hands, eternal in the heavens; therefore
we are always _confident_." And all this is summed up in the thought
that "we know WHOM we have believed, and that HE is able to keep what
we have committed unto Him." Our certainty is a confiding certainty.
It does not reside in our courage, or our mental insight; it is lodged
in a Person, who is such that He claims our entire reliance on His
work, His word, Himself.

Then from its other side this wonderful verse gives us the cautions,
the negatives, of the Christian life; though even here it speaks the
language of the highest positive truth. "We worship _by God's
Spirit_"; our reverence, our adoration, the hallowing and religiousness
of our lives, is not a form imposed from without; it is a power
exerting itself from within, having come to our poor hearts from above.
Assuredly we do not neglect or slight actions and rites of worship; He
who has made each of us soul and body, one man, does not mean us to
despise the outward and physical in devotion. But we watchfully
remember that no such actions or rites are, for one moment, the soul of
worship, or its formative power. _That_ soul and power is "God's
Spirit" only; the Holy Ghost dwelling in the renewed being, and
teaching the man "to cry Abba, Father," and "making intercession for
him with groanings which cannot be uttered," and "taking of the things
of Christ, and shewing it unto us." We pray, and it is "in the Holy
Ghost." We worship, and it is "in Spirit, and in truth."

Again, "we exult _in Christ Jesus_." Our glad and animated happiness
lies in nothing short of HIM as its cause. We are thankful for noble
religious traditions and institutions, and for holy parentage, and for
all which makes Christianity correspond in practice to its name. But
we are watchful not to let even these blessings take the unique place
of "Christ Jesus" in our "exultation." "In all things He must have the
pre-eminence." Piety itself without Him, if it can be found, is not a
body but a statue. All the privileges of the Church of God, without
Him, though we reverently cherish every teaching and every ordinance
that is Christian indeed, are but the frame without the picture, the
casket without the stone.

Then again, "_not in the flesh_ are we confident." We have learnt a
deep distrust of everything which St Paul classes under that word
"flesh." It is always offering itself to us, in one Protean shape or
another, to be our comfort an