% Sermaii, dt. 
 
 St. Matthew v. 8. 
 
 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 
 
 This beatitude, sixth in the order as given by 
 St. Matthew, may in some sort be regarded as the 
 first of the series. For if we divide the eight 
 virtues which all Christian generations are to call 
 ' blessed,' into four pairs, and regard as the first 
 pair the two purely inward virtues, — purity of 
 heart, and hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
 we shall naturally put this one, purity of heart, 
 as being the simplest and most absolutely inward, 
 the first of all. It is, as it were, a basis of the 
 Christian moral character, on which the others may 
 all be said to rest, according to the words of St. 
 James, who tells us that the wisdom that is from 
 above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and the 
 resf". Not, of course, as though it could be perfectly 
 possessed alone, or separately from the rest, or as 
 though in order of time it were to be wholly won 
 before all the others, — though it has in this way, too, 
 a real priority over the rest, being in great measure 
 a virtue of youth ; but that when the entire moral 
 
 " St. James iii. 17. 
 
 b2
 
 character of a faithful and true Christian man is 
 divinely pourtrayed in eight particulars, this one 
 may be regarded as the fii'st in arrangement, the 
 one out of which the others, more complicated 
 in point of cii'cumstance and description, naturally 
 seem to flow. 
 
 The terms in which the beatitude is stated are 
 entirely simple. There is not in them, as in several 
 of the others, the least sound of paradox. There is 
 no difficulty, such as we meet in several of the 
 others, where we have to understand how sorrow 
 or persecution, things naturally painful and sad, can 
 be called ' blessed,' or how meekness can have the 
 promise of inheriting this earth. All here is per- 
 fectly simple and plain. I^either in the first part, 
 "Blessed are the pure in heart," is there difficulty, 
 for man can natui-ally see that pureness is a blessed 
 and sweet thing ; nor yet in the second, "for they 
 shall see God." Yet we may truly say that in these 
 last words there is something greater than paradox : 
 there is revelation. For these words surely open 
 to us a truth, which naturally we could not know, 
 of the invisible world ; a very sacred and precious 
 truth, respecting what we may call, without impro- 
 priety, the senses of the soul, that those who are pure 
 in heart, and no doubt those only, shall hereafter 
 be admitted and able to see God. 
 
 Who, then, are the pure in heart ? By the heart 
 we must, I suppose, understand the feelings and 
 desires, the likings and affections of a man, as these 
 
 - UIUG Z
 
 are'distinguislied from his more purely mental facul- 
 ties and operations on the one hand, and from his 
 spiritual capacities on the other : so that, as we 
 distinguish the soul, specifically so called, from the 
 spirit of a man, so we may subdivide, so to speak, 
 the specific soul into the mind, the seat of thought, 
 reflection, and memory, and the heart, the imagi- 
 nary receptacle of the love and desire, the affections 
 and impulses of the soul. 
 
 Purity in the heart, then, means no doubt the 
 absence of all manner of defilement, whether it be 
 of one sort or another, in it. Corrupt and corrupting 
 desires, — some absolutely and in themselves corrupt, 
 some corrupt in their excess, and faulty direction, — 
 all such, of whatever particular kind they be, are 
 destructive of perfect purity in the heart. Bodily 
 desii'cs of all sorts, desires of ambition, of covetous- 
 ness, of dislike, of indignation, — all these, and such 
 as these, as soon as they pass the limit of entire 
 innocence in degree and direction, begin to be de- 
 structive of that perfect purity of heart which is 
 surely meant in this beatitude. Purity is the free- 
 dom from all these. It is a clear brightness of the 
 soul in respect of things moral : a transparent clear- 
 ness, not arising from stillness, or original feeble- 
 ness in the natural desires, but from the perfectly 
 ordered activity of naturally vigorous desire to- 
 wards its legitimate objects, whereby, in respect of 
 all things moral, the soul of a man is clear before 
 God of everything that defiles, — the lively springs
 
 of feeling and desire welling continually up with 
 nothing but the bright and crystal waters ©f a pure 
 and holy activity. I need not say that such purity 
 is not of nature. 'No ; in this beatitude, as in the 
 others, we are reading of men as they are under the 
 grace of the Holy Spirit, not as they are by natui'e. 
 The natural activities of desire and feeling, corrupt 
 from the first, when left to themselves grow more 
 and more corrupt continually, so that real purity of 
 heart is to the natural man impossible. Nothing 
 but the divine strength and sweetness of the Holy 
 Spirit of God given in the Body of Christ, given to 
 prayer, can so purify these naturally foul and turbid 
 springs, as to make it possible that fallen man should 
 in any way reach towards that true purity of heart 
 which the Lord pronoimces blessed. 
 
 But though this purity of heart belongs, no doubt, 
 to the whole subject of human desires, so as to re- 
 quire the absence of all defilement, of whatsoever 
 kind it be, it can yet hardly be doubted that there 
 is one sort of defilement, which from its spreading, 
 secret poison, from its universally diffused danger, 
 growing, as it is too apt to do, with the growth of 
 the body, and, alas ! too often re-acting upon the 
 body in all sorts of terrible evil ; from the hold 
 which it gains upon the imagination ; from the way 
 in which it is capable of being transmitted and 
 caught from one impure mind to another, and fed 
 secretly by all kinds of apparently innocent objects ; 
 from the difficulty of dealmg with it, and the natu-
 
 ral (and sometimes the morbid) unwillingness which 
 there is in men even to have it alluded to, though 
 it may notoriously be eating out the very heart of 
 faith in a Christian land, — there is one sort of de- 
 filement, I say, which is surely most prominent in 
 the thought of every one who reads that only " the 
 pure in heart shall see God." Blessed pure in 
 heart ! Yerily blessed, if there be such, those who 
 by the grace of the Holy Spirit have been kept 
 clean and pure in boyhood, youth, manhood ; whose 
 life has been undefiled in the midst of a contami- 
 nated and contaminating world, like a bright river, 
 never mingling with the stagnant waters of some 
 muddy lake through which it flows, and issuing 
 thence at last not less clear and bright than when 
 it entered them ! And blessed too those who, hav- 
 ing known somewhat of the opposite stain and evil, 
 have purified themselves by repentance and con- 
 fession, and have received that divine forgiveness 
 and restoration which are never refused to such 
 within the Christian covenant as with true, sound, 
 and earnest intention of heart ask for it. Blessed 
 are the pure and the purified, those who have been 
 kept from such stain, and those in whom the stain 
 has been washed away by timely tears, while the 
 day of probation, the day of grace, has lasted ! 
 
 " Blessed arc the pure in heart, for they shall 
 see God.^^ 
 
 What, then, is the promise of seeing God ? For, 
 no doubt, in some way all shall sec Him. Every
 
 eye, we know, shall see Christ when lie cometh in 
 judgment, even they also which pierced Him ; but 
 that sight shall be with a wailing of all the kindreds 
 of the earth because of Him. Those who do not see 
 Him in love, shall surely see Him in His tenible 
 anger when all the nations shall be gathered before 
 the throne of His glory. And how inconceivably 
 dreadful will the sight be to one who has gone on 
 wilfully offending God throughout his life, without 
 repentance ; who has trampled under foot the grace 
 of his baptism ; steeped himself in impurity of 
 heart, and died so ! How inconceivably dreadful 
 it will be for such an one to stand face to face with 
 the Kedeemer whom he has despised ! now sitting 
 on His awful throne of judgment. His countenance 
 no longer merciful and loving, but most terrible in 
 its almighty vengeance ! 
 
 But His own, His pure ones, shall in that awful 
 day be enabled to lift up their eyes in a faith sus- 
 tained by His own most Holy Spirit, and see Him 
 as He is ! They shall see Him looking down upon 
 them with that unspeakable love which infuseth 
 divine life. The quickening aspect of His gracious, 
 pardoning love shall support theii' souls, which else 
 would faint and perish at His presence. They shall 
 see Him loving and gracious, and they shall see 
 Him so for ever. They shall surround His throne 
 with endless praise and endless joy, always and al- 
 together blest in the beatific vision of the most high 
 God, who has become their portion for ever.
 
 9 
 
 For their purity of heart shall have become to 
 them as a sacred,, immortal sense, a holy faculty of 
 vision, a divine gift of spiritual sight, whereby they 
 shall see, and know, and feel, and be eternally up- 
 held by the presence of God and His immortal love, 
 while the impure are utterly blind to Him, except 
 in His terrors, as they already are blind to all that 
 is divine. 
 
 It is hardly a mere imagination that even here, 
 on this dark earth, visions of beings spiritual, alto- 
 gether unseen and unthought of by the worldly and 
 sensual, may sometimes be seen by the purer eyes 
 of innocent children. But be this as it may, cer- 
 tainly in many ways in which the presence and 
 power of God are capable of being recognised and 
 known upon earth, — as in conscience, in the events 
 and occurrences of the world, in people, in places, 
 — none have so purged and clear a sight as such as 
 keep themselves from all defilement of the flesh and 
 spirit, and by God's grace live among spiritual 
 things by chastity and purity of heart, even while 
 they remain in the flesh. This upon earth, and 
 during life. But most surely after death, when the 
 things of the earth shall have passed away, this 
 text plainly teaches us that there shall be a great 
 difl'orence between the souls of men, a difl'erence 
 analogous to that which there is now in their 
 bodies, a difference which may at least be under- 
 stood by calling it a difl'erence of sense, whereby 
 one soul shall have some blessed gift of divine 
 
 E 3
 
 10 
 
 sight, and another be utterly blind and devoid of 
 it. And not this text only, for St. Paul teaches us 
 that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord^ ;" 
 and St. John further shews us that the sight of the 
 Lord, won by purity, shall have a transforming 
 power upon those who gain it, bringing them at 
 once to their perfection, in likeness to Him ; for he 
 says in his first general Epistle, " Beloved, now are 
 we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what 
 we shall be ; but we know that when He shall ap- 
 pear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as 
 He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him, 
 purifieth himself, even as He is pure''." See how 
 this text of St. John falls in minutely with the doc- 
 trine which I have been urging, and supports it 
 throughout. The sons of God pui'ify themselves, 
 while they remain in this life, after the likeness of 
 the purity of Christ, because they Iniow assuredly 
 that when Christ comes back again upon the earth, 
 they shall thus be enabled to see Him, as He is, in 
 His love and grace, and so seeing Him, they shall 
 at once be transformed — theii' remaining wealaiesses 
 removed, and their perfection suddenly achieved — 
 into His likeness. Theii' purity of heart, won on 
 earth by His grace, shall give them that divine 
 power of sight, which shall bring them, on their last 
 waking, to His immortal and sacred likeness, in 
 Adiich every holy craving of their souls shall be 
 fully and for ever satisfied. 
 
 ^' J loll. xii. 11. ' 1 St. John iii. 2.
 
 11 
 
 These passages, I say, confirm the doctrine that 
 the souls of the pure win a kind of heavenly sense, 
 necessary for the seeing of God as He is, — the God, 
 that is, of mercy and love, — in His eternal kingdom 
 of glory and joy. And remember, too, that striking 
 passage of St. Luke's Gospel, in which the Lord, after 
 explaining to His disciples " wlim the kingdom of 
 God should come," and likening it to the suddenness 
 and brightness of the lightning, goes on to answer 
 their further question, " Where ^ Lord?" by the re- 
 markable image of the birds of prey flocking to the 
 carcase"^. As though He said, Do you then ask 
 further where the Lord shall come ? where you must 
 go to meet Him? where, on all this round globe, 
 shall the place of His appearing be, so that you 
 may go there and be ready to meet Him if you be 
 alive, or be buried there if you die, so as any way 
 to be as ready as you can to fly to Him at the first 
 news of His return? Do you ask, I say, tvhcro? 
 See how the birds of prey flock to the dead body ! 
 See how, when camel or horse falls down in the 
 midst of the wildest and most arid desert, where, as 
 far as the eye of man can strain, no sign of animal 
 or vegetable life is to be discovered on any side, 
 see how instantly the dark speck of some vulture, 
 or other bird that feeds on carrion, is to be seen on 
 the distant horizon, sailing up from the east or west, 
 from the north or south, to reach its far-discovered 
 food ! What sense warns that distant bird ? what 
 
 •^ St. Luke xvii. 37.
 
 12 
 
 sight, what smell, what unknown fticulty informs 
 it that what it seeks is here ? Something, like to 
 that sense, whatever it be, — something, at least, 
 which from that sense we may conceive and under- 
 stand, will bring the just, will bring the people of 
 God, from every quarter under heaven, to meet 
 their risen Lord. Something, like to that wonder- 
 ful and unexplored faculty which leads the bird 
 with unerring direction to its nest, and the bee to 
 its hive, which has been known, over and over 
 again, to guide a poor dog to its well-known home 
 over many miles of country wholly untraversed and 
 unknown before, shall surely gather together the 
 people of God from all the lands under heaven, to 
 meet in good time their own dear Lord — whom they 
 have believed, loved, imitated— when He returns in 
 judgment upon the earth. 
 
 Shall we ask what the natui'e of this sense shall 
 be, and how far Holy Scripture will aid us in dis- 
 covering it ? Surely one of these passages may be 
 made to thi'ow light upon the other, and we may 
 confidently say, that whatever other elements may 
 enter into it, yet it is in purity of heart, faithful, 
 lifelong purity of heart, that it is promised to Chi'is- 
 tian man that he shall see God. Not by any new 
 discoveries in devotion, not by extravagances of 
 feeling, not by ascetic or solitary living, not by 
 monastic vows or hard obligations of will- worship, 
 not by any of the various indirect ways which men 
 have devised for winding themselves up so high, as
 
 13 
 
 to be above the real life and duty of their station in 
 the world, but by simple, unpretending purity of 
 heart in the Holy Ghost, — by purity of heart which 
 may be won in the Holy Ghost in any position or 
 condition of a Christian's life, — shall man in Christ 
 see God. Purity of heart, sweet and innocent in 
 childhood, strong, self-controlling, and victorious in 
 youth, established, settled, entirely won and pos- 
 sessed in manhood ! Purity of heart which, as it is 
 the fairest and most beautiful of all the graces which 
 the Holy Spirit worketh in the soul of man, the in- 
 ward basis and foundation of all the rest, without 
 which they cannot be, so is that which brings him 
 nearest to the angelic nature, and fits him most for 
 the presence and the sight of God ! 
 
 But ! brethren, while we thus exalt the blessed- 
 ness (as how can it be too high exalted ?) of purity, 
 true, life-long purity of heart, how shall we speak 
 of those whose conscience tells them, loudly and 
 unmistakeably, that it is not tlicij to whom this 
 sweet grace, this lofty blessedness belongs ? What 
 of those who in a greater or less degree have let 
 their hearts know of and love that which is oppo- 
 site to pureness ; on whose soul there is a secret 
 stain, unknown and unsuspected perhaps by others, 
 but to themselves, alas ! sometimes the source of 
 the deepest and most corroding inward distress, and 
 too often the profound secret of more real aliena- 
 tion from God than other men imagine, or perhaps 
 they at all adequately realize to themselves ? !
 
 14 
 
 brethren, what is the real state in respect of this 
 most anxious and most important subject, of the 
 social life which is all around us, and which, from 
 the mere necessity of its contiguity to ourselves, 
 and its extremely contagious nature, can hardly fail 
 to have affected, with more or less of evil, many 
 even of our own hearts ? Is it not notorious, is it 
 not beyond doubt or denial, that in this land, and 
 in this age, the creeping plague of impurity is very 
 near at the heart of our national life, of our faith, 
 and of our holiness? eating it away, more or less 
 secretly ; undermining and counteracting the true 
 and genuine efforts of holiness and restoration which 
 are really making on many sides of us, and threat- 
 ening the utmost evil to our Church and country ? 
 While the extreme freedom of our institutions offers, 
 almost without the slightest legal check, openly and 
 notoriously in the streets of our cities, free-trade in 
 sin; while voluptuous and seductive literature, so 
 to call it, and the continual reports of the public 
 journals, supply constant food to the diseased and 
 foul imagination; while the legitimate efforts to 
 probe, or in any real way to reach the sore, are dis- 
 coui-aged as dangerous to faith and morals, and so 
 the sore is left to itself to fester and grow corrupt 
 in many a heart that might be turned to repentance, 
 because men persist in shutting their eyes to the 
 truth, and resolving to believe the real inner state 
 of hearts as good and pure as the outward manners 
 of the world and society seem to shew them, — who.
 
 15 
 
 I say, can doubt or deny that the blessedness of 
 purity, and the extreme danger of impurity, are 
 among the chief subjects wliich in faithful simplicity 
 and truth the preacher is called upon to bring be- 
 fore the people ? Trace the life of a man, bred up 
 as we are, brethren, in this . country ; follow him 
 fi'om the day when he first emerges from the inno- 
 cence of the nursery ; trace him through the com- 
 panionship of school, public or private ; through the 
 temptations of the university, of the garrison, of 
 the city ; consider how he becomes familiarized in 
 all his life with the realities of impureness, which 
 are only too notorious and visible on every side, and 
 think how many a soul of man among us must be 
 conscious of that bitter secret plague, the inward 
 misery of the too-defiling knowledge — alas ! too 
 often more than the mere exterior knowledge — of 
 imjiure sin. 
 
 ! brethren, let us not deceive ourselves ! Only 
 the pure in heart shall see God. Let no man de- 
 ceive you by undervaluing or extenuating the 
 guilt of impure sin ! Let no man deceive you, as 
 some try to deceive you, by representing that men 
 are very much alike to one another; that there 
 arc no such great differences among them ; that it 
 cannot be believed that the amiable, kind-hearted, 
 hospitable, fair- seeming people among whom we 
 live, should be lost in the next world ; that there is 
 no such distinction between the lives of men as that 
 it should be credible that so mighty a difference
 
 10 
 
 Bhould be made between them, as we believe there 
 will be, in the day of judgment. So men do teach 
 sometimes, and so many think ; but it is a terrible 
 deceit. The chasm will surely open in the midst of 
 us, and will separate us from one another. It will 
 divide us into two, and only two, companies. On 
 the one side will be found the pure, the faithful, 
 the penitent ; and surely the rest will be on the 
 other. But shall, then, all those amiable qualities, 
 shall all that kindness, and family affection, and 
 generosity, and honesty, and justice, and all those 
 other traits which made men seem so much alike, 
 even though they be altogether and finally dis- 
 severed from faith and repentance, — shall these things 
 go down into condemnation, to sweeten and alle- 
 viate, if it be possible, the society of the lost ? I^o, 
 surely. Eemember, brethren, that stern, but certain 
 and oft-repeated word of Christ, "From him that 
 hath not, shall be taken even that which he hath ®." 
 From him that hath not the evangelical graces of 
 faith in God and repentance of sin, all his exterior 
 sweetness which was not of grace, and his justice, 
 and all those other qualities which attracted the love 
 which they did not deserve, shall be taken away. 
 Tliey were not his own ; they were lent him. He 
 may not keep them longer. They shall be taken 
 away from him, and given to some happier brother, 
 in whom, perhaps, these qualities had been wanting 
 on earth, but who now is made perfect in Christ. 
 
 <= St. Matt. XXV. 29,
 
 17 
 
 Nothing that is lovely and sweet can go down into 
 hell. Nothing that is lovely and sweet can be 
 wanting in heaven. 'No, — to die impure, to die 
 with the heart still hankering after things impui'e, 
 the imagination stained and foul, the man unre- 
 pentant, what is it but to be lost ? By no express 
 sentence, it may be, but by the- divinely-lighted 
 conscience turned into fire in the soul, those who 
 have died impure, and impenitent in their impurity, 
 will know at once their own wretched lot, away 
 from the sight of God, and far from all possible joy. 
 " In nowise shall anything enter into that kingdom 
 that defiles^;" ''the highway into that kingdom 
 shall be called The "Way of Holiness ; the unclean 
 shall not pass over it ^." 
 
 And remember, brethren, the words of the Pro- 
 phet Daniel, how " those that sleep in the dust of 
 the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and 
 some to shame and everlasting contempt^." What, 
 may we suppose, is this eternal shame ? We know 
 that, as the Lord carried with Ilimself into heaven 
 His own glorious wounds, never to be obliterated, 
 so the just, the martyrs of God shall wear for ever 
 the tokens and marks of their holy sufferings, where- 
 by they fill up that which is behind of the afflictions 
 of Christ in their flesh', — marks and tokens, base 
 and dishonouring in the sight of dim-eyed men, but 
 become not less glorious than immortal in the world 
 
 ' Eev. xxi. 27 ; xxii. 15. e Tsa. xxxv. 8. '' Dan. xii. 2. 
 
 ' Col. i. 24.
 
 18 
 
 of glory : — how may not these lost soiils, lost for 
 their Tinrepented impurity, carry on their foul bodies 
 the eternal tokens of their filthy shame, the badges 
 of everlasting contempt, even in the regions of 
 the lost ? 
 
 ! young men, baptized into Chiist, and looking 
 forward in Him to glory, whose hearts are even now 
 solicited by the Holy Spirit of God to devote your- 
 selves altogether to His service in your various 
 stations of life, ! guard yourselves now, guard 
 youi'selves here against this creeping plague, this 
 secret poison and well of misery, an impure heart ! 
 Having such promises as you have, brethren, such 
 great and precious promises, cleanse yourselves from 
 all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holi- 
 ness in the fear of God ^ ! Guard youi* secret imagi- 
 nations under the Holy Spirit ! It is in the imagi- 
 nation that the main fuel of this sin is found, — the 
 imagination quickened and made lively by edu- 
 cation, and then allowed to run riot in loose talking, 
 loose reading, luxurious living, — let not such words 
 be once named among you, as becometh saints; 
 neither filthiness nor foolish talking, nor jesting, 
 which are not convenient '. Words lightly spoken 
 and lightly heard in youth, and deeds little thought 
 of when done or seen, often fix themselves so deeply 
 in the memory, as to recur, uninvited and unwel- 
 come, all through life ; even in holy times, and when 
 the soul, into the very substance of which they seem, 
 
 ■< 2 Cor. vii. I. ' Eph. v. 4.
 
 19 
 
 as it were, to be biirnecl, loathes and abhors them. 
 Believe me, it is by the polluting of the imagination 
 principally, that the trial becomes to so many a fiery 
 and fatal one ; and so, the imagination which is 
 allowed to be lax, and idle, and feed itself on all 
 the chance, and stray, and mischievous food that 
 may be presented to it, keeps sin alive in the soul 
 which else might let it go, and get well of it. 
 
 But do not think that it is by any flying away 
 from life, and station, and duty that safety is to be 
 won. The imagination that is content to be polluted 
 can find its food everywhere. In solitude alike, and 
 in society ; from nature, from art, from books, fi'om 
 newspapers ; nay, from the very Word of God itself 
 it can draw the poison it loves. In intercourse and 
 conversation with other people such a man turns 
 eveiything into evil. All that he hears, turns, as it 
 were, sour upon his soul. Every bad word and 
 thought clings. The good ones all fly away. Every 
 bad neighbour attaches him ; every good one holds 
 aloof, or is distasteful to him. 
 
 ! miserable taint of unclean heart I of which 
 I would not speak, but that I fear there may, 
 too probably, be a secret echo to my words in the 
 depth of the conscience of not a few, perhaps, who 
 hear me ! 
 
 But what says St. John, the loving and beloved 
 disciple? "I write unto you, young men, because 
 ye have overcome the wicked one;" "I have writ- 
 ten unto you, young men, because ye are strong,
 
 20 
 
 and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have 
 overcome the wicked one""." Ye are in your 
 strength, — strength of body, strength of mind, 
 strength of labour, strength of resistance, strength 
 of will. There is no attack of the wicked one so 
 strong, or so subtle, or so universal as that with 
 which he assails young men on the side of impurity. 
 And so there is no victory greater, no innocence 
 more gracious, no self-conquest more blessed than 
 that of high-minded, heroic, Chiistian purity in 
 youth. If there is one thing more angelic than 
 another to be seen in ordinary human life, it is a 
 young man having the "Word of God abiding in 
 him, not unconscious of temptation, nor dijSferent in 
 constitution and natural desii-e from his neighbours ; 
 who in his clear, lofty pureness of Cluistian grace 
 throws aside the temptations of uncleanness of all 
 kinds, as things with which he will have no parley 
 nor concern ; on whom such words and thoughts fall 
 harmless ; whose chastity of imagination, filled with 
 all that is innocent, and busy with what is useful, 
 does not admit the ideas or visions of sin, till evil 
 spirits and evil men cease to present them. And 
 such, I verily believe, there are among you, brethren, 
 and by God's grace not a few ; retiring it may be, 
 and unknown sometimes, perhaps not unknown and 
 imprized by their neighboui's, but surely beloved of 
 God and good angels, and more or less secretly the 
 sources of blessing to all around them. 
 
 •" 1 St. John ii. 13, 14.
 
 21 
 
 And do not suppose, brethren, that this lofty con- 
 dition is of natiu'e. Ask yourselves whether it be 
 so, or no. ISTo : it is neither of nature, nor yet so 
 contrary to nature as that it may not be won by any 
 Christian soul of man under God's almighty and 
 most blessed grace. It is the gift of God to such as 
 have used the early measures of grace well, who 
 have kept themselves from sin in their young days, 
 who have been pious, and full of prayers, feeding 
 on the Word of God, keeping their hearts ever as 
 in the sight of God, and habitually feeling them- 
 selves in His presence, realizing in youth and man- 
 hood the sweet promise of early piety and goodness. 
 
 To them, fii-st, and most: and next, to such as 
 having known taint, as having felt something of 
 the bitter distress of such stain of mind, will turn 
 round, — at any time while they are spared to live 
 and hear of the gracious promises of God, — and, 
 repenting of their sin, will strive with earnest and 
 persevering intention of purpose (for nothing less 
 than a very earnest and persevering intention will 
 do) to purify their hearts by true confession, by 
 hearty prayer, and life-long repentance. It is pos- 
 sible that they may not regain altogether, while 
 they remain on earth, that fair brightness of soul 
 which belongs to those who have never known of 
 such evil. The guilt of such sin may, no doubt, be 
 washed out by divine forgiveness for Christ's sake 
 while man lives, but I fear that its stains, at least 
 when they have been deep in youth, and have
 
 22 
 
 dwelt some time upon the mind, are well-nigh in- 
 delible as regards the memory they leave, and the 
 distress they bring. 
 
 But by God's mercy to the penitent in Christ, 
 they will be washed out finally and for ever in the 
 Eesurrection. Those who are at last accepted in the 
 Beloved, shall awake up from the dead in the like- 
 ness of the Eedeemer, (and how should that be 
 otherwise than altogether pure and holy ?) and in it 
 be perfectly and for ever satisfied. And then the 
 pure and the purified together, the innocent and 
 the repentant, shall find that in this cleanness of 
 heart, this hard- won, it may be, and graciously kept 
 cleanness of heart, they have gained that wondrous 
 sense of the soul which, while the sensual and the 
 impenitent can see nothing but the wrath and 
 terrors of the Judge, will enable them to lift up 
 their eyes, redeemed, sanctified, saved^ to see, and 
 see for ever, the eternal love and mercy of God in 
 Christ to those who are made like Him at His 
 coming. 
 
 PRINTED IIV MESSBS. PAHKGH, roilNM ARK F.T, OXFORD.
 
 
 ' >:»»• > :- -c