This new cloth

its vices, and the putting on the new is a higher thing than improving the old. cannot be patched on to the old.

We need a new

garment altogether. The mistake of multitudes is that they suppose salvation to consist in a mere pruning off the vices of the old man. The gospel of amendment and culture and philanthropic sentiment is now widely preached in lieu of the gospel of Christ. The rejection of the old man includes, indeed, the abandonment of its vices. But the vital feature in God's way of salvation is the consignment of the old man to death. It is never assumed that he can be radically changed or improved. Hence He saves by raising up in us the new man. We need to know how deep and radical is this salvation of which we are the subjects. We need to stand guard against that ever-present, ever-recurring and subtle error of the Wicked One, which affirms that what is natural must be right. This monstrous dogma of original sin, exclaims the radical, is a crime against nature and against manhood. "We have a right to indulge the propensities and desires which God Himself has given." Such fail to see that the meaning of this present world-system is, that it is made the training-ground for a new manhood, which alone is worthy to enter upon the possession and enjoyment of God's works, and that we rise into this rank of being through the denial and ultimate

death of the old nature. And the calling of the Christian, as he comes in contact with the evil of the world, and as he learns the true character and end of his dying manhood and the purity and glory of the new, in which he is to appear and inherit with Christ, is to mortify his members which are upon the earth, and to set his affections on things above. It is because of the scope and farreaching issues of the redeeming work wrought for us in the death and resurrection of Christ, and which is now being wrought out in us, that we are urged to rid ourselves of all the deformities and vices of this dying manhood, which we must soon cast off, and to put on, by anticipation, the graces and virtues of that new manhood in the glory of which we shall appear. It is noteworthy how the several epistles, which set forth these deep things of God, end with the most practical and minute directions for the Christian's daily temper and conduct.

We may get from this subject new intelligence of the conflict to which we are now exposed. When the Spirit informs us, as in the next chapter, that we wrestle with principalities and powers, He describes that which necessarily results from the fact that we, as natural men, are quickened with that life which is now contending with these powers for the inheritance of the universe. And hence the conflict comes through every avenue

and tie that links us in with this created system. Moreover, we need to be warned against despondency, if our progress in this conflict be not one perpetual victory. Young Christians, especially, are apt to imagine, in the first flush of the new life, that it has vanquished forever all these enemies; whereas they have, at first, little idea of the scope and versatility of their power. The flesh is not slain in us at one stroke and once for all. The roots of its power lie deep. Their fibres run through the soil of this system of nature and hold us in bondage to it by cords which only death can fully sever, yea, rather, which only the Lord Jesus, descending from heaven with a shout, will finally and forever break.

We need also to be warned against looking for change and improvement in that which is born of the flesh. Our calling is not to improve the old man, but to put it off. We are not to expect any radical change in it for the better. It may be toned down and repressed. The new man may be so dominant that the old shall be abashed and weakened. We would put no limits to the extent to which it may be dethroned and mortified. The Christian may, and ought to, live in the Spirit. But, however obscured and mastered, its character is never changed. Nor is it extinct. It is ready to seize every opportunity for outbreak and rebellion. There are two irreconcilably hos

tile natures in every Christian,-that which is born of the flesh and that which is born of the Spirit. The flesh cannot become spirit. It never can learn to love the things of God. It must gravitate to earthly things, for its tendencies are as unalterable as the laws of nature, to whose domain it belongs. But it can be disowned and put off. The temper and conduct of the new man may be put on, until they become the habit of the life. This is now our calling, as preparatory to our destiny. And He, who hath called us to it, is able to work in us mightily to this end, above all that we are able to ask or to think.

X.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE BODY.

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.-ROMANS xii. 1.

THIS passage is often misquoted. The word "souls" is often coupled with the word "bodies." But this insertion weakens the force of the passage, which directly exhorts us to devote our bodies to God's service.

Even the similar passage in 1 Cor. vi. 20, "Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit," is corrected in the Revised Version. It reads simply, "Therefore glorify God in your body."

We shall now consider, first, what is the body; second, what place does it hold in the service we render to God; and, third, how may we offer through it such service as is here described, "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."

At first sight it would seem to be a simple thing to define the body. And yet our common definitions are made from but a single point of view, and are therefore partial. The anatomist, the