says, "they that are after the Spirit do mind" -relish, have a taste for, delight in,-"the things of the Spirit." And his will and conduct are heavenly for St. Paul asserts, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death :" and he declares that "the fruits of the Spirit,"-the outward actings of the Spiritual man, which flow from and evidence the heavenly principle within," are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.'

Brethren! where are these our evidences? Have we them in some feeble manifestation even? Have we the opening bud, if not the full-blown flower?-the bursting blossom, if not the ripened fruit? O how deeply does every thought of Christian excellence shame the ingenuous mind! How humiliating the contrast between what we are and what we ought to be! How urgent is our need of free salvation! How precious is the blood of Christ, which alone can cleanse from sin! How essential the Spirit of Christ, to form us up to holiness! How sweet the Gospel of Jesus to minister consolation, peace, encouragement, and strength! Tell me, Brethren, when do you feel most your guilt, your defilement, your helplessness? When do you love most Him who

came to save you from them all? When do you see most clearly that all must be of God? And pray most earnestly for his Spirit, and lean most exclusively upon the hope of his heavenly grace?—Is it not when your proper character, and your glorious calling, come most vividly before your minds? Is it not when you look out beyond the gloom and glimmer of the flesh and of the world to contemplate and admire the bright and dazzling forms of Spiritual things? Even as Manoah, and Daniel, and Zacharias felt when they beheld the dazzling visitants from heaven, and "there remained no strength in them;"-Even as the trembling and astonished disciples on the mount "fell on their faces and were afraid" when Jesus was transfigured before them, "and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light," so does the heart faint, and the whole soul fall prostrate at the glory of that mystical body of Jesus to which each member of the same must be conformed; catching the reflection of his moral glory here, if we would shine in his triumphant glory hereafter. Therefore, beloved Brethren, may "we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man”—a truly spiritual excellence-" unto the measure

of the stature of the fulness of Christ"-to the likeness and the fine proportions of his spiritual body" that we be henceforth no more children"-carnal, worldly, natural men, "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine; but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ!"

SERMON XV.

SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING.

1 CORINTHIANS II. 15.

He that is Spiritual judgeth all things.

And I

I HAVE shown you by comparison of Scripture texts what the Spiritual man is not;what are the characters that he has risen above before he can deserve the very name. have stated briefly his distinguishing characteristic, that he is ruled in thought, in feeling, and in conduct, by high and heavenly principle.

Let us proceed to consider more at large some of the Scripture marks which define to us what the Spiritual man positively is—what are the practical workings of the heavenly principle with which he is imbued. And here a large field is opened to us; for, how much of the

Bible is taken up in representing what the children of God are, or should be! But, upon investigation, we shall find, I think, that these several representations reduce themselves to a few classes; and exhibit to us the Spiritual man as having attained to some Understanding and experience of the Gospel ;-to some Acquaintance and communion with God;-to some Holiness of personal character;-and to some sense of that great principle of all relative duty, Love.*

And when I say to some degree of all these graces, I do so because I would not discourage the sincere and anxious mind, and demand from it more evidences of faith and spirituality than it perhaps can find within itself. Yet let us not therefore conclude that some degree is enough. Let us not be satisfied if we can discover in ourselves the first faint outline of a Christian man. Rather let us remember that no grace truly exists within us that has not in itself the life, and energy, which lead to growth and full developement. Spiritual life is, in this, as in so many other cases, similar to natural life. It may at first be faint, and its pulsations few. But still it must have within it all the

* This plan has not been completed. Its execution was interrupted at the Fifth Sermon of the Course.