spirit and principles of the new religion, They would not yield to the masterhood of Christ, the Author and Substance of the gospel; they were self-willed. They would have o. sect of their own. 2. 0stentatioo. "Vo.in talkers." Vo.in, not merely in the sense of proud, but in the sense of emptiness. In truth, a.ea rule, the emptiest men, intel- lectually, are at once the most conceited and loquacious. They talk, not for the edification of others, but for the gratification of themselves. Their fluency, whilst it wins the admiration of fools, deludes the ignorant, and disgusts the thoughtful. 3. Falsehood. "Deceivers." All merely nominal Christians are deceivers. They prac- tically misrepresent the doctrines they profess to hold. 4. Mi11'4ievousness. "Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert roverthrow] whole houses." "The translation should IUD, 'seeing they Rubvert,' etc. There was, indeed, grave cause why these men should be put to silence: the mischief they were doing in Crete to the Christian cause was incalculable. It was no longer individuals that their poisonous teaching a.ffected, but they were undermining the faith of whole families. For an example bow Titus and his presbyters were to stop the mouths of these teachers of what was false, comp. Matt. xxii. 34-46, where the Lord, by his wise, powerful, yet gentle words, first put the Sadducees to silence, and then so o.nswE!red the Pharisees 'that neither durst any man from that day ask him any more questions'" (Dr. Ellicott). 5. Greed. "Teachin~ things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.'' All the speeches they made, all the influence they exerted, sprang from sordid motives. Sin bas a thousand branches and but one root, and that root is selfishness. How many, in what we call the religiou, world, are found teaching things which they ought not, for "filthy lucre's sake"- things that gratify popular taste, that agree with popular prejudice, chime in with the popular thought! All this to fill their pews and to enrich their coffers. Now, these sins which are discovered in the religious sect are prevalent outside of all religions ; but they receive a peculiar colour, shllf"I, enormity, and mischievousness when we find them in the religious realm. The de" ,i is less hideous amongst his fellows in hell than be is amongst the sons of God. Hence, to do battle with sin in these religious forms is the grand work of a true preacher; and truly, in this age, and here in England, he will find these sins on every band. He will see /actiousne:;s building up sects, and little sects within sects; ostentation-vain speakiug, bmggardism, sometimes cooing a.nd sometimes bawling, everywhere; falsehood-rogues rubing themselves in the ~arb of sainthood, wolves in sheep's clothing; mischievou.sness-by their empty words and pernicious example subverting "whole houses," filling the domestic air with poisonous cant; greed-the gospel itself made a trade, and vested interests created in connection with doctrines and doings antagonistic to the life and spirit of him whom they call ~faster. Ah me I conventional religion is a calumny on the religion of Christ. Never was a Luther wanted in Christendom more than now. He is wanted to substitute the pure gospel of Christ for the denominationo.lized gospel. II. IN NATIONAL CHARAarEB. "One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are al way liars, evil beasts, slow bellies [idle gluttons]." There are three sins mentioned here which seem to have prevailed amongst the Cretans as a race. 1. Lying. " The Cretans are alway liars." Who made this charge against the Cretans? Paul says," One of themselves, even a prophet of their own." The quotation is from a poem on 'Oracles,' by Epimenides, of Pbrestus, who flourished e.c. 600, lived to the age of a hundred and fifty, and was supposed to have been a sleeper in a cave for fifty-seven years. He appears to have deserved the title prophet in the fullest sense. Plato speaks of him as a Divine man. The Cretans were characterized by the sin of lying-" alway liars." This expression was quoted by Callimachus in his • Hymn to Zeus,' and well known in antiquity. "The very word 'to Cretize' (Kretizein), or to play the part of a Cretan, was invented as a word synonymous with 'to deceive,' 'to utter a lie;' just as Oorinthiazein, 'to play the po.rt of a Corinthian,' signified 'to commit a still darker moral offence.' Some writers su~gest that this despicable vice of lying was received as a bequest from the early Phren1cian colonists." 2. Sensuality. "Evil beasts." Not only liars, but gross and sensual, living in animalism and for it. All m11n may be called "beasts" who attend to their animal appetites a.e means of gratifica- tion rather than of relief. He who seeks happiness from his senses rather than from bis soul is a beast; he who seeks it from without rather than from within is not better than a beast. The happiness of a true man cannot stream into him from without; it 22 THE EPISTLE 'l'O TITUS. [OB. I. 1-16.
mUBt well up from the depths of hie own high thinkings 1md pure affections. Gluttony. "Slow bellies [idle gluttons]." . Their f!lu~tony ~ade them dull, heavy, and indolent. Such are what may be called tnbal or national sms. They were not confined to the Cretans, but for them the Cretans were notorious. These aM national. But are 1h~se sins extinct in England? Ba,·e we no lying here? Our social air is impregnated with falsehood. Ha "e we no sensuality and gluttony? Yes, alas! tens of thousands are every day pampering themselves with luxuries, whilst millions are being starved to death. Here, thtJn, are common sins with which the preacher has to do battle. He ha.s to "rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith." CoNCLus10N. A true preacher, then, has no easy task. He ha.s to wage fierce battle with the sins that are around him-the sins of the sect and tile sins of the tribe. He is not to pander to men's tastes, nor to battle with mere opinions and theories, but with si,u; ; be must "resist unto blood, striving against sin." " For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."-D. T.