My dear brethren, are you "striving to enter

in at that straight gate?"

66

Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."* The righteousness of man will not avail you. You must ever be seeking in the ordinances of grace, and exercising in the energies of daily life, "the righteousness which is of GOD by faith." When GOD shall "judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead," "He shall render to every man according to His deeds." § The mystery of GOD's predestination we know not the law of His judgment we do know. Many are called, but few chosen:" for few will yield themselves up, with faithful obedience, to the transforming glory of the life of CHRIST, to which they are called. While you praise GOD, Who has justified you in the glory of CHRIST'S risen life, remember then that you must live in the power of His resurrection, or the fact of His resurrection will not avail you. If you would

66

*S. Matt. v., 20.

+ Phil. iii., 9. § Rom. ii., 6.

Acts xvii., 31.

press onward, if you would perseve would lay hold upon the crown, think as the world is apt to think, that ( died for you, and risen again, but re apostle bids you, that you have died t in Him, and in Him are raised al "new world" of faith, "wherein dw eousness." "Your conversation, the be in Heaven; from whence also we SAVIOUR, the LORD JESUS CHRIST change our vile body, that it may like unto His glorious Body, accor working whereby He is able even t things unto Himself."+

To-day we must especially rejoi liberty wherewith CHRIST has mad In every difficulty which we have t the resurrection of CHRIST is the wa hopes, as it is also the strength of our s revelation of our desires. Renewe righteousness of GOD in Him, Who sin once," and "is alive for evermor look up for strength to our FATHER

Pl

Heaven, and say, "Hear me, when I call, O GOD of my righteousness: Thou hast set me at liberty when I was in trouble; have mercy upon me, and hearken unto my prayer." "The LORD hath raised unto David a righteous Branch, and a King, Who shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and justice in the earth, and this is His Name whereby He shall be called, the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."†

* Psalm iv., 1. ↑ Jer. xxiii., 5, 6.

THE CHRISTIAN ACCEPTED I

IN speaking to you last Sunday

oblation of our LORD JESUS CH our great "High Priest after the o chizedec," and Himself also our Grea Lamb slain before the foundation of could not but make allusion to tha CHRIST in His members which is accompaniment of that oblation in h by which He bids us show forth Hi the FATHER. He is a High Priest u and requires us to learn obedience by

THE CHRISTIAN ACCEPTED IN CHRIST. 257

in the law of His Passion at the same time that He gives us grace, so as when we have been made perfect after His image, to attain the glory. It is the acceptable obedience of the Christian, the self-oblation of the Christian to GOD, in the strength of CHRIST, and after the likeness of CHRIST, to which I would invite your attention this evening. Without this practical remembrance of corresponding duties, it would be dangerous for us to think of the sublime ritual of heaven, wherein we are called to share.

It is to this practical view of the acceptable sacrifice of Christian life that S. Paul delights to lead us on. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, S. Paul sets forth at large the Royal Priesthood of the Christian covenant, and then he sums up in like manner as in the Epistle to the Romans, where his purpose has been to set forth the renewed life of justification, vouchsafed to us in the Christian covenant as the foundation of a spiritual morality. In that epistle, he shows the importance for us

66

receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved," to "have grace whereby we may worship GOD acceptably with reverence and godly fear,*-an

* Heb. xii., 28.

K