night and day.' It is for this we have access to
the Holiest of all.

[13] So near, so very near to God,
I cannot nearer be;
For in the person of His Son,
I am as near as He.

[14] 'Christ suffered, that He might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit.' 'Forasmuch
then as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also
with the same mind.' The flesh and the Spirit are antagonistic:
as the flesh dies, the Spirit lives.

Twenty-ninth Day.

HOLY IN CHRIST.

Holiness and Chastisement.

'He chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of _His
holiness_. Follow after _sanctification_, without which no man
shall see the Lord.'--Heb. xii. 10, 14.

There is perhaps no part of God's word which sheds such Divine light
upon suffering as the Epistle to the Hebrews. It does this because it
teaches us what suffering was to the Son of God. It perfected His
humanity. It so fitted Him for His work as the Compassionate High
Priest. It proved that He, who had fulfilled God's will in suffering
obedience, was indeed worthy to be its executor in glory, and to sit
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. 'It became God, in
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation
_perfect_ through _sufferings_.' 'Though He was a Son, yet _learned_ He
_obedience_ by the things which He _suffered_, and having been made
_perfect_, became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey
Him.' As He said Himself of His suffering, 'I sanctify myself,' so we
see here that His sufferings were indeed to Him the pathway to
perfection and holiness.

What Christ was and won was all for us. The power which suffering was
proved to have in Him to work out perfection, the power which He
imparted to it in sanctifying Himself through suffering, is the power of
the new life that comes from Him to us. In the light of His example we
can see, in the faith of His power we too can prove, that suffering is
to God's child the token of the Father's love, and the channel of His
richest blessing. To such faith the apparent mystery of suffering is
seen to be nothing but a Divine need--the light affliction that works
out--yea, _works out_ and actually effects the exceeding weight of
glory. We agree not only to what is written, 'It _became_ Him to make
the Author of salvation perfect through suffering