to fall, 'on the unthankful and on the evil,' and if God could, God
would give eternal life to everybody, bad and good; but He cannot.
There must be righteousness if there is to be life. Just as sin's
fruit is death, the fruit of righteousness is life.

He means, in the next place, that whilst there is no life without
righteousness, there is no righteousness without God's gift. You
cannot break away from the dominion of Sin, and, as it were,
establish yourselves in a little fortress of your own, repelling her
assaults by any power of yours. Dear brethren, we cannot undo the
past; we cannot strip off the poisoned garment that clings to our
limbs; we can mend ourselves in many respects, but we cannot of our
own volition and motion clothe ourselves with that righteousness of
which the wearers shall be worthy to 'pass through the gate into the
city.' There is no righteousness without God's gift.

And the other subsidiary clause completes the thought: 'through
Christ.' In Him is all the grace, the manifest love, of God gathered
together. It is not diffused as the nebulous light in some chaotic
incipient system, but it is gathered into a sun that is set in the
centre, in order that it may pour down warmth and life upon its
circling planets. The grace of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In
Him is life eternal; therefore, if we desire to possess it we must
possess Him. In Him is righteousness; therefore, if we desire our own
foulness to be changed into the holiness which shall see God, we must
go to Jesus Christ. Grace reigns in life, but it is life through
righteousness, which is through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So, then, brother, my message and my petition to each of you
are--knit yourself to Him by faith in Him. Then He who is 'full of
grace and truth' will come to you; and, coming, will bring in His
hands righteousness and life eternal. If only we rest ourselves on
Him, and keep ourselves close in touch with Him; then we shall be
delivered from the tyranny of the darkness, and translated into the
Kingdom of the Son of His love.

'THE FORM OF TEACHING'

'... Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you.'--ROMANS vi. 17.

There is room for difference of opinion as to what Paul precisely
means by 'form' here. The word so rendered appears in English as
_type_, and has a similar variety of meaning. It signifies
originally a mark made by pressure or impact; and then, by natural