Mrs. Ingle, or Florence, as we called her, was deeply devoted to God and His cause. She was one of the greatest friends that this little publication ever had. I would be ungrateful, indeed if I were capable of going to press with this issue without a loving mention of her.

For years she did clerical work for the Messenger. Though she lived hundreds of miles from me, she did valuable service for the paper from the time that I became acquainted with her, until she was put to repose November 27, in Franklin, Indiana. Funeral services were held at Champaign, Illinois, Sunday, November 30. She was laid beside her husband, who preceded her in death twenty-four years before.

Florence was gracious to everyone with whom she had contact. She lived in Champaign, where she was known for her untiring devotion to all who needed her. She was especially kind to elderly people.

Florence found much joy in the doctrine of the reconciliation of all. Her kind heart rejoiced in the thought that all will find, at last, a haven of never-ending rest in God, through Christ. For many years she taught it in private conversation and by correspondence.

She found equal joy in service. There was nothing strained about what she did for people. She did it because of her love for God and mankind.

I felt honored when her sons and daughters asked me to go and conduct the service. It meant many miles of travel, but I went willingly, for I knew that she had wanted me to do this. She had expressed this wish several times.

I spoke on the words, "For our citizenship belongs to the heavens, out of which we are awaiting a Savior also, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will transfigure the body of our humiliation, to conform it to the body of His glory, in accord with the operation which enables Him even to subject all to Himself", Phil. 3:20, 21.

The occasion was the means of bringing together our church folks in Champaign, and Florence's children, for the two groups were not acquainted. The sons and daughters live in other states, although their mother lived in Champaign, and was very much a part of our work there. God gave me sweet liberty in speaking, and He blessed the message to those who heard. A Methodist minister from LeRoy, Illinois, whose name I do not remember, also had part in the service. He was very kind and considerate, and, when he found that I had for a long while been working with Florence, he insisted that I bring the message.

The sons and daughters were very kind to me. They greatly love their mother, and were happy that I could be present on the occasion. They are: Mrs. Glayds Schmied of Memphis, Tennessee; Mrs. Dorothy Berryman of Indianapolis, Indiana; Milbourne Ingle of White Plains, New York; and John Ingle of Franklin, Indiana. They and their companions are fine people.

Our expectation is wonderful. We are not looking forward to chaos; we expect the reconciliation of all. We are not expecting the destruction of any; we believe that all mankind will be saved and come into a knowledge of the truth. Florence lived and died in this faith.

We expect God to give her a body in resurrection, as it pleases Him. It will be a body like the Lord's body of glory, even as she bore here, a body of which His earthly body was an image.

To her loved ones, let me say, "Be settled, unmovable, superabounding in the work of the always, being aware that your toil in the Lord is not for naught".

Being of a cheerful disposition, Florence remained young in spirit. There was not a dull moment when one was with her. Her life spread sunshine wherever she went. many will rise up and call her blessed.

Good night, my dear friend in faith. I will see you in the morning.

A TRANSFORMATION

"Now the Lord is the spirit; yet where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now we all, with uncovered face, viewing the Lord's glory as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, ever as from the Lord, the spirit", II Cor. 3:17, 18.

In this chapter Paul is discussing the law of Moses as the old covenant, and comparing it with what he calls a new covenant, and designates as a covenant of the spirit. When he speaks of an uncovered face, he refers to those who depend on a new covenant---not one of law but one of spirit. Depending on this covenant, we have no need to cover our face, for through grace we stand boldly, and not ashamed.

When Paul says "the Lord", he had reference to Christ. The Lord is the spirit. To say that we have a covenant of the spirit, is to say we have a covenant of the Lord. That the Lord is a body, is truth. But to say that, because He is seated at the right hand of the Father in the heights, He cannot be with us, is to deny that He is also spirit. He is closer to us than any distance that man may measure. He is in us as well as with us. He is in us and with us by His spirit, which is to say, by the spirit of the Lord. It is His spirit that is with us and in us.

Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Freedom to do what? To do that which no one would be free to do except in the presence of the Spirit of the Lord. Freedom to look into His truth as in a mirror, and to see our own reflection as the glory of the Lord.

Paul says that we are doing something that is AS looking in a mirror. We are not actually looking in a mirror, but we are doing something that is LIKE it. It is AS IF WE WERE LOOKING IN A MIRROR. What do we see when we look in a mirror? We see our self reflected. So, when we look into the truth of God, we see our self as the glory of the Lord. And it requires freedom to claim to be the glory of the Lord. No believer could do it, except as God gives us freedom to do it. This freedom is found in the presence of the spirit of the Lord.

When we are viewing our self as the glory of the Lord, we are seeing our self as God sees us in Christ. And faith is required in order to see our self thus.

Man as spirit is in the image of God. This has no reference to physical shape, for God is spirit and has no shape. It has reference to the equipment that man as spirit has. It is the equipment that enables man to sway over everything else in the creation.

Bus when God made the BODY of man, it was a different matter. As body man has a definite shape. And God is so much in love with men and his shape, that when He brought the Lord Jesus Christ into the world in a body of flesh, He made Him in the physical image of man. This should cause us to see that man is a being of dignity. This is even true of man's body, which the translators make Paul say is a "vile" body. Paul never said any such thing. He calls it a body of humiliation, and such it is, as compared with what it shall be when it is fitted to live endlessly. But even if it IS a body of humiliation, Christ's earthly body was like it. It is evident to me, that this is the respect in which we are the glory of the Lord.

It is easy to overdo the matter of expressing our unworthiness. God was so much pleased with our body that He made Christ's like it. And its worth to God is shown by the fact that in the body lives man as spirit---the image of God.

The penalty for Adam's transgression is death. Nowhere is it said that the penalty is sickness. Man was to have sorrow in making a living, because of thorns and thistles, but it is not said that sickness is inevitable. Eight times in Genesis 5, we read the words, "and he died", but not once do we read, "and he was sick". Man does not have to become sick in order to die. It seems evident that the antediluvians lived out their allotted days and died without suffering the pangs of sickness. This is normal.

The reason why God made man as body is stated in these words, "There was not a man to till the ground". Since there has come to be many hundreds of occupations, that verse, Gen. 2:5, may be read, "There was not a man to do labor". God made man as a body in order that work on earth should be carried on.

If no provision had been made for man to step off the stage of action through the door of death, the earth would have become over-populated. But if God had planned to so manage that many men should be afflicted and unable to work for long periods of time, it would have seemed strange since man was made in order that he might work.

For a thousand years there does not seem to have been any sickness among mankind. God did not make man to become sick. God is fond of humanity. This is why He has gone to such lengths to redeem and save him. Man is the glory of the Lord God made no plans for man that would prevent his never-ending life after the eons. Nothing could come in that would prevent it. And there is no evidence to show that God intended that while man lives on earth he shall become unable to fulfill the function for which he was made---work.

To paraphrase our text, "We all, seeing no cause to hide our face, since we are fully trusting the grace of God and the covenant of spirit, are viewing our self as we are in God's sight. We see our self as the glory of the Lord. If we continue to view our self thus, we shall be transformed, manifestly, into just what we see our self to be. This transformed condition will be manifest to others, since an image is manifest to others. That we are the glory of the Lord will be seen by our fellows, as we go on from glory to glory in our appearance".

Seeing our self as the glory of the Lord, is a matter of faith. It is not to boast. We take no credit for being, in the sight of God, the glory of the Lord. We thank God for it. If we are fully aware that we are the glory of the Lord, the transforming power of that knowledge will give us good health, will cause us to live a life of devotion to God, and will make these blessings so evident that others will see that we are the glory of the Lord. Right thinking is necessary for this transformation, even as wrong thinking is responsible for everything about us that does not resemble the glory of the Lord. Worry and fretfulness bring about unsavory conditions, emotionally, and these emotions bring about almost everything that is unlike the glory of God. Find a calm, trustful person, and you will find that he is far more than ordinarily in agreement with God. This is what faith is---agreement with God.

Paul says that God is fond of humanity. This is given as a reason why He saves us. What Paul says, is the word of God. Can we agree that God is found of humanity?

If we agree with it, we are not apt to be speaking of ourselves as "poor worms of the dust". We will not be always complaining of our "unworthiness". We will see no cause to cover our faces, since we are depending entirely on the grace of God, and not at all on our self, for salvation. We believe that God has declared us righteous. We do not think that Christ died for us in order to pacify a vengeful God, but we believe that His death for us was because God was already fond of us, and not vengeful toward us. And we cannot believe that God has decreed that we shall spend years in suffering because of the life of joy He has promised us in the future. God does not require us to pay, with our sickness, for our future happiness.

As we contemplate these things, there is a steady transformation taking place in us, so that what we know we are in the sight of God, we become in the sight of our fellows.