not to them of receiving out of his fuhiess, of hving to his glory, or of growing up into his image : such ideas are quite foreign to their minds : they sound only as the reveries of an over-heated imagination : to aspire after such things would be to be righteous over-much: if such exertions were necessary for the attainment of heaven, what must become of all the world ? Their religion lies in a much narrower space; they do as they would be done unto, and they mind their proper business in life : if this will not save them, nothing will : and they have no fear but that, when they shall have finished their course, God wdll say to them, " Well done, good and faithful servants ; enter ye into the joy of your Lord."
But if these views of a Christian's duty be right, whence is it that the Christian course is represented in Scripture as so arduous, that the most " righteous persons are scarcely saved," and with great difficulty ? How comes it, that the divine life is compared to a race, that calls for such exertion ; a wrestling, that requires such skill ; a \varfare, that is attended with such labour and danger ? What is there, in the kind of life which has been described, that at all corre- sponds with such images as these ? If the way to heaven be so easy that people can walk in it without any material difficulty, how comes it that our Lord has represented the path of religion as strait and unfrequented, and has bidden us to strive to enter in at the strait gate, because many seek to enter in, and are not able ? St. Paul, when enumerating many classes of ungodly persons who should arise in the latter days, mentions those who have '' a form of godliness without the power ; " and in those very words describes the characters which we are now considering. The persons of whom we are speaking, particularly value themselves upon their moderation in religion ; as though it were a virtue to love God moderately ; to serve our Lord and Saviour mode- rately ; and to seek the salvation of our souls mode- rately. This was the rehgion of the Laodicean Church : they determined to guard against all extremes : they