common danger, namely the influence of the living truth, though enthroned in the life of a single man.

Away up in Damascus, where it is not recorded the Master ever went, his influence became so great that the financiers of Jerusalem, including the clear minded Saul of Tarsus, were convinced that the safety of their investments called for the slaying of the Christians there, even the extermination of the sect, where ever found, and the wiping out of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus came to show men how to live. This civilization has risen by a dim light of his life, shining from behind dark clouds of the law. Though he lived eighteen hundred years ago, the influence of his life, comes down over the billows of ages, which have submerged thousands of reformers, and philosophers in oblivion, so that to take his name away from our civilization, would be to rend society to its foundation. Nations become civilized, and slaves go free, as his voice is heard. The knowledge of his life will make the drunken sober, the indolent industrious, and the dishonest just. It will overcome selfishness, it is the only thing which can. 31 What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.

The knowledge of his life has never been found ineffectual to give character to the strong, strength to the weak, comfort to the sorrowing, and even while passing through the dark valley and the shadow of death. 32We have not a high priest, who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but one who was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. And though having ascended into the heavens,

"Rom. 8:3. 32 Heb. 4:15.

yet the power of that life, which perfected humanity when on earth, is still in vital communion with those in the flesh, who love God; as was mightily manifested at the Pentecost.

Whatever may have been the attending circumstances, the power by which every great civilization has risen, has been by a quickened desire for the living truth; and they fell through the selfishness excited by their abundance. The gems of grace have been found among the humble poor. The snare of the ruling class is righteousness before the law. They estimate the standing of people by their wealth and position in office, so the righteous judgment by the consciousness of the truth is denied. High civilizations make great things, they bring the interest of many into close relations, so that some must occupy positions of large trust. The great social problem immediately before us, is to live righteously amid our abundance. Of all men Jesus had the greatest trust committed to him, and the greatest temptations to gratify the lusts of the flesh placed before him; but in all things he finished the works which his father gave him to do. He lived in the Augustan age when money was in its supreme power, and the world was bound together in one political whole, yet he pleased not himself, but ever went about doing good.

Moses gave the great commandment, 88Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am Jehovah. At that time, it was impossible to have put the commandment in a better form, than that men should love their neighbors as themselves by the determinations of the holiness of the life of Jehovah in them. But the selfishness of our flesh is deceitful above all things, which makes it difficult to apply the commandment. The night before his crucifixion Jesus said; 34This is my

"Lev. 19:1 9:18. "John 15:12.

commandment, That ye love one another as I have loved you. The measure is perfect. It is much easier to follow with one in sight going on before than to find a path which has never been trod, even with the best of directions. Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His life adjusts our relation with God, and points our duty to our fellowmen, in all generations and amid all conditions. 35If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The advocate does not pay the penalty due his client, but leads him safely through to victory.

The theologian looks forward to an invisible heaven of everlasting bliss, denouncing this world as a wilderness of woe. The philosopher from his intellectual station and the moral reformer, all counting the possibilities of men by the natural powers of life; looking out upon the present and back upon the past, seeing human affections bound in selfishness, agitated, restless as the ocean, concludes that the race at best can enjoy only partial, temporary calms, but never can rest in perfect love. The prophets through the eye of faith saw the world redeemed from all sin into perfect peace and everlasting life. We see not yet all things put under the dominion of the holiness of divine life, but we see Jesus, the mightiest dynamo the world has ever felt; and who is able to subdue all things unto himself. We preach not ourselves, but we declare Christ Jesus, who wrought out perfect human salvation, and under the influence of his life, the race of men shall be brought into the same; for he must reign till he has brought all things unto him.

31 John 2:1.

J

CHAPTER XVII

OUR REGENERATION

ESUS was a real man. By the possibilities in human life he rose into the express image of the Father, equal with him in glory. His ministry rested on the great

facts, that the divine life in men is the same as that in God the Father, that he himself was a man, and that the divine life in men can be brought into perfect holiness. The theme of the apostolic preaching was that his sacrifice is our regeneration, and as he was made perfect in holiness, so should we be also;-in a word, he wrought out our salvation. That which the Old Testament writers declared was possible through the holiness of the divine life in men, and some day would be effected, the writers of the New announced had been accomplished by one Jesus of Nazareth, who became the Christ. Jesus a man approved of God by miracles; though crucified by the rulers and buried, rose from the tomb in the fullness of human salvation. This life in him, which had been desired by the patriarchs and foretold by the prophets, personally manifested by Jesus is set before us as our propitiation, for he is our elder brother and we are heirs, joint heirs with him to a crown incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for those who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time.

"The Christ" in the New Testament, is the divine life in men perfectly anointed with the holiness of spirit. Jesus was so. Paul wrote to the Colossians, 2Christ in you is the hope of

1Acts 2:22. 21 Col. 1:27.

ness.

glory. Travail as in birth till the Christ be formed in you. When the Christ which is our life shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory. "If Christ be in you, the body is dead to sin and the spirit is alive to God, because of righteous"The Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 'Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, till we all come into the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ.

"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Taken in the light of the preceding verses, this could not be a public announcement, in uniting with the company of those who professed to follow Jesus; but a life lived before men in the same manner which he did, will be accepted as righteous before our Father which is in heaven. 10 As thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us; and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one even as we are one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who being in the image of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. The equality of Jesus the Christ with the Father, shows that the life of God when made perfect in men, will not only be equal to the exercise

Gal. 4:19. *Col. 3:4. "Rom. 8:10.

'I Cor. 1:24.

'2 Pet. 3:18. Eph. 4:13.

"Math. 10:32.

10 John 17:16, 21, 22.

"Phil. 2:5-6.