him

close following of Christ which is signified by being the epistle of Christ, is not a mere putting on of an outward conformity, it is not merely looking at this or that feature of the example of Christ, and saying, "I will try to reproduce that in myself. I will make it my model and pattern, and try to fashion myself into resemblance to it;" but rather that it rests on a foundation thorough, solid, and abiding, such as is expressed in the pre-baptismal prayer, "Grant that the old Adam in this child may be so buried that the new man may be raised up in and that all things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow in him." And this is agreeable to the Apostle's frequent exhortation, "Put off the old man, and put on the new man, which after GOD is created in righteousness and true holiness."* Baptism ever witnesses to the necessity of an inborn resemblance, a vital birth-resemblance, the child's resemblance to the Father, the necessity of Christ being "formed in the soul," that it may grow up into Him, and, as the certain result, may be fashioned after Him. Thus, and only thus, will there be the entire leavening of the character. All will be salted with this salt, full of enduring and diffusive savour. Thus is Christ's epistle truly written. And the ordinance of Confirmation in this point fitly and most usefully supplements baptism. The confirmation words are spoken, and its questions proposed, in behalf of Christ's Church, and in behalf of the Church's great Head, to every young person singly and separately. It calls to your remembrance, it invites you to consider, unto what end baptism was ordained; even the birth of the soul unto Christ, to be followed * Eph. iv. 22, 24.

by its growth into Christ, and thereby its being impressed with the image of Christ, so that the writing through and through, within and without, shall be Christ. Confirmation, rightly understood, leads every baptised Christian to make inquiry of him and herself, "Am I Christ's epistle or no?" And if this be at least questionable, then it probes and makes deeper inquiry still, as to whether any seed of grace has ever taken root there or no? whether, indeed, the old man has been put off, and the new man put on? whether Baptism was dead as regards any moral heart-change, being alone and utterly unattended or unfollowed with repentance and faith; or a living thing, being followed with these essential requirements and adjuncts? Confirmation, as well as Baptism, is a witness to you that in every true sense of the word you fail of being Christians if you fail of being Christ's epistle; i.e., if you fail of that living and real ingrafting into Christ by a spiritual birth, without which there may be the shadow of good things to come, but not the very image; there may be an epistle with some resemblance, indeed, to the original one, but in truth a forged, ungenuine handwriting, which Himself will disown!

Finally, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is ordained both to be a remembrancer of an indwelling Christ, and, more than this, is to the repenting and believing soul one of the channels and appointed means of receiving and being strengthened by an indwelling Christ. Thus does it tend and help together to make the writing of Christ's epistle in you clearer and more distinct. It is chiefly called "Communion," because He there communicates Himself to the hungering, thirsting souls of His believing people.

He draws near to you there, and draws you near to Himself, approaching in penitence, love, and faith; and truly, the nearer He draws to us and we to Him, so much the more lively and true is the portraiture of Himself in us, and we become an epistle known and read.

of

May the Saviour Himself fix in you the purpose coming to find refuge in His arms of faithful and unchanging love! May He give you faith to grasp with strong unquestioning confidence the truth of His word, "My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."* May He be pleased to enlarge the number of guests at His table in this congregation, clothing them in the marriage garment of His own providing (you know how I have longed for this, and if I, the servant, how much more He whose servant I am!) binding them closer to one another and to Himself in the bonds of the covenant which is ordered in all things and sure; that of many, both old and young, it may be said, as of the elders who ascended with Moses into the mount, "Also they saw God, and did eat and drink; "+ and that the table, spread with these most holy and touching memorials of the dying love of our risen Lord, may contain sweet foretastes for you of the table at which His redeemed shall eat and drink with Him in His Coming Kingdom!

* John vi. 55.

+ Ex. xxiv. II.

XV.

Life out of Death: a Mark of true Christian Service.

2 COR. iv. 12, 13.

"So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.”

WE

E cannot doubt that the words with which our text begins apply primarily and peculiarly to the condition and circumstances of the Apostles. "Death worketh in us," or as St. Paul explains it in the preceding verse, "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." But the sense must not be confined exclusively to the Apostles. It is intended to strengthen and embolden every faithful minister and steward of God's word and sacraments; and not them only, but all that are companions in labour, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ," and diligently employed in spreading God's truth abroad, and winning souls to Christ.

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For the present, I must confine myself mainly to what it teaches, as regards the relation which exists by Christ's appointment between the minister and his people. We shall be led,

I. To inquire what this death is, and how it comes to work life?

II. To illustrate this by some instances.

* 2 Cor. iv. 10.

III. To show what spirit such a conviction as this is calculated to form in those who are influenced by it.

I. We inquire what this death is ? When the Apostle uses such a broad word as death, we cannot limit its significance to any one particular kind of trouble or toil, temptation or self-denial, humiliation or suffering. According as circumstances arise, it may imply any or all of these, and much more besides. Indeed, it has a very deep and serious aspect; an aspect almost appalling because of the greatness of the requirement, the depth of the self-searching, which it implies. It implies that everything should be sacrificed on the minister's part to the desire of promoting a flourishing, progressive state of spiritual life in his flock; and that God in His providence is pleased to send him death figuratively, or even really, that it may be a ministration of life to them. The Apostle almost staggered sometimes under the weight of these and like solemn truths which he was made the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit to convey: "Who," he asks, "is sufficient for these things?" Yet conscious though he was of manifold unworthiness, and how much and how constantly he had need to cast himself on the forbearance and forgiveness of a gracious Father, he withheld nothing, and spoke plainly out what he believed firmly to be the very truth of God. He might be tempted, as others are, to court the applause and good opinion of men, to keep back unpalatable truths which he might in his own conscience be strongly convinced of, but they might grate harshly on the tastes and feelings of some, might seem to imply censure on some members of his flock, some too with whom he might in many ways have deep