ustain them in life. And as the tree must die, or the rock
fall, before a dissolution can be effected between _them_, so either
the believer must lose his spiritual life, or the Rock must crumble,
ere their union can be dissolved.

Speaking of the Lord Jesus, Isaiah says: "I will fasten Him as a nail
in a sure place; and He shall be for a glorious throne to His
Father's house: and they shall hang upon Him all the glory of His
father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small
quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of
flagons" (xxii. 23, 24).

There is one nail, fastened in a sure place; and on it hang all the
flagons and all the cups. "Oh," says one little cup, "I am so small
and so black, suppose I were to drop!" "Oh," says a flagon, "there is
no fear of you; but I am so heavy, so very weighty, suppose I were to
drop!" And a little cup says, "Oh, if I were only like the gold cup
there, I should never fear falling." But the gold cup answers, "It is
not because I am a gold cup that I keep up; but because I hang upon
the nail." If the nail gives way we all come down, gold cups, china
cups, pewter cups, and all; but as long as the nail keeps up, all
that hang on Him hang safely.

I once read these words on a tombstone: "Born, died, kept." Let us
pray God to keep us in perfect peace, and assured of salvation.

CHAPTER VIII.

_CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL_.

(Colossians iii. 11.)

Christ is _all_ to us that we make Him to be. I want to emphasize
that word "all." Some men make Him to be "a root out of a dry
ground," "without form or comeliness." He is nothing to them; they do
not want Him. Some Christians have a very small Saviour, for they are
not willing to receive Him fully, and let Him do great and mighty
things for them. Others have a mighty Saviour, because they make Him
to be great and mighty.

If we would know what Christ wants to be to us, we must first of all
know Him as our Saviour from sin. When the angel came down from
heaven to proclaim that He was to be born into the world, you
remember he gave His name, "He shall be called Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins." Have we been delivered from sin? He
did not come to save us _in_ our sins, but _from_ our sins. Now,
there are three ways of knowing a man. Some men you know only by
hearsay; others you merely know by having been once introduced to
them, you know them very slightly; other again you know by