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some of us have never explored. There are Pisgah Heights from which we can see better heights than ever Moses saw; but we have never seen them. There are inheritances mapped out for us, but the Canaanites have possessed the land, and we have never had faith to drive them out. The enemies of God and our souls occupy the inheritance that God has sworn to give us. Some are afraid because the difficulties are great, because we have not faith in Christ to go and take possession in His

name.

Now, brethren, how is it with us? Is it so? Is it so? Has the blood of the Lamb delivered us from judgment? Look back, now, forty years ago, to the Passover in Egypt; has the blood that was there symbolised, has that blood shut you in from judgment? Now, I do not want you to say, as many a one is saying, "Well, I hope so." That will never get you over Jordan. "Well, I trust so." That means a very questionable assurance upon the subject. Come, brethren, be downright in the matter; is it a truth, or is it not a truth? Are you redeemed or not? Are you safe or not safe? You will never get over Jordan into the Promised Land until that question is settled.

Then another question :-Is it true that you have been made more than conquerors over the powers of darkness? Are Pharaoh and his chariots and horsemen at the bottom of the sea, so far as you are concerned? Now, be honest. I am afraid, brethren, lest you could not say, "Yes.” You must bear with me in telling you that, if this is so, you are just simply unbelievers; and though you may have lived forty or fifty years calling yourselves Christians, I must still tell you, and God will tell you, if you don't

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change your mind upon the matter, that you are unbelievers. How can you explore the hills and reap the fruits of the vineyards? It is only for those who are free; it is only for those who are pardoned; it is only for the adopted ones; it is only for the warriors of the Lord. You know nothing about them.

Well, have you stayed at Sinai and learned yourself to be a condemned sinner? Have you seen your condemnation written there, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them?" And have you seen that that is just your state before God? Brethren, if you have never learned that, you have never learned the truth. I ask you again, solemnly, in God's sight, Have you-I put it to you, individually I put it to you, and to myselfhave you read your condemnation, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them!" And, therefore, you are cursed; for you never did "continue in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them." You cannot know the Gospel of the Grace of God if you do not know that.

Now, have you seen that Ceremonial Law a picture of Christ, and what He did in the keeping of that Moral Law which you have broken? The scapegoat carrying away your sins into the land uninhabited, because the Lord suffered in your stead, Jesus wounded for your transgressions, made "a curse for you," in your place, that you might "be made the righteousness of God in Him!" Is it a fact? "Oh! I hope so." do. It will never bring you over Jordan. That won't do. Who does not trust so?

That won't "I trust so."

It is not, "I

hope that God is true," and "I trust that God is true," and "expect that God is true," but "I know that God is true." Nothing else will bring you over Jordan to the joy, the freedom, the blessedness of knowing that Christ having died for me, my sins and mine iniquities He will remember no more, because He has laid them upon my Substitute.

Well, brethren, now you have got news of the Promised Land, you have got news of rest, you have got news of the enjoyment we have by the full realisation of all this "great salvation," you have got news of a "land flowing with milk and honey," where you are to eat the old corn of the land, where you are to rest with God in your midst, where you are to enjoy all that Christ suffered to procure for you. Do you know anything about it? We are to enter into a course of conquest against self, we are to enter a course of conquest against sin, in us and around us, and against every high thought, and proud thought, and imagination that would rise in opposition to the full apprehension, possession, enjoyment, of what God is to us in Christ.

There is not a single step of it, there is not a single enjoyment of it to be attained, there is not a single. victory there to be achieved, but by those who have been delivered, and know it; who have been redeemed, and who know it; who have learned their forty years' Wilderness experience, and know it; who know that what God has promised He is able to perform. May God bless His truth. Amen.

V.

Elect of God.

"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”— COLOSSIANS iii. 12, 13.

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same.

HAT a contrast there is between the members that we are to put off and mortify, and the new man with which we are to enroll ourselves! And observe, the inducement to the one and the motive to the other is the If we are to put off the old man, and mortify its members, the motive is, because we are Christ's, quickened with the life of Christ; the old man buried with Christ, and you yourselves risen with Christ; and if you are to put on the new man and exercise the beauteous and divine attributes thereof, the reason is the same, because you are the elect of God, and He hath made you to Himself a holy people.

What a contrast! "Mortify your members upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." That is not all ;-religion,

union with Christ, involves a great deal more than a putting off what is wrong; it is a mistake into which many fall, and in which many indulge themselves, that if they keep from vice and wrong, they have attained to the Christian character. It is a very negative Christianity that simply consists in putting off what is wrong.

It is not enough to be separated from evil-separated from the world. What a splendid character is here described! Oh, what a little heaven earth would be if all who name the name of Jesus were what is here described! What a happy home that little home would be were all the members dwelling in it characterised truly by the description here given ! "Put on therefore bowels of mercies, gentleness, meekness, longsuffering: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." It would be heaven forestalled! God forgive us that there is so little of it! "Put on, therefore, as the elect of God;" you see the two particles; the "therefore" of the 12th verse and the therefore" of the 5th verse are in close connection ;-"Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth" "Put on, therefore-."

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Then the "as" has reference to what follows:-Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved; put on the character which he afterwards describes. Now, brethren, do you not see that it is only as by faith we realise our standing, that we shall ever put on the Christian character? The text does not say, "Put on meekness, and gentleness, and forbear one another, and forgive one another, in order that ye may be the elect of God, holy and beloved." And yet, after all, that is about the religion of a great many. They think they will become "the elect of God, holy and beloved,” if

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