THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTIES IN THE WORLD.

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believer say, I am holy.' To speak thus is no proud assumption, but an expression of thankfulness. If thou sayest that thou art holy of thyself, that is pride. But if, as a believer in Christ, and as a member of Christ, thou wilt not call thyself holy, thou art unthankful. When the apostle wishes to check pride he does not say, 'Thou hast not,' but 'What hast thou which thou hast not received?' Thou wilt not be censured for saying that thou hast something which thou hast not, but that thou hast of thyself what thou hast. Acknowledge rather that thou really hast, but hast nothing of thyself, in order not to indulge in pride or ingratitude. Say to thy God, I am holy, since thou hast made me holy; since thou hast bestowed thy gifts upon me, not because I have merited them;' for if thou art not willing to call thyself so, thou beginnest to offend our Lord Jesus Christ; for if all Christians who believe on him, and have been baptized into him, have put him on, as the apostle says, As many of you as have been baptized have put on Christ;' if, therefore, they have become members of his body, and say they are not holy, they offend the Head himself, whose members are, according to them, not holy." And in one of his sermons Augustin says to all Christians: Learn that it is your business to put out your money to interest. (Matt. xxv.) Ye cannot indeed get interest from the place where we stand, but ye can elsewhere, wherever ye may be. Yet ye get interest whenever you gain over one or another to the Lord. Be as my representatives in your families. A bishop means an overseer, because by his overseeing he takes care of the whole. Every father of a family exercises the office of a bishop for his own house; he watches over the faith of his family, that none of them may be seduced by false doctrine; neither wife, nor son, nor daughter, nor servant, since he has purchased them at a dear price. The apostolic doctrine has placed masters before servants, and subjected servants to their masters; yet Christ paid the price of redemption for both. Despise not any of the least among you; with all watchfulness care for the salvation of the members of your families. If ye do this, ye will put out your money, to interest; then ye will not be like the slothful servant, nor have reason to fear his dreadful sentence." And a sermon on Psa. 1. 23, Augustin says to the members of his church: " Govern your houses, your sons, and your

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families. As it is our business to address you in the church, so it is yours in your houses to take care that you may be able to give a good account of those who are under your care." Thus also Chrysostom addresses his church, on 2 Thess. v.: "Let every one of you first of all teach himself. As a light, if it burns clearly, can kindle many lights, but if it is extinguished, neither can give light itself, nor kindle other lights, so it is with every holy light. If the light in us burns clearly, we shall form many scholars and teachers. Suppose a pious man who has a wife and children. Tell me, cannot he do more to profit them than I can? For they hear me only once or twice in a month; and what they have heard, perhaps they retain till they have crossed the threshold of the church, and then forget it. But if they see continually before them the life of such a person, they derive great benefit from it. Take your part with me in the service of the church. I speak to all collectively; you should speak to each one, and let every one take on himself to care for the salvation of those who are nearest to him; for that every one should care in these things for his own household, learn from the Apostle Paul. Hear his instructions to wives: If they would lear anything, let them ask their husbands at home;' he does not send them to the church-teachers. For as in elementary schools the scholars in their turn become teachers, so it should be in the church. See how many services thy wife renders thee; how she takes care of all household matters. Do in return something for her benefit. How? Take her by the hand in divine things. What thou hearest that is useful carry home in thy mouth, like the swallow, and put it in the mouth of the mother and children." Paulinus, bishop of Nola, writes to a Christian householder: "The Lord himself has said that he will be always present in the communion of two or three; hence I am convinced that he also dwells in the midst of thy house."

6

VARIOUS APOLOGIES FOR LAX MORALITY.

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CHAPTER VI.

VARIOUS ERRORS IN PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY.

As it is impracticable to give relief to a man who is suffering from bodily disease, if he is insensible of it, and rejects all remedies, so the spiritually diseased-the sinnercannot be relieved as long as he is unconscious of his spirituai malady, of his sin and guilt; whether he will not acknowledge what is sinful in his heart and life, or attempts to quiet his conscience by seeking excuses for his sins. Augustin justly observes, that “ only that man can obtain the forgiveness of sins who says, 'I have sinned."" Every age has its own peculiar apologies for the evil which it cannot altogether deny. In the age we are now reviewing there were partly apologies of a kind in which we recognize the influence of the earlier heathen stand-point, and partly such as were framed from Christian doctrines, misunderstood and isolated, disjoined from their connection with other truths. The disposition which prompts men to seek for excuses can easily find them everywhere, even in what is true in itself. The ground of apology taken from heathenism was the power of fate, by which human actions are determined; the grounds of apology deduced from a false application of biblical truths were, the irresistible influence of evil spirits, the sinful nature of man in his present condition, and the power of sensuality founded upon it a point in which what belonged to heathenism, and the misconception of Christian truth, met. Against such grounds of apology Augustin says:* "Be a judge, not an advocate, of thy sins. Ascend the judgmentseat of thy conscience, and be thy own accuser. I seek for

no excuse for sin, whoever has sinned with me or seduced me to sin; I say not-fate has willed it; lastly, I say not—the devil has done it. For the devil himself has indeed power to allure or to terrify, and, if God permit, to assail with sore temptations; but we must pray to the Lord for strength, that

* Peccatum tuum judicem te habeat, non patronum. In tribunal mentis tuæ adscende contra te, et reum constitue te ante te. Noli ponere te post te, ne Deus ponat te ante se.-August. Serm. 20, § 2.

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Perverse men,"

his snares may not entangle us. he says, try to put the guilt of evil upon God, while they ascribe what is good to themselves. If a man has done something good, he says, I have done it; but if he has done something evil, he seeks to lay the fault on another, to avoid confessing his sin to God. He who is not altogether abandoned, has Satan at hand, whom he accuses. Satan did it,' he says; 'he seduced me into it,' as if Satan had the power to compel him. He has only the craft to allure. But if Satan spoke, and God were silent, thou mightest excuse thyself. But now thy ear is placed between God commanding and the Tempter alluring. Why is it inclined one way, and why does it turn from the other? Satan ceases not to prompt to evil; but God also ceases not to exhort to good. But Satan forces no one against his will; it stands in thy own power to follow him Then again, many persons accuse not Satan, but their fate. Thus one says, 'My fate has brought me to this.' But sometimes they attack God himself, and say, when they sin, • God willed it; if God had not willed it, I should not have sinned;' like those persons who are referred to in the Epistle of James (i. 13).

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Chrysostom, who had to contend in populous cities against such notions, so detrimental to moral earnestness and zeal, calls the doctrine of fate, and of all-ruling necessity, an invention of the devil, "who," as he beautifully expresses it, "wishes to impair on all sides the liberty granted us by God." "We cannot wonder," he says, that unbelievers, who bow down before wood and stone, are seized by this malady; but that those who have been set free from this delusion and servitude, who have been privileged to attain to the knowledge of the true God, should allow themselves to be again carried away by such infatuation, is most lamentable; when those who profess to honour Christ, to whom heavenly wisdom has been revealed, voluntarily cast themselves into the abyss, since with extreme irrationality they deprive themselves of that freedom which God gave them, subject themselves to the hardest servitude, and place themselves, by their thoughts, under the worst tyranny, which in reality has nc existence, and seek to maim the sinews of zeal for virtue." "If we only will," he says elsewhere, "not only death, but even the devil himself cannot hurt us."

ERRORS INJURIOUS TO CHRISTIAN HOLINESS. 235

When refuge was not sought in such grounds of apology, there were two others, the effect of errors, that were injurious to progressive holiness; the contemplation of the love of God apart from his holiness, or of his holiness apart from his love; on the one hand, a false dependence on God's love, as inclined to overlook evil, which led to carnal security in sin; and on the other hand, despair in the view of God's holiness, which consumed all moral power, since it was not accompanied by looking off from self and putting confidence in redeeming

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Augustin places together these temptations: "By such craft," he says, Satan seduces souls, and draws them away from being saved by confessing their sins, since he either leads them to seek excuses for their sins, and to make accusations against others, or because they have already sinned to indulge in despair, by imagining that they cannot obtain pardon; or he leads men to be careless about amendment, because God will pardon everything." To the despairing soul who exclaims, "How can I come to God laden with such great sins?" Augustin says: "Do not give yourselves up; do not despair! Ye are men, made in the image of God. He who created you men, himself became man; the blood of the Only-begotten has been shed for you, in order that many sons might attain to the everlasting inheritance of God's children. When you are reduced to nothing on account of your earthly frailty, value yourselves according to the price of your redemption. Estimate according to its worth what ye eat, what ye drink [he here refers to communion with the Lord in the Holy Supper]; and what is confirmed to you by your Amen [the words for the forgiveness of sins,' used at the celebration of the Lord's Supper]. Do we thus exhort you that ye may be high-minded and pretend to perfection? No; but ye must not think yourselves far from all righteousness. I will not ask you about your righteousness, for perhaps none of you would venture to say, I am just; but I ask you about your faith. As none of you ventures to say I am just, so no one ventures to say, I am not a believer. I do not yet ask how thou livest, but what thou believest. Thou wilt answer, that thou believest in Christ. Hast thou not heard the apostlethat the just shall live by his faith?" If thou believest, thou wilt guard thyself against sin; if thou guardest thyself,