undisputed possession of death's enemy-in possession of the life everlasting.

"By His one offering, Jesus hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified" (Heb. x. 14). He hath perfectly reconciled us to the Father, perfectly satisfied the law, perfectly vanquished Satan, perfectly extinguished the curse, perfectly abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light-clear from every taint of the region and shadow of death and darkness. And now, you who believe on Him, have, by Him, the Resurrection and Life, passed through death's realm in your living Head, and are numbered among the living in Jerusalem. His perfect death is your death, already past, and over, and gone. "Ye are dead, and your

life is hid with Christ in God."

The believer, then, is in present possession of everlasting life. And how great are the glories which this one fact implies! He stands personally in the favour of heaven; he stands well with God -O, how well!-even as God seeth his shield and looketh on the face of his anointed one. And in this favour of God-in this good understanding between him and his God, the very life of his soul consists: "For in Thy favour is life, and Thy loving kindness is better than life." He is a son of the King of Glory, he is an heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ; he is a member of a spiritual priesthood, of a general assembly of worshippers, officiating daily before the God of the whole earth; he is a king and priest; nor is there any end of the glorious things that are spoken of the city of God and its citizens. They have a life which, in its character, and functions, and privileges, and history, and prospects, is altogether full of glory.

But these declarations cannot be made of the present dignity and glorious estate of the sons of God, without an apparent contradiction, or objection, coming to our remembrance. Were it not for our familiarity with the fact, it would strike us as a strange incongruity—indeed, a strange presumptive argument against the truth of those exalted representations of the Christian's estate and privileges,—that he does not carry with him in the world any obvious and unmistakable stamp and evidence of his high pretensions, such as even the world's carnal eye could not fail to perceive, and dare not profess to overlook. If it be really true that the believer stands in the endearing and exalted relation of a son to the God of heaven and earth-if the King Eternal, Immortal, and Invisible speaketh with him in peace and love, and calleth him "My son":-"My son, despise not thou the

chastening of the Lord," "My son, give Me thine heart"-it might almost be expected that, living, as he now lives, a life of such near, and blessed, and glorious relationship to God, some gleam of glory should shine upon his forehead; that some stamp and seal of heavenly majesty should sit enthroned upon his countenance; that some spell or talisman of power to command disease, and poverty, and grief, and trial far away should be at all times his. No wonder, one might almost say, meditating on the high rank of a veritable son of the living God, and labouring in thought and feeling to do justice appreciatingly to what the simple but sublime designation must imply,-no wonder if, when such an one walks abroad, the Mahanaim of Jacob, the angelic hosts of God, should meet him manifestly, and throng around him, to secure his inviolable safety, to constrain acknowledgment of his princely name-more high than any name, higher than the kings of the earth. No wonder if his face should shine with palpable irradiation of heavenly glory, as once, with one noble son of God, from the mount of communion with his Father (Ex. xxxiv. 1-29). Nay, no wonder (for it were but in keeping with, it were only in seemly celebration of an heir's infeftment,-infeftment in all nature, in all things as his own) though, on his moving forth beneath the canopy of heaven, and amidst the loveliness of earth, the very music of the spheres should break forth, and greet, with exulting welcome, the child of God,—though the hills were heard rejoicing on every side, and the forests clapped their hands.

But it is not so. Nature greets alike the righteous and the wicked, as they move amidst nature's mighty elements, and nature's rich adornature. And no lambent flame tarries on the Christian's brow, to tell the world the secret of his high adoption. And no talisman is his, by which to charm suffering and sorrow far away. Nor is there any visible display afforded, giving overpowering evidence of the life and the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled to which he has been begotten, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

And our text prepares us to expect this. It says, Look not for any carnal, constraining index of the glory that pertains to your new life in Christ, so long as you are here. Expect not that your life-glorious, everlasting, blessed though it be-should overflow into obvious manifestations of its surpassing glory. On the contrary, in any such sense, it is to remain altogether secret; it is to remain, while you are here, a hidden life. "Your life is hid with Christ in God;" and only " when Christ, who is your life,"

shall Himself no more be hidden from this world, within the veil, but "shall appear" again, and every eye shall see him,-only then shall your life break forth in palpable, unbounded, and constraining evidence of its glory-then only shall ye also "appear," or be made manifest, "with him in glory" (Col. iii. 4).

Viewing the life of faith, then, as a hidden life, there are three of its characteristics which seem to court our attention.

I. Being hidden, it is secure. II. Being hidden, it is secluded. III. Being hidden, its manifestation is delayed.

I. The hidden life is a secure life; it is safe. And O, how safe, considering where it is laid up-considering with whom we share it! It is laid up in God: "Your life is hid in God." It is shared with Christ: "Hid with Christ in God." It is hid in God, in the inaccessible depths of Godhead-inaccessible to every eye save the eye of faith, which, seeing in the light of God's Word, and God's Spirit, enters with safety, and penetrates among the things and thoughts of God only wise. This life is hid with God; for "with Thee, O God, is the fountain of life," and "in Thy favour is life." Yea, it is that secret life in God--that unspeakable favour of God-possessed by Emmanuel himself, which believers share. Their life is bound up with Christ, "hid with Christ in God." Yea, more, Christ is their life; for we read that "He who is your life shall appear." Christ himself is their life. For all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him, and the fountain of life which Godhead only yields. And seeing that God the Son, in mediatorial fellowship with the Father in our name, enjoys in our name the favour of God-surely, if Divine favour is life, Christ, the eminently favoured one, the beloved, must be our life. God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son O, then, draw near, and by Christ, the open door-the door into the deep things of God—the door into the Father's opened heart of love-the door into the otherwise hopelessly concealed mysteries of Godhead unapproachable,—behold the overflowing, the exhaustless fulness of your life! Let faith, seeing by the lamp of God's Word, as it testifies of Christ, not shrink from looking into the opened recesses of the mind and love of Godhead-into the rich and sovereign favour of God, wherein all our real life standeth-into the loving kindness which is better than life.

Behold where that love, that life, hath its ceaseless, ever

flowing fountain! Behold who drinketh the rivers of these pleasures! Deep as the depths of Eternal, All-sufficient Deity, boundless as the infinite loving heart of God, appropriated and enjoyed by Christ himself, your elder brother, is that hidden life in the favour of God, which, believing on His Son, you unfailingly can call your own.

Within this veil your life is hid. And how glorious the life that is here, though as yet not breaking out in glory perceptible to sense,―accessible, as yet, only to your faith! Are you ready to complain of the difficulty of getting to your own life, because it is so hidden? Yea, but consider how safe it is. Outside that secret veil, within which your life abides, and realised-consciously enjoyed only when ye yourselves, by faith, are within the veil,outside, the tumult of sin, of Satan, of worldly foes, of sad temptations, fightings, fears, may rage; but within, your life is safe. The waves may dash themselves on the bulwarks by which your life is protected, but not even a tinge of their broken, baffled spray can light within. The sound of war may prevail around, but within, immeasureable peace broodeth evermore; sounds of sweetest love and joy alone are there; thou shalt call its walls "Salvation," and its gates "Praise." Did you ever enter in by faith within the veil and get a new view and new enjoyment of your life, "hidden there with Christ in God;" and did you ever on any such blest occasion, find your life damaged, or diminished, or endangered? You never did. You always found that it was safe. Outside, while you tarried perversely from your secret home, your soul may have withered, cleaving to the dust; the heavenly life may have seemed to be waning to extinction; your actual sense and enjoyment of it may have been greatly diminished. But when you came again, in self-condemning, self-renouncing faith, within the veil; when you came again with Christ to God, to dwell with Christ in God, to live with Christ in God, you found your hidden life all safe, altogether unviolated, without deterioration, and without decay,without spot or blemish, or any such thing. For within that glorious asylum, where your new life in Jesus is concealed, no evil ever reacheth to prey upon the vitals of your life, to dry up its fountain, to embitter its ever-flowing streams, to taint those waters that flow forth from the throne of God and of the Lamb. No adverse influence dwelleth there, and you can carry none in along with you. On the very threshold, sprinkled by the atoning blood-and "in the blood is the life"-you do, by

virtue of that blood, leave behind you the guilt that entaileth death; you pass in, delivered from all condemnation; and in your renewed believing view of that precious blood, your love of all known sin as well as the guilt of all your sin, vanisheth utterly, and you pass in with a true heart and an upright mind, not regarding iniquity in your heart. And no enemy of your salvation can accompany your believing heart within, or follow to disturb. No enemy can find that door. Your enemies may grope for it, as the blind, but they find it not. You have a safe retreat, where your life is safe. "Come, O My people, enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast!"

How often, in holy Scripture, do we hear the Lord assuring His people of the perfect, inviolable security of their life, which is hid in Him! "No weapon that is formed against thee shall ever prosper. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the floods, they shall not overflow thee." And how often do we find His people triumphing, with songs of exultation, in the hidden security which with Christ in God they enjoy! "Thou art my hiding-place; Thou shalt keep me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me with songs of deliverance. Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him." "Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies that compass me about. For Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Thy tabernacle. I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. Yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge, till these calamities be overpast.”

Most blessed privilege! to have a spiritual, secret, near asylum, a strong tower, into which the righteous runneth and is safe! Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword endanger the hidden life? Nay; for all evils, all enemies stand without; while within, the believing soul is altogether save,-safe as Christ is safe, safe with Christ in God. It is from within this hidden retreat that the voice of limitless defiance of all evil, the bold assertion of limitless security, issues:-"In the time of trouble he shall hide me in His pavilion, and now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me." It is from within that David, looking upon the trials and evils in his house, as being all without, exclaims: "Though my house be not so with God, yet He hath made with