profound summary, 'worshipping God in the Spirit
(or, by the Spirit of God); exulting in Christ Jesus; having no
confidence in the flesh.' [iii. 3.]

"III.--The Life in Christ exemplified in the Writer.

"Here let us forget the Apostle, for he speaks wholly as the Christian,
and in a way manifestly meant to be an instruction to all Christians. He
appears, then, in our document, as one whom Christ has 'seized,' has
'grasped' [iii. 12.]; as one who has discovered in Christ, and in Christ
alone, the supreme Gain, the supreme Object of knowledge, the supreme
Spiritual Power as the Risen One, [iii. 10.] the supreme Interest and
Reason of life [i. 20; iii. 7-14], the one possible supply of the
unspeakable need of a valid Righteousness before the Judgment Seat. Yes,
he must be 'found in Him, having the righteousness which is from God on
terms of faith,' [iii. 9.] the faith which enters into Christ. 'In
Christ,' we discover, the Writer is, everywhere and always. His 'bonds'
are 'in Christ'; his 'glory' is 'in Christ' [i. 13, 26.]; his hopes
and trusts about the common events of life are 'in Christ'; in Christ he
has 'found the secret' how to do all, all he has to do, in peace [iv.
19, 24.]. Christ fills his present life [iv. 13.]; when he dies, he will
be so 'with Christ' that it will be 'far better' than this present life,
though it is full of Christ [i. 21, 23.]. He is the willing but most
real bondservant of Christ [i. 1.]. His relations with Christ so fill
him with peace and the power of peace, that extremely irritating rivalry
and opposition at Rome does not irritate him, but occasions holy joy,
and the suspense about life and death in which Nero keeps him is
powerless, wholly because of Christ [i. 12, etc.], to evoke anything
but a statement of the dilemma of blessings which life and death in the
Lord are to him [i. 21, etc.]. On the other hand, as the whole Epistle
indicates, every pure human sensibility circulates naturally in this
supernatural atmosphere [_E.g._ ii. 27, 28; iv. 10.]. And meanwhile,
though 'perfect,' in respect of reality of union and communication with
his Lord, he is not yet 'perfected' in respect of application and
results; the goal, the prize, is yet to come. [iii. 12, 14.]

"And so I shut my Epistle to the Philippians, leaving very much more in
it for the next occasion. Such a study has not demanded long hours. It
has asked only interest, purpose, and painstaking, a few such fragments
of daily ti