any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Great, wonderful, and blessed as were the results to Abraham and Moses, with their lesser knowledge of God, they are infinitely surpassed in the life and ways of our blessed Lord on the earth; as another has said, "When I turn my eyes to Jesus, when I contemplate all His obedience, His purity, His grace, His tenderness, His patience, His devotedness, His holiness, His love, His entire freedom from all self-seeking, I can say, That is my life." Hence, it is "eternal life to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." No one knows God as the Son knows Him, but the Son was ever in relationship to the Father, and when He became a Man, He (the Son) knew Him so perfectly, that He ever did the things that pleased Him; and hence, when hungry, He would not act without direction from God. He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the

mouth of the Lord, doth man live." And yet, when it came to the darkest hour, He says, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ?" And in this connection He said, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him; if God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and He could say, "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." Hence, when He rose from the dead, He said to Mary Magdalene, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." This is the new place, never known by any man previously, and known now only by Christ, who is our life. The life, in relation to God as Father, was never manifested in man until manifested in Jesus; and as in Him, everything that was due to God, in all its perfectness, was perfectly observed; so we, as we are in the power

of His life, as sons to the Father, revere and serve God more than Abraham or Moses could do; we do it as the Son, whose life we have; and if Abraham and Moses fulfilled their responsibilities to God in a very beautiful way, how much more are we qualified to do so!

Hence, in John's epistle, where we are exercised as to our possession of eternal life, the grace in which we are set, as sons to the Father, is first brought before us. In Ephesians, where it is the counsel of God, in chapter i., it is God who is before us, but when it is our present enjoyment, it is the Father, in the prayer in chapter iii.

The Lord give us to see that the nearer we are to the blessed God in the relationship into which we have been brought by His own Son, the better we shall know what is due to Him, and the more purpose of heart there will be in us, as well as more power to discharge every responsibility to which we are called by Him.

The more we walk in the spirit of sonship, the more distinctly shall we magnify Him in all His glory, right, and majesty.

THOUGHTS FOR THIS DAY:

ETERNAL LIFE.

"THE life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." (1 John i. 2.) The first point, is, that the eternal life has been manifested unto us by the Son. He became a Man, and it was manifested in Him. It was never manifested in a man till the Son came. It is in the eternal life only that we could have fellowship with the Father and the Son. It is every way of the deepest importance that we should see that the eternal life is an entirely new existence, never possible among men until the Son came,

and then it was for the first time manifested. The nature and measure of the life which the saints had before the coming of Christ, I cannot determine; all I can insist on, is, that the eternal life which was with the Father, as the very terms, "with the Father," shew, could not be manifested unto us until the Son came. The Son, a Man down here, manifested unto us the life that He had in common with the Father, and He then, as the "last Adam," gives us this eternal life. (John xvii. 2.)

We start, then, with the simple fact, that the eternal life was never manifested in a man until the Son came, and that He was the virtual and actual expression of that life down here. No man ever had precedence of Him.

Next, we have to learn that this life was an entirely new one on the earth. Men of God acted for Him here in divine power, according to the measure in which He was pleased to reveal Himself. He was never declared to any of them as Father; until the Son