ere, he can go on
working and gaining results from his labour. It does not follow that he
did not expect service if he were with Christ. We may be very sure that
Paul's heaven was no idle heaven, but one of happy activity and larger
service. But he will not be able to help these dear friends at Philippi
and elsewhere who need him, as he knows. So love to them drags at his
skirts, and ties him here.

One can scarcely miss the remarkable contrast between Paul's 'To abide
in the flesh is more needful for you,' and the saying of Paul's Master
to people who assuredly needed His presence more than Philippi needed
Paul's, 'It is expedient for you that I go away.' This is not the place
to work out the profound significance of the contrast, and the questions
which it raises as to whether Christ expected His work to be finished
and His helpfulness ended by His death, as Paul did by his. It must
suffice to have suggested the comparison.

Returning to our text, such a reason for wishing to die, held in check
and overcome by such a reason for wishing to live, is great and noble.
There are few of us who would not own to the mightier attraction of
life; but how few of us who feel that, for ourselves personally, if we
were free to think only of ourselves, we should be glad to go, because
we should be closer to Christ, but that we hesitate for the sake of
others whom we think we can help! Many of us cling to life with a
desperate clutch, like some poor wretch pushed over a precipice and
trying to dig his nails into the rock as he falls. Some of us cling to
it because we dread what is beyond, and our longing to live is the
measure of our dread to die. But Paul did not look forward to a thick
darkness of judgment, or to nothingness. He saw in the darkness a great
light, the light in the windows of his Father's house, and yet he turned
willingly away to his toil in the field, and was more than content to
drudge on as long as he could do anything by his work. Blessed are they
who share his desire to depart, and his victorious willingness to stay
here and labour! They shall find that such a life in the flesh, too, is
being with Christ.

III. Thus the stream of thought passes the rapids and flows on smoothly
to its final phase of peaceful acquiescence.

That is expressed very beautifully in the closing verse, 'Having this
confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all, for
your furtherance and joy in faith.' Self is so en