covenant with God fulfilled? Let these questions be solemnly asked, and our own hearts will return the answer.

And may a quickening Spirit give us all grace to solve the hidden mystery, and arrive at a right conclusion! May he enable us to prosecute the inquiry with faithfulness, and to profit by the result, be it joyous or grievous! And may his power, working in us, obtain so complete a mastery over all our wills and affections, as to turn them whithersoever he will bring to good effect whatsoever has been well begun-plant in the likeness of Christ's death what at present bears no resemblance to it and create in the soul that new life, which shall be fashioned like unto his resurrection. And there is the promise of endless life in the realms of bliss, that last great instance of man's conformity to a risen and glorified Saviour, to encourage and cheer him in his heavenward course. "He shall change

our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself1."

THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THE EPISTLE. Rom. vi., 19' to the end.

19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In order to give the fullest force to his argument, the Apostle here makes use of an illustration most familiar to his Roman hearers, and indeed to the inhabitants of any civilized country, namely, an illustration derived from domestic life. In the verses preceding those which have just been recited, he had for the first time in this epistle introduced the illustration in question, and, after the example of his Divine Master, employs it in the service of God. The illustration is that of master and servant,

1 1 Phil. iii., 21.

one of the simplest as well as earliest relations that ever existed. In this description of covenant, obedience and authority are always among the implied conditions, and so essential are such conditions held to be to the due fulfilment of the covenant, that the Apostle most naturally asks, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?" And thus he shows, that actual and not apparent authority, actual and not apparent obedience, constitute the true character of the relation in question, and that no man can be the servant of two masters, or in reality, of any but of him whom he obeys. And then he proceeds to say: "I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of

your flesh;" I make use of an argument of this kind, because it appeals to your own knowledge and experience, and is rendered necessary by those infirmities of your fleshly nature, which too frequently get the better of other arguments, and will only yield to those which are weighty and powerful.

Let us now see how the Apostle applies the argument. He had been pointing out the necessity of fulfilling the baptismal obligation. He had been pointing out the true nature of Christian discipleship. He had been showing how men, who were admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, ought to walk and to please God,-what fleshly lusts they should crucify,—what worldly preferences they should overcome. And then, in order to impress these arguments upon their minds in a still more cogent and striking manner, he refers them to what must often have come under their observation, the relation of master and servant, and from their knowledge of that relation convinces them, that authority and obedience must be reciprocal.

And of this he brings forward a proof, in the case of those very converts whom he addresses. "Ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity." In times past, when ye were under the dominion of sin, ye submitted yourselves to its authority without hesitation-ye obeyed all its ungodly impulses-ye followed all its corrupt dictates; and so, being free from righteousness-free from the dominion of any other or better principle-any higher or more spiritual influence-ye proved yourselves to be, in very truth, by your works, the servants of sin. But now the case is altered. Ye have now professedly entered the service of another Master; ye have now by baptism renounced all former engagements; and ye must now consequently do the work and perform the bidding of him,

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who hath "called you out of darkness into his marvellous light'," with quite as much zeal and diligence as you evinced in the service of iniquity. As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." And then, with the view of encouraging these new converts in their difficult undertaking, he points out to them in the most plain and straightforward manner the terrible wages of the one service, and the unspeakable gift of the other. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Let us who are assembled for worship this evening, make an application to ourselves of this wholesome doctrine, even as the Apostle applies it, and the Church would have it applied; and receive the instruction with attention. The first and prominent truth to be noticed is, that there is no middle course in religion. Every disciple of Christ, every man living, is comprised in one of two classes. He is either a servant of sin, or a servant of God. He may be more or less hardened in sin, or more or less confirmed in faith, a longer or a shorter time living in iniquity, or a longer or a shorter time living unto God; but still he can only be placed, according to the definition of Scripture, in one of two classes. Even if he is not quite so lost to all sense of decency, not quite so sunk in trespasses and sins, not quite so devoted to the pleasures of the world as another man, still, if the love of God does not reign paramount in him, sin really possesses his affections and rules him in secret. And so among the servants of God, if some men hold the first place, others the second, and others again the third, they may still, notwithstanding, be agreed in the one main principle of serving God, and so if really thus agreed, be all, however differing in degrees of perfectness, comprehended in the family of God.

There is another consideration, which, for practical purposes, is worthy of notice. The servant of sin is unreservedly its servant. There is nothing that he does which is not contaminated with it, nothing that he does which is acceptable with God. And hence does it fairly follow, on like principles of reasoning, that the true servant of God must be unreservedly his servant, allow himself in nothing that savours of sin or conduces to sin, "do nothing against the truth, but for the truth"," and "lay 2 Cor. xiii., 8.

1 1 Pet. ii., 9.

2

aside every weight and the sin that doth most easily beset him, and run with patience the race that is set before him'."

And finally it is especially to be noted, that the ordinary servant does not more fairly earn or more surely receive his wages, than does the sinner earn and receive the wages of sin. "The wages of sin is death," and those wages he receives. Death is his portion-the second death-the death which succeeds the judgment-the death worse than annihilation-the death which is the eternal destruction, both of soul and body, in hell. But the portion of the servant of God, however zealous he may be, is not wages, but a gift. It is not a thing won, a thing earned, a thing deserved, but a thing given. Holiness is a gift, not a debt. Everlasting life is a gift, not a debt. God is the giver through Christ; man is the receiver by the grace of God. In a word, there being but two classes, let us take no middle course; there being no partial adoption of religion, let us surrender ourselves up altogether to that which is alone pure and undefiled; there being only life and death, let us choose life.

THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.
THE EPISTLE. Rom. viii., 12 to 17.

12 Brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but

ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

The privileges and duties of a Christian are here set forth in the plainest and strongest manner. And they are proved in this Scripture to be inseparable the one from the other. The privileges involve the duties, and the duties the privileges. Neither will avail without the other. The privileges comprehend the motives, the means, and the end of our faith. And the duties, thus furnished with edifying appliances, are the result of a good use of the privileges already received, and a qualification for

1 Heb. xii., 1.

more. And so on the other hand, although it is seldom so considered, does an omission of the duties involve a loss of the privileges. Even a stated performance of the duties, if the performance be feeble and languid, will often in time be followed by a gradual withdrawal of the privileges. And yet must it never be imagined, that, although the duties and privileges are inseparable, the one can ever earn the other. On the contrary, the privileges are freely given, gratuitously made over through the atoning blood of Christ, to those and those only, who "by patient continuance in well doing," and that not of themselves but by the gift of God, "seek for glory, and honour, and immortality'."

This notion of the inseparable connexion between duties and privileges, is represented to us in the form of a figure. God appears in the character of a Father, who, upon certain conditions not to be departed from, bequeaths an inheritance of value to all his adopted children. Be it, however, noted, that the inheritance in question is not described as a portion of younger sons, which a parent may confer or withhold at pleasure, but as a heritage necessarily and regularly descending to so many first-born, to which they may plead, if they do not forfeit the conditions, a title indisputable, and keep it, once they obtain possession, for ever. The Father who bequeaths this inheritance of value, is God, our heavenly Father; the inheritance of value is eternal life; the instrumentality through which it is bequeathed is the atoning blood of Christ; the heirs who obtain possession of it are all God's adopted children; the possession itself is everlasting and ample; the conditions of obtaining it are a mortification of the deeds of the body, a surrender of the whole spirit, soul and body, to the guidance of the Spirit, a heart full of filial confidence in God, a spiritually-engrafted conviction of adoption into his family, and a readiness to undergo the chastisement, already undergone by Christ, of sons and daughters of God.

Thus, then, do we obtain an outline, through a most pleasant and familiar figure, of the coordinate character of the Christian's duties and privileges. His privileges are a present adoption, and an eternal inheritance; the one through the Spirit, the other through God's only begotten Son. And his duties are faith, self-denial, obedience, filial confidence, filial love, and filial patience under discipline. Not being under any obligation

1 Rom. ii., 7.