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reading of it so as to enter into the very thoughts, and feelings, and ideas of that friend-between reading it to get merely the information that it contains, and reading it so as to catch the very spirit of your friend, and to be able to place your self in the self-same position in reference to the subject of which it treats, as he was himself when he wrote it. To read the letter thus is to enter into the secret of your friend, to enter into his secret place. You have views, and sympathies, and feelings all in common with him. Apply this to the Word of God. There are some who read it through chapter by chapter, and verse by verse, who have a large amount of superficial biblical knowledge, but who know comparatively nothing of its grand, glorious, momentous secrets. There are others who so read it that they grasp the real meaning, the grand spiritual realities that underlie its utterances; they so read it that they catch the very spirit of its Divine Author, so that the views formed and the feelings kindled towards the subjects of which it treats, are the same as God's. They look at them from God's point of view. Such may be said to enter into the secret of God, or into "the secret place of the most High." See again here is communion with God. It has its secret. You know the difference between talking to a friend and having communion with him. There are some into whose souls you can never enter. They may talk away glibly enough and long enough upon common-place matters. But here your sympathy and intercourse end; you have no consciousness of any outflowing of soul, or commingling of spirit. But there is another between whom and yourself intercourse will become so real and so mutual that he will give you back thought for thought, and feeling for feeling. That other soul seems to be a fac-simile of your own; the resemblance is so close and faithful, that you can read his thoughts, and feelings, and purposes by your own. By such intercourse you enter into the secret of your friend-into the secret place of his heart. Apply this to communion with God. There are some who say their prayers very regularly and very devoutly. So far as outward decorum and forms of speech are con

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cerned, they are faultless. But communion with God there is none; they leave their closet as they enter it. They go through a cold form, or satisfy the sense of duty, but any outfiowing, or uplifting of soul to God, there is none. There are others whose communion with Heaven is a sublime reality. The very presence of the Heavenly Father is consciously enjoyed. As such an one comes forth from the chamber of communion, you can see in his very countenance and hear in his very words, that his soul has been flowing out towards God, and that God has been flowing into his soul. The words uttered may have been but few, but there has been such a loving, confiding, filial opening of the heart before Heaven, that its glory has been beaming down with full power upon, and its joys streaming with full volume into, it. By such communion as this you are for the time under the direct power and influence of heaven, you are attracted into the inner circle of God's friendship, you have a foretaste of heaven's ecstatic rapture and joy...

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You know the difference between possessing a friend's respect and enjoying a friend's love. There are some whom you respect and esteem, but who have no place in your warm and ardent affection; and they may respect and esteem you, but you have no enjoyment of their love. When you meet you are polite, respectful, courteous to each other, but that is all.

There are others towards whom you feel a fond attachment, a union of heart, tendrils of affection laying hold of each other's being, with a grasp tender and loving, but firm and inseparable. Apply this to the love of God. There are some, and we fear professing Christians too, whose feelings towards God are those of respectful and polite reserve. They know nothing of living in the love of God. They never approach God nearer than that of a respectful and polite subject to his sovereign. But there are others who get into

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his very heart. They are children. They cultivate kindred sympathies, kindred tastes, kindred inspirations. They foster a tender, loving, filial spirit. The word "Father" on their lips, and in their hearts, is a sublime and glorious reality. They feel the loving, gracious emotions of his heart throbbing in their own. So real is their conception and realization of God's love, that never a fear, doubt, or misgiving crosses their minds, or conceals the smiles of his favour. Such enter into the secret of God's love; they breathe the atmo sphere of God's love, they feel the inspiration of God's love, they feed their souls upon God's love. They dwell in God's

heart.

See again. Here is the purpose of God. It has its secret. And you know the difference between a mere acquaintance with the purposes of others and a knowledge of them that awakens our deep interest, and that kindles our profound and active sympathy. We know the purposes and intentions of many men, but we feel little or no interest in them, it is a matter of indifference to us whether they succeed or fail. There are others with whom we have so closely identified ourselves, that their purposes are our purposes, and their success or failure ours. Apply this to the purpose of God. There are some who feel little or no interest in that which lies close to God's heart, engages his profoundest sympathies, and employs his untiring energies. They have never entered into that purpose, never felt its vital importance, never conceived its glorious design. Never seriously considered whether by their lives and actions they were co-operating with God,

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or opposing Him. But there are others who have so closely identified themselves with God's purpose, who enter into it with such a thoroughness of heart, that it is the great centre to which every line of thought, of feeling, of intention, and of sympathy converges. The purpose of God they adopt as the supreme business of life, so that their aims, intentions and labours are God's; they are co-workers with God, or, in other words, God is working to secure his purpose with them and by them. Of such it may be said they have entered the secret place of God. They live the very life of God. Their impulses are identified with the impulses of God, their sympathies with the sympathies of God, their works with the works of God, their achievements and triumphs with the achievements and triumphs of God. "They dwell in the secret place of the most High."

Secondly: The attitude.

"He that dwelleth." We need not detain you here. To dwell means a fixed, settled, habitual mode of life. It must be so with our conduct in reference' to God's word, God's friendship, God's love, and God's purpose. We must dwell in them, live in them, abide in them. We must ask for no holiday, no leave of absence, there must be no departure. But this we shall neither wish nor desire. Of God's word we shall say, "Oh, how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day!" Communion with God will be the richest, sweetest exercise of our souls. His love will be the source of our purest enjoyments, and His purpose the one business of life.

Thirdly: How attained. How can we reach and take up our abode in this the very heart of God? Christ supplies the answer, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Let us look, then, at the four particulars in the light of this gospel principle. (1.) It is through Christ that we reach and dwell in the secret place of God's word. Christ is the key to that word." Christ in the glory of his person-the depth of his humiliation-the agony of his sufferings-the sacrifice of his life, accomplishing the purpose of the Father, in the destructio

of sin and the redemption of our race. Read in this light, contemplated in this mirror, examined by this key, and you read and comprehend God's truth in God's light. The Spirit of God, by whose agency and teaching God's word was written, is the spirit of Christ, catching the spirit of Christ; God's book is a revelation, not a mystery, a revelation that conducts you straight to the heart of God. (2.) It is through Christ that we reach and dwell in the secret place of God's communion. Christ, Christ's mediation, Christ's word, Christ's spirit is "the new and living way." There are some things upon which there can be no communion between God and our spirits. They are far up and above all finite comprehension; they must for ever remain hidden in the depths of the Divine mind. But the things of Christ are common to God and us; we can talk about them, we have a common interest in them-it is by them that we have been brought together. They are a common ground upon which we can meet, "the mercy seat" where God can commune with us, the medium through which God can bless us, and through which we can receive and enjoy God's blessing. "The things of Christ," the thoughts and teachings, the temptations, the actions, the sufferings, and the death of Christ, are all subjects upon which there can be the closest and the most engrossing communion with God, upon which our thoughts can mingle with God's thoughts, in which our feelings can commingle with God's feelings. In Christ God and we are one. (3.) It is through Christ that we reach and dwell in the secret place of God's love. In the life and character of Christ, God the Father is revealed to us. We see that the love and regard and care and sympathy which the earthly parent fosters and displays are the rays, the throbbings, the breathings of the great Heavenly Parent. That the highest, noblest, the greatest thing we are ready to do for our children is but a dim reflection, a faint resemblance of what the Heavenly Father is ready to do for us. In the prompting motive, the sustaining power, and the ultimate design of Christ's earthly life of humiliation, suffering, temptation,

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