yourself. God is your Father, therefore be pure. Thus we see that St. Paul first lays down Christian privileges, and then demands Christian action: and in this the mode of the Law is

reversed.

The Law says: "This do, and thou shalt live." The Gospel says: "This do, because thou art redeemed." We are to work, not in order to win life, but because life is already given. Only so far as we teach this principle, do we teach Christ's Gospel: it is salvation by grace, salvation by free grace, salvation by sovereign grace: it is God's favour freely given, without money and without price; not for worth, or goodness, or merit of ours. So speaks St. Paul: "After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us."

We all know the power and force of this kind of appeal. You know there are some things a soldier will not do, because he is a soldier: he is in uniform, and he cannot disgrace his corps. There are some things of which a man of high birth and lineage is incapable: a long line of ancestry is a guarantee for his conduct: he has a character to sustain. Precisely on this ground is the Gospel appeal made to us. Ye are priests and kings to God; will you forget your office, and fall from your kingship? Shall an heir of glory disgrace his heavenly lineage? Ye are God's temple, in which He dwells: will you pollute that? Observe on what strong grounds we stand when we appeal to men as having been baptized. St. Paul spoke to all the Corinthians as being the Temple of God. Now, if baptism were a magical ceremony, or if it were a conditional blessing, so that a baptized child were only God's child hypothetically, how could I appeal to this congregation? But since I am certain and sure, that every man whom I address is God's child, that his baptism declared a fact which already existed, and that he is a recipient of God's loving influences, I, as Christ's minister, can and must

say: "Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." I can say to every one of you: "Ye are the temple of God, therefore keep God's dwelling pure."

Secondly, let us consider the request itself. St. Paul demanded their holiness, that is, their separation from impurity; for holiness, or sanctification, meant, in the Jewish language, separation. In Jewish literalness it meant separation from external defilement. But the thing implied by this typical separation was that inward holiness of which St. Paul here speaks. We must keep ourselves apart, then, not only from sensual, but also from spiritual defilement. The Jewish law required only the purification of the flesh; the Gospel, which is the inner spirit of the Law, demands the purification of the spirit. The distinction is made in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Concerning the former, I will say but little now. There is a contamination which passes through the avenue of the senses, and sinks into the spirit. Who shall dislodge it thence? Hear," said Christ, "and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts." The heart-the heart-there is the evil! The imagination, which was given to spiritualize the senses, is often turned into a means of sensualizing the spirit. Beware of reverie, and indulgence in forbidden images, unless you would introduce into your bosom a serpent, which will creep, and crawl, and leave the venom of its windings in your heart.

66

And now what is the remedy for this?-How shall we avoid

evil thoughts? First: By the fear of God-" Our God is a consuming fire." Compare with this: "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." An awful thought! a Living God, infinitely pure, is conscious of your contaminated thoughts! So the only true courage sometimes comes from fear. We cannot do without awe: there is no depth of character without it. Tender motives are not enough to restrain from sin; yet neither is awe enough. Love and Hope will keep us strong against passion, as they kept our Saviour strong in suffering, "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame."

Think of what you Realize the grandeur

Secondly: By the promises of God. are-a child of God, an heir of Heaven. of saintliness, and you will shrink from degrading your soul and debasing your spirit. It is in reading saintly lives that we are ashamed of grovelling desires. To come down, however, from these sublime motives to simple rules, I say first of all then, cultivate all generous and high feelings. A base appetite may be expelled by a nobler passion; the invasion of a country has sometimes waked men from low sensuality, has roused them to deeds of self-sacrifice, and left no access for the baser passions. An honourable affection can quench low and indiscriminate vice. "This I say then, Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." I say secondly, Seek exercise and occupation. If a man finds himself haunted by evil desires and unholy images, which will generally be at periodical hours, let him commit to memory passages of Scripture, or passages from the best writers in verse or prose. Let him store his mind with these, as safeguards to repeat when he lies awake in some restless night, or when despairing imaginations, or gloomy, suicidal thoughts, beset him. Let these be to him the sword,

turning everywhere to keep the way of the Garden of Life from the intrusion of profaner footsteps.

Lastly: Observe the entireness of this severance from evil -"perfecting holiness." Perfection means, then, entireness, in opposition to one-sidedness. This is plain from many passages of Scripture. Thus: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect." Again, it is not "Love them which love you," but, "Love your enemies." Again: "This also we wish, even your perfection:" "Not as though I had already attained," says St. Paul, "either were already perfect:" and here he says, "perfecting holiness." This expression seems to be suggested by the terms flesh and spirit; for the purification of the flesh alone would not be perfect, but superficial, holiness. Christian sanctification, therefore, is an entire and whole thing; it is nothing less than presenting the whole man a sacrifice to Christ. "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless." For we should greatly mistake, if we supposed the Apostle meant here only one class of sins, when he speaks of purifying ourselves from "all filthiness in flesh and spirit:" for what are they which in Christ's catalogue defile the man? They are thefts, blasphemies, evil witness, murders, as well as what we especially call sins of uncleanness.

2 CORINTHIANS, vii. 2-8.- –January 16, 1853.

HE remainder of this chapter, which we began last Sunday, is almost entirely personal, having reference to the relations existing between St. Paul and the Corinthian Church. In the sixth chapter he had spoken of his expressed affection towards them, and asked for a return. That return is contained in the words, 66 Be ye reconciled to God." We found that the reconciliation itself consisted of two particularsseparation from the world, and separation from all impurity. Subordinate to this is a request for the only personal acknowledgment and recompence they could make for his affection: "Receive us," said St. Paul: "let there be an affectionate understanding between us." Our subject to-day, therefore, chiefly bears on St. Paul's personal character,—his feelings and ministerial conduct.

I. The ground on which he urged this request.
II. The grounds on which he hoped it.

I. He urged it on the ground that he deserved it. It was a simple matter of justice. "We have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man." Recollect the charges alleged against him: venality; preaching the Gospel for gain; and the accusation of the false teachers; who said, "He has overreached you-taken you in." Now the Apostle meets these charges simply by an assertion of his innocence, but an assertion which appealed at the same time to their own witness. No one who read those words could doubt whether he was guilty, for there is a certain tone in