cup pass from me! nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Beyond question, the passing of that cup of woe and death from his lips would have been the eternal passing of the cup of life and salvation from ours. Knowing this, Jesus no sooner said, "Father, save me from this hour," than he added, "but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." "The victory," as one says, "has now been won, on the theatre of an invincible will, to give his life a ransom for many. He shall win it next in the arena of the cross, where it is to become an accomplished fact. 'I will suffer,' is the result of Gethsemane ; 'It is finished,' bursts from Calvary." What, then, do we owe to Christ ?—nay, rather, what do we not owe to him? Verily, if we had each a thousand hearts instead of one, and a thousand tongues as well, it would be but fitting to love and praise him with them all. I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.-JOHN vi. 38. Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.-HEB. V. 8. October 23. THOUGH WE CAN DESTROY GOD'S IMAGE, WE CANNOT RESTORE IT AGAIN. WHEN a coin is fresh from the mint, so perfect often is the impress the die leaves on it, that as soon as men see it they exclaim, "It is the king's very image!" But were it through carelessness to drop from its owner's hand, and fall beneath treading feet or on grinding wheel, soon scarcely one feature could be recognized. It has been even so with man. When fresh from his Maker's hands, he bore to the full his Maker's image— in intelligence, holiness, and true blessedness. But when through sin he fell from the divine keeping, all became changed. Where formerly love, purity, and peace reigned, defilement and enmity are now found. Thus God's image has not only been defaced, but well-nigh obliterated. But though the destruction is man's work, the salvation never is; hence the well-known words: "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.” Yes! from him alone can we obtain the great and needed renewal. It was the knowledge of this that led the apostle, when seeking for himself and others a closer likeness to the Lord, to say so earnestly, "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." When fulfilling such a petition, it is ever as the God of peace, as God reconciled in Christ, that the Lord does it, and not for any merit in us. Yet in their blindness not a few would fain make their purity, not a blessed fruit of pardon, but the price wherewith they would purchase it; the inevitable result of which has again and again been the utter failure of every attempt to get the lost image of God restored. Nothing less than a complete spiritual restoration should ever satisfy believers. "Let every lineament of the earthly Adam be erased," Dr. Bonar says, " and let every feature of the heavenly Adam be engraven upon thee. The day of perfection, and restoration, and dominion is coming, but it has not yet arrived. Live looking for it; live as men who believe it; walk worthy of it." Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.— Ps. li. 10. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.-2 COR. v. 17. October 24. IT IS A SNARE TO DWELL RATHER ON THE LITTLE ATTAINABLE IN SANCTIFICATION, THAN ON THE MUCH. WHAT others have really attained in the divine life may be safely held to be attainable by us. If, in spite of surrounding evil, Enoch could maintain a close and holy walk with God; and Jacob could wrestle for the blessing, and as a prince have power with God and prevail; and Stephen could be full of the Holy Ghost and of faith; and Paul could advance so far as to say, "Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and un blameably we have behaved ourselves among you that believe," why may not we reach to like attainments?all the more when we remember that naturally they were of like passions and like infirmities with ourselves, and had at first the same condemnation over them and the same corruption in them that we have. What grace did for them it can certainly do for us, provided we do not hinder by unbelief. Great is the present need-be with all for a sanctification more marked and elevated; for how manifold still are the defects and shortcomings of not a few of those who bear the name of Christ! How weak their faith! how cold their love! how mingled their motives! and in unwatchful hours how prone are they to backslide! “I am persuaded," one says, "that when at last we meet our Lord, and see him as he is, we shall be utterly ashamed and confounded at the feebleness of our love. We shall see it was the merest spark, and not a flame at all." We should ever, therefore, through grace, be pressing onward and upward. To encourage us in so doing, not only is it said, “Return unto the Lord thy God," but the Lord adds such cheering words as these: "I will heal thy backsliding, I will love thee freely. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon." "Come, drink, and be at rest! On Him who died for thee believe; Be holy, and be blest." Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.-2 COR. vii. 1. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.-1 JOHN iii. 3. October 25. GUILT THE GREATEST AND GRACE THE RICHEST MET ON THE CROSS. OTHING so startles or arrests men as a great crime N° committed by unlikely hands, in unlikely circumstances; and there have been many such in this world's dark history. But in all the annals of crime, never was there a deed of infamy like that of Calvary. It was not simply a taking of life, or a preferring of the worst of criminals to the best of benefactors; but it was a killing of the Prince of life, a crucifying the Lord of glory at the very time that unspeakable love was glowing in his heart. What added to the awfulness of this crime were the numbers who joined hand in hand in committing it. Herod and Pilate took part in it, and the priests and the people; and in the end the whole nation virtually assumed the responsibility, and joined in the awful cry, "His blood be upon us and upon our children." But while thus on the cross we see guilt the most appalling, we also see there love altogether unparalleled. "I can understand many things," said a good old man, “but the love of Christ I cannot understand; it is above all my thinking, and it is only when I reach the better country, and see him as he is, that I expect the veil to be fully lifted up." It may, doubtless, admit of illustration from rare instances of self-sacrifice for country or kindred or friend; but "every such comparison," as one says, "is at the same time a contrast, and acts only as a foil, to set off the love of God to men in the death of his Son;" for "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." If peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die, yet who but Jesus would die for the vilest of enemies, and let his grace be richest at the very moment their guilt was greatest? "More of thyself, oh, show me hour by hour, More of thy glory, O my God and Lord; More of thyself in all thy grace and power, More of thy love and truth, Incarnate Word." Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. -1 PETER ii. 24. Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.-1 JOHN iii. 5. |