adoption of a certain belief. The scheme of salvation has frequently been regarded as a device (kindly meant on the part of God, perhaps, but singularly ungodlike)—a device for making things comfortable to us, for saving us in our sins, for taking us to heaven with any amount of guilt and pollution we may choose to carry there. The man who has intellectually assented to the proposition that Christ died for him—or, at any rate, the man who has experienced some sort of moral spasm, which is dignified with the name of faith, that man may dispense altogether with any attempt at right conduct. For him all good works are works of supererogation. may not, perhaps, be any the worse for a few of them, but they are as unnecessary to his salvation as proficiency in the fine arts.

He

It is but seldom believers in this doctrine can be brought to admit that they really hold it. When it is stated to them in plain English, they generally say that they believe something else. And no doubt there is a modified and less offensive form of the belief, which is not uncommonly adopted. Many persons, for instance, would put it in this way. They would say that Christ's first and chief purpose was to procure our admittance into heaven; but they

would admit that He had also a subsidiary and less important purpose-viz., to teach us to act rightly here. This doctrine is precisely the reverse of that which the Saviour taught. He was always reiterating to His disciples the truth that their conduct here was of paramount importance, since it was that which would determine their condition hereafter. The future reward or punishment He represents as the direct consequence of conduct. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink."

In no religion is so much stress laid upon right conduct, in none is so much right conduct required, as in the religion of Christ "He tightened," says the author of Ecce Homo,' "in an incredible degree all the obligations of morality. He rejected, as utterly insufficient, what had been regarded by the Jews as the highest moral attainments. It is in vain, He said, to refrain from injuring your neighbour, if, notwithstanding, you have the wish, the im

pulse, to injure him. The movement of hatred is, according to Christ, morally equivalent to a murder. And even if you have no such immoral impulses, yet if your disposition towards your fellow-creatures be purely negative, if you are not actuated by an enthusiastic love and benevolence towards all mankind, you are morally good for nothing. Christ was not content, like the earlier moralists, with prohibitions, with condemning those who did wrong. He condemns those who have not done good. The sinner whom Christ habitually denounces is he who has done nothing. This character comes repeatedly forward in His parables. It is the priest and the Levite who pass by on the other side. It is Dives, of whom no ill is recorded, except that a beggar lay at his gates unrelieved. It is the servant who hid in a napkin the talent committed to him. It is the unprofitable servant who has merely done what it was his duty to do. And Christ not only raised the standard of morality to the highest possible point; but further, He insisted far more vehemently than previous moralists had done, upon the necessity of attaining the standard. He does not say-This is morality, but, as it is difficult of attainment, God will forgive your shortcomings. On the contrary, He says

-To be moral in this high sense is life and peace; not to be so is death and eternal damnation. "Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand;

and it fell and great was the fall of it."

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To say, then, that right-doing is unimportant for the Christian, or of secondary importance, is to give a flat contradiction to the words of Christ. He has never been more horribly blasphemed than by those professed disciples who insinuate that His gospel is not a gospel of right - doing. "The gospel," says Ruskin, "let His life rule your lives,' is eternally true and salutary. The gospel, 'let His life be instead of your lives,' is eternally false and damnatory." Ruskin is right. The one is the gospel of Christ, the other is the gospel of the devil. They are as opposite as light and darkness; and yet, unhappily, the one is sometimes mistaken for the other. It is an appalling fact (unfortunately so common that we sometimes. forget its deadly significance) that a sermon which aims at exhorting men to right-doing, would be characterised by some professing Christians as not a Gospel sermon. Not a Gospel sermon ! Then Christ did not preach the Gospel, did not even comprehend it. He must

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have been sent into the world too soon. He had but enjoyed the advantage of listening to these enlightened critics, they would have instructed Him in the way of salvation! In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ does not tell His hearers that He is going to do everything for them, and that they may sit still and take their ease. No! He gives His benediction to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Except your righteousness," He warns them, "shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." He exhorts them to let their light shine, so that men may see their good works. He commands them to avoid even an angry thought, or an unkind word, or a wanton look, and to be perfect even as their Father in heaven. "Every tree," He assures them, "which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father."