ss it at once." I said it seemed to me as if it would be safer to
take time alone with God for God to search us through and through, that
while we might not know anything against ourselves, God might know
something against us (1 Cor. iv. 4, R. V.), and He would bring it to light
and our failure could be confessed and put away. "No," he said, "he did
not feel that that was necessary." Satan took advantage of his
self-confidence. He fell into most appalling sin, and though he has since
confessed and professed repentance, he has been utterly set aside from
God's service.

In John viii. 32 we read, "Ye shall know the truth and _the truth shall
set you free_." In this verse it is the truth, or the Word of God, that
sets us free from the power of sin and gives us victory. And in Ps. cxix.
11 we read, "_Thy Word_ have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin
against Thee." Here again it is the indwelling Word that keeps us free
from sin. In this matter as in everything else what in one place is
attributed to the Holy Spirit is elsewhere attributed to the Word. The
explanation, of course, is that the Holy Spirit works through the Word,
and it is futile to talk of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us if we neglect
the Word. If we are not feeding on the Word, we are not walking after the
Spirit and we shall not have victory over the flesh and over sin.

CHAPTER XII. THE HOLY SPIRIT FORMING CHRIST WITHIN US.

It is a wonderful and deeply significant prayer that Paul offers in Eph.
iii. 16-19 for the believers in Ephesus and for all believers who read the
Epistle. Paul writes, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from
whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant
you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened
with power through His Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of
God" (R. V.). We have here an advance in the thought over that which we
have just been studying in the preceding chapter. It is the carrying out
of the former work to its completion. Here the power of the Spirit
manifests itself, not merely in giving us victory over sin but in four
things:

I. _In Christ dwel