human, but a sweetly moulding and formative influence towards a.11 that is truly, di'l""inely hu1;11an, all tha.t is noble a.n,l pure and good, A Liberator from bondage.£-& bonda.ge which all feel--and One who lifts us from the murky mists of self e.nd sin into a tranquil, sunny air. The true sign of true conversion-as we ha.ve already seen, But a danger of the mystical fostering of some supposed interior life of ec&ta.sy a11d transport, to the great detriment of a sober, useful godliness, a.nd even perha.pe t.o the disparagement of a careful, conscient.ious righteousness. Therefore the text needs to be interpreted in snch a w11y a.s t-0 check and prevent such perversion, And it may well be. Christ's Spirit was cert.a.inly the Informer and Moulder of his human life of humiliation., as it is the effluence now of. his Divine-human life of glorification. And as he informed and moulded his human life, in the flesh, so he will inform e.nd mould our huma.n life likewise. Therefore, to know whether we ha.ve Christ's Spirit, we ha.ve but to inquire whether we reflect Christ's character. And so our Lord's words will have their application, "By their fruits ye shall know t.hem." Tba.t oha.racter, then, the test.. But the manifoldness of that perfect character makes delineation impossible, in deta.il. Let us content ourselves now with the contemplation of two generic qualities of cha.racier, as illustrated in him, which spring from the inspiring Spirit of God. For the rest, we all must make comparison continua.Uy. We may consider, then, his int.ense godliness, and intense humanness. L h--n:~-sE GODLTh"ESS. The quarrel of Christianity with the mere ethicists of the day. Depths of man's nature; its heights. The two relationships, towards God and towards man; and shall that higher one be disregarded? Let us look a.t the elements of Christ's godliness. L Conscious contact with God. The "angels ascending and descending;" "the Son of man which is in heaven." The ba.ptism; the Mount of Transfiguration. We want this contact with God. A present God, face t.o fa.ce, hea.rt to heart, breath to breath. This the inspiring power of a. godly, righteous, and sober life. And this everywhere, and alwa.ys. :Meetings and means are but to express, a.nd in turn t.o fost.er. But the real presence should be a constant factor of our life; every- where heaven about us. 2. OO'lll,plete obedience to God. The temptation, and the agony. A spotless life the sequel of the former; a patiently submissive life the precursor of the latter. So, "Thy will be done" must be the mott.o of our life. Not in one narrow sense; for activity as well as passivity. "I do a.lwa.ys those things that please him:" shall not we seek to say that? 3. Enthusiastic devotion for God. From "W-J.St ye not," et.c.? (Luke ii 49), to" I have a baptism to be baptized with," etc. (Luke xii. 50). So John iv. 34. And we must cherish a like devotion. For we have a special life-work to do for God : let the doing of it be our bread of life I Such the godliness. II. INTENSE HUlUNNESS. 1. .A tremulous, burning sympathy with all that was truly human. Had he been amongst Ull now, he would have been the Inspiration of all educational, social, and pbila.nthropic enterprise. We must catch this spirit. (1) Be truly human: sentiments, pleasures, pains, work. (2) Respect the human : be right, in action-doing justice; in words--speaking truth; in demeanour-showing courtesy. (3) Love and a.id the human. 2. A stern, unsparin,g hatred of all that was false in man. The Pharisees : " Woe unto you I " So we. No false tenderness. Know how to hate, 88 well as bow t.o love. And so hate unsparingly all falseness, hypocrisy, badness, in ourselves and in others-but most in ourselves. Bome sins too leniently dealt with; and t1ey damning sins I Oh, let the fiery, scorching indignation of Christia.a society burn them up! Buch the humanness. In the light of all this read again, "If any man hath not," etc. Begin beneath the ahadow of the crOSB, advance by drinking daily into hie Spirit, a.nd so shall you enu by being transformed into his perfect likeness. We all know tha.t Christ died for us ; let ua be quite 88 enre that Christ lives in ue.-T. F. L.
Vere. 10, 11.-The redemption of the bod,y. He has said (ver. 6) that the "mind of the spirit is life." We have aeen in what a large, rich sense these words are true. But it might be objected-and our special familiarity with one aspect of the meaning of "life" would lca.d tn this-that after all, we die; that, in Bolomon'e language, " all tbir,ge come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked." And at filllt sight this would seem to be a formidable objection. 'l'he brand of condemnation on, vm.1-39.] 'l'HE EPISTLE OF PA.UL TO THE ROMANS. 287