The LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.

from Jonathan Bagster's Daily Light on the Daily Path (ca. 1875)

BARE you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.--In his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.--As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the LORD alone did lead him.

      Even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.--This God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

      Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee.--Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.--For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

      Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.

DEUT. 1. 31. Ex. 19. 4.--Is. 63. 9.-- De. 32. 11, 12. Is. 46. 4.--Ps. 48. 14. Ps. 55. 22.--Mat. 6. 25, 32. 1 Sa. 7. 12.

Deserter or disciple?

From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. John 6:66.

When God gives a vision by His Spirit through His word of what He wants, and your mind and soul thrill to it, if you do not walk in the light of that vision, you will sink into servitude to a point of view which Our Lord never had. Disobedience in mind to the heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Jesus Christ. Do not look at someone else and say—‘Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why cannot I?’ You have to walk in the light of the vision that has been given to you and not compare yourself with others or judge them, that is between them and God. When you find that a point of view in which you have been delighting clashes with the heavenly vision and you debate, certain things will begin to develop in you—a sense of property and a sense of personal right, things of which Jesus Christ made nothing. He was always against these things as being the root of everything alien to Himself. “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth.” If we do not recognize this, it is because we are ignoring the undercurrent of Our Lord’s teaching.

We are apt to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we have had. If there is one standard in the New Testament revealed by the light of God and you do not come up to it, and do not feel inclined to come up to it, that is the beginning of backsliding, because it means your conscience does not answer to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you for going on as a more true disciple of Jesus Christ, or for going back as a deserter.

Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. December

Understanding what the will of the Lord is.

from Jonathan Bagster's Daily Light on the Daily Path (ca. 1875)

THIS is the will of God, even your sanctification.--Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.--This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.--We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

      We...do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.--The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe.

EPH. 5. 17. 1 Th. 4. 3.--Job 22. 21.-- John 17. 3.--1 Jo. 5. 20. Col. 1. 9.-- Ep. 1. 17-19.

Where the battle’s lost and won

If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord. . . . Jeremiah 4:1.

The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God, never first in the external world. The Spirit of God apprehends me and I am obliged to get alone with God and fight the battle out before Him. Until this is done, I lose every time. The battle may take one minute or a year, that will depend on me, not on God; but it must be wrestled out alone before God, and I must resolutely go through the hell of a renunciation before Him. Nothing has any power over the man who has fought out the battle before God and won there. If I say—‘I will wait till I get into the circumstances and then put God to the test,’ I shall find I cannot. I must get the thing settled between myself and God in the secret places of my soul where no stranger intermeddles, and then I can go forth with the certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity and disaster and upset are as sure as God’s decree. The reason the battle is not won is because I try to win it in the external world first. Get alone with God, fight it out before Him, settle the matter there once and for all.

In dealing with other people, the line to take is to push them to an issue of will. That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and again, not often, but sometimes, God brings us to a point of climax. That is the Great Divide in the life; from that point we either go towards a more and more dilatory and useless type of Christian life, or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God—“My Utmost for His Highest.”

Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. December 27

Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

E know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.--As ye have . . . received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.--He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.--That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

By faith ye stand.

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

1 COR. 15. 58. 1 Co. 15. 58.--Col. 2. 6, 7.-- Mat. 24. 13.--Lu. 8. 15. 2 Co. 1. 24. John 9. 4. Ga. 6. 8-10.

The kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared.

HAVE loved thee with an everlasting love.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.--The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.--Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.

As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.

TIT. 3. 4. Je. 31. 3. 1 Jo. 4. 9, 10. Ga. 4. 4, 5.--John 1. 14.--1 Ti. 3. 16. He. 2. 14.

The hidden life

Your life is hid with Christ in God. Col. 3:3.

The Spirit of God witnesses to the simple, almighty security of the life hid with Christ in God, and this is continually brought out in the Epistles. We talk as if it were the most precarious thing to live the sanctified life; it is the most secure thing, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The precarious thing is to try and live without God. If we are born again it is the easiest thing to live in right relationship to God and the most difficult thing to go wrong, if only we will heed God’s warnings and keep in the light.

When we think of being delivered from sin, of being filled with the Spirit, and of walking in the light, we picture the peak of a great mountain, very high and wonderful, and we say—‘Oh, but I could never live up there!’ But when we do get there by God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak, but a plateau where there is ample room to live and to grow. “Thou hast enlarged my steps under me.”

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says—“Let not your heart be troubled,” if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. “My peace I give unto you,” it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” and the imperturbable [as in 'perturbed'] peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.

Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. December 24

Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me.

KNOW the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil.--There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.

In Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace.

It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.--Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past: . . . that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.--If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.

ISA. 27. 5. Je. 29. 11.--Is. 48. 22. Ep. 2. 13, 14. Col. 1. 19, 20.--Ro. 3. 24-26.-- 1 Jo. 1. 9. Is. 26. 4.

The drawing of the Father

No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. John 6:44.

When God draws me, the issue of my will comes in at once—will I react on the revelation which God gives; will I come to Him? Discussion on spiritual matters is an impertinence. Never discuss with anyone when God speaks. Belief is not an intellectual act; belief is a moral act whereby I deliberately commit myself. Will I dump myself down absolutely on God and transact on what He says? If I will, I shall find I am based on Reality that is as sure as God’s throne.

In preaching the gospel, always push an issue of will. Belief must be the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to persuasive power; a deliberate launching forth on God and on what He says until I am no longer confident in what I have done, I am confident only in God. The hindrance is that I will not trust God, but only my mental understanding. As far as feelings go, I must stake all blindly: I must will to believe, and this can never be done without a violent effort on my part to dissociate myself from my old ways of looking at things, and by putting myself right over on to Him.

Every man is made to reach out beyond his grasp. It is God Who draws me, and my relationship with Him in the first place is a personal one, not an intellectual one. I am introduced into the relationship by the miracle of God and my own will to believe, then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transaction.

Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. December 22

He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.

HAT we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you, . . . to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.--Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.--Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.--God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

EPH. 1. 4. 2 Th. 2. 13, 14.--Ro. 8. 29, 30.--1 Pe. 1. 2. Eze. 36. 26.--1 Th. 4. 7.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those...

HAVE compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: . . . I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.--We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

They brought young children to him, . . . and he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant.--The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.--Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.--I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.

ISA. 40. 11. Mat. 15. 32.--He. 4. 15. Mar. 10. 13, 16. Ps. 119. 176.--Lu. 19. 10.-- 1 Pe. 2. 25. Lu. 12. 32. Eze. 34. 15.

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

HERE the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.--The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.--If the Son . . . shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.--Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.--Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

JOHN 8. 32. 2 Co. 3. 17.--Ro. 8. 2.--John 8. 36. Ga. 4. 31.--Ga. 2. 16. Ja. 1. 25.--Ga. 5. 1.

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

E not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.--That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.

In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.

EPH. 5. 11. 1 Co. 15. 33. 1 Co. 5. 6, 7, 9-11.-- Phi. 2. 15. 2 Ti. 2. 20.

The deep things of God.

ENCEFORTH I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.--It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; . . . that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

1 COR. 2. 10. John 15. 15.--Mat. 13. 11. 1 Co. 2. 12. Ep. 3. 14-19.

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

OOK not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who took upon him the form of a servant.--Even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.--He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

When Jesus . . . saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled. Jesus wept.--Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

GAL. 6. 2. Phi. 2. 4, 5, 7.--Mar. 10. 45.--2 Co. 5. 15. John 11. 33, 35.--Ro. 12. 15.1 Pe. 3. 8, 9.

Thou renderest to every man according to his work.

THER foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.--If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.--We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.--After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.--LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

PSA. 62. 12. 1 Co. 3. 11, 14, 15.--2 Co. 5. 10. Mat. 6. 3, 4.--Mat. 25. 19.2 Co. 3. 5.--Is. 26. 12.

Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.

E of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the LORD do that which is good in his sight.--We made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.--If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.--Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD.

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.--Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.--Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not.

EXOD. 14. 15. 1 Ch. 19. 13.--Ne. 4. 9. Mat. 7. 21.--John 7. 17.--Ho. 6. 3. Mat. 26. 41.--1 Co. 16. 13.--Ro. 12. 11.
Is. 35. 3, 4.

Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

T is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.--Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.--Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord.

EPH. 5. 14. Ro. 13. 11.--1 Th. 5. 6-8. Is. 60. 1, 2. 1 Pe. 1. 13.--Lu. 12. 35, 36.

The perfect law of liberty.

E shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.--Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.--For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.--I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.

JAMES 1. 25. John 8. 32-34, 36. Ga. 5. 1, 13, 14.--Ro. 6. 18.--Ro. 7. 2. Ro. 8. 2.--Ps. 119. 45.

The spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

HE LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.--There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.--The first man Adam was made a living soul.--The spirit of man that goeth upward.

Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are confident, . . . and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.--With Christ; which is far better.--I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

ECCLES. 12. 7. Ge. 2. 7.--Job 32. 8.-- 1 Co. 15. 45.--Ec. 3. 21. 2 Co. 5. 6, 8.-- Phi. 1. 23.--1 Th. 4. 13, 14. John 14. 2, 3.

The dust return to the earth as it was.

T is sown in corruption; . . . it is sown in dishonour; . . . it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body.--The first man is of the earth, earthy.

Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.--One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

My flesh . . . shall rest in hope.--Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.--The Lord Jesus Christ . . . shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.--So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

ECCLES. 12. 7. 1 Co. 15. 42-44.--1Co. 15. 47. Ge. 3. 19.-- Job 21. 23, 25, 26. Ps. 16. 9.--Job 19. 26.-- Phi. 3. 20, 21. Ps. 39. 4.--Ps. 90. 12.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

N the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early.

I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.--The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.--Our sufficiency is of God.--My grace is sufficient for thee.

MAT. 26. 41. Is. 26. 8, 9. Ro. 7. 18, 22, 23.-- Ga. 5. 17. Phi. 4. 13.--2 Co. 3. 5.-- 2 Co. 12. 9.

By strength shall no man prevail.

HEN said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone.

There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.--Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.

I . . . glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

1 SAM. 2. 9. 1 Sa. 17. 45, 49, 50. Ps. 33. 16, 18.--1 Ch. 29. 12. 2 Co. 12. 9, 10.

I would not live alway.

ND I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.--Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

JOB 7. 16. Ps. 55. 6, 8. 2 Co. 5. 2, 4.-- Phi. 1. 23. He. 12. 1-3. John 14. 27.

Our bodies washed with pure water.

HOU shalt . . . make a laver of brass, . . . and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat: when they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; . . . they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not.--Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you.--If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

In my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.--There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth.--Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.--I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

HEB. 10. 22. Ex. 30. 18-21.--1 Co. 6. 19.-- 1 Co. 3. 17. Job 19. 26, 27.--Re. 21. 27.-- Hab. 1. 13. Ro. 12. 1.

Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

F the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?--The blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

When Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

HEB. 10. 22. He. 9. 13, 14.--He. 12. 24. Ep. 1. 7. He. 9. 19, 21, 22.

Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.

HE new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, . . . so shall your seed and your name remain.

We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

ISA. 65. 17. Is. 66. 22. 2 Pe. 3. 13. Re. 21. 1-5.