August 19

He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. - 1 Corinthians 6:17.

THERE must be likeness in order to fellowship. Every man that loves God will be constrained to be like him, will long to resemble him more and more. “He that saith he dwelleth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.” Not only gratitude and consistency require this, but proof. “If,” says the holy Saviour, “I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” For “what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness, or what concord hath Christ with Belial?” Christ and Christians are not like Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, the head of which was gold, while the subordinate parts were of inferior metal, down to the feet, which were partly iron and partly clay.

But “He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one.” He is a partaker of their nature, and they are partakers of his. They are not of the world, even as he is not of the world. They have the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus,-a sameness of sentiment and feeling, a oneness of heart and soul. A Christian, therefore, will never despise those instructions that call upon him to “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world;” “to cleanse himself from all filthiness of flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God;” but he will take all his temptations and his besetting sins to the foot of the cross, and then he will take them to the throne of grace, and turn them into prayer; and while he knows that in the use of means the blessing of sanctification will be imparted, and must be breathed from the Spirit of God, he will live in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit, remembering that this is his commandment:-“ Be ye holy, for I am holy.”