is within the glory something which may be repeated and
reproduced in our lives, and that is, the indissoluble union of a Son
with a Father, in all loving obedience, in all perfect harmony, in all
mutual affection and outgoing of heart and thoughts. This is the centre
of the life, alike of the Christ when He is glorified, and of the Christ
when He was upon earth. So the very secret heart of the mysterious
being of the Son is to be, and necessarily is, repeated in all those who
in Him have received the adoption of sons.

Or to put the whole thing into plainer words, it is the religious and
the moral aspects of Christ's being, and not any one particular detail
thereof; and these, as they live and reign on the Throne, just as truly
as these, as they suffered and wept upon earth--it is these to which it
is our destiny to be conformed. We are like Him, if we are His, in
this,--that we are joined to God, that we hold fellowship with Him, that
our lives are all permeated with the divine, that we are saturated with
the presence of God, that we have submitted ourselves to Him and to His
will, that 'not my will, but Thine, be done' is the very inmost meaning
of our hearts and our lives. And thus 'we,' even here, 'bear the image
of the heavenly, as we have borne the images of the earthly.' Now I am
not going to dwell upon details; all these can be filled in by each of
us for himself. The centre-point which I insist upon is this--the filial
union with God, the filial submission to Him, and the consequent purity
as Christ is pure, righteousness as Christ is righteous, and walking
even as Christ walked, for ever in the light.

But then there is another point that I desire to refer to. I have put an
emphasis upon the 'is' instead of the 'was,' as it applies to Jesus
Christ. I would further put an emphasis upon the 'are,' as it applies to
us--'So _are_ we.'

John is not exhorting, he is affirming. He is not saying what Christian
men ought to strive to be, but he is saying what all Christian men, by
virtue of their Christian character, _are_. Or, to put it into other
words, likeness to the Master is certain. It is inevitably involved in
the relation which a Christian man bears to the Lord. There may be
degrees in the likeness, there may be differences of skill and
earnestness in the artist. We have to labour like a portrait painter,
slowly and tentatively approaching to the complete resemblance. It is 'a
life-long task ere the lump be