SERMON III.

PREACHED AT SYDENHAM, THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, 1843.

ROM. xii. 1.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

THIS passage is one of those rich and full sentences of Holy Writ, that overflow with meaning, and carry a sermon in every word. We shall not however be far from falling in with the principal scope of the Apostle in these words, if we consider them chiefly as selected by the Church for the Epistle on the first Sunday after the Epiphany. They are adapted for this day by their reference to the great mercy of God in the manifestation of our Lord to the Gentiles, and by their reference to that act of His life which is recorded in the Gospel for the day, through the great principle of holy living which they teach, namely, that of offering ourselves soul and body to God.

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The earnest commencement-I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Godnot only bespeaks our attention to that of which the inspired Apostle makes so great a point as even to beseech his readers, and not only to beseech them, but to beseech them by the mercies of God, but also directs us to look backward in the Epistle, and see to what mercies he refers. And the question is soon answered, for the Epistle has been hitherto taken up with setting forth the mercies of God' in offering remission of sins, sanctifying grace, and the grant of eternal life, to all mankind, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and now more especially to the Gentiles. Thus, very naturally and fitly, he turns from the thought of what God has done for man, and thinks what is man's duty in consequence of it, and feeling at once the difference between God's free and abundant mercy, and man's poor niggardly returns, he even beseeches his readers really to do what is the only fit return for such unmerited favours. The Holy Spirit deigns thus to plead by him with sinners, as though God did beseecha in the person of His ambassador.

St. Paul had been shewing how those who a 2 Cor. v. 20.

are united to Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles, are made acceptable to God through Him, and now, since God has condescended so mercifully to open the way, he besought his readers to do their part. And what is that part?

That ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. He goes on to give particular directions for different classes of persons, but this is to be the one principle of all-A SACRIFICE TO GOD. Here is the one sufficient end of our being, and the sure pledge of our eternal and infinite blessedness, that we may offer ourselves a sacrifice acceptable to God.

Let any one take this thought well into his mind, and reflect upon it deeply and earnestly, and the more he does so, the more clearly will he see that these words contain in them all that he can desire, nay, more than he can ask or think. It is mere folly to be calculating about our own particular wishings and likings, when we may have at once what is really all we can want. It is mere folly to think we can choose better for ourselves than God will do when we are wholly in His hands. Hear what He said to Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his son; By Myself have I sworn,

saith the Lord; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Thus it is when God deals graciously with man. Man can give no more than himself to God, but when God accepts that gift, He does, even in doing so, give Himself in return. It is but in condescension to our low and earthly thoughts that it need be added, that in Himself He gives all things.

What it is to give ourselves to Him, and how it is to be done, is another matter. We know that He allows us to do this, and our minds ought to be made up at once that we will do it without reserve. This should be our settled determination, and the ruling purpose of our lives, that His we will be, and Him we will serve in all things as He shall give us opportunity.

There is no need to spend more time in proving that this ought to be our conduct, but it may be well to consider farther what

b Gen. xxii. 16.

c Rom. viii. 32.

this self-sacrifice means. It is evidently something more than the dedication of ourselves to God in Baptism, because it is here required of those who were already baptized. And this is further clear when we consider that in our Baptism we became partakers of the sacrifice of our Lord, especially in respect of His death, whereas that which is afterwards required of us is a living sacrifice. In Rom. vi. 3, 4, we read, Know ye not that we, so many as were baptized into Christ, were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by Baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

It was not in death only, but in life too that He offered and still offers Himself to the Father. He offered Himself once in death for sin, but now He offers Himself, and His Church in Himself, for ever to the Father in righteousness. In that He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord d

Now this giving of ourselves to God, in

d Rom. vi. iì.