they cannot take.  And what now is this invisible pane of plate glass, that hinders my taking the beautiful things I see?  It is nothing but the self-life; I see divine things but cannot reach them, the self-life is the invisible plate glass.  We are willing, we are working, we are striving, and yet we are holding back something; we are afraid to give up everything to God.  We do not know what the consequences may be.  We have not yet comprehended that God and Christ Jesus are worth everything.  Whatever is told us of the blessed life of peace and joy, we say, “Praise God; God’s Word is true; I believe the Word;” and yet, day by day, we stand back.  When some one says, “Take it,” we say, “I can’t take it; there is something between.”  Would we were willing to give up the self-life; would we had the courage to give up to-day, and let the joy of the Holy Ghost be our religion.  That is the religion God has prepared for us; that is the religion we can claim; not only righteousness, not only peace, but the joy of the Holy Ghost.  That is the Kingdom of God.

What is this joy?  First of all, it is the joy of the presence of Jesus.  We are often inclined to speak most of two other things, the power for sanctification, and the power for service.  But I find there is a thing more important than either of those two, and that is that the Holy Ghost came from Heaven to be the abiding presence of Christ in His disciples, in the Church, and in the heart of every believer.  The Lord Jesus was going away, and His disciples were very sad; their hearts was sorrowful; but He said to them, “I will come back again, and I will come to you.  Your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you.”  What took place with them, may take place with us too.  The Holy Spirit is given to make the presence of Jesus an abiding reality, a continual experience.  And what was that joy that no man could ever touch?  It was the joy of Pentecost.  And what was Pentecost?  The coming of the Lord Jesus in the Holy Ghost to dwell with His disciples.  While Jesus was with His disciples on earth, He could not get into their hearts in the right way.  They loved Him, but they could not take in His teaching, they could not partake of His disposition, and they could not receive His very spirit into their being.  But when He had ascended to Heaven, He came back in the Spirit to dwell in their hearts.  It is this alone that will help us to go, the minister to his congregation with its difficulties, the business man to his counter, the mother to her large family with its care, the worker to her Bible class.  It is this only that will help us to feel, “I can conquer, I can live in the rest of God.”  Why?  “Because I have the almighty Jesus with me every day.”  With God’s people, there seems to be one hindrance, they do not know their Saviour.  They do not realize that this blessed Christ is an ever present, all-pervading, in-dwelling Christ, who wants to take charge of their