t is
the New Life that is the holy life: the full apprehension of it in
faith, the full surrender to it in conduct, will be the highway of
holiness. Jesus lived and died and rose again to prepare for us a new
nature, to be received day by day in the obedience of faith: we 'have
put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness.' Let the inner life, hid with Christ in God, hid also
deep in the recesses of our inmost being, be acknowledged, be waited on,
be yielded to, it will work itself out in all the beauties of holiness.

There is more. This life is not like the life of nature, a blind,
non-conscious principle, involuntarily working out its ideal in
unresisting obedience to the law of its being. There is the Spirit of
the life in Christ Jesus--the Spirit of holiness--the Holy Spirit
dwelling in us as a Divine Person, entering into fellowship with us, and
leading us into the fellowship of the Living Christ. It is this fills
our life with hope and joy. The Risen Saviour breathed the Holy Spirit
on His disciples: the Spirit brings the Risen One into the field, into
our hearts, as a personal friend, as a Living Guide and Strengthener.
The Spirit of holiness is the Spirit, the Presence, and the Power of the
Living Christ. Jesus said of the Spirit, 'Ye know Him.' Is not our great
need to know this Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, of His Holiness and
of ours? How can we 'walk after the Spirit' and follow His leading, if
we know not Him and His voice and His way?

Let us learn one more lesson from our text. _It is out of the grave of
the flesh and the will of self that the Spirit of holiness breaks out in
resurrection power._ We must accept death to the flesh, death to self
with its willing and working, as the birthplace of our experience of the
power of the Spirit of holiness. In view of each struggle with sin, in
each exercise of faith or prayer, we must enter into the death of Jesus,
the death to self, and as those who say, 'we are not sufficient to think
anything as of ourselves,' in quiet faith expect the Spirit of Christ to
do His work. The Spirit will work, strengthening you mightily in the
inner man, and building up within you an holy temple for the Lord. And
the time will come, if it has not come to you yet, and it may be nearer
than you dare hope, when the conscious indwelling of Christ in your
heart by faith, the full revelation and enthronement of Him as ruler and
keeper of heart