tion of this world, he determined that its inhabi-
tants should be holy. "According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love." Eph. 1:4. For this rea-
son he created man in his own image-in his
own moral likeness. And this image of God
in which man was created and to which he is
restored by the all-transforming and sanctify-
ing grace of God is "righteousness and true
holiness" (Eph. 4:23). "After God" must
mean after the original pattern in which man
was created-after the moral likeness of his
own Maker, which is defined as "righteousness
and true holiness." Col. 3: 9, 10, leaves us no
shadow of a doubt that this original God-like-
ness, from which we have the word "godli-
ness,
"is restored to the soul of man here in
this life: "Seeing that ye have put off the old
man [evil nature] with his deeds; and have put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him." Here
we see that salvation in the second Adam brings
back the holy image of God that man lost by
sin in the first Adam.

This moral perfection in man is essential to

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the very object of his being. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." Lev. 19: 1, 2. "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." 1 Pet. 1: 15, 16. Can any thoughtful mind read these words without receiving the impression that God created man to enjoy the blessing of fellowship and companionship with him? to enjoy the society of God and to be a "worker together with him" in carrying forward his beneficent plans? The imperative command is, "Be ye holy"; and the one great and all-sufficient reason for the injunction is, "Because I the Lord your God am holy." The import of the reason is this: Man was created to walk with God. God being holy, man also must be holy; otherwise there can be no affinity between God and man, no adaptation to each other's society. Therefore when our first parents by sin lost their holiness of heart, the image of God, they were spoiled for his heavenly society. They dreaded his approach, and hid with fear and trembling when

they heard his voice. They having now become unholy, his holiness drove them out from his presence. And let it here be considered that as heaven is filled with the holiness and presence of God, it is the utmost folly and delusion to cherish a hope of entering into its ineffable glory unless one is made perfect and spotless in holiness before God. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord"; but "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

For this great object was the church established here on earth. She is the mountain of God's own holiness, and her plane of moral perfection is the plane of heaven. She is all one "family in heaven and earth," so that all who are in fellowship with her are in fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3), and are consequently fitted for the enjoyment of all the holy society of heaven. The church of the living God is paradise restored on earth, a "new creation." No person can enter it except through salvation from all sin, and no person can remain in the church after he ceases to be holy, any more than Adam and Eve could remain in Eden after they had

become corrupted by sin. As their own sin made the presence of God unendurable and necessarily drove them out, so "every branch in Christ that bringeth not forth good fruit, the Father taketh away." There are, then, no unholy branches in the Christ-vine. "For if the first-fruit [Christ] be holy; . . . so are the branches." Rom. 11:16.

Persons belonging to the different religious organizations that men have founded, it is said, ought to be holy; but all the members of God's church are holy. When members of a modern sect are judged unworthy of membership, it is in the power of its rulers, by some course prescribed in their discipline, to expel such; but when men become unfit to dwell in the body of Christ, they thereby forfeit their membership, and, so to speak, expel themselves. God's church is self-adjusting. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." "He that committeth sin is of the devil." 1 John 3:6, 8. By the act of sinning he transfers himself from the family of God to the family of Satan. "As the root is holy, so are also the branches." Therefore the unholy are not branches at all.

The chief end of man's existence is to wor

ship the Lord. But how must a holy God be worshiped? Answer: "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Psa. 29: 2. "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; fear before him all the earth." Psa. 96: 9. The same in substance is required by the Savior in the absolute demand, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." Since God's church is on the plane of spiritual worship to God, it is holy in his sight.

'Where

The church is also seen to be holy unto God because he walks in the midst of her. two or three meet in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' 'And I will manifest myself unto you as I do not unto the world.' These and similar statements show a social communion between God and his people in the new Jerusalem, which is the church of the first-born; and holiness is just as essential now to the enjoyment of the society of God as it was when its loss drove Adam and Eve from his pres

ence.

But still more strikingly does the holiness of God's church on earth appear when we consider it as the actual dwelling-place of God. "In whom ye also are builded together for a habi