,' not only in the sense that He is the Author
and the Bestower of it to each of us, but also in the sense that He
Himself possesses and exemplifies it. So that there is nothing mystical
and remote from the experience of daily life in this exhortation: 'Grow
in grace'; and it is not growth in some occult theological virtue, or
transcendent experience, but a very plain, practical thing, a daily
transformation, with growing completeness and precision of resemblance,
into the likeness of Jesus Christ; the grace that was in Him being
transferred to me, and my character being growingly irradiated and
refined, softened and ennobled by the reflection of the lustre of His.

This it is to 'grow into the grace of our Lord and Saviour'; a deeper
consciousness of His love creeping round the roots of my heart every
day, and fuller possession of His gifts placed in my opening hand every
day; and a continual approximation to the beauty of His likeness, which
never halts nor ceases.

'Grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.' The knowledge of a
person is not the same as the knowledge of a creed or of a thought or of
a book. We are to grow in the knowledge of Christ, which includes but
is more than the intellectual apprehension of the truths concerning Him.
He might turn the injunction into--'Increase your acquaintance with your
Saviour.' Many Christians never get to be any more intimate with Him
than they were when they were first introduced to Him. They are on a
kind of bowing acquaintance with their Master, and have little more than
that. We sometimes begin an acquaintance which we think promises to
ripen into a friendship, but are disappointed. Circumstances or some
want of congeniality which is discovered prevent its growth. So with not
a few professing Christians. They have got no nearer Jesus Christ than
when they first knew Him. Their friendship has not grown. It has never
reached the stage where all restraints are laid aside and there is
perfect confidence. 'Grow in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.' Get more and more intimate with Him, nearer to Him, and
franker and more cordial with Him day by day.

But there is another side to the injunction besides that. We are to grow
in the grasp, the intellectual grasp and realisation of the truths which
lie wrapped up and enfolded in Him. The first truths that a man learns
when he becomes a Christian are the most important. The lesson that the
little child lea