obligation of our Blessed Master's prescription, "Pray for them that despitefully use you." On the other hand, if the cause of their unfavorable judgment be something indiscreet in your conduct; something in appearances that are not as they should be, though all may be right within; is it not matter of great grief to us that, Christians as we are, we have by our mismanagement, or indiscretion, or disregard of appearances, generated a conviction, or impression, among mankind, injurious to that cause with which we are identified, and lowering to ourselves as Christian men? And besides, on the other hand, we are all members of the church universal. We are epistles, seen and read of all men. Our conduct will be construed as the result of principles, and if we suffer from disregard of appearances, the whole church of Christ will suffer; the name by which we are called will be injured, and its march across the world will be so far impeded.

Another will say, I do what is right; and I am not, therefore, responsible for consequences. There is much in this most just, most noble, worthy of being recollected; but there is a sense in which it is not true. We are not responsible for the consequences of what is truly felt, truly spoken, and justly and truly expressed in our conduct: but we are responsible if notwithstanding all is excellence withinwe either speak indiscreetly, or act imprudently, or develop appearances which are liable to misconstruction. Such offence in the world, is not the offence of the cross; but the offence of our indiscretion, our imprudence, our want of care, of vigilance, of caution. It is possible to be responsible for the issues of our conduct; not indeed for the issues of truth, or of doing our duty; but responsible for issues that arise not from the truth we hold and the principles we love, but from our indiscreet, passionate, or compromising expression or reflection of them. See therefore, here, a

reason of the inefficacy of many a true Christian in the church of Christ. There are many Christians who are constitutionally very odd and strange. Christianity does not turn Peter into Paul, or Paul into James; it seizes the man as the fall has left him; and day by day works out and develops from that man that which God has determined him to be. When one becomes a Christian, he does not lose his hot temper at once. When a natural man becomes a Christian, he does not cease to have his own peculiar temperament or to have many lingering defects. We all know that there are thoughts in our minds, sympathies in our hearts, that we would not wish the world to know; but God knows; and these are the evidences of the remains of a nature not yet utterly subdued and sanctified. We find many a true Christian in the world, impetuous, extravagant, full of zeal without knowledge, of fervor without discretion; or very obstinate, or very bigoted, or very stupid. And what is the result? Men have ears to hear, and eyes to see; and these ears and these eyes come into contact with the outer appearances only; they cannot see the inner worth of the man. They see the faults that remain, not those that are gone; and men form a judgment of what Christianity is, by the obstinacy the stupidity-the indiscretionthe zeal of this specimen, as they call it, of what Christianity makes a man. You see therefore, the inefficiency of many a good man in the church of Christ, is owing to his not abstaining from all appearance of evil.

Let us learn finally the value of a sound judgment, a tender conscience, ceaseless vigilance. We are sentinels, we are soldiers; we are surrounded by enemies. Be sensitively anxious, first, to what you should be; and next, to what you appear to be. Do not only ask, What am I? which is most important; but ask also, How will this appear to others? What impression will this leave upon Christian

men? What opinion will this generate in a world that is carping, cavilling, censorious, uncharitable? A sailor when he is steering his ship, not only looks to his compass, but makes allowances for currents in the ocean, and acts and steers accordingly. You must not only think of your main route, and of the main character; but you must recollect there are many currents, and strange eddies in this world; you must not only determine to be and do right, but you must also ask, What impression is this appearance likely to leave? What effect will it have? It is the duty of Christians to be very slow to judge. When you know how many appearances may be the acts of indiscretion, not the just exponents of inner character, you ought to be very slow to judge. We shall not find out till the judgment-day how many grave infirmities are compatible with being true Christians notwithstanding. And if so, we shall find there is much, oh! much, to forgive in the best; and there is much, oh! much, to pity rather than condemn in the very worst. Do not pronounce unfavorable judgment upon your brother or your sister from an indiscreet word, from an incidental appearance that does not suit your taste, or from a hasty act. Do not overestimate appearances in others; do not underestimate their importance in yourselves. Do not infer too much from appearance in a brother; do not attach too little to appearance in yourselves.

How much need have we of the Holy Spirit, not only to give us clean hearts, but clean hands; not only to create in us right spirits, but to hold up our goings, that our footsteps slip not.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PERORATION.

"O may thy Spirit seal our souls,
And mould them to thy will;

That our weak hearts no more may stray,
But keep thy precepts still:

That to perfection's sacred height

We nearer still may rise,

And all we think, and all we do,

Be pleasing in thine eyes."

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."-1 THESS. v. 23.

VERY justly and truly does the apostle, who lived near to his Lord, and saw all things in his everlasting light, close his prescriptions for daily life with fervent prayer: “The very God of peace, not only make you rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in every thing give thanks, quench not the Spirit, despise not prophecy, prove all things, abstain from all appearance of evil, but even sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is not the least important feature, that every prescription given for practical duty, precious in itself, should conclude with earnest prayer to the Giver of all

(187)

good things, for strength to do it. The loftiest duty is possible with grace; the least is all but impossible without it. It is the duty and privilege of preachers and ministers of the gospel to begin to pray after they have ceased to preach. Preaching without prayer may illuminate the intellect; but only that preaching that is sealed and sanctified by prayer will be owned of God to touch the heart, and to leave plastic and transforming influences there. If we bid men do, but never tell them of the secret and fountain of their strength, we shall treat them as Pharaoh did the Israelites in Egypt, giving clay to make bricks, but no straw to bind them. These practical prescriptions which we have been studying, do not imply, because addressed to us, inherent strength in us by nature to do them: they do however imply responsibility and obligation. It is when we have heard them stated in all the length and breadth of their purity and their obligation, that the very difficulty we feel it to generate, not despair, or indolence, or neglect; but earnest, persevering supplication at the throne of grace. When God says, “ Do this," the command does not imply in us by nature inherent strength to obey, but it does imply obligation to obey. Our sense of inability to do, is the very first step towards doing. Because, if I am convinced that I am bound to do this, but feel that I cannot do this, and hear that God's strength is made perfect in weakness; if I am sincere and earnest in my convictions, I shall be fervent in prayer to God that he would give me strength and grace equal to my obligations.

In considering this, the prayer of the apostle, let us first notice the great work that the apostle prays may be consummated in the heart of his converts, namely, that they may be sanctified wholly, and preserved blameless. Let us notice, in the second place, the subjects of this sanctification; the soul, the body, and the spirit. Let us next consider the limit of the process, and its perfection at the com