LETTER VII.

CHRIST THE SANCTIFIER.

THE last letter addressed to you would be incomplete and unsatisfying, did I not point you to Christ as the Sanctifier, no less than as the Reconciler of the soul unto God, -as him through whom alone you have the full promise and assurance of forgiveness, and the hope of the Divine acceptance. Some persons seem vainly to imagine that salvation is something wholly external to them, something existing in the far-off future alone, forgetting that the only true kingdom of heaven is within, having its commencement even now and here, and that the highest degree of outward happiness and success would be wholly unsatisfying and incomplete, without the inward spirit of faith and love and trust; that the great redemption which Christ has brought to us lies in freedom from the power of sin itself, in meeting that deep, present need of the soul, of which I have already spoken. And herein we perceive the perfect harmony of the separate yet united offices he bears to the individual spirit.

The blessed assurance, "Thy sins are forgiven thee," breathes over the soul its holy benediction of peace, only to gird it anew for daily conflict with evil and temptation, and to whisper in its gentle accents of love and entreaty, "Go and sin no more."

Comparatively easy would it be to maintain the fervor of our desires, the loftiness of our aims, the spirituality of our aspirations, were our watchfulness requisite only in the hours of solitude and retirement; did the secrecy of the closet, or the quiet watches of the night, alone witness our struggles with sin and wrong desire and evil passion. But to carry our convictions of truth and of duty into the conflicts of daily life, to evince a quiet fortitude, a Christian spirit of love, forbearance, and forgiveness, under petty provocations, to quench the rising passion and speak the gentle word, to maintain an unblemished integrity, to be consistent under every circumstance with our acknowledged aims, to assert in every scene and season, by a pure and blameless and spiritual walk among men, the supremacy of the unseen and spiritual, here lies the true arena of our conflict, here the broad theatre where we are to prove the truth of our Christian convictions and purposes.

Here, too, you have often felt wearied and disheartened. Conscious of so much in your heart and life inconsistent with the commands of God

and the perfect example of Christ, — seeing the heights of Christian attainment towering ever higher and higher above you,—you have sometimes yielded to the sense of your own utter weakness and short-coming, and have felt that the conflict was too great for you, that your life would never express your true aims and loftier purposes. Yet just here lies the hardest conflict, with all noble, aspiring natures. This higher aspiration, this longing for a nobler life, for a more rapid and consistent progress, compared with the imperfection and insufficiency of the actual attainment, is no unreal or mere fanciful struggle. Unless met and sustained by a Christian faith and hope, it presses upon the soul with a crushing and deadening sense of utter insufficiency and personal weakness. Faith grows dim, resistance flags, the star of hope is dimmed, and the soul either sinks into a dreary darkness or a lethargic sleep of indifference.

But at this very point, when the light of the Spirit has revealed to you the weakness, the imperfection, the sin within,-when you shrink from the life-long conflict, and fear for your own progress and perseverance in the true path, — at this very point Christ again meets you with his blessed words of encouragement and hope, promising to do that, in and for you, which you cannot do of yourself. He came not alone through his death to proclaim assurance of pardon, and

to seal the promise of acceptance; but through his life, through his teachings, through his fervent intercessions, and, more than all, through his ever-present spirit as the Comforter, the Sanctifier of the soul, to renew it in the Divine image, to quicken it to newness of life, to breathe into it a divine strength, to sustain it in conflict, to live within it, as its only true life.

"Abide in me, and I in you." Have you ever fathomed the deep meaning of this promise in your hours of regret, dissatisfaction, or discouragement? You are not laboring and striving alone. A mightier and holier than man is with you, nearer to you than the truest of earthly friends, and if you will but listen and yield yourself unreservedly to his guidance, his word of encouragement ever is, "My strength shall be made perfect in thy weakness"; "I will give to him who is athirst, of the fountain of the water of life freely." "I am the Bread of Life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he who believeth on me shall never thirst." “LO, I am with you alway!" Do we ask more? "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

And again, in the assured language of the

Apostle, an epitome of the whole Gospel revelation of pardon and reconciliation and renewal,

"After that the kindness and love of God toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Through Christ abiding with you, with the sustaining influences of his grace and the quickening power of his Spirit, go forth then, firmly yet humbly, to meet the daily conflict within and around you, in the spirit and faith of Paul resolutely exclaiming, "I can of mine own self do nothing, but through Christ strengthening me I can do all things."

"Maintain only an unchangeable resolution of obedience, and an upright intention towards God, and all will be well. Christ sent forth his early disciples, not to luxury, but to conflict; not to honor, but to contempt; not to amusement, but to labor; not to take repose, but to bring forth much fruit with patience." Even so he sends forth every true-hearted follower to grow strong through endurance, and resolute by stringent exertion; animating them by his own example, quickening them by his felt presence, sanctifying, purifying, and redeeming them by his own indwelling, co-working Spirit.

Go not forth, then, to your daily duties, and