in heaven, then he could reach your life on earth-not otherwise. No, every pulsation of the divine life within you, as a living member of Christ's body, is felt by your glorious Head in heaven. Do you ask me for Scriptural proof of this? Have we not seen it in the case of Saul of Tarsus ; who when he "fell to the earth," smitten by "a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun," heard a voice saying unto him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"1 And was this not the voice of Jesus, our blessed Head in heaven, who felt the wounds that had been thus inflicted upon His poor members on earth? "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye." If we be Christ's, then are we, I say again, "members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones;" and, you know, " a bone of Him shall not be broken."4

I have thus considered the work of the Holy Ghost in the heart of a saved sinner quite in a general way; because it would have been impossible, within the space allotted, to have considered it in any other way. The Spirit's work in the saved soul is likewise so varied in individual cases that no one man's experience can be taken as a guide for that of another. The Word must alone guide us in this respect; and from the Word we learn, what is likewise borne out by actual experience, that, however varied the details of individual cases may be, the Spirit in every case, in one way or another, convinces the saved sinner "of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; " that He empties him of his own selfsufficiency; clothes him with the Righteousness of JehovahJesus; and enables him to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil; that he "glorifies" Jesus to him, by "taking of the things that are His," and opening them out to his soul; and that wherever He "begins a good work" in any soul He will infallibly "continue it till the day of Jesus Christ."5

1 Acts ix. 3, 4; xxvi. 13.

2 Zech. ii. 8.

3 Eph, v. 30. 1 John xix. 36; Exod. xii. 46; Num. ix. 12; Psalm xxxiv. 20. 5 Phil. i. 6.

And now, my dear readers, to make the matter a practical one, I would solemnly ask you, in the presence of the living God, to test yourselves whether the Lord's work is being carried on within you, or not. The apostle says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates," or unapproved ?1 Oh! rest not in doubt about it; but ask the Lord Himself to "search" you. You have seen something of the nature of the Spirit's work in the saved soul. Has the Spirit begun that good work in your soul? Have you been “born again of the Spirit?" Has the Spirit convinced you of your sin? Have you seen your guilt and danger on account of sin? Has the Spirit convinced you of righteousness? of your own deep creature-destitution for the want of it? and where alone it is to be had, in Jehovah-Jesus, "the Lord our Righteousness?" Has he given you "precious faith" to lay the burden of your sins on Him? and have you truly believed in Him to the saving of your soul? Oh, if this be so indeed, "happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." If then the Lord has done so much for you, what are you now doing for Him? The apostle says, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." "Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh."4

And as a new motive for consecration, I would affectionately ask you to consider "the love of the Spirit," in thus undertaking so blessed a part in your salvation, in order that you may be deeply impressed with the paramount necessity of giving up your whole being to His holy teaching." Knowing the blessed Spirit of God to be the Holy Spirit, may we not see from hence His inconceivable condescension in thus dealing with so sinful a creature as man? On one occasion, when Jesus cast out devils, He used this expression: "If I with the finger of God cast out devils;" while

1 2 Cor. xiii. 5.
4 Gal. v. 25.

7 Luke xi. 20.

? Psalm cxxxix. 23.
Rom. xv. 30.

3 i Peter iv. 14.

6 Rom. xii. 1, 2.

in the parallel passage it is rendered, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God:" from whence, I think, we may learn that the Spirit of God performs towards the souls of sinners, what the finger of Jesus thus performed towards the bodies of sinners. In the deeply compassionate and condescending act, therefore, of Jesus in touching the unclean leper, from whom all other men shrunk with loathing and abhorrence, may we not realise something of the infinite tenderness, divine compassion, and deep "love of the Spirit” in thus touching and applying the blood of cleansing to our polluted souls?

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Seeing, then, "the love of the Spirit," let us cheerfully give up ourselves to His blessed teaching; let us act up to the light He gives us; let us ever gladly and gratefully follow in the path which He opens out before us; and let us "look" away from ourselves, as He would ever have us to do -(for this is, as we have seen, a part of His divine office towards us) "unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." O beloved brethren in the Lord Jesus, "Grieve not the Spirit! "3 "Quench not the Spirit! "4 For "the Spirit and the Bride say, Come! And let him that heareth say, Come! And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely." When we know that a part of the Spirit's work in us is to lay our sins before us, and to convince us of sin, can we wonder that the Spirit should, as well as the Bride, say to Jesus, “Come ?” Nay, knowing His awful holiness, and infinite hatred of sin, and that He "cannot look upon iniquity" with the least possible degree of complacency, need we wonder that He should first say to Jesus, Come? "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come." And "the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered"-" according to the will of God." May we, then, have "the mind of the Spirit" in this respect, also, and from our very hearts with

Him likewise say to Jesus, "Come." "Come, Lord Jesus!" Come "quickly."

And to you, my friends, who have not the Spirit, what shall I say? If you have not the Spirit, then you are "without Christ." For "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." How solemn the thought! To be" without Christ" is to be without hope; to be without true peace, to be without "an anchor within the veil drifting without light, chart, or compass, swiftly towards the dark ocean of eternity! What can I say to you? "What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be" thou "perish not."5 'Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise," èk Tŵv veкρwv, "from out of the dead ones," i.e., around you; "and Christ shall give thee light." May the Lord Himself touch thine heart, and incline thee to come unto Him. For "all that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me," saith Jesus, "I will in no wise cast out."

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CHAPTER V.

THE HIGH CALLING OF GOD OF THE CHURCH IN

CHRIST JESUS.

SECTION I.

The Believer's Calling.

WE now come to the high calling of the Church of God in Christ Jesus. And in opening out this subject, I shall in the first place shew from the Scriptures, not only what the Believer's Calling really is; but wherein also his blessedness consists and then, after we have seen how the Jewish branch of the Church of Christ at first lived up to its high calling; I shall then consider the state and condition of the Gentile Churches generally, after the destruction of Jerusalem.

Let us notice then, in the first place, what the Believer's Calling really is.

I. Notice then, in the first place, that it is God Himself Who calls us. God Who is "a Spirit," and Who "fills heaven and earth "2-the Self-existent One, the Eternal," the Omnipresent,5 the Immutable," the Omniscient,' the Invisible, the Incomprehensible," the Unsearchable,1o the Omnipotent One"-" hath called us."12 God-Who is the Creator and Sustainer of all things,13 "the only wise God,""

1 John iv. 24. 2 Jer. xxiii. 24.
Psalm xc. 1; Deut. xxxiii. 27.
6 Mal, iii. 6; Heb. i. 12; xiii. 8.
8 1 Tim. i. 17; vi. 16.

10 Job xi. 7-9; Rom. xi. 33.

12 1 Thes. iv. 7.

3 Exod. vi. 3; Deut. xxxii. 40. 5 Psalm cxxxix. 7-10.

7 Prov. xv. 3; Ezek. xi. 5.

9 Job v. 8, 9; Isaiah xlv. 15.

11 Gen. xvii. 1; Mat. xix. 26. 13 Col. i. 15-17; Acts xvii. 24-28; Psalm lxvi. 9.

14 Rom. xvi. 27; Psalm cxlvii. 5.