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of the Spirit is spirit." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me."-These words of Jesus express with clearness the essence of what he taught concerning justification by faith, the doctrine which tells us, that vital holiness nourished in the stillness of a convinced heart, and revealed in thoughts and deeds. of universal love, renders man acceptable as the child of God. The sermon on the Mount contains a few general applications of this principle, which is comprehensively stated in the simple and beautiful formula: — " Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God."

Christianity, like every purely religious system, takes for granted three facts; a world in need of regeneration; a consciousness, in the world, of this need; and a spiritual nature in man, which, degraded as it may now be, has in itself, of its own free will and energy, the capacity of receiving and appropriating all the influences which the system can bring to bear upon it. A religion that does not assume these three facts, is wanting in a definite object to be accomplished, in the means by which alone such an object can be accomplished, or in both.

At the time when Jesus Christ appeared, the soul of the human race had passed through many centuries of sin. By constant practice of iniquity its vision had become dimmed, its original energy weakened. The need of a Redeemer is demonstrated by the history of that darkest of all ages, the age preceding Christ. Humanity could not rise unaided; for all its life was derived from a polluted world, that was itself panting for the quickening breath of God. On whatever theory we may explain this degradation in man, it was in view of its actual existence that Christ, the Redeemer, was sent to infuse a new, divine spirit into the race, that it might be restored to its Father. This Redeemer men must acknowledge; for through him alone is the way to God opened, by him alone is the divine life transmitted. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life." But belief, however necessary, is not faith; but rather the instrument used by faith, the ladder upon which the angels of God descend upon the slumbering spirit: while faith is the inward power by which the spirit, roused to action by various motives, draws within itself the influences that come from

God through Christ, through his teachings and sufferings, his holy life and death; the influences which quicken the higher nature, redeem and sanctify the whole character of

man.

The necessity that the inward holiness thus acquired should express itself in deeds of outward beneficence, shows us the relation between this doctrine of justification, and those other words of Jesus, "They that have done good shall inherit the resurrection of life." We are thus led naturally to the true doctrine of justification by faith. Man, conscious of his alienation from God, by a powerful effort of faith, which, based upon belief, demands supernatural aid, fixes his trust on Christ as the commissioned of the Father, the only Redeemer and spiritual Regenerator of humanity. This brief analysis brings us back to the living formula of Jesus,-" Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God."

Having touched upon the leading points in our Saviour's teachings, let us now trace the same doctrine through a different line of development. The truth which Jesus the Christ uttered with little method or logical arrangement, Paul the Apostle analyzed and proved. The Apostle to the Gentiles, reasoning chiefly against Jews, explained his fundamental principle upon the Jewish ground. "Law" and "righteousness" are, therefore, the central terms from which our exposition of his system must proceed. The word "righteousness," in the Jewish sense, denoted that peculiar state of thought, feeling and spiritual culture, which theocratic institutions would naturally produce. And "law" denoted that externally prescribed rule of action, whether ritual or moral, by obeying which a Jew became righteous. Paul employs the word to express the essential spirit of Judaism, a system which presented religion as something outward and preceptive, instead of something inward and spontaneous. This view Paul, as a Jew and a Pharisee, held until his conversion, after which time he mightily set forth the doctrine, that the new birth was from within, outward, not from without, inward. For law, the outward command, he substituted faith, the inward principle, and consequently gave a more spiritual meaning to " righteousness" and " and "justification." The Jewish idea

was inconsistent with itself, and false, as Paul says in his

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Epistle to the Galatians. "If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily, righteousness should have been by the law." If any outward command could impart the internal life of the heart, from which all goodness must spontaneously proceed, then it would be reasonable to talk of righteousness proceeding from obedience to law. Yet even then, the righteousness would not be wrought by the law, for the external presupposes the internal. There can be no true obedience except it spring from the inward spiritual life, which lies behind all law.

Paul by no means disparages the law in its proper sphere, as written on the hearts of Gentiles or in the books of Jews. On the contrary, he calls it "holy" and "good." He only denies that men can obey it without having spiritual life. To explain this, we must penetrate a little deeper into his doctrine, commencing with man's need of redemption. This need, which Jesus silently presupposed, Paul attempts to account for by the old Hebrew tradition of Adam. He draws the parallel between Adam and Christ; the death-bringer, and the life-bringer. As by one sin, and the consequent growth and supremacy of the sinful tendency, humanity was driven down into death; so, by one holy life, and the consequent renewal of the spiritual tendency, it was raised from the dead. Adam had broken the union between man and God; he had relied upon himself. Man's lower nature was thus strengthened against the higher. By the law that regulates the propagation of races, evil produced evil, and sin ever darkened godliness as mankind grew up. The spiritual energy of the race and the motives to its exertion constantly lost power as the force of evil desires accumulated, and the occasional desperate reactions of an individual or a generation were too feeble to resist the pressure of sin. The evil seed planted by Adam grew into a deadly tree, which darkened the earth; humanity was freezing under its shade.

But Paul nowhere says that human nature is essentially depraved; or that any particular man is unavoidably sinful, except in the sense that he who is born into a world grown old in iniquity, can scarcely escape taint. The tendencies and impulses of the whole race had been corrupted and perverted by the increasing supremacy of the sinful principle, but not so that the original nature of man, as the

offspring of God and created in his image, had been destroyed. This idea of natural depravity he contradicts often enough. The assertion of it would reduce to an utter absurdity and mockery his, and any other religious system. His whole doctrine hangs upon the assumption, that man's nature is essentially the same divine creation that first came from the hand of God. Even in the frightful corruption he describes in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, he presupposes an undeniable and partially illuminating knowledge of God in human nature, which may be wholly restored, and has been so restored by Christ.

In accordance with this general view of Adam's sin, the work of the life-bringing Redeemer Paul considers as twofold, upon humanity, and upon each individual: — the first wrought by God, objectively upon the race, through Christ; the second wrought by man, subjectively upon himself, through faith in Christ. The entire work was accomplished by the life, truth, spirit and devoted suffering of Jesus, and by his death as the crowning suffering and act of consecration of his life. He checked the progress of the evil principle which had alienated the whole race from God; introduced a new current of life, and restored men to a condition in which they could exert faith and return to their Father. This first work, which was wrought ideally, was performed independently of any effort on the part of

man.

Upon this universal foundation each individual must build up his own salvation. In this connexion Paul introduces the word, faith. Faith, as contrasted with law, is the ruling, fundamental principle of the Christian character. It supposes a supernatural revelation, and belief in him by whom it was brought. The need of this belief Paul insists upon constantly, sometimes under various forms of allegory. Faith supposes also a consciousness of sin. This Paul assumes as a universal fact, and in support of it he adduces his own spiritual experience, and appeals to that of others. By faith the soul draws into itself a new principle of life, which is constantly penetrating and transforming the old nature. By faith the spirit of the Christian is bound to Christ's; filled with his deep peace; nerved by his strengthening power; illuminated and blessed with his love, Carrying out with fervid logic this glorious thought, Paul

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saw the mystical union with Christ ideally completed in every Christian, when he exclaimed, "How shall we who are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" It is an utter, vile contradiction, to say that the Christian, the man who has bound himself to Christ by the ties of a living faith, can be tampering with the devil at the same time. "What communion hath light with darkness?" "What concord hath Christ with Belial?"

Thus, according to Paul, man is justified by faith in Christ, and enjoys once more the harmony which Adam had broken. And thus, through the rapid, laboring utterances of the Apostle, we may trace the quiet words of Jesus, "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God." Paul has adopted the formula of Christ; analyzed it; connected it with the ancient tradition; illustrated it by the Jewish patriarchs and by his own sacred experience, and rendered it back to us sanctified and precious as ever.

It has been always a question, whether James does not contradict or undervalue this doctrine of faith. Before attempting therefore to reconcile completely Paul's doctrine of faith with James's doctrine of works, it must be observed, that Paul nowhere in his writings undervalues those good works that result from a genuine faith. Neither does James cast any reproach upon the living faith of the heart, as passages in his Epistle will testify. On the contrary, he is insisting upon the constant manifestation of that very faith.

Paul, unfolding the essential principle of all religion, uses the word "faith" in its highest sense, to denote the living power, by which the free spirit appropriates the divine life. James, whose real doctrine was precisely the same with Paul's, but who was arguing against men who had lost sight of the essential principle of religion, uses the word sometimes in their sense of belief, which is the instrument of faith. In the view of Paul, works of love have no merit apart from the faith that suggests them. A man is accepted according to what he is, not according to what he does. In the view of James, works of love, although in themselves useless, do nevertheless presuppose living faith, without which they could not exist. So that "works" must be insisted upon as the only evidence of faith. "Show me

thy faith without thy works (if thou canst ;) and I will show thee my faith by my works.'

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