tion" (Eph. iv. 30). They thus have in themselves the evidence of heavenly triumph. The eternal life which comes from Christ through the Spirit is already at work in their souls, and they know that it will maintain its character as eternal and find its consummation in the blessedness of heaven, as well as in the resurrection of the body, which is the prelude to the entrance into the final state of the righteous. Watts has said: "The spiritual life of a Christian runs into eternity; it is the same divine temper, the same peaceful and holy qualities of mind communicated to the believer here in the days of grace, which shall be fulfilled and perfected in the world of glory."

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In conclusion, two remarks. First, the assurance which accompanies this experience is, in normal cases, of the strongest kind. Right or wrong, the Christian believes himself to be right with all his heart and soul and strength and mind. He has tried, and the trial has verified the promise of the Gospel. Ile knows; he is certain. He has not second-hand but first-hand knowledge. We shall see that the evidence grows stronger as time goes on, and the Christian experience deepens and enlarges; but from the first there is genuine certainty which rests satisfied in its possessions.

In the second place, emphasis is to be laid upon the fact that the starting-point in all our Christian evidence, as it is derived from this initial experience, is the transformation of the inner man from a child of sin to a child of God. It is through this that the Spirit and the other Christian realities manifest themselves. We claim no direct intuition of God. The witness of the Spirit to the Christ and the Father is through the change which they have wrought in us. So the witness

of the Spirit to our sonship is through the actual change from sin to sonship which the Christian has undergone. I shall recur to this subject when we come to treat the objections to the evidence. For the present there is need only to mention it.

Such, then, is the initial experience of the Christian and the evidence which arises from it. In the next lecture we shall consider the enlargement and strengthening of this evidence through the progress of the Christian experience.

I pray God that we may have that insight into the Christian realities which God's Spirit alone can give, that seer's vision into the things unseen and eternal which shall enable us to understand these great spiritual facts and to appreciate their infallible evidence."

LECTURE V.

THE GROWTH OF THE EVIDENCE.

THE evidence of Christian experience is, as we have seen, in a true sense complete in the first hours of the new life. A real knowledge, with a corresponding certainty, has been established, and the truth of the Gospel is indubitably confirmed. There are, however, degrees of completeness in knowledge and in the evidence by which knowledge is vindicated. There is a completeness of the germ and a completeness of mature growth. Now Christian experience is a matter of growth. Redemption is indeed established in principle in the regenerated soul, but it is only by a long process that it permeates and takes entire possession of it. The " new man "is at first but a babe in Christ, and must grow up gradually into the perfect manhood. It may readily be seen that the evidence for the truth of Christianity advances pari passu with the growth of the experience from which it is derived. In the present lecture I wish to trace the enlargement and strengthening of the proof thus effected.'

It is important to remember that the facts to be brought out here are also included in the promise of the Gospel, and that, in order to progress in Christian experience, as to entrance into it, the objective Word and the testimony of the church play their part as es

sential means. The Christian does not go on alone, without guidance from without, after he has entered the new sphere, but is still dependent upon his Bible and the aid of his fellow-Christians.

I. We consider first the advancing sanctification and its evidence. We have seen that regeneration and conversion look forward to complete holiness. Redemption is not a gift that is bestowed in its completeness at the start. Rather the gift is an endowment intended to be used, and having no meaning apart from its use. The problem of redemption is the complete restoration of the man, his reforming to the divine image, his renewal in sonship, his entire salvation. The kingdom of God is to be fully re-established in the sinful soul. In regeneration, and the divine forgiveness or justification accompanying it, the moral obstacles on the divine side which stand in the way of the new life are removed, and on the human side the new direction is given to the life. But if this were all, Christianity would lose its high ethical character. Redemption would then be a legal fiction rather than a reality. This, however, is furthest from being the fact. Regeneration and justification imply sanctification and complete redemption as their inseparable sequel. They are only the beginning of salvation, the entrance upon the new road, the initiation of the new The Christian becomes such that he may work out his salvation (Phil. ii. 12). He is to overcome his sin, to become holy, to be the agent of Christ in the work of his kingdom. The life within him is to be a perennial fountain pouring forth more and more copious streams till it reaches its consummation in the heavenly blessedness (John vii. 38).

career.

The next stage in the evidence of Christian experience is based upon the reality of what is thus prophesied in regeneration, the actual progressive achievement of sanctification. As time goes on the Christian becomes more and more truly the redeemed child of God. The growth and progress which are the mark of all normal experience prove the reality of the life and the truth of the Christian system. Evangelical theology, based as it is upon the teachings of the Scriptures as verified in the practical facts of the Christian life, insists that the proof of the reality of the believer's faith is to be found in the sanctification of his soul. We insist that the same experience is to the believer the evidence of the truth and reality of Christianity.

1. Let us look at the relation in which sanctification stands to regeneration. This has been in part anticipated. The former is the progressive continuation of the latter. Repentance finds its sequel in the permanent choice of God and his kingdom, which dominates the Christian life and persists through all its changes, working for itself ever broader and deeper channels. This supreme choice bears the character of all ultimate choices. Such choices we are constantly forming and persisting in. They are made by an instantaneous exercise of the will, but they abide for years, perhaps for a lifetime. A young man, for example, determines to enter the ministry of Christ. The decision, though it may be the result of long meditation and anxious asking of counsel and abundant prayer, is made in a moment. But it is made for a lifetime, and through all the vicissitudes of later years, the period of education in college and seminary, the active work of the ministry, that choice persists and