“ If ye then be risen with Christ,”

“ If ye then be risen with Christ,” says the apostle Paul, “ seek those things which are above : — For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God^.” When the Lord Jesus was in the world, the world hated him, and used him very unkindly ; and when he died, he parted from it, to return as an inhabitant of it, no more. “ And now,” saith he, “ I am no more in the world The quietest lodging that ever the world allowed him, was a grave ; and having come out thence, he never slept another night in it. And though after his resurrection, he staid forty days in the world, yet still he was dead to it. He sometimes con¬ versed with his own, but no more with the world. If then thou have his satisfaction for sin, imputed to thee ; thou art also, in conformity to him, dead to the w'orld. Being crucified with him, “ the world is crucified unto thee, and thou unto the worlds” Union, and communion with Christ in his righteousness, have laid thee down dead in his grave ; and so have separated for ever, between thee and the world : and they have also raised thee up again, in resemblance of him, to a new manner of life Though therefore thou be in the world, thou art no more of it : thou art no more an inha¬ bitant of the world, as a native ; but art only tra¬ velling through it, as a stranger. Thy treasure and thy heart are no more there. Thy “ affection is set on things above.” Thy “ conversation is in heaven, from whence also thou lookest for the Sa¬ viour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Thus, thou art “ made conformable to his death.” John Colquhoun