Twenty-sixth Day

Twenty-sixth Day.

, THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST.

arte Spirit atrtr tije jFlegfj.

• Are ye Bo foolish 1 having began in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh 1'—Gal. iii. 3.

* We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh: though I myself m:ght have confidence even in the flesh.'— Phil. iii. 3.

THE flesh is" the name by which Scripture designates our fallen nature, — soul and body. The soul at creation was placed between the spiritual or Divine and the sensible or worldly, to give to each its due, and guide them into that perfect union which would result in man attaining his destiny, a spiritual body. When the soul yielded to the temptation of the sensible, it broke' away from the rule of the Spirit and came under the power of the body—it became flesh. And now the flesh is not only without the Spirit, but even hostile to it: 'the flesh lusteth against the Spirit.'

In this antagonism of the flesh to the Spirit there are two sides. On the one hand, the flesh lusts against the Spirit in its committing sin and transgressing God's law. On the other hand, its hostility to the Spirit is no less manifested in its seeking to serve God and do His wilL In yielding to the flesh, the soul sought itself instead of the God to whom the Spirit linked it; selfishness prevailed over God's will; selfishness became its ruling principle. And now, so subtle and mighty is this spirit of self, that the flesh, not only in sinning against God, but even when the soul learns to serve God, still asserts its power, refuses to let the Spirit alone lead, and, in its efforts to be religious, is still the great enemy that ever hinders and quenches the Spirit. It is owing to this deceitfulness of the flesh that there often takes place what Paul speaks of to the Galatians: 'Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh?' Unless the surrender to the Spirit be very entire, and the holy waiting on Him be kept up in great dependence and humility, what has been begun in the Spirit, very early and very speedily passes over into confidence in the flesh.

And the remarkable thing is, what at first sight might appear a paradox, that just where the flesh seeks to serve God, there it becomes the strength of sin. Do we not know how the Pharisees, with their self-righteousness and carnal religion, fell into pride and selfishness, and became the servants of sin? "Was it not just among the Galatians, of whom Paul asks the question about perfecting in the flesh what was begun in the Spirit, and whom he has so to warn against the righteousness of works, that the works of the flesh were so manifest, and that they were in danger of devouring one another? Satan has no more crafty device for keeping souls in bondage than inciting them to a religion in the flesh. He knows that the power of the flesh can never please God or conquer sin, and that in due time the flesh that has gained supremacy over the Spirit in the service of God, will assert and maintain that same supremacy in the service of sin. It is only where the Spirit truly and unceasingly has the entire lead and rule in the life of worship, that it will have the power to lead and rule in the life of practical obedience. If I am to deny self in intercourse with men, to conquer selfishness and temper and want of love, I must first learn to deny self in the intercourse with God. There the soul, the seat of self, must learn to bow to the Spirit, where God dwells.

The contrast between the worship in the Spirit and the trusting in the flesh is very beautifully expressed in Paul's description of the true circumcision,—the circumcision of the heart,—whose praise is not of men, but of God: '"Who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.' Placing the glorying in Christ Jesus in the centre, as the very essence of the Christian faith and life, he marks on the one hand the great danger by which it ia beset, on the other the safeguard by which its full enjoyment is secured. Confidence ia the flesh is the one thing above all others that renders the glorying in Christ Jesus of none effect; worship by the Spirit the one thing that alone can make it indeed life and truth. May the Spirit reveal to us what it is thus to glory in Christ Jesus!

That there is a glorying in Christ Jesus that is accompanied by much confidence in the flesh, all history and experience teach us. Among the Galatians it was so. The teachers whom Paul opposed so earnestly were all preachers of Christ and His cross. But they preached it, not as men taught by the Spirit to know what the infinite and all-pervading influence of that cross must be, but as those who, having had the beginnings of God's Spirit, had yet allowed their own wisdom and their own thoughts to say what that cross meant, and so had reconciled it with a religion which to a very large extent was legal and carnaL And the story of the Galatian Church is repeated to this day even in the Churches that are most confidently assured that they are free from the Galatian error. Just notice how often the doctrine of justification by faith is spoken of as if that were the chief teaching of the Epistle, and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit's indwelling as received by faith, and our walking by the Spirit, is hardly mentioned.

Christ crucified is the wisdom of God. The confidence in the flesh, in connection with the glorying in Christ, is seen in confidence in its own wisdom. Scripture is studied, and preached, and heard, and believed in, very much in the power of the natural

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mind, with little insistance upon the absolute need of the Spirit's personal teaching. It is seen in the absolute confidence with which men know that they have the truth, though they have it far more from human than Divine teaching, and in the absence of that teachableness that waits for God to reveal His Truth in His own light.

Christ, through the Holy Spirit, is not only the Wisdom but the Power of God. The confidence in the flesh, along with much glorying in Christ JesuSj is to be seen and felt in so much of the work of the Christian Church in which human effort and human arrangement take a much larger place than the waiting on the Power that comes from on high. In the larger ecclesiastical organizations, in individual churches and circles, in the inner life of the heart and closet—alas! how much unsuccessful effort, what oft-repeated failure, is to be traced to this one evil! There is no want of acknowledging Christ, His person and work, as our only hope, no want of giving Him the glory, and yet so much confidence in the flesh, rendering it of none effect .

Let me here ask again, whether there be not many a one striving earnestly for a life in the fulness of consecration and the fulness of blessing, who will find here the secret of failure. To help such has been one of my first objects and most earnest prayers in writing this book. As in. sermon or address,, in book ox conversation or private, prayer, the, fulness of Jesus was opened up to them, with the.possibiiityofa,holy life, in Him, the soul felt it all , so beautiful and so simple, that nothing could any longer keep it back. And perhaps, as it accepted of what was seen to be so sure and so near, it entered into an enjoyment and experienced a power before unknown. But it did not last. There was a worm at its root. Vain was the search for what the cause of the discomfiture was, or the way of restoration. Frequently the only answer that could be found was that the surrender was not entire, or faith's acceptance not perfect. And yet the soul felt sure that it was ready, as far as it knew, to give up all, arid it did long to let Jesus have all and to trust Hitn for all It could almost become hopeless of an impossible perfection, if perfect consecration arid perfect faith were to be the condition of the blessing. And the promise had been that it would all be so simple,—just the life for the poor and feeble ones.

Listen, my brother, to the blessed teaching of God,s word to-day. It was the confidence in the flesh that spoilt thy glorying in Christ Jesus. It was Self doing what the Spirit alone can do; it was the Soul taking the lead, in the hope that the Spirit would second its efforts, instead of trusting the Holy Spirit to lead and do all, and then waiting on Him. It wa«, following Jesus, without the denial of self. It was this was the secret trouble. Come and listen to Paul as he tells of the only safeguard against this danger: 'We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.' Hera are the two elements of spiritual worship. The Spirit exalts Jesus, and abases the flesh. And if we would truly glory in Jesus, and have Him glorified in us, if we would know the glory of Jesus in personal and unchanging experience, free from the impotence which always marks the efforts of the flesh, we must simply learn what this worship of God by the Spirit is.

I can only repeat, once again, what it is the purpose of this whole book to set forth as God's truth from His blessed word: Glory in Christ Jesus. Glory in Him as the Glorified One who baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. In great simplicity and restfulness believe in Him as having given His own Spirit within you. Believe in that gift; believe in the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. Accept this as the secret of the life of Christ in you: the Holy Spirit is dwelling in the hidden recesses of your spirit. Meditate on it, believe Jesus and His word concerning it, until your soul bows with holy fear and awe before God under the glory of the truth: the Holy Spirit of God is indeed dwelling in ma

Yield yourself to His leading. We have seen that leading is not just in the mind or thoughts, but in the life and disposition. Yield yourself to God, to be guided by the Holy Spirit in all your conduct. He is promised to those who love Jesus and obey Him: fear not to say that He knows you do love and do obey Him with your whole heart. Eemember, then, what the one central object of His coming was: to restore the departed Lord Jesus to His disciples. 'I will not leave you orphans,' said Jesus; 'I will come again to you.' I cannot glory in a distant Jesus, from whom I am separated. When I try to do it, it is a thing of effort; I must have the help of the flesh to do it. I can only truly glory in a present Saviour, whom the Holy Spirit glorifies, reveals in His glory, within me. As He does this, the flesh is abased, and kept in its place of crucifixion as an accursed thing: as He does it, the deeds of the flesh are made to die. And my whole religion will be: no confidence in the flesh, glorying in Christ Jesus, worship by the Spirit of God.

Beloved believer! having begun in the Spirit, continue, go on, persevere in the Spirit. Beware of, for one single moment, continuing or perfecting the work of the Spirit in the flesh. Let 'no confidence in the flesh' be your battle-cry; let a deep distrust of the flesh, and fear of grieving the Spirit by walking after the flesh, keep you very low and humble before God. Pray God for the spirit of revelation, that you may see how Jesus is all, and does all, and how by the Holy Spirit a Divine Life indeed takes the place of your life, and Jesus is enthroned as the Keeper and Guide and Life of the soul.

Blessed God and Father! we thank Thee for the wondrous provision Thou hast made for Thy children's drawing nigh to Thee, glorying in Christ Jesus, and worshipping by the Spirit. Grant, we pray Thee, that such may be our life and all our religious service.

We feel the need of asking Thee to show us how the one great hindrance to such a life¹ is the power of the flesh and the efforts of the self-life. Open our eyes, we pray Thee, to this snare of Satan. May we all see how secret and how subtle is the temptation to have confidence in the flesh, and how easily we are led to perfect in the flesh what has been begun in the Spirit. May we learn to trust Thee to work; in us byJThy Holy Spirit, both to will and to do.

Teach us, too, we pray Thee, to know how the flesh can* be conquered and its power broken. In the death of Thy beloved Son our old man has been crucified: may we count all things bat loss to be made conformable to, that death, and have the old nature i kept in the place Of death. We do yield ourselves to the lead and rule of Thy Holy Spirit. We do,believe that through the Spirit Christ^ our life, so that:instead of the life of effort and work, an entirely new life works within us. Our Father! in faith we: give appall to Thy Spirit to be our life in us. Amen.

1. Christ is the Wisdom and the Power of Bod. The root of all trust in our own strength is trust in our own wisdom, the idea that we know how to serve God, because we have His word. This wisdom of man, in his aceepting God's word, is the greatest danger of the Church, because it is the secret, and mosr subtle form in which we are led to perfect in the flesh what was begun in the Spirit.

- 2. Our only safety here is the Holy Spirit A gnat willingness to be taught WHim, a holy fear of in the least,thing walking after the flesh, a loving

surrender in everything to the obedienve to which Christ promises the Spirit, and with all this, the lining faith that the Spirit mill in Divine power possess our life and live it for us,—this is the path of safety.

3. Let us try and realize fully that there are these two animating principles of man's life. in most Christians there is a mixed life, yielding now to the one, and then to the other. God's will is that we walk 'not'—never, not for a moment—'after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' Let as acvept God's will. The Holy Spirit has been given to bring our life into conformity with it. May God show us how entirely the Holy Spirit can dispossess the life of the flesh, and Himself become an entirely new life in us, revealing Christ as our life. Then we can say, 'lt is no longer l that live, but Christ that liveth in me.'

4. The Church must learn from this Epistle that Justification by faith is only the means to an end, the entranve to a life of walking by the Spirit of God. We must return to the preaching of John the Baptist,—Christ who bears the sin of the world, Christ who baptizes with the Holy Ghost.

5. 'Why is it that pevple lay stress, almost exclusively, with a view to faith ln Jesus, on this, that He bears the sin of the world, and neglect so much the other pvint, that He is able to baptize with the Holy Ghost? The prophets and apostles, on the contrary, lay stress on this glft'of the Spirit as the sourve of a new life, a new disposition and walk, in which both the impression and the expression of God's law is to be seen. Prophets and apostles treat the matter in its ethical aspect, whereas the traditional treatment represents the gift of the Spirit chiefly as a seal of forgiveness and adoption, and holds that from the joy of gratitude for this,—that is, from a mere psychological factor,—the new life and strength for good are to spring. This view we find in our best authors. The Scriptures, on the contrary, lay stress on the new creating and satisfying power of the Holy Ghost as the principle of all Christian disposition and personal activity I Sam viii. 2). Christ's sin-bearing only prepares the way for the coming of the Spirit (John vil. 39; Gal. Hi. 13, 14); it is the foundation, but not tin »»<>/#.'—Bjsck, VastQialkhmi. {Tt. Pastoral Theology. Clark.)