"Sovereign Lord and gracious Master,
Thou didst freely choose Thine own,
Thou hast call'd with holy calling,
Thou wilt save, and keep from falling;
Thine the glory, Thine alone!
Yet Thy hand shall crown in heaven
All the grace Thy love hath given;
Just, though undeserv'd, reward
From our glorious, gracious Lord."
F. R. HAVERGAL.

_THE BLESSED HOPE AND ITS POWER_

"We are waiting, we are yearning for Thy voice
Through the long, long summer day and winter night;
We are mourning till Thou bid'st our souls rejoice,
Till Thy coming turns our darkness into light:
Come, Lord Jesus, come again;
We shall see Thee as Thou art,
Then, and not till then,
In Thy glory bear a part;
Then, and not till then,
Thou wilt satisfy each heart."
J. DENHAM SMITH.

CHAPTER X

THE BLESSED HOPE AND ITS POWER

PHILIPPIANS iii. 17-21

The problem of the body--Cautions and tears--"That blessed hope"--The
duty of warning--The moral power of the hope--The hope full of
immortality--My mother's life--"He is able"--The promise of his coming

The Apostle draws to the close of his appeal for a true and watchful
fidelity to the Gospel. He has done with his warning against Judaistic
legalism. He has expounded, in the form of a personal confession and
testimony, the true Christian position, the acceptance of the believer
in "the righteousness which is of God by faith," and the sanctification
of the believer through union with his Lord and in an always growing
communion with Him. Throughout this deep and most tender argument has
run everywhere the truth with which it began, that the sure antidote to
the spiritual errors in question is "joy in the Lord." The glad use of
Jesus Christ in His personal glory and perfection, as He merited for
us, and as we abide in Him--this is the way.

Already another class of mistake and danger has risen before his mind,
and occupies it now exclusively. From ver. 12 onward, if I read the
passage aright, he has been thinking not of the legalist only, who
opposed and denounced his doctrine of grace and faith, but of the
school or schools which rather would applaud it--and then distort it.
There was the teacher who would assert a premature and delusive
personal perfection, proclaiming himself so close to Christ that he had
already reached the holy goal. And there was the teacher who w