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But the Truth which saves the soul alive, con- sists in seeing what God is, and what we are in His sight, and what He would have us do, and how He delivers us from evil. To worship an idol, which is less than ourselves, or our own in- terest or passion, or anything of our own, as if we were to live THE TRUTH. INCARNATION. FAITH. 501 for ourselves only, is to worship a lie. But to worship the God who upholds our steps in life, and who is the fountain of all good- ness and compassion, and who would have us purify ourselves as He is pure, is to worship the Truth. The more we know of Him, the more we feel our infinite shortcoming, and reach for- ward to Him, crying out for the redemption of our souls firom both sin and death, which are contrary to Him. Such a Truth is itself a life, and the faith which lays hold of it cleanses the heart. For this end was Christ bom, and came into the world, that He might bear witness to this Truth. God quickens our faith in it, and helps us to grow in the knowledge of it, by shewing His own likeness in Christ, as one ' lovely above ten thousand.' By that strange partaking of all our nature and all our life, yet standing aloof firom all our sinfulness, we recognise the Son of Man and the Son of God, and take courage to tread in His steps, as in those of a brother who was tempted in all things as we are, while we hope thus to be rendered sons of His Father, and of ours. Some one* has not badly defined faith, as taking Christ for our Master, and shaping our lives after His mind. Yet we do not think the Word of God thus manifesting itself in the Son of Man ever began to be, but (as thought is before even human speech, so) before all worlds was the Wisdom of the Eternal. Neither then would I limit the idea of faith to the following of Christ by those who have heard of Him incar- nate ; but in all your efforts, my friends, to escape firom human sin and misery, and in your aspirations after immortality, I ac- knowledge something kindred, which encourages me the more to speak to you of God imveiling Himself in Christ, and bid you ask of Him for that which you seek. He only has the well of life ; and as in His light we see light, so to Him, the Hearer of the prayer of all who diligently seek Him, I think all flesh must come. Come down, therefore, from these grand imaginations of being able to raise yourselves into Infinity, and begin with humbly asking that the only wise G^ would shew you His * Archbishop Sharpe. 502 PERMANENT USE OF SCRIPTURES AND SACRAMENTS. Truth. As you learn something of it, you will see how it is written in our Scriptures and Liturgies, and cherished by read- ing them ; and, again, how it agrees well enough with all secular truths of history or science, yet does not depend upon them, as if our faith in the heavenly need waver, whenever our belief in the earthly is altered. " Things seen are temporal^ says St Paul, but things unseen are eternal. Yet though our faith goes beyond sight, and the hope, which fastens our souls as an anchor amid storms, has its holding- groimd behind the veil of sense, it does not follow that in this temporal life things visible may not be pledges and symbols to us of what is to come. God, who shews His eternal power by the worlds which He upholds, shews also His lifegiving purpose in His Son, and ever renews His work, not only by the Spirit which animates the Body, but by words and symbols of what was done of old. Thus the words of Scripture still express the motives which Apostles felt, and which we should feel. The prayers of ancient sufferers for the truth still waken in us a daring or a patience such as theirs. The washing with water, (which curiously resembles the religious bath spoken of among Hindds,) still represents to us the saving health of Christ, and the cleansing of His followers' souls from stain. The pledge we give in this rite, either with our own lip or by that of others, is still the Christian vow of holiness; the promises, repeated in accompaniment, still pledge to us in a way the Divine faithful- ness; and by coming, or bringing any one, to such a rite we both express our faith in Christ*, and bind ourselves to whatever prayer or education on man's part can make the Divine work effectual in the soul. "You have asked me to explain the connexion, briefly hinted at, between baptism and original sin. The idea, then, of Chris- tianity is deliverance. Christ shews what kind of a Deliverer He is, by teaching us to pray. Deliver us from evil. The greatest evil L3 sin, which causes chiefly the entanglement and misery * Thus Baptism was anciently called "the sacrament of faith." RELATION OP NATURE TO BAPTISM. 603 you deplore in the world. He who becomes subject to Christ is free from sin. We even say, with something of figure, that He is dead to sin and alive to God. Here then are two states, one of bondage to evil, and all that it involves, and the other a glorious deliverance from whatever debases or alienates our souls from the God of our health. But every such state has a begin- ning. If sin were only outward crime, we might say the bondage began in mature years. But if sin has root in some principle or shortcoming deeply ingrained in us, we have its capacity, or nature, so soon as we begin to be. Thus Man seems bom from the womb like a wild ass's colt. He brings with him into the world the seeds of a disease. He has tendencies in him, which, as natural forces, are capacities of good, but which require, like volcanic elements, to be boimd down and subjected to the will which gives them limit for a good end. Thus nature, which, if left lawless, becomes the enemy* of the Divine purpose, must be brought into the kingdom of Gt>d, and become an instrument of grace, its discords being thus blended into harmony. Such tendencies and such needs seem to begin with our beginning. Again, if our soul's health were our own working, it might begin in mature life, or at any arbitrary term. But since it is the gift of G^d, and is also to be wakened with the concurrence of human instruments, its capacity may most fitly be said to begin when we are first commended to the grace of God, and bom into His Church. Thus we think, a child new bom partakes of Adam who fell, or of man who falls, and one baptised is a member of Christ, and an heir of His kingdom. We do not mean that the first is a murderer, like Cain, or the second a saint, like St John ; but the one is in a way of being ruined, and the other in a way of being saved. The same doctrine may be also stated variously. Those who lay hold most easily on things external, will lay stress on the natural birth, and on the religious rite ; while those who see more with the eyes of the mind will think rather of a disease of the soul, and of the saving * Ducordia reroin, nondum ooncon facta, est diabolus. 504 BAPTISM AND JUSTIFICATION RIGHTLY COEXTENSIVE. influences by which our Deliverer heals us from it. But if there is deliverance in a house, it may be said that the door delivers us. Thus the ^losaic law might be called (as by St Stephen) * the covenant of circumcision,' and baptism, as the ritual ad- mission into a better covenant of tlie grace of God, may be said (as by St Peter) to save the soul, or to wash away sins. Our righteousness, you will remember, is shewai in our Lord's prayer to begin with the Divine forgiveness. Again, if a man accepts a gift, or becomes subject to some gracious Lord, he must not be ashamed of professing his acceptance or allegiance. Thus we count no man a Christian until he has enlisted himself by open baptism in the army of the cross of Christ. We do not doubt that whoever thus comes to God is in no wise cast out, but receives from Him every grace needful to his soul's health. With our own people, indeed, where we have fair reason to hope for Christian education, we baptise little children; for Christ said, Suffer them to come unto me ; and the mercy of God is like an overflowing cup, and outruns our answering capacity, or ac- companies its least beginnings. But with strangers, and with all who have wandered far from God in any idolatry or dark- ness, we require knowledge of our faith, and signs of sincerity in it. For our service, as St Paul teaches us, is a service of the reason, or a worship of the mind.