springing up into everlasting Life," the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven.'

On the other hand, by grace some meant that state in which all Christians are, as redeemed from the world by Christ's blood, called to be saints, and to whom the high privileges of God's Church are revealed. Now it is unquestionable, that not all who are recipients of that grace, and redeemed into that mercy, will be saved. This first verse itself implies that they may receive the grace of God in vain. So says Christ: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire." Remember, too, the parable of the fig-tree in the vineyard, which was unfruitful, and was sentenced. Again, such exhortations as "Quench not the Spirit," imply that He may be quenched. And such warnings as these, "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made takers of the Holy Ghost, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." And again, "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God?"

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prove that this grace received, may yet be received in vain. These are very awful passages, and they prove at least, that if there be those in whom the Love of God is a perennial fountain of spiritual strength, yet there are also those to whom all the promises have been made in unfeigned sincerity, who have professed religion with warmth nay, who in Christ's name have done many wonderful works - and yet to whom He shall declare at the last, "I never knew you." So near may we approach to the Kingdom of God, and yet come short of attaining it!

II. The grounds of the Apostle's appeal :

1. The thought that the time of grace is limited. St. Paul quotes from Isaiah: "I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I

succored thee." Observe the principle on which this prophecy is quoted. Prophecy records the principle of God's dealings. Now here was a precedent, declaring the limitation of the time during which grace is open; and St. Paul applying it, says, "Now" just such a a limited moment as there was in Isaiah's day, the same is now. Let us dwell upon this thought that there is a day of grace: for example, the respite before the Flood: "My spirit shall not always strive with man : yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.' There was, then, a space allowed for repentance. Again, to Nineveh was given a respite of forty days. A year's grace was allotted to the fig-tree in the parable. Jerusalem, too, had such a day: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace: " but then her day of grace was past; her day of blindness had come. Now that which is declared of the world before the Flood, of Nineveh, of the fig-tree, of Jerusalem, is the history of each separate soul. Every man has his day of grace: what in vulgar English we should call his "chance." There comes to each man a crisis in his destiny, when evil influences have been removed, or some strong impression made after an illness, or an escape, or in some season of solitary thoughtfulness or disappointment. It were an awful thing to watch such a spirit, if we knew that he is on the trial now, by which his everlasting destiny is to be decided! It were more awful still to see a man who has passed the time of grace, and reached the time of blindness and to know that the light is quenched for ever; that he will go on as before, and live many years, and play his part in life; but that the Spirit of God will come back to that soul no more for ever!

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2. The second ground on which St. Paul urged his appeal, was the earnest affectionateness of his own ministry. He appealed on the ground of the work of Christ, and on the ground of the work of those who were co-operators with Christ: "We, then, as workers together with Him, beseech you” — (v. 1). -(v.1). This

appeal is followed up by an account of his conduct as a fellow-worker: "Giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed "- (vi. 3, 4), which again is succeeded by that glorious and touching description of ministerial devotedness, which no Christian can read without humiliation. It was the unexaggerated picture of a human life actually lived out in this selfish world of ours! Upon this I make two observations :

First: The true return for ministerial devotedness is a life given to God. St. Paul details the circumstances of his own rare ministry, and he asks, in return, not the affection of the Corinthians, nor their admiration, but this: that they" receive not the grace of God in vain : and again (v. 13), "Now for a recompense in the same.... be ye also enlarged." also enlarged." To all human hearts affection is dear, and respect and veneration precious. But none of these things is true payment. Hence St. Paul says: "Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord." And again he says: "As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus." And St. John, in his Second Epistle, writes: “I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth; and again, in his Third Epistle, he says to Gaius: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." This, I do not say is, but ought to be, the spirit of every minister of Christ: to feel that nothing can reward him for such efforts as he may have been permitted to make-nothing, except the grace of God received, and life moulded in accordance with it. No deference, no love, no enthusiasm manifested for him, can make up for this. Far beyond all evil or good report, his eye ought to be fixed on one thing God's truth, and the reception of it.

Secondly: The true apostolical succession. Much has been said and written to prove the ministers of the Church to be lineally descended from the Apostles; and, further, to prove that none but they are commissioned to preach God's word, to administer God's sacra

ments, or to convey the grace of Christ. We do not dispute this: we rather admit and assert it. For purposes of order, the Church requires a lineal succession ; that is, authority delegated by those who have authority. But this is a poor line of succession to take the outward descent as all, and to consider the inward as nothing. It is the same mistake that the Jews made in tracing their descent from Abraham's person, and forgetting their spiritual descent from Abraham's Father. Now the grounds of apostleship alleged here are all spiritual; none are external. Again, in the twelfth chapter of this Epistle, St. Paul says: "Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.” Thus St. Paul does not graft his right of appeal on any proud, priestly assumption, but on an inward likeness to Christ. Therefore, the true apostolical succession, is, and must be, a spiritual one. The power of God is not conveyed by physical contact, but by the reception of a Spirit. He is a true minister who is one from sharing in the spirit of an Apostle, not from the ordination and descent from an Apostle. True, there is a succession. The mind of Christ, as set forth in his Apostles, acts on other minds, whether by ideas or character, and produces likeness to itself. Love begets love; faith generates faith; lofty lives nourish the germs of exalted life in others. There is a spiritual birth. John was the successor of the spirit of Elias. Luther was the offspring of the mind of Paul. We are children of Abraham, if we share in the faith of Abraham; we are the successors of the Apostles, if we have a spirit similar to theirs.

LECTURE XLVIT

DECEMBER 26, 1852.

Be

2 CORINTHIANS, vi. 11 – 18. - "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged. ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellow ship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And 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, saith the Lord, 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.

In our last lecture we saw that St. Paul, after explaining the grace of God to a world reconciled in Christ, had besought the Corinthians not to receive that grace in vain. For a passage in Isaiah assured them that it might be in vain: it announced the awful truth that there is such a thing as a day of grace, and that that day is limited. Accordingly, as an ambassador first, and then as a fellow-worker with God, in which capacity he enumerates his sufferings and labors, St. Paul entreats them not to receive that grace in vain. In the close of this chapter, he expresses more definitely his meaning. For a general entreaty to become a Christian is vague. Sanctification is made up of many particulars. To use the grace of God is a duty composed of various branches. Two of these are chiefly dwelt on here. The duty of separation from the world, and of purification from evil.

To-day we shall only consider the former.