may be known of the
blessedness of heaven, let us seek to possess as much as may be
possessed of the knowledge and love of God on earth. Then we shall know
the centre, at any rate; and that is light, though the circumference may
be very dark. Much will remain obscure. That is of very small
consequence to Hope, which does not need information half so much as it
needs assurance. Like some flower in the cranny of the rock, it can
spread a broad bright blossom on little soil, if only it be firmly
rooted.

The path for us all is plain. Come to Jesus Christ as sinful men, and
take what He has given, who has given Himself for us. Touched by His
love, let us love Him back again, and yield ourselves to Him, and He
will give Himself to us. They who can say, 'O Lord! I am Thine,' are
sure to hear from heaven, 'I am thine.' And they who possess, in being
possessed by, God Himself, do not need to die in order to go to heaven,
but are at least doorkeepers in the house of the Lord now, and stand
where they can see into the inner sanctuary which they will one day
tread. A life of faith brings Heaven to us, and thereby gives us the
surest and the clearest knowledge of what we shall be, and have, when we
are brought to heaven.

THE MEASURE OF IMMEASURABLE POWER

'That ye may know ... what is the exceeding greatness of His power
to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty
power, which He wrought in Christ.'--Eph. i. 19, 20.

'The riches of the glory of the inheritance' will sometimes quench
rather than stimulate hope. He can have little depth of religion who has
not often felt that the transcendent glory of that promised future
sharpens the doubt--'and can _I_ ever hope to reach it?' Our paths are
strewn with battlefields where we were defeated; how should we expect
the victor's wreath? And so Paul does not think that he has asked all
which his friends in Ephesus need when he has asked that they may know
the hope and the inheritance. There is something more wanted, something
more even for our knowledge of these, and that is the knowledge of the
power which alone can fulfil the hope and bring the inheritance. His
language swells and peals and becomes exuberant and noble with his
theme. He catches fire, as it were, as he thinks about this power that
worketh in us. It is 'exceeding.' Exceeding what? He does not tell us,
but other words in this letter, in the other great prayer which it
contains