THE LESSON OF THE AGES AS TO HOLINESS.

Genesis 4:-(Continued.)

At the cross, as we have already partly seen, the controversy between God and man comes out in the most open manner. The " way of Cain "is seen reproduced in that Pharisaism which was ever the most earnest opponent of the Lord, and which He on His part denounced most earnestly. " Have any of the Pharisees believed on Him?" they could ask with assurance; and on the other side He could let them know, "The publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you " (Jno. 7:48 ; Matt. 21:31). Pharisaism was indeed the most successful device of Satan to hinder the acceptance of that sentence of condemnation which the prophet had long since declared to have passed upon the people,-"Then said God, 'Call his name Lo-ammi; for ye are not My people, and I will not be your God' " (Hos. 1:9). Man, in Israel, had thus been fully tried and found wanting; and the Babylonian ax had thereupon cut down the doomed tree. And although a remnant had returned again to rebuild their temple, the glory had not returned. Their true hope was only in accepting the sentence upon them, and awaiting, in Messiah, their Deliverer.

Then arose Pharisaism, with its fierce blind zeal for a law which but condemned them, and its eager claim for a righteousness which refused, in Christ the Lord, their righteousness. Their fanatical enmity slew the King of Glory, and brought His blood upon themselves and on their children.

But the cross, if on the one hand the completed testimony as to man's guilt and ruin, is on the other the removal for faith of all that hinders blessing. Christ in man's place under death and judgment owns in his behalf the righteousness of God in the penalty which He bears and bears away from him; while He, the Second Man, as the Head of a new creation, brings those connected with Him into the enjoyment of a portion of which He is worthy, and which is theirs in Him. "In Him" affirms the setting aside of the old head, and all connected with him; "if any man be in Christ, it is new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new."

But how far does this go ? Is it as sinners only we are set aside by the cross ? and is the question here only, of righteousness and acceptance with God ? It is our " old man" that is crucified with Christ, and that is just ourselves as the men we were-sinners assuredly, and only that,-and this "that the body of sin might be destroyed [annulled], that henceforth we should not serve sin." Thus there is, at least, a practical purpose in it. We are to begin here a new life as saints, not sinners. The dominion of sin is broken for us. Holiness is that to which God has called us, and we are assuredly meant to realize our calling. Holiness is not a thing imputed, as righteousness is ; and it is a condition, not merely a position.

But here, more than one road opens before us, and it is once more to be realized that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways. Thus, if there are two ways, we are prone to take our own. God's way, indeed, naturally does not present itself to us as an alternative. We do not look for the way-marks :we suppose, perhaps, that there are difficulties in the way, but not as to the way. Thus the "broad way" is still the by-path, and God's way narrow and overlooked. Man's way is self-occupation, self-satisfaction,-the method which changed an angel into a devil,-the very way by which sin came at first. God's way necessarily is the opposite, to turn man from himself, to occupy him with Another, give him an object which will draw him out of himself, satisfying him with Him who is alone competent to meet all the needs of the soul."I am crucified with Christ" is the language of one who realizes this:" nevertheless I live ;yet not I, but Christ liveth in me " (Gal. 2:20).Here is what has displaced self in its religious form as well as every other. It is Seth in the place of Abel, and the fruit of it is, no Lamech-no "strong man,"-but an Enos,-a frail one :but then the worship of the heart is God's,-"we worship God in the spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh " (Phil. 3:3).

Directly athwart man's way lies the fact that still in the child of God is found an evil nature, a "sin that dwelleth in" us, a "body of death" we loathe yet cannot escape from, so that " if we say we have no sin, we lie, and do not the truth " (i Jno. 1:8). Yea, he who is admitted by God to see in paradise what could not be told by human tongue, must then have "a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet" him, lest he should be exalted above measure. (2 Cor. 12:) Pride, self-exaltation, is the danger which we have most to dread, and which is ready to turn all good into corruption. Unlike all other sin, pride grows upon what is good, and thus God in His wisdom can use the very consciousness of evil which we have learned to hate, to subdue this monster evil.

Notice how, when Peter, in true love to his Master, but confident in himself, declares, "I will lay down my life for Thy sake," the Lord answers him with the forewarning of his denial of Him so soon to follow. There was no remedy but by the fall to allow him to realize his weakness that he might thus find strength, and so be able even to "strengthen his brethren." The open sin, with all its grossness, was less evil than that fatal self-confidence from which nothing but a fall such as his could awaken him.

So with a self-occupied soul under the law, as in the experience of the seventh of Romans, only the repeated check, "The good that I would I do not; the evil that I would not, that I do,"-so inexplicable as it is until we realize the divine principle,-can meet the need by blocking the road which, broad as it seems, leads to a precipice. It is God with whom we are at issue, while yet we think in our hearts we are but seeking His will. We "delight in the law of God after the inward man," and yet "find another law in our members, warring against the law of our minds, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin which is in our members."

Here, indeed, strangely, some would settle down. " This is the path," they would argue ; " but, you see. it is blocked,-progress is impossible :here we must stay until death opens the way for us." But what, then, means the anguished cry, "Oh wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me?" Has God indeed left His redeemed in the meantime hopelessly captive to a law of sin ? How, then, is it said, "Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace"? But are we not, then, "under the law"? If for righteousness we are indeed not under it, are we not for holiness? There is, indeed, the whole question. Let us seek the answer to it.

Two things face us at the outset:first, that "the strength of sin is the law" (i Cor. 15:56); and this certainly corresponds with the experience we have, just been realizing. It is not that it is that which condemns us,-true though that is,-but that it is the strength of sin.

The second thing is, that "the law is not of faith" (Gal. 3:12); and faith is that which is the very principle of fruitfulness :it is "faith that worketh by love "(Gal. 5:6).

These things go together, and are of the deepest import as to holiness. The law, in short, occupies me with myself ; faith's object is Christ. And Christ is made of God unto us "sanctification" as much as "righteousness" (i Cor. 1:30). It is here that we have the answer to that despairing cry, "Who shall deliver me?" and learn to "thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Here is the method of sanctification:"We all, with open face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18). This is the method of faith ; it is Seth appointed in the place of Abel, whom Cain slew; it is the apostle's "Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9); it is the frail Enos instead of the strong Lamech; it is the spiritual circumcision in which we "worship God in the Spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

How slow are we to perceive that all self-confidence is "confidence in the flesh"! When the disciples asked that question of the Lord, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ?" "Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, 'Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever shall humble himself, therefore, as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt, 18:1-4.)

How this harmonizes with the whole tenor of that which we have been considering ! and how easy it would seem to make the attainment of that which is true greatness in the sight of God ! We have but to consent to be the little and feeble things we are;-we have but to find our strength .outside ourselves, in One who is almighty ;-we have but to recognize our nothingness, that Christ may be all things to us. "Christ is all:" that is. our practical theology; and who shall tell the extent or fullness of those three words?

Self-occupation, self-consciousness, self-complacency:these are the weeds that spring out of our cultivation of holiness, as still men commonly practice it, and which God's winter is required to kill. Defeat is as to these our one necessity; and if our efforts at self-culture meet but this, there is only one cause as there is one remedy. To be "changed from glory into glory" needs not effort- cannot be attained by it, but is attained by keeping in the Sun, whose rays thus glorify all they shine upon. With his soul penetrated with that glory, the apostle says, " I am crucified with Christ:nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me :and the life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."