ter. It is the last step in
the manifestation of our being in Christ, and so is being prepared for
here by every step in advance in gaining Jesus. It should ever be before
every Christian soul that participation in Christ hereafter is
conditioned by its progress in likeness to Him here. The Resurrection
from the dead is not a gift which can be bestowed apart from a man's
moral state. If he dies having had no knowledge by experience of the
power of Christ's Resurrection, there is nothing in the fact of death to
give him that knowledge, and it is impossible to bring 'any means' to
bear on him by which he will attain unto the 'resurrection from the
dead.' If God could give that gift irrespective of a man's relations to
Jesus, He would give it to all. Let us ask ourselves, then, is it not
worth making the dominant aim of our lives the same as that of Paul's?
How stands our account then? Are we not wise traders presenting a good
balance-sheet when we show entered on the one side the loss of all
things, and on the other the gaining of Christ, and the attaining the
resurrection from the dead, the perfect transformation of body, soul,
and spirit, into the perfect likeness of the perfect Lord? Does the
other balance-sheet show the man as equally solvent who enters on one
side the gain of a world, and on the other a Christless life, to be
followed by a resurrection in which is no joy, no advance, no life, but
which is a resurrection of judgment? May we all be found in Him, and
attain to the resurrection from the dead!

LAID HOLD OF AND LAYING HOLD

'I follow after if that I may apprehend that for
which also I was apprehended of Christ
Jesus.'--PHIL. iii. 12.

'I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ.' That is how Paul thinks of what we
call his conversion. He would never have 'turned' unless a hand had been
laid upon him. A strong loving grasp had gripped him in the midst of his
career of persecution, and all that he had done was to yield to the
grip, and not to wriggle out of it. The strong expression suggests, as
it seems to me, the suddenness of the incident. Possibly impressions may
have been working underground, ever since the martyrdom of Stephen,
which were undermining his convictions, and the very insanity of his
zeal may have been due to an uneasy consciousness that the ground was
yielding beneath his feet. That may have been so, but, whether it were
so or not, the crisis came like a b