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For one thus abiding in the holy boldness of faith, whose mind and heart rise to heaven in the unclouded sense of God's continual favor, there is no longer the necessity of combat with a world of sin down here. Of course, the members are still in this scene, and it is the place of service. The mind must necessarily be much engaged with things down here, connected with daily toil and service, in all the legitimate relationships of the Christian. But let it be our habit of life to set the mind upon the things above, the instant we are released from necessary occupation with things here. Thus seeking the companionship of the Father and the Son in our moments of leisure, the things of vanity around will have less opportunity to rush in upon us. Yet let us remember that while we may "set the mind" on the things above, we cannot always engage the heart there. In the course even of rightful and necessary occupation with temporal things, the dust of the world unconsciously settles upon us. The harp of the heart gets out of tune, and the hand of the Chief Musician must key it up into harmony with Himself before there can be melody such as He loves to hear. How many times in the day do we turn to Him, asking Him to wash the soiled feet,-to cleanse the dust-defiled mind and heart,-in order that we may have part with Him? If we besought His priestly service in this way more constantly, how many moments and hours would be redeemed from vanity, and occupied in prayer, in praise from the heart, in study of His word in freshness, or in meditation in the word at His feet.

Moreover, in the necessary occupation of the mind in toil and service here, the judicial reckonings connected with the cross give continual deliverance, in proportion as they are kept before the soul in the power of faith. To walk by faith is to have the things which are real to faith constantly before the mind and heart. Faith engenders a kind of spiritual habit of thought, in which the eyes of the heart are fixed upon the unseen eternal things, even while the temporal things, with their stamp of corruption, assail the outward senses. Hence to walk through this scene with the judicial reckonings connected with the cross of our Lord before us, is, in a sense, to carry the cross with us as our protection and defense. The corruption around, instead of obtaining a hold upon us, but pains us, and reminds of that cross, where we were crucified to the world, and the world was crucified to us. Thus the saint has fellowship with the cross, and neither has fellowship with the world, nor pauses to engage it in combat. He has "died, with Christ, from the elements of the world" (Col. 2:20), and as one "dead" to them, he refuses to be occupied with them or entangled by them. Instead of recognizing a world needing to be battled with, he knows of one which His Lord has already overcome for him and judged. So the cross of Christ, where the world was judged, becomes the only object connected with the world with which the saint can have fellowship; and in the protecting shadow of the cross, meeting and answering for him all questions, all accusations, he walks securely amid a system of things of which Satan is the god. The world for him is thus a conquered world; not that he has waged successful warfare with it, nor needs to do so, but because "this is the victory which has gotten the victory over the world-our faith" (i Jno. 5:4). In Col' 2:10-15, therefore, the cross of Christ is seen looming up over every thing here. It is the saint's Gilgal, to be constantly returned to whenever a sign of defeat warns him that its glorious triumphs are not so freshly in mind as they should be. There he beholds himself judicially circumcised by God, in the stripping off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ. If any question is raised as to "the flesh," faith gazes at the cross and there sees it transfixed. "Our old man," "the sin in the flesh," "the body of the flesh," "the flesh, with its affections and its lusts," "I,"-all are "crucified."

And there the saint's faith sees all legal requirement,- the obligation to ordinances, which was against him,-cancelled and taken out of the way, nailed to the tree. And there the world hangs in judgment, with all its corruption, through lusts and the pride of life,–the whole thing lying in the wicked one. Moreover, the principalities and powers which preside over it are spoiled, made a spectacle of, openly, and triumphed over! What across! Such is the testimony of Col. 2:10-15, which is but a triumphant summary of the deliverances, or judicial reckonings, of Romans and Galatians. It is thus plain that the saint is to abide in the sense of this, maintaining these truths as the strength of his position in the face of the enemy. These glories of the cross, with the personal glories of the Head in heaven (Col. 1:), are the provision for faith which the apostle sets over against the two great snares in the world which in Colossians he calls attention to,-rationalism on the one side, fleshly religiousness on the other.

Thus is the saint fully equipped to pass through the world. He needs, further, only the energy of faith to hold to the glorified Head in heaven, in mind-and-heart occupation,-that glorious Head of Whom grace has made him a member, to Whom he , is united by the Spirit of God. As holding the Head, in the energy of faith, he becomes a vessel for edifying service; for he contributes to the increase of the body of Christ, with the increase of God, in proportion as his own moral intelligence and affections are refreshed and strengthened by occupation with Christ in glory. (See Col. 2:19.) If his attention be called to his feet, or to any thing round about, he is not overcome by it. This occupation with Christ is the very means of avoiding failures. But if we have been too long from our Gilgal, after having fed on something other than the Old Corn of the Land, and failure does overtake us, what can it do save to carry the chastened spirit back to the cross? This may not be the effect if we are legally-minded, and unbelief is at work. But if we are abiding in the sense of our judicial reckonings, even failure but serves to bow the soul in such sorrow as must direct the eyes of faith to the cross on which all contrary things are nailed-including this very failure, and the flesh in us which has wrought the sin. And to turn the saint to the cross, is to turn him also to the blessed Advocate, Who even now bears its scars in heaven. So perfect is the provision, indeed, in view of every emergency, that nothing is lacking save the passive surrender of ourselves to the Spirit of God. Were this not lacking, He would lead us in triumph through this scene, the savor of the knowledge of Christ radiating from us and illuminating the darkness, while its perfume filled the air. Would to God, that both writer and reader might know something of the power of this!

The practical result of the sanctifying power of the truth in Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, in Colossians is seen flowering out into Christian fruit-bearing. The introduction of the epistle indicates that fruit-bearing is its theme. In Philippians all this is seen to be a preparation for the inestimable privilege of suffering in various ways for Christ, and in the furtherance of His interests. For this, the mind, or animus, which was in Him, must be in His members. In Paul we see a member in which this condition was fulfilled in large measure. And if the preparatory truth has in any degree wrought experimentally, in sanctifying" power, in our souls, as it did in Paul's, in that degree surely all the persecution, reproach and privation encountered will bear fruit in us as it did in him. It will not stir up the fallen nature. It will rather serve, in measure, to extract a sweet spirit of grace and love, just as was the case, in fulness, when Christ was so treated in His own Person while on earth. Blessed, indeed, is that servant who can find grace so to yield his poor body that Christ may use it thus, in some degree reproducing Himself in the world in His member! Would that Christ our Head might be permitted, now in spirit and by the Spirit, to serve in the world in this manner, in love and lowly humility, through His members,-answering all mal-treatment simply by the sweet display in us of His own gentle loveliness of mind and heart!

Beloved, that same Jesus who once so walked here below, though now personally in heaven, is still here in the Spirit's power, residing in His honored members! But how far are we yielding ourselves to have these vessels of earth,-these Gideon's pitchers,- broken, so that the moral glory of the Divine Treasure in us may shine out? How far have we the mind which was in our blessed Example, who was willing to be bruised and put to shame to the last extremity, in order that the glory of God might fully shine out from Him? And yet this is the greatest of all our privileges, in service, down here. How blessed, in our measure, to be baptized with the baptism wherewith He was baptized! to represent Him in the world as He represented the Father! to yield ourselves as vessels for the display of the moral glory of Christ, as He yielded Himself a Vessel for the display of the moral glory of God! Shall we truly seek the deliverance and power which God desires for us? Assuredly, then, it will not be for adornment of ourselves with display of knowledge and doctrine. Rather will it be the ministration of the courage of faith, to yield our bodies-ourselves-a living sacrifice, upon the altar of service, in displaying to the world the sweetness of the mind and heart of the One whom our soul loveth! Like the beloved Paul, himself lovely in our eyes because of his grace in reflecting the Altogether Lovely One, we will be ready to be sacrificed daily in this precious service, or to be poured out as a drink-offering on the sacrifice of others!

Do we long for more capacity to enjoy Christ as our Portion? Then let us remember that the suffering Philippian is the one who worships God in the Spirit and rejoices in Christ Jesus! whose soul pants for deeper and deeper droughts of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord, as one who hath verily fallen in love with the glorious Person of God's Beloved in glory! In the closing moments, before the coming in the air of Him whom we adore, in His marvelous grace may God every where raise up overcomers among His dear people, and teach us the power of these precious truths!

And next, Thessalonians, Corinthians, Hebrews, Timothy and Titus follow in order, the Colossian and Philippian point of view being maintained throughout. In these epistles we see, in some detail, how Paul met the condition of things found in the path of service, according to the grace given to him. We are to learn to follow him as we see he followed Christ. Paul, in the New Testament, answers to Caleb in the Old, as the latter moved in triumph through the wilderness in company with Joshua (type of the Spirit as Christ in us). Caleb went into Canaan and took possession in heart. He came back into the wilderness a heavenly man, with the sense of God's favor in his soul:"If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us "(Num. 14:8). Through the energy of his faith, Canaan ever remained the home of his heart. Therefore forty years with God's wandering people in the wilderness did not abate his strength (Josh. 14:ii). He could identify himself with a wandering people without his own heart wandering. He could suffer with them, suffer for them, minister to them, fight for them, because he knew that, with all their failures, they were the people of his God. God's Name in testimony was linked with them. He could seek to deliver them when they were being overcome, but without himself being overcome.

In Paul's second group, then,-the individual questions between the soul and its God having been settled, and faith's way of triumph over all opposing forces having been made known,-we have the path of service thus marked out for the man of God. He learns how to lay down his life for God's dear people, and for the lost of this world, laboring in prayer and service on their behalf. He learns how to encounter and deal with many forms of evil, yet without himself becoming entangled and overcome. Whatever may be his material circumstances, whatever his reception, he moves in his calling in the world as a dispenser of God's riches. He has a ministry of reconciliation for sinners, and he has service for the sheep and lambs of Christ, according to the measure of his gift and grace.

Moreover, he stands ready to unseat the Spirit's sword in spiritual warfare. For, strangely enough, he who finds deliverance in refusing battle with the world,-as a system of lusts and corruption which stirs up lusts and works corruption within himself,- is the very one who, thus drawn out of himself and self-occupation, is free for a higher and more far-reaching warfare. He stands as the witness of Christ and of God in this world,-as the champion of light and truth, and the enemy of spiritual darkness and error. Ensconced in the panoply of God, and with mighty spiritual weapons in his hands,-even the sayings of God, made good to him by God's Spirit, -he wars for the overthrow of the strongholds of error, the reasonings of unbelief, and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God (Eph. 6:10-20; 2 Cor. 10:3-5). Men, as the mouth-pieces of Satan, are thus withstood. Yet this is not a warfare against men, but in behalf of men, against wicked spirits, the world-rulers of this darkness, who deceive men and hold them in error. The great motive for this warfare is that it is waged in maintenance of the Name and testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ in the world. But it is also for the people of God, to maintain for them the truth of God which sanctifies the soul. And, in the gospel, the fight is in the interest of lost and unbelieving sinners in the world, whose minds Satan, the god of this world, has blinded. And all this is the calling of every saint, and not merely of special "gifts."

But how can Christ wage such a warfare, through us as His members, unless we are "holding the Head "? He is our Captain, and a good soldier must keep in communication with headquarters. He is our Strength and our Refreshment, and a soldier cannot serve apart from the ammunition train and the commissary stores. The inward man must be renewed day by day. By combining the types of Caleb and Abraham, we doubtless have a picture of both sides here. Caleb suggests to us the wilderness-activities of one whose members are on the earth, though mind and heart have their home in heaven. Abraham suggests the Canaan-activities of the mind and heart, which are already dwelling in the land of promise by faith, possessing themselves of its fertile regions in communion with God. Faith and whole-heartedness are surely tested in the maintenance of this Abrahamic side, of mind-and-heart abstraction from this scene, so as to be dwelling much in the house of the Lord, beholding the beauty of the Lord and inquiring in His temple (Ps. 27:4). The freshness of the service in the wilderness hangs upon this. Upon the energy of faith for communion,- "holding the Head,"-all the practice in Colossians and the succeeding epistles depends.

But though we consent to all this and more, as doctrine, this in itself is not experimental deliverance. Faith must plant its feet upon this good land, exercised before God to enter into the power of such truth. And he who attempts this will confront the wiles of a crafty foe, who seeks to thwart spiritual progress. Our many failures are so many opportunities for him to launch against us the fiery darts of accusation, in order to rob us of the joy of the sense of God's favor in our souls, and stir up our legal mind and heart into the revolt of unbelief. Let us pause to seriously examine ourselves as to this. When we find ourselves downcast, under the sense of failure, what is the result? Is this sad consequence simply a monitor, to remind us of how we have slipped away from communion into occupation with defiling things, which have paved the way for the more pronounced sin, in thought or deed, which accuses us? And in the face of the shame, do we yet turn at once to our precious Advocate, to have Him wash our feet and restore our soul? Or do we mope under a sense of discouragement, as if our title to communion had been impugned-temporarily at least? If it be the latter, the enemy's fiery dart has found lodgment, and the unbelief of legal-mindedness is at work. We are acting as if our sin had dimmed the abiding efficacy of the cross, altered the grace in which we stand, beclouded our standing before God, or caused Him to withdraw His favor, temporarily at least. But He has not withdrawn from us; we have withdrawn from Him. His fellowship with us was ever on the basis of the cross alone, and not on the basis of anything in us. Our sin beclouds the sense of this in our own souls, because it turns our eyes from the cross, and from our Representative in heaven, to self-occupation. This is unbelief, and the Spirit within us is grieved by this dishonor to the work of Christ. Did we yield to His guidance, the moment there was the consciousness that sin and defilement had come in, He would lead us to the feet of our great High Priest for restoration.

Here it is that our faith must stand and do battle, as often as need be, to maintain the sin-accused soul in the sense of its judicial reckonings. Of what practical avail are these delivering truths, unless faith takes its stand upon them in the very face of the soul's sad failure, and the resulting accusations of heart and conscience ? Faith, Spirit-taught and Spirit-led, will triumph over the evil as soon as it is manifest, casting the sin-defiled soul upon Him who can wash the feet and restore the sense of favor in the soul. But fleshly religiousness, and an accusing enemy, would keep the work of the cross out of sight, pretending that through its sin the soul has temporarily forfeited its right of access into the sanctuary, and should submit to the discipline of forfeiture of communion for a long time to come, earning restoration to communion by some works meet for repentance. But if we acquiesce in this, as our hearts are too ready to do, it is plain that we consent to a policy which only insures failure upon failure. For so long as we remain out of communion, nothing but failure is possible.

Many, perhaps, who apprehend the judicial reckonings for faith, set forth in the Pauline ministry, come short of knowing their power because they are thus overcome. To this conflict, in which Satan would employ the shame of our ways to stir up unbelief in us, I believe we should apply the type of the warfare with Amalek in the wilderness. For Amalek seems to speak of the will, or animus, of the flesh, rather than of its gross lusts. But it is the indulgence of the flesh, defiling the conscience, which gives the enemy his opportunity, precipitating conflict with the unbelief and legality so natural to the flesh. Sin manifests itself in our life, and at once the accusing hosts of Amalek appear, to dispute our progress, to obscure our sense of God's favor toward us, and to keep us groveling in self-occupation. But are we to fall back again into the misery and discouragement from which we have sought deliverance? Are we to abandon our judicial reckonings, or to allow them to be obscured? God forbid! We are to stand and fight, in obedience to the command:" Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5:i). Let faith turn from the sad failure, and, in the confidence that our judicial reckonings are holy, and to be acted upon, let it boldly enter the sanctuary to praise the Son of God, whose glorious cross has saved such a failing creature!

The exhortation to maintain ourselves in liberty of conscience before God, refusing the bondage of legal-mindedness, in thus an exhortation to abide in these judicial reckonings, as the secret of faith's continuance in the sense of favor even when failure has come in. Hence the conflict with Amalek is a fight for the truth, although not that-in service to others, -contemplated in 2 Cor. 10:When we lag behind, and fall into hurtful lusts, we must fight in order to retain the truth, in its sanctifying power, in our own souls. Until this victory is won for ourselves, we cannot go on to the proper Christian warfare,-contention for the truth to deliver others.

In this warfare with the unbelief of our own hearts, we triumph as our faith beholds the Advocate, representing us before the Father's face. Moses upon the mount, supported by Hur ("white"-righteousness) and Aaron, the high priest, is a type of our Advocate in heaven, as i John 2:i, 2, presents Him to us. In Moses,-the mediator of the people, in the sense of being their representative before God,-we see the Man, Jesus, in whose blessed Person we exist, judicially, before God. Hur reminds us that our Representative is "the Righteous" One, however unrighteous, in ourselves, the failure troubling us has just proven us to be. Aaron reminds us that our Representative is the "Christ," God's Anointed High Priest,-the Son and Priest appointed over His house. Despite all that can be charged against us, we have such an One as this to represent us in the Father's presence in heaven. And ever at our call is His priestly service, to bear us up in that Ineffable Presence, in the merit of what He has done, and in the fragrance of what He Himself is. He is ever living to make intercession for us in the very fact that He is thus ever before God as our Representative. His representation of us there is perpetual intercession. And if we sin, " He Himself" (Gr.),-as our Advocate, our Representative there,-"is a Propitiation for our sins." This is our Sanctuary of refuge, in passing through a wilderness where we may fail, and where the enemy stands ready to use any failure as the basis of his assault.

Thus we obtain this precious and most practical doctrine in i John, the sanctuary epistle of the wilderness group,- the Catholic epistles. In the first chapter, the apostle dwells upon the grace of our calling,-even to fellowship with the Father and the Son in the light. He declares our perfect and unchangeable judicial fitness for it, as cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, once for all, when we were saved,-when we repented as sinners, confessing our sins. But he establishes us in this grace, -of judicial perfection before God,-not that we may sin, but that we may sin not. It is Paul's principle, that the sense of pure grace in the soul, rather than the burden of legal requirement, is what sanctifies a quickened soul (Rom. 6:14). For if we are legal, we will enter, experimentally, very little into this fellowship with the Father and the Son in the light. One who thinks to bring some subjective fitness as his passport to such unfathomable favor as this, but grieves the Spirit, who is the Power for communion, and can know little of it. While he who thus deprives himself of this close walk with God, basking in the sense of His favor, is the very one who will be continually subject to shame and failure. Let our estimate of the value of the work of the cross be such that, in the holy boldness of faith, we can abide in confidence of a judicial fitness even for the infinite blaze of light and glory of the Father's Presence! Then will the energy of faith, in the Spirit's power, lift us up, in the experience of the soul, in communion with the God and Father who has begotten us! Then will the craving of the child's heart in us, and the longings of the Spirit of sonship in us, take hold of the Almighty in the holy liberty of filial love, delighting the heart of God! And the grace of this is the very means,-the only means,-of not sinning continually. Yet, at the best, we come sadly short of perfect self-surrender to the power of the grace of this sanctifying truth. And if we do sin, and are assailed in consequence, we need that which our faith can take hold upon to gain courage for surrender to the loving Priestly hands which wait to restore us. This is found in remembering that our failure has not changed the fact that we have an Advocate, a judicial Representative, in the Father's presence, even Jesus Christ, the Righteous. And He Himself,-His Person there being the living Memorial of His work for us,-is a Propitiation in respect to our sins, which otherwise, as it were, would rise to the Father as a stench from us. But they cannot so rise judicially. Nought can ascend from us to God, judicially, save the sweet fragrance of our Representative before His face! For as the Advocate is, there in heaven for us, so are we in this world! Indeed, His presence there, according to the same text (i John 2:i, 2), is even a Propitiation which satisfies the Father in respect to the present passing-over of the sins of the whole world, during this period of long-suffering.

Thus, fortified by Paul's judicial reckonings, and John's instruction for recovering the sense of them in the soul in case we sin,-in the fullest assurance of faith we may cast ourselves upon our Lord, for His blessed service of foot-washing and restoration, the instant we realize that we have defiled ourselves. If living faith in us makes these judicial reckonings the practical basis of our habit of life, that life cannot fail to become happy and fruitful. In the Spirit's power we shall be led through the enemy's country in holy joy and triumph. But let us lay hold of these things, practice them, live by them. We must not allow any creature, within or without, to separate us from the enjoyment of the love of God, the love of Christ. We must abide in the sunshine, if we would bear clusters of ripened fruit,-the restful and joyful soul's overflow of spontaneous worship Godward, and spontaneous service manward, in the sweetness of love and humility. We must abide in the sense of God's favor:we must keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 21).

May God show mercy in our meditation of a theme concerning which one must remain silent were its power in one's own life in question. But if it be of the truth, may God bless His word, and make its power known in reader and writer. F. A.