will to do it. But when certain sentiments and dispositions are required of him, which involve a thorough change of the heart's natural propensities, that is another matter. The affections are far less under the will's control than the actions are. That these gracious sentiments and dispositions are called by the Apostle, fruits of the Spirit, and by His Divine Master, fruit proceeding from himself, the true Vine, need not cause any difficulty. In Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He is the smitten Rock of the wilderness, through whom alone the living waters force their passage to polluted man. His glorified humanity is the appointed receptacle of Grace, from which Grace emanates into all the moral universe. Hence the Spirit is called the Spirit of God's Son.

The great subject brought before us by the passage is, that THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE CHRISTIAN, LIKE

HIS JUSTIFICATION, IS ENTIRELY DEPENDENT UPON OUR LORD.

As regards our Justification, this is clearly seen (at least in the Reformed Churches) and generally admitted. That Christ alone can atone for sin; that His Blood and nothing else can procure the pardon of it; that on the ground of His merit exclusively we can find acceptance with God, reinstatement in his favour, and admission to His Presence; that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and that therefore we must look out of ourselves for a righteousness which can stand the scrutiny of God's judgment, and that such a righteous ness, white as the driven snow, is to be found in Christ only, all this, whatever reception such a doctrine might have met with half a century ago, is now so thoroughly established, and has gained such a footing in

the minds of religious people, that to prove it from Holy Scripture to persons of ordinary religious acquirements would be altogether superfluous.

But it is thought that, unlike Justification, (which is something that passes on the sinner externally to him, a sentence of acquittal pronounced on him by God, in consideration of Our Lord's merits,) Sanctification is a process within us (which no doubt is true); and hence it is erroneously inferred that it is carried on much more independently of Christ than Justification is; that human will, effort, and exertion contribute very mainly to it, and that Christ is not the all in all of it, not 66 our strength" in the same way and to the same extent as He is " our righteousness." And hence a false notion of holiness springs up in many minds, and finds such a lodgment that it is very difficult to dispossess it. Holiness is supposed to be an achievement mastered at length-much as a lesson is mastered-by a variety of exercises, prayers, fastings, meditations, almsdeeds, self-discipline, Sacraments; and when mastered, a sort of permanent acquisition, which goes on increasing as the stock of these spiritual exercises ac cumulates. It is not regarded in its true light as а momentary receiving out of Christ's fulness grace for grace, as the result of His inworking in a heart, which finds the task of self-renewal hopeless, and makes itself over to Him, to be moulded by His plastic hands, resigning, of course, its will to Him in all things, without which resignation such a surrender would be a horrible hypocrisy.

Now let us take up the illustrations of this truth; and first His own illustration, the wisest, profoundest, and most beautiful of all. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more

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can ye, except ye abide in Me;" "Apart from Me ye can do nothing." The circulating sap, which is the life of the tree, is indeed in the vine-branch, so long as it holds on the stem; but in no sense whatever is it from the vine-branch. Cut off the branch from the stem, and it ceases instantaneously to live, for it has no independent life. Even so the fruits of the Spirit, while of course our hearts are the sphere of their manifestation, are in no sense from our hearts; they are not the result of the energizing of our own will; they are not a righteousness of our own, built up by a series of endeavours, or a laborious process of self-discipline, but a righteousness outflowing continually from the fulness of Grace wnich is in Christ.

Another illustration may perhaps help to impress the truth. When we walk abroad on a beautiful day, and survey a landscape lit up by the beams of a summer sun, our eye catches a variety of colours lying on the surface of this landscape,-there is the yellow of the golden grain, the green of the pasture-land, the dark brown of those thick-planted copses, the silver gleam of the stream which winds through them, the faint blue of distant hills seen in perspective, the more intense blue of the sky, the purple tinge of yonder sheet of water; but none of these colours reside in the landscape, they are not the properties of the material objects on which they rest. All colours are wrapped up in the sunlight, which, as is well known, may be seen resolved into its elementary colours in the prism or the rainbow. Apart from the sunlight no object has any colour; as is shown by the fact that, as soon as Light is withdrawn from the landscape, the colours fade from the robe of Nature. The difference of colour in different objects, while the sun is shining, is produced

by some subtle differences of texture or superficies, which makes each object absorb certain rays, and reflect certain other rays, in different proportions. Now Christ is the Sun of Righteousness, in Whoi dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,-the fair colour of every grace and Christian virtue. When Christ is shining upon the heart, then these virtues are manifested there by one Christian grace of one description, by another of another, according to their different receptivity and natural temperament, just as, when the sun is shining, colours are thrown upon a landscape, and reflected by the different objects in different proportions. But as no part of the landscape has any colour in the absence of the sun, nor can acquire any independently of the sun, so Christians have no grace except from Christ, nor hold any virtue independently of Him.

Let it be clearly understood, then, that the great secret of bringing forth much fruit, or, in other words, of all advance in grace and holiness, is according to the profound teaching of Our Lord Himself, a constant keeping open (and if possible, enlarging) the avenues of the soul towards Him. If a vine-branch is to sprout and throw out new suckers and shoots, the tube by which it communicates with the stock of the tree must adhere tightly to the stem, and be well open for the passage of the sap. If you desire to see the colours of furniture in this room, whose shutters are closed, throw open the shutters, and admit the full flood of sunlight. And if you desire to see the dead heart put forth the energies of spiritual life, and the dark heart illumined by the fair colours of spiritual grace, throw wide open the passage of communication between Christ and it, and allow the Life which is in Him, and the Light

which is in Him, to circulate freely through it.—But how to do this? in other words, how to fulfil His own precept, "Abide in Me, and I in you?" Ah! vitally important question,-question upon which the whole of our sanctification (and thus the whole of our salvation) is suspended! Let us address ourselves to answer it, with the earnest prayer that God would guide us into all truth.

Observe that our Lord prescribes mutual indwelling, as the secret of spiritual fertility. Take heed that ye "abide in Me, and I in you." Here is not one idea only, but two; the dwelling of the Christian in Christ, as the body dwells in an atmosphere, and the dwelling of Christ in the Christian, as the soul dwells in the body.

I. Take heed, first, that "ye abide in Me." This is done by faith. As we first consciously entered into fellowship with Christ by faith (I say consciously entered into fellowship with him, for when we were baptised as infants, we entered unconsciously into His fellowship), so there is no other way to abide in Him, than by repeated exercises of the same faith. The faith which enables the soul to abide in Christ is nothing else than an assured trust and confidence on our part, that, as He has already wrought out For us our acceptance with God, so He will work IN us every gracious disposition (be it repentance, or faith itself, or humility, or hope, or love) which is necessary to qualify us for glory. It is not enough to supplicate these graces; we must lean upon Him for them, and fix the eye of expectation upon the promise of His new Covenant; "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts:" being well assured that He will fulfil to us the terms thereof. There is a pro