The Gospel the gospel of the grace of God does not end with the blessed fact that Christ "bare our sins in His own body on the tree." How many of God's dear people, after they have found the remission of sins through the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, suffer more pain and distress because of what they find within themselves than from all the sins of their unconverted life. Had God nothing in His gospel to meet the need created by this condition, the case for those in it would be sad indeed. But His gospel goes as far as man's need can go; then it goes beyond it all, that praise and worship may break out where once groans of distress were heard. "/ am crucified with Christ " cried one thus emancipated by the gospel of God's grace (Gal. 2 :20). This was not done by some remarkable experience he had, though the truth that is in it surely produced blessed experience when he discovered it. This evil self in him, of which he speaks in detail in chaps. 6 and 7 of Romans, had been disposed of by God Himself. As God alone had the power to lay the sinner's sins on Jesus, and end them there in judgment, so He alone had the power to identify his person with Jesus on the cross, and crucifying him there with Jesus, make thus an end of him as He had made an end of his sins. Learning this blessed fact, he cries in the joy of his soul, " I am crucified with Christ" and thus he is now as free concerning himself as concerning his sins. Blessed, holy freedom! My sins trouble me no more, for Christ made atonement for them in His death; and the nature of sin and corruption I see in myself drives me no more from God, for God had identified me with Christ in death, and thus made an end of sinful me forever. So, as a sinner, I live no more, in God’s sight. I live only as in Christ and Christ in me; He is now my real life, a life in which is no sin, no blemish of any kind, and whose home is in the glory of God. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Cor. 3:4). If we walk in the enjoyment of this precious gospel of the grace of God, we shall find our chief trouble not ion our approach to God any more, but in the dense moral atmosphere of this world through which we must pass on the way to our glorious home.

Is it not also a sweet part of the gospel of God’s grace to learn that by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, we who are believers are all formed together in one Body, the Church of the living God, the Church, whose relation to Christ required for its illustration such a special creation as that of the man and the woman? And is there anything more wonderful in all the gospel than the blessed hope set before us of our being gathered above to our Lord before the fearful judgments which are to fall upon all the nations of the earth?

Indeed we might say that every phase of Christian truth is part of the gospel. The apostle could therefore write to the Romans, "I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also" (Rom. 1:15), though the faith of those to whom he wrote was "spoken of throughout the whole world" (Rom. 1"8). It is a gospel whose depths are unfathomable, because it is the gospel of God . . . concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (chap, i :1-3), and it is this which enlivens all true Christian ministry. It is all gospel work from end to end, and if this lays hold of the heart of those who minister it, it will fill them with holy courage to press it forward everywhere in spite of the opposition it meets everywhere. Some part of it may be especially pressed by one and another part by another, but "Jesus Christ our Lord" is the sum and substance of it, and so it unites in Him all who receive that gospel-a unity which is delightful to God and a true testimony before men. Oh that from all our assemblies may arise a cloud of young men, devoted, talented, educated, gifted of God- the very best, for there is nothing too good for the Lord-to carry this blessed gospel to every corner of the land; and the assemblies themselves so full of the same mind as to care for those witnesses from among them as they would care for the Lord Himself, were He here among men as He once was, dependent on what was put in His hand by those who loved Him. One of the belligerent nations of Europe recently had what they called "a victory loan," meaning by it that it was a final effort to uphold their arms for victory.

Victory for us is sure and near, for the Lord is coming. Let us too then have a " a victory loan " to carry forward His holy war-a war which harms none, but sets Satan's and sin's captives free.