From this great and hopeful fact we may, we must, draw two conclusions. First of all, sin need have no more dominion over us as individual Christians. We are not obliged to sin. I have this week heard one of the most beautiful and delightful incidents of my ministry. Some months ago a young Cambridge man, the eldest son of a distinguished dignitary of the Anglican Church, came to St. James's Hall, and afterwards reported the result to his mother. He said that he could not remember my sermon, but it had fully convinced him that it was "not necessary "" for him to sin. O, blessed result of Christian preaching! May God grant me many such results as the highest possible reward of sincere, however unworthy, service! I cannot imagine anything nobler or more hopeful than that every young Englishman, "The heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time," should realize that it is not necessary for him to sin, but that if he trusts in Christ he may be kept from sin, and by the grace of His Holy Spirit may walk in His footsteps and carry on His work until it is completed. The second conclusion is this-having by faith in the omnipotent love of God achieved our own redemption, we must work hard for the redemption of the race. The first condition of highest success is that we should fully realize the gospel of the Resurrection. No compromise with the devil. That is the main point. It is much, very much, to have brought your own mind to regard all evil as an unnatural anomaly, a monstrous anachronism. You will then eagerly join the irreconcilable revolutionists of Jesus Christ. No incident in the history of modern Europe is more thrilling or more significant than the fact that when the dissolute and tyrannous empire of Napoleon III. was at the height of its apparent prosperity, there were three Frenchmen who maintained in the National Assembly-the only spot where freedom of speech was still tolerated—an irreconcilable opposition. In vain did Napoleon and his sycophants attempt either to bribe or to bully these three men. They pleaded fearlessly, incessantly, passionately, for truth, for freedom, for justice, and the conscience of France responded to them so profoundly that the moment the tide of war turned against Napoleon the Empire fell for ever. It seemed for a long time as though it were a hopeless duel of three men against all the resources of France. But the three were faithful to duty and to one another. They did not count their adversaries. They were outvoted again and again and again. But they always returned to the conflict. Every day they renewed their demand for right. And so at last they won, and won a decisive victory. We are not in such a minority as they were. If we do not paralyze our strength by useless and scandalous divisions, we can soon become, if not a majority, at least a dominant minority. In any case, if those three men defied the Empire in the name of patriotism, surely we may defy all social wrong in the name of God and Humanity. Let us be brave. Let us be outspoken. Let us be absolutely irreconcilable. The hour of deliverance is at hand. Inspired of God, we already see the new earth which S. John saw; and Christ helping us, we will do all that in us lies to hasten the coming of the blissful day when that glorious vision will be an accomplished fact, THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY. "Obedience is our universal duty and destiny; wherein whoso will not bend must break; too early and too thoroughly we cannot be trained to know that Would, in this world of ours, is as zero to Should, and for the most part as the smallest of fractions even to Shall."CARLYLE. THE CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY. "I also am a man set under authority."-LUKE vii. 8. THIS verse has often perplexed me. I have found it difficult to expound in harmony with the context. The usual explanation is, "I am a man set under authority. Thou art not set under authority. Therefore, if I can say to this man, 'Go,' and he goeth, and to another, 'Come,' and he cometh, much more, à fortiori, canst Thou employ others to do Thy bidding." But this ordinary interpretation is flatly inconsistent with the employment of the word "also." "I also am a man set under authority." The word "also" prevents us from assuming that the centurion is contrasting his case with Christ's. It compels us to believe that he is referring not to a difference but to a similarity. One recent expositor makes a desperate effort to escape from this difficulty by saying that "set under authority" means "set with authority." But that will not do at all. We cannot cut the Gordian knot in this reckless fashion. It is not only most reverent, but most rational always to assume that a speaker in Holy Writ meant what he said, and that the difficulty is rather in our apprehension than in any assumed inability on his part to express himself correctly and intelligibly. In this case I must believe that the centurion meant |