The least faith is precious, because it brings us into connection with him who is the source of all life and energy. But there are kinds of faith and degrees of faith. For every member of Christ's church I would ask three gifts: First, that his faith fail not; secondly, that his faith may continually grow; thirdly, that his faith may remove mountains-the mountains of sin in his own heart, the mountains of unbelief in the church, the mountains of opposition in the world; but, above all, that one mountain that includes them all, the mountain of separation from Christ.

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CITIZENSHIP IN HEAVEN1

KING JAMES' version translated this text in a different way. There it reads: " Our conversation is in heaven." But the word "conversation" meant more than "discourse," or "interchange of talk"; it meant "the whole manner of life," so that the verse might have read: "Our whole manner of life is in heaven." Even this, however, does not fully express the meaning of the original. That contains a reference to political relations—relations to the government or State. Our Revised version has in the margin the word "commonwealth," but, better still, puts into the text the word "citizenship," so that it reads: "Our citizenship is in heaven."

The Philippians, to whom Paul wrote, prided themselves on their Roman citizenship. They possessed the jus Italicum, with all its privileges. Rome had conquered them, but then it had made them Romans, and to be a Roman was to be greater than a king. Peace, order, stability, security for life and property, belonged to those who were citizens of Rome. Paul found in his Roman citizenship no small protection. It brought the magistrates to his feet after his unjust scourging and imprisonment, and the memory of their discom

1 A sermon preached in the Congregational Church, Canandaigua, N. Y., on the text, Phil. 3: 20: "Our citizenship is in heaven," May 26, 1907.

fiture probably saved the infant church in Philippi from persecution. Paul's Roman citizenship afterward procured his own release from scourging at Jerusalem, and it made possible his final appeal to Cæsar.

Paul valued his earthly citizenship, and he made the most of it. But then he perceived its limitations. It had brought him to Rome, but thus far only to a Roman prison. He was waiting for the emperor's decision. An emperor like Nero was by no means a just judge. Extortion and oppression were rife under his administration. The spoils of the provinces and the slaves brought in from subjugated lands furnished the means of unprecedented corruption. Nero used his power not in the interest of his subjects, but only to gratify a preternatural vanity and to minister to the basest pleasures. The splendors of Roman rule did not prevent Vergil from longing for a return of the golden age, nor did they blind our apostle to the need of another kingdom of genuine righteousness and peace and joy. Indeed, we may say that the very bars of Paul's dungeon and the chain which bound him to the soldier by his side suggested to him another commonwealth and another citizenship in which he gloried far more than he gloried in the commonwealth and citizenship of Rome. "Our citizenship," he says, "is in heaven." Let us ask for a moment how this commonwealth is constituted, in what sense it is in heaven, and what citizenship in it involves.

First, then, as to the constitution of this commonwealth. Evidently the most important thing to be observed is that there is a king. "Ohne Kaiser, kein Reich" was the maxim of Bismarck: "Without an

emperor there can be no empire." This is especially true of the heavenly kingdom. As well think of a solar system without a sun, as think of a heavenly citizenship without ruler or lord. And who this ruler and lord is, Paul learned on the way to Damascus, when a light shone upon him above the brightness of the sun, and the glory of God streamed forth from the face of Jesus Christ. From that moment the apostle saw in Christ God revealed. The crucified Saviour was the truest manifestation of the Father, and was exalted to be Lord of all. Here was the King of kings and Lord of lords, lifted above all the limitations of space and time, filling and governing the whole universe. Rome is great; but, after all, its empire is confined to this earth and to the present time. Christ's empire embraces all the worlds and all the ages. The empire of Cæsar is nothing to the empire of Christ.

Wherever there is a king there is also a law, and the law requires allegiance or conformity to the will of the sovereign. The law of Christ's kingdom is a law of righteousness, far more binding than that of Nero. It is a law of love, very different from the externalism and compulsion of the law of Moses. It is the law of a King who does not, like Nero, hold himself aloof in order to be served by others, but who comes down to the low estate of his subjects, to feel for them and to suffer with them. When the Scripture says, "He ascended," what does it mean, "but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth"? And now he who came down so low, to save us, has ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things." He is everywhere present, everywhere work

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ing, everywhere sympathizing, everywhere accessible, everywhere serving, binding together the highest and the lowest rounds of the social ladder, seating each subject with himself upon his throne, and so constituting one kingdom, joy, and union without end." And the only law of his kingdom is that we join ourselves to him, receive his Spirit, live his life, seek his ends, know him ourselves, and make him known to others. This law is a law of liberty, because it is accompanied by power to obey. The commandment is no longer grievous, because it presupposes love, and the service of love is perfect freedom. Heaven is the reign of God in Christ. It is primarily an allegiance, an attitude of soul, a new and normal relation of man to the things of the Spirit. When Paul cried: "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" he recognized Christ's supreme authority and gladly submitted himself to it. He became a citizen of heaven when he surrendered himself to Christ and gave himself to Christ's service.

Heaven implies a King and an allegiance, but it also implies a holy society. When we come out from the world and begin to serve Christ, we are not left orphans. By his Spirit Christ himself comes to us, and this presence of Christ and communion with Christ is the greatest privilege of the kingdom. Stephen at his martyrdom prayed to Christ. The early church called upon the name of the Lord, and the Lord was Christ. Paul says that Christ is our life, and he cannot conceive of a Christian life separated from the Saviour. There is no indication of declension from New Testament doctrine or experience more marked and more dangerous than the counting of our Lord Jesus as a mere