THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT AND ETERNAL LIFE
[p. 279] THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT AND ETERNAL LIFE
In standing here, beloved friends, I am a little disinclined to touch the subject of eternal life; but in taking up such a line as that of divine purpose I have felt that one was, in a sense, compelled to touch upon that subject, that it was, indeed, impossible to avoid it, because it is in Scripture so very distinctly connected with divine purpose; as you read in this chapter, God “hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose”. That is, whatever the works of man might be, the grace and purpose of God were in the background, and we are taught that they not only existed, but that they have come to light, that Christ “has annulled death and has brought life and incorruptibility to light by the gospel”. Death was the judgment of God upon man, and the power of the enemy. Until death was annulled, both as God’s judgment and the enemy’s power, the time had not arrived for bringing life and incorruptibility to light; but now they are brought to light by the gospel, God has fallen back upon “His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus”. When there was no question before Him of responsibility, or works, or death, or anything of the kind, the purpose, the promise of life in Christ Jesus, was there.
I have said on previous occasions what should commend itself to any simple Christian, that promise, if unconditional and absolute, such as “the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus”, is of necessity with God the expression of purpose; it could not be otherwise, else it must have come in as an afterthought; and I have also spoken of the promises to Abraham; and,
[p. 280] in connection with the promises, the character in which God presented Himself to Abraham, “the God of glory”; and I have noticed how that Stephen, who uses the title “God of glory”, was permitted to see the glory of God, and Jesus at God’s right hand. We have seen that the promises to Abraham were confirmed in Abraham’s seed, that is, in Christ risen from the dead.
Last week I spoke of “the better hope” as being a question of counsel, seeing that it is in Hebrews 6 connected with the expression, “God, willing ... to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel” — the better hope is of the counsel of God, who is “bringing many sons unto glory”.
Tonight the thought before me is of eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit; not exactly to present these things in themselves, but to show the connection of these truths with the counsel of God, how they have come to light as of God’s “purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world was”. Of course, that is looking at eternal life in what I may call its highest development; for eternal life is a term of wide import in Scripture. It refers, in the direct bearing of it, to blessing upon the earth; that is evident from the way in which it is first introduced to us in the Old Testament. But Paul shows it to us as connected with heavenly glory; and for that reason carries it back to what was in the purpose of God before the world was, and thus disconnects it from the course of the world altogether.
I referred a moment ago to what comes out in this passage, namely, that life and incorruptibility were not brought to light until death was annulled. That leads me to what I believe to be a very important thought connected with life in Scripture, namely, that it is outside of responsibility, and what responsibility could bring in. I want to make that point very plain to everybody here tonight. It is, I believe, one most [p. 281] important idea connected with eternal life in Scripture.
If I go back to Adam, Adam was alive by the breath of God; but we must remember the footing upon which Adam was before God, that of responsibility; and if he failed in his responsibility, death would come in. And, therefore, no one could rightly talk of Adam having eternal life, because everything with him was dependent upon his standing in obedience. “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. I suppose, if Adam had remained as God created him, he would have lived for ever, for death was not upon him; he was perfect, and death came upon him as the sentence of God when he sinned. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin”. This much was proved, that innocence could not stand against the tempter. God put man on the footing of responsibility, with a command, and a penalty if he transgressed, and the penalty came upon him; as it has been said, ‘Adam did and died’. I bring this forward, beloved friends, because I think it is a most important point to apprehend in connection with eternal life, that it is outside of responsibility, and therefore of death. As it says in Romans 6: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. The way in which Christians come into life is that they pass “out of death into life”. I do not think anyone could rightly talk about having life without knowing what it is to have “passed out of death into life”. Christ has “annulled death and has brought life and incorruptibility to light by the gospel”. The two things go together.
I desire to touch on the truth of eternal life in three connections — as presented in the Old Testament, and by John, and by Paul; and my object is two-fold: to show the place which the Holy Spirit in each case has in it, and its connection with the purpose of God. Whether it be for blessing on earth, or in the line in [p. 282] which John presents it to us (which is connected with earth really, though it be what is heavenly upon earth), or in the aspect in which Paul speaks of it, as connected with Christ in glory, in every case life is presented to us as of the purpose of God; and therefore (a very important point to remember) outside of responsibility and death. I do not mean to say that we have done with responsibility; we have never done with it so long as we are here upon earth and Christ is absent; but I say you have part in that which is outside of your responsibility. So, too, I am liable to death unless the Lord come; but it is none the less true that I have passed out of death into life. There is an expression in Scripture which confirms it to me, and that is “the glory of the children of God”. Our glory is, that in the power of the Holy Spirit we are with God outside of what is connected with our outward and responsible life here upon earth; and I am sorry for the Christian who does not know something about it. With the Father I am a child, the gift of the Father’s love. There are responsibilities flowing from it, that is, to walk consistently with it; but the thing itself is a privilege which in its nature is outside of responsibility. Our outward life down here is not in itself the expression of the privilege which belongs to a Christian, though it is affected and governed by it.
Now, beloved friends, I have so far spoken on the negative side in seeking to show that eternal life, properly speaking, is outside of responsibility, and death, the result in man of responsibility; and everybody here will admit that life is constantly presented in Scripture in contrast to death. When we come to what is more positive, there are three main ideas connected with life, and very important ideas they are, too, which I will try to unfold a little. The first is blessing, the second is character, and the third, power. Now mark this, we have to learn everything from Scripture; it is no good bringing preconceived thoughts to Scripture,
[p. 283] because that is not subjection to the Spirit of truth nor to the word of God; and I think I can prove to you without any very great difficulty that the three thoughts I have mentioned are connected with life in Scripture.
Take the first distinct mention of eternal life in Scripture, in Psalm 133, which I turn to at this moment simply for the purpose of speaking of eternal life as blessing. In the third verse we read: “For there Jehovah commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”. I think I am justified in saying that Scripture presents eternal life to us as blessing. Again, in Psalm 21, where it is said of the king: “He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever”. It is really the answer in blessing which God gave to the sufferings and death of Christ. He is installed as the great Head and source of blessing for ever and ever.
Then, too, with regard to character — for in working the subject out in its various connections, I will show you how these three thoughts come in — I give you one passage, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body”. By the word ‘life’ in this passage I understand the character of Jesus, what He was morally here upon earth; and that is to be manifest in the mortal body of a Christian. But as we shall see presently, there is a further thought connected with it. Character is intimately connected with being; that is, character is the expression of what a person is in his moral being. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.
Then there is the third main idea, and that is power. And what I gather from that is “If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”. “The Spirit is life”, that is, I judge, the thought of power. Power in the Christian is connected with the Holy Spirit, for he has [p. 284] not one atom of spiritual power in himself, and therefore the scripture goes as far as to say, “The Spirit is life”; that is, potentially. If you speak of blessing, the blessing to us is sonship; if you speak of character, the character is Christ in us; but if you speak of power, the power is the Holy Spirit. So the apostle says to the Galatians, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”. I want you to bear these three very important points in mind — blessing, character, and power — because you will see how they appear in each connection in which eternal life is presented to us in Scripture.
Now, beloved friends, I desire first to touch on the truth of eternal life as predicted in the Old Testament, in connection with the world to come, the millennium; then on the way John presents it to us, and afterwards as revealed to us through Paul in connection with Christ in glory. Of course, the last two are very intimately connected, because they have their application to the same body of people, to Christians; we have part in the truth as presented by John, and in the truth as presented by Paul. I will show you presently the contrast between the two last; but I may just say that, in general, in John life is presented to us in the present; with Paul it is presented to us in full result in Christ.
To refer again to Psalm 133: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there Jehovah commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”. Now, beloved friends, my conviction is that you find the three thoughts I have referred to in that Psalm: blessing, character, and power. There is no doubt the Psalm is prophetic; it refers to what will be made good here [p. 285] upon earth in the world to come, the millennium. It is the last Psalm but one, you will notice, of what are called the Songs of Degrees; they are a kind of supplementary Psalms, which lead right away in thought from the people in the sense of distance and woe to the full result in blessing and unity in Zion. You will observe that it is “the mountains of Zion” where God “commanded the blessing”. Do you know what Zion represents in Scripture? Zion is the “city of the great King”; nothing on earth can be compared to Zion. Mount Sinai is contrasted with it in Hebrews; but nothing can be compared to Zion, because of what is connected with it in the ways of God. Zion is the place of God’s choice. God refused Shiloh, and there was not found a place for the ark until it was brought to mount Zion. The ark had been delivered into captivity; as it says, “He delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand”; but “He smote his enemies in the hinder parts, he put them to a perpetual reproach”, and brought back the ark. But by whom? By David, the man of His choice. He rejected Ephraim, and chose Judah; He rejected Saul, and chose David. The great beauty of Zion is its moral connection; it is the witness of the long-suffering faithfulness of God. When His people had forfeited everything by their conduct, God brought back the ark. Never was a more disastrous step taken than to carry the ark into battle. It was making a god of the ark. And the people lost it. God knew how to recover it, and He did; but it was with no honour to the people. They had lost all; they had, so to say, nothing without the ark; but God brought it back to mount Zion, and then David led the song: “Give thanks unto Jehovah, for he is good, for his mercy” — His loving-kindness it really is — “endureth for ever”.
I think that is quite enough to prove how the thought of this Psalm is connected with the purpose of [p. 286] God, that is, with the place of God’s choice, mount Zion.
The great idea which predominates in Psalm 133 is blessing: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”. They have reached blessing: it refers, I suppose, to the unity of Judah and Israel when they are brought together again upon earth as “one stick”. But I think the dwelling together “in unity” gives us also the character in which life becomes manifest. They have got the blessing, and what marks them is that the jealousies, the contentions, and divisions which formerly existed are completely set aside. Then you find also the third idea, and that is power. It is like the oil, “the precious ointment”, for their dwelling together is the effect of the influence and power upon them of the Holy Spirit, which flows from the true Aaron in glory. And it adds: “There he commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”. Thus they will be relieved in that day of death; they will be no longer on the footing of responsibility, because the law will be written in their hearts, and Christ will be present. The first covenant depended upon the conduct of the people, as well as upon the faithfulness of God; the second is the covenant of God’s will, and their responsibility having been met, their sins and iniquities are remembered no more.
But I do not want to dwell too much upon scriptures that speak of the blessing of Israel, because after all these have only an indirect bearing on us. I go on to what applies to us more directly, and I turn your attention to two passages in the gospel of John (chapters John 3: 14 - 17 and John 4: 13, 14): “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
[p. 287] but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved”. Again, “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in [p. 290] him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”.
Now, in the gospel of John we are struck with this, that it is the intervention of God by His only-begotten Son outside of all dispensation. It is really the coming out of God in the revelation of His love to the world. Therefore, as has been often noticed, in the introduction of the gospel we do not find any genealogy of the Lord traced down from Abraham or David or up to Adam. And another point noticeable in the gospel is, that Christ is commonly presented to us as outside, so to say, of the circumstances of His merely earthly life. He is presented to us by John as with the Father, that is, that morally He was outside the present scene and all connected with it (although He actually had His part in it); and hence John could say in the opening of the gospel: “The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of an only-begotten with a Father”.
And there is another point, namely, that in Christ as “with the Father”, was manifested to the disciples the truth of eternal life. As the apostle says, we “shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us”. I do not mean to say but what Christ had His part in responsibility here; that I fully admit; and in truth He came here to die; He was going to give His flesh for the life of the world; but my conviction is that there was manifested to the disciples in Christ what was entirely outside of responsibility and the reach of death, what He was with the Father. They saw the blessing in which as man Christ was with the Father. They saw, too,
[p. 288] His character, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the blessed traits which came Out in Him; and further, that He was here in the power of life; “In him was life”, although that expression really refers more to what is divinely true of Him.
But now I want to come to the application of John to us. If you would get a true idea of eternal life as John presents it, you must take the two passages I read in conjunction; the one gives us what I may call the objective side, and the other is the subjective side, and you must put the two together. The point in John 3 is the way in which God has come out, and in John 4 the means by which the believer goes in; for it was not enough simply that God should come out. The way in which God has come out is revealed in the verses I read in John 3; it is God revealed and acting in the sovereignty of divine love. “God so loved the world”. Who besought God to love the world? Love is sovereign; “God so loved the world”. Who can say why? No one. All we can do is to accept what Scripture says, that “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son”, He came out in that way in the gift of His Son, and the Son of man has been lifted up, “that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have eternal life”. I believe that privilege must be commensurate to revelation, and that if God has seen fit to reveal Himself thus in the sovereignty of divine love, He must be known accordingly. God is love; and in His love to the world is the manner and character in which we know God. I think it is a privilege which is peculiar to this moment. Nothing can alter the character of God, but there may be certain things which are prominent in any given moment; and this is such. How do you think Israel will know God in the millennium? As Jehovah in His eternal faithfulness, whose mercy endures for ever. But our privilege is to know God revealed in the greatness of His love to the world. Why must the [p. 289] Son of man be lifted up? On account of the condition of man? Quite so; but really on account of the love of God. That is the ground on which it is put, for Jesus adds immediately, “for God so loved the world”. In order for the love of God to the world to be adequately expressed and to be made good, it was necessary for the Son of man to be lifted up. I ask all here one simple question, Do you know God in the sovereignty of love? Because what it means is this, God will hold nothing back from those whom He loves. It has often been said that love will do the best it can for its object. And if this is the way in which God has been pleased to come out, there is nothing that He will hold back from the objects of His love. It is a great thing to know God in goodness, but it is a greater thing to know God in love. I think I have an idea of the grace of God, but a very poor one of the love of God.
Now I want to touch on the other side of the truth, that is, the means by which we go in. That is what comes out in chapter 4; the Lord says to the woman of Samaria, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. You cannot conceive anything more wonderful than that, that the believer was not only to be relieved but to have, as one might say, a spring in himself. I have no doubt whatever that the allusion is to the Holy Spirit, though not exactly as indwelling us and uniting us to Christ; I think it is the Holy Spirit connected with the believer in the most intimate way; if I might use the expression, speaking reverently, as if the Holy Spirit were mine, that I might use Him in that sense. And I believe it is so; I do not think there is any limit to the use which a believer may make of the power of the Holy Spirit. “The water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well of water springing up into eternal life”. The idea which it conveys to me is that the office of the Holy Spirit is the ministration of Christ to the soul of the believer on the principle which you find in chapter 6, “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me”. The soul eats, and enjoys, and delights in that living bread, in the grace expressed in the Lord Jesus Christ as come down from heaven. The soul lives by Him. Then comes the consequence; there is a well of water springing up into eternal life. It refers to the answer in the believer of affections which spring up in him God-wards by the Spirit. John 3 gives us the divine side; John 4 gives us the believer’s side. We could not have a sense of the sovereignty of divine love and not respond to it; “He that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God”. “We love him because he first loved us”; affections in the power of the Holy Spirit are generated in the believer towards the blessed source of the benefit, the One who has come out in the love presented to us in chapter 3. It is the Spirit of Christ, not exactly the Spirit of God. (I do not mean different in personality, but in aspect.)
I think you will see that the three things of which I have spoken are verified here: that we have blessing, character, and power. The blessing is that we are children. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God”. And the character is Christ. “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me”. And the power is the Spirit of life given of Christ. “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life”. There is the blessed spring and power of affections in the Holy Spirit. I need hardly say, beloved friends, that all begins with God, in the work of the Spirit of God in the soul; a man has to be born again, as we read, “Whosoever loveth is born of God, and knoweth God”. But I speak of what are the characteristics of life.
[p. 291] One word more in regard to the blessing. I turn to John 17: 3, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ thy sent one”. There again is the blessing. It hangs on the truth that we are brought into the place of children. We are set in that place before the Father, and therefore eternal life, in the very nature of it, is with the Father, and the privilege and blessing of it is, “That they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ thy sent one”. I have spoken about the character, or in other words the moral being, and also of the power. But on that point I will just refer to John 20, where the Lord breathes on the disciples, and says, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”. He communicated to them, I do not doubt, what is referred to in chapter 4, the “well of water springing up into eternal life”.
I will not dwell further on what comes out in John, but pass on to the thought of life in Paul, and will read three verses in Ephesians 1, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love; having predestinated us unto sonship by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”. Now, beloved friends, I think you will get great light from this passage on the way in which eternal life belongs to the Christian; not quite as John presents it, though consistent with it, but in connection, in the most distinct way, with the eternal purpose of God. It is that which led me to refer to this passage, because life is presented here, beyond all question, in connection with eternal purpose; He has “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world”. What for? “That we should be holy and without blame before him in love”. I do not think it can be disputed that what comes out in this passage is totally apart from [p. 292] responsibility and every consequence of responsibility. Not but what responsibility has been perfectly met; that comes out afterwards; but what is stated in this verse is wholly outside of it. Now what is the blessing? It is that God has “predestinated us to sonship through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”. There is the full height of the blessing. That is a very different thing from anything which will be conferred upon man on earth in the millennium. This connects itself with heaven; He has “blessed us with an spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”. I have no doubt whatever that sonship, as to the full force of it, is always connected with heaven. It is true the Christian is brought into it before he gets to heaven, for he gets the Spirit of sonship; but the relationship is a relationship which is proper to heavenly places. The word ‘son’ is used in a sort of figurative way even in regard to Israel; but in the full height of it the idea belongs to heaven.
Beloved friends, what privilege and blessing to be with God and before God, with no shade of distance; not alone to know God Himself in an the grace and love of His being, but to know Him, too, in all the range of divine wisdom; that is what I understand the privilege of sonship to be. That is what we are brought into; as the apostle says in Galatians, “Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus”; we are brought into it in faith now, but in actuality when we get to heaven. In actual condition, and as to the place of it, we are not in it yet; but we are there in a sense because we are united to Christ. Sonship is the blessing.
And now as to the character. He has “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love”. There is the character; not character in the sense in which we sometimes employ the word, but character in the sense of moral being. It is the character which [p. 293] is proper to the relationship. And how is that brought about in the believer? You may say it refers to the future, because it is a statement of purpose. I quite admit it. But do you mean to tell me it is not made good in the present? I am convinced it is, and I have no doubt it has been brought about in the believer “by the renewing of the Holy Spirit which he shed on us abundantly”. The renewing of the Holy Spirit is one of the characteristics of God’s salvation. (See Titus 3: 5, 6.) The Holy Spirit is in the Christian, forming Christ in us and forming us in Christ. The apostle says to the Galatians, “of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you”; and to the Colossians, of whom he could write, “Christ in you”, he adds, “Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man full grown in Christ Jesus”. I see Christians getting a little bit here and a little bit there; I know it, too, in my own experience; one time one may make a little advance in the way of holiness, another time in the way of spiritual affections, another time in the way of intelligence; but you want to get everything balanced, because the end is “the measure of the stature of the completeness of Christ”. Thus there is the renewing of the Holy Spirit, a new order of moral being of which Christ in glory is the pattern. We begin thus as babes, as everybody will admit; but we are to grow up unto Him in all things who is the Head; Christ is the standard. Gifts are given, “till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the completeness of Christ”. The full blessing and privilege of a Christian is sonship; the character is Christ, that is, He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. It is a man of a new order, in the truth of which the Christian is formed by the power of the Holy [p. 294] Spirit. I need hardly say that the whole work has to begin with God in new birth; but I see also in scripture, “the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour”.
Now I think you will have seen, in connection with what Paul presents, the three things — the blessing, the character, and the power. I do not think the sense would be at all complete if you omitted either of those three ideas. It brings us back to what we started with, that God “has saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began”. Death has been annulled, and life and incorruptibility brought to light by the gospel.
I just desired to show you the truth of life connected in every case with Christ, for even the blessing in Zion is entirely dependent upon the presence of Christ. I believe saints in that day will be very conscious that they are indebted for everything to Christ, and that they are really held in the enjoyment of blessing by Christ Himself. So, too, I find the same thing in John’s line of things. There it is what was revealed in the Son Himself, become man, “that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us”. The blessing is that we are children, and the character is Christ; we eat Christ and live by Him, the living bread come down from heaven. And then there is the power, the well of water in the believer springing up into eternal life. The whole conception is divine; the thought originated in the heart of the blessed God; He revealed Himself in the sovereignty of love to the world, and we are brought to respond to it in spiritual affections by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you want to get the full result, you must go to Paul. The full result is in conformity to Christ in glory, according to God’s eternal purpose, and Paul presents it to us in connection with heavenly glory,
[p. 295] which John does not. Who can say that the expressions in the beginning of Ephesians 1 will be fully verified until we are in glory? I quite admit that in virtue of union with Christ we are in heavenly places already; but we are to be actually in heavenly places; that is what it refers to. God has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love”. This will be made actually true in us in glory, though I should be very sorry to relegate it entirely to the future, because I think it is given to us for the present. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer so to minister Christ to our souls that this is made good to us in the present.
I think I have said enough to show you how that eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit in connection with it, hang entirely upon the purpose of God. It is that which is manifestly outside all question of man’s responsibility; it is not according to our works, it is not upon that line. I say, thank God for it. I am very well content to go on the little moment that remains, and seek to fulfil my responsible life down here by the help of the Holy Spirit to the praise of God. But in the light of God’s blessed word, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, I am permitted to be in a certain sense beside myself, to retire for a moment in faith from all here, and to realise what I am with God according to His eternal purpose. And it is not simply for our pleasure, but for His; it is the fruit of His love. Do not you think God delights in what is the effect and fruit of His love? I am sure He does; and He delights that we should enter into it, and know that it originated in that love. May God give to us to respond to it, that we may know more of the mighty power of the Holy Spirit in us as a well of water springing up into eternal life. I can earnestly desire [p. 296] for myself that spiritual affections may be really in exercise in me, that they may reach up as it were to the source of all blessing, to Him who has revealed Himself to us in the sovereignty of His love.