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SERMON III.

CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE.

"Leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps.'
1 PETER ii., 21.

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'N bringing this subject before you this morning, I may at once give a caution on two points. Not that it

is at all necessary for those of you who are habitual listeners here. But it may be for those who hear me only occasionally, or who may be listening for the first and only time. It is the habit of some, as they profess, to bring the whole gospel, as they regard it, into each separate sermon. I have no fault to find with such a plan, if any feel it practicable, but I find it utterly impossible. The gospel is to me something so immensely large, that I find it difficult to embrace it all in any definite number of discourses. To put it all into one sermon seems to me something like describing the whole universe in one hour's lecture. I undertake neither of these tasks. My habit is to endeavour to present whatever subject I take in hand thoroughly and adequately in itself, without branching into all the subjects that may stand connected with it. Although this

may subject me to many misrepresentations, I see no help for it, without troubling you with very needless commonplace remarks.

case.

The first caution I would make is against too readily drawing conclusions that are not warranted by the subject. I should be sorry for any one to think that I regard the example of Christ as the great power of the gospel in effecting our regeneration. That is very far from being the Next Sunday morning I shall have to suggest certain points in which the example of Christ is inadequate to meet the wants of sinful men such as we are; an inadequacy which is supplied by the sacrifice of Christ in his suffering and death. But this does not make the example of Christ less important. Because it alone was not intended to accomplish everything in our redemption, we are not justified in neglecting it. Nor can we do so without serious damage to our conceptions of christianity, and therefore also to our personal christian life.

The other point on which I would venture a caution is, that in speaking of the example of Christ, and in highly estimating it, we may form very narrow and contracted views of its true meaning. As, however, I shall throughout be guarding against this error, I need say no more respecting it now.

I. Whether or no we theoretically undervalue the example of Christ, and so lose its moral power over us, I suppose no one will doubt that practically we do so. Believing as I do, that our practice in the main accords with our belief, I cannot resist the conviction that we do in our hearts think very differently from the apostles respecting the life of our Saviour, the evidence of which difference may be seen in the very much lower standard of

christian life prevailing now, than that which threw so much light over and diffused so much power through the apostolic age. Either men have come to think that there is some insuperable difficulty in making Christ's life a pattern for our own (probably from dwelling too exclusively on his divinity and misapprehending it), or else they have come to feel that there is neither obligation nor necessity to be like Christ, in attaining to a perfect salvation. By some method or other we have evaded the force of the inspired teaching

"If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." I desire to do what I can towards restoring this truth to its proper place in our system of christian belief.

When we open the Gospel history, we can scarcely fail to be struck with the fact that as Christ gained disciples, or as any proffered to be his disciples, the first and only direction he gave them was to become devoted followers of himself personally. Instead of laying before them any laws of his kingdom, or any definite rules by which to regulate their lives, his one exhortation was-forsake all and follow me. Instead of instituting any enquiry into their moral character or their religious experience-as men do now-the only test he applied was to their love for him and the need they felt for his love and friendship, which of course would have to be strong in order to secure a consistent and devoted discipleship. Hence, he often added, to "forsake all," "take up the cross and follow me." I am sure you will not think that by following him, he meant no more than going about from place to place with him. On one occasion he speaks of their having followed him in the regeneration, and, on more than one occasion, he rebukes the people because they did follow

him in a mere outward fashion, without partaking of his spirit. When any ceased or failed to follow him, it was not from the weariness of the way, but from inward alienation from the spirit of his life.

Altogether it is clear that by following him, he meant exactly what we mean when we present his life as an example; he meant entering into the spirit and manner, and thereby into the very deeds of his life. To this precept, he in many ways gave great force, as, for instance, when he sent them forth on evangelic missions invested with the powers that he himself possessed, and when he spoke such striking words as to their being one with him, even as he was one with the Father.

Whether now we can be right in making so little, as is generally done, of the example of Christ to be followed by us, when he laid such stress on it, making it the one test of their fidelity, I must leave you to judge. To me it seems to be the one fatal difference between our christianity and that of the apostles, and quite enough in itself to account for the miserably low standard to which we have fallen. They were fired with an enthusiastic love to the personal Christ, which could not bear to be conscious of any moral or practical unlikeness, so that it pained them to be reminded of any want of sympathy with him, or to feel any incapacity to do the wonderful works that he was doing. We, on the other hand, seem to have fallen into the habit of contemplating a mere theoretic Christ, whom it would be almost absurd to try and resemble.

II. But how shall we adequately think of Christ as an example for our imitation ?

First. I suppose that the most obvious and immediate thought would be, That the definite actions of his life

(except, within limitations, his miraculous works, of which I have already said that the apostles were invested with power to equal or surpass them) should be copied into our life. Not indeed in a slavish imitation of mere outward conformity, but rather as catching their spirit-their moral loveliness and unfolding it in our practical conduct. If we see in him all that which would perfectly fill and adorn all the relationships of human life, and if we take, as illustrating this, his numerous precepts, I do not think we can find much difficulty in understanding precisely what we have to do. As to whether we think we may find this possible-that is a very different question. cannot discover the impossibility, after looking at this question for the last twenty years. I cannot see what that is in the spirit and manner, in the whole behaviour of Christ, which should be impossible to a man living under the guidance and the strengthening influence of the Spirit of God.

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I can see what Christ so often told men; that if they attempted to follow him with a cold reserve, with a tenacious clinging to worthless objects, or with any lingering suspicion as to his worthiness to be the supreme object of their heart's devotion, or as to their finding perfect blessedness in his friendship, then they would find discipleship a very hard matter, and when the severe test of their fidelity came, they would forsake him and flee. And all that is as true of us. But I can see as plainly on the other hand, that if Christ becomes to us, what I have endeavoured to show he truly is, the most tenderly sympathetic drawing near to our hearts, of God, in love and in all the manifestations of Deity, that make the name of God precious to our childlike trust, and at the same time the most complete

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