burial, and hence many of the rites and duties of the sexton in the burial of Christians. If the dead are simply to be buried as though there were no resurrection, no life to come, no awakening in the image of Christ, then let us tear out our most beautiful Office for the Burial of the Dead from our Prayer books, and let sextons

regard themselves as mere scavengers, whose duty consists in putting what is becoming loathsome out of the way. The dead are buried in some public cemeteries almost as if this were true. But we still hope, even in this age of growing infidelity and scornof all things sacred, that, at the least, the rights of Christians will be permitted, and that thus, Christian rites will be continued at the burial of Church people. And in this hope, and with an earnest wish for its thoroughly reverent and devout performance, as well as for the due and decent order of worship in the Church, we desire to impress most deeply upon all our sextons, segstens, or sacristans, the importance and the preciousness of 'Heartiness' in the discharge of all their duties.

Gal. ii. 20.

W. D. MACLAGAN, M.A., RECTOR OF

NEWINGTON.

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

OW fully and how plainly are the truths of the Gospel set before us in these few words! They tell us of the work of Christ for us-Christ crucified for our sins. They tell us of His work in us.' Christ liveth in me.' And they tell us what our own lives should be, the lives of those whom Christ so loved, and for whom He died. 'I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.'

May the Holy Spirit help us to think on these things, and may our thoughts be full of comfort and of blessing to our own souls. What is here said by St. Paul may be said by every true disciple of Jesus-'I am crucified with Christ.' Let us think what this really means. Christ was crucified that He might suffer the penalty of death which was due to our sins. It was we who deserved to die, because the wages of sin is death.' 'The soul that sinneth shall die,' and we all had sinned, and all deserved to die. But Christ, in His love to our souls, came down to save us from death. He died for us; the just for the unjust.' He had taken our guilty nature into His Divine nature, that He might

make Himself responsible for all our deeds, and bear the burden of all our sins. He had taken the Manhood into God.' And so He had become truly Man. He had become the new Head of our race-the second Adam. 'The first man was of the earth earthy,' and he had become fallen, corrupted, guilty in the sight of God. But the second Man was the Lord from heaven; the spotless, sinless, Son of God and Son of Man.

And thus though sinless in Himself, He took upon Him the burden of our sins, as our new Head-our representative before God; and offered Himself up to suffer in our place. He died not for Himself, but for all; and as St. Paul says in another place, "if one died for all then all died." All mankind died in Him the Man Christ Jesus; for He was man-He was made Man for us; and each believer as he looks to the Cross of Calvary can thus say with St. Paul, "I am crucified with Christ.' In His death I died. In Him I paid the penalty of sin, and now its guilt no longer rests upon me. Through that death I am ransomed, I am redeemed." And what a blessed thing it is for us when we can say this from our hearts; when we can thus put our trust in Jesus as the Ransom for our sins; when we can grasp for ourselves the simple truth of these words of faith-'I am crucified with Christ;' when we can take it home each to our own hearts as St. Paul did, 'The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me.' How often we lose the comfort of this blessed truth because we do not remember or believe that it is true for our own souls. We believe that Christ died for the whole world; but we do not claim our own interest in that atoning death; we do not accept him as our Representative and trust our souls to Him. We do not see that we are in Him; that He had taken us into Himself, when He took the Manhood into God; and that in His death we died-' crucified with Christ.' And so we miss the peace and joy which fills the heart of a true believer-one who can rejoice in God His Saviour; one who looking up to the Cross can see himself crucified there, paying the penalty of sin in the great sin-bearer-the Lamb of God-and can say with St. Paul, 'I am crucified with Christ.'

But this is only half the Gospel. Indeed so far it is scarcely a Gospel at all. Had Christ been only crucified we could only know that we were dead in Him; and had He remained in death, we should as surely have continued dead with Him. But now the apostle adds, Nevertheless I live.' Christ is risen from the deadand I am risen with Him. Now I know the meaning of His prophetic words, 'Because I live ye shall live also.' The Lord who laid on Him the sentence of our guilt, has now removed that sentence and set Him free. The bonds of death are loosed in which He was bound-and we with Him. The Father, for love of His dear Son has forgiven the race of sinners justly doomed to die; and now they come forth with Him from the prison house of death to live again, and to live for ever; to live in Him as they died in Him; to share His life, as before they shared His death. He died for them, and now they live in Him. They died in Him and now He lives in them. I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' All is of Him-His love through

Short Sermon.

which we died in Him-His life by which we live in Him. Christ is ours and we are His, and all things are ours in Him; whether life or death—it is ours because it is His. We are complete in Him. But there is a further sense in which these words are true -I am crucified with Christ.' St. Paul in another place speaks of Christ in this way; By whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.' What he means is this, 'The world is become as a dead thing before me; it has no power to hurt me, no power to charm me; it is crucified unto me.' And again I am become as one dead to the world around me. I heed it as little as the dead man heeds what is passing around him. I no longer serve it or love it, or care for it. I am crucified unto the world.' And so it will be with every true child of God. In this sense, too, he is crucified with Christ. All that is sinful in him-all that is of self-he has nailed, as it were, to that cross of Christ; with his own hand, but in the power of the Spirit, he has dealt a death-blow at his carnal self. He has doomed it to destruction; he has condemned it to be crucified; he has nailed it to the cross. It may linger long, for crucifixion is a slow and lingering death; it may often revive again for a moment, and assert its power, but its doom is sealed. Self is given up to be crucified. It will no longer rule as a tyrant-it is condemned as a guilty thing. I am crucified with Christ.'

And this brings us on to the later words of the apostle in this place. He had been speaking of the work of Christ on behalf of the believer; the blessings which come to us from Christ's death and Christ's life. But now what is the fruit of these blessings in the believer's heart? What is the character of his new life-his risen life-the life which Christ lives in him? See how St. Paul describes it: The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.' It is still then a life in the flesh.' From that burden we are not yet delivered-we still bear about with us this body of death.' We shall still have our weaknesses, our temptations, our struggles, our failures, even our sins. But these are not now what make up the life itself; they are only its defects and imperfections. It is a life of faith in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.' In the life of the true disciple of Christ, the great principle, the great motive, is the love of Christ Himself-His love to our souls. The heart which has really been touched by the sense of that love will give itself up to Christ and to His service. 'The love of Christ constraineth us.' It shuts us in to one only course to serve and follow Him. A life of faith in the Son of God is a life which is guided and ruled by love to Him; a life in which the heart continually tastes the blessedness of pardon and of peace; a life in which the thought of Christ and of His love is ever present to deter us from sin, to incite us to holiness; a life in which every new sin and every new sorrow is brought to the feet of Jesus, and left with Him; the sins to be washed away, and the sorrows to be turned into joy. This, and far more than this, is meant by these words of the apostle- I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.' And it is a very blessed life; no life so blessed as a life like this. The

quiet sense of forgiveness through that love of Christ; the sweet experience of fellowship with the Son of God; the blessed hope of everlasting life through Him; the confident expectation of those unspeakable joys which God has prepared for them that love Him -all this belongs to those who 'live by the faith of the Son of God.' They no longer look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; 'their hearts are surely fixed where true joys are to be found.' They walk by faith, not by sight. He who loved them unto death has drawn their love to Him; He who died for them has moved them by His love to live for Him. They live by the faith of the Son of God. He is ever in their minds and in their hearts. How they can please Him is their continued thought; that they may love Him more is their continual desire. What can they render to the Lord, the Lord Who loved them and for them!

gave Himself

We may well ask ourselves, 'Is ours a faith like this; a faith not merely to speak about, but a faith by which we live;' a 'faith which worketh by love'? What fruit do we see of our faith in our daily lives? Does it make us better men and women; does it make us care less about this passing world, and more about the everlasting joys of the world to come? Does our faith in Christ help us to love Christ; does it move us to give up our lives to Him Who gave up His life for us?

What a blessed thing it would be for us if our lives were lives like this; if each of us could say in truth as St. Paul said, 'I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.'

Surely these thoughts may well come home to us with double power at such a time as this, in the solemn season through which we are now passing; above all in the Holy Week, to which we are approaching. Soon we shall be called to meditate upon the closing scenes of that suffering life of the Son of God, Who loved us and gave Himself for us. Soon we shall stand, as it were, beside the uplifted Cross; we shall see the suffering face of the dying Man of sorrows; we shall hear His latest words, "It is finished.' We shall follow Him to His rocky tomb; we shall keep our watch by the silent sepulchre. We shall hear the message of the angels speaking to us the words of comfort, 'He is not here; He is risen; come, see the place where the Lord lay.' And what shall we learn from all these solemn teachings of the Holy Week; what blessing will they bring to our own souls; what fruit will they bear in our daily lives. As we stand before the uplifted Cross, and see Him hanging there, the dying Saviour, let this be the confession of our faith, I am crucified with Christ.' As Easter dawns upon us with its tidings of life from the dead, let us pray that we may be able to say with St. Paul, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' And so when the Holy season shall have passed away, and we go forth to the work of our daily life, and to tread the unknown paths of the years or the days that may lie before us, this shall be the continual law of our life as it was with the Apostle, 'I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.'