possess God, and to be possessed by Him, and in either case
fully, perfectly in degree, progressively in measure, eternal in
duration, is the Heaven of heaven.

If that is the true conception of the inheritance, then it follows
indubitably that such a Heaven is not for everybody. God would fain have
us all for His there, as He would fain have each of us here and now, but
it may not be. There are creatures which live beneath stones, and if you
turn their coverings up, and let light fall on them, it kills them. And
there are men who have refused to belong to God here, and refused to
claim their portion in Him, and such cannot possess that true Heaven
which is God Himself. Then, if its possession is not a mere matter of
divine volition, giving a man what he is not capable of receiving, it
plainly follows that the preparation must begin now and here by the
incomplete possession of which my text is discoursing. And the way of
such preparation is plain. The context says: 'In whom, after that ye
believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.' Faith in
Jesus Christ, and trust in Him and His work as my forgiveness, my
acceptance, my changed nature and heart--is the condition of being
'sealed' with that Spirit whose sealing of us is the condition of our
love, our surrender, and mutual indwelling, which are our possession of
God and being possessed by Him, and are the condition of our future
complete possession of the 'inheritance.' We must begin with faith in
Christ. Then comes the sealing, then comes the earnest, then comes the
growing redemption, and in due time shall come the fulness of the
possession. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ' if thou wouldst have the
earnest, whilst thou dost tabernacle in tents in the wilderness of Time,
and if thou wouldst have the inheritance when thou crossest the flood
into the goodly land.

THE HOPE OF THE CALLING

'That ye may know what is the hope of His calling.'--Eph. i. 18.

A man's prayers for others are a very fair thermometer of his own
religious condition. What he asks for them will largely indicate what he
thinks best for himself; and how he asks it will show the firmness of
his own faith and the fervour of his own feeling. There is nothing
colder than the intercession of a cold Christian; and, on the other
hand, in no part of the fervid Apostle Paul's writings do his words come
more winged and fast, or his spirit glow with greater fervour of
affection a