verbally consistent with a scriptural injunction, be the result of selfishness or of self-denial; of spiritual mindedness or of pride; whether it be done for the honour of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, or in conformity to the suggestions of the world, the flesh, and the devil; there is no moral difference in the conduct of the agent, nor any difference as to the manner in which the deed will be appreciated at the great day of account and retribution. To expose such a doctrine, it is not neceffary to refer to the scriptures. In a case so plain, why even of ourselves judge we not what is right? No action whatever, though fulfilling the widest extent of the letter of a divine commandment, partakes of Christian morality, is included within the limits of scriptural goodness, is in any degree -authorised to hope through the merits of Christ for acceptance with God, except so far as the obedience to the divine commandment has ultimately proceeded from a desire to please our God and Saviour. No other obedience is obedience to the Father and the Son. And on what grounds shall man contend that obedience, not rendered to Them, shall be accepted and rewarded by Them?

In every respect then, and from first to last, our Lord Jesus Christ is the corner-stone of

morality.

morality. Other foundation can no man lay. If this momentous truth be established, to the conviction of our understandings, be it our care to have it fixed in our hearts; be it our care to build our morality on that foundation, which has been laid by the hand of God; and to build upon it that morality, which our Lord himself has taught. The morality of our Lord is not of the world, therefore the world hateth it; dislikes its purity, complains of its strictness, puts aside some of its precepts, and labours. to curtail, and pare down, and circumscribe the rest. Let us look not to the world, not to the maxims of the wisest of the human race, but to a higher and purer source, for the knowledge of our duties; even to Christ the infallible revealer of the will of his Father, the author and finisher of the law of Christian morality. Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord, who came to be the light of the world. The moral precepts of Scripture are of the number of those commandments, for the transgression of which he died to atone. They are of the number of those concerning which we have his recorded declaration: Whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach

Let no

teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (k). They are of the number of those commandments, with a reference to which his apostle pronounces, that neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, nor they who are guilty of batred, or of variance, or of emulations, or of wrath, or of strife, or of sedition, or of envying, or of murder, or of revelling, shall inherit the kingdom of God (1). man deceive you with vain words, intimating that you may persist in any of these sins and be saved. Vain and deceitful words! Wretched the man who is beguiled by them! For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience (m). Whosoever obstinately perseveres in the violation of any moral duty, remains under the curse of the broken law, He shall not see life: the wrath of God abideth on him (n). If it is with sincerity that we profess to be the followers of Christ, let us take his example for our pattern. If we would reach the kingdom to which he directed his course, let us walk in the path which he has traced for us. If

(k) Matt. v. 19. (m) Eph. v. 6. John, iii. 36.

(1) 1 Cor. v. 9, 10. Gal. 19-21. Col. iii. 6. (n) Gal. iii. 10.

we hope to be made like him (o) in that world of glory; let us seek to attain to some faint resemblance of his moral perfections, while we are in the body. But in striving for the acquisition of Christian morality, let us pursue it in the Christian way. Let us remember that it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think, much less to do, any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God: that it is the grace of Christ which is, and must be, sufficient for us, the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, which our Lord bestows. Do we stand in need of warnings to admonish us from time to time, that it is only through the grace of Christ that genuine morality can be attained? Let us turn our eyes to those men, who are attempting to attain it by their own strength. Behold them for a season apparently successful. Witness their self-complacency. Hear their vauntings, and the vauntings of their admirers! But withdraw not your attention from them. See them at once overcome by the passion or the appetite, which they believed themselves to have mastered. See them astonished at their own defeat, and passively declining any future contest. Or behold them roused by (0) 1 John, iii. 2. 8

wounded

wounded pride, and renewing with vehemence their exertions for victory. See them again confident of success; again foiled; rallying anew; vanquished still more shamefully. Give them the highest praise to which, under the most favourable circumstances, they are entitled, and what is its amount? They struggle against common temptations, and when brought to a more than ordinary trial, are overcome. Or they resist sins of some particular class, sins perhaps to which they are by natural constitution the least inclined; and indulge in other more attractive gratifications. Or they guard the outward conduct with little of inward regulation of the tempers and dispositions. Would you survey morality that is enlarged, consistent, humble, devout? Look for it in him whose sole dependence is on the grace of his Redeemer. That man's morality will be humble; and no other morality is Christian. That man will feel, and will confess how very far his moral attainments fall below the standard of his duty; how defective they are in themselves; how closely accompanied by transgressions and omissions in every branch of moral obedience; how unworthy of the divine acceptance, but through the mediation of a Saviour.

C