This is plain if we look at Psalm xix.

The law of the

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Lord is perfect, converting the soul. It is quite evident that this speaks of the Word of God, as then known as the law in a much wider sense than a mere rule of life. So Christ says, "It is written in your law," whereas the passage quoted was in the prophets. It was the word of God known in its capital and characteristic designation. If an objector complain that I speak of the form and character of the word as then given to Israel (while admitting in the fullest way, yea, with the most earnest insistence, the divine inspiration and authority of all), I answer unhesitatingly, I do, looking to be guided by the spirit, view it as adapted to Israel, because given to Israel; I must rightly divide the word of truth. And I think it very important we should so view it. Am I to say, "Of thy mercy, slay mine enemies.” Happy he that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." (Ps. cxxxvii. 9.) "That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of enemies, the tongue of thy dogs in the same." (Ps. lxviii. 23.) When the earthly government of God is executed, this has its place. I, a Christian, see, as a general truth, the righteousness of it; and as regards that government, when God's patience, as it will, has done everything, I can rejoice in wickedness being removed. Still, this language is not, nor is meant to be, the present language of the Christian. Christ is presented in Psalm lxix. as demanding the most dreadful vengeance and judgment on his enemies, vers. 22-28. Did He, when revealed in the gospels as a pattern for us according to grace, ever express such a wish. His words were at the very time the psalm speaks, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Is that, "pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold upon them." Both will be fulfilled. One is the gracious personal desire of Christ, as we know Him revealed in the gospels. And to this the Holy Ghost answers by Peter," And, now, brethren, I wot that, through ignorance, ye did it, as did also your rulers. Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus,"

etc. And this will, surely, be accomplished in the end of the days. The other is the association of Christ by the prophetic spirit with the Jewish remnant connected with the government of God, which will bring a just and righteous vengeance on the nation who rejected Him, and with all who clung and shall cling to the word of His servants. And this shall be accomplished, too, fully, as the foretaste of it has already come upon them - wrath to the uttermost εις τελος. But if we confound the Jewish spirit of the Psalms with the gospel, and take it as the expression of our feelings, we shall falsify Christianity. No doubt I shall find lovely confidence in the Lord, in respect of His government of this world, the comfort of forgiveness, the happy confidence of integrity of heart, and remarkable prophecies as to Christ; but where shall I find heavenly hopes, or the union of the Church with a glorified Christ, or even the outflowings of divine grace, as manifested in His person on earth, or the blessed affections which flow from hearts acquainted with these. Where the blessed spirit of adoption? Every saint knows the touching expressions of piety which the Psalms furnish to us; but no intelligent Christian can turn from the writings of John to the Psalms without finding himself in a different atmosphere. It is monstrous to suppose, that, if the disciples, in seeing Jesus, were blessed as no prophet or king had been, and yet, that it was expedient for them that He should go away, because otherwise the Comforter could not come," when He is come He should not have given us in joy, piety, intelligence, motives, knowledge of God, even of the Father, and the Son, the spirit of sonship, consciousness of being in Christ, and Christ in us; communion with the Father and the Son, which the old Testament saints did not possess. The Heir, so long as He was a child, differed nothing from a servant, though He be Lord of all. This, the apostle diligently teaches, is the difference of the state of Old Testament saints-God having reserved some better thing for us, that they, without us, should not be made perfect, so that the least in the kingdom of heaven should be greater than the greatest of those before born of woman. Life or incorruptibility are brought to

light by the gospel. I do not see piety or respect for the Word in denying or undervaluing the revealed gifts of God unfolded to us in the New Testament. Is it nothing that the Comforter is come? Where, in the Old Testament, are saints called on to yield themselves to God as those that are alive from the dead? Is that no rule of life? Is it the law? It is a mere abuse of words to say so. I have only a few words to add in closing. I am quite aware that it will be said, and is said, that it is not just to confound seeking justice and life by the law. with making it a rule of life; but the whole theory on which this distinction is based is a delusion. Who has authorized us to take the law for one thing, and leave it for another, when God has presented it specifically for one. The apostle's statement is, that if we have to do with the law, it takes us. It puts us under a curse, ministers death to us, and condemnation. It does not ask us how we take it. It pronounces its own sentence on us. Is it transgressed? It curses. The effect of the law on all under it is the curse. I see no allowance in Scripture for saying I do not put myself under it in that way. Scripture puts you under it in that way, if you are under it. If, indeed, faith is come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster, and, of course, not under its curse. To be under the law, and not be under its curse when broken, is an unscriptural fancy and pretension of men. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. If ye be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Such is the language of the Word of God.

But I have a yet happier aspect of the subject to touch on before I close: the positive side of it. What is the rule of life? I answer, Christ. Christ is our life, rule, pattern, example, and everything. The Spirit our living quickener, and power to follow Him. The Word of God, that in which we find Him revealed, and His mind unfolded in detail. But while all Scripture, rightly divided, is our light as the inspired word of God, at least to those who have an unction from the Holy One, Christ and the Spirit are set before us as Pattern, Life and Guide, in contrast with law; and Christ as exclusively everything. And power accompanies this (see 2 Cor. iii.), "We are

declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us; written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.... But we all, with open face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." I ask is not Christ here in contrast with law; and if this be not exactly what I am to be, an epistle of Christ; and if there be not power in looking at Christ, to produce it which cannot be in a law? So Gal. ii. 20, v. 16., where, in contrast with law, he shews the Spirit to be the power of godliness; that if led of it, we are not under law, and that against the fruits it produces there is no law.

We are to walk in the Spirit; but that is not law. So Rom.xiii., “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof." It is an object governing the heart, which is life, and at the same time the object of life. One to whom we are promised to be conformed, and one to whom we are earnestly desirous of being as conformed as possible now-One who absorbs our attention, fixes it to the exclusion of all else. We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He may be the first-born among many brethren. My delight in Him is the spring of action and motive which governs me. I cannot separate the person who is the example and the motive. My love to the person; and the beauty I see in Him is the spring of my delight in being like Him. It is not a rule written down; but a living exhibition of One who, being my life, is to be reproduced by me; always bearing about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal body. No doubt the written word is the means of shewing me what His mind and will is. But it is not a law which is a rule, and Christ only an example how to follow it. It is the word, shewing me what the perfection of this heart-ruling example is. "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." "We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like

Him, for we shall see Him as He is; and he that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as He is pure." Then He is a source to me of all in which I long to be like Him. Beholding, with open face, the glory of the Lord, I am changed into the same image. No rule of life can do this. Of His fulness we have received, grace for grace. A rule of life has no fulness to communicate. Hence He says, "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth." It is the Spirit taking the things of Christ, which thus forms us into His image. What a blessed truth this is. How is every affection of the heart thus engaged in that which is holiness, when I see it in One who not only has loved me, but who is altogether lovely. Hence I am called to "walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing," to "grow up to Him who is the Head in all things." Paul seeks to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Christ is all, and He is in all saints as life to realize the all that is in Him. I am called, moreover, by glory and virtue. The object I am now aiming at is not now on earth. It is Christ risen. This makes my conversation to be in heaven. Hence he says, "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above; not on things on the earth." It is by looking at Christ above, that we get to be like Him, as He was on earth, and walk worthy of Him, for so He walked. We get above the motives which would tie us to earth. We are to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; to walk worthy of the Lord. No mere rule can give this. The law has no reference to this heavenly life. So we are to discern things that are excellent. Even Abraham did not, in the most excellent part of his life, walk by rule. He looked for a city which hath foundations; and was a stranger and pilgrim in the land of promise. Reduce me to a mere rule of life, I lose the spring of action. The discernment of a Christian depends on his spiritual and moral state, and God means it to be so. He will not be a mere director, as it is expressed. He makes us dependent on spirituality even to