THE NEW LIFE A LIFE OF YIELDING. 205

can and does impart to the weakest, and what immovable firmness for truth, for principle, He can and does developc in the most sensitive and timid. But deep below such manifestations, where they are indeed His work, there lies in the order of grace the presence, by His indwelling, of a tender and willing surrender to others, because first to the Lord, of every mere claim and jealousy of self. In proportion to the fulness of the Spirit's in-working Jesus Christ really occupies the throne usurped before by self. And in proportion to that occupation of the throne by its true King the man will be, more than anything else-whatever else he has to be in the direction of activity and firmness—“ long-suffering, gentle, good."

Lastly, the truly spiritual character will, in its God-given development, issue always in a practical and wakeful life. Bright with a secret happiness, long-suffering with a deep and genuine surrender, the spiritual man will be 'faithful"1 in every particular of duty. He

1 That the word πíστis in this passage means "faithfulness" not "faith" is clear by its collocation with words in which relative duties are plainly in view. See, e.g., Titus ii. 10.

will be loyal to every promise made or trust undertaken. He will be to be depended on in the business of the day. His correspondents will receive punctual answers; his friends, faithful and careful counsel. His employers will get a service out of him in which their just interests will be as his own. His servants and dependants will find him watchfully equitable, considerate, and courteous. He will take great care to

Rom. xiii. 8. ❝owe no man anything." His church and parish will be truly served, be they ever so large, or small, or unresponsive. He will be known to be one who will take trouble for others, and who is glad to be their servant indeed for Jesus' sake. He will be "meek," in the sense of a jealous avoidance of a manner and habit of self-assertion among his brethren in matters of opinion or of work. And with and over it all he will be “self-controlled." He will, for the glory of his Master, and that he may be truly serviceable among his fellows for Him, watch and pray over his own acts and habits; over bed, and board, and literature, and companionship, and recreation, and imagination, and tongue. Not that he will try to exercise

GAL. v. 22, 23, A SPIRITUAL TOUCHSTONE. 207

the Stoic's fancied empire of self over self; but he will humbly, recollectedly, with decision, bring the whole of his life, hour by hour, to his glorious Master for orders and for discipline. He will "keep under his body, and 1 Cor. ix. 27. bring it into subjection," by a steadily maintained surrender of it as "a living Rom. xii. 1. sacrifice," in all its faculties, to Him of whom it is written, “the body is for the 1 Cor. vi. 13. Lord, and the Lord for the body." For the spiritual man, a true self-surrender is the deep secret of a true self-control.

So we shut the Epistle, and close our enquiry into the Fruit of the Spirit. But we will do so only to turn again to life with a fuller recollection of what is the character we are intended to bear as spiritual men, and what is the divine provision, present and perfect, for the being of that character in us and its manifestation by us.

We will take this Scripture to be to us, amongst other things, a touchstone of our spiritual health. Not long ago I heard of a pious and devoted woman who used it habitually

for this purpose. If in any degree conscious of a decline or obscuration in her life and work for her Lord, she took Gal. v. 22, 23, and read the words over as in His presence, and asked herself before Him in what particular of the Fruit of the Spirit any recent failure was apparent. Such asking and finding led at once to a repentant renewal of surrender and of faith, and so back to the rest, and to the readiness, which are for us, by the Holy Ghost, in Jesus Christ our Life.

WE

CHAPTER XI.

E are still engaged upon the revelation through St Paul of the Holy Spirit and His work. In the present chapter we take up a group of Pauline words and phrases on the subject, rich in materials for enquiry and for faith.

And, first, and mainly, the FULNESS OF THE SPIRIT. The precise phrase is not Pauline ; indeed it is not verbally Biblical. But equivalent expressions are abundant, in many parts of Scripture. In the Mosaic age we find the sacred artificer Bezaleel "filled with Exod. xxxi. 3. the Spirit of God" for the work of constructing and adorning the Tabernacle, whose true Designer was none other than Heb. ix. 8. the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel age the Lord Jesus Himself is seen going up from Baptism to Temptation "full of the

Luke iv. I