SERMON IX.

THE DESIRE OF VAIN GLORY.

Gal. v, 23.

"LET US NOT BE DESIROUS OF VAIN GLORY."

WHEN sin entered into the world, and death by sin, the powers which God had given to His creature man were not destroyed, but corrupted. They were no longer in subjection to His Lawno longer obedient to His Will-but confusion and disorder prevailed amongst them. They still remained to Man in some sort, for his nature was still human; but henceforth they were weak, and perishable; and not only so, but unruly also

and rebellious, bringing unhappiness rather than joy to him who used them. The corruption of our nature, by Adam's fall, extends to every part of it. There is nothing that belongs to us which is not liable-nay already disposed and ready,-to be perverted and abused to the dishonor of our Maker, and the destruction of our own souls. Our reason, our speech, our thoughts, our feelings, our desires,-noble and excellent as they were when God first gave them to our common father, Adam,-are now, alas! continually made the instruments of sin. What shall we think, then, of these great gifts, so glorious once and so capable of shewing forth the Wisdom and Goodness and exceeding Glory of the Giver, and now so changed so corrupt and fallen? Shall we think them utterly vile and worthless, incapable of being turned to good account? Shall we refuse to pay our tribute of praise and thanksgiving to Him who hath created and preserved those marvellous powers of body and soul, which were at first fitted to set forth His Glory, but are now too often engaged in resisting His purposes and provoking His wrath? This would indeed be to add sin to sin-the sin of

ingratitude to the sin of perverseness; this would be to confound the gifts themselves with the evil which has entered upon them; this would be to disregard the unspeakable mercy which has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus, through whose merits and mediation, the image of God in which the soul of man was once created, and which by Adam's transgression was broken and depraved, is again restored, and freed from every stain of sin, and made pleasing and acceptable in its Creator's sight. No, my brethren, in thinking of our nature and of all that belongs to it, we must think of a precious gift, perverted and abused by the sin of our first parents and by our own sins, but still through God's mercy capable of being separated from the evil which clings to it and applied to the glorious uses for which in the beginning it was intended-capable in short of being cleansed, renewed and sanctified. And this is the purpose for which the second Adam was born into the world, and lived, and died and rose again.

He came down from heaven that He might be a quickening Spirit; that is, that He might put new life and strength into His fallen crea

tures. As Almighty God once breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul; so now,-after that soul has fallen from righteousness and holiness,-the Spirit of Christ once more brings life and health, and the son of Adam is born again; he becomes the adopted Child of God. And wherefore is the Christian born again? To what end is he given new powers from Heaven, purchased by the precious blood of the only begotten Son of God? To this end surely;-that the original faculties of his nature may be rescued from the dominion of sin, and brought into subjection to the Law of Christ; that all his natural gifts, may no longer be left to run that wild, irregular, and disorderly course which begins in sin and ends in everlasting woe, but may be sanctified by the Spirit of grace and directed to the heavenly task of doing their Creator's pleasure. This is what causes the Christian's life to be one long conflict: or rather, if he be indeed a Christian, one long victory. The Spirit which He has received at His Baptism would bring his nature back to its proper course and government; but its corrupt ways are yet pleasing to his fallen will; hence

the flesh warreth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. If then he be a Christian in deed as well as in name,-if he be a faithful soldier of Christ, a true follower of his crucified Redeemer, he gains the victory over his former self; he brings the powers of his body and soul back into subjection to the will of God; he endures the pain of denying his corrupt affections for the sake of being freed by Christ's power from their corruption. On the other hand, if he is a slothful servant, a treacherous deserter, a faint, and false-hearted follower of the Lord that bought him, then of course he is vanquished in every conflict; again and again perhaps the gracious Spirit of God will strive within him, but still the struggle ends in his defeat; and so the power of his enemy grows firmer and more firm, till at length the struggle ceases and he dies-a captive who would not be set at liberty though the Son of God gave His own life to be a ransom for him—a captive seven fold more the slave of Sin and of the Devil than if he had never been called out of the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of light. Seeing then of how great moment it is that the

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