The believer loves holiness. Having been born of God, the divine nature is in him, so that he delights in those things in which God finds His delight. This is what the Christian is normally; while at the same time the old evil nature is still in him, and will be, until he is either put to sleep by Jesus, or rises in company with the myriads of the redeemed to meet the Lord on the cloud. For that blessed event God has already wrought every believer in Jesus, and sealed him with the Spirit as the earnest of it (2 Cor. 5:5).

In the life of our Lord Jesus here upon earth, we get manhood according to the thoughts of God. That life is the perfect pattern for the believer. Adam, the first man, aspired to be as God and fell; Christ, the Second Man, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, for He was God; but having taken manhood for service and obedience, He went down to the lowest possible point, even to the death of the cross. Eternal life in the child of God gives him capacity for the apprehension and the enjoyment of the ways of Jesus in this world; and the Holy Spirit also is given him to enable him for this, and to reproduce in his life those traits which were seen in perfection in the Lord Jesu's down here.

In 2 Cor. 3:18 we read:-" But 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." In the earlier part of this chapter the apostle contrasts two ministries-that of death and condemnation with that of the Spirit and righteousness (vers. 8, 9)-in a word, it is the difference between law and grace. The child of God cannot be too well established as to this. The apprehension of it lies at the foundation of all true Christian progress.

When God gave the law to Israel it was meant to be a perfect standard of human conduct. In Exod. 19:4-6 we read:"Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people :for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation."Up to this, everything had depended upon Jehovah's faithfulness, and all was well with them. Instead of requesting that He should continue to go on with them on the same ground, they, in effect, accepted the principle that their blessing was in future to depend upon their conduct. Fatal choice! "All the people answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (ver. 8).Another has well stated the principle of law to be that it makes the disposition of God towards me to depend upon what I am towards Him. Israel had to learn-all men have to learn-that upon that ground there is no hope whatever.

When Moses came down from the mount the second time with the two tables of the law he wist not that the skin of his face shone and, till he had done speaking with the people, he put a vail on his face. Why? Because "the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance" (a Cor. 3:7).

The glory that shone in the face of Moses was connected with the further revelation which God was giving of Himself. But the sight of that glory made the children of Israel conscious that they could not stand before Him and meet the righteous demands which the law made upon them. And it is of the utmost importance to see that the law was not given in order that man should get either life or righteousness by it. Says the apostle, " I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 3:21). And, " If there had been a law given which could have given life, then, verily, righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. 3:21). On the contrary, the law ministered death and condemnation:'' For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them " (Gal. 3:10). The law, therefore was the "ministration of death," convicting us of transgression, and shutting us up to Christ for salvation (Gal. 3:24).

But the Spirit now ministers righteousness to man, and is connected with a glorified Christ. Christ, in fulness of grace, has been down here and completed the blessed work of redemption. In consequence He is now glorified, and His face is radiant with the display of all that God is. Do we ask that a veil be put on His face ? Far be the thought. The Christian welcomes the shining of that glory into his soul, because it witnesses to him how completely Christ's blessed work has put all his sins away, and given him a standing before God in righteousness. The more the believer is looking upon the face of Christ in glory, the happier he is. And a marvelous effect is produced; the believer is changed morally into the likeness of the One upon whose face he is looking. For a man is morally what he is occupied with. The object he pursues forms and characterizes him. The Spirit of the Lord produces that blessed transformation. We see a bright example of this in Stephen as he stood before the Jewish council:"All that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15). How so ? The answer is to be found in the object which absorbed him:" He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God " (Acts 7:55, 56).

Here is a living sample, in a man of like passions with ourselves, of the transforming power of looking upon the unveiled face of Christ in glory. And, as they stoned Stephen, he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:60). What conformity to Christ! How like his blessed Master !

It might be well to observe here, in passing, that we have in this utterance of Stephen, practically, a divine definition of what it is to "be filled with the Spirit. This is of immense importance in these days when there are so many vagaries of the human mind afloat as to this precious truth. The Spirit's normal office is to occupy the heart and mind of the Christian with '' the glory of God and Jesus." What a profound and blessed occupation! Being so occupied, how utterly impossible that the believer should desire to find his joy or pleasure in what this poor world has to offer.

Now let me ask, Where are we finding our delight ? By dying for us, the Lord Jesus has laid our whole beings under tribute to Himself. I would urge my young readers especially to seek a growing acquaintance with Him. In retracing His lowly pathway among men we see a perfect pattern of every excellence and moral beauty. The Father found all His delight in His beloved Son as man in this world, and the same blessed One is presented to us for our delight. As we feed upon Him thus, our hearts are kept in perfect peace and carried safely through all the circumstances of the pilgrim path. And, on the other hand, occupation with Christ in glory is the Holy Spirit's way to transform us morally into Christ's likeness, giving us the needed energy to press on, counting for Him all else but loss.
A devoted and much used servant of the Lord used to say, The secret of peace within and power without is to be always and only occupied with Christ. So be it in ever-increasing measure with writer and reader.

"O fix our earnest gaze
So wholly, Lord, on Thee,
That, with Thy beauty occupied,
We elsewhere none may see."

J. R. Elliot