world from saying that we are sufficient of ourselves to put away our sin. But I am equally certain of the fact that it is only we ourselves that can put it away. Let us think of it again. My sin, like my holiness, is how I myself am disposed, what my own attitude is, toward the two possible directions of human life and activity. Will I follow my reason, my conscience, the spirit of holiness, the law of righteousness, or will I be turned aside from these by my passions, the innumerable opportunities of inordinate desire, and the thousand external objects that attract and tempt them? Just this is my probation, the condition and opportunity of my self-determination; and the answer depends upon acts that I myself perform, habits that I form, and the character which I thus make for myself. In other words, everything turns upon the settled and fixed disposition or attitude which I give myself toward the complex conditions which, according to it, make life good or bad. The conditions are indeed complex, but the decision is a single and a simple one And it cannot be a half-way or partial one, and at the same time be sincere and real. The preposition that connects repentance and remission in our text is a very important part of it, — and that, whether we translate it for or unto. In the one case it means intention or purpose, and in the other it imports actual accomplishment or result. Repentance means nothing if it does not intend the whole of holiness, the complete putting away of sin; and it is ineffectual, it comes to nothing, if it is never to attain or accomplish that end. The preposition in question is interesting as that of the end

or the final cause.

In a real action the essential and

vital thing is the end, what is intended at first and what is accomplished at last. Judged by this test, what are most of our repentances? A little sense of sin, a little self-condemnation and sorrow, a little desire to be free from it, a little purpose to do something to that end. If we should honestly set ourselves to see just how much of any of these there is actually in it, it might well surprise and shock ourselves. Now, if Jesus Christ teaches anything, and stands for anything, it is a real and complete repentance based upon a real and complete faith, a thoroughgoing and effectual attitude toward sin and toward holiness, an attitude which shall be so whole an activity of the whole man that it will make a complete new man of him. It is this and this alone which makes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to St. Paul, the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. It is the power of a perfect holiness, a perfect righteousness, and a perfect life.

Here comes in the instructive and the important ambiguity of the expression we have been discussing. Is it only forgiveness or is it an actual and real putting away from us of sin? Is it only for or is it actually unto the full and perfect end of repentance? The real and effectual treatment of sin is by its very nature a joint act or activity of God and man. Only man can perform it, but man can perform it only through the Eternal Spirit which is God. When it is accomplished, it is the whole man who must have accomplished it. His whole mind and heart and will and activity must have gone into the accomplishment of it; it must have

been a complete attitude on his part toward sin and toward holiness, a perfect repentance and a perfect faith. But equally God must have been in it, and must have been the doer of it. The whole Spirit of God must have imparted itself to him, the whole Word or Truth or Law of God must have fulfilled itself in him.

process of which But still I see it

Now, according as we take the end or final cause of repentance as purpose in the beginning, or throughout the process, or as attainment or accomplishment in the final result, we shall give different senses to the divine human act of remission; or rather we shall be looking at it from different points of view. If I am looking at the entire act of the putting away of my sin in Jesus Christ both God's and mine I mean the real putting away, by the actual putting off on my part of sin and the putting on of holiness. I recognize, of course, that this is a process of gradual transformation, an indefinite not to say infinite the divine holiness is only the limit. as a whole, and the whole can only mean an actual participation in the holiness, the righteousness, the life of God Himself. Meantime, just because the whole process means so much, there arises another tremendous question of our status with God and with ourselves at its beginning or throughout its course. Even a St. Paul or a St. John is infinitely remote from feeling himself to have attained, or to be without sin. What is the position of us all, who the more we mean and intend holiness or righteousness, only the more feel that we infinitely have not attained and do not possess it? Here comes in the other sense of remis

sion - not as yet the complete impartation, but already the perfect imputation to us of the whole holiness, righteousness, and life of God as realized for us in Jesus Christ. The moment a human life has really made Jesus Christ its end, although that end be as yet only the end of purpose, and infinitely not yet the end of attainment, that moment God imputes to that life what it means and intends as though it had already accomplished it. St. Paul perfectly caught the principle, and perfectly expressed it in the doctrine which is the root of his system: Faith is imputed to us for righteousness; it is reckoned or accounted as being righteousness.

The common sense or the philosophy of it is not far to find. It is a principle upon which even we ourselves act in our imperfect measure. Let us perfectly know that one fully means a certain act or a certain part towards us, and that fact establishes a status between us as complete as though he had already fulfilled it. Of course, as we shall abundantly see, there is a great deal more ground for a basis between God and ourselves upon the mutual understanding of a repentance on our part which means the putting off of sin and a faith which means the putting on of holiness, but the above illustration will suggest the true fact that the divine method in our spiritual treatment can be relied upon for both common sense and philosophy -- that is to say, to be the most perfectly natural and the most perfectly rational one.

XIII

THE SINLESSNESS OF JESUS

We have seen how the Gospels terminate logically and naturally in the commission, That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in the name of Jesus Christ unto all the nations. We have seen how precisely so it was preached, and that that from the beginning was the Gospel. It is most exactly expressed by St. Peter in the words, In none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved. We cannot ourselves explain this plain statement of the Gospel nor enter into the Christian or Catholic understanding of it except on the assumption that not only is salvation from sin given in Jesus Christ, but that salvation from sin was wrought or accomplished by Jesus Christ. The taking away or putting away or abolishing of sin was accomplished by an act on His part, and it was accomplished first in His own person. He Himself was sinless, not by any mere fact of His own nature - differencing it from ours - but by an act of Himself in our nature, which we too were to enter into and make our own and so perform for ourselves in and with Him. He by Himself made purgation of our sins. This was an act, the act, of His