3th
chapter of 1st Corinthians, and then think of our divisions? "How
miserable," says Edward Bickersteth, "would an hospital be, if each
patient were to be so offended with his neighbor's disease, as to differ
with him on account of it, instead of trying to alleviate it!"

Ah! if we had more real communion with our Saviour, should we not have
more real communion with one another? If Christians would dip their
arrows more in "the balm of Gilead," would there not be fewer wounds in
the body of Christ? "How that word '_toleration_' is used amongst us,"
said one who drank deeper than most, of his Master's spirit--"how we
_tolerate_ one another--Dissenters _tolerate_ Churchmen, and Churchmen
_tolerate_ Dissenters! Oh! hateful word! TOLERATE one for whom _Jesus_
died! _Tolerate_ one whom He bears upon His heart! _Tolerate_ a temple
of the living God! Oh! there ought to be _that_ in the word which should
make us feel _ashamed_ before God!"

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Thirtieth Day.

NOT OF THE WORLD.

"I am not of the world."--John, xvii. 14.

In one sense it was _not_ so. Jesus did not seek to maintain His
holiness intact and unspotted by avoiding contact with the world. He
mingled familiarly in its busy crowds. He frowned on none of its
innocent enjoyments; He fostered, by His example, no love of seclusion;
He gave no warrant or encouragement to mortified pride, or disappointed
hopes, to rush from its duties; yet, with all this, what a halo of
heavenliness encircled His pathway through it! "I am from above," was
breathed in His every look, and word, and action, from the time when He
lay in the slumbers of guileless infancy in His Bethlehem cradle, until
He said, "I leave the world, and go to my Father!" He had moved
uncontaminated through its varied scenes, like the sunbeam, which,
whatever it touches, remains as unsullied, as when it issues from its
great fountain.

But though Himself in His sinless nature "unconquerable" by
temptation--immutably secure from the world's malignant influences, it
is all worthy of note, as an example to us, that He never unnecessarily
braved these. He knew the seducing spell that same world would exercise
on His people, of whom, with touching sympathy, He says, "_These_ are in
the world!" He knew the _many_ who would be involved and ensnared in its
subtle worship, who, "minding earthly things, would seek to slake their
thirst at polluted streams!"