refer to chapter ii. 12, not to 13. It is life, and life in the power of Christ's resurrection to whose death we have been baptized, and by faith in the operation of God we are therein risen, so that our profession here is resurrection and risen life; we are not alive in the world, that is Egypt. Christ is our life, but it is hidden; we are on earth. Hence it is Christ's appearing that is brought forward, when the hidden life will be manifested and here. THOUGHTS FOR THIS DAY. To attempt to do anything without either visible means, or faith in Him who is invisible, is foolish and uncomely. The presence and use of visible means satisfy and assure the natural mind, and therefore self-reliance, however you may try to silence it, is acquired from the possession of means. It is plain that nothing can be done without one or the other. There must be either visible means to rest on, or there must be faith in the Invisible; and the tendency of every saint is to be so buoyed up by the possession of visible means, that the invisible is disregarded and overlooked. A man feels a self-confidence, and a sense of superiority in himself, when he is the possessor of effectual means; and, as he is, he is diverted from seeking or enjoying the invisible power. Faith counts on God when there is no such possession—no means. When Eve was influenced by what was visible, she had in heart given up God, for the influence of visible means emboldened her heart to turn from the word of God. Now this is an influence which must ever address and ensnare the natural man; and hence faith in God, counting on Him who is invisible, was never connected with visible means; nay, it enabled the saint to act according to God, in spite of being opposed by the greatest visible means, thus shewing that there was invisible power where there was no visible means; for visible means are a support to the possessor of them, and thus they take the place of faith. In every instance we see that when faith works, it is independent of visible means. Abram is called to break with all visible supports, and to "come into the land which I will shew thee; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." No one will deny that faith acts independently of means; but what I desire to shew is, that visible means hinder faith, when possessed and used by the saint; though, to the man of faith, they are as nothing, when in the hands of his opponent. The green fields of Sodom met the eye of Lot, when he turned from faith. The visible becomes the ready support and attraction of the heart that drops from faith. The difficulty is to be superior to the visible thing; and yet the heart of man is ever seduced by it, and he acquires confidence and consequence as he possesses it, but possession of it obscures faith. Israel forfeited their highest favour, because in seeking visible support, they refused to keep the sabbatical year. When they were captives in Babylon, and all visible means were in the hands of their enemies, then the faithful realized and testified that the power was invisible-that God was for them. The great kings had fire and lions wherewith to torture them, and make their power felt; but, notwithstanding all, the power was with the servants of God. Fire is the greatest natural force, the lion is the strongest and fiercest of animals, but both were ineffectual before the invisible power. Since man's departure from God originated in his being alienated from Him by visible things, it must be the greatest evidence of restoration and new life when it is not the visible but the invisible, which sways him. Hence, “whatever is not of faith is sin." If we turn to the scene of the thief on the cross, there we find grace coming forth in all its beauty and strength, rescuing the one degraded among men, by disclosing to his heart the Lamb of God, even He" who died the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." The thief was not only enlightened in soul by be holding his Saviour in the Man who had "done nothing amiss," but also assured in heart that he would be with Him that day in the paradise of God. Visible means, then and there, were in great combination to exterminate both, while the invisible was accomplishing the greatest and most wonderful results; even in man being righteously delivered. from judgment and the polluted place. What a triumph of the invisible power! Here all the means at man's disposal are used against God; and they betray an accommodation to man's evil which stamps them with their true character. They not only suit the natural man, but they support him against God. When our Lord warned His disciples, on the eve of His rejection, to remember Lot's wife (Luke xvii. 32), He taught them (chap. xviii.) that helplessness of any kind-the absence of any visible means, would not be their hindrance. Suffering or distress, exemplified in the case of the widow, should not tend to make them like Lot's wife. The powerless one, the little child, was the only one |