our diligence has made our pound into ten or only into five.

What may be hidden beneath the wonderful words of the promise, with which the audit closes, is more than any of us can guess. Have thou authority

over ten cities." At all events, that means an all but infinitely higher sphere and form of service granted to the diligent traders. Here, if I might stick by the metaphors of my text, we keep a little shop in a back street with a very small stock-in-trade in the little window, and very slender profits in the till. Yonder we shall be His viceroys and lieutenants; and somehow or other share in the possession and the administration of His royalty.

Or, if I might put it into the grand rolling words of John Milton, "They undoubtedly, that by their labours, counsels, and prayers have been earnest for the common good of religion and their country, shall, above the inferior orders of the blessed, receive the regal addition of principalities, powers, and thrones into their glorious titles."

XIX.

Form and Power.

"HAVING the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."

2 TIM. iii. 5.

N this, his last letter and legacy, the Apostle Paul is much occupied with the anticipation of coming evils. It is most natural that the faithful watchman, knowing that the hour of reliev ing guard was very near at hand, should eagerly scan the horizon in quest of the enemies that might approach when he was no longer there to deal with them. Old men are apt to take a gloomy view of coming days, but the frequent references to the corruptions of the Church which occur in this letter are a great deal more than an old man's pessimism. They were warnings, which were amply vindicated by the history of the post-apostolic age of the Church, which was the seed-bed of all manner of corruptions, and they point to permanent dangers, the warning against which is as needful for us as for any period.

The Apostle draws here a very gloomy picture of the corrupt forms of Christianity, the advent of which he tremblingly anticipated. I do not mean to enter at all upon the dark catalogue of the vices which he

enumerates, except to point out that its beginning, middle, and end are very significant. It begins with "lovers of self "-that is the root of all forms of sin. In the centre there stands "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God"; and at the end, summing up the whole, are the words of our text, "having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."

is

I do not suppose that these words need much explanation. "Godliness," in the New Testament, means not only the disposition which we call piety, but the conduct which flows from it, and which we may call practical religion. The form or outward appearance of that we all understand. But what denying the power thereof"? It does not consist in words, but in deeds. In these latter epistles we find "denying" frequently used as equivalent to abjuring, renouncing, casting off. For instance, in a passage singularly and antithetically parallel to that of my text, we read "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts," which simply means throwing off their dominion. And, in like manner, the denial here is no verbal rejection of the principles of the Gospel, which would be inconsistent with the notion of still retaining the form of godliness; but it is the practical renunciation of the power, which is inherent in all true godliness, of moulding the life and characterthe practical renunciation of that, even whilst preserving a superficial, unreal appearance of being subject to it.

This, then, being the explanation, and the rough outline of the state of things which the Apostle contemplates as hurrying onwards to corrupt the church

after his departure, let us look at some of the thoughts connected with it.

I. Observe the sad frequency of such a condition. Wherever any great cause or principle is first launched into the world, it evokes earnest enthusiasm, and brings men to heroisms of consecration and service. And so, when Christianity was first preached, there was less likelihood than now of its attracting to itself men who were not in earnest, but were mere formalists. But, even in the Apostolic Church, there were an Ananias and a Sapphira; a Simon Magus and a Demas. As years go on, and primitive enthusiasms die out, and the cause which was once all freshly radiant and manifestly heaven-born becomes an earthly institution, there is a growing tendency to gather round it all sorts of superficial, half-and-half adherents. Whatsoever is respectable, and whatsoever is venerable, and whatsoever is customary will be sure to have attached to it a mass of loose and nominal adherents; and the Gospel has had its full share of such.

I was talking not very long ago to a leading man belonging to another denomination than my own; and he quietly, as a matter of course, said, "Our communicants are so many hundred thousands. I reckon that a quarter of them, or thereabouts, are truly spiritual men!" And he seemed to think that nobody would question the correctness of the calculation and the proportion. Why, "Christendom" is largely a mass of pagans masquerading as Christians.

And every church has its full share of such people; loose adherents, clogs upon all movement, who bring down the average of warmth, like the great icebergs

enumerates, except to point out that its beginning, middle, and end are very significant. It begins with "lovers of self "-that is the root of all forms of sin. In the centre there stands "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God"; and at the end, summing up the whole, are the words of our text, 'having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”

I do not suppose that these words need much explanation. "Godliness," in the New Testament, means not only the disposition which we call piety, but the conduct which flows from it, and which we may call practical religion. The form or outward appearance of that we all understand. But what is "denying the power thereof"? It does not consist in words, but in deeds. In these latter epistles we find "denying" frequently used as equivalent to abjuring, renouncing, casting off. For instance, in a passage singularly and antithetically parallel to that of my text, we read "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,” which simply means throwing off their dominion. And, in like manner, the denial here is no verbal rejection of the principles of the Gospel, which would be inconsistent with the notion of still retaining the form of godliness; but it is the practical renunciation of the power, which is inherent in all true godliness, of moulding the life and characterthe practical renunciation of that, even whilst preserving a superficial, unreal appearance of being subject to it.

This, then, being the explanation, and the rough outline of the state of things which the Apostle contemplates as hurrying onwards to corrupt the church