we have forgotten the simple truth, that a man is not always inwardly that which he is outwardly, and is not always outwardly that which he is inwardly.

Let us grant to the full that Circumcision is in its place a very great thing, and Uncircumcision also is a very great thing, and all that those words now represent to us are, in their way, very great things.—True opinions, free inquiry, ancient ceremonies, devout feelings yes, even knowledge, rank, station, antiquity, "have much advantage," "much profit," "much every way" for the strengthening of our bulwarks and our outposts. Yet behind and within, and above them all, is the citadel of the fortress"keeping the commandments of God." So long as this is ours, we are safe; if we lose this, we lose all. In comparison with this, and without this, circumcision and uncircumcision, orthodoxy and heresy, antiquity and novelty, are "nothing."

III. And now we come to the final conclusion of the Apostle's maxim. It brings "peace on earth," not only to others, but to ourselves. How often in this troublesome world, when we

find that we are ill at ease in this situation or in that, with these opinions or with those, with those persons or with these, are we tempted to cry, "O that I had wings like a dove, then "would I flee away and be at rest! I would get "me far away and remain in the wilderness ;" 'far away from home, far away from my 'neighbours, far away into solitude, far away 'into the past, far away into the future, far 'away into the grave.' It is to thoughts of this kind that the Apostle's doctrine comes with such consoling force. No; we need not go far away. Slave or free, the Apostle tells us, circumcised or uncircumcised, married or single, Christian wife with unbelieving husband, Christian husband with unbelieving wife, each could, "in the calling wherein they were called, therein abide with God" by "keeping His commandments." Our road to Heaven needs no tortuous winding path, -it runs straight as an arrow across mountains and valleys; it cuts through difficulties, it makes use of natural facilities, it brings us into company with unexpected faces, characters, situations; but it is turned aside by none of them to the right or to the left, and

at the end it will bring us to the city where we would be. Year by year changes gather round us. We shall not be this year as we were last year. If we remain the same, yet things around us change; if things around us remain the same, yet we see those around us change, and our relative positions, thoughts, duties, feelings, change with them. But one thing changes not, and that is, the duty and privilege of keeping the commandments of God. If we have kept them before, we can keep them no less now. If the keeping of them, if the striving to keep the commandments of God, has been a "lantern to our feet and a light to our path"1 in former times, "rejoicing the heart and enlightening the eyes;"2 so we may humbly trust that it will be still, whatever changes have changes may befall us.

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befallen us, whatever "We go astray like a we may still cry with

sheep that is lost," yet confidence, "O seek Thy servant, for I do not forget Thy commandments." All outward habitations, circumstances, situations, shall perish; but God and His commandments remain. "They all shall wax old as doth a

1 Ps. cxix. 105. 2 Ps. xix. 8. 3 Ps. cxix. 176.

garment, and as a vesture they shall be folded up and be changed." But God and His commandments are the same. "His years will never fail ;" and "the Keeping of His Commandments" will never fail-and "Faith which worketh by Love" will never fail; and "the New Creature" which thus is born within us, will live and not fail"in Christ Jesus," who is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

! Ps. cii. 26, 27.

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SERMON XV.

DOCTRINE OF NONCONFORMITY TO THE WORLD.

(FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY, 1858.)

ROM. XII. 2.

Be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind.

THE Epistle of to-day leads us back to those direct instances of the Apostle's practical teaching with which I began these discourses. The Apostle here brings to a conclusion all his previous address; he beseeches his readers, "by the mercies of God" which he has unfolded, to "present a living, holy, reasonable sacrifice to Him." What that Sacrifice is to be, what the worship,—what the victim,— what the life-blood which is to give it virtue,