1 John i. 8, 9. If we sag that we //are no sin, we deceive our- selves, and the truth is not in us : if ive confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
THESE words are rendered familiar to our ears by being read almost continually as introductory to the service of our Church. On this account they may appear perhaps the less interesting ; though in reality they are, from that very circumstance, com- mended to us as deserving a more than ordinary
attention. The truths indeed which are contained in them are extremely plain and simple : but they are of infinite importance to every child of man, inas- much as they declare the jiitiable condition of a self- applauding moralist, and the happy condition of a self-condemning penitent. We shall consider the sub- stance of them under these two heads :
Let us consider,
I. The pitiable condition of a self-applauding mo- ralist—
Persons of a high moral character are too often classed with the Pharisees of old, whose leading fea- ture was hypocrisy. But,
Moral characters are proper objects of our love —
[No one can doubt but that morality is highly estimable, even though it do not flow from those divine principles which give it its chief value in the sight of God. So at least St. Paul thought, when before the whole Jewish council he said, " Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this daya." In this assertion he spoke of his life pre- vious to his conversion. In another place, speaking of the same period, he informs us, that he was, " as touching the righteousness of the law, blameless ;" and, that he had justly considered this as " gain to him V And such may morality well be considered, wherever it exists : it is a gain to the per- son himself, in that he is kept from many actual offences : it is a gain to all his neighbours, who cannot but feel a beneficial influence from such a life : and it is a gain to the whole world, as far as the light of such an example can extend. True it is, that when St. Paul fully understood the Gospel, he counted all his morality " but loss for Christ." Yet this does not at all derogate from the intrinsic excellence of morality : and to speak of morality in the contemptuous and degrading terms which many religious persons, and not a few incautious minis- ters too, use in reference to it, is extremely erroneous and blameworthy, inasmuch as it tends to lessen men's regard for moral virtue, and to render the Gospel itself odious as hostile to good works. I would that every disciple of Christ would consider the example of his Divine Master in reference to this very point ; and not consider it only, but follow it. When the Rich Youth came to him, and was directed by him to keep the different commandments of the decalogue, he answered, " Mas- ter, all these have I observed from my youth." Now I would
a Acts xxiii. 1. b Phil. iii. 6, 7.