tter to depart it is, for we shall be WITH HIM." [14]

ii. But even on this theme I must not linger now. Not only because
"the time would fail me," but because we have to remember that _the
main_ incidence of the Apostle's thought here is not upon the
blessedness of death but upon the joy of duty, the "fruit of labour,"
in continued life. He looks in through the gate, not to sigh because
he may not enter yet, but "to run with all his might," in the path of
unselfish service, "because he is close to the goal"--the goal of being
with Christ, to whom he will belong for ever, and whom he will serve
for ever, "day and night in His temple." He "knows that he shall
remain, and that, side by side with" his dear converts at Philippi.
And his "meat is to do the will of Him that sent him, and _to finish_
His work."

The remainder of our chosen portion is altogether to this purpose. He
has said enough about himself now, having just indicated how much
Christ can be to him for peace and power in the great alternative. Now
his thoughts are wholly at Philippi, and he spends himself on
entreating them to live indeed, to live wholly for Christ; and to do so
in two main respects, in self-forgetting unity, and in the recognition
of the joy and glory of suffering.

"Only let them order their life in a way worthy of the Gospel of
Christ." "_Only_"; as if this were the one possible topic for him now.
This will content him; nothing else will. He "desires one thing of the
Lord"--the practical holiness of his beloved converts; and he cannot
possibly do otherwise, coming as he has just come from "the secret of
the presence," felt in his own experience. Will they be watchful and
prayerful? Will they renounce the life of self-will, and entirely live
for their Lord's holy credit and glory? Will they particularly
surrender a certain temptation to jealousies and divisions? Will they
recollect that Christ has so committed Himself to them to manifest to
the world that it is the "only" thing in life, after all, in the last
resort, to be _practically_ true to Him? Then the Missionary will be
happy; his "joy will be fulfilled."

What pastor, what evangelist, what worker of any true sort for God in
the souls of others, does not know something of the meaning of that
"only" of the Apostle's?

Then he passes, by a transition easy indeed in the case of the
Philippian saints, to the subject of suffering. In that difficult
scene, the Roman _