Knowledge of Christ

The glorious Church is Christs inheritance , and the apostle prays that we may more of the riches of his glory in this inheritance , that we may look beyond a few poor dying men and women , look beyond the wrappings of the creature , and see what a saint of God really is as dressed in immortal robes and made meet to sit down at the supper of the Lamb . We now see men and women wrapped in the miserable rags of our fallen humanity; but we do not see in them what they will be when resplendent with all the glories of heaven . But Christ sees them as we do not , comely in his comeliness and complete in him . If ,then , we were able to look a little beyond these mere trapping of humanity and these creature rags , which wrap up a mortal body and contain in the rags of mortality an immortal soul , and could realise that one day these rags of mortality will be changed into a glorious body, according to the pattern of the glorified body of Christ , we should enter a little into Christ's love for the church , and the certainty that every saint would be brought to see him as he is and to dwell with him  in the matchless perfection of his own glorious splendour    How these things should lift us up from the mud and mire of this wretched world . If the God of our Lord Jesus Christ would but  give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ ; if he would but enlighten the eyes of our understanding ; if he would give us to know more what is the hope of our calling , and what the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints , we should not be such muck-worms , raking and scraping a few straws together , and running about like ants with our morsel of grain . We should have our affection fixed more on things above , we should know more of Christ , be more like Christ , and walk more as Christ walked ; we should love the saints of Christ more , esteem them more , honour them more , and bear with them more . We should look forward to an eternal inheritance , when mortality would be swallowed up of life . If these things were brought into our hearts with divine power , how they would sweeten every bitter cup , and carry us through every changing scene , until , at last we were landed above to see the Lord as he is in the full perfection of his uncreated glory 

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