SERMON VI.

ON SCANDALS.

ROм. xiv. 16, 17.

Let not then your good be evil spoken of. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

ST. PAUL in this chapter discoursing on the lawfulness of different kinds of food as well as in other passages where he treats of the same subject, has laid down certain principles of conduct relating to the scandalizing or offending our neighbour which are of frequent and important application in the intercourse of life. A scandal is strictly speaking a stumbling-block, any

* See 1 Cor. viii. x.

pid which causes another to trip or to thing fall; from this literal meaning the word rod downs taken both in its original lan

has been taken

literal

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guage, and in our own, to sign signify any uhiro Sutes another to fall morally,

thing which causes

or commit offence against his conscience. To scandalize is therefore (in this sense) to cause to offend, and this latter word offend and offences are the terms most frequently used by the translators of our Bible to express the Greek word scandal li ofez

Now it appears that at the very first preaching of the Gospel, and certainly thenceforth to the present time, there have existed amongst professing Christians great number of scruples and doubts about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of particuar practices; and in these matters it has been that they who are called the strong, or who conceived such or such a practice lawful, have by the force of their example caused to offend the weak brother, whose

conscience approved not the practice which he was by others tempted to commit.

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Thus in the early Roman Church there was a dispute about what kind of food was lawful, and amongst the Corinthians the question ran high as to whether a Christian might conscientiously eat of that meat which had been offered to idols. By reason of the great number of their sacrifices, and the custom of exposing to sale all the body of the victim except certain trifling portions that were burnt on the altar, this kind of meat constituted the chief part of the markets of the heathens.

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The principle on which the apostle founds his reply to both enquiries is the point now to be ascertained.

I. In the first place then he assures them

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that th the matters are of much less importance than they would attach to them. "The king

dom of God is not meat and drink." To

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conceive that it is of any vital importance

clothed is a mistaken view of the essence of our holy religion. Now it is on this same principle that I think you might rightly solve many of the questions prevalent in the present day with respect to the lawfulness of particular employments or amusements. The kingdom of God does not consist in these things about which you appear so extremely anxious, but in the internal principles of "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men."

All this is however true only of those employments and amusements which are really matters of indifference. Some things there are amongst the customs of the world which the generality esteem innocent, but which you cannot partake of without certain pollution; these therefore you must avoid with firmness.

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It is difficult for me to mention instances unless I were acquainted with the peculiar

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temptations to which you are exposed. However I may say safely in general that the same things which in moderation are desirable, and in their own nature innocent, become in excess mischievous. It is not a matter of indifference to live in such a round of society as to dissipate the attention from all serious thoughts. (5) It is not a matter of indifference to frequent places of amusement which owing to the corruption of the world have become scenes of vice instead of helps to intellectual relaxation. (16) It is not a matter of indifference to join in ill-natured conversation, in censure of others either for natural defects or faults of their own infirmity. In another class of actions which many deem meritorious I know not how to esteem it even a matter of indifference, to associate yourself with dissenters from the

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