makes him so. This is the justification by faith of which St. Paul treats so copiously; this is the doctrine which gave peace to Luther and vitality to his teaching. We are not accounted righteous, nor made so, by any ecclesiastical routine whatever; nor does a mechanical obedience to the law put us into a right relation to God or effect in us any change; we attain forgiveness, justification, and sanctification only as we grasp the promises of God in our redeeming Lord. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Being thus justified by faith we have peace with God. And by faith the just live. They so confide in the righteous God and in His declared promises, they remain so entirely loyal to the heavenly vision and hope which are beyond the ken of the natural man, that they are secretly strengthened in the darkest hours to hold fast their integrity. Faith in God means confidence in Him, fellowship with Him, devotion to Him; and such whole-hearted trust is the inspiration and guarantee of highest character, even when the stress and strain of life are most severe.

But are not many "just," without faith? Is not high character continually met with that has dispensed with supernatural stimulation? Christ says, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Must we not therefore allow that consistently moral men are in the right, and that the promptings and succours of a religious faith are not indispensable? Our Lord's words are not to be interpreted in the facile shallow way that so many people think. As Professor Seeley wrote in Ecce Homo: "It is true that the good man does good deeds, but it is not necessarily true that

he who does good deeds is a good man. The difficulty of determining whether a man is or is not good has now become a commonplace of moralists and satirists." How far the good behaviour of men is the result of their personal faith and quality is a subject for investigation, and a very difficult subject. A while ago, in a London suburb, a professional gentleman gave a garden-party, and to surprise his friends he decorated the branches of his trees with flowers and fruits they had not known before. Golden citrons spangled the graceful birch; willows displayed crimson blossoms; oaks, instead of acorns, dropped down peaches, apples, and plums; hollies displayed purple clusters; and all the branches of the garden bore fruits pleasant to the eye and sweet to the taste, yet entirely at variance with the character of the trees on which they grew. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Not this time. They were not their fruits at all; the things of beauty and sweetness were artificially fastened to alien stems, and were no proofs of the nature or goodness of the tree on which they were imposed.

It is much the same with thousands of moral men and women of our day. The pleasant fruits supposed to express their fine quality are not their fruits at all. These virtues must be traced to other roots and stems, the good behaviour in question being largely the reflection of the general civilization which has been created by ages of faith. Inheritance and environment account for many proprieties which have little if any root in the living soul of those who boast them. If these amiable and blameless ones were planted in the wilderness, beyond the ring-fence of a civilization sat

urated by a spiritual faith, it would be seen how little these gracious fruits belong to them, and how little they signify the real character of the happily situated unbeliever. All true righteousness of life springs out of godliness. As George Macdonald sings:

Lo, Lord, Thou know'st, I would not anything
That in the heart of God holds not its root;
Nor falsely deem there is any life at all

That doth in Him, nor sleep nor shine nor sing;

I know the plants that bear the noisome fruit
Of burning and of ashes and of gall—

From God's heart torn, rootless to man's they cling.

That the just live by faith is evidenced by the strength and beauty of the moral life of the saint. True, the character of many professing Christians is poor, and in some instances far worse than poor, but that is what might reasonably be expected from a vague or misconceived faith. Scientists say that the darkest places in the universe are the spots in the sun, and no wonder that the dark places of the Church are sometimes very dark. The worst persons I have known were living in Christian fellowship, and that they were the worst is what we should expect. A merely secular, sceptical sphere could not produce a Judas, close contact with the infinite love and beauty of the Lord was necessary to develop such a moral monster. But if the worst of men are in the Church, the best are there also. Nothing seems more wonderful or delightful to me than the vast numbers of noble men and women whom I have known; they stretch along the years as bright and beautiful as the Milky Way. This world has seen nothing more pure and lovely than the saints

and their Master. Every virtue comes to its last perfection under the sweet and vital influences of Christian faith, hope, and love. "The just shall live by faith"; let us boldly declare it. Nothing in character is real, nothing perfect, nothing abiding, except it is rooted in eternity, its branches bathed in heaven, its life kindled and sustained by the sunshine of God.

XLIV

MASKED PERILS OF SPIRITUAL
LIFE AND FELLOWSHIP

Hidden rocks in your love-feasts.—JUDE 12.

HE ungodly men who had crept unawares into the Christian community are likened by the apostle to sunken rocks which amid smooth seas and under fair skies prove fatal to the mariner. But these hidden rocks present themselves in moods, theories, and sentiments, as well as in false brethren; and against these subtlest perils we must diligently watch. Many of the rocks which threaten us stand out conspicuously enough, we are ever being reminded of them, they are surmounted by warning lights, to run upon them means presumptuous sin; other perils, however, are hidden and almost unsuspected. We seek now to indicate several of these submerged reefs.

The quest of spiritual power whilst forgetting the uses of such power is one of these hidden rocks. Miss J. M. Fry made the following statement at a recent religious gathering: "Many persons are actuated by mere vanity in desiring the attainment of spiritual power." That is, we presume, such power is sought not for the high ends of personal sanctification or effective ministry, but rather for its self-complacent