SERMON X.

THE CHRISTIAN RACE.

1 CORINTHIANS, ix. 24, 25.

Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain.

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things; now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

IF, as assuredly is the case, it is a fearful thing to undervalue and to disregard the grace of God in our redemption through Christ Jesus-no less fearful and fatal is it to abuse that grace by using it as an excuse for licentiousness and unholiness of living. Happily, the number of professed

Antinomians at the present day, is small; so small, that it may be necessary for me to explain the meaning of that term. It is applied to men who hold that, if by faith they are numbered among the flock of Jesus Christ, they are under no obligation to obey the moral law; but that, on the contrary, all things are lawful to them. This heresy, the error of which I need scarcely say lies in a wrong understanding of the word faith, is, as I observed, maintained at this time by few. It is nevertheless to be feared that very many are to a certain and perilous extent guilty thereof: very many professing to believe in Christ crucified, and trusting for redemption to his blood, pass their lives in a manner which plainly discovers them to be ignorant of or indifferent to that purity of heart, that holiness of conduct, upon which the gospel lays as much stress as upon faith itself—I should rather say which it describes as a necessary accompaniment of a lively faith.

It would be difficult to open the New Testament at a page in which holiness in general, and a variety of good works in

particular, are not either expressly commanded or evidently alluded to as necessary to salvation. All which precepts are fast bound and strengthened by that key-stone supplied by the words of Christ himself-"Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

In their anxiety to create in their disciples a strong and active conviction of this truth, the apostles continually repeat it under various images-at one time they call the Christian's life and his struggle against sin a state of warfare; they then exhort their converts to "take the sword of the spirit, the helmet of salvation, and the whole armour of righteousness;" at another time they term it a journey or pilgrimage, and exhort them "as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;" finally, St. Paul speaks of a Christian exertion as a wrestling, and, as in the text, a race. To the Corinthians, to whom you will recollect he was then writing, this image or idea must have been remarkably striking and instructive. Solemn festivals had for ages been held near

their city, of which foot-races formed great part; the prize for the swiftest runner was merely a crown or garland of pine leaves, but he who gained it was always much honoured by his countrymen. And so

eagerly was this honour coveted, that many trained and practised themselves for a great length of time, and with incredible pains, submitting to the strictest rules of temperance, and abstaining from every bodily indulgence that might diminish their strength and speed. There were few things therefore with which the Corinthians were more familiar than the exercises and trials of these competitors; to them the argument of the apostle must have had the greatest imaginable force. Here were men under their own eyes, giving up perhaps their whole time, denying themselves many pleasures and gratifications, nay often comforts, using incredible exertions-and for what? for a wreath of pine leaves, and the short-lived fame which attended their success!

Could the Corinthian, when converted to Christianity, behold this and use less exertion, shew less anxiety to succeed

in the race which was set before him; especially since they strove but for a corruptible crown, he for an incorruptible. To ourselves also the image is sufficiently familiar and forcible; for our learning as well as for theirs was this scripture written. Let us "so run that we may obtain." In the following remarks upon this subject, (which

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pray that the Divine Grace may render useful) I will first discourse of the nature of the race which is set before us; secondly, of the crown which is to be the winners reward; and lastly, show that our receiving the reward will entirely depend upon the manner in which our race is run.

First, then, for the nature of the race set before us:

It is neither more nor less than the means whereby a Christian is through Christ to seek everlasting life-it comprehends every duty which the Bible requires him to perform every good word and work which our blessed Saviour and his apostles have required of us; to be true and just in all our dealings; to bear no malice nor hatred in our heart; to keep our hands