may not always be thinking about Him; but
we remain in Him, unless by unfaithfulness or sin we consciously and
voluntarily leave Him. And if we have left Him for a single moment, it
is always possible by confession and renewal to regain our old position.

This is confessedly an inadequate figure of speech. There is a sense
in which the member cannot be amputated from the body, and the soul
cannot be divorced from its union with Christ. But we are not dealing
now with our integral oneness with Christ for life, but with our
abiding union with Him for fruit-bearing and service. And again we
say, for those who are so immersed in daily business, as to be unable
for long together to keep their minds fixed on Christ, that their
abiding in Him does not depend on their perpetual realization and
consciousness of His presence, but on the faith that they have done and
said nothing inconsistent with the holy bond of fellowship.

You are in a lift until you step out of it, though you may not be
thinking of the lift. You keep on a road until you take a turning
right or left, although, engrossed in converse with your friend, you do
not think of the road. You are in Christ amid the pressure of daily
care, and the haste of business, so long as your face is toward the
Lord, your attitude that of humble submission, and your conscience void
of offence. During the day it is therefore possible at any moment to
say, "I am in Thee, O blessed Christ. I have not all the rapture and
passion of more radiant hours, but I am in Thee, because I would not by
a single act, leave Thy secret place." If at such a moment you are
conscious that you are not able to say as much, instantly go back over
the past few hours, discover the place when you severed yourself from
your Lord, and return.

Study Godet's beautiful definition of abiding: "It is the continuous
act by which the Christian lays aside all he might draw from his own
wisdom, strength and merit, to desire all from Christ by the inward
aspiration of faith."

Whenever, therefore, temptation arises to leave the words of Christ
(ver. 7), for the maxims of the world, step back, remain in Him, deny
yourself.

Whenever you are tempted to leave the narrow path of His commandments
(ver. 10), to follow the impulses of your own nature, reckon yourself
dead to these that you may _run_ in those.

Whenever you are tempted to forsake the holy temper of Christ's love,
for jealousy, envy, hatred, st