doubt his love, no thought that we would wish to hide from his observation. It shall be pleasure, and more than pleasure means; glory, and more than glory; joy, and more than joy. It shall be, we know not what; only we know that it shall be for ever.

SERMON XVI.

GAIN COUNTED LOSS.

PHILIPP. 3. 7, 8.

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

THE apostle in this passage expresses in

the most exalted terms the value of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He first recounts the many privileges he had enjoyed in his unconverted state: "If any other man," saith he, "thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I

counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."

Now the knowledge of Jesus Christ, here so highly extolled, does not mean a mere acquaintance with the fact that such a person as our Saviour once existed on the earth. It does not mean our being informed of his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension. Neither does it mean merely our not denying his divine nature, his miraculous works, his perfect purity and excellence of thought, and word, and deed. A man may know all this, and yet not know Christ unto salvation. A man may know all this, he may be so positive of it, as to contend eagerly for the truth in argument; and yet not know it so as to practise it in his life, and yet have neither faith in what he knows, or joy and peace in what he believes. Nor, again, would St. Paul have been ready to count all things but loss, for a knowledge of Christ, such as many make profession of, by a familiar, if not irreverent, use of his

name, his word, his ordinances.

Enjoy

ing though the apostle did a communion with his Lord, such as no ordinary Christian has any ground to expect, we find no trace either in his conduct or expressions of that rude familiarity with sacred things, which many of the least enlightened of his followers seem to mistake for the knowledge of Christ.

That knowledge, as we may collect from the writings and lives of the apostles, was not to be speculative but practical, not pretended but real, not presumptuous, forward, or familiar, but humble, reverent, and devout. To know Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, is to understand, to believe, and to feel, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, appointed from the original fall of man, to deliver us from sin and condemnation. It is to have acquired, according to our means and abilities, a competent acquaintance with the ancient prophecies, and with those dealings of Jehovah towards his chosen people which led the way to the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. It is to

It

conceive how by his stripes we are healed, how by his blood our souls are washed clean, how, by his word and work, life and immortality are brought to light, even a resurrection unto life eternal, secured to us in the covenant of grace. It is so to know as to believe. It is so to believe as to obey. It is so to believe, and so to obey, as to study to have a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards man. is to know these things in such sort familiarly, as that the thought of them is continually present to our minds. It is to have them rehearsed to us, and to rehearse them to ourselves, daily as each sun returns or sets, weekly as each sabbath yields us our timely rest, and reminds us of that joy which is eternal in the heavens. It is thus to know Christ in the heart, to love Him better, as we know Him more, and continually to strive by all outward ordinances, and all inward means of grace, both more to know, and more to love; this is that knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, for whose excellency the apostle counted all things but loss.