The outstanding characteristic of a Christian is this unveiled frankness before God so that the life becomes a mirror for other lives. By being filled with the Spirit we are transformed, and by beholding we become mirrors.

You always know when a man has been beholding the glory of the Lord, you feel in your inner spirit that he is the mirror of the Lord's own character. Beware of anything which would sully that mirror in you; it is nearly always a good thing, the good that is not the best.

The golden rule for your life and mine is this concentrated keeping of the life open towards God. Let everything else - work, clothes, food, everything on earth - go by the board, saving that one thing.

The rush of other things always tends to obscure this concentration on God. We have to maintain ourselves in the place of beholding, keeping the life absolutely spiritual all through.

Let other things come and go as they may, let other people criticize as they will, but never allow anything to obscure the life that is hid with Christ in God.

Never be hurried out of the relationship of abiding in Him. It is the one thing that is apt to fluctuate but it ought not to.

The severest discipline of a Christian's life is to learn how to keep "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord."

A servant of God must stand so much alone that he never knows he is alone. In the first phases of Christian life disheartenments come, people who used to be lights flicker out, and those who used to stand with us pass away. We have to get so used to it that we never know we are standing alone. "All men forsook me... notwithstanding the Lord stood with me" (2 Tim. 4:16-17). We must build our faith, not on the fading light, but on the light that never fails.

When "big" men go we are sad, until we see that they are meant to go, the one thing that remains is looking in the face of God for ourselves.

Allow nothing to keep you from looking God sternly in the face about yourself and about your doctrine, and every time you preach see that you look God in the face about things first, then the glory will remain all through. A Christian worker is one who perpetually looks in the face of God and then goes forth to talk to people. The characteristic of the ministry of Christ is that of unconscious glory that abides. "Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him."

We are never called on to parade our doubts or to express the hidden ecstasies of our life with God. The secret of the worker's life is that he keeps in tune with God all the time.

What a glorious fact it is that there is one life that can be held up before the eyes of humanity as a perfect pattern! There were lips that never spoke unkindness, that never uttered an untruth; there were eyes that never looked aught but love and purity and bliss; there were arms that never closed against wretchedness or penitence; there was a bosom which never throbbed with sin, nor ever was excited by unholy impulse; there was a man free from all undue selfishness, and whose life was spent in going about doing good.

There was One who loved all mankind, and who loved them more than Himself, and who gave Himself to die that they might live; there was One who went into the gates of death, that the gates of death might never hold us in; there was One who lay in the grave, with its dampness, its coldness, its chill, and its horror, and taught humanity how it might ascend above the grave; there was One who, though He walked on earth, had His conversation in heaven, who took away the curtain that hid immortality from view, and presented to us the Father God in all His glory and in all His love.

Such One is the standard held up in the Church of Christ. The Church rallies round the Cross and gathers around Jesus; and it is because He is so attractive, and lovely, and glorious, that they are coming from the ends of the earth to see the salvation of God. BISHOP MATTHEW SIMPSON

Less than Thyself, Oh do not give. In might Thyself within me live; Come all Thou hast and art.

Oh, there is nothing so admirable, nothing which seems to us in our best moods so worthy of our seeking and so rich in its possession as that holiness which is the summit of true perfection; not a holiness which is distant and frigid, but a holiness which makes the eyes more tender in their softened light, and the lips more affluent of genial speech, and the hand more helpful in its ready service; which makes an end in the human heart of its passions and selfishness, its moroseness and its meanness; which lifts man up to God, and brings God down to man; and which, should it become pervasive and universal, would make every soul a miniature heaven, and change our woeful earth into a Paradise regained. BISHOP NINDE

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The honeysuckle blossoms drenched with rain That lend enchantment to a summer night; The purple violet hidden from the sight Beside the border of a country lane; The jasmine vine, which hangs its golden chain Within the forest like a twinkling light, Have flourished for a time and taken flight— Their ashes have returned to earth again.

But what of one whose life was like a flower Which scatters gentle perfume everywhere, Whose face had caught the radiance of the sky From looking ever upward till that hour When the Great Gardener stripped the branches bare? God smells such fragrance from His throne on high.

“FRAGRANCE” BY THOMAS KIMBER

Upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.

And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.

They sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.

Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

Not unto us, O Lord , not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.—Lord, when saw we thee a hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?—In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.—Be clothed with humility.

[Jesus] was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.—All that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on Stephen, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.—The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them.—We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Enoch walked with God and he was not; for God took him.

Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.—We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

These words spake Jesus, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.

God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth . . . No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.—There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.—How can he be clean that is born of a woman?

Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

The Lord . . . hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.—Whom he justified, them he also glorified.—We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.—If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.

Walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.—We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.—The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon us.

Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord ; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.—Commit thy works unto the Lord , and thy thoughts shall be established.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.—Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.

Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.