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set on the invisible and the future, in love with things great and pure and high. And we shall only think that the time is over for such a call, if we are satisfied Iwith what has been and what is. But it is the peculiarity of the religion of the Bible that, whatever may be the aspect of the past and the present, in spite of all glories of what we look back to, and all discouragements in what we see now, it ever claims the future for its own.. If we have the spirit of our religion, it is on the future that we must throw ourselves in hope and purpose. But if we dare to

hope in the future for a greater triumph for Christianity than the world has ever seen (and why should we not if we believe our own creed?) we shall come to see that the language of the New Testament has not yet lost its meaning. For the world is not to be won by anything-by religion, or empire, or thought-except on those conditions with which the kingdom of heaven first came. What conquers must have those who devote themselves to it; who prefer it to all other things; who are proud to suffer for it; who can bear anything so that it goes forward. All is gladly given for the pearl of great price. Life is at once easier in its burdens

and cheaper in its value with the great end in view. Such devotion to an object and cause is no unfamiliar We must not

sight in the world which we know. think it is confined to Christians.

We must not

think that Christians only are enamoured with simplicity of life, with absolute renunciation of wealth and honour for the sake of a high purpose; that they only can persevere, unnoticed and unthanked, in hard, weary work. The Great Master, who first made men in earnest about these things, has taught some who seem not to follow Him. But if Christians are to hold their place and do His work, they must not fall behind. They have an example and ideal of love and sacrifice, to which it is simply unmeaning to make anything of this world a parallel. Their horizon is wider than anything here can be. They have a strength and help which it is overwhelming to think of and believe. ance of those words and

the world was overcome.

And theirs is the inheritcounsels by which at first If great things are ever

to be done again among us, it must be by men who, not resting satisfied with the wonderful progress of Christian society, yet not denying it, not undervaluing it, much less attempting to thwart it, still feel that

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there is something far beyond what it has reached to, for our aims and hopes even here. It must be by men who feel that the severe and awful words of the New Testament, from which we sometimes shrink, contain, not in the letter it may be, but in the spirit, not in a mere outward conformity to them, but in a harmony of the will, not as formal rules of life, but as laws of character and choice,—the key to all triumphs that are to be had in the time to come. Those who shall catch their meaning most wisely and most deeply, and who are not afraid of what it involves, will be the masters of the future, will guide the religion of serious men among those who follow us.

May our Lord give us grace to open our eyes to the full greatness of His inestimable benefit, and, each of us according to his own place and order and day, daily to endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of His most holy life.

SERMON III

CHRIST'S EXAMPLE

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.-1 COR. xi. 1.

ONCE in the course of the world's history we believe that there has been seen on earth a perfect life. It was a life not merely to admire, but to follow. It has been ever since, for the period of man's existence of which we know most, and during which the race has made the greatest progress, the acknowledged human standard; the example, unapproachable yet owned to be universally binding, and ever to be attempted, for those who would fulfil the law of their

nature.

And we have the spirit and principles of that perfect life made applicable to men in our Lord's numerous words about human character, behaviour, and views of life. We have not only the perfect example; but we have it declared, in words of equal authority, why and how it is perfect. Lessons, teach

ing and enforcing, accompany each incident of our Lord's ministry; they are drawn together into a solemn summary in the Sermon on the Mount. Here we have the highest moral guidance for the world. It is impossible to conceive any life more divine than that thus shown us. All the more amazing is the contrast, when once we master it in our minds, between what is shown us and the form in which it is clothed. That inimitable acting out of perfect goodness speaks in homely and, at first hearing, commonplace words, without any apparent consciousness of its own greatness, as if it belonged to the rudest life of the people, and were something within everybody's reach. It takes no account of what we pride ourselves upon, as the finer parts of our nature, our powers of thought, our imagination, our discrimination of beauty. illustration and phrase and argument, it uses nothing but what is of a piece with the first necessities of life, with the speech and cares, the associations and employments of the humblest. That appeal of the Supreme Goodness for man's allegiance and love was to what was primary and common and elementary in his nature. It was far too real to be anything else.

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