in our conduct! The more we are alive to the highness of our vocation the more we shall feel that. And therefore it is not pride that becomes us, but a very deep humiliation. Thus there is nature in the words of the Apostle, who, when he has told us that we ought to walk worthy of our calling, adds in the same breath, "with all lowliness and meekness."

Yes, with all lowliness and meekness. In good truth, these dispositions become us well. Let us look back; and have we been living in the past worthy of our privileges? Let us look within; and are we so living at the present moment? Let us look forward; and is there any reasonable prospect, but that we shall continue to feel the power of our besetting sins and of the temptations of the world so as still to require much self-distrust, much vigilance, and much prayer? Truly it becomes us to

walk with humility.

And, I repeat, we shall not be the less likely to do so because we cherish a high sense of our calling, and keep before our minds a lofty aim. That we are the creatures of a day whose breath is in our nostrils, and who are crushed before the moth-that we live in a fleeting, perishing world—that we are ourselves the subjects of much infirmity,—these, and such as these, are not the deepest utterances of a

Indeed, there may be in them no

humble spirit. humility at all. No man was ever truly humble simply on the ground that men are subject to distress and weakness, and live to only threescore and ten. But when one has an object before him that is higher than himself, and towards which he is striv ing, but of which he is ever coming short through his own faults and mistakes-when he feels that he is living below his opportunities, and learns from his frequent falls how truly and how constantly he needs a strength higher than his own,-then is he humble; then there is something in his heart that works a genuine self-distrust, and tends to bring about in his habitual state of mind the same union of a high aim with a meek humility in the pursuit of it, the same association of an exalted estimate of his calling with a lowly estimate of his merit, which (so truthfully to nature) are brought before us by St Paul as in perfect harmony, and, indeed, in necessary connection with one another.

It is thus evident, that in thankfully acknowledging the goodness of God, who has called us in Christ to honour and glory and immortality, and in setting a high value upon this our vocation, we do not by any means bring upon ourselves the evil, or shut ourselves out from the blessing, of which we

CHRISTIAN SELF-RESPECT.

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are told in those many passages, where we are assured, to one purpose though in various words, that "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." "The meek will He guide in judgment; the meek will He teach His way."

XI.

SELF-COMMAND.

PROVERBS XVI. 32-"He that ruleth his spirit is than he that taketh a city."

THE old Gnostics thought—at least certain of thought that there is something sinful in matt the matter of which the world is made-of v our bodies are made. I do not require to ex the fallacy of this. There cannot be sin in ma It must be in mind that there is sin. There ca be sin except where there is will-except where is the power of disobedience. Matter, whic merely passive, cannot sin. There is no sin in rocks and minerals which constitute the crust of globe, nor in the mountains and the rivers w give variety to its scenery, nor in the grass flowers by which it is so beautifully carpeted. little is there any sin in the flesh and blood w form our bodies. It is corruptible flesh, no do but corruptibility is one thing, and sin is anot

Being so frequently the instrument of sin, it may be called "sinful flesh" in that free use of language which we can perfectly understand; but the sinfulness really lies, not in the instrument, but in the soul which uses the instrument. All this will be at once admitted.

Perhaps, however, it may not be admitted equally at once, that, in themselves considered, our appetites and passions are not sinful. But a very little reflection will make this quite as evident as the other point. It is not in themselves, but in their inordinate and unruly exercise, that sin lies. There are some who would seem to imagine that there is an element of sinfulness in our natural affections, and desires, and propensities, viewed simply as such; and that therefore it belongs to Christian duty to crush them down and extinguish them, and, as it were, dehumanise ourselves, putting on moroseness, and austerity, and a gloomy asceticism, as different as can be from that genial, large-hearted, kindly cheerfulness which the Scriptures themselves always recommend. I say, as against this idea and its consequences, that our appetites and passions are not in themselves sinful, but that sinfulness lies in their inordinate and unruly exercise; and I say further, that a very little reflection will make this clear.

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