My need and your need are not the same: your trial, your sorrow, is not mine. All have heart-sorrows, deep conflicts, no doubt real, but various. The joy of one, the triumph of one, is not, it may be, the joy, the triumph of another: there is a fulness in Jesus to be displayed, and there must be a fulness of need to be supplied. My peculiar need, my peculiar weakness, is necessary for this, as much as yours; and the Spirit reveals and expresses it, that He may impart the supply out of the fulness of Christ, and that He may have all the glory. Like the varied pipes of some majestic organ, all different, yet filled by one Spirit, and altogether making up the harmony of the song, which no man can learn but the redeemed from amongst men.

Consider for a moment the order, and beauty, and glory, of our gospel worship, then look at four things which chiefly characterised the Old Testament worship. The place where it was conducted, the worshippers, the High Priest, and the order of the sacrifices. Contrast with these the worship of the Church of God, conducted by this one Spirit in all the members.

First then was the place. The tabernacle or the temple was a wondrous place :-God-appointed, Godprovided. There was not a tache or loop of man's devising in the whole. What a glorious temple was that of Solomon! People often try to mimic it now. But the Church of God worships in no temple made with hands. The place where the Spirit introduces the members of Christ to worship is heaven itself. We have access into the holiest. There is no spiritual worship that is not conducted in the holiest. The glory of Solomon's temple was not to be compared with the

tiniest star that glittered in heaven. How can it be compared with that place in which we worship—the very presence of God? We are worshippers within the veil. (See Heb. x. 19, 20.)

Another remarkable thing was the character of the worshippers. They were a people brought out by the Lord-a peculiar people, consecrated to God by the blood of the Passover, brought through the parted waters of the Red Sea; and it was a splendid and glorious sight to see "the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord."

But what do angels see, when the Church goes up to worship' in God's presence? They see the members of the body of Christ-His flesh, His bones-going up to worship. They see the temples of the Holy Ghost drawing nigh by the new and living way, consecrated for them, into the very presence, the unveiled presence, of the Majesty of the universe. (See Eph. ii. 18.)

Another thing was remarkable under Old Testament worship-the High Priest who stood before the Lord as the representative of Israel. It is said that when Alexander the Great saw the High Priest, he actually fell down before the majesty of his presence. But consider who the High Priest is that leads the worship of the Church of God. I cannot tell the glory of that crown, which is ever on His forehead, "that we may be accepted before the Lord." I cannot tell the glory of that breast-plate which He wears on His heart, with all the names of His people engraven on it, so varied are their characters and positions, yet distinct. "This corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must.

put on immortality," before we can realise that glory.

Another thing under Old Testament worship that was glorious was the order of the sacrifices. That was a wondrous day, the day of atonement, when the scapegoat was let free and his fellow slain. But we have better sacrifices than these-Christ Himself is the sacrifice and the altar, and the Holy Ghost Himself is the fire from heaven come down upon it!

Oh, "grieve not the Holy Spirit!" It is not everyone you can grieve. You may vex and insult, but I defy you to grieve anyone who loves you not. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit"-God's seal on each member, anointing him for glory, the earnest of the future inheritance, the first-fruits of resurrection-for He is the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead; and "if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit which dwelleth in you." Remember, if you have not that Spirit of Christ, you are none of His.

Paul puts it very strongly in 1 Cor. xiii. You may have the highest attainments, even angelic eloquence, and yet be nothing. You may have all gifts, all knowledge, and be nothing. You may have all self-denial, you may give all your goods to feed the poor, and after that you may give your body to be burned, and be nothing.

It is the Spirit of love in the members, which is the glory that fills the body-that Spirit which "endureth all things" (blessings on Him that He does), "hopeth all things," loveth at all times, and "never faileth." Oh, to

have that Spirit operating through the members, that we too might endure all things, hope all things, believe all things! That is the way "to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

THE

VIII.

Live in the Spirit.

HE three passages we are to consider occur in the same page of Scripture, Gal. v. 18-25. They imply an amount of divine privilege few believers realise, although belonging, as our new birthright, unto all; and they supply motive and means for a much higher standard of practical Christianity than that to which many (perhaps I may say, any of us) have attained.

I. LIVE IN THE SPIRIT. "If we live in the Spirit." "If," implies no doubt, but the contrary, just as in the similar passage, "If there be any consolation in Christ," (Phil. ii. 1). The apostle is not writing to those that are without. He is dealing with believers in Jesus Christ (which we all profess to be) and reminding us that "by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." (1 Cor. xii. 13.) Here, then, we have a divine picture of a child of God in a position of nearness to God, the reason and results of which angels desire to look into.

"If we live in the Spirit" implies, first, that we have the Spirit of God. This is proved by Romans vii. 9.