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hness impossible. Deep as we may have been once in earthliness, so deep we may also be in penitence, and so high we may become in spirituality. We have so many years the fewer to do our work in. Well, brethren, let us try to do it so much the faster. Christ can crowd the work of years into hours. He did it with the dying thief. If the man who has set out early may take his time, it certainly cannot be so with us who have lost our time. If we have lost God's bright and happy presence by our wilfulness, what then? Unrelieved sadness? Nay, brethren, calmness, purity, may have gone from our heart; but all is not gone yet. Just as sweetness comes from the bark of the cinnamon when it is bruised, so can the spirit of the Cross of Christ bring beauty and holiness and peace out of the bruised and broken heart. God dwells with the contrite as much as with the humble.

And now, brethren, to conclude: the first inference we collect from this subject is the danger of coming into collision with such a God as our God. Day by day we commit sins of thought and word of which the dull eye of man takes no cognizance. He whose name is Holy cannot pass them by. We may elude the vigilance of a human enemy, and place ourselves beyond his reach. God fills all space there is not a spot in which His piercing eye is not on us, and His uplifted hand cannot find us out. Man must strike soon, if he would strike at all; for opportunities pass away from him, and his victim may escape his vengeance by death. There is no passing of opportunity with God, and it is this which makes His long-suffering a solemn thing. God can wait, for he has a whole eternity before Him

in which He may strike. "All things are open and naked to Him with whom we have to do."

In the next place, we are taught the heavenly char acter of condescension. It is not from the insignifcance of man that God's dwelling with him is so strange. It is as much the glory of God to bend His attention on an atom as to uphold the universe. But the marvel is, that the habitation which He has chosen for Himself is an impure one. And when He came down from His magnificence to make this world His home, still the same character of condescension was shown through all the life of Christ. Our God selected the society of the outcasts of earth, those whom none else would speak to. Brethren, if we would be Godlike, we must follow in the same steps. Our tempta tion is to do exactly the reverse. We are forever wishing to obtain the friendship and the intimacy of those above us in the world to win over men of influence to truth to associate with men of talent, and station, and title. This is the world-chase, and this, brethren, is too much the religious man's chase. But, if you look simply to the question of resemblance to God, then the man who makes it a habit to select that one in life to do good to, and that one in a room to speak with, whom others pass by because there is nothing either of intellect, or power, or name, to recommend him, but only humbleness, that man has stamped upon his heart more of heavenly similitude by conde scension, than the man who has made it his business to win this world's great ones, even for the sake of truth.

Lastly, we learn the guilt of two things, of which this world is full,-vanity and pride. There is a dis

tinction between these two. But the distinction consists in this: that the vain man looks for the admiration of others- the proud man requires nothing but his own. Now, it is this distinction which makes vanity despicable to us all. We can easily find out the vain man; we soon discover what it is he wants to be observed, whether it be a gift of person, or a gift of mind, or a gift of character. If he be vain of his person, his attitudes will tell the tale. If he be vain of his judgment, or his memory, or his honesty, he cannot help an unnecessary parade. The world finds him out, and this is why vanity is ever looked on with contempt. So soon as we let men see that we are suppliants for their admiration, we are at their mercy. We have given them the privilege of feeling that they are above us. We have invited them to spurn us. And therefore vanity is but a thing for scorn. But it is very different with pride. No man can look down on him that is proud, for he has asked no man for anything. They are forced to feel respect for pride, because it is thoroughly independent of them. It wraps itself up in the consequence of its own excellences, and scorns to care whether others take note of them or not. It is just here that the danger lies. We have exalted a sin into a virtue. No man will acknowledge that he is vain, but almost any man will acknowledge that he is proud. But, tried by the balance of the sanctuary, there is little to choose between the two. If a man look for greatness out of God, it matters little whether he seek it in his own applause, or in the applause of others. The proud Pharisee, who trusted in himself that he was righteous, was condemned by Christ as severely, and even more, than the vain Jews who

"could not believe because they sought hon one another, and not that honor which come God only." It may be a more dazzling and splendid sin to be proud. It is not less ha God's sight. Let us speak God's word to o unquiet, swelling, burning hearts. Pride may itself as it will in its own majesty, but in the of the high and lofty One it is but littleness, aft

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XIX.

[Preached June 27, 1852.]

THE LAWFUL AND UNLAWFUL USE OF LAW.

(A FRAGMENT.)

1 TIM. i. 8. "But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully."

Ir is scarcely ever possible to understand a passage without some acquaintance with the history of the circumstances under which it was written.

At Ephesus, over which Timothy was bishop, people had been bewildered by the teaching of converted Jews, who mixed the old leaven of Judaism with the new spirituality of Christianity. They maintained the perpetual obligation of the Jewish law. v. 7. They desired to be teachers of the law. They required strict performance of a number of severe observances. They talked mysteriously of angels and powers intermediate between God and the human soul.-v. 4. The result was an interminable discussion at Ephesus. The Church was filled with disputations and controversies.

Now, there is something always refreshing to see the Apostle Paul descending upon an arena of controversy, where minds have been bewildered, and so much is to be said on both sides that people are uncer

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