Conditions of Attaining to Holiness, Continued

Xxvii. We need also to know ourselves as starving souls, and Christ as the “Bread of Life,” as “the Bread that came down from Heaven.” We need to know spiritually and experimentally what it is to “eat of his flesh and to drink of his blood,” to receive Him as the bread of lifCf to appropriate Him to the nourishment of our souls as really as we appropriate bread, by digestion to the nourishment of oar bodies. This I know is mysticism to the carnal professor. But to the’ truly spirit* ually minded, “this is the bread of God that came down from heaven, of which if a man eat he shall never die«*’ To hear

Christ talk of eating his flesh and of drink* ing his blood was a great stumbling-block to the carnal Jews, as it is now to carnal professors. Nevertheless this is a glorious truth that Christ is the constant sustenance of the spiritual life as truly and as life rally as food is the sustenance of the body. B ut the soul will never eat this bread until it has ceased to attempt to fill itself with the husks of its own doings, or with any pro* vision this world can furnish. Do you know, Christian, what it is to eat of this bread? If so, then you will never die.

XXVIII. Christ also needs to be revealed to the soul as the fountain of the water of life. “If any man thirst,” says He, “let him come unto me and drink.*^ “I am the Alpha and Omega, and to him that is athirst will I give to drink of the fountain of the water of life freely.” The soul needs to have such discoveries made to It, as to bet a thirst after God, that cannot be allayed jexcept by a cbpious draft at the fountain of Uie walt ot V&^;

72 GUIDE TO THE SAVIOK*

It is indispensable to the establishing of the soul in perfect love, that its hungering after the bread and its thirsting for the water of life should be duly enkindled* and that the spirit should pant and struggle after God, and “cry out for the living God,” that it should be able to say with truth: “My soul panteth after God as the hart panteth after the water brooks;” “My heart and my ilesh cry out for the living God;” “My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath after thee at all times.” When this state of mind is induced by the Holy Spirit so that the longing of the soul after perpetual holiness is irrepressible, it is prepared for a revelation of Christ in all those offices and relations that are necessary to secure its establishment in love. Especially is it then prepared to apprehend, appreciate and appropriate Christ as the bread and water of life, to understand what it is to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God. It is then ill a state to understand what Christ meant

^hfen He said, “Blessed are they that do lunger and thirst after righteousness, for ;hey shall be filled.” They not only unlerstand what it is to hunger and thirst, Dut also what it is to be filled; to have the hunger and thirst allayed, and the argest desire fully satisfied. The soul then realizes, in its own experience, the truthfulness of the apostle’s saying, that Dhrist “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Many stop short even of any thing like intense hunger and thirst; others hunger and thirst, but have not the idea of the perfect fullness and adaptedness of Christ to meet and satisfy the longing of their souls. They, therefore, do not plead and look for the soul-satisfying revelation of Christ. They expect no such diVine fullness and satisfaction of soul. They are ignorant of the fullness and perfection of the provisions of the “glorious gospel of the blessed God,” and consequently they are not encouraged to hope, from tJaa iiwsX ^^icaX 4 they hunger and thirst after righteousness that they shall be filled; but they remain unfed, unfilled unsatisfied, and after a season, through unbelief, fall into indifference and remain in bondage to lust.

XXIX. The soul also needs to know Christ as the true Gody and the eternal life. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord save by the Holy Spirit.” The proper divinity of Christ is never and never can be held otherwise than as a mere opinion, a tenet, a speculation, an article of a creed, until He is revealed to the inner man by the Holy Spirit. But nothing short of aa apprehension of Christ as the supreme and living God to the soul can inspire that confidence in Him that is essential to its established sanctification. The soul can have no apprehension of what was intended by his being the “Eternal Life,” until it spiritually knows Him as the true God. When He is spiritually revealed as the true and living Gody the way is prepared for the spiritual apprehension of Him as the eterjial life. ‘’As the living Fath)Br hath life in Himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in Himself.” “In Him was life and the life was the light of men.” I give unto them eternal life.” “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” These and similar passages the soul needs spiritually to apprehend, to haye a spiritual and personal revelation of them within. Most professors seenl to me to have no righ idea of the condition upon which the Biblo can be made of spiritual use to them. They seem not to understand that in its letter it is only a history of things formerly revealed to men; that it is a fact, a revelation to no man except upon the condition of its being personally revealed, or revealed to us in particular by the Holy Spirit The mere fact that we have in the gospel the history of the birth, the life, the death of Christ, is no such revelation of Christ to any man as met& Vvi& VAr cessities and as will insure or render his salvation possible. Christ and his doctrine, his life, and death, and resurrection, need to be revealed personally by the Holy Spirit, to each and every soul ol man to effect his salvation. So it is witi every spiritual truth; without an inwan revelation of it to the soul, it is only a savor of death unto death. It is in vain H hold to the proper divinity of Christ as J speculation, a doctrine, a theory, an opinion, without the revelation of his divim nature and character to the soul by thi Holy Spirit. But let the soul know Hin and walk with Him as the true God, an< then it will no longer question whethei as our sanctification. He is all-sufficien and complete. Let no one object to thi that if this is true, meb are under no otpligation to believe in Christ and to obe] the gospel without or until they are enlightened by the Holy Spirit To such ai objection, should it be made, I would ao swer,

CHBISt THE TRUB LIGHT. 77

Men are under an obligation to beevery truth so far as they can underor apprehend it, but no farther. So I they can apprehend the spiritual I of the gospel without the Holy f so far, without his aid, they are I to believe it. But Christ has Himaught us that no man can come to 3xcept the Father draw him. That rawing means teaching is evident what Christ proceeds to say: “For irritten,” said He, “they shall all be t of God. Every one therefore that deard and hath learned of the Father th to me.” That this leamirjig of the ir is something different from the oral or written instructions of Christ he apostles, is evident from the fact Christ assured those to whom He hed with all the plainness with 1 He was able, that they still could iome to Him except drawn, that is It of the Father. As the Father es by the Holy Spirit, ClvtvaX’% ^V’^vftk.

78 GUIDE TO THE*8AVIOK«

teaching in the passage under consideration is, that no man can conne to Him except he be specially enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Paul unequivocally teaches the same thing. “No man,” says he, “can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit.” Notwithstanding all teaching of the apostles, na man by merely listening to their instruction could so apprehend the true divinity of Christ as to honestly and with spiritual understanding say that Jesus is the Lord. But what spiritual or true Christian does not know the radical difference between being taught of man and of God, between the ( opinions that we form from reading, hearing and study, and the clear apprehensions of truth that are communicated by the direct and inward illuminations of the Holy Spirit.

2. I answer that men under the gospel are entirely without excuse for not enjoying all the light they need from the* Holy Spirit, since He la ln iVv ^oild has been sent for the very purpose of giving to all, all the knowledge of themselves and of Christ which they need. His aid is freely proffered ta all and Christ has assured us that the Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him’ than parents are to give good gifts to their children. All men under the gospel know this and all men have light enough to ask in faith for the Holy Spirit, and of course all men may know of themselves and of Christ all that they need to know. They are therefore able to know and to embrace Christ as fully and as fast as it IS their duty to embrace him. They are able to know Christ in his goveramental and spiritual relations just as fast as they come into circumstances To need to know Him in these various relations. The Holy Spirit, if He is not quenched and resisted, will surely reveal Christ in all his relations and fullness in due time, so that in every temptation a way of escape will be open, so that we shall b feW V^ V^^’^x.

it. This is expressly promised, 1 Cor. 10; 13. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as are common to man; but God is, faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Men are able to know what God offers to teach them upon a condition within the compass of their ability. The Holy Spirit offers, upon condition of faith in the express promise of God to lead every man into all truth. Every man is therefore under obligation to know and do the whole truth so far and so fast as it is possible for him to do so with the light of the Holy Spirit.

XXX. But be it remembered that it is not enough for us to apprehend Christ as the true God and the eternal life, but we need also to lay hold upon Him as our life. It can not be too distinctly understiod that a particular and personal approj)j iation of Christ in such relations is indispensable to our being rooted and grounded, established and perfected in love. When our utter deficiency and emptiness in any one respect or direction is deeply revealed to us by the Holy Spirit with the corresponding remedy and perfect fullness in Christy it then remains for the soul in this respect and direction to cast off self and put on Christ. When this is done,,when self in that respect and direction is dead, and Christ is risen and lives and reigns in the heart in that relation, all is strong, and whole, and complete in that department of our life and experience.. For example, suppose we find ourselves c(Mistitationally» or [by reason of our relations and circumstances exposed to certain besetmentsand temptations that overcome us. Our weakness in this respect we observe in our experience* But upon observing our exposedness and experiencing something of our weakness, we begin with piling resolution upon resoluUoik We bind ouraeLveavnitk 4* bZ GUIDE TO THE SAVIOR.

oaths, and promises, and GOveDants, but all in vain. When we purpose to stand, we invariably, in the presence of the temptation, fall. This process of resolving and falling brings the soul Into great discouragement’ and perplexity, until at last the Holy Spirit reveals to us fully that we are attempting to stand and to build upon nothing. The utter emptiness and worse than uselessness of our resolutions and self-originated efforts, is so clearly seen by us as to annihilate forever self-dependence in this respect. Now the soul is prepared for the revelation of Christ to meet this particular want Christ is revealed and apprehended as the soul’s sub* stitute, surety, life and salvation in respect to the particular besetment and weakness of which it has had so full and so humiliating a revelation. Now if the soul utterly and forever cast off and renounce self, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ as He is seen to be needed to meet his necessity, then all is complete in Him.

Thus far Christ is reigning within us. Thus far we know what is the power of his resurrection, and are made comformable to his death.

But I said that we need to know and to lay hold upon Christ as our life. Too much stress cannot be laid upon our personal responsibility to Christ, our individual relation to Him, our personal interest in Him, and obligation to Him. To sanctify our ovm souls, we need to make every department of religion a personal matter between us and God, to regard every precept of the Bible, and every promise, saying, exhortation, threatening, and in short, we need to regard the whole Bible as given to 1^5, and earnestly seek the personal revelation of every truth it contains to our own souls. No one can too fully understand or too deeply feel the necessity of taking home the Bible with all it contains as a message sent from heaven to Mm, nor can he too earnestly desire or seek the promised Spirit to .^«idcvVvYKv’^fika true spiritual import of all its contents. O, he must have the Bible become a personal revelation of God to his own souL It must become his own book. He must know Christ for himself. He must know Him in his different relations. He must know Him in his blessed and infinite fullness, or he can not abide in Him, and unless he abide in Christ, he can bring forth none of the fruits of holiness. “Except a man abide in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered.”

Apprehending and embracing Christ as our life, implies the apprehension of the fact that we of ourselves are dead in trespasses and in sins, that we have no life in ourselves, that death has reigned and will eternally reign in and over us unless Christ become our life. Until man knows himself to be dead, and that he is wholly destitute of spiritual life in himself, he will never know Christ as his life. It is not enough to hold the opinion that all men are by nature dead in trespasses and sins.

It is not enough to hold the opinion that toe are in common with all men, in this condition in and of ourselves. We must see it. We must know what such language means. It must be made a matter of personal revelation- to us. We must be made fully to apprehend our own death and Christ as our life, and we must fully recognize our death and Him as our life by personally renouncing self in this respect and laying hold on Him as ourovm spiritual and eternal life. Many persons, and strange to say, some eminent ministers, are so blinded as to suppose that a soul entirely sanctified does not any longer need Christ, assuming that such a soul has spiritual life in and of himself; that there is in him some foundation or efHcient occasion of continued holiness, as if the Holy Spirit had changed his nature or infused physical holiness or a holy principle into him. O, when will such men cease to darken counsel by words without knowledge upon the lw&valr.V^

86 GUIDE TO THB SAVIOR*

important subject of sanctification! When will such men — when will the church, understand that Christ is our sanctification; that we have no life, no holiness, no sanctification except as we abide in Christ and He in us; that separate from Christ, there never is any moral excellence in any man; that Christ does not change the constitution of man in sanctification, but that He only, by our own consent, gains and keeps the heart; that He enthrones Himself, with our consent, in the heart, and through the heart He extends his influence and his life to all our spiritual being; that He lives in us as really and truly as we live in our own bodies; that He as really reigns in our will and consequently in our emotions, by our own free consent, as our wills reign in our bodies? Can not our brethren understand that this is sanctification, and that nothing else is? that there is no degree of sanctification that is not to be thus ascribed to Christ 7 and that entire sanctification is nothing else than the reign of Jesus in the sbiil? nothing more nor’ less than Christ the resurrection and the life, raising the soul from spiritual death, and reigning in it through righteousness unto eternal life? I must know and embrace Christ as my life; I must abide in him as a branch abides in the vine; I must not only hold this opinion as an opinion; I must know and act on it in practice. O, when the ministry of reconciliation all know and embrace a whole Christ for themselves; when they preach Jesus in all his fullness and present vital power to the church; when they testify what they have seen and their hands have handled of the word of life — then and not till then will there be a general resurrectionof the dry bones of the house of Israel. Aipen. Lord, hasten the day.

XXXL We need especially to know Christ as Ihe “All in all.” Col. 3: 11;” Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircymdskoli »:f^’-

8S OUIDB TO THB BAVIOR.

rian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ b all and in all.” Before the soul will cease to be overcome by temptation, it must renounce self-dependence in all things. It must be as it were self-annihilated. It must cease to think of self as having in it any ground of dependence in the hour of trial. It must wholly and in all things renounce self and put on Christ. It must know self as nothing in the matter of spiritual life, and Christ as all. The Psalmist could say, “all our springs are in thee.” He is the fountain of life. Whatever of life is in us flows directly from Him as the sap flows from the vine to the branch, or a rivulet flows from its fountain. The spiritual life that is in us is really Christ’s life flowing through us. Our activity, though properly our own, is nevertheless stimulated and directed by his presence and agency within us. So that we can and must say with Paul, “yet not I, bat Christ liveth in me.” — Gal. 2: 90. It ii a good thing for a selT-coTieevtAd sinner to

CHRIST THli ALL IN ALL. 89

iffer even ia his own view self-annihila- 3n as it respects the origination of any ►iritual obedience to God, or any spiritlI good whatever. But this must be here he will learn on all occasions and in 1 things to stand in Christ, to abide in im as his “all.” 0> the infinite folly id ma4ness of the carnal mind! It ould seem that it will always make trial

its own strength before it will depend i Christ. It will look first for resources id help within itself before it will relunce self and make Christ its’ “al lin I.” It will betake itself to its own wisitrif righteousness, sanctification, and reimption. In short, there is not an ofiice

relation of Christ that will be recogzed and embraced, until the soul has first me into circumstances to have its wants

relation to that ofiice of Christ develled by some trial, often by some fall uhr temptation. It will not be embraced, itil in addition to this Christ is clearly and evaiJingly revealed by the HoV^ S^^vtVv.

90 GUIDE TO THE SAVIOtt.

insomuch that self is put down and Christ is exalted in the heart. Sin has so becrazed and befooled mankind that when Christ tells them, “without me ye can do noth” ing; and if any man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, they neither apprehend what or how much He means, and how much is really implied in ttiese and similar sayings, until one trial after another fully develops the appalling fact that they are nothing so far as spiritual good is concerned, and that Christ is aU and in allJ^

XXXII. Another relation in which the soul must know Christ, before it will steadily abide in Him, is that of “the Resurrection and the Life.” Through and by Christ the soul is raised from spiritual death. Christ as the resurrection and the life is raised in the soul. He arises or revives the divine image out of the spiritual death that reigns within us. He is begotten by the Holy Spirit and born within us. He arises through the

CHRIST JTHERBStiEtRBCTlON Ato LIFE. 91

leath that is within us and develops his pwn life within our own being. Will my one say, “this is a hard saying, who 5an hear it?” Until we know by our own 3xperience the power of this resurrection within us, we shall never understand * the fellowship of his sufferings, and be nade conformable to his death.” He -aises our will from its fallen state of leath in trespasses and sins, or from itd itate of committal and voluntary enslavenent to lust and self, to a state of conformity to the tvill of God. Through :he intelligence. He pours a stream of quickening truth upon the soul. He thus quickens the will into obedience. By naking fresh discoveries to the soul. He trengthens and confirms the will in obelience. By thus raising, and sustaining, md quickening the will. He rectifies the sensibility, and quickens and raises the hole man from the dead, or rather builds ip a new and spiritual mah upon the death md ruins of the old andcaini^V xt^L« ^^’^

92 I^UIDB Td THM SAVIOR.

i*aises the same powers and faculties that were dead in trespasses and sins to t spiritual life. He overcomes their death and inspires them with life. He lives in saints, and works in them to will and to c’o, and they live in Him according to the sayiDg of Christ, in his address to his Father, Jno. 17: 21. “As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us;” and again, 23: “I in them and thou in me, that they may b made perfect in one.” He does not raise the soul to spiritual life in any such sense that it has life separate from Him for one moment. The spiritual resurrection is a continual one. Christ is the resurrec* tion in the sense that He is at the foundation of all our obedience at every moment He, as it were, raises the soul or the will from the slavery of lust to a conformity to the will of God in every instance and at every moment of its consecration to the will of God. But this He does ODly upon condition of out ai^rehendiog

CHRIST THE RESlJItRECTIOIf AUD LIFE. 93

and embracing him in this relation. In reading the Bible, I have often been struck with the fact that the inspired writers were far ahead of the great mass of professed believers. They write of tb relations in which Christ had been spiritually revealed to them. All the names and titles, and official relations of Christ niU9t have had great significancy with them. They spoke not from theory or from what man had taught them, but from experience, from what the Holy Spirit taught them. As the risen Christ ]S risen and lives, and is developed in one relation after another, in the experience of believers, how striking the writings of inspiration appear! As the necessities of our being are developed in experience, and as Chiist is revealed as in an new circumstances and relations, just that and all that we need, who has not marveled to find in the Bible, way-marks and guide-boards and mile-stones, and all the evidences that we conid ti&V Oft ^^^ixt

M QUIPB TO THB SAVIOR*

that inspired men have gone this way and have had substantially the same experience that we have. We are often also struck with the fact that they are so far ahead of us. At every stage in our progress we seem to have, as it were, a new and improved edition of the Bible. We discover worlds of truth before unnoticed by us — come to know Christ in precious relations in which we had known nothing of Him before. And ever, as our real wants are discovered, Christ is seen to be all that we need, just the thing that exactly and fully meets the necessities of our souls. This is indeed “the glorious gospel of the blessed God.”

XXXIII. Another precious .and* most influential relation of Christ in the affair of our sanctification, is that of the Bridegroom or Husband of the soul. The individual soul needs to be espoused to Christ, to enter this relation personally by its own consent. Mere earthly and outward marriages are nothing butsiii« unless the hearts are married. True marriage is of the heart, and the outward ceremony is only a public manifestatioA or profession of the union or marriage of souls or hearts.

All marriage may be regarded as typ-f icalf that union into which the soul enters with Christ. This relation of Christ with the soul is frequently recognized both in the Old and New Testament. It is treated of by Paul as a great mystery. The seventh and eighth chapters of Romans present a striking illustration of the results of the soul’s remaining under the law on the one hand, and of its being married to Christ on the other. The seventh chapter begins thus, <*Know ye aot brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath domiaioa over a man as long as he liveth X For the woman who hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if her husband be dead she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband be dead she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man. Therefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the 4aw by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Christ who was raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” The apoitle thon proceeds to show the results of these two marriages or relations of the soul When married to the law he says of it, “For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.” But when married to Christ he proceeds to say, “We are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldneai of the letter.” The remaining part of this (7th) chapter is occupied with an

CHBItT T^ BRIDBaROOM. 97

account of the soul’s bondage .while married to the law; of its efforts to please its husband; with its continual failures; its deep conTictions; its selfish efforts; its con* sciousness of iSeulures, and it3 consequent self-condemnation and despondency.. It is perfectly obvious, when the allegory with which the apostle commences thhi chapter is considered, that he is portray* bg a legal experience for the purpose of contrasting it with the experience of one who has attained to the true liberty of perfect love.

The eighth chapter represents the re* suits of the marriage of the soul to Christ It IB delivered from its bondage to the law and from the power of the law of sin in the members. It brings forth fruit unto God. Christ has succeeded in gaining the affections of the soul. What th law could not do, Christ has done, and the righteousness of the law is now fulfilled in the soul. The representation is as follows: Tbesoul is married to the law aad 5

acknowledges its obligation to obey its husband. The husband requires perfect love to God and man. The love is “want ing; the soul is selfish. This displeases the husband, and he denounces death against her if she does not love. She recognizes the reasonableness of both the requisition and the threateningy and resolves upon full obedience. But being selfish, the command and threatening bat increase the difliculty. All her efforts at obedience are for selfish reasons. The husband is justly firm and imperative in his demands. The wife trembles, and promises, and resolves upon obedience. But all in vain. Her obedience is only feigned, outward and not love. She becomes disheartened and gives up in despair. As sentence is about to be executed Christ appears. He witnesses the dilemma. He reveres and honors, and loves the husband. He entirely approves hii requisition and the course he has taken. He condemns in most unqualified tem e wife. Still He pities and loves her ith deep benevolence. He will consent nothing that shall have the appearance disapproving the claims or the course her husband. His rectitude must be enly acknowledged. Her husband must t be dishonored. But on the gontrary he 1st be “magnified and made honorable.” ill Christ so much pities the wife, as to willing to die as her substitute. This 3 does, and the wife is regarded as dy- in and. by Him her substitute. Now ice a death of either of the parties is dissolution of the marriage covenant, d since the wife in the person of her btitute has died under and to the law, r husband, she is now at liberty to irry again. Christ rises from the dead, lis striking and overpowering manifesta- pn of disinterested benevolence on the rt of Christ in dying for her, subdues r selfishness and wins her whole heart* 3 proposes marriage and she consents th her whole soul. Now sVv &Gk!^

law of selfishness or of self-gratification broken, and the righteousness of the law of love fulfilled in her heart. The last husband requires just what the first required, but having won her whole heart, she no longer needs to resolve to love, for love is as qatural and spontaneous as her breath. Before, the 7th of Romans wai the language of her complaint. Now the eighth is the language of her trim Before, she found herself unable to meet the demands of her husband, and equally unable to satisfy her own conscience. Now she finds it easy to obey her husband and that his commandments are not griefous, although they are identical with those of the first husband. Now thii allegory of the apostle is not a mere rhep torical flourish. It represents a reality, and one of the most important and glorious realities in existence, namely, the real and spiritual union of the soul to Christ, and the blessed results of tUi iin/on, the bimgii foxXk finiil

CHBifirr THE BRIDBOROOM. 101

God. This union iS| as the apostle says, a great mystery; nevertheless it is a gloriot» reality. He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” — 1 Cor. 6: 17.

Now until the soul knows what it is lo be mairied to the law and is able to adopt the language of the seventh of Romans, it is not prepared to see, and cppreciate, and be properly affected by the death and love of Christ. Great multitudes rest in this first marriage, and do not consent to die and rise again in (yhrist» They are not married to Christ and do not know that there is such a tiling, and expect to live and die in this bondage, crying out, ^O wretched man that I am I” They need to die and rise again in Christ to a new life founded in and growing out of a new relation to Christ. Christ becomes the living head or husband of the soul, its surety, its life. He gains and retains the deepest affection of the soul, thus writing his law in the heart and engraving it in the iix^xd ^^^&^

But not only must the soul know it is to be married to the law wi consequent thraldom and deathi fc must also for Uself enter into the riage relation with a risen, living C Tills must not be theory, an opinii tenet; nor must it be an imaginatt mysticism, a notion, a dream. It be a living, personal, real entering ii personal and living union witK Chi most entire and universal giving of 5 Him and receiving of Him in the rel of spiritual husband and head. The of Christ and our spirit must em each other and enter into an everU covenant with each other. There be a mutual giving of self and rece of each other, a blending of spirits iq a sense as is intended by Paul in the sage already quoted: “He that is jc to the Lord is one spirit,”

My brother, my sister, do you ui stand this? Do you know what ihese marriages are with their dii esults? If you do not, make no longer Fctense to being sanctified, for you are till in the gall of bitterness and in the ond of iniquity. “Escape for thy life,”