be due unto her, and are ready to were Baptists. The Queen was t give, tribute, custom, honour, and that the Baptists were incorrigi fear, as Christ Himself has taught heretics, and that she would be do us, saying, 'Render unto Cæsar the God's service if she put them things that are Cæsar's, and unto death. So she lighted again God the things that are God's' | flames of Smithfield. (Matt. xxii. 21). Since, therefore, When Terwoort and Pieters w she is a servant of God, we will led out to die, Gerrit van Byler a kindly pray her Majesty, that it Hans van Straten were left in Ne would please her to show pity to us gate, uncertain as to their fate. Hi poor prisoners, even as our Father long they remained there is a in heaven is pitiful (Luke vi. 36). known. It is said that they we We likewise do not approve of those heavily ironed because they who resist the magistrates; but con endeavoured to escape by fili fess and declare with our whole asunder the bars of their dunge heart, that we must be obedient and At length they were discharg subject unto them, as we have here probably because the governm set down."

were unwilling to incur the odit But it availed them nothing. They | of another burning *

CHRISTIAN LIFE A POWER TO RESIST ADVERSE

SOCIAL INFLUENCES.

BY THE LATE REV. E. L. HULL, B.A. - Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; &

they shall walk with me in white : for they are worthy." —Rev. iii. 4. THESE words, brief and simple as they are, form one of the highes expressions of Divine approval which these men could possibly has received; for the corrupt influences which surrounded the Church a Sardis were so mighty, that to maintain a Christian life in their mids was one of the severest tests of the power of faith. In the days wher this book was written, the people of Sardis were fast sinking into sen sualism. Their city had once been renowned for its enormous wealth; had been the capital of an eastern empire, and the residence of thi richest of eastern kings. But it had fallen under the armies of Rom and its splendour was rapidly melting away. The decay of prosperit had exerted its usual influence on the people. They became enslave by sensual enjoyments. Their days of success had gone, and in alt of slothful ease they had become too effeminate to regain them. 3 concealing their vices under outward refinements, they had falle into a degradation so deep that the very name of Sardis was associate with voluptuousness and sensuality. And is it not obvious that ami such a people, surrounded by a moral atmosphere so filled with eri influences, it must have been one of the hardest of human tasks t live that Christian life, the first element of which is self-denial, and whose vigour is only maintained by a struggle which death alone cal close ? But that was not the only influence against which these mer

* " Baptist History.” By J. M. Cramp, D.D.

ad to contend; there was another far stronger—the deadening nfluence of a cold Church. There is nothing on earth that has such tremendous power to destroy Christian life as a society of men who bar the name of Christ without manifesting His spirit and life. A sad Church is a mightier obstacle to Christian life than the influences

the world or the sneers of the keenest infidelity: it freezes the fluence of truth, it paralyses the power of prayer, it lays its cold and on the pulses of the Christian's faith, chilling them into a deathte sleep. In this most dangerous state was the Church of God in that luptuous city. With the feeble signs of life on its brow, and the int profession of Christ on its lips, it concealed within a heart silent

in the slumbers of death. And yet against that strongest of all perces these men had struggled and had overcome. Because, therefore, hey had conquered the corrupt influences of this city, and vanquished he deeper power of a slumbering Church, these Divine words form se of the most splendid messages of approval recorded in the Bible. Phou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not yet defiled bir garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are rthy." Now the question we want to answer from these words is this : it possible for the Christian to overcome all the social influences at are opposed to the growth of his spiritual life? We grant at ace that very few have obtained this victory. If you survey the stories of the Church of this and all past ages, you will find that the sjority of men are greatly moulded by the influences that surround em. They have no opinion of their own. Their very character is a great measure formed by the circumstances of their time. In an mest age the masses of the Christian world are full of zeal; in a cold o they yield at once to depression. In a time of intellectual excitent they undervalue emotion; in the days of emotion they believe nothing but feeling. Echoes are they of other men's thoughts ; d although their Christian life is just strong enough to resist positive 4, they are too weak to resist the moral forces that turn them with pery change in the spirit of the time. While the men who are not anged by outward changes; the men, who, with a strong life derived y God, stand up against the tide of circumstances; the men who one word are not the creatures of circumstance, but live out their pristian life against all and under all influences,--are, as in Sardis, er the few. But yet with that fact before us we shall try to shew that fry Christian may overcome those influences which hinder his life,

rise to be a “strong man" instead of being always a “ babe in arist." We shall try to shew that we have no right to be weak

istians moulded by social circumstances, but are bound to be pristians whose deep life makes circumstances its servants. For if ose few men in Sardis could be thus independent of the corrupt ces that were acting on them, is it not possible for us to be superior he forces that act on ourselves ? ' these words imply two facts ---that Christian life can conquer all

opposing influences; and that in that conquest are the elements glorious reward.

I.-I say, True Christianity can conquer adverse social influences. A fi philosophy has said that man is the creature of circumstance; start from the unquestionable fact that the outward events of life exer wonderful power on the soul, it has endeavoured to explain by itt whole formation of human character. Its advocates have assert that the circumstances of life render men good or evil; that t education of a man decides his destiny ; that if a holy man had be trained amid scenes of vice, he would have been depraved ; and if vicious had been placed in happy circumstances, he would have be holy. According to their doctrine, sin is the effect of circumstance religion the result of circumstance; they say in short, man is bu bubble floating on the tide of time, and drifted hither and thither its current, while in his foolish pride he fancies he is free. But fa as that doctrine is, the fact that men have believed it shews how gr is the influence of circumstances on the formation of character & the growth of spiritual life; and it is indeed only by long and search reflection that we perceive how numerous and how subtle are influences that thus help to make us what we are. We look back the past, and we find that from the earliest years of childhood events of life have exerted a power over us which grows and deep as the years pass on. The friends of our youth have given character an impulse for good or evil which has not yet ceased to a The words we heard, the deeds we witnessed, stirred thoughts whi had a power that continues to the present moment. We discover perhaps, that friendship might only be the mask under which a secr enmity concealed itself, and the generous emotions of the heart the received a blow which turned them from their simplicity, and ha rendered us suspicious, cautious, reserved. We may remember a tim when deeper beauty seemed to unfold itself in the world of natur until we were lost in mysterious and boundless reverence for t Eternal King; and from that moment an influence touched the secr spirit, and its inspiration may now and then thrill us even to-ds The effect of our first great sorrow is not dead; it has called for deep and sacred emotions that may be in us through our everlasti life. But more strong, because more constant and more secret, are i influences that come from our social circumstances—from the me with whom we live, or into whose society we are frequently throw Their words and deeds do make us more spiritual or more earthly, the love of gold, regard for the world's applause, or arouse the feelin that ascend to God and the spiritual universe. They are for er sending out tides of power that silently mould us, and we are for er exerting a mysterious influence on them. Life is constantly weavin unseen ties that thus bind soul to soul. I know that this marvelor fact displays the great goodness of God, because it enables us to ent into the joys or sorrows of our brethren—to receive the deep thoughts, and yield to the nobler emotions, which arise from the unid soul with soul. But yet to a reflective man it must be a truth of wful solemnity. In this mysterious life, while we have within us

s and sorrows into which no man can enter, while influences from od and Christ and a love inexpressible touch us individually, and in nich, as individuals, we are marching towards eternity, we are yet pt totally alone, but influences come to us from our fellow-men which ay be depressing our spiritual life, and leaving an effect on us which Bars of effort cannot remove, and which may in some degree affect ir state in the distant ages of the life to come. Hence, then, the question is of overwhelming importance, Can we e superior to those influences in so far as they oppose the strength of

Christian life? We speak of an apostolic Christianity. We yearn o realize the mighty power of the constraining love of Christ. We long

be always earnest to conquer those states of dreary coldness into hich we fall. Is it true that circumstances do hinder us from realiz

this ideal, and with an irresistible force prevent us from rising into e full stature of Christlike spiritual manhood ? Now here it must

granted as an obvious fact, that some men are more liable to be sayed by social influences than others. Those whose character is eak, and whose feelings are strong and undisciplined, are doubtless ore carried away by mere impulse than men of naturally strong Karacter and power of self-control. But yet it is possible for us to man elevation above such influences, to reach a level of life that all be almost untouched by their power. It is possible for even the eakest to attain a position so sublime ; for in Christianity-and

Christianity I mean the indwelling life of Christ-we can discern e elements of a power which will confer it. We shall perceive this by glancing briefly at the manner in which rcumstances and social influences attain their greatest sway Over en, and then by shewing how in a true Christian life the sources of at power are overcome. ilt will be obvious on reflection, that the influences of circumstances

society depend for their supremacy on two things—The absence of master-emotion, and the absence of a supreme purpose in life. 1. The absence of a ruling emotion is one great element in the power circumstances. For it is an universal fact of our nature that one Feat love expels another, and renders the soul dead to every impulse hat conflicts with the passion that sways all its being. Man can have ne and only one supreme feeling in his life, and it will render him usceptible to those influences alone that are in unison with itself. ou may perceive this in every emotion that rules humanity. Thus, Ake an illustration from one of the lowest and also the commonest of aman impulses, the love of gold. The votary of this passion is deaf Devery appeal that speaks not through the form of his golden idol. ul deeper loves fall withered in his heart, all generous impulses gra. ually die; conscience ceases to utter her warnings, and religion calls

him in vain. He weighs everlasting principles in the balance of dvantage, and all that is outweighed in that measure is visionary and

L

vain. The poor may toil for a wretched existence. Men may haza their lives in doing his work, but compunction he has none, if, t results are favourable to his gain. And why all this? Why do t influences of circumstances and of brotherhood fail to tell upon 1 spirit, but because, when once such a passion has thus gained a mai soul, all moral forces lose their power? To be without a master-feeli is to be the sport of every change, the child of every influence, t mute and drifted toy of every current on the stream of time. No true Christianity is essentially the enthronement of one feeling in t heart, the love of God through Christ: and, because that feeling ascen to the Eternal and Unchanging, it must pre-eminently give a firmne to the character that defies the force of circumstances. But to sped of it vaguely as the love of God does not display its real power in cou teracting other influences. Let me recall to your attention one fe ture of that love which characterizes vital Christianity. To have within us in the true sense, is to have no vague yearning after Go which comes now and then; it is not to have an emotion which is th result of a sympathy with Christ produced by occasional excitement but it is to have that love as a supreme emotion which arises froi realizing God through Christ as an actual and present Being in ever moment of life. There is a love that is fitful and transient, a kind sentimental reverence for the Man of Sorrows that awakens in powe at certain seasons, and then fades away ; that is not true Christianity There is a love that loves only when the words of a preacher hay perchance aroused emotion, or when the sympathies are kindled unde the influence of worship ; that is not true Christianity. There is love that thinks of Christ, and God in Christ, as distant and divided by death, and fixes all its hopes on a coming eternity; that is not true Christianity. And as men have often imagined that Christ and HN truth concern only the future and unknown, it is not wonderful that they have denied to the Christian life its supremacy above the 1: fluences of circumstance and social sympathy. But to have that love truly, is to have a faith that annihilates the thought of death, ang believes in Christ's presence as surely as it believes in its own exist ence. It is to believe that He is as certainly the compassionate Brother now, as He was when He moved among the crowd round the tomb of Lazarus, and mourned with the sorrowing sisters there.. is to believe that every change in life will only reveal that Brothe) more deeply to the soul's inner eye, and enable it to trace His imagi more fully through the veils of time and sense. It is to believe that no clouds of doubt and gloom can ever sunder that one star from though they veil its lustre, but that the winds shall scatter them, and the light of Christ gleam again. It is to believe that the Father's love revealed in Him is infinite, and that we have now only begun to learn the first letters in the lesson of eternity, and to feel the first thri the song that shall deepen through the ages. It is to believe that the Spirit of Christ is ever near us, is ever helping us to see Him, enabling us to realise His mighty and transcendent grace. Au