The words which are in our common version, " the glorious gospel of Christ," should be rather (as now in the revised) "the gospel of the glory of Christ." This is not only the literal translation, but also the one required by the context, whether we glance back at "the glory of the Lord" in chap. 3:18, or forward to "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," in the verse but one following. In either case, it is the Lord Himself in glory, risen from the dead, and at the right hand of God, that is spoken of. It is His glory there as man, although much more than man, and even as man the "image of God," which is "gospel"-that is to say, " good news "-to fallen man.

To Paul himself, let us remember, the first revelation of the truth had been the revelation of Christ in glory. With a brightness which eclipsed the glory of the noonday sun, it had shone down upon the persecutor, lighting, up the depths of his soul, and bringing him face to face with One upon the throne of heaven whom he knew not, -face to face with himself, whom he never yet had really known. What a meeting! What a discovery! The Lord, his Lord, Lord of heaven and earth, unknown up to that moment; he in that moment stricken from the heights of Phariseeism into a deeper "ditch" than Job's, but now "touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless," a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and now sinner among sinners-the very chief of sinners !

What effected this mighty change ? Just what will do it equally for you, reader, or for any one in his position,- one moment's sight of the glory of the lord. You may have heard abundantly before :so had Job,-" I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;" how different when he could say, "but now mine eye seeth Thee"! Then alone it is, "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Aye, no flesh can glory in His presence, whether revealed in vision as to Paul, or simply by the entrance of the Word in the power of the Spirit bringing divine light into the inner man of the heart. If one might have whereof to glory, yet " not before God." The true test of whether a soul has been before God is here.

And let it be noted well, the hinge of the controversy between God and man is now the God-man in the glory. Why there ? It is where He belongs, you say. True; He had left that which He had with the Father before the world was, to be in the world the Minister of Christ to it. All power in His hand to turn back into paradise again the ruin man had caused on earth. The sick healed, the deaf hearing, the dumb tongue loosed to sing, the lame whole, the devil's captives with a word delivered, the dead with one mighty word raised up,-He is attested by all this the Son of Man with power on earth to forgive sins,-to reach down to the very bottom of man's condition, and set all upon a new footing of grace and blessing before God. He was in the world, by whom the world was made, by whom the world could be again restored :what was the issue? The death of agony; the cross of shame; and so out of the rich man's tomb, not to be holden of death, up to the place from which He had descended.

What, then, of the world ? " O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee" (Jno. 17:25). That is still its characteristic. He that has known Christ has known the Father. He who owns Christ passes by this out of the world; the world is crucified to him, and he unto the world. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also." Yea, "whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God" (i Jno. 2:23; 4:15). Once more:"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). Surely there is "good news " in a glory which, when revealed to the soul, is the salvation of him to whom it is revealed !

But let us not mistake the matter :there is an essential difference between receiving a tradition, or accepting a belief in which one has been educated, and the in shining of the light of which the apostle speaks,-just as much difference as between beholding the sun shine, and accepting, like a blind man, the warrant of others as to it.

Have you ever beheld His glory, beloved reader? Have you "believed with the heart unto righteousness' ? Is there heart-interest in the matter with you at all ? Have you ever confessed Jesus Lord ? Does your soul own Him as its Lord indeed? It is a question of life and death; for "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

But what direct "good news" does "the glory of Christ" bring?

What would it be to you if, in the pinch of poverty and famine, you suddenly heard of the exaltation of one whom you had known, and well known-a companion, a friend, an intimate-to the throne of the land ? Need I ask?

Just such a friend-aye, a friend of sinners-has been Jesus. None such ever trod this earth beside. When He says, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth," is there no good news there? Ah, the more power His, the more help mine. I am rich if He is,-at least, if. He be the same Lord Jesus that was once the Man of sorrows for us here.

But that is not all. Suppose the friend I just now spoke of had taken for me the burden of my sins upon himself; suppose I had actually seen him sign the bond and assume the responsibility of them all. Multiply all that a thousandfold. Let it be sin, not debt. Let the cross be the place of the assumption of my responsibility,- the death he died, my actual penalty. This is the simple, literal fact for the believer. What, then, to him the resurrection, ascension, and glory of the Son of God in the heavens?

The glory of Christ-of a Man:"the Man Christ Jesus." , Manhood in Him, not drawn merely out of the slough of degradation and damnation of sin, but taken up to God and glorified with the glory which He had before all worlds !

Not only, then, is condemnation gone, penalty endured, justice satisfied; there is infinitely more,-a positive and not a negative blessing only. For as man He is gone up; as man He is in glory, He has conquered and won for man; for man earned and deserved; for man acquired and possessed. " The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them."

Moreover, it is " the glory of Christ, who is the image of God"

That completes the blessedness.

He is "the image of the invisible God." If "no man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him " (Jno. 1:18). We are not left to ask, with Philip, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." The Father is not one God and He another :He and the Father are One.

Nor are His attributes divided; as if justice were the Father's, love the Son's; as if the Father merely received what the Son offered; as if the cross of the Son were but a shield from the wrath of the Father. No; God loved and gave,-" so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Jno. 3:16).

If God gave Him up to die, He raised Him also from the dead,-took the side of those for whom He suffered, whether He gave Him up for them in love, or took Him up for them from the dead in righteousness. Thus His righteousness is on our side as well as His love, and whether I look up to Him who is on the throne of glory, or remember Him in His unparalleled humiliation upon earth, it is God I see in the man,-God-man as He must be, for who but God could thus show forth God?

All this the "gospel of the glory of Christ" preaches to me-to all who believe in Him. How is it has been so much forgotten ? May no reader of this be blinded by the god of this world, so that the light of it should not shine in upon his soul.