he Apostle adds this blessed assurance that God, Who
puts this ideal before us, will enable us to realise it. The promise is
undoubted--"Who also will do it." What He has promised He is also able to
perform. If only our hearts are right with Him, and are willing to say,
"Yea, let Him take all," God will, indeed, consecrate and preserve us
blameless unto the end. The guarantee of this lies in His Divine
faithfulness. "Faithful is He that calleth you." We are touching the
bed-rock of Divine revelation when we contemplate the faithfulness of God.
This phrase is often found in the New Testament: "God is faithful." "The
Lord is faithful." "Faithful is He." "This is a faithful saying." If our
hearts will only rest upon this we shall find in it, not only the most
exquisite joy and assured peace, but also the ground of our perfect
confidence that He will accomplish His purposes in us, and glorify Himself
in our lives.

It is well and necessary from time to time to look at holiness from the
human point of view, and to see our duty and responsibility; but it is
equally essential and important that we should also dwell upon holiness,
as in the passage before us, from the Divine standpoint, and keep well in
view the glorious realities of God's faithfulness, God's power, God's
grace. To be occupied unduly with self in the matter of holiness is to
become self-centred, morbid, fearful, and weak; to be occupied with God is
to be restful, quiet, strong, confident, and ever growing in grace.

III.

APPROBATION AND BLESSING.

III.

APPROBATION AND BLESSING.

"Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you
worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of His
goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."--2 THESS. i. ii, 12.

Two words sum up the Christian life--Grace and Glory; and both are
associated with the two Comings of the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace
particularly with the first Coming, and Glory especially with the second.
This twofold aspect of Christianity comes before us in the prayer of the
Apostle which we now have to consider.

1. THE REASON OF THE PRAYER.

This thought is brought before us very clearly in the Revised Version:
"_To which end we also pray_." In the Authorised Version it is:
"_Wherefore also we pray_." F