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dation of his justification is the finished atonement, the obedience unto death of God's eternal Son. The character, or moral condition in which he is justified is that of a repentant sinner, an humble believer in Jesus Christ. But what is the faith which is thus the condition of his acceptance? Is it a cold assent to the truths of the gospel? Or is it a warm, vivifying sentiment of the heart, working by love and putting all the powers of the soul into vigorous action in deeds of righteousness? "What doth it profit, tho' a man say he have faith and have not works?" Do the Scriptures recognize any such faith as this, even though a man may say he have it, and that it is the true faith? "Can such a faith save him?" Never. If it have not works, "it is dead, being alone." It is no faith. Works of righteousness are not merely the fruits of faith, but they enter into the nature of all the faith that lives, and breaths, and throws its animating pulsations throughout his moral frame. So that the method of gratuitous justification by faith in the Son of God, instead of annihilating, confirms; instead of diminishing, augments; and instead of countervailing, gives a new impulse to the primeval obligations and motives to moral virtue. "How shall we who are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?" Is this undermining the obligations to moral virtue? bought with a price, and that not of silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Son of God, as of a lamb without blemish and without

"Ye have been

spot; wherefore glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are his." Is this diminishing the motives to moral virtue? "The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but to him that died for them, and rose again." Is this weakening the force of moral obligation? "Do we make void the law through faith? Yea, we establish the law." "This do, and thou shall live," is to the transgressor an impracticable condition. It is too late for a sinner to dream of being justified by deeds of law. But there is another law. "Believe, and thou shall be saved." Under the first covenant, obedience secures salvation; under the second, salvation secures obedience. He "loves much, who has much forgiven;" and he only obeys, who loves.

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If I urge upon you then, my young friends the claims of morality, it is the morality of the Bible. It is not the morality of Seneca or Plato. Nor is it the morality of the young man who said, “ All these have I kept from my youth up;" but whose "heart was bound in fetters of gold." There is a morality that will never become the possessor of heavenly treasures. Nay, it were "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle," than for such a morality to enter into the kingdom of God. You must practically acknowledge the God of heaven as your king and love him with an un

divided heart. You must take up your cross and follow your Saviour, or you are not worthy of him. True morality will lead you to love him above all others, and prefer his service above that of all other masters. Without this, it were in vain to think of governing your life by his example and laws. A mere outward morality will serve you and your generation a little while; it may even diminish the aggravation of your guilt and the weight of your sufferings in the future world. But it can avert neither; and if this is all you have to plead in the presence of your Judge, it will "profit you nothing."

LECTURE VII.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE UPON THE SOCIAL

INSTITUTIONS.

By social institutions, I mean those which form the basis, or grow out of the various relations of human society. Man is a social being. His physical, intellectual, and moral constitution, have a manifest reference to a state of social existence. Destitute of that strength which distinguishes many animals, unfurnished by nature either with weapons to resist, or speed to escape from their attacks, care for his safety alone would lead him to unite himself in close alliance with others of his species. The years of childhood and old age are conditions in which he must of necessity depend upon others; and in claiming during these periods of infirmity, sustenance and protection from his fellow men, he must consent in the days of his own strength to anticipate and deserve them.

Though well nigh the most helpless of all the animal creation, no longer a weak, isolated existence, he has been constituted the lord of this lower world. Instead of being the prey of ravenous beasts, he holds the brute creation in fear and servitude; instead of being exposed to the tempest, his dwelling bids defiance to the winds; and when the hunger, want, and debility which he has succoured in others, become his own lot, his past services return to him at the hands of his fellows, though it be after many days. But not alone from his physical nature is he impelled to seek the society of his species. His moral and intellectual faculties determine him no less strongly to a social state, and pre-eminently fit him for it. Some of the noblest faculties of his soul, as well as some of the most amiable and exalted of his natural affections could be exercised only in such a condition. Benevolence, complacency, gratitude and heroism would all lie dormant, if he were an isolated being. Next to the pure fountains of spiritual joy, the most delightful sources of his enjoyment are those for the first time unlocked when he meets his fellow man. Isolated man can scarcely be said to have the capacity for lofty thought, or great atchievement. The noble efforts of human power and genius, of which there are so many monuments in our world, have been made under the strong encouragement, the powerful incentive of society. Led by these impulses, and guided by the light of nature alone, man has no doubt made

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