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purest veracity, and have frequently occupied so prominent a place in the world that selfdeception has also been impossible. So that, if we accept the science of the ancients, we must much more accept their spiritual life; because. it is more numerously attested, and is seen to have had a wider and more effectual rule over the nature.

The subjects of this life, from Enoch to Noah, and from Zoroaster to Wesley, have been the reformers of the race. There is not one man who through the past centuries stands higher than the rest as a benefactor and saviour, who has not avowedly been the fruit of this spiritual life. It is important to remember this, especially as it is commonly passed by, and, either by accident or intention, is all but universally ignored. Nor should we forget that this is not the resurrection of a primeval fossil, but that the succession continues, and that we are able to trace the heroic self-sacrifice, labour, and suffering, which are the cause of all the moral and social improvement of our own times, to this life. So that not only is it a reality in nature, origin, and nurture, but it is also truly human, and the only perfecter of humanity.

It also follows

from the above that the giving of this life to man, and the consequent appointment of the means by which it is fostered and matured, must have been the ultimate purpose of the Creator in the whole design of production and maintenance, it being that to which all tended and in which all is realized. Every Divine revelation, then, whatever the form, must find its terminal operation in this life.

The spiritual life, according to all authentic history, follows the same order as all lower kinds, being the result of a former life. Here no more than elsewhere is there spontaneous generation. Adam at the first possessed it, and when by his sin he became spiritually dead, another human father of it was found, to whom the great Father of all 'gave to have life in Himself, like as the Father hath life in Himself.' He is the incorruptible seed, by which we are born again,—' The bread of God, who came down from heaven to give life to the world.' Here, therefore, we have the most direct and the most intimate revelation as an individual human necessity, which history confirms both as to its nature and operation.

The Apostle Paul speaks of the commencement of this life in himself as 'God revealing

His Son in him;' and everywhere in the New Testament it is represented as a new birth of God; as neither proceeding from natural generation, nor from any native human impulse or action, nor from a generative power in any other man, but directly from God the Holy Ghost, who comes to every man from the 'second Adam,' immediately he is united to Him by faith. In the exercise of this faith there is a consciousness of the love of the Father, of the presence of the Son as the medium of access to Him, and of the operation of the Holy Ghost, renewing the soul in righteousness after the image of his Creator. That this is a true life, appears not only from its origin in a begetting and a birth, but from its mode of continuance and increase. It is fed with the sincere milk of the Word in its infancy, grows up into Christ by all outward discipline and culture, and in the maturity of its strength receives the 'strong meat' of Divine instruction, until it attains to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. The outcome of this life of righteousness by the Holy Spirit is also of the vital type, being fruit, 'the fruit of the Spirit,' 'fruits of righteousness.'

We also claim for this life in the aggregate, that faculty and fact of growth which we find in its nearest relative, intellectual life. Here and there we see, all through past time, and at present, individuals whose intellectual power has been great from the beginning, and whose growth has been proportionate; who have not only become the teachers of their contemporaries, but who have also laid a broader foundation for the science and philosophy of future generations. It is by this means that the breadth and intensity of intellectual life have been increased, so that individual knowledge may be plethoric, and yet no one man be able to comprehend a tithe of the whole. The sage of two centuries since is surpassed by the youth of to-day.

In like manner we see the spiritual life spread and prevail. A David arises, and in sacred song pours out his varied experience of sorrow and joy, of temptation and victory, of oppression and triumph, of sin and salvation, until he becomes the prophet of humanity, in all its varied experience, to every future age. Nehemiah, enjoying the luxury of the imperial court, in high honour, standing in all respects next to his master, yet renouncing ease, honour,

and wealth under a patriotic and pious impulse, becomes a pattern of these virtues to all future generations. The apostles of the Lord and Saviour devote their lives to the work of evangelizing the world with an untiring zeal, which foregoes every personal consideration, and presents an example of philanthropy broad enough to cover all future charity. Their immediate disciples and successors exhibit a heroic trust in their Saviour, which stamps for ever the supreme value of their spiritual life on the heart of humanity, and furnishes an example of patience and courage which no future conditions of trial can find wanting.

In Luther we have an example of fidelity to God, to the interests of His kingdom, and to the claims of men, which knew no fear in his crusade against corruption, usurpation, and tyranny, and which opened a new form of vital development as a multifarious guide to successors. In the freedom from combined oppression and in the increased means of charity which the labours of their elder brethren have secured to them, modern Christians have sought out all forms of human sorrow, suffering, oppression, and injustice, and have devoted time, money, labour, and

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