Christian, being no longer of the world,' would be surrounded by an environment with which he was no longer in correspondence, and which was everywhere hostile to him, with which he was out of harmony, which was discordant with him, and which would reject and cast him out as a blot on its face, and a troubler of its contentment. 'Yea, all,' says the Apostle, who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution' (2 Tim. iii. 12); for, as the Apostle John says, 'as He is, so are we in the world' (1 John iv. 17).

Therefore it was necessary that the Christian should be armed for the conflict. Forasmuch, then,' says the Apostle Peter, 'as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind' (1 Pet. iv. 1); the Christian must be planted in the likeness of Christ's death,' that is, of His death unto sin (Rom. v. 5-10). If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us' (2 Tim. ii. 11, 12). Therefore the Apostle says of himself, ' I am crucified with Christ' (Gal. ii. 20); that is, crucified to the world, and to the lusts and affections of the flesh. In short, the Christian must have the mind and spirit of Christ, and if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.' He must be clothed with the righteousness of Christ; he must put on the Lord Jesus Christ'; he must be conformed to the image of Christ. Yea, doubtless,' says the Apostle, and I count all things but loss . . . that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith; that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death; if by any means I might attain to the resurrection from among (es) the dead' (Phil. iii. 8-11).

It is, indeed, implied that the change is not perfected at once. There is first the seed, then the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear (Mark iv. 28). For although the believer 'passes from death unto life' directly he believes (John v. 24), yet the growth of that life is according to his growth in the knowledge of the truth (John xvii. 17); and great as the change is, it is all the result of belief in the words and teaching of Christ, and in that teaching as illustrated by His life and death, or, in other words, by faith in Christ. It is the righteousness of faith, and is the result of that knowledge of God and his Son Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John xvii. 2).

It is evident, however, that the characteristics of the righteousness of faith, opposed as they are to all the inclinations of the natural man, and to all that the world esteems, must be an offence; and if that offence was not to cease, it must be expected that the righteousness of faith, and the Cross of Christ which illustrates it, will still be an offence to the world.

That this is the case will be perceived when we consider the characteristics of those who follow the 'righteousness of the law.'

CHAPTER VII.

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW.

FROM the way in which the Apostle speaks of the righteousness of the law as opposed to the righteousness of faith, he implies, not only that there is an antagonism between the followers of each, but that the followers of the righteousness of the law rejected the righteousness of faith, for that of the law. Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained unto the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone' (Rom. ix. 31, 32).

They did not recognise the importance of faith, or belief of the truth. It made no show, and seemed shadowy and unreal compared with outward actions, for they did not recognise that all true holiness is of the heart; that a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things' (Matt. xii. 33, 35); and that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness' (Rom. x. 10). Being, therefore, ignorant of God's righteousness,' they went about to establish their own righteousness,' which, as the Apostle says, was of the law'; and as the law

cannot change the heart, their attempted obedience to its commands was only outward, or mere actions.

The way in which they did this, and its moral effects on them, have already been pointed out. They substituted the outward for the inward, the sign for the thing signified; and while the dominant influence thus given to the outward shut out the inward from their thoughts, their conscience, deadened by their false righteousness, was blinded to the evil of their hearts and lives, and to the force of spiritual truth.

That righteousness, being a man's own righteousness, flatters the pride and self-confidence which it is the chief desire of the natural man to establish, and which he dreads to lose, and, therefore, those who excel in it are always highly esteemed by the world, which 'loves its own'; and the honour which they consequently receive one of another' so endorses the value of their own righteousness in their own eyes, that any question or doubt of that value seems impertinent.

So it was with the Jews, and therefore not only was their conscience deadened against the truth, but their pride armed their minds against it; and any teaching which showed the worthlessness of such outward righteousness, or insisted on the necessity of that holiness they were wanting in, aroused all their hostility. For the Truth which showed them their need, the depth of their spiritual death, and the necessity, therefore, of waiting on God for that change of heart which they were powerless to produce in themselves, struck a deadly blow at their pride and self-confidence, and, if accepted, would have obliged them to become humble and poor in spirit, the very opposite of that state of mind that they had hitherto so jealously fostered.

Thus, the Cross of Christ and the righteousness of faith were an offence to them, and that offence was great in proportion to the value they set upon their outward

righteousness; and because the value attached to this righteousness was more or less characteristic of the nation generally, therefore the Apostle says that the preaching of the Cross was 'to the Jews a stumblingblock.'

Moreover, this hostility to the truth was not confined to the teaching of Christ and the Apostles. The Jews had shown the same hostility at every period of their history towards all who had ventured to call in question the righteousness in which they trusted, or had insisted on the necessity of a truer righteous

ness.

The Apostle Paul, contrasting the two covenantsnamely, that of the law and that of promise-speaks of the subjects of the former as being born after the flesh,' and the subjects of the latter as being born after the Spirit.' 'As then,' he says, 'he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now (Gal. iv. 21, 29). So also Stephen: 'Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost,' he said to the Sanhedrin. As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?' (Acts vii. 51, 52). So likewise Christ, speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees of their future persecution of His followers, concludes with the words: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.'

It is evident that the word generation' here used is not intended to apply merely to the persons immediately addressed, nor could it apply to the whole of the generation of men then living, nor could it be confined to the Jewish race or nation, past and present, even though it included them. The word is clearly used in the broader