You will say to me, "But the Christian ?" If you understand by that name a man according to the flesh; I answer you, "He is sin, and he will be sin even unto death, which is a most irrefragable proof of it: the body is dead because of sin; the flesh always loves the things of the flesh, and this affection is death; the flesh is enmity against God." But let attention be paid to it; who is He who judges of it thus? Is it the flesh which judges itself? O confound not the action of the Spirit of God with that of the flesh. The flesh is condemned from top to bottom. The Spirit is the judge, who makes us understand what we are, and the more we live according to the Spirit, the more aware shall we become of the wiles of the flesh. If we walk in the light, we shall not say that we are without sin. It is just this which the word of God presents us with in 1 John i. 8. If we can content ourselves with the virtue of humanity, if we seek only to walk like men in the light, we may flatter ourselves, perhaps, with the notion that we are without sin; but if we seek the walk worthy of God in the light, having understood that we are a royal priesthood, in order to show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light, we certainly shall not say that we are without sin; rather shall we feel impelled to seek the realization of the resurrection of Jesus, and to follow on to apprehend that for which we have been apprehended by Christ; not as though we had already attained it, but as pressing on toward it.

There are three points of view under which we may look at sin: 1. Sin as a principle reigning in the flesh; 2. Sins as the manifestation of sin before conversion; 3. Sins after conversion or falls.

Sin is a vile plant, which bears sins for fruit; and the soil where that vile plant is met with is the heart of man, out of which proceed all sorts of evil things, some of which Jesus enumerates for us (Mat. xv. 19). Man without God remains in this bad state, the vile plant grows on him freely, whilst the heart of a man converted to God is exercised by the hand of God. He hews down the vile plant, ploughs up the earth and prepares the soil, in order to cast in the good seed which

brings forth fruit to the glory and praise of God. This cultivation, which is continuous, explains to us simply enough why the children of God are exposed to so many trials, which are but tokens of the love on the Father's part towards his children, in order to detach them from the world and to attach their hearts to Him. May we always give heed thereto! We cannot, however, for a moment admit even the thought that the flesh is changed; it remains that which it is, that is to say sin. It is, therefore, that it was judged in Christ, for God, in sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh, which had sin, and for sin has condemned sin in the flesh (Romans viii. 3). We have here that which is true as to sin, considered as a principle natural to the flesh. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us (2 Cor. v. 21). God has condemned sin in the flesh; the old man is crucified with Jesus (Romans vi. 6), so that the members of Christ are no longer under the sad empire of that which characterises the natural man. No; the man of God is by no means sin; he is the righteousness of God.

Sins are but the manifestation of what man is. The child of God easily sees that acts positively against God were quite natural to him, when he was but a man of the world. For these sins committed before his conversion he is humbled; he has shame; but he has no more anguish as to them, because he knows that Christ died only for sinners, and for sinners such as he. Paul, mighty instrument of the grace of God, had no fear in recalling to mind what he had been, because that at the same time recalled to mind that he had found mercy, and he adds (1 Tim. i. 15), "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." His conscience is not charged with these sins, for the blood of Christ has purified him from them. It is just the same with every Christian, for how can any one be a Christian without having the pardon of his sins? That forgiveness it is which characterizes the children (1 John ii. 12).

But if Christians have falls, if they commit sin after conversion? That is quite another thing. It only seems so; for at bottom it is always the same thing. By nature

we are sinners, but Christ delivers us. It very often, however, happens, that Christians, frightened at the discovery that they still sin, begin to be troubled in conscience; and end by doubting of their conversion. But what is it that warrants our thinking that the man who is converted cannot fall? Is there one single case, in the word of God, in which a regenerated man is presented to us as no more sinning? Or, when is it that Paul wrote these words so full of the feeling of sin: "Who shall deliver me from this death?" When was it that Peter stood in need of being rebuked for his hypocrisy in having refused communion with his Gentile brethren? Certainly it was after their conversion! And yet we no where find that Peter or Paul doubted of being converted. Quite the contrary, Paul adds: "I thank God by Jesus Christ our Lord." Here we find what delivers, what lifts up the fallen Christian. If after conversion we were left to ourselves, O all would be as soon lost as when man undertook the responsibility of keeping the law. But Christ is not only dead for us as sacrifice for sin, He has also lived on earth for us, His death is, in our behalf, the odour of a sweet smell before God; He is risen. Christ, moreover, is our Advocate with the Father (1 John ii. 1). It is to this last title of Jesus that we owe the full certitude of arriving, at the end of our pilgrimage, spite of falls, in the arms of a Father, who assures us of His love in Jesus. It is He who has an abiding priesthood; therefore, also, can He save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, ever living to make intercession for them (Heb. vii. 25). "Who is he that condemneth?" Christ is He who died, and, what is better, rose again; who is at the right-hand of God, and who intercedes for us (Romans viii. 34). Our advocate with the Father is Jesus Christ, without fault or spot-accomplished righteousness. Righteousness which is never removed before God, never loses its value: on the contrary, it demands our salvation. Yes; Jesus is our Advocate, and He can alone, after all falls, restore our communion with the Father; Jesus never ceases to wash our feet. In His adorable love, and even in His glory with the Father, He renders. to us this service. Ŏ let.

us not be so ungrateful as to mistrust the efficacy of His intercession; and if the old man gets the upper hand, if Satan succeeds in getting us to a distance from God, let us not stop at that distance; let us haste to the feet of Jesus, and let us keep there until He restores us, He can and He will. Christ then anticipates every thing. He sets us in communion with the Father and He upholds us therein. What a blessing, what joy, and what

assurance!

Let us bless the love which has given to us such a Jesus. Prostrate before Him, let us adore Him, carrying every thing to His feet. It is to Him we owe all; it is He who has loved us, and who loves us, who has washed us from our sins in His blood, and has made us kings and priests to God, His Father. To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! O my soul, forget not thou His benefits. It is He who pardons all thine iniquities, who heals all thine infirmities, who delivers thy life from destruction, who crowns thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, Amen; yea, Amen for ever!

Now, also, we shall understand what the Spirit of God says to us (1 John iii. 9, " Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." It is clear, that the question here is not about the flesh which the Christian drags along with him against his will; but it is that which has been born of God, to wit, the divine nature in which we participate by the Holy Spirit of God (comp. 1 John iv. 13; 2 Peter i. 4). It is the new man, fruit of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever; it is a man born of the Spirit, born of God; it is the child of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and the flesh profiteth nothing; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and it is the Spirit which quickeneth. The definition which the word of God gives us of a child of God, is this, "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John i. 13). Impossible for sin to be there, impossible for corruption to taint that which is incorruptible. No; that which is born of

God cannot sin, for the simple reason that it is born of God. Nevertheless, to live by the Spirit, or to guide oneself and walk by the Spirit, are two very different things. It is not enough to know that we are children of the light, we must also walk in the light; we must follow the rule which the word of God traces for us without lowering it in the least thing; and that rule is to live as Jesus Christ Himself lived. It is not said that we can do what Jesus did. No; flesh allows not of it. Hereafter we shall do so, when, made like to Him, we shall be united around Him to sing an everlasting halleluia; but we must always manifest somewhat of Jesus upon this earth, where none can glorify Him but His own. However weak we may be, He upholds us and abides with us even to the end. God is light, let us live in communion with Him, let us walk in the light and we shall even know more surely that we are without sin through the grace which is in Jesus; but that we have need of mercy in order to attain unto the end. Let us not stop on the road as the old prophet; it is the beginning of a falling. Let us onward, and let us be persuaded that no one will pluck us out of the hand of Jesus, and of His Father.

Jesus gave Himself to us such as He is, let us give ourselves to Him such as we are; and we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, Amen.

[Taken from Etudes Scripturaires, No. vii. 14 Mai, 1852].

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Might we not also say that in this precious epistle, there is a question, in an abstract and general sense, of the traits of the family of God, of the development of the divine nature in the children of God, in contrast with the evil nature.-Ed. of Etudes Script.