2. The Abiding of Christ in the Church, (u- in the individual believer. — Our Lord's teaching as to the Abiding in Him refers even more closely to the Church than to the individual. Jn 14 and 15 are penetrated through and through by Pente-
ABIJAH
ABOMINATIOX OF DESOLATION*
costal tliouglit ami Pentecostal exjiectations. Christ looked eagerly forward to the birthday of the Spirit-be."a-ing body. He could and does, indeed, fully abide in the heart of each individual believer J but that believer is not a mere unit standing solitary and iinsupjiorted. The indivi- dual disciple will be a terrible loser unless he realize his incorporation, his oneness -with the universal liody, the body of Christ. But as if to make sure that this great truth should never escape His own down the ages, Christ introduces the great figure of the Vine and the branches ( 15'"'^). The vine was ah'eady the symbol of the ancient Church ; * Clirist speaks of Himself as the true, the ideal Vine. But it is as a formula incomplete without the complement of v.^ ' I am the Vine, ye are the branches.' As a vine is inconceivable without branches,! so in all devoutness it may be said He is inconceivable without His disciples. Again, they draw their life from abiding in Him. The life may be imperfectly realized, the fruitage may be disappointing, it may be nothing but leaves (Mt 21'") ; the task of discipline, or of cleansing {Kaeaipuv, Jn 15='-) is in the hands of the Great Husbandman. Tlius as in ancient Israel union with tlie Church nation was the condition of life, so in the new dispensation the condition of life was to be the abiding in Christ. As apart from the vine the branches are useless since the living sap is therein no longer, so separated from Christ there can be no productiveness in Christian lives. St. John bears record of one more thought of the highest consolation to Christian liearts. There is a true analogy and correspondence between the abiding of Christ in the Father and the abiding of believers in Him (15'°). Our abidings in Christ, often so sadly brief, uncertain, precarious, through the consequences of sin, have still their sublime counterpart in the abiding of Christ in the Father.
3. The issues of the Abiding. —We have seen that the Abiding finally depends upon the Spirit's work, whether in the Church or in the individual heart. The first fruit of that Spirit is love. The Spirit moves in this sphere. He manifests and expresses
Himself in love the indwelling, n of a fruitful i- Johannine teaih the hi>nrt< of ).. ' mental :in, ,
(1 Co 1.; I
action. >i . .1
truth wliLU uu > strictly correlatei
Thus lr)\e furnishes the test of truly .1^ it contains the pledge II'. A' ri'idiiig, moreover, to ■J. l!ii< \i.vc spread abroad in ^■;- i- ii..t .-i stagnant or senti- ''I I li" I :i~;il or abiding virtues -I I" lause of its fruitful n I iii~ another aspect of this J^^^ iliai. oljcdience and love are (Jn 15'"). This love is seen in action. It doeth the will, and the reward of such loving obedience is final and complete. Those who in this dutiful and allcctionate temper keep the commandments are raised hy Christ from the base of bond-service to tlie height of friendship. It is enough — the fiat has gone forth— 'such ones I have called friends. 'J
Christ, 219; J. II. Jowett, Apostolic Opt
Westcott, Peterborough Sermons, 40, ra : s^r \ la, i',v,.r,,|,
Christian Service, iG; O.B. Stevens, J' I 1 / ' -.
ABIJAH (n;5H,-A;3id,'Jah is in> i,--: ' . ■ r-on- probably ^^■ithout theparticulari/iu- I I Mill. uu. Jail is father ').-!. Son of Relioboan. (Ml 1 ) l.v Maa.ah (2Ch ir-"— see art. 'Maacah' No. 3iii llastiu-^- DB iii. 180). Abijah reigned over Jiulali tioiu about B.C. 920, and the impressions mado by him are given with some variety in 1 K 15-' and by a later tradition in 2 Ch IS*--. His name is introduced by St. Matthew simply as a link in the pedigree,
• Ho8 101, Is 5iir., Jer 221.
t Westcotf s Commentao'. m loco. } Jn 1616.
in which it is shown that Jesus was both of Jewish and of royal stock.
2. A descendant of Eleazar, son of Aaron. The name was attached to the eighth of the twenty- four courses into which the priests were alleged to have been di^■ided by David (1 Ch 24'"). Mem- bers of only four courses seem to have returned from the Captivity (Neli T-^-^, Ezr 2=«-=" 10'»--). According to Jerus. Talm. Taanith, iv. 68, these men were divided into twenty-four courses with a view to restore the ancient arrangement. The authority for this statement is not of the best kind ; but the statement itself is substantially confirmed by Neh 12'-', where twenty-two groups are referred to (in Neh 12'-'-'i the number has fallen to twenty-one, and two of the courses are grouped under a single representative), and by Ezr 8^ where two other priestly families are mentioned. Slight changes were probably made intheclassiticationdur- ing the process of the resettlement of the country ; but by the time of the Chronicler the arrangement seems to have become fixed. The course of Abijah is not mentioned amongst those that returned from the Exile ; but in one of the later rearrangements the name was attached to a course that afterwards included Zacharias (Lk 1-^). Each course was on duty for a week at a time, but all were expected to officiate as needed at the three great annual festivals. It is not possible with our present materials to determine exactly how the various services were divided amongst the members of a course, or at what times in the year Zacharias would be on duty. Nor does his inclusion In the course of Abijah cany with it lineal descent through that line from Aaron. E. W. Moss.