mily, or your own
temporal concerns, in some shape or other _primarily_ occupy your
attention? If the latter be the case, then, though you may have all the
necessaries of life, yet could you be surprised if you had them not?
Remember that the world passeth away, but that the things of God endure
forever.

I never knew a child of God, who acted according to the above passage,
in whose experience the Lord did not fulfil his word of promise, "All
these things shall be added unto you."

III. The third portion of the divine testimony on which I desire to
throw out a few hints, is in 1 John i. 3: "And truly our fellowship is
with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." Observe,

1. The words "fellowship," "communion," "coparticipation," and
"partnership," mean the same.

2. The believer in the Lord Jesus does not only obtain forgiveness of
all his sins, as he does through the shedding of the blood of Jesus, by
faith in his name; does not only become a righteous one before God,
through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, by faith in his name; is
not only begotten again, born of God, and partaker of the divine nature,
and therefore a child of God and an heir of God; but he is also in
fellowship or partnership with God. Now, so far as it regards God, and
our standing in the Lord Jesus, we have this blessing once for all; nor
does it allow of either an increase or a decrease. Just as God's love to
us believers, his children, is unalterably the same, whatever may be the
manifestations of that love; and as his peace with us is the same,
however much our peace may be disturbed; so it is also with regard to
our being in fellowship or partnership with him: it remains unalterably
the same so far as God is concerned. But then,

3. There is an _experimental_ fellowship, or partnership, with the
Father and with his Son, which consists in this: that all which we
possess in God, as being the partners or fellows of God, is brought down
into our daily life, is enjoyed, experienced, and used. This
_experimental_ fellowship, or partnership, allows of an increase or a
decrease, in the measure in which faith is in exercise, and in which we
are entering into what we have received in the Lord Jesus. The measure
in which we enjoy this _experimental_ fellowship with the Father and
with the Son is without limit; for without limit we may make use of our
partnership with the Father and with the Son, and draw by prayer and
faith out of the ine