every variety of illustration, and every degree of earnestness, men to become reconciled to God. It is this which is not done. All are God's children by right; all are not God's children in fact. All are sons of God; but all have not the Spirit of sons, "whereby they cry, Abba, Father." All are redeemed, all are not yet sanctified.

LECTURE XLVII.

2 CORINTHIANS, vi. 1-10.

-December 19, 1852.

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`HE last chapter closed with the subject of Reconciliation. It declared that the atonement between God and man consisted of two parts: God atoned to man by the work of Christ; man atoned to God by the work of the Christian ministry. For the work of the Christian minister presupposes the work of Christ; and his message is, "God is reconciled to you, be ye reconciled to God." In this sixth chapter, St. Paul proceeds with this ministry of reconciliation. We will consider

I. His appeal.

II. The grounds of that appeal.

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1. St. Paul's appeal was, receive not the grace of God in vain." The grace of God. Grace is favour, and the particular grace here spoken of is the reconciliation of God in Christ (vv. 14-19). That Christ died for all, and that God is reconciled to all-this is the state of Grace. Now the word grace being exclusively a Scriptural one, seems mysterious, and is often misunderstood: it is supposed to be a mystical something infused into the soul. But grace is only God's favour, and a state of grace is the state in which all men are who have received the message of salvation which declares God's goodwill towards them. So speaks St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. The Corinthians had received this grace; they were baptized into the name of God the Father, and Christ

the Son. They were told that God was their Father and their Friend.

Now we shall understand what St. Paul meant by beseeching them not to receive that grace in vain. It was a question once discussed with great theological vehemence, whether men who had once been recipients of grace could fall from it finally and irrevocably. Some replied warmly that they can, while others, with equal pertinacity, affirmed that it was impossible. Part of the cause of this disagreement may be taken away by agreeing on the meaning of the word grace. By grace some meant the Spirit of God, and they held that the soul which has once become one with God is His for ever. Undoubtedly this has the sanction of Scripture in various forms of expression. For example, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom:" "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." Again: "No man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand: "While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition:" "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." We cannot read these passages without perceiving that there is an inner circle of men in the Kingdom of Grace, in whom God's Spirit dwells, who are one with God, in whom His Holy Ghost is a well of water springing up into everlasting Life," the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven."

On the other hand, by grace some meant that state in which all Christians are-as redeemed from the world by Christ's blood, called to be saints, and to whom the high privileges of God's church are revealed. Now it is unquestionable that not all who are recipients of that grace, and redeemed

into that mercy, will be saved. This first verse itself implies that they may receive the grace of God in vain. So says Christ : "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." Remember too, the parable of the fig-tree in the vineyard, which was unfruitful and was sentenced. Again, such exhortations as "Quench not the Spirit,” imply that He may be quenched. And such warnings as these: "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance ;" and again, “He that despised Moses' law died without mercy. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God?"-prove that this grace received may yet be received in vain. These are very awful passages, and they prove at least that if there be those in whom the Love of God is a perennial fountain of spiritual strength, yet there are also those to whom all the promises have been made in unfeigned sincerity, who have professed religion with warmth-nay, who in Christ's name have done many wonderful works—and yet to whom he shall declare at the last, "I never knew you." So near may we approach to the Kingdom of God, and yet come short of attaining it!

II. The grounds of the Apostle's appeal :

St. Paul

1. The thought that the time of grace is limited. quotes from Isaiah :-"I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee." Observe the principle on which this prophecy is quoted. Prophecy records the principle of God's dealings. Now here was a precedent, declaring the limitation of the time during which grace is open; and St. Paul applying it, says, "Now." Just such a limited moment as there was in Isaiah's day, the same is now. Let us dwell upon this thought-that there is a day

of grace for example, the respite before the Flood: "My spirit shall not always strive with man: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." There was then a space allowed for repentance. Again, to Nineveh was given a respite of forty days. A year's grace was allotted to the fig-tree in the parable. Jerusalem, too, had such a day: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace:" but then her day of grace was past; her day of blindness had come.

Now that which is declared of the world before the Flood, of Nineveh, of the fig-tree, of Jerusalem, is the history of each separate soul. Every man has his day of grace: what in vulgar English, we should call his "chance." There comes to each man a crisis in his destiny, when evil influences have been removed, or some strong impression made-after an illness, or an escape, or in some season of solitary thoughtfulness or disappointment. It were an awful thing to watch such a spirit, if we knew that he is on the trial now, by which his everlasting destiny is to be decided! It were more awful still to see a man who has passed the time of grace, and reached the time of blindness, and to know that the light is quenched for ever, that he will go on as before, and live many years, and play his part in life, but that the Spirit of God will come back to that soul no more for ever!

2. The second ground on which St. Paul urged his appeal was the earnest affectionateness of his own ministry. He appealed on the ground of the work of Christ, and on the ground of the work of those who were co-operators with Christ. "We, then, as workers together with Him, beseech you —(v. 1). This appeal is followed up by an account of his conduct as a fellow-worker: "Giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed "-(vi. 3, 4); which, again, is succeeded by that glorious and touching description of ministerial devotedness which no Christian can read without