make us workers together with the Spirit in comforting others. If we would be comforters we must first ourselves have wept. And as we were "created unto good works" by the Spirit, so we are to increase and abound more and more. We are to be brought into sympathy with Christ in all things, walking in the Spirit and working in the Spirit. Not only will he who has been comforted comfort others, but he who has been saved will seek to save others. Chastisement and discipline will make one more useful and faithful, abounding in good works. It is difficult to believe that a man, particularly a rich man, has faith in Christ unless he be liberal and active in spreading the Gospel. One cannot have much of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, who is not in fullest sympathy with the work of missions. We are convicted and regenerated and sanctified for something more than our own salvation. We should be one with the Spirit in seeking the glory of Christ.

Christ, who is all and in all, should be in all our thoughts and plans; in our business and in all our living, as well as in our dying. We are to serve Him on earth, and thereby be prepared to adorn as well as to enjoy heaven. We are to engage in heavenly service as well as to partake of

must be fully

heavenly bliss, and for this we sanctified. Christians are called witnesses and

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COMPLETE IN CHRIST.

confessors, and this often requires that they become, as the original implies, martyrs. They best save the life who lose it.

Among those whom the seer, in the vision of the Apocalypse, saw in white robes as peculiarly blessed, were those "who came out of great tribulation, and who washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

The diamond is the perfect gem, but that its utmost brilliancy may be brought out it must be ground until as many facets as possible shall reflect the light of the sun.

Mr. Philip says: "Tell to yourself the kind and degree of sanctifying influence, which the Holy Spirit must put forth upon your heart and character, before you are 'meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.' Only consider how much He must do in you and for you even before your calling and election be sure to yourself. And now think, and think deeply, what He must do when you are dying, in order to fit you for any kind of an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of God, of holiness, of glory! What finishing touches He must give to the divine image, now so faint and imperfect in your soul. What ripeness He must produce, then, in all the fruits of holiness now so unripe. What

* "Love of the Spirit," chap. x.

a volume of holy fire He must throw into and around your spirit, to prepare you fully to meet God, to see the Lamb on His throne, to mingle with the general assembly of perfect saints, to sustain the blaze and weight and work of unveiled immortality."

We are complete in Christ, and the Holy Spirit has undertaken to make us complete in ourselves. Christ was touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and ministered unto us even to laying down His life for us; the Spirit "helpeth our infirmities" and abides our Comforter and Helper, in life and in death, sanctifying until He can present us holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight.

Counting fully all the cost of a Christian life: its self-denial and cross-bearing, its mortification of the body, its separation from the world, its death to sin; all its trials and sufferings, who that has ever believed in Christ for the forgiveness of sin and the salvation of his soul, would exchange his portion for all that the world can give? Compared with the comfort of the Holy Spirit in the love of Christ, in the peace of God and in the hope of glory, all others are miserable comforters indeed.

Who does not rejoice as much that the Holy Spirit is his Sanctifier, as that Christ is his sanctification?

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HELPING OUR INFIRMITIES.

Who would have the will of God anything less than our sanctification, when the Spirit maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God, whatever means He may use, until we shall be presented perfect in Christ Jesus?

Blessed be God, the Holy Spirit, the God of all comfort.

CHAPTER IX.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER.

THERE is no more encouraging promise than that of our Saviour, in which He assures us that our Heavenly Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of gifts, all gifts in one. His is the coming of the King. He is God abiding in us, the Author of gifts and graces. And He was purchased for us at priceless cost and is given without measure to the Church.

Pentecost revealed the fullness and power and glory of His coming, the first-fruits and earnest of His work. And He is given freely to them that ask Him; and in answer to prayer, goes to those that ask Him not. We may not only come to God as the Hearer of prayer, and to His throne as to a throne of grace; but may say, "Our Father which art in Heaven," with the promise, "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you," having no limit except what is contained in the words, "Heavenly Father."