Body on the tree, knowing that He will sanctify wholly both in body and soul those who are made "members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones."9 In conclusion, let these thoughts, suggested to us by the mention of the blessed effects of inward grace upon the outward frame of the first martyr, incite us to aim after a more complete self-government. Consider how awful it is that we should, as it were, be writing our characters upon our mortal frames. I have spoken chiefly of the fearful effects of indulged sin, thinking we might thereby more vividly realize the reality of the connection of soul and body into one man. But the beautiful effects of inward holiness upon the countenance are not less solemn, if we remember that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, that both in body and soul we are made one with Christ, and that the bodies of the saints, of those, that is, who persevere, shall rise and reign for ever with Christ. When we see or feel (for we can feel these impressions of the living spirit within), when, I say, we see or feel the terrible effects of sin indulged upon the countenance, and observe how indelible, or almost indelible, are the marks which evil habits imprint, let us learn to think how deep and how abiding are the wounds of sin upon our whole nature, that we may set ourselves to erase these fearful signatures, while yet the blood of Christ may be applied, and penitence may avail. When, on the other hand, we see how calm, pure, 9 peaceful, joyous, confiding, loving, true in purpose, and noble in resolve, the human face can by grace show itself, let us learn to trust the grace of God, and let us the more cheerfully, bravely, and resolutely, cultivate all pure and holy affections, quenching the first spark of evil within us, and ever contemplating His love, and power, and perfect holiness, Who has redeemed us in order that by the power of His transforming Spirit our faces too may, in His good time, be as the face of an angel, 364 SERMON XXIX. SUBMITTING TO THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. ROMANS, X. 3, 4. "They, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." FROM the errors of the Jews we may learn the truth. By seeing their mistakes we may avoid them; and hearing them blamed, we may receive the instruction which they rejected. Now in this chapter St. Paul blames the Jews for rejecting our Blessed Saviour; he finds great fault with them, and accuses them of blindness and hardness of heart. But he begins gently that he may not offend them. First he tells them of his love and anxiety for them: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved;" and next he praises them as far as they deserved praise, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God." Yet at the moment he praises them, he adds blame. "A zeal," he says, "of God, but not according to knowledge," and then he tells us of what they were ignorant, and to what foolish undertaking their ignorance led them. "They being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." They were ignorant that God would make them righteous, and supposed that they could make themselves righteous : they knew not that it was as impossible for a sinner to restore himself to holiness, as for a sick man to restore himself to health, or for a dead man to raise himself to life: being ignorant of their own misery and helplessness, they despised the power and goodness of God; and used His gifts for a purpose for which He had not given them. The law had been given them as a school-master to bring them unto Christ it was made strict to teach them their sinfulness; and it abounded in sacrifices, and sprinklings, and washings, to teach them their need of the one Great Sacrifice for sin, and of the waters of salvation. But they used the law to justify themselves : : they thought by keeping the letter of the law, to make themselves holy in the sight of God: they thought by observing all the ceremonies, to gain a good character for themselves, not only in the sight of men, but before God. They tried, but they did not succeed. They went about to establish their own righteousness: they were always going about it, but never accomplished it. They were like those women of whom St. Paul speaks, "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the 1 Gal. iii. 24. "2 truth." And while they were thus so eager over the letter of the law, and about setting up a righteousness for themselves, they missed the spirit of the law, and failed of the righteousness of God. They twice rejected Christ: first they rejected Him as shadowed forth in the ceremonies of the law, and next they rejected Him when He appeared before them in Person. Thus by their self-righteousness they were deprived both of the Gospel and of the law. The Gospel they refused when it was preached unto them, and the spirit of the law was taken from them, and they were left the empty husk to deceive themselves withal. That efficacy which was in the law when it was the ordinance of God, passed away from it; and it became a beggarly elements of the world, when the life which God had imparted to it was swallowed up in the truer life of the Gospel. "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Christ came; and having fulfilled the law, He brought in that righteousness which the law foreshadowed, and promised. The law told men what they ought to be, but Christ made them what they ought to be, those, that is, who believed. The law is an external standard of righteousness, held up for us to look upon; but Christ writes His new law upon the hearts of be lievers, takes them into unity with Himself, and makes them partakers of His righteousness. The law made clean from ceremonial defilements, but Christ cleanses from all sin, in His most precious |