation of the glor
y of Deity. The believer who abides in Him as such, as led to see how the power of sin and the flesh
ar e indeed destr oyed: the consciousness of complete and ever lasting deliver ance becomes incr
easingly clear, and the blessed r est and peace, the fr uit of such a conviction that victor y and
deliver ance ar e an accomplished fact, take possession of the life. Abiding in Jesus, in whom he has
been r aised and set in the heavenly places, be r eceives of that glor ious life str eaming fr om the Head
thr ough ever y member of the body.
This life is a life in the full fellowship of the Father 's love and holiness. Jesus often gave pr
ominence to this thought with His disciples. His death was a going to the Father. He pr ayed:
"Glor ify me, O Father, with Thyself, with the glor y which I had with Thee." As the believer,
abiding in Chr ist the Glor ified One, seeks to r ealize and exper ience what His union with Jesus
on the thr one implies, he appr ehends how the unclouded light of the Father 's pr esence is His
highest glor y and blessedness, and in Him the believer 's por tion too. He lear ns the sacr ed ar t of
always, in fellowship with His exalted Head, dwelling in the secr et of the Father 's pr esence. Fur
ther, when Jesus was on ear th, temptation could still r each Him: in glor y, ever ything is holy, and
in per fect har mony with the will of God. And so the believer who abides in Him exper iences that in
this high fellowship his spir it is sanctified into gr owing har mony with the Father 's will. The
heavenly life of Jesus is the power that casts out sin.
This life is a life of loving beneficence and activity. Seated on His thr one, He dispenses His gifts,
bestows His Spir it, and never ceases in love to watch and to wor k for those who ar e His. The
believer cannot abide in Jesus the Glor ified One, without feeling himself stir r ed and str engthened to
wor k: the Spir it and the love of Jesus br eathe the will and the power to be a blessing to other s.
Jesus went to heaven with the ver y object of obtaining power ther e to bless abundantly. He does this
as the heavenly Vine only thr ough the medium of His people as His br anches. Whoever, ther efor e,
abides in Him, the Glor ified One, bear s much fr uit, for he r eceives of the Spir it and the power of
the eter nal life of his exalted Lor d, and becomes the channel thr ough which the fulness of Jesus,
who hath been exalted to be a Pr ince and a Saviour, flows out to bless those ar ound him.

Ther e is one mor e thought in r egar d to this life of the Glor ified One, and our s in Him. It is a life
of' wondr ous expectation and hope. It is so with Chr ist. He sits at the r ight hand of God, expecting
till all His enemies be made His footstool, looking for war d to the time when He shall r eceive
His full r ewar d, when His glor y shall be made manifest, and His beloved people be ever with
Him in that glor y. The hope of Chr ist is the hope of His r edeemed: "I will come again and take you
to myself, that wher e I am ther e ye may be also." This pr omise is as pr ecious to Chr ist as it ever
can be to us. The joy of meeting is sur ely no less for the coming br idegr oom than for the
waiting br ide. The life of Chr ist in glor y is one of longing expectation: the full glor y only
comes when His beloved ar e with Him.

The believer who abides closely in Chr ist will shar e with Him in this spir it of expectation. Not
so much for the incr ease of per sonal happiness, but fr om the spir it of enthusiastic allegiance to his
King, he longs to see Him come in His glor y, r eigning over ever y enemy, the fill r evelation
of God's ever lasting love.
"Till He come, " is the watchwor d of ever y tr ue - hear ted believer. "Chr ist shall appear, and we
shall appear with Him in glor y."
Ther e may be ver y ser ious differ ences in the exposition of the pr omises of His coming. To one it
is plain as day that He is coming ver y speedily in per son to r eign on ear th, and that speedy coming is
his hope and his stay. To another, loving his Bible and his Saviour not less, the coming can mean
nothing but the judgment day - the solemn tr ansition fr om time to eter nity, the close of histor y on
ear th, the beginning of heaven; and the thought of that manifestation of his Saviour 's glor y is no
less his joy and his str ength. It is Jesus, Jesus coming again, Jesus taking us to Himself, Jesus ador
ed as Lor d of all, that is to the whole Chur ch the sum and the centr e of its hope.
It is by abiding in Chr ist the Glor ified One that the believer will be quickened to that tr uly spir
itual looking for His coming, which alone br ings tr ue blessing to the soul. Ther e is an inter est in
the study of the things which ar e to be, in which the discipleship of a school is often mor e mar
ked than the discipleship of Chr ist the meek; in which contendings for opinions and condemnation of
br ethr en ar e mor e str iking than any signs of the coming glor y. It is only the humility that is
willing to lear n fr om those who may have other gifts and deeper r evelations of the tr uth than we,
and the love that always speaks gently and tender ly of those who see not as we do, and the
heavenliness that shows that the Coming One is indeed alr eady our life, that will per suade either the
Chur ch or the wor ld that this our faith is not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. To
testify of the Saviour as the Coming One, we must be abiding in and bear ing the image of Him as
the Glor ified One. Not the cor r ectness of the views we hold, nor the ear nestness with which we
advocate them, will pr epar e us for meeting Him, but only the abiding in Him. Then only can our
being manifested in glor y with Him be what it is meant to be - a tr ansfigur ation, a br eaking out and
shining for th of the indwelling glor y that had been waiting for the day of r evelation.
Blessed life! "the life hid with Chr ist in God," "set in the heavenlies in Chr ist," abiding in Chr ist
the glor ified! Once again the question comes: Can a feeble child of dust r eally dwell in fellowship
with the King of glor y? And again the blessed answer has to be given: To maintain that union is
the ver y wor k for which Chr ist has all power in heaven and ear th at His disposal. The blessing will
be given to him who will tr ust his Lor d for it, who in faith and confident expectation ceases not to
yield himself to be wholly one with Him. It was an act of wondr ous though simple faith, in which
the soul yielded itself at fir st to the Saviour. That faith gr ows up to clear er insight and faster hold
of God's tr uth that we ar e one with Him in His glor y. In that same wondr ous faith, wondr ously
simple, but wondr ously mighty, the soul lear ns to abandon itself entir ely to the keeping of Chr
ist's almighty power, and the actings of His eter nal life. Because it knows that it has the Spir
it of God dwelling within to communicate all that Chr ist is, it no longer looks upon it as a bur
den or a wor k, but allows the divine life to have its way, to do its wor k; its faith is the incr easing
abandonment of self, the expectation and acceptance of all that the love and the power of the Glor
ified One can per for m. In that faith unbr oken fellowship is maintained, and gr owing confor mity
r ealized. As with Moses, the fellowship makes par taker s of the glor y, and the life begins to shine
with a br ightness not of this wor ld.

Blessed life! it is our s, for Jesus is our s. Blessed life! we have the possession within us in its
hidden power, and we have the pr ospect befor e us in its fullest glor y. May our daily lives be the br
ight and blessed pr oof that the hidden power dwells within, pr epar ing us for the glor y to be r
evealed. May our abiding in Chr ist the Glor ified One be our power to live to the glor y of the
Father, our fitness to shar e to the glor y of the Son.
And now, little childr en, abide in Him, that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and
not be ashamed.
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