Does it ever cause you any grief and anxious concern, my Christian reader, that you are so unlike the One whom you trust and love ? I speak now, not of what others may see in you, but of what you know yourself to be.

I have read of a man in India who was so Christ-like in his ways, that when some natives who knew him heard a missionary describe the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus when here on earth, they thought he was referring to their friend! Perhaps you feel that there is little likelihood of your being mistaken for the Lord Jesus! Surely the better we know ourselves the more ready we shall be to own our unlikeness to Him.

Now we find again and again in Scripture the fact that people become like the things they are occupied with, or the persons with whom they keep company.

During the latter part of the history of Judah under the kings of the house of David, after the close of the long series of wars with the Philistines, the two nations settled down to dwell together in amity and companionship. The result was that the people of God became like the Philistines (Isa. 2:6).

We read too that they who trust in idols are like unto them. Their imagination clothes the idol with certain qualities, generally evil, and by constant occupation with that which they conceive it to be, a moral likeness is produced in the idolater (Ps. 115:8).

This principle is stated clearly and definitely in Prov. 23:7, where it says of man, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." A man becomes conformed to the object with which his heart is occupied.

Now this applies both in the direction of good and of evil. If a man's heart is thinking of evil things, he becomes evil in character and ways. If a man's heart is thinking of excellent things, those excellent things express themselves in his life. This gives great importance to the exhortation to think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report (Phil. 4:8).

It is not easy, however, to concentrate the thoughts upon abstract qualities, however good they may be- nor is it necessary, for all these things of spiritual excellence have been set forth in the Lord Jesus. As we trace out His pathway here, by the help of the four Gospels, our hearts contemplate things that are lovely indeed, and a certain measure of moral conformity thereto is produced.

More, the One in whom all these things were set forth is not to be numbered amongst the dead. The records of His life are not mere memoirs. He is alive from among the dead, and though the circumstances which surround Him are different, He Himself is just the same (Heb. 13:8). The same Jesus, whom we learn to love increasingly as we read of His gracious and perfect ways among men, is in the glory, and our hearts may be engaged with Him there. We may behold, as Stephen did, the glory of the Lord, and the result will be sure-we shall in measure, as we behold it, be changed into the same image (2 Cor. 3:18).

There is no other way to become like Christ than this. If our desire is to be engaged with Christ in glory, the Holy Spirit will greatly help us. He will delight to do so. In thus keeping company with Christ we shall become Christ-like. Not that we shall be conscious of it in a way that will minister to our pride and self-satisfaction, but others will be able to take note of us that we have been with Jesus. H. P. Barker