er, but to the palace to which it
admits.

So we have here grandly set forth the simplicity and unity of the
Christian life. While the words probably refer mainly to outward life,
they presuppose an inward, of which that outward is the expression. In
every possible phase of the word 'life,' Christ is the life of the
Christian. To live is Christ, for He is the mystical source from whom
all ours flows. 'With Thee is the fountain of life,' and all life, both
of body and spirit, is from Him, by Him, and in Him. 'To live is
Christ,' for He is the aim and object, as well as the Lord, of it all,
and no other is worth calling life, but that which is _for_ Him by
willing consecration, as well as _from_ Him by constant derivation. 'To
live is Christ,' for He is the model of all our life, and the one
all-sufficient law for us is to follow Him.

Life is to be _as_ Christ, _for_ Christ, _by_, _in_, and _from_ Christ.
So shall there be strength, peace, and freedom in our days. The unity
brought into life thereby will issue in calm blessedness, contrasted
wondrously with the divided hearts and aims which fritter our days into
fragments, and make our lives heaps of broken links instead of chains.

Surely this is the charm which brings rest into the most troubled
history, and nobleness into the lowliest duties. There is nothing so
grand as the unity breathed into our else distracted days by the
all-pervading reference to and presence of Christ. Without that, we are
like the mariners of the old world, who crept timidly from headland to
headland, making each their aim for a while, and leaving each inevitably
behind, never losing sight of shore, nor ever knowing the wonders of the
deep and all the majesty of mid-ocean, nor ever touching the happy
shores beyond, which they reach who carry in their hearts a compass that
ever points to the unseen pole.

Then comes the other great thought, that where life is simply Christ,
death will be simply gain.

Paul, no doubt, shrank from the act of death, as we all do. It was not
the narrow passage which attracted him, but the broad land beyond. Every
other aspect of that was swallowed up in one great thought, which will
occupy us more at length presently. But that word 'gain' suggests that
to Paul's confident faith death was but an increase and progression in
all that was good here. To him it was no loss to lose flesh and sense
and all the fleeting joys with which they link us. To him death was no