Holy Spirit whose coming we commemorate to-day. His office is to take of the things of Christ and show them to you; by revealing to you what Jesus was, at once to inspire you with the wish and give you the power to be like Him. In the Apostle's words, I then exhort you, "Walk not you as those walk who have the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart: who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness."

"Ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

"Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."

IV

ILL SUCCESS IN SEARCHING AFTER

RIGHTEOUSNESS1

"The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness."-ROMANS ix. 30, 31.

AMONG the moral essays published about the beginning of this century, one of the most striking was that by Mrs. Barbauld on the inconsistency of human expectations. It was mainly taken up with insisting on the truth that what a man soweth, that, and not something else, is what he will reap; and it explained the majority of men's disappointments as arising from the fact that they sow one thing and expect to reap another : they expect to gain the end when they have neglected or disdained to use the means necessary to obtain it. You complain, for instance, that the good things of this world are ill distributed, that riches and honours fall to the lot of men un

1 Preached at Great St. Mary's, Cambridge, June 8, 1884.

worthy of them.

Examine into the matter and

perhaps you find that the man whose riches you envy has given up his whole mind to the pursuit of them. He has been so absorbed in his ventures and his investments that he has had no thought to give, not to say to science, or literature, or art, but scarcely to the enjoyment of the society of his own family. You feel that such a sacrifice is more than you would be willing to make, and perhaps you are right in your decision ; but then do not complain that he who has been willing to pay the price should get what he gave it for. Another has made the pursuit of worldly advancement his great object in life: he has canvassed, puffed himself, intrigued; you disdain to employ the arts he has used, yet inconsistently you grudge him what these arts have gained for him. Once more, you complain that dull men get all the honours and prizes of this world, the fact being that you think the plodding industry to which they stoop too degrading to your genius. You would not be guilty of their stupidity in giving up the pleasures of society, or the enjoyments of lighter literature or other recreations. Well, you have your reward in whatever pleasures these can yield: do not grudge them theirs.

In short, the doctrine of this essay is: make up your mind what objects you consider desirable,

and then give yourself up to the pursuit of them. The world is so constituted that diligent exertion will, in all likelihood, meet with success. If you think riches the greatest good, then give yourself up to the pursuit of wealth. Your mind will probably not be very expanded, nor your sentiments very liberal: but it is likely you will be rich. If you think learning the greatest good, give your days and nights to study. Your body may not be very healthy, but it is likely you will be learned. Whatever you think worth working for you are very likely to get; but do not complain if you do not also get other things when you have not thought proper to use the means necessary for attaining them.

There is much good sense and truth in the doctrine of the essay to which I have referred ; but there is hardly any truth without a countertruth. The general rule undoubtedly is that men get what they work for; but there are quite enough of exceptions to it to account for men's calculating that their experience will be otherwise. On the one hand, men sometimes get that on which they have bestowed no labour. A man completely neglects his own interests in his zeal to do some great work for the bodies or souls of other men, and it happens that the gratitude felt for the good he has done makes him more a

gainer than if he had laboured for himself. Or he has had to cast away the good opinion of his fellow-men. In obedience to his conscience he has had to brave their disapprobation, to submit to misrepresentation and calumny, and in time his consistent steadiness vindicates itself; the mists of prejudice clear away, and he stands far higher in their respect and favour than if he had shaped his conduct with a view to win them. Our Lord Himself encouraged His disciples to expect in some such way to receive that which they were forbidden to seek. He bids them to take no thought what they should eat or drink or wherewith they should be clothed: but He adds, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and these things shall be added unto you." He bids them take for themselves the lowest place, but He allows them to hope that the Master will afterwards say to them, "Friend, come up higher." And so the Apostle describes godliness as having the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come. And it has become a popular saying that it is possible to make the best of both worlds,-to get all the good things of this, without losing claim to the blessedness of the future. The result is that we are not disposed to acquiesce in the view that men will reap what they sow; that it is natural