have _b:en c~ucified re_Presentatively in him. The passionate earnestness of St. Paul in ?escri_bmg his ~w:n spiritual renewal goes far beyond a?Y. such shallow conception. He 1s plarnly descnbmg what he really endure<l. (1) This 1s death. The old life is killed out. The passions, lusts, habits, and associations of the life in sin, self, and worldliness are mortified. Christianity is not simply educational. It is first of all militant- purging, scourging, killing. (2) This is crucifixion-a painful, violent death·1 for it is no light matter to destroy the life in sin, so full of pleasant attractions, and so deeply rooted in our inmost nature-and a judicial execution, wrought on us by the vindictive powers of our own treacherous passions when once we turn from them to faith irt Christ. (3) This is a crucifixion with Christ. Our union with Christ necessitates this death of the old life and brings it about. The new wine bursts the old bottles. Con- science and Law fail to destroy the old life, though they reveal its hideous deformitv. But when we come to Calvary and reach out to the dying Christ, entering into his experience by faith and vivid sympathy, the old self receives its mortal wounds. Then we can live the former lifo no longer. 2. Christ living in us. St. Paul feels that he has so given himself up to Christ that the ruling power in him is no longer self but Christ. This is true Christianity. (1) It is life. We die that we may live. We begin with mortifying the old life, but we do not continue to exist in a barren asceti- cism. New energies spring up from the grave of the old life. (2) This life is Christ's. It derives its power from Christ, it is swayed by the will of Christ, it seeks the ends of Christ, it breathes the spirit of Christ, it is lived in personal communion with Christ. Selfish aims and self-devised resources are gone, and in their place the grace of Christ is the inspiration, and the mind and will of Christ are the controlling influences of the new life. This is not a future possibility, but a present attainment. The life is now lived in tbe flesh. II. THE SECRET OF THIS EXPERIENCE. 1. It is realized through faith. St. Paul lives " in faith." The power of Christ to destroy the old life and live himself in us depends on our faith in him, and is exercised just in proportion as we yield ourselves to him in trustful reliance and loyal obedience. No fate will make it ours, no mechanical influence will secure it. Intelligently, voluntarily, we must exercise faith in him to be joined to him in crucifixion and new life. Faith is always the greatest bond of union. 2. It is determined by the love and sacrifice of Christ. Here is the motive for our faith. The love of Christ constrains us. The gift of himself for us reveals and confirms his love and brings it home to our hearts. The explanation of the revo- lution in St. Paul's life, of the death of the persecutor, and the creation of the apostle, is his coming under the influence of these truths. To enjoy the same experience we must (1) fix our thoughts on the same great, wonderful love and sacrifice of Christ; and (2) appropriate them personally to ourselves. "He loved me," etc.-W. F. A. 'Ver. 21.-Gracefrostrated. I. IF WE BEEK FOB RIGHTEOUSNESS BY MEANS OF LA'II" WE MAKE xo USE OF THE GRACE OF GoD. Here are two rival methods for obtaining righteousness. The first is wide and various, by;means of Law, any law-the Levitical system, ascetic discipline, rites of heathen mysteries, Stoic philosophy, our own attempts to conform to an outside rule. The second is specific, the grace of God, the grace shown in the gospel, the grace that comes through the sacrifice of Christ. These two methods are mutually exclusive. They run in opposite directions. The Judaizing party was trying to combine them. 'l'he Roman Catholics made the same attempt when they regarded justification as the result of works wrought by means of grace. nut, though grace does lead us to conformity with Law, it can only do so in its own way by changing the heart and planting principles of righteousness, not by assisting the old servile effort to keep certain external ordinances. The old stage-coach can be of no assistance to the express train. By so much of the distance as you go by road you leave the rail and therefore lose ground. The mistake of neglecting grace for Lawis(!) foolish, for we thus lose a help freely offered; (2) wngrateful, for we refuse the gift of God ; and (3) dangerous, for we shall be to blame for the failure tha~ could have been avoided had we not declined to avail ourselves of God's method of righteousness. All attempts, then, to increase holiness by monastic rules, regulations of a religious order, specific vows, or restraints of formal Church discipline are unchristian. The hight'~ righteousness must be attained by the same means through which the first elements on. 111. 1-20.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 117
were eecur~d. Any other method is poorer and weaker. We begin with grace; we CILI1 never improve upon grace. 11. IF IlIIIH'fEOUBNEBB WERE A'ITAINABLE BY MEANS 011' LAW, CHRIST'S DEATH WOULD HA Vl!l Bl!ll!lN TO NO PURPOSl!l. 1. The method of Law was the older method. If this bac been successful there would have been no need to add another. If the Old Testament were enough the New Testament need never have been produced. 2. The method of Law was the less costly method. We do not turn to more expensive methods if no superior advantage is to be gained by them. The new method is only possible at the greatest possible cost. The righteousness by Law required no special sacrifice. The righteousness by grace required the death of the Son of God. How much superior must God consider it to be willing to pay so heavy a price in order to secure it to us ! We may be sure that, if by any easier way the same results could have been reached, God would have spared his own Son. Yet they who neglect this grace for the old method of Law proclaim by their actions that the great sacrifice was unnecessary. For themselves, too, they do make it a. useless thing. This is the pathetic side of their error. Refusing to avail themselves of the grace of God, they bring it to pass that, as far as they are concerned, Christ died in vain.-W. F. A.