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but murders, adulteries, &c., all the evil deeds which men do (Luke vi. 45; Matt. xv. 19). The fountain must determine the stream. If a man fears God, honours Jesus Christ, loves the divine law, has regard to his neighbour's rights as well as to his own "interests," he must act honourably and conscientiously, at home, in his business, in society, in the church.

II.

THAT THIS IS THE LIGHT

IN WHICH MEN ARE CERTAIN TO

JUDGE US. They will be very little affected by the composition of our creed; they will make short work of our professions; they will estimate our worth, or our unworthiness, by the temper and spirit we are displaying and by the principles we are illustrating in the transactions of daily life.

III-THAT THERE ARE SOME APPARENTLY STRONG AND NUMEROUS EXCEPTIONS TO THIS CHRISTIAN RULE. 1. There will always be the hypocrite and the self-deceiver, -men who, intentionally or unconsciously, will hide a guilty heart beneath a correct or even a devout exterior. 2. Some genuinely good men will still be "overtaken in a fault," or even in a crime, as David was in his day and Peter in his. 3. Some men who, upon the whole, are upright and estimable, will be found to have seriously defective characters; to be capable

of saying and doing that which is unwise, unworthy, injurious.

IV. THAT IT IS A QUESTION OF EARNEST AND DEVOUT ENDEAVOUR.

Human goodness is not so much an attainment as a pursuit; not so much a possession of Christian graces as a devout aspiration and a determined effort to acquire them. man's character is to be distinguished from its intrinsic excellence the former may be great while the latter is comparatively small for the former depends on the starting point from which he set out on his Christian course, and also on the measure of healthy and helpful influences which have been breathing on him every day since he began his race. But the true man, unlike the false, will be constantly striving after the pure, the true, the generous, the Christlike, and he will be continually moving towards his goal. Here are— 1. A safe criterion by which to try ourselves; are we making this earnest effort? 2. A sound criterion by which to judge our neighbours; are they, though very imperfect and even faulty, seeking and striving after that which is worthy? 3. An incentive to a consistent and beautiful life. We shall do little or nothing for Christ our Saviour, for man our brother, except the profession of godliness we make be sustained by a life

The admirableness of a

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ST. PAUL is here using a page of the history of the children of Israel for the highest spiritual purposes. Showing the fellowship of men of different lands and centuries in the great experiences of life, he is especially marking a strong and destructive temptation which, in its power to overcome those whom it smote in the desert pilgrimage, is an indication of its ruinous effects on many of all lands and times. It is not my purpose now so much to note the special form of this temptation, as to suggest the spirit (as our text points to it) in which men easily become the prey of every form of temptation; whether gross and sensual, as that of the Jews, or refined and subtle, as many that to-day befal us. Fixing our eye rather on the teaching of our text, than on this entire page of Jewish tragedy, we notice

L-THAT MAN IS EVER IN DANGER OF A MORAL "FALL." Whatever else the record of what we popularly call "The Fall" may teach us, it is certainly an instructive warning of what is possible any day of our lives. No state on earth (even though it seems to be a Paradise) is so holy, or so happy, as to place us above the reach of temptation and the possibility of fall. The Jews spelt that awful word-word with hells of woe in it—in the desert; Adam and Eve spelt it in Paradise. To all it meant the same. (a) A departure from the morally erect attitude of heart that God designed for man. (b) A prostration of the manhood that was meant to be upright, vigorous in goodness. This, we say, is possible to all. There are influences everywhere at work that make for man's unrighteousness, that tend to his swerving from his true course, his lapsing from his right course. There is no garden here, be it Church, College, or even Home, that has not a serpent in it, a strong, sinuous, slimy temptation to wrong. It is true of sin, as the poet says it is of sorrow,"The darkest shade falls on the sunniest spot."

II. THAT THERE ARE MEN WHO CONSIDER THEMSELVES ABOVE THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH A MORAL "FALL." Of such an one Paul

speaks as of "him who thinketh he standeth." Such men abound. They consider themselves as safe whoever is in peril; as "standing," whoever is falling. This misconception arises (a) From a faulty moral standard. If that is flexible and swerves, and sinks, he cannot tell whether or no he is standing or falling. A ship at sea does not measure her course by another ship in motion, or still less by ever restless waves, but by steady star, or massive headland, or fixed lighthouse, or anchored lightship. So we must measure our moral distances by the inflexible and inviolable. (b) From inattention to the true standard, even though it be recognised. (c) From self delusion as to one's own condition. There are moral anodynes, moral intoxicants, and under their influence many a backslider is unconscious of his egregious lapses from right, and so considers himself in no danger though at the very moment he is falling.

III. THAT SUCH MEN ARE IN THE GREATEST DANGER OF A MORAL

FALL. Such an one may well "take heed." All may; even those who really are standing. But especially those who "think" they are standing. It is the selfconsciousness that this "thinking" involves, the self-satisfaction it implies, the self-gratulation it engenders that is the source of

peril. No traveller is so likely to "stumble on the dark mountains" of life as the Pharisee. His whole attitude and temper conspire to imperil his spiritual safety. It is not to the man who "stands," but to the man who "thinketh he standeth" that we may well cry with all earnest warning; for every moment his foot is on the edge of a tremendous precipice. "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

EDITOR.

1 Corinthians xii. 4 and 6. (The Tenth Sunday after Trinity.)

"DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS, BUT THE SAME SPIRIT."

OF WORKINGS,

"DIVERSITIES BUT THE SAME GOD." THESE words suggest practical reflections as to- I. THE VAST

VARIETY OF CLASSES FOR WHOM CHRISTIAN WORK IS CARRIED ON. Such work is work (1) for all varieties of need. (a) For bodily needs. The hospital; the sanitary enterprise of any form is included. (b) For mental needs. All true educational work, not least of all when it aims at fixing a ladder that shall rise from the gutter to the University, is included. (c) For moral needs. Every crusade for Temperance, e.g. Blue Ribbon Army; and every crusade for

Chastity, e.g. the White Cross Army is included. (d) For spiritual needs. The proclamation, in its manifold fulness, of the Gospel that converts and comforts and edifies is included. (e) For national needs. Right endeavour in the cause of Peace, of Land Reform, &c., is included. But such work is (2) For the needs of people of all ages, the child, the youth, the adult, the aged. And (3) For the needs of people of all places. The prediction as to the usefulness of the men of the early Church (Acts i. 8) seems to hint at what we call (a) city missions,-"witnesses for Me in Jerusalem": (b) home missions," and in all Judæa" : (c) colonial missions,-"and in Samaria": (d) foreign missions, -"and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

OF

IL-THE VAST VARIETY MEANS BY WHICH CHRISTIAN WORK IS CARRIED ON. There are methods in which the individualism of the individual is a potent force, and others in which the elaborate machinery fulfils a useful function. There are spheres for highest culture, and others for simplest speech; domains for the pen and for the tongue. True Christian enterprise is hydra-handed. touches with a different touch the unnumbered strings on the great harp of humanity; sometimes gently, as with the delicacy of

It

woman's fingers, and sometimes mightily, as with the smiting of a seraph's hand.

III. THE ONE MOTIVE SPIRIT UNDER WHOSE INFLUENCE CHRISTIAN WORK IS CARRIED ON. There is "one Spirit." This is so notwithstanding all we have suggested as to variety of needs that are met, and variety of methods that are employed. And it is so, moreover, notwithstanding vast variety of shades of opinion. In all and through all who are true to Christ there is one impelling motive; ie., love to Him. This is the great unifying force at the central heart of all Christly men. This oneness in motive will at last find its full fruition in oneness of result, when

"Man in the sunshine of the world's new spring

Shall walk in glory like some holy thing."

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duty he had discharged towards the Corinthians had been to "deliver" to them these great facts; and first among these facts was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Dwelling on The First Great Theme of a Preacher, we enquire why is it that our Lord's death is the central topic of Christianity, the foundation fact of the Gospel. There are at least four reasons.

I. THE DEATH OF CHRIST IS AN UNANSWERABLE PROOF OF HIS REAL HUMANITY. He is not, as an early heresy dreamt, a mere phantasm man; simply in "the form of man"; too high for fellowship, too exalted for imitation. To have even a suspicion of this is to destroy the possibilities of Christian life. In much else, and emphatically in His dying, He proved Himself to be "The Son of Man." His death is His complete answer to our cry, "Art Thou become like as we are?" Here we learn with unmistakeable clearness the very initial lesson of Christianity, that as an Example, a Friend, in a word, a perfect Redeemer, our Lord became one of us. Hence we understand why Paul preached "first of all" that Christ died.

IL-THE DEATH OF CHRIST IS THE UTTERMOST UTTERANCE OF

DIVINE LOVE. "God was in Christ." Gazing on Christ's life we see Divine love in lowly con

descension; in unwearied toil; in tender sympathy; in agonised yearnings, but now we see love in sacrificial death. A love than that "is wonderful, passing the love of woman ; a love "that many waters cannot quench." Just as the highest obedience of man to God is seen in Abraham's offering up his son, his only son; so the uttermost love of God to man is seen in His "sparing not His only begotten Son." Because man's belief in God's love is the very origin of the religious life in him we understand why "first of all" Paul preached that Christ died.

III. THE DEATH OF CHRIST IS THE CLIMAX OF SACRIFICE FOR

HUMAN SIN. We should ever emphasise that Christ's death is the climax of His sacrifice; only the climax, for all that preceded was sacrifice. But a climax according to His own teaching, for did He not speak of it as "My hour," "the hour." "His blood" is His poured out life,-a life that was ever being poured out, but that emptied itself in His death. It is to be proclaimed that "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures." Not in our theologies, ancient, medieval, or modern, but in "the scriptures" we are to find the light that shall illumine the mystery of the cross. These Old Testament scriptures, to which

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