Believe me, my friends, this is no mere question of words, which only has to do with scholars in their libraries; it is a question, the question of life and death for you, and me, and every living soul in this church,—­Do we know what the life of God is? are we living it? or are we alienated from it, careless about it, disliking it?

For, as I said at the beginning of my sermon, we are all ready enough to turn heathens again; and if we grow to forget or dislike the life of God, we shall be heathen at heart.  We may talk about Him with our lips, we may quarrel and curse each other about religious differences; but let us make as great a profession as we may, if we do not love the life of God we shall be heathen at heart, and we shall, sooner or later, fall into sin.  The heathens fell into sin just in proportion as their hearts were turned away from the life of God, and so shall we.  And how shall we know whether our hearts are turned away, or whether they are right with God?  Thus:  What are the fruits of God’s Spirit? what sort of life does the Spirit of God make man live?  For the Spirit of God is God, and therefore the life of God is the life which God’s Spirit makes men live; and what is that? a life of love and righteousness.

The old heathens did not like such a life, therefore they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.  They knew that man ought to be like God:  and St. Paul says, they ought to have known what God was like; that He was Love; for St. Paul told them He left not Himself without witness, in that He sent them rain and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness.  That was, in St. Paul’s eyes, God’s plainest witness of Himself—­the sign that God was Love, making His sun shine on the just and on the unjust, and good to the unthankful and the evil—­in one word, perfect, because He is perfect Love.  But they preferred to be selfish, covetous, envious, revengeful, delighting to indulge themselves in filthy pleasures, to oppress and defraud each other.  Do you?

For you can, I can, every baptized man can take his choice between the selfish life of the heathens and the loving life of God:  we may either keep to the old pattern of man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; or we may put on the new pattern of man, which is after God’s likeness, and founded upon righteousness and truthful holiness.

Every baptized man may choose.  For he is not only bound to live the life of God:  every man, as the old heathen philosophers knew, is bound to live it:  but more.  The baptized man can live it:  that is the good news of his baptism. You can live the life of God, for you know what the life of God is—­it is the life of Jesus Christ. You can live the life of God, for the Spirit of God is with you, to cleanse your soul and life, day by day, till they are like the soul and life of Christ.