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to walk before Him in reverence and godly fear; maintaining a godly jealousy over your hearts and ways, and striving to approve yourselves to Him in all your thoughts, words, and works.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for you all is that of St. Paul for the Colossians; "that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."* " And the very God of Peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless

Col. i. 9-12.

unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it."†

Amen.

1 Thess. v. 23, 24.

SERMON VI.

CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD

FORBIDDEN.

ROMANS XII. 2.

And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

THESE words have a close and important connection with the first verse of this chapter, which formed the subject of our consideration last Sunday.* In that verse, as you will remember, the Apostle exhorts Christians to a voluntary and unreserved surrender of themselves to God; " beseeching them, by the mercies of God, to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto

* Sermon v.

God, which is their reasonable service."

I would humbly hope, that through. the divine blessing on what was said on that occasion, some of you may have been led to consider, more seriously than you had before done, the extent of your obligations to the mercy of God; and, under a grateful sense of what you owe Him, to make that dedication of yourselves to His service to which you were called. Perhaps, however, others of you, though disposed in theory to acknowledge the reasonableness of such a determination, have been deterred from forming it by an anticipation of the difficulties with which, in practice, it would be attended. You may have reflected, that in order thus to give up yourselves to the service of God you must needs go out of the world, and become hermits, or recluses; that such abstraction from earthly objects may suit well enough the religious devotee, the fanatic, or the enthusiast, but is utterly incompatible with an attention to the or

dinary affairs of life; and that, if it became general, the business of the world must stand still. Or if, remembering the exposition which was given of the Apostle's meaning, you have been constrained to allow that no other kind or degree of self-devotion was represented as necessary, than such as not only did not preclude, but positively required, a diligent performance of worldly duties, still you may have thought that to fix the affections upon God as their supreme Object, and to aim after universal holiness of heart and life, is too exalted a pitch of piety for men in general to attain; and that the few who do attain it are deemed singular and precise, and withdraw themselves, in a way which. you do not like to do, from the society, the pleasures, and amusements of the world around them.

If, my brethren, in the supposition I have here made, I have represented the actual sentiments of any among you, let me entreat you to observe how exactly St. Paul has met your case and anti

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