to cut themselves off from Christ, was to seek salvation in another, and that an impossible way. To be circumcized was in effect to say that Christ had not redeemed them, to put themselves under the curse of the Law from which Christ had died to deliver them. It was to lay themselves under a formal obligation to obey the whole Law, and that not merely as the rule of life, but as the ground of their acceptance with God. It was to fall from grace.

Behold," he says, “I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye receive circumcision Christ will profit you nothing . ye are severed from Christ... fallen from grace."

ye are For a Christian believer to be circumcized, was like a free man voluntarily entering a prison, and with his own hands binding himself with the heavy chains of a wearisome ceremonialism. Christ had made them free, for freedom were they called, in this freedom let them stand fast.

But then comes the question, what is freedom? In renouncing the Law, in refusing circumcision, were they rebelling against the unchangeable Law of God's holy will? Was the liberty with which Christ had made them free, the liberty of fleshly licence, the liberty of each man to please himself and live for himself? No: rather was it the liberty of yielding to God's Holy Spirit, the liberty to serve one another in love. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, was indeed, as S. James himself declared, the true law of liberty.

"There were two powers," says one of the greatest thinkers of our day, speaking on this Epistle, " contending for them. The flesh was lusting against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh, so that they did not do all the things which they would, either all the good or all the evil which they intended. But if they sub

mitted to be led by the Spirit, they would not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, and they would not be under the yoke of the law. For law exists to condemn the acts of the flesh; and the fruits of the Spirit are those against which there is no law. The privilege of those who belonged to Christ, is that they are crucified with Him; they have renounced the flesh and the lusts which are their own; they have claimed the righteousness and life which are in Him." (Maurice, Unity of the New Testament.)

But let us allow S. Paul to speak for himself.

Ch. v. 13: For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Ch. v. 16: But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit, against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they which practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Our Lord had said to the Jews-"If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free: and if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

So S. Paul said to the Galatians, "ye were called for freedom." But what sort of freedom? Freedom

not to do as we like; but freedom to follow God's Holy Will. Walk by the Spirit, he says; by the Spirit which is the distinguishing gift of the Gospel, and ye shall be delivered from the only bondage that really matters, the bondage of sin reigning in our flesh.

By "walking" by the Spirit, the Apostle means living in the Spirit, and not only living, but moving, and not only moving, but advancing by the power of the Spirit.

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, that ye may not do the things that ye would."

We are subject to two antagonistic forces: the Holy Spirit of God acting upon our spirits draws us one way; the power of evil, acting through our lower nature, draws us another way. The result of this spiritual "parallelogram of forces" is that in neither direction do we proceed in the direct line of either force. The Spirit prevents our living to the flesh; the flesh hinders us in walking by the Spirit; so that, on the one hand, we are kept from doing the things to which our sinful nature prompts us; while on the other hand we are also prevented from perfectly fulfilling the things to which the Holy Spirit leads us.

Then follows a terrible catalogue of the works of the flesh, from which, if the Galatians thought circumcision would deliver them, they were very much mistaken.

"Lasciviousness;" rather, perhaps, wantonness, petulance, wanton insolence.

"Sorcery;" either sorcery as we understand it, or poisonings, the giving of potions and philters and the like.

"Wraths;" passionate outbreaks of temper.

The catalogue is followed by a warning that they

who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, whether they are circumcized or uncircumcized,

Notice the force of the word "practise." It is not, as in our Authorized Version, such as do these things, but such as practise them. By a sudden outbreak of passion, under violent temptation, a man may be betrayed into one or other of them-as indeed S. Paul says himself a few verses further on: "Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in a trespass, ye that are spiritual restore such an one in a spirit of meekness." But that is a very different thing from practising them. The Apostle draws a similar distinction in the Epistle to the Romans, where he says, "Let not sin reign in your bodies." We cannot help sin being in us; but we can help sin reigning in us.

Then in beautiful contrast to the catalogue of the works of the flesh, the Apostle gives us a list of the fruit of the Spirit.

Notice the change in the word; he does not call them the works of the Spirit, though they might be so called; but he calls them the fruit of the Spirit. The expression "fruit" denotes the living, organic connection between these Christian graces and the Holy Spirit from which they grow. Works do not necessarily correspond with the characters of the people who do them. A man who is essentially a coward may do a brave action; a cruel man may subscribe to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: but such are works, not fruits, they do not grow naturally from the character of the man who does them.

We may notice also that the singular, not the plural, is used. It appears so, at least, in the Revised Version. It is not the fruits, but the fruit of the Spirit. As God is One, as the whole law is fulfilled

in love; so Christian perfection is one. Just as the light is one, till it passes through a prism, and then appears in many colours, so the many-coloured virtues of the Christian life are resolvable into the one pure heavenly light of the Christ-life.

Ch. v. 22; But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control (margin): against such there is no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.

If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Let us not be vain-glorious, provoking one another, envying one another. .. [But] bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Then follows a passage which contains a great principle, which we should all do well to lay to heart. This great principle is the law of the spiritual harvest: Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

The results of sin and righteousness, the results of living to the flesh and living by the Spirit, do not follow by chance or caprice, but by an inexorable law. That this law is in force in the natural world goes without saying. If a farmer sows wheat, he reaps wheat; if he sows barley, he reaps barley. If he sows his field with thistle-seed, or what comes to much the same thing, if he allows it to grow what it will, he has no right to expect to reap wheat at harvest.

So in the spiritual world we shall reap what we have sown. If we sow love, we shall reap love; we shall become loving: if we sow hatred, we shall reap hatred; we shall become hateful: if we sow impurity, we shall reap impurity; we shall become steeped in defilement.

Ch. vi. 6: Let him that is taught in the word communi