well as the thinking part of man, ae it hae been well defined the human spirit (pnewna) in one of its aspects, not simply qU4lenua cogitat, et intelligit, but a!BO quater,us vu.lt. Defilement of this mind (now) means that the thoughts, wishes, purposes, activities, are all stained and debaeed. The eecond of these, the conscience ( BUneidesis ), ie the moral consciousness within, and that which is ever bringing up the memory of the past, with its omissions and commissions, its errors, its cruel, heartless unkindness, its eel fish disregard of others. When this ie defiled, then this last safeguard of the soul is hroken down. The man and woman of the defiled conscience is self-satisfied, hard, impenitent to the last. Every part and faculty of the soul is stained with sin. The body may be cleansed by ceremonial ablutions, and the external manners and speech kept pure by culture and civilization, but the soul be black ; the outside of the "cup and of the platter clean," but inside full of corruption. 2. The cauae of the defilement. "They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him." There is nothing, perhaps, so morally defiling to the soul as religious hypocrisy. The man who with the lip professes to know God, and who in the life denies him, gets deeper stains upon his soul than the agnostic who professes that he knows nothing about him. What million., in our churches every Sunday publicly, at each service, a.vow with their lip their belier' in God, but in their week-day life "he is not in all their thoughts"! Thus souls get deeply dyed in corruption in Christian churches. 3. The hideousness of the defilemimt. "Being abominable e.nd disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." However fair their conduct in the religious observances, they are "abominable" within, hideous to the eye of God. However rigorous in their observances and religious ordinances, they are "disobedient" in heart, they outrage moral laws; however useful they regard themselves and apµear to others, they are "reprobate," they are rejected and worthless. These "defiled" in soul defile everything without ; all outward things in their appear- ance, influences, and appropriation are to them corrupt. CoNcLUSION. Mark : 1. The natwral soveTeignty of the human soul. We are not necessarily the creatures of the outward; we have within the power to bend circum- stances to our will, to get good out of evil, to turn outward dissonance into music, deformity into beauty, poison into nourishment. Let us adore our Maker for this wonderful endowment-an endowment which guards us from the coercion of outward forces, secures to us an inward freedom of action, and enables us to put all outward things in subjection to our own spiritual selves. 2. The depend,ency of the soul's destiny 1m itself. A man's destiny depends upon his moral character, and his character depend,; upon himself. As food, however nutritious, cannot ad!:nioister strength to a man's body without the digestive and appropriative power, so no external influences, however good and useful in themselves, can raise a man's soul without the right action of its faculties. Man cannot be made good. His body may be borne to the summit of a lofty mountaio without the use of his limbs, but if his soul is to ascend "the holy hill of the Lord," he must climb it every inch himself. Fortune or patronage may raise him to some eminent social position, but he cannot reach a single stage of moral dignity-the true dignity of man-apart from hi~ own earnest endeavours. The transformative power of the soul is to external circumstances what the builder is to the materials out of which he rears his edifice. The choicest materials may be brought together-gold, marble, and cedar-but unless the builder use them with artistic skill they will never take the form of a beautiful structure. So the providence of God may gather around man all the facilities and elements for the raising of a noble character, but unles$ he use them with his own spiritual hand, he will never produce such a structure. 3. The grand end of true teaching. What is that? The supreme importance of every man obtaining 11, true moral character. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born agaiu." In moral goodness of soul alone, c11n we not only find our heaven, but find our way safely and happily through this life. We live in a world of evil. .We cannot e~c,, pe its sintul influence by endeavouring, like the anchorite, to avoid its touch. \\_h1Jst no man should put himself in the way of temptation, no man should be afraid to confront evil, to go into its most malarial regions if duty call. In truth, if man's well- being depended upon escaping outward evil, it could never be realized, because to live in the world he is bound to live in its midst, and evil must stream into him every day. How, then, is be to reach a blessed destiny? Not merely by endeavouring to frame his life according to the outward rules of morality and religion, but by a right use 24 THE EPISTLE TO TITUS. [CB, D, 1-16.
of his own spiritual power&. There is a power in the body, when in a he11.lthy st11.t.e, to appropriate whatever goes into it from external nature that is w_holesome and necea- sary, and to expel that which is noxious ann superfluous. The soul has a power analogous to this; a power to appropriate the wholesome and to expel the injurious. This power we call the transformative. Let us use it rightly-use it as Noah used it, who, amidst the blasphemy and ridicule of a corrupt generation, walked with God, and fulfilled a noble destiny; as Paul used it at sceptical Athens, in dissolute Corinth, and i11 pagan Rome, who from experience left the world this teijtimony: "All things work together for good to them that love God."-D. T.