devices, to keep men from using the sword of the Spirit, either in their own hearts, or in their dealings with their neighbours. He says, God is so merciful, so kind, so indulgent, He can never wish that His creatures should make use of a sword, that they should slay the appetites and passions which He Himself implanted in them, that they should fight against the errours which arise from the natural weakness of their minds. Satan would beguile us into sparing sin, into sparing errour, into allowing ourselves and others to continue in sin and errour, to the end that errour and sin may abound more and more. Christ however did come to send a sword upon earth: He tells us so in the text. He commands us to use the sword: He has given us the sword which we are to use: and He will further give us strength to use it. As David in the strength of Faith was enabled to wield the sword of the Philistine, and to cut off his head therewith, all giant as he was, so may we through Faith be enabled to cut off the head of that huge monster Sin, and to cast it into hell, with the sword of the Spirit.

Thus even for our own protection, in order to defend ourselves from the terrible enemies that encompass us, and are ever assailing us in all manner of ways, open and covert, we are in continual need of that sword of the Spirit which Christ sent upon earth. We need the word of God, not merely to guide and direct us, and to be the food of our spiritual life, but also as a two-edged sword, wherewith to guard that spiritual life from inward as well as outward foes. Were this warfare ever to be over in our own hearts, so that every unruly thought and every rebellious feeling should be entirely subdued, and that Christ should be formed within us after the perfect image

of His peace, even then we should still need the sword of the Spirit to go forth and battle against the enemies who are beleaguering the souls of our brethren, and to deliver them from their bondage. In proportion as any man is formed after the perfect image of Christ, he must be like to Christ in His compassion and love: and they who are most like Him, will feel their hearts burn within them to make their brethren partakers of the priceless blessings which they are enjoying. Here is a field of battle immeasurably wider than the ambition of the boldest conqueror ever dreamt of, spreading over the whole earth, and surrounding us at every step. For in no spot of the world has the dominion of Christ ever yet been establisht in absolute, uncontested supremacy. Few are the spots where His enemies do not openly lift up their heads in defiance and scorn; hardly any, where they do not prowl about in the dark places of every heart. In the largest part of the world they still reign triumphantly, on thrones of crumbling minds, and mouldering, worm-eaten hearts.

Against all these enemies of God and man the Church militant has to fight; and the only weapon with which she is armed for the battle, is the sword of the Spirit. For more than eighteen hundred years the war has been waged; and there are no signs of an approaching termination. We have fought feebly and ineffectually, because we have trusted to other arms than that sword with which our Captain supplied us. Nor shall we ever be victorious, until we cast away the scabbard of human force and policy, and go forth to the war with no other weapon than the unsheathed sword of the Spirit. O may that time soon come! and do Thou, mighty Lord, go forth with our armies! go forth at the head of Thy Church! Gird Thee

with Thine own sword upon Thy thigh, O Thou most Mighty, according to Thy worship and renown. Good luck have Thou with Thine honour. Ride on, because of the word of truth, of meekness, and righteousness; and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things. For Thou alone canst make wars to cease throughout the world. When the victory is gained, Thou wilt break the bow, and snap the spear in sunder, and burn the chariots in the fire. And all shall know that Thou

art God; and Thou shalt be exalted among the Heathen, and Thou shalt be exalted in the earth.

SERMON XV.

CHRISTIAN VARIANCE.

MATTHEW X. 35, 36.

I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

THESE words form a part of the charge which our Lord gave to His Apostles, when He sent them out for the first time to preach the Kingdom of Heaven and they follow immediately after the strange and startling declaration, that He was not come to send peace upon earth, but a sword. Nor are they less strange and startling. Indeed they are connected with that declaration by the little word for,-For I am come to set a man at variance against his father: so that this is one of the ways in which that declaration was to be fulfilled. Nor could there well be a more terrible one. It is scarcely possible to conceive a state of the world more utterly miserable, fuller of evil passions, and more bereft of every good feeling, than that in which the sacred bonds of family affection should be burst and trampled on, and every house should become a scene of hatred and rancour and strife. How then could it be the end of our Saviour's coming, to breed dissensions and quarrels, where all, it would seem even to the natural mind, ought to be unity and love?

Of the meaning of our Lord's declaration, that He was not come to send peace but a sword, I have spoken to you

pretty fully already. His purpose, we have seen, was to forewarn the disciples of the violent opposition, and the manifold great dangers, which they would have to encounter, so that they might not be taken by surprise and daunted, but might be prepared for the worst, knowing that their Master had foreseen their sufferings, and that, however their enemies might rage, His help would always be with them. Although they were sent out to preach the Gospel of Peace, although Peace was to be their watchword, and Peace was to be written on their banners, yet, when they spoke, the world, our Lord told them, would be for war. So enamoured was the world of war, such a child of wrath and hatred was it, that no sooner did the sound of peace reach its ears, than its fury began to blaze up more fiercely. It started up like a wild beast from the lair, where it was surrounded by the wreck of its vices; and it whetted its tusks, and rusht out to battle against those who had dared to speak to it of peace. The air had become so impure with the foul vapours which had long been gathering, that, until the thunder had rolled, and the lightning flasht through it, clearness and calmness could not be restored. For this reason, although the purpose of our Lord's coming was indeed to bring peace upon earth, such peace as man had never known, such peace as it had never entered into his imagination to conceive, the peace of reconciliation with God, the peace of conscience with himself, the peace of love with his brethren,-this peace could not rise upon the world all at once, like the sun, in silence, and pour her blessed light over it. Inasmuch as human nature, since the Fall, has been so fast bound by death, that life cannot force a way into it, except by violently bursting the crust wherewith death has encased it,—