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Word, which would meet or explain the need ; so thatwhatever question was asked you, or whatever doubt came toyou, in one moment there would come the right answer toyour mind from the Scriptures.Are you being kept by God at this point ? You know somuch about victory, you know so much about identificationwith Christ and His cross ; but oh ! child of God, are youstrong and very eaurageaus? Are you dismayed, are you afraid,are you fearful ? Will you allow all fear to be swept from you,and go forward meditating on this Book day and night? I tmeans when you awake in the morning the Word that is newwill be in your mind. When you go to sleep, it means thatyou will not have troublesome thoughts in your mind toprevent your sleeping. One great, strong, mighty equipmentfor unbroken victory, is to be filled with Divine strength bythis Word dwelling in you richly. This was the equipmentfor Joshua as he was starting out, and if you are to be a" leader "-to lead souls around you into Canaan, or theheavenly places-you can only have the true vision to leadthem, as the Word dwells in you, and you meditate upon it,as Joshua was bidden to do.Remember, too, they were not all "Joshuas ! " Joshuahad his place, and commission, and the people had theirs. Ifyou try to be a "Joshua " when the Lord wants you to beone of the people, it will only mean confusion and disorder.True, God can make you a "Joshua" in your own centre,and sphere, to lead those a round you into the heavenly places ;but it is necessary to ask you, if you are ready to recognizeothers with a Commission from God not granted to you ; andare you willing to fall into co-operation with ·Others called ofGod, and not act as a unit only in relation to other membersof the Body of Christ ?In this campaign Joshua sent out spies to spy out the land,and, according to the second chapter, when the spies returned,they reported that the fear of God was already upon thepeople of Canaan. That was a great thing gained. Itstrengthened Joshua. He found that what the Lord had toldhim was already working. It is really true when you goforward in aggressive warfare in this spiritual battlefield, thatyou will Jind the Je ar qf God already upon the enemy. If we understood it, the powers of darkness must trembie when they seethe children of God appropriating the victory of Christ, and4starting forward in aggressive warfare. If the whole Churchof Christ would rise up in the strength and the might of God,the principalities and the powers would be beaten down, forthe Jear of God is already upon them.In chapter iii, Joshua issues the call to the people to getready to cross the J ordan, and in chapter iv he bade them getready to cross the river. The priests were sent first, and theycarried with them the ark of the Lord. They took their standin the centre of Jordan, and stood there until all the peoplepassed over it. The priests were told to take from the centreof J ordan twelve stones, and they were to bury in J ordan alsotwelve stones. The stones thus buried represented the twelvetribes of Israelleft buried in Jordan's waters ; and the twelvestones taken out of Jordan, and carried into Canaan, represented the new nation, stepping out of the waters whichwere really waters of death to them, had not God held themback whilst they passed over. If they had attempted to walkthrough Jordan without the Ark held in the midst, theywould have been drowned in its waters. Therefore they hadpractically crossed through waters of death, as they passedover by faith to the promised land.Spiritually, Jordan represents Calvary. The ark is the type ofChrist. Justas the ark went first, and stood in Jordan, whilstall the people passed over, so Christ carried the whole of HisChurch in Bimself as the ark, into the death of Calvary.The waters of judgment came upon Him as He hung uponthat cross, and the whole Church of Christ was buried in Him,and, so to speak, " blotted out " in their conneetion with thefallen race of Adam, as " all flesh " was " blotted out " bythe waters of judgment at the Flood, when only Noah and hisfamily escaped (Gen. vii. 23, A.V. m.), through their beingcarried through, or u pon, the waters of death, in an ark.This crossing of J ordan is the most striking picture you canhave of what it means to be crucified with Christ, and buriedin His death. We were nailed to that cross in Him, identifiedwith Him. We are so buried into Jesus Christ, baptized intoChrist (Rom. vi. 4), that we may always look upon ourselvesas buried in the Jordan, and once we have taken the positionof faith in Him, crucified and buried in Him, the old lifeshould not be dug up for examination, but always accountedput out of sight, and buried in the waters of death.The two-fold aspect of our identification with Christ is5

portrayed by these two lots of stones. As on the one handtwelve stones were buried in the river ftood, and on the other,twelve stones were taken from the river-bed and carried tothe Canaan side as memorials oftheir separated life unto God ;so are we taken into the death of our Lord, and there buriedso far as our relation to sin and to this world is concemed(Rom. vi. I-I3, Col. ii. 20 and iii. 3), and out ofthat river-bedof death we are taken into His resurrection and triumphantlife.When the twelve stones were brought O:tJJ of Jordan, theyrepresented a new Israel. The old Israel was, in the purposeof God, left buried in the Jordan waters, and they rolledbetween them and the wildemess. They first crossed theRed Sea into the wildemess ; the first stage of death on thecross, where the sea ran between them and Egypt. They werebrought, so to speak, out of the world-sphere-Egyptthrough the Red Sea into a new path, and then through thewildemess, and finally into Canaan ; the land which is apicture of the heavenly sphere, where the child of God isunited with the Lord, a new creation in Him, and equippedfor war with the adversaries of God, led forward by Him invictory. Let us now re-affirm our place in the Jordan ; i.e.,in Christ's death on the cross. Re-take the position thereagain and again, and say, " Now deeply buried in Jordan,buried in J esus Christ on the Cross, I have died, and I am buriedout of sight ; Jordan and the Cross stands between me andthe past, so I reekon that the past is gone, buried deep in thewaters ofdeath" (Rom. vi. I-I3)·Notice, too, that the priests went into the river-bed first,and there they stood. The priests represented the spiritualfaith of the nation, and their position in the river-bed with theark of God u pon their shoulders, indicated that the nation hadtaken its position of faith in the God who had bidden themcross that Jordan, by His command. After they had crossedthey would never look back to the wildemess side of the river,but onward to the victory path ahead of them. Behind laythe river-in front the land, which would only be theirs inreality, as they planted the foot of faith u pon it.When they went forward to the battlefield to take everyinch of ground by faith, it would never have clone for them tohave kept saying, "Did I crossJordan? AmIsure that I amout of the wildemess ? I feel as if I was there still because ofthe enemies here, and all these things to contend against.This must mean that I have never crossed out of the wilderness ". But they knew that they had crossed J ordan, and justas certainly in your life you must stand on the fact that youhave been brought through your position through Jordan-inChrist, in His death-on to the Canaan side of Calvary, fromwhence you must pass on in the victory of faith to take theland.But you say you do not feel it! Your feelings do notmatter, it is the declaration of your position which counts.But you say that it looks as if there was still so much of the" old life " about you. Then re-take your position, crucifiedand " buried with Christ ", in the Jordan death of His cross,and count upon the Holy Spirit still more deeply to make itfact in your practical life, and give you keener insight todiscem and cast off in quick obedience all that belongs to thepast.Look again at the way the Israelites crossed Jordan. Theyhad no bridge ! " Impossible," some might have said, asthey stood on the river brink, and people say " impossible "now. Surely you do not get through to the heavenly (orspiritual) sphere, by simple faith in Christ's death. Yes, youdo. No bridge. Yes, no human way. There is no bridgewhich the human vision can see, but just a going down intothe death of Christ, by an act of choice and faith. By takingChrist's death as our own, and by the co-working of the HolySpirit (Col. ii. I2), the child of God just sinks down intoChrist's death, as the stones dropped down into the verycentre of Jordan, from whence the Spirit of God quickens thenew life in Christ, and enables the heliever to walk in newnessof life.The new life begins (ram the river-bed o[death, justas the newnati"on, and then the new inheritance, gained throughconflict, began for Israel ; and the new life of Christ beginsfor us, with its inheritance through war with opposing powers,its suffering and its triumph. All that was new to thembegan there, and was symbolized by the taking oftwelve stonesfrom Jordan, and carrying them into the new life of the newland ; and all that is new to us is pictured in the same symbol,as from henceforth we " reekon ourselves " not only " deadunto sin " but " alive unto God " (Rom. vi. 6, IO, I I).Through the cross, identified with Christ unto death, you67CC2

come unto union with Christin life, and into the sphere whereyou meet the enemy, where it is to be aggressive warfare, aforward march to take the land to dislodge the enemy fromevery point. That is the other side of our identification withChrist, " alive unto God ", for the death-fact of our identification-cut off from the past and reekoning dead indeedunto sin-is but the negative position, which demands the lifeunto God as its power for continuance, and service unto Him.But now comes the experimentalpart ofthe death-fellowshipwith Christ, as pictured in the story of Israel. After theypassed through J ordan by faithand obedience there came thereal application of the knife. At Gilgal the nation was circumcised, and they had to wait two or three days before goingforward to the war, whilst the knife was applied to them. Itwas also before the man with the drawn sword was revealedto Joshua outside Jericho. This suggestive part of the storyis true to fact in the spirituallife. In this warfare with Satan,and with the enemies of the Church of Christ, it is fa tal for youto go fo1ward simply on the basis of faith that you have died,unless you let the Holy Spirit really take the knife, and make areal severance between you and sin and the world. That isto say, there is a real application of the severing power of the cross,which this part of Israel's history typifies. When you havetaken your position by faith that you are buried in the Jordanwaters, you must be ready for the Holy Spirit to take theknife, and deal with whatever there may be of the " fl.esh "*dominating your life. He wil! bring about what Paul callsthe "circumcision of the heart ", which is the true circumcision of God.Galatians v. 24 is alsö a passage which meets the case just* Weymouth has a note to Rom. vii. 18, on the scriptural use of theword "flesh ", which concisely throws light u pon it. He says it includesnot simply the body, but also " mind, in the degree in which that consistsofmerely earthly thoughts, feelings, affections, appetites and ambitions "." The a postie gives the name of flesh to the whole of this earthly nature,especially so long as it remains sinful, i.e., contirlUes in rebellion againstthe higher nature, which is its God-appointed ruler. Thus, from hispoint of view, hatred, envy, bad temper, ill-natured talk, worldly ambition, pride, selfishness, self-righteousness, self-will, unbelieving andrebellious thoughts of God, a lack of industry, and indisposition to pray,deficiency in courage or straight-forwardness, all excessive social ordornestic affections, all false patriotism and all unhealthy curiosity, andundue pursuit of knowledge, are rnaniCestations of the 'flesh ', or sinfulearthly nature, equally with grosserand more animal indulgences."8here : " They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with theaffections and lusts ". This is judicially the position of all thechildren of God, but it must be experimental also. For in thisspiritual battle, unless the knife is applied, to what theScriptures term, the " flesh ", it wil! always be ground for theenemy to attack, and to weaken us in the conflict. The" fl.esh " must be kept under the knife of the cross, for if thereis any self-indulgence, or anything that is doubtful in yourlife, and you venture to take the aggressive against the foe, theenemy wil! come back on you, and-fastening on that uncrucified " ground " in you-he wil! press you with appallingpower. You must have the knife of the cross steadily,persistently, and unbrokenly applied to the fl.esh ; to the appetitesof the fl.esh, to self-indulgence in any form, and to the pride ofthe fl.esh.We have the lessons of the needof the constant applicationof the cross around us on every hand. Have you not seenmen broken in spirit one day, yet suddenly caught understrong delusion, and led into fanaticism, and wild extremes ?You ask the cause ! Down deep in the bottorn of the lifethere may have been-for instance-some secret pride of theflesh uncrucified. They went forward into warfare against theenemy, and then there came upon them an evil spirit fasteningon to that pride, and manifesting itself as a spirit of delusion,leading these souls into a blind course of action, until at lastthe poor deceived ones found themselves upon the rocks.The knife must be taken to pride, and to all other elements whichmake up the fallen Adam.In this life of claiming victory, not only for yourself, butfor others, you must let the Spirit of God apply His knife tosecret pride, secret ambition, secret self-assumption, and ifyou do not see its need just now, say to Him, " Holy Spirit,apply the knife of the cross to every bit of the old life in me,wherever Thou canst see it ; in the places where I do notknow it, especially down deep into secret pride ".Many shrink from the truth about the powers of darlmessbeing able to deceive them, because of this hidden pride.They wil! notface the fact that they can be deceived, or caughtby the roaring lion of hell. But one may ask whether Godhas given a special warrant thatyou in particular shall be free,and safe from the wiles ofthe devil. We must face it honestlyand straightly, and own that we all stand in the same position9

towards a wily foe. So it behoves us to walk softly, and tohumbly ask God in His mercy to save us from any secret pridein our own strength of mind, which will lead us to think ofourselves as so advanced spiritually, that we will assuredlyrecognize the enemy, and not be deceived by him in any way.Let us take care that there is no point where we get selfconfident, so that the enemy traps us in the very place wherewe are off guard. Rather let us take the position of prayerand watchfulness, willing to know the truth, without shrinking,about ourselves. That open humility of spirit will place youwhere you cannot be hurt, and your feelings wounded, byanything said, because you love the truth, and you only wantthe truth, and you do notcare what it costs ifyou only get thetruth, as it is in the sight of God.Then also let me say, it will not do for you to build on thepast experience of the " cross ". I t is perfectly true thatwhen you go into Jordan by faith, you are to reekon that youare buried out of sight in its waters ; but the fact that Israelafterwards had to submit to the knife, showed that they had tohave the " cross " in the experimental cutting of the flesh. So,also, if you say a bout Gal. v. 24, " ' They that are Christ's havecrucified the flesh ', therefore there is ' no flesh ' left a boutme to deal with ", then you are just the one who can betrapped by the enemy, because you will not be counting uponthe severing power of the cross of Christ in the presentmoment ; for it is only safe in this spiritual warfare to have apresent tense Jaith in a present tense application f the cross.You may say that you have yielded to the cross up to thepoint of all that you knew last week, but there may be a hiddenpoint in your character which the devil knows about, andwhich you do not know ; and he is quietly fanning it up whileyou are off guard, thinking you were so " crucified ", that hewould never be able again to trap you. This is why souls aresometimes deceived and overthrown in the very spot in whichthey think they are the strongest. They are ff guard, thinkingthemselves so safe.The wily foe can wait for twenty years, until he thinks youhave forgotten all about something in your character, whichGod dealt with so deeply twenty years ago, that you thoughtyou would never need to face the matter again ; yet twentyyears afterwards it is attacked by the enemy without your knowing,until some occasion comes which causes you to discover that10the devil is quietly aiming at the old place of weakness, andyou have vigorously to say, " No ! the matter has beensettled, and must never be debated again ! "Therefore you see it isonething to say byJaith that you havedied to sin, and it is another thing to let God make it fact.When there comes the actual severance, then you know theknife. Keep this before you as you go forward into thisbattlefield. Pray the Lord to keep the knife of the crossapplied to every part of your being, your cleverness of intellect,your selj-conjidence, your sympathies, your a.ffections. Let theknife be used by God all the time, not yesterday but to-day.This means keeping the material which the enemy can fastenupon out ofhis way. The bullet-proofplace ofvictory is onlyto be known through the knife of the cross being kept continually applied to the old creation day by day.After the application of the knife came the revelation of theRisen Christ : " And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho,that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold there stood a man overagainst him, with his sword drawn in his hand" (Josh. v. 13).The battle was going to be the Lord's. Joshua was only thevisible instrument ; Gon WAS THE REAL LEADER. There Hewas with the drawn sword, ready for action. The war of GodthroughJoshua was against the Satanic hosts at the back oftheCanaanites. They dabbied with witchcraft, sorcery, andmany had communion with familiar spirits ; they were adeptsin the " black arts ". The war was not with the Canaanitesas men, but with the Satanic powers which they yielded to andworshipped in various ways.'IThe Captain with the drawn sword says " war ". Willyou say war too? Poor little frail mortal-what are you?Nothing ! The power is with the Captain with the drawnsword. If you recognize Him as leading the war against sinand Satan, and all that Christ is at war with, you may beonly a wisp of straw in yourself, but you are one more who a J:' at least, be a block in the way of the Devil, just to standm hrs way. Ifyou cannot speak, at least you can stand. Youcan put your foot down, and say, " I stand against everythingthat Jesus Christ is against ; I do not know what that is, butI stand with the Victor with the drawn sword in His hand ".Now let us glance at some aspects of the war. Who wouldever have dreamed of going to war to drive out the inhabitantsof Canaan by first a simple march round the city of Jericho?I I

What does this Jerîcho-vîctory teach us and typify? Jerichoseems to be a picture of the prayer victory. See the men ofwar walking round and round the city. A looker-on maysay, What silly people ! Do they imagine that Jericho isgoing down by simply walking round ? Yes, there is anunknown power there. They are exercising faith in a LivingGod, Jehovah-the Lord of Hosts-and when the Captainwith the d rawn sword sees the invisible armies routed, He willsay "Shout ", and down the walls will go.But you must not shout until the Lord says shout. If weshout too soon the enemy may gain an advantage. Sametimeswe are so delighted when the "walls" of our Jerichos beginto move, that we say too quickly " the Jericho walls aredown ", when they have only just showed a sign of shaking,so we stop praying, and the enemy gains the ground. Farbetter keep steady and quiet, lest we fail to pray through. Afalse idea of victory means that we are off guard befare thevictory is really won. J ericho seems to picture the prayervictory,

filled with the Word of God, and to have the mind full ofit by meditating upon it. Not simply reading a little, and then putting the Book down, but really meditating on God's Word until you know the heart truth of all that is written in the sacred Book. " Meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest . . do . . . for