here that our Divine sonship is realized ; it is here that Christ-likeness begins, God ls love; and iu proportion 1\8 we are loving are we like Christ and his Father above,l II. WrrH THE CHRIST-LIKE LIFE HAS CEASED TO BE A DREAM. (Ver. 11.) This is tho C&l;le with the worldly ; they fancy they are "wide awake," and yet they are asleep so fay as eternal realities are concerned. How time slips through their fingers, as it doos with those in sleep I Lire is not in earnest; they have pillowed themselves upon success, and are dead to things Divine. But when Christ comes, then wo awako and find ourselves in the morning hours. That Snn or Righteousness arises and our dream and night are over, and the activities of the new day are come. Tbe Christ-like feel that life is earnest, and no time should be lost in dreams. As Feuchtersleben has pointroly said, •• Life is no dream. It only becomes so by the fault of man, and when his mind disobeys the summons t-0 awake." 1 Ill. THE WOB.ltS OF DARil"ESS AND THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH ARE OUT OF DATE, (Vers. 12-14.) While life is only a dream, while the night of indifference and neglect is around the soul, indulgence will he tolerated and provision made for the lnsts of the flesh. Pleasure will be the pole-star of life, and decency will not deter the soul from its satisfactions. Of course, the primitive Church had to deal more with the lusts of the flesh than we have; or perhaps they went more thoroughly into the morals of their members. "The primitive Church," it hRS been said, "was more under the influence of the 'lust or the flesh' than of the • pride of life;' the modem Church is more under the influence of the • pride of life' than of the 'lust of the flesh.' But pride is as great a sin, in the sight of God, as sensuality. This should be considered in forming an estimat.e of the moJem missionary Church" (Shedd, in Zoe.). But the soul which has ewaked through the advent of Jesus regards these deeds of darkness as out of date. They would be anachronisms of the day. The light has come and put to flight the darkness. IV. THE .A.BJCOUB OF LIGHT ALONE BEFITS THE DAY. (Vers. 12, 13.) Now, it is wonderful what a protection light, even in its physical form, is against pollution. There are deeds which ca.n only be done in darkness. Turn the light upon them, and they are annihilated through sheer shame. In the same way, when the full spiritual light which Jesus Christ, our Sun, embodies, plays upon our life, we are instantly aroused and elevated. and the tone of life improves. This is our panoply in the morning hours. Christ with us, near us, observing us, encircling us with his light, becomes our great prot.ection. V. Cs:B.1BT-LIBXl!IEll8 THROUGH CLOTHING OUBSELVEB WITH HIM 1B THE GREAT SECRET OF A USEFUL AND HAPPY LIFE. (Ver. 14.) .AB the Sun of Righteousness shines around ns we contract a luminosity like his. We get sanctified through contemplating him. The same image that is in him becomes ours from glory to glory, as with unveiled face we behold the face of God (2 Cor. iii.17). It is this likeness to our Lord which makes ns increasingly earnest and useful and happy in life's young day. We feel that salva- tion. in all its length and breadth, is nearer realization than when we first ~elieved. The morning honr11 give promise of the perfect day.3 As one has well put it, "The pil,gri'm,IJ of tM dawn Herate nothing in themselves that the light of day would rebuke. Hence it iB the counterpart of this that they make no provision/or the flesh; whatever provision they take for their heavenly journey, the flesh has no share in it. Tho sin adhering to their nature, the o'ld, m<1ITI, not yet dead, is an enemy whose hunger they do not feed, to whose thirst they do not administer drink, whose dying solicitations they regard not, but leave him to perish by tM way. But the supreme preparation-uni tin~ al_! others in onf>-is the putting on of tM Lord Je81J,s. Ohri~t. In him alone the d1g_mty and the purity of onr nature meet; transformed _mto his c~racter, w~ need not~mg mo~o to fit us for the holiest heavens; but nothmg less will suffice his expectation at his coming. He will come to be glorifid in his saints-already the likeness in ten thousand repruductions of himself; and they &hall in tum be glorified in him. Hence the great 1 See Butler's sermon on "The Love of ou:r Neighbour; " also A. W. Hare's on " Love the Falfilllil,z: of the Law," in• Ser1DOD8,' vol. ii. p. 393; and Hofacker'&' Prcdigten,' s. 183, on .. Brotherly Love." • ' Diet.etics of the Bonl,' p. 194. • Soo Newm&11'1 lenllOJI on "Belf-dtmial the Test of Religions Eurueatnc11," in vol. L p. 57.dc. CH, xiv. l-,-23.J THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO TllE ROMAXS. 107
business of the pilgrims is to occupy tho precious moments of the m0min" in wcavin,, into their na.ture the chara.cter of Christ ae the apparel of the eternal da/ And if i ~ faith that worketh by love-the love that fulfilleth the L~w-they diligently co-0pernte with the Holy Spirit, it will be hie blessed function to see to it that before the Bride- groom cometh, hie bride, and every individual soul that makes up her mystical person, eha.11 be found clothed in his spiritual perfection as with a garment without s,yua, 1111J,1en from the top throughout. Beyond this we cannot go. This is the close and the secret of the whole exhortation to the pilgrims of the dawn. They have come up out of the night at the sound of hie awakening voice, and have left their Egyptian darkne3s for ever. They are wrestling with the dangers of the morning, rejoicing in its partial s11tiefactions. But supremely and above all they are intent upon the coming day; in their :pathway there is no death, but they wait for the more abundant life; they are full of trembling and solemn expectation of all that the day will pour out of its unfathom- able mysteries. But the end of all their expectation is the Person of their Lord. And to prepare for him by being like himself is the sum of all their preparation." 1 May we all thus put on Christ and be like him 1-R. M. E.