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nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his.' How may an Israelite keep this commandment? Think what it is! Not to covet! What law can take hold of me there? What public or private accuser, what quick-sighted judge, can bring that charge home to me? Surely not one. And, therefore, if it is brought home to me, if my inmost heart does confess it, I know who must be saying this to me, Thou shalt not covet." I know it must be an unselfish and uncovetous Being. I know it must be one who desires that I should not covet; who is willing to deliver me from my covetousness; who can impart to me that unselfish, uncovetous life of His. So then, I have to interpret, 'Thou shalt not,' to mean, ‘If 'thou trustest thyself to me, I will not let thee do the things 'which I hate.' So then I come to know by that which He would not have me do and be, what He himself is.

But here a question arises, which I must treat before I go further. St. Paul appears to speak of these commandments very differently from St. John. It would seem not from a few passages in his Epistles, but from the whole tenor of them, as if the commandments had been to him great burdens, as if he had turned to the Gospel of Christ that he might find deliverance from them. Especially he says of this last commandment, Thou shalt not covet,' that it wrought in him all manner of concupiscence; that he was alive before he heard it; that with the commandment sin came to life, and he died. What is the reason of this diversity of language? Were these apostles in very deed at issue with each other? They both taught the Ephesians. Did they bring to them contradictory tidings?

I am certain that they did not preach opposing doctrines;

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that their lessons are essentially harmonious; that we cannot enter into the one unless we enter also into the other. Saul of Tarsus had reverenced these commandments as the peculiar treasure of his nation; he had considered all other nations accursed, for not possessing them. Saul of Tarsus believed, as the young ruler who came to our Lord believed, that he had kept these commandments from his youth up. Had he kept them as treasures committed to him by a Friend? Had he learnt the nature and character of that Friend by means of them? Had he learnt from the very first of them, that he was to worship a Deliverer, and none else? No such thing. He had read the commandments as letters written in stone, laid up in the Temple; he had read them as the decrees of an arbitrary Being who was determined that they should be obeyed, and who would have his satisfaction in punishing to the death those who did not obey them. And the discovery came to him, with dreadful power, that he himself, the pure Israelite, the strict Pharisee, was at war with the Being who made these laws. He says, 'Thou shalt not covet, 'And I do covet! Yes! I covet more since I have 'been told not to do it than I did before.' What did this mean? These commandments were not condemning others, but him; they were not cursing the Heathen; they were cursing him who had believed himself to be separated from the Heathen, to be the object of God's especial favour. There was no escaping from this conviction. The more he tried to obey the law, the more it forced itself upon him. There was a deep covetousness down in the very depths of his nature; it seemed as if it was a part of his very self. And God was proclaiming this to be evil; this to be hateful

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in His sight. How did he arise out of this misery, which seemed to draw all the past and the present and the future into it? It pleased God,' he says, 'to reveal His Son in me, that is, it pleased God to show me the Lord

' of my spirit, the Lord of all men; to show me that though in myself there dwelt this deep, radical covetous'ness, though in myself there dwelt no good thing,-yet 'that in Him I might claim God as my Father; in Him 'I might claim men as my brethren.' Yes, claim men as his brethren; for this discovery made him no longer a mere Israelite, though he could thank God more than ever for being an Israelite; though he could feel more than ever the responsibility of his calling and his education. But he was raised to be a Man; he had been taught what is the condition and glory of a man; and his calling and responsibility as an Israelite were, to tell all people-to tell those Heathens whom he had hated-that this condition and this glory were theirs as well as his. He could preach to them the Gospel, or good news, that Christ was revealed as their Lord, as the root of their life; that in Him they might call God their Father; that in Him they might renounce their selfish, covetous nature. Therefore, St. Paul having had this terrible experience himself, having this commission to mankind, could say once for all, 'The law shows us our 'sins; the law makes us aware of the evil nature that is in us. It is not something to boast of; if we look at it as

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separate creatures, whether we be Jews or not, it simply curses us, it simply drives us to despair. But if it is our 'schoolmaster to teach us of one true Lord, of Him in 'whom we are created, of Him in whom we have a new ' and true life, then indeed it is a blessing to us; for then

'we give up boasting altogether of ourselves; then we can 'surrender ourselves freely and heartily to God as our Friend ' and our Deliverer; then we can become His ministers to 6 carry the news of Him to those whom He knows, though 'they know not Him.'

Well; St.John, we saw, began with this revelation of God to men in His Son. It was the ground of all his teaching. He had told the Ephesians already that there was that darkness, that covetousness, in them which St. Paul had found in himself, which had caused him so much horror. But he had told them also, as St. Paul had also told them, that they were not created to walk in this darkness; that they might walk in the light which Christ had revealed, and have fellowship with it. So now, taking this for granted, he can tell them that these commandments might be kept as the commandments of a God who was at one with them in His Son, and that the more they kept them the more they would know of Him.

I have been speaking to you of one of the most difficult of all questions in Christian ethics; one with which some of the greatest troubles in the lives of individuals and in the history of Christianity have been connected. But the confusion is not in the doctrine; it is in us; and it is a confusion out of which we can be delivered, I think, only in the way St. John speaks of here. He says in the next verse, 'He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.' The Apostle uses strong language, for this lie was spreading in the church of his own day, and would spread, he knew, further and further in the times that were coming. There were many in that time who used this very phrase, 'We

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know God,' and used it for the purpose of self-exaltation ; therefore for an immoral, destructive purpose. There are ' a set of common Christians,' they said, 'vulgar people, who may learn certain lower lessons; they are capable of nothing better. The law is very good for them. But we can enter into the divine mysteries; we can have the most 'magnificent conceptions about the spiritual world which 'Christ has opened; we can talk about angels, and ema

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nations, and divine essences and properties; we can 'give them names, and trace their relations to each other. 'What are the commandments-what is common earthly morality—to us?' 'I tell you,' says St. John, broadly and simply, 'that if they are nothing to you, God is nothing to you. You may use what fine language you will; you may have what fine speculations you like; but it is in practice, ' in that daily vulgar practice of life, in the struggle with 'the temptations to cheat and slander, to be unchaste and 'to be covetous, which beset us all in different ways and 'forms; it is in revering parents, and the name of God; 'it is in heeding God's rest and God's work; it is in 'keeping ourselves from idols; it is in worshipping Him

as the common Deliverer, that we come to know Him; 'thus, and only thus.' And he adds words which, if understood rightly, were even more crushing to the pride of these haughty men than those which were aimed at themselves. 'But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily the love of God is perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him.' As if he had said, 'You talk about the perfect, the initiated man, ' and the mere beginners or novices. I will tell you who is 'the perfect or initiated man. Look at that poor creature 'who is studying hard in the midst of all opposition from