the peace of God rule in your hearts peace that will enter there, if you do there is a Spirit that will take possession provided that you do not quench it. In are recipients, not creators. In obe gratefulness, and the infinite peace of G of man, is alone deep rest and repose.

XII.

[Preached January 4, 1852.]

THE CHRISTIAN AIM AND MOTIVE.

MATTHEW v. 48. — "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which in in heaven is perfect.”

THERE are two erroneous views held respecting the character of the Sermon on the Mount. The first may be called an error of worldly-minded men, the other an error of mistaken religionists. Worldly-minded men -men, that is, in whom the devotional feeling is but feeble are accustomed to look upon morality as the whole of religion; and they suppose that the Sermon on the Mount was designed only to explain and enforce correct principles of morality. It tells of human duties and human proprieties; and an attention to these, they maintain, is the only religion which is required by it. Strange, my Christian brethren, that men whose lives are least remarkable for superhuman excellence should be the very men to refer most frequently to those sublime comments on Christian principle, and should so confidently conclude from thence that themselves are right, and all others are wrong. Yet so it is.

The other is an error of mistaken religionists. They sometimes regard the Sermon on the Mount

as if it were a collection of moral prec sequently, strictly speaking, not Christ To them it seems as if the chief value, th tion of the discourse, was to show the spirituality of the requirements of the la -its chief religious significance, to sh impossibility of fulfilling the law, and th the necessary inference that justification faith alone. And so they would not scru that, in the highest sense of that term, it tianity at all, but only preparatory to it spiritual Judaism; and that the higher developed principles of Christianity are in the writings of the apostles. Before further, we would remark here that it seem startling to say that He who came to th pressly to preach the Gospel should, in the orate of all His discourses, omit to do so: something more than startling-it is absolu ing to suppose that the letters of those w Christ should contain a more perfectly de freer and fuller Christianity, than is to b Christ's own words.

Now, you will observe that these two opposed to each other in their general religi are agreed in this that the Sermon on the nothing but morality. The man of the w "It is morality only, and that is the whole of The mistaken religionist says, "It is mor not the entire essence of Christianity." In to both these views, we maintain that the S the Mount contains the sum and substance tianity-the very chief matter of the Gosp

Redeemer. It is not, you will observe, a pure and spiritualized Judaism; it is contrasted with Judaism again and again by Him who spoke it. Quoting the words of Moses, ho affirmed, "So was it spoken by them of old time, but I say unto you" For example, "Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths." That is Judaism. "But

I say unto you, Swear not at all, but let your yea be yea, and your nay nay." That is Christianity. And that which is the essential peculiarity of this Chris tianity lies in these two things. First of all, that the morality which it teaches is disinterested goodness — goodness not for the sake of the blessing that follows it, but for its own sake, and because it is right. "Love your enemies," is the Gospel precept. Why? Be cause, if you love them, you shall be blessed; and if you do not, cursed? No; but "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of "- that is, may be like "your Father which is in heaven." The second essential peculiarity of Christianity-and this, too, is an essential peculiarity of this Sermonis that it teaches and enforces the law of self-sacrifice. "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out; if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off." This, brethren, is the law of self-sacrifice the very law and spirit of the blessed cross of Christ.

How deeply and essentially Christian, then, this Sermon on the Mount is, we shall understand, if we are enabled in any measure to reach the meaning and spirit of the single passage which I have taken as my

text. It tells two things-the Christian Christian motive.

I. The Christian aim-

perfection. II. The Christian motive-because it Godlike to be perfect.

1. We will, in the first place, take the The Christian aim is this- to be perf therefore perfect." Now, distinguish this from mere worldly morality. It is not o a creed that is here required, but aspira state. It is not demanded of us to perfor of duties, but to yield obedience to a cer law. But let us endeavor to explain this What is the meaning of this expression, fect"? Why is it that in this discourse, being commanded to perform religious du commanded to think of being like God? that inflame our pride, and increase our n glory? Now, the nature and possibility perfection, what it is and how it is possible contained in one single expression in the te as your Father which is in heaven is perf relationship between father and son impli guinity, likeness, similarity of character an God made the insect, the stone, the lily; b not the Father of the caterpillar, the lily, or When, therefore, God is said to be our Fat thing more is implied in this than that God man. And so, when the Son of man came pr the fact that we are the children of God, it w truest sense a revelation. He told us that th of God resembles the nature of man; that love