llectual perception which could be imparted in words, or by
eyesight, but here as always Paul by 'knowledge' means experience which
comes from possession and acquaintance, and which therefore gleams ever
before us as we move, and is capable of endless increase, in the measure
in which we are true to the estimate of 'gains' and 'losses' to which
our initial vision of Him has led us. At first we may not know that that
knowledge excels all others, but as we grow in acquaintance with Jesus,
and in experience of Him, we shall be sure that it transcends all
others, because He does and we possess Him.

The revolutionising motive may be conceived of in two ways. We have to
abandon the lower 'gains' in order to gain Christ, or to abandon these
because we have gained Him. Both are true. The discernment of Christ as
the one ground of confidence is ever followed by the casting away of all
others. Self-distrust is a part of faith. When we feel our feet upon the
rock, the crumbling sands on which we stood are left to be broken up by
the sea. They who have seen the Apollo Belvedere will set little store
by plaster of Paris casts. In all our lives there come times when the
glimpse of some loftier ideal shows up our ordinary as hollow and poor
and low. And when once Christ is seen, as Scripture shows Him, our
former self appears poor and crumbles away.

We are not to suppose that the act of renunciation must be completed
before a second act of possession is begun. That is the error of many
ascetic books. The two go together, and abandonment in order to win
merges into abandonment because we have won. The strongest power to make
renunciation possible is 'the expulsive power of a new affection.' When
the heart is filled with love to Christ there is no sense of 'loss,' but
only of 'exceeding gain,' in casting away all things for Him.

III. The continuous repetition of the discovery.

Paul compares his present self with his former Christian self, and with
a vehement 'Yea, verily,' affirms his former judgment, and reiterates it
in still more emphatic terms. It is often easy to depreciate the
treasures which we possess. They sometimes grow in value as they slip
from our hands. It is not usual for a man who has 'suffered the loss of
all things' to follow their disappearance by counting them 'but dung.'
The constant repetition through the whole Christian course of the
depreciatory estimate of grounds of confidence is plainly necessary.
There