llumination
and stimulus, succour and sympathy pass from one to another, each in
turn experiencing the blessedness of receiving, and the greater
blessedness of giving. No wise man who has learned of Christ will
undervalue the blessings which come through union with the outward body
which is a consequence of union with the unseen Head. But men may be in
the Church and out of Christ. Not connection with it, but connection
with Him, brings us 'within.' 'Those that are without' may be either in
or out of the pale of any church.

We may put the answer to this question in another form, and going deeper
than the idea of being within a visible church, we may say, 'those that
are without' are they who are outside the Kingdom of Christ.

The Kingdom of Christ is not a visible external community. The Kingdom
of Christ, or of God, or of Heaven, is found wherever human wills obey
the Law of Christ, which is the will of God, the decrees of Heaven; as
Christ himself put it, in profound words--profound in all their
simplicity--when He said, 'Not every man that saith unto Me Lord! Lord!
shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My
Father, which is in Heaven.' 'Them that are without' are they whose
wills are not bent in loving obedience to the Lord of their spirit.

But we must go deeper than that. In the Church? Yes! In the Kingdom?
Yes! But I venture to take another Scripture phrase as being the one
satisfactory fundamental answer to the question: What is it that these
people are outside of? and I say Christ, Christ. If you will take your
New Testament as your guide, you will find that the one question upon
which all is suspended is the, Am I, or Am I not, in Jesus Christ? Am I
in Him, or Am I outside of Him? And the answer to that question is the
answer to this other: Who are they that are without?

They that are outside are not the 'non-Christian world' who are not
church members; they that are inside are not the 'Christian world' who
make an outward profession of being in the Kingdom. It is not going down
to the foundation to explain the antithesis so; but 'those that are
within' are those who have simple trust upon Jesus Christ as the sole
and all-sufficient Saviour of their sinful spirits and the life of their
life, and having entered into that great love, have plunged themselves,
as it were, into the very heart of Jesus; have found in Him
righteousness and peace, forgiveness and love, joy and salvat