house, and becomes the first thought of every one around it. We can be the same while we are perpetually changing; and through all the changes one unbroken thread of a new ininfluence may be running, making the old things pass away and all things to put on the fashion of another world. God requires of no man an impossible purity. He asks that He Himself may be the substance of our life. A religious man! a holy man! has not the very name become the type of hypocrisy ? Have not the common instincts of our nature been trampled under foot by such men? But how can God be Himself the holy God, unless holiness and happiness be reconciled? “A man is not as God; but then most god-like being most a man." Has not the Father of spirits sent forth His believers into all the “happy things" whose “silent looks” reflect His glory around us? Do we talk of consecration ? Nature itself, with all her infinite variety,-mountain and valley, light and shadow, summer and winter,-full of gladness, showering beauty at our feet with inexhaustible fertility— what is it? Consecration! yes: the witness to His love, that gives the law, and His power, that maintains it in its consecrated place. Holiness means the creature and the Creator working together in fellowship. "In service which Thy love appoints There are no bonds for me, Is one of liberty." "Holiness II. This Divine idea of Holiness is universally applicable. There is nothing which cannot be consecrated. unto the Lord" on the bells of the horses. Holiness unto the Lord on the seething-pots in every house in Jerusalem. The golden bowls before the altar no more precious and sacred than the commonest thing in the land. Now, the first thing in all true consecration, is the act of the inner self. We have none of us altogether conquered our old selfishness: we battle with it still. But Holiness is the renunciation of all for Christ. And we have all an outside life to bring under this law of entire surrender. We can write the inscription upon it: "Holiness unto the Lord." There is the fixed, appointed motive of our daily avocation. Much of it is unalterable. Much of it seems apart from morality or religion; but we can give it an aim, we can put a direction into it, by the manner, the spirit, the purpose of our heart, the determination which goes with us always to stand firm to Christian principle and godly method. Across business life, across daily toil, we can write the words of consecration: "Holiness unto the Lord." Gifts, possessions, opportunities of all kinds, they will be all brought into the same bond of sanctity. Each morning, as the gentle touch of our Father's finger has opened the sleeping eyes, and the happy circle gathers round the altar, we shall renew the inscription. Each evening, when the shadows have fallen, we shall read it afresh, ere the curtain of the night wraps the sleeping household in silence: "Holiness unto the Lord," the promise of strength in the world's demands, the pledge of safety, and the secret of peace. The day which is marked out from other days with that note of sanctity brings with it the happiest memories and the sweetest rest-where "holiness and "beauty" blend their attractions in one, and the weary soul bathes itself in the refreshing stream of heavenly influences. Such a consecration to the Lord brings with it its own reward. There are times when troubles start up and surround us, like foes in ambush; but we look at all the inscriptions which we have written up with our own hands, on our house, on our work, on our time, on our very mind and heart themselves, and the fears as well as the foes go back into their hiding-places-we can "rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." Tempting voices of pleasure speak sometimes too loudly in our ear; but the spirit of Consecration will rise up against it, and repeat the assurance within, Thou art the child of God. "Thou shalt worship Him, and Him only thou shalt serve." Yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall still feel that our feet tread the way of Holiness; the way which leadeth into light, where He who hath kept us safe shall make us glad with His countenance. Holiness is not the condition of human nature, left to itself: it is the gift of God. There is a spurious holiness into which we are invited. Outside sanctities will never quicken the soul into new life. We must write the name of the Lord, not on the borders of our garments, not on our ecclesiastical distinctions, not on our "voluntary humility and will worship," but where it can never be erased, on "the fleshly tables of the heart." 66 As many as believed Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” May the words of consecration shine out on our souls in the light of eternity! May our abiding-place be among the holy ones who shall see the face of the Holiest, and in whose foreheads His name shall be written, “ Holiness unto the Lord!” R. REDFORD, LL.B., M.A., Professor at New College, London. The Preacher's Finger-Post. Righteousness. "BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH DO HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS: FOR THEY SHALL BE FILLED. ."-Matt. v. 6. NEXT to the Gospel itself, the Incarnation of God, His life, work, and death, there is nothing in the Gospel at once so elevated and elevating in thought as the Sermon on the Mount. It is original in the best sense of making the old live a new life, speak a new language, and do a new and higher work. It demonstrates Christ's kingdom to be a new and integrity of conduct. I practicable as hopeless. All The righteous man is the right man. First Righteousness implies rightness of action and relation to the individual's own self. There are many who are not injurers of others primarily, but first and chiefest of themselves. They neglect their soul's life and interest, and indulge in pleasures and pursuits which maim, paralyse, and kill their souls. They so injure their spiritual self that, if they are eventually saved, they will carry through eternity the scars of their wounds. that the best of men are capable of, is refined selfishness. This is not so. First the image of God (Gen. i. 27). God is "righteous in all His ways." If God be such in character, man must be capable of the same character, etc. Man was made in Secondly: To prove that man is capable of righteousness in the deepest, broadest meaning of that term, is the purpose of the Book of Job. God twice declared Job to be a righteous man (Job i. 8; ii. 3. The devil twice declared he was only selfish, loving goodness for the gain of it. See passages, "Doth Job serve God for nought?" etc. Paul was a righteous man. Many in our own midst, according to their power and opportunities, are living righteous lives. Consider, (1) is increased blessedness. To the world. He loves his neighbour, etc. (2) To the individual. Blessed with inward peace and power which make him less and less dependent on the outer conditions and surroundings of his life. Thirdly : The crowning fruit or result of righteousness, is satisfaction of being. They shall be filled." Filled -what depths of meaning in that one word! See Psalm xvii. 15. IV. THE CURSE INFERENTIALLY PRONOUNCED ON UNRIGHT EOUSNESS. If righteousness be blessed, cursed then is unrighteousness. The tyrant, the extortioner, the oppressor, the unjust, are treasuring up for themselves a terrible retribution. Whatever succeeds here, righteousness only will succeed in the next world (Luke vi. 25). "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the wicked and the ungodly appear?" Manchester. H. T. C. Wicked Men working out the Divine Purpose to their own Ruin. "THE SON OF MAN INDEED GOETH, AS IT IS WRITTEN OF HIM: BUT WOE TO THAT MAN BY WHOM THE SON OF MAN IS BETRAYED! GOOD WERE IT FOR THAT MAN IF HE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN."-Mark xiv. 21. WE have three things in these words worthy of note. I. CHRIST'S ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE COUNSELS OF THE ETERNAL. "The Son of man indeed goeth as it is written of Him." He not only knows the thoughts of men, but the purposes of Heaven. Christ is the only Being that ever appeared on earth who thoroughly knew the plan of God. He said, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee," etc. He said, "No man knoweth the Father but the Son." No one in heaven or on earth is able to open the book of the Divine decrees but Jesus Christ. In the erection of a magnificent edifice there is generally a functionary who comes between the chief architect and the various grades of workers who toil in their several departments of labour, a superintendent of the works. This man knows the plan of the architect, carries a draft of it in his hand, and makes each agent contribute his proper part towards the realization. A position somewhat analogous to this Christ holds in the creation. He has the plan of the Great Architect in His hand, and sees that every creature in the universe shall contribute its part towards its consummation. We have here,— II. THE SUBSERVIENCY OF WICKEDNESS ΤΟ THE DIVINE PURPOSE. Judas goeth to betray Christ, goeth to commit one of the darkest crimes |