er of merely professing
Christians. Such lives are like Gideon's three hundred, carrying not even
the ordinary weapons of war, but only trumpets and lamps and empty
pitchers, by whom the Lord wrought great deliverance, while He did not
use the others at all. For He hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things which are mighty.

Should not all this be additional motive for desiring that our _whole_
selves should be taken and kept?

I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever. Therefore we may
rejoicingly say 'ever' as well as 'only' and 'all for Thee!' For the Lord
is our Keeper, and He is the Almighty and the Everlasting God, with whom
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He will never change His
mind about keeping us, and no man is able to pluck us out of His hand.
Neither will Christ let us pluck ourselves out of His hand, for He says,
'Thou _shalt_ abide for Me many days.' And He that keepeth us will not
slumber. Once having undertaken His vineyard, He will keep it night and
day, till all the days and nights are over, and we know the full meaning
of the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, unto which we are
kept by His power.

And then, for ever for Him! passing from the gracious keeping by faith
for this little while, to the glorious keeping in His presence for all
eternity! For ever fulfilling the object for which He formed us and chose
us, we showing forth His praise, and He showing the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness towards us in the ages to come! _He for us, and
we for Him for ever!_ Oh, how little we can grasp this! Yet this is the
fruition of being 'kept for Jesus!'

Set apart for ever
For Himself alone!
Now we see our calling
Gloriously shown.
Owning, with no secret dread,
This our holy separation,
Now the crown of consecration[footnote: Num. vi. 7.]
Of the Lord our God shall rest upon our willing head.

Chapter XIII.
Christ for Us.

_'So will I also be for Thee._'--Hos. iii. 3.

The typical promise, 'Thou shalt abide for Me many days,' is indeed a
marvel of love. For it is given to the most undeserving, described under
the strongest possible figure of utter worthlessness and
treacherousness,--the woman beloved, yet an adulteress.

The depth of the abyss shows the length of