HEBREWS IX. 13, 14 377
of insincere habit, on which ah-eady the avenging angels may have traced the motto, " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead'Mi
3. Living Service.— The effect of the ceremonial cleansing was to restore to the man his place in the congregation. So the effect of the cleansed conscience is to enable him to oft'er what St. Paul calls (Eom. xii. 1) " reasonable service." Compare the Collect for the 21st Sunday after Trinity, " that we may be cleansed from all our sins and serve thee with a quiet mind."
The phrase, " to serve the living God," cuts in sunder a fallacy which has beguiled some and perplexed many. If our release comes to us, apart from works, by the efficacy of that sacrifice, long since completed, why should we work at all ? Because it is the law of our new life ; because we are alive and in the temple of a living God, whose temple-service attracts us ; because we are cleansed for this very purpose from the coldness and apathy of the dead and brought to readiness and desire to serve. Eitual cleansing was " toward the purifying of the flesh " : this reaches " unto the temple-service of the living God."
(1) The service is " living " in the reality of its spiritual emotions. The unpurged conscience is tempted to forget, to doubt, to deny God, or to regard Him simply as some awful and mysterious power. The puriiied spirit feels Him near and can bear the glance of the Eternal without shrinking ; for the dead past has been cleansed away by the blood of the Saviour. Thus prayer becomes real ; it is no longer a vain cry breathed into the air ; for the Spirit through which He offered Himself abides in us, constraining our devotion.
(2) The service is " living," for it pervades the whole life. The worship of fear is limited to time and place. But cleansed and inspired by Christ, we feel He is everywhere. In suffering we bear His will, and our sighs become prayers. In sorrow, when the heart is weary, we feel ourselves near to the Heavenly Friend who is leading us to find in Him rest for the restless and sad. In joys. He who hallowed social gladness by His first miracle — and amid the friendships of life, He who made friendship holy — is close to our hearts. In our falls and failures we hear His voice
^ H. P. Liddon, Passiontide Sermons, 80.
378 CLEANSING OF THE CONSCIENCE
in the hope of rising out of the gloom to a higher and purer state beyond it. Thus not only 'in the service of the Temple, and in the presence of a worshipping multitude, but throughout life — in the silent hours of meditation, in the still sanctuary of prayer, in the dreary hours of toil, and drearier hours of doubt, amid the rush of temptation and the pressure of care, do we feel the presence of the Christ who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself to God.
^ Grievously do they mistake the design of the death of Christ who suppose that it was intended simply to deliver us from the penalty of sin and to leave us free to continue in trans- gression. The unclean were purified that they might enter the tabernacle and take part in its services ; and the blood of Christ has been shed for us that we may have access to God. It does not render worship and obedience unnecessary ; it is the means by which we are delivered from that which hindered both. Hence it is that whether we offer adoration and praise, or invoke the Divine blessing on ourselves or intercede for others, or venture to contemplate the Divine glory, and endeavour to enter into com- munion with the Divine blessedness, we do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. His sacrifice is the foundation on which our religious life is built ; by His blood we are cleansed from impurity that we may serve the living God.^
^ As to St. James' assertion that " faith without works pro- fiteth nothing," which appears to contradict St. Paul's, who says that " a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law," suppose I say, " A tree cannot be struck without thunder," that is true, for there is never destructive lightning without thunder. But, again, if I say, " The tree was struck by lightning without thunder," that is true, too, if I mean that the lightning alone struck it, without the thunder striking it. Yet read the two assertions together, and they seem contradictory. So, in the same way, St. Paul says, " Faith justifies without works " — that is, faith only is that which justifies us, not works. But St. James says, " Not a faith which is without works." There will be works with faith, as there is thunder with lightning ; but just as it is not the thunder but the lightning, the lightning without the thunder, that strikes the tree, so it is not the works which justify. Put it in one sentence — Faith alone justifies; but not the faith which is alone. Lightning alone strikes, but not the lightning which is alone, without thunder; for that is only summer lightning, and