their hearts. O merciful God! although they have grieved Thee, yet "forsake not the works of Thine own hands!"i

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Thus we must feel and thus pray for those unhappy Christians who live not according to their profession, not from any imagination. of our own, but because the Holy Apostles of our Lord have so taught us. They always speak to baptized persons as having the Spirit, and having had their sins remitted, and having been washed in the Blood of Christ, even when they have to chide them for turning back to grievous sins. that lacketh these things," that is Christian virtues, says S. Peter, "is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." "Flee fornication," saith S. Paul, (he is speaking, therefore, to those who need such a warning), "Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? 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."1

1 Ps. cxxxviii. 8.

k 2 Pet. i. ix.

'1 Cor. vi. 18—20.

This is no mere speculation, but a great fact in our spiritual life, declared to us in Holy Scripture, and impressed on us with ceaseless and motherly care by the Church of God. There is a glorious and awful Presence not only about us but within us, and dwelling specially in our hearts and consciences, as the Schekinah dwelt of old between the Cherubim that overshadowed the mercy-seat. And we, thoughtless and wilful as we are, are in danger of despising that Presence.

Think now, in the season of humiliation through which we are passing, whether you have at any time despised, whether you do in any way and in any case despise, this Divine Presence, and if it be so, repent.

There are several ways in which we may be guilty of this sin, and in each of them it is grievous and hateful to God.

One that is but too common in this place, and but too evidently comes under this head, is when any one sets himself against the work of God in the spirit of another or in his own. I mean when he strives to overcome the constancy with which any one holds to a moral or religious principle. If a man has unreasonable scruples, I do not say that we may not, by fair and religious

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argument, reason him out of them. woe to him by whom one of Christ's little ones is caused to offend! "It were better that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea."m Let this warning be enough for those who would apply worldly temptations and taunting sneers against the conscientious, though even possibly mistaken, scruples of a brother. The notion of what is duty may not in every case be the work of the Holy Spirit, but the will to adhere to what is believed to be duty is His work, and must not be tampered with, as we reverence Him.

And I would that one might pass over another and more fearful shape of despising. I would that we could be sure there was not one amongst us who would sometimes cast contempt upon what he even knew to be right. If there be none such here, thanks be to God! But if there be, let him search and look what he has been doing. That boldness which determines to set down as contemptible whatever would oppose or restrict the course of passion or self-will, is the very attribute of Satan. Choose it indeed you may, and if you please God will suffer you to choose it to the last. But-" He that

m S. Mark ix. 42.

dwelleth in the Heavens shall laugh, the Most High shall have you in derision."" The obstinate pride of man wins not even His pity, but shall be crushed by His power, together with that rebellious spirit who is the father of it.

waywark will, His

Yet cannot the unyielding sinner boast as though he strove nobly against an Almighty oppressor, for while God yet bears with him, it is real love and mercy that he resists and despises. One thing alone God cannot change, to meet man's own Eternal Holiness. And that very Holiness requires that He should not gratify man's will while it is evil, but should first either drive or allure him to seek what is truly good. Even we, weak mortals as we are, while we enforce on you His laws, and such rules as are needful toward guarding the observance of His laws, speak to you from Him, and he that dutifully receives our word receives His, he that despises it, even in our mouth, goes but too near to despising Him.

And thus it is, too, when men despise real holiness in their equals or inferiors. They disguise the truth to themselves, but, in fact, in man they are despising God.

° Ps. ii. 4.

It is true they generally find a further excuse for this, and say that what they despise is some particular fault of a superior who imposes regulations on their will, or an equal whose stricter practice condemns their own. But these are only the pretexts of the scorner, he bears no such contemptuous malice to such things in the associate of his own vices. At any rate, if he will escape the guilt of despising God, let him distinguish carefully, and shew respect to whatever belongs to His law. This will not suit his purpose, for that law is the real object of his resistance.

However what has now been said about despising authority, or visible holiness, is not the strict interpretation of the Apostle's words in this day's Epistle. He wrote to new converts, to converts who had been brought up in heathenism, and in an age and country of unclean abominations. His principal meaning therefore was, to urge them to withdraw themselves more and more entirely from all such pollution, and to treat the presence of God's Holy Spirit in themselves and in one another with the most reverent respect. Even the words "that no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter," are more easily rendered "in

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。 1 Thess. iv. 6.