all; in like manner should ye also joy and rejoice with me." We must endeavor to make clear the full import of these weighty words. The Lord Christ is the one Mediator, between God and the sinful human race redeemed by him. Through him all, who believe on him and enter into fellowship with him, are taken out of the ungodly world and consecrated as a holy community to God. Thus do they all become one priestly generation. There is no longer the distinction of Priests and Laity. All are become, through him and in fellowship with him, what he himself is,Priests before the God of Jesus Christ who is also their God, before his Father who is also their Father. Their whole life is a priestly calling; as Paul represents it, Rom. xii. 1, "a reasonable service," that is, a spiritual worship proceeding from the rational nature, the soul. Herein the whole spiritual life manifests itself as a God-devoted, to God presented self-sacrifice; every inward and outward act as done in fellowship with Christ, as performed in his name, pervaded by his Spirit, enstamped with his image, a thank-offering and a praise-offering of the redeemed, well pleasing in the sight of God. This being true of all the acts

of each Christian in his proper vocation, Paul regards as his own priestly calling the Apostolic work; as his own acceptable offering to God, the faith planted by him among the Gentiles and the Christian life of the converted heathen world. It is in this sense he speaks, in these words to his Philippian brethren, of "the sacrifice and priestly service of their faith" as his offering to God. It was customary, moreover, to pour out wine upon the altar, a so-called libation, as a seal of the offering. Paul, foreseeing that his own blood might be poured out in his priestly office of proclaiming the Gospel among the heathen, that he might be called to testify to what he preached in the very face of death, and to put the seal of martyrdom upon his life's work, here speaks of the outpouring of his own blood as a libation,-an offering of himself upon the sacrifice. Thus, with joyful confidence, the Apostle advances towards so glorious a consummation of his work. Far from needing solace from others, he could call on the Philippians to rejoice with him. Uncertain whether he was to finish his captivity by the martyr's death, or whether his life would be preserved to labor still for the advancement of the kingdom of God upon

the earth, he was prepared for

in either case to the divine will.

both, submissive

The will of the

Lord was his will. The result would show, in what way it was the purpose of the Lord to make his life most subservient to His own glory. He was in a strait betwixt two,-longing to depart, out of the conflicts of the earthly life, into the peace of the spirit's heavenly home; from where the Lord is seen only by the eye of faith, to where in blissful nearness he becomes an object of sight. Although Paul was certain even in this his earthly life of union with the Lord, he was far from feeling himself satisfied with what he already enjoyed. Not merely from external conflicts had he learned, that this is not the land of peace promised to the Christian, and sought for by his longing spirit. To those internal conflicts, yet more severe, which the life of faith must ever sustain, he was no stranger. Herein also had his Saviour led the way; he who cried "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death!" and, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" One of his sore trials he calls "a thorn in the flesh;" comparing it to the anguish inflicted by a thorn fixed and rankling in the flesh. It was the painful ex

perience of his own human weakness, in contrast with the revelation of the divine glory, which at times was imparted to him. Thus was he taught to distinguish what is divine and what is human, what belongs to this life and what to the life beyond. Thus too was he to learn, that the land of heavenly peace, after which the renewed spirit sighs, is not to be found on earth. Although Paul, as his life and his epistles testify, had made great advances in personal sanctification, yet he was far from wishing to separate himself from the number of those, who as sinners seek in Christ for justification; far from holding himself to be a sinless saint. He knew well that he had still to maintain the conflict with sin, and that he must persevere in that conflict faithfully to the end, if he would stand before the Lord. We need only to hear his own professions, as when warning the Corinthians against a false security he writes (1 Cor. ix. 27): "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest, having preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away." By these words he describes his unceasing conflict with himself, lest after having brought others to salvation by the preaching of the word, which through the in

dwelling divine power works independently of the preacher, and brings forth fruit to eternal life, he should himself be overcome by temptation and fall short of that goal to which he has conducted others. The figure, of which Paul here makes use, is taken from the boxing combats of the ancients. The body is represented as the antagonist with whom the boxer contends; implying a still continued resistance of the body, once the servant of sin, against the divine life in the spirit. Paul describes himself as one, who by unremitting effort makes his body, the organ of sanctification entrusted to him, serviceable to himself as the servant of Christ. This conflict with the body of sin, inasmuch as the whole outward life of man manifests itself in the body, designates in general the entire conflict still to be waged by the spiritual against the fleshly man, by the new man against the old; and this in the case even of a Paul. Thus Paul, instructed by his rigorous selfexamination, is far from supposing when he contemplates his own life, that he has already reached the limit of heavenly perfection, or that he could build his confidence thereon as if it were a life of perfected sanctification. "Not as if I had already