In all things he has left us an example that we should follow his steps. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. In his childhood he was willingly subject to Mary his mother, and her husband Joseph. Throughout his life, his uniform employment was doing good. Not desiring that any should minister unto him, he was constantly ministering unto others. Not pleasing himself, not only unacquainted with self-indulgence, but continually making sacrifices of needful repose; he laboured in painfulness and weariness for the temporal and the spiritual benefit of men. It was his meat and drink to do the will of his heavenly Father. He did no sin; neither was guile found in his mouth. He spake the truth, and bore witness to the truth, at the expence of his life. To the perverse ignorance, unbelief, and prejudices of his disciples he shewed the most tender forbearance; to their desertion and denial of him the most endearing forgiveness. When he was reviled, be reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to Him who judgeth righteously. He was as a lamb led to the flaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth in complaint, but prayed for those who were nailing him to the cross. He insisted not on his rightful privileges; but, that he might

not

not give offence, discharged by a miracle the tribute which he was not bound to pay. On the inhospitable Samaritans he permitted not the infliction of punishment. To his malignant countrymen at Nazareth he renewed his labour of love, at a second risk of being thrown headlong from their precipice. In every other part of his conduct, as in the instances which have been specified, our Lord proved himself by his own practice, a practice which every one of his followers is pledged to imitate, to be the corner-stone of morality.

In the fourth place, scriptural obedience to moral precepts can be attained only through the grace which Christ supplies.

Without Me-these were his own words to his favoured disciples-without Me ye can do nothing. I am the vine, ye are the branches. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. The heart of man, naturally selfish, proud, envious, prone to passion, to sensuality, to every evil work, cannot perform an act of holiness, but through the Holy Spirit which is the gift of Christ. Even with respect to the attainment of faith, no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost (h).

(4) 1 Cor. xii. 3.

How

How then shall integrity, and brotherly love, and humility, and meekness, and gentleness, and temperance, and purity, and long-suffering, and forgiveness, fruits of faith, fruits of the spirit, be produced, but by the Holy Ghost? And if the Lord Jesus Christ, when he ascended upon high, received gifts for men, even the residue of the Spirit, the entire communication and distribution of the graces of the Holy Spirit: if we, who of ourselves are unable to do any thing that is good, may yet be rendered capable severally of saying with St. Paul, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me: Is not Christ the corner-stone of moral conduct towards men?

Fifthly: It is only through the Lord Jesus, through the efficacy of his prevailing merits, that our moral conduct towards men can be acceptable in the sight of God.

How shall the best moral actions of men, actions scanty-evil, bear the scrutiny of a heart-searching God? Weighed in the ba lance of the Sanctuary, what human deed shall not be found wanting? If ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor: will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith, the Lord of

Hosts?

Hosts (i)? Too well may this description be applied to the most excellent of human actions! Some positive merit, some adventitious righteousness, some sufficient propitiation, some adequate intercession, must be interposed on their behalf, ere they can be meet to be presented before Him, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; ere they can be rescued from the sentence of His unchanging law, which can tolerate no imperfection. In Jesus Christ, and in him alone, they find that ransom of which they stand in need. For his sake, the infirmities of his servants are overlooked; the defects of their faithful efforts to keep his commandments are pardoned. For his sake their obedience is accepted of God, and recompensed, through grace wholly unmerited, as though it had been, so far as it had proceeded, a fulfilment of the law.

There must yet be brought forward another consideration, which places our Lord before us as the foundation of morality. It is to please him, or in other equivalent words, to please God through him, that our views in the discharge of moral duties are always to be directed.

The word of God speaketh expressly, that (i) Malachi, i. 8.

all

all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. To live unto him who died for us, and to do all for the glory of God, that God may in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ, are commands of the same import. They are commands from whose scope and jurisdiction no action of man is exempt. Whatever participates of the nature of morality, be it inward disposition or outward conduct, be it thought, or word, or deed, is completely subject to their controul. To render an action morally acceptable through our Redeemer to God, is it sufficient that the action accord with the literal tenor of the precept? To affirm this proposition would be to affirm, that the service of formality ranks on a level with the offering of the heart. It would be to affirm, that the constrained submission of fear is equally pleasing in the eyes of our Creator with the zealous gratitude of love. It would be to affirm, that, if you are honest through policy, it is the same as though you were upright through principle. It would be to affirm, that when you are temperate through considerations of health, it is the same as when you keep your appetites under subjection to the dictates of conscience. It would be to affirm, that motives are nothing; that whether an action,

verbally