p58 [From the French.] * * * I am at work from seven in the morning till eleven at night. Then I generally have many things which press heavily, within the range of my responsibility. But I commit them to Him who is mighty above all which this poor world can require, and to whom a burden is no burden at all. He guides everything, just as I, sitting in a carriage, might guide it; and orders everything according to the counsel of His will. It is well to journey thus, and the Lord is faithful in making everything contribute to the blessing of those who love Him.

I have been much enjoying the thought that the whole life, holiness, condition of soul down here, is but the making good of what we possess up there. It is always Christ, and "before the Father." (See 1 Thess. 3:12-13) This indeed sets us there in Him (and He in us); save that we have the treasure in an earthen vessel, and we increase "to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." There are not two kinds of holiness. Christian holiness is the same which we shall have before our God and Father, when we shall come again with Christ. But although the thing is realised with God, it must be bound up with brotherly fellowship, because love, too, is in the nature of God. Separation from evil is realised by dwelling in Him, and this is shown in love to one another.

Pau, December 18th.

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