SERMON XI.

[THIS sermon was preached at Dairsie Sacrament on June 13, 1813. At Kilmany Sacrament, June 20, 1813. At Balmerino, August 2, 1813. At Monimail, September 19, 1813. At Cupar, June 4, 1815. At Kirkintulloch, August 7, 1815. In the Tron Church, Glasgow, June 9, 1816.]

PHILIPPIANS IV. 13.

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

IN the prosecution of the following discourse, I shall first point your attention to the extent of duty, or to the multitude. of particulars which enter into the "all things" of the apostle. In the second place, I shall prove to you in how many of these things we offend. And in the third place, I shall attempt to rouse you from the dangerous conclusion, that because this disobedience is so much the condition of frail and corrupt humanity, it must just be acquiesced in—a conclusion which I must do my uttermost to resist, because I see in the example before me that there is a revealed instrument for aiding the frailties and subduing the corruptions of our nature-even the strength imparted by Christ-an instrument so powerful, that in virtue of its operation Paul was enabled to do all things-" I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

I. Duty, though simple in its principles, is manifold in its applications. There is not one thing which it is the duty of

man to do, that could not be traced to a clear and immediate dependence upon the first and the greatest commandment—the love of God; and the second, which is the love of our neighbour, takes in a very wide range of human obedience."

Each distinct application of the law may be called a distinct duty, and there are writers who have bewildered us among the divisions and the subdivisions of human virtue. They have laid hold of the general principle, and made it to travel the extensive round of society along with them. They have applied it to a multitude of cases, and brought forward a lengthened catalogue of observances for the regulation of human life. Now, it is very true that to a certain extent our Lord and His apostles did the same thing. They did not satisfy themselves with announcing the general principles of duty-they have in many instances given us the case and the application; but they have by no means exhausted this part of the subject. They have left a thousand possibilities in the circumstances of man unnoticed, and the only way in which they have provided for them is by bequeathing the general rule, and leaving it to man himself to make the applications. Love, says Paul, is the fulfilling of the law. He had before enumerated a few of the applications. Under the influence of this principle, a man will not commit adultery-he will not kill, he will not steal, he will not bear false witness, he will not covet; but, fully aware that he had not exhausted all the applications, he ended his enumeration, satisfied with leaving his disciples in full possession of the general principle, by declaring that if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

It must be obvious to you, that were I to attempt an enumeration of the "all things" which belong to obedience, it would be long, and very long, before I could accomplish it. Love to God involves in it obedience to all His requirements. Love to man is only one of those requirements, and yet it involves in its mighty train the doing of all that is just or useful to our brethren of the species. The duties which spring from these copious principles of human conduct are like the host

which no man can number. They meet us at every footstep of our history-they press upon us in every direction-they accompany us in every relation of life-they demand every fragment of our time-they move along the whole line of our existence. Nor is there a single minute in which they leave the heart of man to the arbitrary independence of its movements"Whatsoever you do, do to the glory of God," is a commandment which there is no escaping from. It does not leave us to ourselves for a single instant. It tells us that there is no conceivable situation in human life in which God has not a law and a duty for us-nor a single case in all the wide diversity of human affairs to which this question is not applicable, “ What is the will of God in the matter before me?"

You may be well convinced, then, of the multitude of the "all things" which it is your duty to do, though I do not bring forward a catalogue of all the varieties. Let the love of God be the constant principle, and obedience to God the constant expression of it, and there cannot a day roll over your heads without carrying a number of virtuous performances along with it.

There must be a constant surrender of self to the interests of those around you there must be a breathing after usefulness -there must be integrity for the performance of what is just— there must be civility for the performance of what is agreeablethere must be an hourly self-denial in the work of doing to others what you would be done by; and such is the wideness of this obligation, that a single human being can scarcely come within your reach but you must feel a call to the exercise. For the master to do that which is just and equal to his servant-for the servant to be faithful to his work while the eye of his employer is removed from him-for the parent to maintain a constant purity of example in the sight of his children-for the member of a company to carry it with kindness and humility, and to give up his own will and his own way to the gratification of those around him-and what, perhaps, is a higher achievement than any, for the member of a family to keep down the irksomeness of his feeling, and suffer not a murmur or a frown to break in upon the peacefulness of his domestic society-these

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are only a few out of the many; and yet they demand a vigilance which must never be remitted-a tone and a habit of exertion which must never be relaxed-a strictness of principle which, if suffered to abate for a single instant, may throw you open to the inroads of temptation, and lead you to deplore in sorrow and in shame the impotency of all your purposes.

From the visible conduct let me carry you inward to the chambers of the mind, and lay before you the mighty work of obedience that should be going on there. Are the supreme regards of your heart fastened upon God? Is His authority felt as the master-principle to which all the movements of the inner man observe a subordination? Do you feel His friendship to be enough for you? and does His assurance that all shall work together for good keep your spirit at rest from the anxieties of the world? He has sent you a written message, have you brought every thought of your heart to the captivity of its obedience? Do you submit to it in faith, and is the love of Christ, the author and the finisher of our faith, felt in its constraining influence upon you? Is conformity to His image the main object of your ambition ?—and in devotion to the Father-in love to every brother of the species-in the patient endurance of wrongs -in meekness and gentleness and kindness are you aiming at a fair and faithful resemblance to the pattern laid before you in the gospel, struggling not only to walk as He walked, but to have the same mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus?

II. These are so many of the "all things;" and I have put them into the form of questions that your conscience, stimulated to an answer, may go along with me in the second head of discourse; and sure I am, that every honest and enlightened conscience will spare me the burden of a proof when I assert, that in many, and in very many, of these things we offend. In some of these things, indeed, there may be an outward conformity, though the great principle of duty-the will of God— has no influence whatever. A sense of honour may give integrity to your conduct-the fear of disgrace may preserve you from all that is counted shameful in society-an instinctive

feeling of generosity may lead you to occasional acts of beneficence the mechanical influence of habit may perpetuate and ensure your attendance upon the ordinances of religion-your admiration of what is tasteful and decorous in the human character may lead you to display in your own much of all that is amiable and engaging;—but all this might have been done though there had been neither a God above you nor an eternity before you; and certain it is, that all this has been done where there was no feeling of the one and no anticipation of the other. How can these be appealed to as proofs of obedience, when one and all of them may be performed while the grand principle of obedience is asleep-while the authority of the Judge is unfelt, and the fear of the judgment-seat has no operation? Viewed in reference to the Lawgiver, they are in fact so many acts of indifference; nor can they be sustained as offerings to Him, when in the doing of them He was never thought of, and the obligation of His law was never adverted to. Yet, upon this deceitful foundation many an infatuated soul rests its security; and many who pass in society as its delight and its ornament, who are hailed as the favourites of every company, and distinguished by the greetings of the market-place-who, by the unblemished propriety of their manners, have their rank assigned to them among the good men of the world, will, in that day when judgment is laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, be found to have lived without God, and having neglected His obedience in time, to have lost His favour and His friendship through eternity.

"Whosoever," says the Apostle James, "shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." There is nothing to surprise or to startle us in this assertion, if we only advert to the singleness of that principle on which all obedience is suspended-Respect to the authority of God. It is no evidence of respect whatever, if you just do what you would have done though He had interposed with no authority upon the subject. He hath said, "Thou shalt not kill;" but if your own instinctive horror at the atrocity of a murder would have preserved you from the breaking of this commandment,