I knew a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago," says the apostle; "of such an one I will glory; yet of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

My present object is not so much to speak of what the man in Christ is, as of what he is not; in other words, to ask my readers if they clearly understand the contrast which the apostle draws here between the man in Christ of whom he will glory and the "self" of whom he will not glory.

Now, to a believer, the man in Christ is his true self. His whole blessing is based upon what he is in Christ. His acceptance is in the Beloved; his sanctification is in Christ Jesus; "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." As a sinner, a child of Adam, the cross has been his end before God. In this character he exists no more. Faith seeing as God sees, accepting what He has done, transports one thus already beyond death and judgment into the blessed scene of the new creation.-" If any man be in Christ, it is new creation; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new."

For one who simply believes God's word about all this, how great the blessedness! God has dealt with the source of all my troubles, delivering me from the need of one anxious thought about myself, and putting before me Christ for every need, that I may unceasingly enjoy Him, and find in my joy in Him the secret of strength and holiness.

If now we were only simple, all would be well. If faith were simple, how many exhortations of Scripture would find no place! But in fact, there is a man down here; what about him ? and one in whom also the glory of God is to be accomplished. Here a new danger arises for us,-a new self is apt to become important. If we are born again, we have a new, yea, a divine, nature; and this is not flesh, nor ended at the cross, nor a thing to be hopeless of as bringing forth fruit to God. Christ is in us, as well as we in Him ; and practical holiness is to be maintained in the world; precepts are addressed to us, and this having respect to character as well as conduct. All this is true, and not only true, but most necessary to be. kept in mind. The question is, how is all this to be without self-occupation and without legality? The law is the strength of sin, not of holiness, and to make of the man in Christ, with all the duties and responsibilities flowing from this new position, but a law, would be to make a yoke the more intolerable the higher its perfection, and to render hopeless the very thing meant to be enforced.

Let us look at these things as simply as we can. We have a new nature, and this assuredly is not flesh. It is that in which God works, and which is to bring forth fruit for Him. But its fruitfulness is by faith. It is faith by which the heart is purified, faith which worketh by love, faith which, if it have not works, is dead, being alone. The whole activity of such a life as Paul's-what was the secret of it? "The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

But what is faith but dependence-occupation with another-reception from another? Self is never faith's object, clearly. Thus, for the " new man, renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him," " Christ is all." Blessed and comprehensive words! And if it is faith by which the heart is purified, as Peter declares, another apostle shows the manner of it,-" We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Here all spiritual growth is by occupation with Christ. The very character of our new life itself is the knowledge. of God the Father, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent; and this knowledge increased by that continual intimacy of communion to which we are called produces the full maturity of Christian life and character. Thus the beloved apostle gives it, evidently as that which characterizes the " fathers" to whom he ' writes, that they have " known Him that is from the beginning.." Again, if it be testimony to Christ and fruitfulness in the world that is in question, the accomplishment of it is in this way:" If any. man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink; and he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

The precepts of the New Testament must be read in the light of passages such as these. If I were to say to a person, " Get yourself warm," he would scarcely think I meant by exercise if he saw my finger pointing to the fire. Thus do the Scriptures point unceasingly to Christ as to Him in whom " dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;" and in Him, it bids us know, we are "complete," or, as the word rather is, "filled up." Precepts enable us to detect what is not of Christ in us, and make us understand that we must seek Him more, trust Him more, live more with Him and in Him.

The man in Christ we never find, therefore, never produce in ourselves, down here; for the man in 'Christ is what we are up there in the heavenly places,-in Him where He is. To find ourselves, we must look ever in the face of Christ; and seeing ourselves there, there will be no room for disappointment or discouragement. Of such an one we may well glory, without fear of self-complacency. Our glorying will be glorying in the Lord. The more steadily we can gaze upon ourselves there, the more we shall be taken out of ourselves-the more Christ Himself will fill us. It is that true abiding in Him, which has for its practical result His abiding in us.-"Abide in Me, and I in you."

Of the man down here, then, what? He is just that self of which the apostle writes,-" But of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." An earthen vessel for the Spirit to fill; to manifest divine power in it:all its fullness, Another's fullness ; its weakness, that which magnifies Another's strength. Do not confound him for one moment with the glorious man in Christ. Yet, withal, you may contemplate him without dismay, yea, with thankfulness:you may glory in his infirmities. Blessed, blessed weakness, which makes me realize the power of Christ continually! No difficulties of the way He cannot meet; no sorrows He cannot suffice for; no void He cannot fill up. "Now, thanks be to God," says the apostle, " who always leadeth us about in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place!"