in righteousness and true holiness." To the Romans also he thus speaks, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof."

This last clause "put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ" is very commonly applied to the doctrine of justification by that spotless righteousness of the Redeemer which is elsewhere called a robe, and in which the believer is represented as standing before God without spot or blemish or any such thing. This is a part of revealed truth deservedly dear to every awakened sinner, to you that believe, Christ, as your all sufficient righteousness in the sight of God, is unspeakably precious; and to this truth the expression "put on" may certainly be adapted: but it is evident from the passages already quoted, that the direct application of the expression as used by St. Paul, is not to the justifying righteousness of Christ, but to the personal holiness of the believer. That this is its obvious meaning in the passage now before us, no one who will not wrest the scriptures can reasonably doubt.

*

* 1 Pet. ii. 7.

As both the personal comfort, and the comely appearance of the body depend greatly upon the clothing which is put on: so also the comfort of a Christian in his private experience, and the adorning of his profession in the eyes of all around, depend upon certain dispositions and feelings and practices with which his mind and conduct are to be clothed. All of you be subject one to another, saith saint Peter, and be clothed with humility. The gospel garments then which we are exhorted in our text to put on are these:

1 BOWELS OF MERCIES.

2 KINDNESS.

3 HUMBLENESS OF MIND.

4 MEEKNESS.

5 LONG SUFFERING.

6 FORBEARANCE AND

7 FORGIVENESS.

These are among the rich treasures of that heavenly wardrobe from which the believing soul should put on daily its precious apparel, and verily I say to you concerning the least of those who are so clothed, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them. These are the features of conformity to the image of the Son of God, in the brightness of which it will be the joy and glory of the redeemed to shine throughout eternity.

Dear brethren, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ as your invaluable example. Put on

1. Bowels of Mercies.

Cultivate tender sympathy and compassion for your fellow-creatures, feeling for them in all their distresses, and having a readiness of heart, to relieve them in all their difficulties. Feel for their wants both spiritual and temporal, guarding against that hard selfish frame of mind which we sometimes meet with among professors of religion, some of whom appear to have no yearnings of compassionate interest, or painful anxiety about either the present distresses of the afflicted, or the future damnation of the ungodly. When Jesus saw the multitudes following him three days, and having nothing to eat; when he beheld them crowding round him sick of divers diseases; when he contemplated their condition of spiritual ignorance and desertion; the lively considerate tenderness of his affectionate heart was touched for them, his bowels of mercy were moved towards them as sheep having no shepherd: and when he anticipated the approaching and now inevitable doom which awaited many of them, he exclaimed in the fulness of sympathetic grief, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." St. Paul also expresses his lively feeling of merciful and anxious interest about the

66

salvation of his fellow countrymen, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in * for brethren my

my

my heart, kinsmen according to the flesh," for whom " my heart's desire and prayer to God is, that they might be saved." Cultivate therefore, my dear Brethren, these merciful feelings, that ye may be followers of Paul, even as Paul was a follower of Jesus.

And let it not be mere feeling; but put ye on

2. Kindness,

as well as bowels of mercies.

Kindness in the

life should follow compassion in the heart. When Jesus felt for the hungry, he fed them: when he felt for the sick, he healed them: when he felt for the lost, he gave himself to death to save them. His compassionate feel

* Rom. ix. 1, 2, 3.

The words of the context which are omitted in this quotation appear to be parenthetic and the Apostle's meaning in the whole passage, seems to be this-I have continual sorrow in my heart for my brethren, (for when I was myself in their state, I was so infatuated, and carried my opposition to the gospel so far; that I could wish rather to be accursed apart from Christ, than receive and rely upon him for my salvation recollecting therefore with horror the state of mind when I was under the prejudices they are now under, I have sorrow in my heart for them, my dear brethren) my kinsmen after the flesh, &c.

:

my own

ing of mercy prompted him to a corresponding action of kindness: and hereby we know the mercy of his heart, by the exceeding kindness of his life. 66 He loved us and gave himself for us." He loved us-there was his mercy; and gave himself for us-there was his kindness. Be ye followers of him as dear children,

and walk in love and in the exercise of active kindness. Do your hearts feel for the wants and sorrows and spiritual darkness of your neighbours? Then, instead of selfishly squandering all you possess on your own gratification, part with some of it to him who is in need instead of shutting yourselves up in a careless hard-hearted revelling enjoyment of your personal prosperity, seek the abode, the intimacy, the endearing confidence of him who is afflicted: instead of railing with unfeeling selfcomplacency at the irreligion and ignorance of the ungodly around you, pray with lively and repeated earnestness for their spiritual illumination, and if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, avail yourselves of every opportunity to edify and instruct them.

Neither is this mercy and kindness to be confined to your relations and friends; it is to be extended to strangers also, for if any man will say in his heart, who is my neighbour to whom I am called to show such active kindness? this is the Lord's answer, (let him that heareth understand,) "A certain man went