union which shall be consummated amid the rapturous symphonies of a gladdened universe, John describes the church as a bride making herself ready; putting from her all her sackcloth of mourning, and all her trappings of worldly power, tearing from herself everything forbidding and repulsive, and enrobing herself with every form of attraction that was calculated to persuade, to win, and to fascinate. The character of the Christian church is to charm, subdue, and convert the world: it is in this that the Bridegroom will, at the espousal of the world, appear to be " ADMIRED by men and angels. In proportion as Christians become anxious for "meetness for use," as much as for usefulness itself, they will be "prepared for every good work;" and be "making themselves ready" to communicate the influences, and "minister the grace," that shall baptize and hallow the globe. To be in a prepared and meet attitude for this redeeming achievement, the church itself needs to be reconverted; for it is indisputable that had we a better church, and a better body of Christians, we should have a better world.

I. Eminent holiness in the church is the first measure towards the diffusion and transmission of it to others. Holiness is the only means by which holiness can be diffused. It is like salt, its usefulness to others must begin with itself. The man who fails to persuade himself to be holy, is sure to be unsuccessful with others. It is the wise man that can impart wisdom to others, it is the good man that can diffuse goodness, and it is only the holy man that can diffuse holiness. Every man can bring forth to others, only out of the treasures deposited first in his own heart. He who undertakes to restore mankind to clear-sightedness must be of clear and accurate vision himself; for he who has a beam in his own eye is not likely to remove either. beam or mote from the eye of the world. The physician, who is to restore health to others, must not himself be fretting with the leprosy. Personal holiness is the first and foremost tribute, which we owe to the holy Spirit, for the Master's use; and we are to offer him no other service until this be paid. Pharnaces, says the Roman historian, sent to Cæsar the present of a diadem, while he was yet rebelling against his throne. Cæsar returned it with this sententious and admonitory message, "First of all yield obedience, and then make presents." The spirit and the truth of this message is addressed by the Holy Spirit to every Christian, and to every church. In an agent of the

Spirit, personal holiness is an indispensable requisite and an unforgeable credential. If the church is to maintain that the life of Jesus Christ is its example and model, it can do this only by holiness of heart, and purity of conduct; and if it fail in this, its inconsistency is bearing witness with the world against the holy pretensions of our Lord's character, and against the claims of his doctrine. The character of the

church is the holiness of the Spirit wrought out into visible forms and tangible deeds. The Holy Spirit is described as taking of the things of Christ in order to influence the church, that the church might show and prove to the world the efficacy of the atonement. The holiness of Christians is the only evidence that will convince the world that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. A church which is offensive by her own uncleansed sins, or clotted with the guilt of crucifying to herself afresh the Son of God, will never persuade, or win, the world to believe, that Christ died to save from sin, and that the Holy Spirit sanctifies the heart.

To the beauty of holiness the believer is consecrated and separated by a double baptism. He is baptized with water into the name, the character and the institutions, of the Holy Spirit: and, towards a more elevated surrender and dedication, he is baptized with the influences of the Holy Spirit. The influence of this second baptism on the apostles was, as we have seen, really marvellous; and, with the exception of its miraculous concomitants, it has still the same transforming power on all who partake of it. To convert the world is never the duty of an unconverted church. It has another important work which claims its first and immediate attention. It has to unshackle and purify itself; and when it is itself converted and sanctified, then does it become its duty to strengthen the brethren to scale the towers of the world's corruptions. "He," says the immortal LOCKE, "is very unfit to convert others, who was never converted himself."

II. The eminent holiness of Christians is one of the appointed means best adapted for the conversion of the world.

Holiness always appears of inconceivable momentousness in the estimation of Jesus Christ: it is prominent in his first instructions, where he teaches his disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world; and it stands out in solemn grandeur in his last prayer, when he supplicates the Father to keep them from evil, and to sanctify them by his word. In all the representations which the Holy Spirit

has given of the world, it is described as being in an improper, unpleasant, unsavory, and offensive state, fretting with corruption, and tending fast to putrefaction and dissolution. The methods which the Holy Spirit has adopted to restore the world to a state of purity, are the exhibition of the doctrines of the gospel, and the character of the Christian church. The influence of these penetrates, purifies, attemperates, preserves, and refreshes the world. It is this practical holiness alone that meets the case of the world, because it is supplying that in which the world is deficient, and exhibiting that which the world ought to be. The Holy Spirit expects every Christian to be useful in this way. The cardinal design for which the church is gathered together is, that it should sanctify the world. The people baptized by the Holy Spirit, and "separated to the Holy Spirit," are to live for nothing else. This is to constitute the individuality of the church, and to distinguish it from every other assembly of people. There are men enough in the world to live for science, to live for power, to live for wealth, without Christians degrading themselves from their noble enterprise. They must live for Christ, and subordinate all the interests of life to "the Master's use; they are kings and priests unto God, and redeemed to be nothing else, and nothing less.

Christians only are the appointed preservatives of the world. They alone give unto the world the savor of the character of God. By their obedience they give the savor of his will; by their benevolence they give the savor of his goodness; by their compassion they give the savor of his mercy; and by their praise they give the savor of his love. They perfume a corrupt world with the odor of their graces and virtues. Without these the world would be an offensive sink of impurity, loathsome to God, and pestilential to man. Depravity is corroding, spreading, and putrefying with malignant virulence, everywhere except where Christians check it by "wholesome words," and by the savor of the knowledge and character of Christ. "So is the will of God, that with WELL-DOING you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." Paul, in this passage, taught the Corinthian church, that unconverted men were to be won to Christ, by the persuasive attractions of the good conversation of Christians. "Let your light," says our Saviour, "so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven." Nothing, then, more effectually mars

and destroys the best administration of Christian doctrine, than the unchristian tempers and unchristian practices of Christian men. When the apostles thrilled the Roman world with their ministry, their actions did much more than their discourses. Holy consistency is a language. understood in every clime, and by every man. Of all powerful bulwarks, which have been raised against the encroachments of the world's depravity, holy consistency is the most stubborn and impregnable.

III. Eminent holiness is necessary to recommend the labors and the services of the church to the attention and esteem of the world.

Examples have always greater and surer influence on the mind than instruction, on the principle that all men can judge better, by what they see pictured out, than by any description which they hear or read. Christians, as experience everywhere proves, can be useful, only in proportion as they are esteemed; and they are generally esteemed, only in proportion to their practical holiness. The censures against the world, when expressed by holy men, like unwelcome and nauseous medicine, will be taken with greater readiness when administered by the hand of affection, delicacy, and tenderness. On this element of human nature the inspired instruction is founded- "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness." Never did a lesson show more consummate knowledge of human character. The person overtaken in a fault will tolerate no interference with his state, but by a spiritual man; and even his, only when advancing in the spirit of meekness. A church without worldly power can convert, and a church without imposing ceremonies can convert; but a church without holy character, a church without consistency, can NOT convert a sinner from the error of his way.

An insipid, impure, and ill-odored church is of all bodies the most worthless and the most useless. If the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall the world be salted? Nothing in the natural world is more worthless than such salt; and nothing in the moral world is more useless, pernicious, and contemptible than such a Christian church: useless, because it does not answer the avowed end of its existence, which was to heal the world; pernicious, for, instead of preserving, it corrupts the world; contemptible, for it is the ridicule of the world, and the disgust of the Holy Spirit; it is, withal,

the most hopeless, as likely to be given up by the spirit, to be a noisome heap, an offensive dunghill, the fetid monument of detested sluggishness.

The spirit of holiness gives to the church an aptness and a grace in all its movements and efforts for the conversion of the world. The influences of the Holy Spirit are on that account, as well as for the sweet odor with which they perfume the church, called "the unction of the Holy One." The Agonistes, in the Grecian games, anointed themselves with unguents, in order to attain quickness, agility, and nimbleness of action; and this gave a grace and a beauty to their various movements. Their achievements were not only performed, but performed well, with a becoming propriety, and a graceful elegance, that recommended the movements to all the spectators. Many of our attempts in well doing, and especially in promoting the conversion of man, have probably failed, through the want of something analogous to this process; through the want of aptness, an adroitness, a cleverness, and skillfulness, in the art of doing good. It is not the duty of bishops only to be apt to teach, but all Christians ought to be wise to win souls, and of adroit and quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. Before the Agonistes could attain this graceful agility and elegant adroitness, the unguent must have pervaded their frame, and not glistened in superficial application. In like manner, before the church can acquire a grace in doing good, and in acting "after the Spirit," the unction from the Holy One must penetrate all the muscles of its frame, and all the members of its body. Musk needs no books to establish the evidences of its presence, or to recommend it to acceptance; its own fragrance is its witness and its recommendation. The world has been deluged with books on the evidences of Christianity: what the world needs is not books on these evidences, but men who are proofs of them. When, instead of such books, it shall have LIVES on the evidences of religion, lives perfumed with the odor of holiness, lives that will adorn and recommend the designs of the church, it is more likely to be captivated into subjection to the reproofs of the Spirit.

IV. Without eminent holiness, the most enlarged usefulness is not only unprofitable, but really injurious, to the church itself.

The positions of mankind in the universe are so arranged, as that they cannot do evil to others without wronging and