confined to apostolic times: it prevails now, and requires correction and rebuke as being deceitful and dangerous, while it is attractive and alluring. Further, these ordinances have a show of wisdom in neglecting of the body-disregard of its requirements, unsparing treatment of its flesh and constitution, bodily austerity, the penance or mortification of the flesh, as needful to purify the soul. The poor body was hated, lacerated, worn into weakness, with a spirit worthy of the ancient priests of Baal.* This treatment of the body is still an important part of the religion of multitudes, especially in the Church of Rome and kindred forms of ecclesiasticism. The bodily tabernacle may indeed be weakened or injured by such processes, without the slightest effect in conquering or eradicating any sinful tendency in the soul. We see how well adapted is the Apostle's teaching to meet heresies and religious systems of our own day, which should be resisted by the enlightened disciples of Christ everywhere and always.

How these rudiments of the world had even a show of wisdom it is not difficult to see. Would it not have the appearance of magnanimity and heroism to refuse that which God allows, to go beyond the Divine requirement in some matters of self-denial, to do works of supererogation, actually more than what is prescribed by duty? There is no credit or virtue in simply paying a debt; but to do more than that, to do something which shall seem to be in excess of duty, has an appearance of wisdom. Does it not seem very good to disclaim all concern for this world's property, to disavow all interest in the things of this life, to repudiate all sense of personal dignity or worth of any kind, to be crying continually, in outward form, "I am unworthy, unclean, unfit to approach God: I will ask some saint or angel to intercede

* 1 Kings xviii. 28.

for me"? And does it not seem good and wise to inflict pain on the body, that it may be kept under? to deny it the fulness of necessary support, that it may be weakened or incapacitated for sinful indulgence? to refuse altogether the use of some of God's creatures, that there may be no danger of going beyond moderation? Yet in all this there is only "a show of wisdom." The body may be punished, while the sinful passions of the soul remain unchecked and unvanquished. To neglect the body, or to treat it austerely, has no necessary connexion with the sanctification of the soul.

These ordinances then are really worthless as well as pretentious: "not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." This is their true character. There is no real value, nothing worthy of estimation in them. They only tend to the satisfying of the flesh. There is a negative as well as a positive

side of truth here. The negative, not in any honour, indicates that will-worship and humility and neglect of the body are of no spiritual efficacy, and possess no moral value in connexion with the true character of manhood, and are not held as honourable by God. What value or benefit to the soul can there be in adding to that which God has enjoined, or in observing that which God has not required? What virtue can there be in affecting to be unworthy to approach God in His own appointed way, and in renouncing blessings for this life with which He has strewed our pathway for our good and comfort? What advantage can there be in punishing the poor body, and torturing it, with the idea of keeping down the sinful passions of the soul? The grand duty, dignity, and, we may say, difficulty too, is to possess this vessel in sanctification and honour. Fleshly mortification does not necessarily help this duty. These ordinances tend only to the satisfying of the flesh, and the gratification and pampering of the carnal and unspiritual element-to please

and prop up the fleshly mind with notions of its own righteousness and sufficiency. The carnal nature is all the while gratified, even though the body may be neglected and the number of ritual observances so great as to be a burden. The devotee in such observances may become more to himself than the avowed object of his devotion; and the very system of ritual worship and performance may stand forth even as a god. "Not in any honour"-no. There is no value in these things; they have no real bearing on the true dignity and improvement of manhood. To degrade the body is not to elevate the soul; to surrender to outward observances and carnal ordinances is only to satisfy the evil principles of spiritual pride and self-righteousness.

This subject teaches several lessons of great and increasing practical importance in our time.

The Apostle's words show the vanity, and indeed absurdity and error, of asceticism. It has no real worth, and is one of the greatest delusions in Christendom. To abstain from certain kinds of food on certain days or at particular seasons; to submit voluntarily to physical privations; to neglect the body, which as a tabernacle enshrines the soul, and is with it to partake of Christ's redemption; to practise. mortifications and penances; to think all this an essential part of religion, and a necessary sanctification of the soul, is contrary to the good providence of God and the plain teaching of His word. Yet these very things are practised by many professing Christians, under the idea that thereby they are helping the salvation of their souls. Strange delusion to suppose that any creature of God, which may be the means of physical nourishment, can do spiritual injury. To fast occasionally, for the sake of devotion, is what saints in every age have found to be salutary and good; but a religion of asceticism is a libel upon providence, a surly and superstitious refusal of the Divine benignity." True religion is spiritual,

"

a life and power of the soul, not a thing of tastes and appetites of the body. "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." It is a grand error to look for holiness in things that are outward rather than in those which are inward. It is true that spirituality will show itself in holiness of life; and the man of God must let his moderation in all things be known; but the real work of Divine grace is from the centre, the seat of thought and affection, to the outer life. There is a higher piety and a nobler power manifested in the right use of the gifts of God, than in the self-deprivation which altogether refuses their use as evil or dangerous.

Another lesson taught here is the sacredness of the Christian liberty. The disciple of Christ is the freeman of God, and is not to be entangled with any yoke of bondage. Everything is lawful for him but sin. The rules on which some insist regarding many things-" Touch not, taste not, handle not "--are mere rudiments of this world. The child of God is the possessor of a nobler life, not requiring to be guided by such precepts and prohibitions. It occupies a higher region, acknowledges a higher authority, wields a higher power, and exerts a higher influence. A Christian may deny himself certain things for convenience or conscience' sake, if he likes; he may abstain from certain kinds of food or drink for the sake of others, if he think he can thus influence them for good; but he is not to say to his friends or brethren that such abstinence is the bounden duty of all. In such matters they are free-the freemen of God.

XXVII.

The Aims and Affections of the New Life.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth."-COLOSSIANS iii. 1, 2.

WE

E now advance to another principal division of this epistle, in which St. Paul passes from the refutation of error to the more agreeable duty of inculcating truth, and laying down various practical exhortations for the holy and happy conduct of life. Before naming or enjoining any special moral duty, he dwells for a moment on the grand general duty which rests on every disciple of the Lord Jesus, and which is at once the sacred basis and motive principle of all other duties in the varied relations and circumstances of this earthly life. "With a retrospective reference to chap. ii. 12, the Apostle conceives his readers, and in them all believers, to be risen with Christ. Now, the Redeemer, who rose in the body, ascended into heaven also in the body, because He belonged to the earth no longer, so also must those risen in the Spirit tend towards things above, with all their thoughts and in all their ways; for there is the magnet which attracts them, even Christ, who sits at the right hand of God."* The Apostle thus seeks

as

* Olshausen's Biblical Comment. in loc. (Clark's For. Thol. Lib.)