^ Bishop Paget writes from Priest Leys, to the Eev. G. S. Barrett, of Norwich, thanking him for his book, Beligion in Daily Life : —
..." A friend of mine said to me once about my father-in- law [Dean Church] after an University sermon at Oxford: ' Well, at all events he has one great quality as a preacher — he makes one thoroughly uncomfortable'; — and I am thankful for some thoroughly disturbing words of yours. And I am thankful, too, with all my heart, for the resolute gathering of all daily life, of all its relations and opportunities and tasks and phases and problems, into the light of our Lord's teaching, to be ruled by His demand and estimated by His standard : — together with the recurring witness to the gladness of a disciplined life, the rest that is hidden in the strenuousness of obedience." '
^ Sometimes while preaching I have felt as if I could imitate that Roman ambassador who met a certain king, and told him that the Eomans forbade him to advance farther. The king somewhat jested at the stern command of the Eomans, but the ambassador stooped down, and with his stick drew a ring in the dust round the king, and said, " You must give your answer before you come out of that circle ; for if you step over that line, the
^ J. M. Barrie, A Window in Thrums, 174. ' J. H. Newman, Idea of a University. ' Francis Paget, Bishop of Oxford, 143.
2 COR. V. 20 217
Romans will accept it as a signal of war," I have sometimes felt, when preaching to this great congregation, as if there were some who had to decide for God or for the world before they stepped out of this place, for God's ambassador had, as it were, drawn a line all round them, and said to them, " Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. If the Lord be God, follow him : but if Baal, then follow him."i
* 0. H. SpurgeoB.
The Sinless Made Sin.
•f
Literature.
Blake (R, E,), Good News from Heaven, 10.
Bonar (H.), Light and Truth : Acts and Epistles, 400.
Bourdillon (F,), Short Sermon,s, 31.
Campbell (R. J.), City Temple Sermons, 61.
,, „ A Faith for To-day, 255.
Dallas (H. A.), Gospel Records, 240. Edger (S.), Sermons Preached at AuckUmd, ii. 66. Greenhough (J. Q.), Christian Festivals and Anniversaries, 47. Grubb (E.), The Personality of God, 83. Hall (C. C), The Gospel of the Divine Sacrifice, 57. Hepher (C), The Revelation of Love, 127, Horton (R. F,), Brief Sermons to Busy Men, 15, 29. Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, v. 242. Maurice (F. D.), The Doctrine of Sacrifice, 179 Meyer (F. B.), In the Beginning God, 163. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, ix. 257. Ro88 (J. M. E.), The Christian Standpoint, 126. Russell (E.), An Editor's Sermons, 55. Seeker (T.), Sermons, vii. 23. Selby (T. Q.), The SWenuoiLS Gospel, 95. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxiii. (1886), No.
1910 ; Ivi (1910), No. 3203. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), iii. (1863), No. 389. Christiam. World Pulpit, xlviii. 42 (J. D. Thompson); liv. 209 (R. J.
Campbell). Expositor, 2nd Ser., ii. 143 (Q. Matheson), Record^ Nor. 24, 1911 (H. E. Noyea).
aiP
The Sinless Made Sin.
Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf ; that we might become the righteousness of God in him. — 2 Cor. v. 21.
There are many to whom there is no dearer verse in the Book than this. But there are others who can only study it with knitted brows and puzzled minds. Sometimes perhaps they think they have glimpses of its meaning, but the momentary insight fades, and they are puzzled again. Their experience is like John Bunyan's in his groping days; he sometimes for his comfort got " sweet glances " at this and kindred verses ; " But these words were but hints, touches and short visits, though very sweet when present : only they lasted not ; but, like to Peter's sheet, and of a sudden were caught up from me to heaven again." Yet even if we do not always fully understand, we can feel somewhat of the tremendous import, and therefore of the tremendous importance, of a verse like this; its daring paradox seems to point us into the centre of things, and its passionate intensity moves our hearts to wonder and prayer.
Perhaps the verse is made somewhat easier if we are careful to distinguish between two things — one the mannerism of St. Paul and the other the message that lies behind the mannerism. St. Paul's style is often very direct, compressed and abrupt. And where some writer of looser method and less intense quality would put some word of connexion or of comparison, St. Paul dispenses with all connecting links and puts a bold identification. Take for the sake of clearness a parallel instance, which is all the clearer because it is two instances in one. In another place he says, " Ye were sometime darkness," not " in darkness," not " children of darkness," not " in bondage to darkness," but by a bold and direct identification, " ye were darkness." And then he goes on, " but now are ye light in the Lord " — not " ye have come into the light," nor " ye have been brought to see the light " ; but