Vera 2, 3.-Itlentity not to be/ound in continuity of form, but in ha1·mony of fM ,m,n spin:t. I. UsELESS'.KESS OF OUTWARD FORMS WHEN TBEIR SPIRIT RAS PASSED OUT 0r THEM. T~e Judaizing party clung to the~ circumcision as H it were their title to 11ccc']'tance mth God. St, Paul shows that, smce the substance, of which circumcision 'ITas the shadow, has been bestowed upon men, to insist upon the outward form was to forfeit the reality of which it was the forecast. The truly circumcised were such as with or without the form, worshipped God in spirit and in truth. All forms hav~ a tendency to lose their informing spirit and to become empty husks. If this takes place through the lukewarmness of those who use them, the true remedy is to seek to breathe in them once again the spirit which is their life. If that which was formerly their life now finds truer expression in newer forms, it may be a sign that the old has IICCOmplished its purpose and should now cease to be. II. OBSOLETE FORMS MAY BE HARMFUL AS WELL AS USELESS, They become so 118 soon iu; they a.re regarded as essential, apart from the inner spirit which makes them live. They then become loss instead of gain, and actual hindrances to the promotion of that which they were designed to promote. III. SEEK TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN MEANS AND END. This is necessary, not only in the culti,ation of spiritual life, but in the promotion of any purpose. Not unfrequently means are so multiplied that the end is obscured rather than forwarded. See that the means used are actually means to the desired end and are not tacitly usurping its place. Even the means of grace may cease to be means of grace.-V. W. H. Vers. 8, 9.-TAe knowledge of Christ the one thing needful. L W&AT IT IS. To know him is to know God, and to know God is eternal life. It is not knowledge aboul him, but knowledge of him, that we need. We must know him as we know a person. II. How WE MUST BEEK THIS. All things that hinder us from obtaining this know- ledge must be surrendered. Even such things a.s we have hitherto made a boast of must go if they are preventing us from knowing him. Our reputation for consistency, our hitherto unsuspected character, our most cherished occupations or friends,-a.11 these are "loss" in comparison with the knowledge of him which is to be found in obedience to him. IIL WHAT IT WILL Do FOB us. l. It will win Christ asFriend,Advocate, Redeemer, King. He will be on our side, however coldly earthly friends may regard us. 2. Thus winning him we shall be found in him. When the tempter comes to allure us he will not dare approach. for he will find us in him. When the accuser stands up at the last day to charge us with our many sins his words will fall powerless, for we shall be found in him who is our Defence. IV. WHAT IT WILL BESTOW UPON us. Righteousness; not the merely external righteousness which may be secured by the punctual observance of legal duties, but the righteousness which i~ of God. '!'his righteousness of his ie incarnate in Christ, and is imparted by him to all who are in union with him through faith. Thie is complete rip;hteousneBS, for it is the perfect righteousness -which Christ himself has and is. -V.W.H. Vers. 10, 11.-The knowledge of <Jhrist: it, degree, and its purpose. I. THE KNOWLEDGE OF BIS PERSON. Thie is the initiatory step. We must first recognize him to be our own God and Saviour, a.nd One who is to be altogether longed for. Nathanael thus knew him (John i. 49), and St. Peter (Matt. xvi. 16). II. THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE POWEB OF ms BESUBBECTION, This is a step beyond the simple knowledge of his person. It can be found only in our own spiritual experience when we recognize his power in the victory which he wine in us over the power of sin. St. Peter did not learn the power of Christ's resurrection until he had received the Holy Ghost. III. THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS. When we have experienced the power of bis resurrection we begin to find that hie sufferings are ours and ours are hie. We begin to feel something of that keene~t of all his sufferings, the ID:isery of the preee~ce aDd the power of sin. At the same tune, we find that, by a certam law of rec1proc1ty, c.ur own sufferings ar11 uo \anger !'Xcli.isively our o~ but that he ill bearin~ them with ue 1u.1d for UM. OH, m.1-21.] 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 149
IV. BY THESE STAGES WE ARE MADE CONFORMABLE TO HIS DEATH. His death was an entire death unto sin; by our thus dwelling in him and he in us we also die unto sin. V. THUS DYING UNTO BIN WE ATTAIN TO THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD; i.e. not merely to the extension of life after physical death, but to the complete resurrection, which is the entire victory over every form of death, natural or spiritual.-V. W. H.