plete. As has been profoundly said,
that surrender consists 'in a continual forsaking and losing all self in
the will of God, willing only what God from eternity has willed,
forgetting what is past, giving up the time present to God, and leaving
to His providence that which is to come, making ourselves content in the
actual moment seeing it brings along with it the eternal order of God
concerning us' (Madame Guyon).

II. The conscious aim in all our activity.

What God works in us for is that for which we too are to yield ourselves
to His working, 'without murmurings and disputings,' and to co-operate
with glad submission and cheerful obedience. We are to have as our
distinct aim the building up of a character 'blameless and harmless,
children of God without rebuke.' The blamelessness is probably in
reference to men's judgment rather than to God's, and the difficulty of
coming untarnished from contact with the actions and criticisms of a
crooked and perverse generation is emphasised by the very fact that such
blamelessness is the first requirement for Christian conduct. It was a
feather in Daniel's cap that the president and princes were foiled in
their attempt to pick holes in his conduct, and had to confess that they
would not 'find any occasion against him, except we find it concerning
the laws of his God.' God is working in us in order that our lives
should be such that malice is dumb in their presence. Are we
co-operating with Him? We are bound to satisfy the world's requirements
of Christian character. They are sharp critics and sometimes
unreasonable, but on the whole it would not be a bad rule for Christian
people, 'Do what irreligious men expect you to do.' The worst man knows
more than the best man practises, and his conscience is quick to decide
the course for other people. Our weaknesses and compromises, and love of
the world, might receive a salutary rebuke if we would try to meet the
expectations which 'the man in the street' forms of us.

'Harmless' is more correctly pure, all of a piece, homogeneous and
entire. It expresses what the Christian life should be in itself, whilst
the former designation describes it more as it appears. The piece of
cloth is to be so evenly and carefully woven that if held up against the
light it will show no flaws nor knots. Many a professing Christian life
has a veneer of godliness nailed thinly over a solid bulk of
selfishness. There are many goods in the market finely dre