tion. It is also true that we died _with_ Him, were _in_ Him as
our Representative, wrought _through_ Him as our Forerunner; the first
fruit-sheaf contained the promise of all its companions.

Consider for a moment a remarkable expression that casts light on this
whole subject. In that memorable discussion with the Jews in Solomon's
porch, which practically closed our Lord's public ministry, He said
that the Father had sanctified and consecrated Him and sent Him into
the world (John x. 36). In these sublime words He undoubtedly refers
to a moment which preceded the Incarnation, when the Godhead designated
the Second Person to redeem men? Was it the same moment, think you, as
that in which Jesus said, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but
a body thou hast prepared for Me (or, Mine ears hast thou pierced). I
delight to do Thy will, O My God." If so, what an august scene that
must have been when, in the presence of the assembled hierarchies of
heaven, the Father solemnly set apart the Son for His redemption work,
consecrating Him to bring in everlasting salvation, to destroy the
works of the devil, and to bring together in one the children of God
that are scattered abroad!

In that solemn consecration of the head all the members were included.
The King stood for His kingdom; the Shepherd for His flock. Any who
refuse to be consecrated contravene and contradict that momentous
decision.

When Christ approached His death, in these words He renewed His act of
consecration, and again implicated those who belong to Him; bearing us
with Him, He went to the cross, involving us by His actions, He yielded
Himself up to death. In His holy purpose we were quickened together
with Him, and raised up together, and made to sit together in the
heavenly places; and by the same emphasis that we declare ourselves to
be His, we confess that we are amongst those who are bound to a life of
consecration. We are pledged to it by union with our Lord. We cannot
draw back from the doorpost to which He was nailed without proving that
we are deficient in appreciating the purpose which brought Him to our
world, the surrender that withheld not His face from spitting, His soul
from the shadow of death.

IV. OUR DUTY.--"Yield yourselves unto God." When Abraham Lincoln
dedicated, for the purposes of a graveyard, the field of Gettysburg,
where so many brave soldiers had lost their lives, he said: "We cannot
dedicate, we cannot consec