IX. Luke xiv. 13. filment in spirit of our Lord's precept, when thou SERMON makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee, but thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. More generally, let us ask ourselves whether we have learned to forgive our enemies, to rejoice in the prospect of heaven, to be instant in prayer, to be patient in our own sorrows, and to sympathize with those of our brethren? Let us think of all this, and then perhaps, in penitence and shame, we shall ask God to give us that one pervading principle through which alone Christian duty can be fulfilled. 5. We have seen, my brethren, that this prin- Love the principle ciple is love. Not capricious human affection, aris- by which ing perhaps from some unreasonable partiality, but duties are fulfilled. true, genuine Christian love without dissimulation, springing from faith, strengthening with our growth in holiness, and founded on an abhorrence of evil and desire for good. Believing that in Jesus Christ the idea of perfect goodness is realized, that He has shewn us perfectly what God loves and hates, what principles are our duty and our glory, and what again will result in our misery and our disgrace, let us seek, as He did, to make real, unselfish, undissembling love to God and man the mainspring of our daily conduct. As He has set before us the new commandment of the Christian covenant, that we John xiii. love one another, as He hath loved us, so let us, laying aside all selfseeking, all unreality, all insincerity 34. IX. SERMON and low principle, give ourselves up, heartily and unreservedly, to the great Christian principle of love to the brethren. Of that love the Holy Spirit of Christ is the only Source and Giver, and from Him we must humbly and earnestly seek it. From Him who is essentially the Spirit of Love, springs the power which will enable us, both in our various callings as citizens of this world, and in our common calling as inheritors of heaven, to consecrate our lives to God's glory, and to bear part in the great Christian task of making those who cross our path happier and better, of winning new members to Christ's Church by the persuasive influence of active holiness, of leavening all human society with a divine principle, and of building up and manifesting among men the kingdom of God. MALACCA, X. THE CONQUEST OF EVIL BY GOOD. THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY. ROM. XII. 21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. X. Opening words of the Epistle. THE chapter which concludes with these words is SERMON brought specially under our notice in the services for this Epiphany season, since it furnishes the Epistles for three consecutive Sundays. It consists entirely of an enumeration of Christian graces, by which believers in Christ are to manifest the truth of His Gospel to the world, just as He Himself manifested it by His divine teaching, and works of love and mercy. In the portion of it just read, St Paul tells us by what rules of conduct we should be guided towards those who have injured us; and to that subject today's Epistle, in its literal and primary meaning, is entirely confined. You may think it inconsistent with this limitation that it should begin with the words, Be not wise in your own conceits, and it certainly seems more probable that this precept is connected with that which immediately precedes it, mind not X. SERMON high things, but condescend to men (or rather things) of low estate, than with those which follow; so that it would perhaps have been well had it been read as the conclusion of last Sunday's Epistle, rather than as the commencement of this. Still no doubt there is a connection between the error of those who are wise in their own conceits, and of those who are prone to recompense evil for evil. For it is commonly owing to an overweening sense of our own importance, a foolish sensitiveness arising from mere conceit and ignorant self-satisfaction, that we feel an undue indignation at any real or supposed injuries, insults, or acts of neglect. And therefore there is at least a natural transition from the opening precept of our Epistle to its principal subject. Paraphrase. Rom. xii. 16. ver. 17. ver. 18. ver. 19. 2. Do not, says the Apostle, become wise in your own conceits, do not encourage yourselves in a vain-glorious sense of your own merit or consequence, not returning to any man evil for evil; taking heed to your conduct in all dealings with others, not merely maintaining a clear conscience in God's sight, but also giving no ground for suspicion, and therefore providing things honest, that is, living carefully and watchfully, in the sight of all men; and if it be possible, if others will permit you, living peaceably with all men, at all events so living that there may be peace on your side, if not on the other. Dearly beloved (here let us notice the anxious affection with which St Paul urges a difficult duty on his readers1), avenge not 1 Tholuck. X. xxxii. 35. yourselves, but rather yield to your adversary's anger, SERMON let it have free space and spend itself, for the work of vengeance is not yours, but God's, as it is written in the book of Deuteronomy, Vengeance is mine, I Deut. will repay, saith the Lord. If therefore thine enemy ver. 20. hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not conquered by evil, but conquer evil ver. 21. with good. Let not your opponent's wrongdoing subdue your Christian constancy, by inducing you to imitate it, but rather let your persevering kindness subdue his malice. ourselves. 3. Such is the general lesson which the Apostle Motive here suggested gives us on the forgiveness of injuries, harmonizing for not most completely with our Lord's precepts and ex- avenging ample, and with the words in which He has taught us to seek pardon for the injuries by which we have wronged our Father who is in heaven. Yet some persons, as is well known, have found a difficulty in the motive or reason here suggested for overcoming evil with good, that in so doing we heap coals of fire upon the head of our adversary. It has been said that we are encouraged to seek a more subtle and refined vengeance than we could reap by merely repaying wrong with wrong, and that we are recommended to make our enemy miserable by the mortification of being indebted to us. A great poet of the last generation, whose genius was unhappily not sanctified by faith in Christ, has explained the passage thus: "If we hate our enemy, we |