God made itself manifest in them, not by inspiring a casual and passing feeling of glow and warmth, but by making them new and better men in all their relations, whether to God, to their neighbour, or to themselves.

The example of St. Paul is another in point; showing, like the last, that the Spirit's working in him discovered itself by the life, conduct, conversation, temper, it enduringly produced in him. For we know that he was once a hot-headed bigoted persecutor-that he was cruel enough to watch the tyrannous stoning of Stephen to death, aiding and abetting it so far as to take care of the clothes of the men who stripped to pound that guiltless victim of their rage to pieces that he was not content with punishing such Christians as fell in his way, but that he must actually go to the authorities for letters to empower him to hale men and women to prison, taking a long journey for the purpose. But that same man surrenders himself to the influence of God's Spirit; suffers himself to be led by it—i.e. to be habitually and perseveringly governed by its guidance. And look at him again: how is the form and fashion of his conduct and character changed-substantially changed-not merely changed so far as that an assertion of his having possession of that Spirit escapes him, but his life and actions manifest that it is so! That implacable temper is gone, and universal charity succeeds to it. So far from letting loose the passions of his heart to take vengeance on those who thwart or displease him, he keeps them in with bit and bridle; caring not what restraint, what inconvenience, what risks he exposes himself to, provided he can but do his brother's soul a service, either by his will or against his will. Active he is as ever, and more active; but his activity is now all exercised in a good cause, and is prompted by humanity instead of fury, by a love of diffusing peace on earth

instead of fire and slaughter-i.e. the Spirit of God declares itself in him by the restraints it puts on him, the benevolence it breathes into him, the holy life and conversation, in short, it cherishes in him.

Indeed, apart from these examples (which I have adduced because example sometimes touches us when precept passes us by), apart from these examples of the genuine operation of the Spirit of God, we may gather the same view of the subject from a catalogue of the effects of that Spirit which the Apostle puts down in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians. He contrasts its fruits with those of a carnal mind. The flesh prompts to hatred, wrath, strife, seditions, envyings-but the Spirit leads to love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness. The flesh prompts to drunkenness, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness but the Spirit to temperance. The flesh urges to vain-glory-but the Spirit to meekness; the flesh to self-indulgence-but the Spirit to the crucifying of its affections and lusts.

It is clear from all this, that nothing short of a substantial, sound change in a man's life and temper and acts and habits, from the worse to the better, is an argument of the Spirit being really within him; and that those superficial tokens by which some are disposed to judge whether they possess that Spirit, are empty, false, and hollow, and not according to the Word of God. I mean such a token as an unusual warmth and glow of feeling, and nothing more; a feeling which stops with itself, and does not give birth to any newness of life. Such comfortable assurance is not indeed excluded by St. Paul from his signs of the Spirit's presence nay, indeed, may be thought to be comprehended in the terms "love, joy, peace," of which he speaks, as attendant upon it but a great deal more than this feeling is wanted, we have seen, to certify us of our being in possession of the Spirit;

a great deal more substantial proof we must exact of ourselves, before we can rest assured of this. Much less should we put any trust in those feelings, if they prompted us at all to spiritual pride, to a high opinion of our own religious advancement and a disparaging one of other men's. These feelings, we may be sure, come not of God's Spirit but of mere vain glory, with which God's Spirit hath nothing to do, but to denounce it as hateful in God's sight. Neither do we find the proofs of God's Spirit being within us rested in our being ready speakers, fluent in the use of scriptural or devotional language-which is another token that some cleave to. Indeed, Moses, we know, was no speaker, though a chosen instrument of God; but obliged to have his brother for his mouth-piece, his own lips being uncircumcised. And, what is still more remarkable, it was said of St. Paul, that he was in his speech contemptible, though he was a chosen vessel of God: and we are elsewhere told, that though we should speak with the tongues of angels, provided we have not charity, it is nothing worth. These superficial tokens therefore, I say, are deceitful. It is the heart, remember, and not the lips, that is to yield the real, thorough proof, that the Spirit of God is in us; the heart by its issues; by the temper it nourishes in us, the good deeds it prompts us to, the affections it stirs up in us, the obedience to God and good-will to man it causes to live In a word, the Spirit must lead us along the path of every day duty, sanctify our lives and habits, amend us in our ways; and then we have it truly, and are truly the sons of God. Then we may be at ease,―at ease, as basking in God's favour-heirs of God through Christ-brought so far into communion with Him here on earth, as to be fit for His society, and that of the blessed Spirits who dwell with Him above.

in us.

I therefore exhort you not to believe every token of the Spirit which is sometimes thought so, but try your spirit whether it be of God, in the ways I have suggested. Be not content with declaring you have it by a mere passionate feeling within you, or a mere fluency of tongue-as though these were infallible signs: but search your lives, your tempers, your conversation, your carriage towards all men. Consider whether you are restraining yourself, or allowing yourself; yielding to your lusts, or mortifying them; giving place to the devil, or resisting him; and all this steadily, perseveringly, and with an eye still looking towards the end. And if such signs as these latter ye find in you, happy are ye; there is nothing counterfeit in you in that case, there is nothing that rings hollow there, but every thing which is preparatory to that issue to which the Word of God constantly points in other passages,-viz.: that we shall be tried, not for the passionate feelings we have had or have not had-nor yet for the fluency of speech we may have had or been without-but for the things done in the body, whether they have been good or bad; for the manner of spirit we have been of, for the charity we have had-charity, both to suffer and to do; for the regulation of our lives according to God's law; for our acts and habitswhether they have been temperate, sober, chaste, framed as if we had to give such account of them; for the disposal of our time, our talents, our property. God grant, that when we all shall be called before God to be put to this proof, we may not be found wanting-but may be accounted worthy to hear those cheering words, "Well done, good and faithful servants, ye have been faithful over a few things, I will make you rulers over many things: enter ye into the joy of your Lord."

64

SERMON VIII.

ST. PAUL'S MARKS OF THE NEW MAN.

EPHESIANS, iv. 20-24.

"But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

FROM the day when the covenant of mercy through Christ was preached, unto this day, there have been those who abused it, wilfully misunderstanding that though the Law of works was done away by it as matter of merit, it was never done away by it as a rule of life. The abuse of which I speak, was one which our blessed Lord foresaw as likely to prevail as soon as He should be gone-nay, perhaps he might have perceived the elements of it even whilst He was yet upon earth,- for observe how repeatedly He guards His disciples against it in one of those conversations which He had with them shortly before He died, and which are contained in the latter chapters of the Gospel of St. John. Take the fourteenth chapter; there at the fifteenth verse, you find Him speaking thus: "If ye love Me, keep My