done? "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall continue [or abide] in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."

Here we learn the wondrous truth that we are called to the very same kind of obedience as that which our adorable Lord and Saviour rendered to the Father, when He walked as a man on this earth. We are brought into full fellowship with Himself, both in the love wherewith we are loved, and the obedience which we are privileged to render. This is most blessedly confirmed by the Spirit in the First Epistle of Peter, where Christians are spoken of as "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Chapter i. 2.

Let the reader carefully note this. We are elected of the Father, and sanctified by the Spirit to obey as Jesus obeyed. Such is the plain teaching of the passage. That blessed One found His meat and drink in doing the Father's will. His only motive for acting was the Father's will. "I delight to do thy will, O my God." There was no opposing element in Him, as there is, alas! in us. But, blessed be His name! He has linked us with Himself, and called us into blessed fellowship, both in the Father's love to Him, and in His obedience to the Father.

Marvellous privilege! Would that we appreciated it more! Oh, that we rendered a more loving obedience to all His precious commandments and sayings, that so He might manifest Himself to us, and make His abode with us. Blessed Lord, do make us more obedient in

all things!

99

REFLECTIONS ON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE.

We now return to the doxology in our epistle. The apostle, as we have seen, is not occupied in this epistle with the great outlines of truth, or with the work and efficacy of redemption, as Paul in the Epistle to the Romans; or with the nature and unity of the church of God, as in Ephesians. Nevertheless, he finds that in his communications which fills his heart with the most sweet and comely praise. It is really the manifestation of what God is Himself, and in His marvellous and gracious dealings with man, that fills the Christian's heart with wonder and adoration. The Christian is expected to sing praises with the heart and with the understanding, and that continually. "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks. unto his name." Hebrews xiii. 15.

Having traced, in the most energetic style, the crafty devices of the enemy, the corruption of the church, the apostasy and judgment of false professors; and having also pointed out the narrow path for the faithful, and the plain duty of every individual believer, our apostle now turns to God, in whom all his confidence is placed, and his heart rises in gratitude and praise as he contemplates His faithful love and tender care. "Now

unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

While it is quite true that the people of God in all

ages will be surely brought to heaven, and dwell in the presence of His glory for ever, we believe there is a special promise of blessing in this passage to those who are waiting for Christ to come and take them up to be with Him where He is. The christian character can never be fully formed without this hope. Hence the mighty difference, both as to inward blessedness and outward development of christian character, when this hope rules in all things. "Every man," says John, "that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure." Not that he is pure as Christ is pure, but Christ is his standard, and he purifies himself as He is pure. What is to govern the affections, what is to subdue the will, what is to wither up the glory of this world, if the Person and return of Christ are not before the believer as the very sum and substance of his Christianity? The believer that thinks the coming of the Lord means nothing more than His coming for us at death, can scarcely rise above the hope of being saved at last, and is often afflicted with doubts and fears. Besides, the scriptures speak of Christ coming a second time," whereas, if He came for believers at their death, He must have come millions of times.

When Christ, risen and glorified, is before the soul as its all-governing object, the Holy Ghost feeds and nourishes that soul as with the marrow and fatness of the truth of God. By the teaching of the Holy Spirit he sees that blessed One in the glory as his life and righteousness in the presence of God. And if Christ be his righteousness there, absolute perfection is his; he must be presented without blame before God. And if Christ be his life, he has a divine capacity to enjoy

those things which are above, where Christ sitteth, and not only with joy, but with exceeding joy. Conscious union with the Head will also be a present result of the Holy Ghost in us, and a desire to walk consistently therewith.

"the way in

"It is important to observe," says one, which the Spirit of God speaks, in the epistles, of a power that can keep us from every fall, and unblameable; so that a thought only of sin is never excusable. It is not that the flesh is not in us, but that, with the Holy Ghost acting in the new man, it is never necessary that the flesh should act or influence our life. (Compare 1 Thess. v. 22.) We are united to Christ, He represents us before God, He is our righteousness. But at the same time, He who, in His perfection, is our righteousness is also our life; so that the Spirit aims at the manifestation of this same perfection, practical perfection, in the daily life. He who says, I abide in him, ought to walk as he walked.' The Lord also says, Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.'

Thus Jude winds up his brief epistle by bringing before us our present position of security and blessing, and our future of joy and glory, in full conformity to the image of the blessed Lord Himself. "We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Oh, that these precious words, with which Jude closes his epistle, may challenge every heart that reads them! Christ? Am I rejoicing in the hope of being presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceed

Am I thus waiting for

* Synopsis, vol. v., page 514.

ing joy? Am I keeping myself in the love of God? Am I building up myself on my most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, and looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life?

May the Lord bless His own word to our souls, keep us from every kind of failure, enabling us to glorify Him in our walk and conversation, so shall we ascribe unto Him the glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen.

GOD'S LOVE AND MAN'S WORLD.

JOHN's first Epistle brings out the contrast of the Father's heart and the world very distinctly. In it the world is characterised by seven things: in chapter ii. 16 it is a

LUSTFUL WORLD.

Man's eye, ear, and heart are all tainted with the corrupt lusts of the world, which drown men in perdition. Notwithstanding all the learning and refinement abroad, the root of evil is untouched, the bad soil of the human heart producing the noxious weeds of uncleanness, fornication, idolatry, and lasciviousness.

In the second place, in chapter ii. 17, we learn that it is a

TRANSIENT WORLD.

Its pleasures are only for a season, its sins have their termination, its hopes are blighted, its ambition disappointed - evanescent, passing, transient is stamped upon it; the feet which trod the earth gaily, soberly, or sadly a century ago, now, for the most part, lie mouldering in the cold, silent grave.