th Day.

HOLY IN CHRIST.

Holy and Blameless.

'Ye are witnesses, and God also, how _holily_ and justly and
_unblameably_ we behaved ourselves among you that believe.--The
Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another,
and toward all men, to the end He may stablish your hearts
_unblameable in holiness_ before our God and Father at the coming
of our Lord Jesus with all His _holy ones_.'--1 Thess. ii. 10,
iii. 12, 13.

'He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be _holy and without blemish_ before Him _in love_.'--Eph.
i. 4.

There are two Greek words, signifying nearly the same, used frequently
along with the word holy, and following it, to express what the result and
effect of holiness will be as manifested in the visible life. The one is
translated without blemish, spotless, and is that also used of our Lord
and His sacrifice, the Lamb without blemish (Heb. ix. 14; 1 Pet. i. 19).
It is then used of God's children with holy--holy and without blemish
(Eph. i. 4, 5, 27; Col. i. 22; Phil. ii. 15; Jude 24; 2 Pet. iii. 14). The
other is without blame, faultless (as in Luke i. 6; Phil ii. 15, iii. 6),
and is also found in conjunction with holy (1 Thess. ii. 10, iii. 13, v.
23). In answer to the question as to whether this blamelessness has
reference to God's estimate of the saints or men's, Scripture clearly
connects it with both. In some passages (Eph. i. 4, v. 27; Col. i. 22;
1 Thess. iii. 15; 2 Pet. iii. 14) the words 'before Him,' 'to Himself,'
'before our God and Father,' indicate that the first thought is of the
spotlessness and faultlessness in the presence of a Holy God, which is
held out to us as His purpose and our privilege. In others (such as Phil.
ii. 15; 1 Thess. ii. 10), the blamelessness in the sight of men stands in
the foreground. In each case the word may be considered to include both
aspects: without blemish and without blame must stand the double test of
the judgment of God and man too.

And what is now the special lesson which this linking together of these
two words in Scripture, and the exposition of holy by the addition of
blameless, is meant to teach us? A lesson of deep importance. In the
pursuit of holiness, the believer, the more clearly he realizes what a
deep spiritual blessing it is, to be found only in separation from the
world, and direct fellowship with God, to be possessed fully only
through a real Divine indwelli