by "mortifying the deeds of the body.' I must glorify him in my spirit by "crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts." I must put off the old man, not merely in the more gross and abominable features of his character, but in his more refined and specious corruptions; not only adultery, but “ all uncleanness ;"‡ not only murder, but “ anger, wrath, malice, hatred."§ I must exhort the Lord to purify

66

my heart with the small cords of his fatherly chastisement, that I may not be destroyed with a sore destruction."

66

For

he hath said, "If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy." || These words stand written with a pen of iron, and graven on the rock of God's eternal word, from whence no force can

erase

I may

them, no sophistry blot them out. have been dedicated to God in baptism by others, but this is in vain, unless I also

* Rom. viii. 13. † Gal. v. 24.

§ Eph. iv. 31.

+ Eph. v. 3.

1 Cor. iii. 17.

pro

dedicate myself: I may be one of a party whose exclusive cry is that of rejected Israel of old, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we;" but unless my body be the hallowed temple of the Holy Ghost it fiteth me nothing. I must, then, like the Apostle by whose mouth the solemn warning is given, "keep under my body, and bring it into subjection." I must fear, lest like those who desecrated his temple of old, I should hear the awful sound of his voice, saying, "Let us depart hence," and the fearful rushings of those almighty wings which once overshadowed a neglected mercy-seat and brooded over the fane of a desecrated temple.

Am I a Christian

But this is not all. indeed-WHAT THEN? Why, I am called to "go go on unto perfection ;"* to be " "holy as God is holy;"† to "forget that which is behind, and to reach forth unto that which is before, pressing on toward the mark for

* Heb. vi. 1.

† 1 Pet. i. 16.

108 THE CHRISTIAN A TEMPLE OF GOD.

the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." And seeing I have such exalted privileges and such precious promises, let me learn to live up to their grandeur and their grace. Let me "cleanse myself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Let me carefully examine every corner of the temple of my heart, that there may be, if possible, nothing wanting, nothing disfigured, nothing out of place. And whatever I find to be so, let me seek to have fully restored, that I may be stablished, strengthened, settled, grounded in the faith, and built up in love, to be an holy temple to the Lord.

* Phil. iii. 13, 14.

DISCOURSE V.

THE CHRISTIAN A CHILD OF GOD.

2 COR. VI. 16-18.

"WHAT AGREEMENT HATH THE TEMPLE OF GOD WITH IDOLS? FOR YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD; AS GOD HATH SAID, I WILL DWELL IN THEM, AND WALK IN THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. WHEREFORE COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM, AND BE YE SEPARATE, AND TOUCH NOT THE UNCLEAN THING; AND I WILL RECEIVE YOU, AND WILL BE A FATHER UNTO YOU, AND YE SHALL BE MY SONS AND DAUGHTERS, SAITH THE LORD ALMIGHTY."

How beautiful is the consistency of truth! We take up the words of a dying Christian in another hemisphere, and find that they embody all which the church of Christ has held as essential to salvation from the beginning. They approve them

selves at once to the hearts and understandings of all who have been taught by the Spirit.

And when we look into the Word of God for those declarations on which they are founded, we find passages in which the same truths are linked together in the same way, yet in such different contexts as to shew that the coincidence is undesigned. In the sixth chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians we found redemption and sanctification thus united. "I AM A CHRISTIAN," said the dying pastor, "WHAT THEN? Why I am a redeemed sinner, a pardoned rebel, a temple of God." "What!" asks the Apostle, "know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's." The next privilege which occurred to the mind of the dying minister was the privilege of