Christ beholds them, as we shall one day look back upon them from His
glory, and as if we were now really "Seated with Him," as indeed we are,
"in the heavenly places." Let us arise with His resurrection and in
fellowship with His glorious ascension learn henceforth to live above.

JULY 3.

"Look from the top" (Song of Solomon iv. 8).

Yes, our perplexities would become plain if we kept on a spiritual
elevation. How often when the traveler quite loses his way he can soon
find it again from some tree top or some hill top where all the winding
paths he has gone spread behind him, and the whole homeward road opens
before. So, from the heights of prayer and faith, we too can see the plain
path, and know that we are going home.

There is no other way in which we can gain the victory over the world. We
must get above it. We must see it from the side of our great reward. Then
it looks like earthly objects after we have gazed upon the sun for a
while. We are blind to them. When the Italian fruit-seller finds that he
is heir to a ducal palace you cannot tempt him any more with the paltry
profits of his trade or the company of his old associates. He is above it
all. They who know the hope of their calling and the riches of the glory
of their inheritance can well despise the world. It is the poor starving
ones who go hungering for the husks of earth. We are born from above and
have a longing to go home. Let us go forth to-day with our hearts on the
homestretch.

JULY 4.

"Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not" (I. John iii. 6).

In sanctification what becomes of the old nature? Many people are somewhat
unduly concerned to know if it can be killed outright, and seem to desire
a sort of certificate of its death and burial. It is enough to know that
it is without and Christ is within. It may show itself again, and even
knock at the door and plead for admittance, but it is forever outside
while we abide in Him. Should we step out of Him and into sin we might
find the old corpse in the ghastly cemetery, and its foul aroma might yet
revive and embrace us once more. But he that abideth in Him sinneth not
and cannot sin while he so abides.

Therefore let us abide and let us not be anxious to escape the hold of
eternal vigilance and ceaseless abiding. Our paths are made and the
strength to pursue them; let us walk in them. God has provided for us a
full sanctification. Is it strange that He should demand it of