4. In Christ, who is the Incarnate Word, we have an all- sufficient Guide on our way through life. A guide of conduct must be plain — and whatever doubts and difficulties there may be about the doctrines of Christianity there is none about its morality, A guide of conduct must be decisive — and there is no faltering in the utterance of the Book as to right and wrong. A guide of conduct must be capable of application to the wide diversities of character, age, circumstance — and the morality of the New Testament especially, and of the Old in a measure, secures that, because it does not trouble itself about minute details, but deals with large principles. A guide for morals must be far in advance of the followers, and it has taken generations and centuries to work into men's consciences, and' to work out in men's practice, a portion of the morality of that Book. If the world kept the commandments of the New Testament, the world would be in the millennium ; and all the sin and crime, and ninety-nine-hundredths of all the sorrow, of earth would have vanished like an ugly dream.
^ I never saw a useful Christian who was not a student of the Bible. If a man neglect his Bible, he may pray and ask God * Archbishop Temple.
424 THE CLEAN PATH
to use him in His work, but God cannot make use of him, for there is not much for the Holy Ghost to work upon. We cannot overcome Satan with our feelings. The reason why some people have such bitter experience is that they try to overcome the devil by their feelings and experiences. Christ overcame Satan by the Word}
5. The fatal defect of all attempts at keeping our heart by our own watchfulness is that keeper and kept are one and the same, and so there may be mutiny in the garrison, and the very forces that ought to subdue the rebellion may have gone over to the rebels. We want a power outside of us to steady us. We want another motive to be brought to bear upon our conduct, and upon our convictions and our will, mightier than any that now influence them ; and we get that if we will yield ourselves to the love that has come down from heaven to save us, and says to us, " If ye love me, keep my commandments." We want, for keeping ourselves and cleansing our way, reinforcements to our own inward vigour, and we shall get these if we will trust to Jesus Christ, who will breathe into us the spirit of His own life, which will make us " free from the law of sin and death." We want, if our path is to be cleansed, forgiveness for a past path, which is in some measure stained and foul, as well as strength for the future, to deliver us from the dreadful influence of the habit of evil. And we get all these in the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses from all sin.
^ How are we to be made holy ? God has made full provision for it. There is wonderful provision laid down in the Word for our sanctification. First of all there is the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all sin. There is power in it to cleanse even the young man's heart. Secondly, there is the washing with the Word. You remember the Lord said to His disciples, " Now, ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." Thirdly, there is the keeping power of Christ Himself. " I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." The power of Christ to keep is another part of the provision that God lias made to keep us holy. Then there is the Holy Spirit of God, whose special office on earth is to do this work of sanctification through Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ; the Word of the
» D. L. Moody.
PSALM cxix. 9 425
living God ; the keeping power of Christ ; the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost. What a provision is this ! ^
Four letters that a child may trace!
Yet men who read may feel a thrill From powers that know not time nor space,
Vibrations of the eternal will — With body and mind and soul respond To "Love" and all that lies beyond.
On truth's wide sea, thought's tiny skiff Goes dancing far beyond our speech,
Yet thought is but a hieroglyph
Of boundless worlds it cannot reach :
We label our poor idols " God,"
And map with logic heavens untrod.
Music and beauty, life and art —
Eegalia of the Presence hid — Command our worship, move our heart,
Write " Love " on every coffin-lid : But infinite — beyond, above — The hope within that one word " Love." *
' J. Elder Gumming. ^ Annie Matlieson, Mayiime Soiigs, 59.
The Wondrous Law.
4«7
Literature.
Flint (R.), Sermons and Addresses, 133.
Harper (F.), Nine Sermoiis, 31.
Ker (J.), Sermons, i. 29.
Matheson (G.), Messages of Hope, 241.
Salmond (C. A.), For Daijs of Youth, 346.
Voysey (C), Sermons, vi. (1883), No. 44 ; mx. (1896), No. 16 ; xxvi.