ourselves unto God as those who are alive from the dead. "I beseech you," says Paul-and those to whom he wrote did it "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." This is the junction when a man's security becomes plain and incontestable-when | a man's happiness becomes elevated, intellectual, and strong-when he is devoted to God-when he has to say, I am no longer my own, I am God'swhen he asks what is the will of God -when he looks up to heaven exclaiming, what wilt thou have me to do?-looks to his word, and then finds out what are the paths of duty, and what are the points of obligation, and conscientiously attends to them. This moral revolution in your inward principles may take place without any change whatever in your outward circumstances. You may be the very same persons, in the same places, doing the same things in the one case, irrespective of God and his will, having no regard for his authority; and in the other case, doing the very same things, and being spontaneously and powerfully moved by the energy of his grace. O to be servants of God, and to persist in his service to the end of life. For, as we do not live unto ourselves, so do we neither die unto ourselves; but whether living or dying we are the Lord's. If you awake, and arise, in order to effect this-if what I am saying shall become fact, and not statementif it be exemplified in you, there will be resistance, there will be opposition. You must do it with might, and decision, and steadfastness, against your remaining corruptions, against the temptations of the devil, and the frowns or blandishments of the world. There are the strongest reasons why you should do so; and nothing will yield | you satisfaction at the last, unless you receive Christ's righteousness, be made free from sin, and become the servants of the living God. You brought nothing into the world, and you will carry nothing out of it: you will leave every thing behind, except your moral principles, except your religious state as you stand before God. Then, if we are his servants, THE FRUIT IS UNTO HOLINESS. All that arises out of it is beautiful and pure. We may take an illustration from the converse-" Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps." This is the effect of the principles of wicked men. This is ugliness and bitterness, and the mischief of their conduct and their actions: and as opposed to these, there are the fruits of righteousness. Not half so beautiful to the eye, so pleasant to the mind are the citron, the melon, the clusters of the grape, or the fairest fruit that ever bloomed even in Eden itself, as those lovely principles of grace and holiness which arise out of the power of the gospel in the mind of man. They are called the "fruits of the Spirit." They are, "Love"what is so beautiful, so tranquil, so pure, so sparkling, so brilliant, so crystal, as celestial love, shining in a man's nature, glistening in a man's eye-love to God, and to his fellow men" Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,"-that is, an habitual recognition of the divine Providence"meekness, temperance." These are the fruits. Allow me to add, that no principles but those of the gospel will produce living, blooming, beautiful fruits. There may be dry, dull, shrivelled moralities without grace, but no fruits in the scriptural sense of that expression. Let me call upon you to cultivate your hearts and minds-to attend to your own condition-to aim after these fruits, that they may be brought to ripeness and maturity. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to show that the Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him." If you have the fruit of holiness upon you-if these clusters shine and brighten around your persons, and are there for moral ornament and spiritual decoration-what is to be done with you? Are you in that state fit for perdition? Can you in that condition be sent down into hell? What could you do there? On the other hand, are you not prepared for entering into, and shining among the immortalities of heaven." So it is said, "The fruit is unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." of things visible-then he is one of the persons whom the Apostle Peter describes as "blind-not seeing afar off" THE END. Every thing is as the end is. If it were so that the path-making his calculations just for the of religion were one dark, full of thorns, of hinderances and difficulties, and that the end were glory, every wise man would walk in it. But it is a way of pleasantness and a path of peace. On the other hand, if the way of irreligion and vice were a way of gladness, of heyday and joyousness, without interruption and without a cloud, the end being despair and death, none but a fool-I repeat it-none but a fool, deliberately captivated and led away by foolishness, would choose to walk in it. It is not, however, so: there is a conscience resisting-an inward, troubled, insecure mind, at every step of the progression. But the end of the way of religion is everlasting life-life in its highest perfection-life in its resplendency-life in its power and perpetuity-life in the midst of loving and glorified friends in the presence of Deity for ever. This is the end. I only add, that that man, be he who he may, who is making his calculations only for the life that now is he may be moral and honest, but he may be covetous and a worldling, having his affections centered in the midst small circumference of his present being, and not making his calculations for the whole course and career of his existence. Is not this man a fool? O brethren, let there come into your calculations not only the life that now is, but the glory that is to be revealed. Be you ready to say, I aspire after everlasting life—I desire to be free. O, the desire of spiritual freedom is the first ray of actual emancipation upon the soul. If you call out upon Christ he will make you free, and you shall be free indeed; and your fruit shall be unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. O that you were charmed with the loveliness, the dignity, the sanctity, the tranquilness, and the pleasantness of a life devoted to God. Depend on it, brethren-and our experience day by day, and year by year, confirms it more and more-that the vanity, the vexation, the poverty, the troubles of man are found as he prizes this world, and the world only. His everlasting blessedness is found in the freedom which is through Christ-in the fruit which is unto holiness-in the end which is everlasting life. A Sermon DELIVERED BY THE REV. T. DALE, 2 Cor. iii. 6." The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Ir is a solemn consideration to those But he is not the only person who has an interest in this. Here also ought to be an impressive and awful admonition to the hearers: they, too, ought to consider that the very ministry that is acceptable to God, and approved by him, may be ot themselves the “savour of death unto death." How far the peculiar manner in which the preacher may be led to develope the mysteries of the gospel, can be instrumental to the one result or to the other, must necessarily be known only to God but the idea of the bare possibility was enough to make even the Apostle ask, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Well, therefore, may we echo his question who cannot hope to share in the unspeakable blessing of his inspiration from above. The reason of this awful difference in the effect of that gospel which was preached by Paul-and which we, following his steps, would also desire to preach-in its very nature is composed of two parts-the letter and the spirit; the results of which, when one is considered apart from the other, are essentially different: "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." It shall, therefore, be the object of the present discourse to point out, and to illustrate, the difference between the letter and the spirit of the New Testament-to show in what sense the one killeth, and the other giveth life. May we be enabled, by divine grace, to contemplate the subject with an attention and concern, in some degree proportionate to the high and important interests which it involves; that ourselves may be led, by the teaching of the spirit, to find in the gospel "the savour of life unto life." Would he enjoin an obedience which, from its very nature, could not be a prompt and cheerful obedience? Now, these are questions that can only be answered from scripture and consulting, therefore, that infallible source of information, we find that it pleased God to institute, for the guidance of his chosen people, a law which, at the time of its institution, was not intended to be permanent, and therefore was not made perfect. The reason of this is sufficiently obvious. All the types, and figures, and rites, and ceremonies of the Mosaic law, had relation to the divine promise of a deliverer, and tended to cherish and support the interest and anxiety which already prevailed as to the fulfilment of that promise. Every victim slain by the priests in the temple, was a lively symbol of that Lamb which should hereafter be slain as the atonement for the sin of the world. But when the Lamb of God had been actually offered, the office of the high priest became absolutely nugatory and superfluous. "But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered at once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Christ thus became the High Priest of his people, as well as the victim for them: and "there being a change of the priesthood, there is made of necessity a change also of the law." Now, the part of the law which was abrogated by the offering of Christ, was that which is here termed “the letter that killeth ;" and in its room was By the term "letter" the apostle here primarily intends the Mosaic dispensation, with its two-fold law, the moral and the ceremonial-a law in itself holy, just, and good, but yet comprehending so many rites, sacrifices, and ordinances, that the observ-substituted “the spirit that giveth life.” ance became difficult and painful in the extreme. It was even termed by St. Peter, in a public address to the Hebrews, a burden which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear." But it may, perhaps, be objected, this law was of divine institution; it was delivered by the Almighty himself, speaking with lightnings and thunders, and the voice of words, from Mount Sinai and would he, who knew the nature and capacities of man, institute a law that was not adapted to both? Would he require more from men than they were able to render? The law of Moses with its ordinances of divine service, with its tabernacle, the shew-bread, and the ark of the covenant, and the miraculous budding rod of Aaron, and the tables of the covenant, and every other appendage to its solemn and stately service, was henceforth to be set aside and superseded by Him, to whom all these had related, and in whom they had been all fulfilled. This position is fully maintained and vindicated by St. Paul in the Hebrews, that "if the first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second:" but, on the other hand, that when God speaks of "a new covenant he hath made the first old; and that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." Accordingly" the letter that killeth" may here be so used concerning the old law; and it is so termed because it was in itself at no time capable of bestowing or imparting life. It stood only "in meats and drinks and carnal ordinances, imposed on them till the time of reformation." It made nothing perfect-neither the atonement for sin, nor the essential qualifications for a holy life, as pertaining to the conscience. "It could not make him that did the sacrifice holy," saith St. Paul. Did he seek an assurance that he was delivered from the curse and penalty of sin? How could sin be taken away by the blood of bulls or of goats? How could the dark catalogue of his transgression be obliterated by the blood of a carnal victim? The virtue and efficacy of the law lay, from the very commencement, in him whom it represented and typified. Those, therefore, who continued, after the death and satisfaction of Christ, to act as ministers of the ceremonial law, did, in reality, proclaim nothing more than "the letter that killeth." They directed the very law that condemned themselves; for it is written, "Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the law to do them." We do not mean to affirm that those who did this ignorantly, and in unbelief, were necessarily condemned themselves, or made the means of condemnation to others. We only affirm that while they put the sign for the thing signified-the type for the antitype the sacrifice which, though offered, could not take away sin, for the one great, costly, and inestimable, sacrifice they were the blind leading the blind; and it was the mercy of God if both did not fall into the ditch, and there be smothered and suffocated by the mire of human wisdom and self-righteousness; as they must have been, unless they had been extricated by Him who is the mediator established upon better promises. It is, however, in a different sense that the words must be applied to ourselves. By "the letter that killeth," we are now to understand a doctrine that represents perfect acceptance and eternal salvation to be conditional on our own performances. That there are several passages of the divine oracles which, taken by themselves and apart from the context, seem to favour this doctrine, cannot be denied. But if scripture alone be the safe interpreter of scripture-and we can only hope to arrive at any result by comparing spiritual things with spiritual-then will it follow, that the whole tenor and tendency of the Old and New Testament (and more especially the latter) is directly opposed to such a notion. But why, you will say, why do we call this doctrine "the letter that killeth?" Because it beguiles man from the only path of salvation by leading him to attempt what is impossible-the establishment of a righteousness of his own, which shall endure the scrutiny of God. Now if ever human being could lay claim to self-righteousness it was the apostle Paul; and yet he expressly disclaims and discards it: "Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ." This doctrine again is called "the letter that killeth," because it tends directly to overthrow that which God has appointed to be the only propitiation for sin-the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. If man could have wrought out his own salvation, there would have been no necessity whatever for that signal act of divine power, by which salvation has been effectually accomplished. Why should God have done for man-and that too at such a price-what man was capable of doing for himself. But what the law could not do-not even in an Abraham, a Moses, or a David-" what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." You will observe, then, brethren, that the letter of the law is, Do this and live-the man that doeth them shall live in them. But you have the testimony of your own conscious experience, that in time past you have not done them; and you have the evidence of your own full and decided human nature to be cherished, nor its conceit to be fostered, by resting satisfied with the "letter that killeth." Do not flatter yourselves with the hope of being able to render by your utmost exertions, so effectual and so meritotious an obedience to the divine law, that you shall be admitted as a joint agent with Christ in the great work of salvation. Nay, more, do all that you can, you can never do enough. But never let your opinion of what you do blind you to a sense of your own unprofitableness. conviction, that for the time to come you cannot do them-not, at least, in such a manner as to be acquitted by your judge; for all manner of sin, even deviations in thought and word, as well as in act, are forbidden by the law. And who can say, I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin?" How, then, if you adhere to the letter of the law, are you to live, if you cannot do this which is the very condition of life? It would be mere mockery and delusion if we were to rise up in this sacred place, sabbath after sabbath, and exhort you to practise this It is the privilege of the most pious and the other virtue, and to abstain Christians who adorn the church, from this and the other evil, and then that God shall not enter into judgment to tell you that the recompense of so with them, if they serve him in the doing, or so abstaining, would be ever-unity of the spirit, not in the oldness of lasting life. You know, while we speak the letter. But they are no longer to you, you cannot do it: you may under "the letter that killeth," but succeed to a certain degree, but you "under the spirit that giveth life." never can entirely. One may cut down Into this we are to examine in the weeds as soon as they appear above second place the face of the ground; but their roots are still hidden beneath the soil, and they will-you know they will-spring up, and gather vigour and strength, you scarcely know when or how, not only without your consent, but almost without your consciousness. Besides, the religion of the scriptures does not enjoin perfection in a single point. It is not one virtue only you are to practise-it is not one evil habit from which you are to refrain-it is not one holy disposition you are to cultivate-it is a union and combination of them all. You must add to faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. "For if these things be in you and abound," says the Apostle-what then? do they constitute a claim of acceptance before God? No; they only prove this-that you are "neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." What, then, is the legitimate inference but this-that the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is, in reality, the source of all those graces and dispositions which adorn the true believer, and cause him to shine forth conspicuously among the mere men of the world, like a city set on a hill, which cannot be hid. Do not, then, suffer the pride of WHAT IS THE SPIRIT THAT GIVETH LIFE?" The word here translated "giveth life," is elsewhere rendered “ quickeneth :" as in the twenty-first verse of the fifth chapter of John, where we read, "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." In both passages, and in all others where it occurs, it obviously means the communication of life, whether bodily or spiritual, to those who were not before possessed of it, to those who were corporeally or spiritually dead. Nor is it a merely figurative expression when we say of a worldly person, that he is " dead in trespasses and sins:" for there is an exact analogy between the bodily and spiritual life; each has its own proper functions, without which it cannot be continued; each has its peculiar maladies, by which its operation is impeded, and its very existence brought into peril. One important point of difference may indeed be traced between the bodily and the spiritual life; it is this-that the man in whom bodily life is extinct cannot be re-animated without a miracle, such as we have no warrant nor authority now for expecting; but he who is destitute of spiritual life may be made sensible of his condition, and be stimulated to an effort to be delivered from it. And this is of frequent, we may say, of daily occurrence. Where |