"Walk about Zion, and go round about her:tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces:that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever:He will be our guide even unto death" (Ps. 48:12,13).

So cried the psalmist exultingly. Zion is the city of kingly grace. It was the place where the plague was stayed when the sacrifice was offered. The strength and beauty of the city were the delight of the godly Jew. He contemplated it with care. He circled its walls, numbered its towers, marked its bulwarks and considered its palaces, so that others might be spoken to concerning it.

This was the case for Israel of old, and so it will be for Israel in the coming day of Christ.

For us today our blessings are of a heavenly character. The Messiah has been rejected, and God has taken occasion by His being refused to call out the Church, the bride of Christ, to be His companion when He sits on the throne of His kingdom glory. Kingly grace, indeed!

But in the spirit of the exhortation we do well to "count our blessings," to consider well that which is ours. Never can we number all these privileges. The treasure is inexhaustible, for all "the fulness of the blessing of the Christ" is our portion. Still we can occupy ourselves profitably with some of the "all spiritual blessings" which are ours. Shall we do so, taking up the word blessings, and linking the items we consider with the letters forming the word? Let us begin with

BELOVED

We are "beloved of God, saints by calling" (Rom. 1:7). Downy pillows these upon which to place our wearied heads. "Beloved of God, saints by calling." Weigh well the words.

We can understand Christ being beloved. We hear the Father's voice, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." But that we who were sinners far from God, with no righteousness, no goodness, no merit whatsoever, that we should be beloved-at this we may well marvel.

Of the Lord's love to Israel Moses exultingly cried, "Yea, He loved the people." Now why did Jehovah love Israel? Just because He loved them. "The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:but because the Lord loved you." He loved because He would love, and not because they deserved His love.

And so it is that we are beloved of God. He has chosen to love us, and loves us in spite of what we have been, and of what we are. Then we are

LIBERATED

We are set free in freedom and are called to "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free" (Gal. 5:1). We were bound by the cord of our sins. Struggle and strive as we would we could not deliver ourselves. We needed a Strong One to save us from sin's chains. Christ alone was "Mighty to save," and He, the Son of God, became Man to die for us in order that He might free us from every foe and from every fear. None other could do it, but He has done it for all who come to Him. It was He who said, "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." He liberates us from the prison. He liberates us for the palace. He opens the prison-doors for our escape, and He opens the door of present and everlasting privilege for our entrance. Then we are

EXALTED

to highest favor. "Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted," says James (1:9). We are brought into highest honor. We can sing, "Unto Him that loves us and loosed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen." Beloved, liberated, exalted to kingship and priesthood,

"Favors these nor few nor small."

Already we are of the royal family of heaven. We belong to the highest court in the universe. We have not on our court-dress yet, but we shall have that soon. Bodies of glory like the body of our Lord Jesus are to be ours at His coming.

Great indeed is our exaltation. "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory" (1 Sam. 2:8). From the dust of sin and the dunghill of corruption He raises us to the place of dominion and delight. We are

SANCTIFIED

We are set apart to God, set apart to holy service. Not our own, we are "bought with a price," that we may glorify God in our bodies. 1 Cor. 6:9,10 shows the awful depths of the evil from which the sinner is brought by the grace of God. But there is added, "And such were some of you:but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

"Washed," cleansed from all pollution.

"Sanctified," set apart to the service of God.

"Justified," cleared from every charge so that we may be happy in that service.

When the firstborn had been delivered from the destroying angel on the night of the passover in Egypt, he was not set free to do his own pleasure. He was "Set apart unto the Lord" (see Exod. 13:12). He was sanctified for the service of Him who had saved him.

So, as we have noticed, we who are "beloved of God" are called saints. We are sanctified ones by the call of God. Besides this we are

SONS

of God, brought unto holy, happy relationship with Him as our Father. The Holy Spirit indwells us. He bears witness with our spirit that we are God's children. He begets in our hearts the cry, "Abba, Father." He leads "us in the way of God's good pleasure. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Not only are we sinners saved by grace. We are that and never shall we forget the grace that has saved us. But we were "brought out" that we might be "brought in." Our sinnership is closed, and closed forever before God. Now He deals with us as sons. Loving us He leads us. If necessary He chastens us. But it is as sons He ever views us. He marked us out for this, for adoption, for sonship, "by Jesus Christ to Himself," that He might have us near to Himself now and soon have us in His home-the Father's house on high. We are in His heart of love. We are in His hand of power. We shall be in His house of joy forever. And ours is heirship also. We are

INHERITORS

of boundless property and wealth. "If children then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). Wonderful our portion! To share with Christ in that which He has won by His cross of shame!

And our inheritance is "incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away." Unlike all inheritances on earth, it cannot be spoiled or marred in any way, and it never passes from our possession. It is reserved in heaven for us. It is set apart for our enjoyment there while we are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.' Kept as with a garrison in a fort, a garrison powerful enough to repel every enemy, the "power of God" maintaining our faith from day to day until the hour of Christ's coming and kingdom.

We are part of a new creation, having been

NEW CREATED

in Christ Jesus. "If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature"-there is a new creation altogether. It is not that the old has been patched up or mended. We are new born, we have a new nature, and the Holy Ghost given to us begets new desires and aspirations altogether. But we do well to remember that we are "created in Christ unto good works." The result of the new life and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is new fruit for God for His pleasure and glory. In that new creation all is of God-we are His workmanship entirely, and altogether for His glory and pleasure. We have been

GIVEN

to Christ by the Father, to be peculiarly "His own."

Again and again this thought is presented in the Gospel of John. Our Lord Jesus delighted in the fact that "His own" were the gift of His Father's love to Him. In the hour of His rejection He could say to His rejecters, "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). By His grace, we who believe are numbered among His sheep, and of them He said, "My Father which gave them Me, is greater than all:and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one" (10:29, 30). Again in chapter 17, in our Lord's prayer for His own, He speaks of their being given to Him by the Father. Well may we rejoice in the privilege of being among the company thus honored in being "given out of the world" by the Father to the Son of His delight, that we should be the delight of the Son Himself while we delight in Him.

SERVICE

is the last of the blessings we shall consider. For this, as we have seen, we have been sanctified.

High honor is ours in being permitted now to serve the living and true God. In this we anticipate the time when "His servants shall serve Him," seeing His face and His name being in their foreheads.

The consciousness of the blessedness we have dwelt upon sets the believer free from every fear and leads us to respond with hearts uplifted in praise and worship. We know Him revealed in His grace. We love Him because He has first loved us, and loving Him we adore Him.

This, our holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, is one of our highest privileges, and will be ours eternally. "Priests unto God and our Father," we shall be for ever on high.

As royal priests we are allowed to show forth His excellencies in a world which knows Him not, and to bear the tidings of His grace to others, telling it to a generation following.

Worshiping and witnessing-these our portion now until that glad hour when in the presence and likeness of our Lord we enjoy rest with Himself. Then it shall be:

"Rest, Lord, in serving Thee,
As none have served below;
Oh, through that blest eternity
What tides of praise shall flow."

Thus we have considered some of our manifold blessings. How vast and varied they are! May we enjoy them better and answer to them more fully, while we exult and say:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ." Inglis Fleming