are true, and must be true, and are worth all other words in the world put together—­that God is our Father, and we his sons.  Oh, my friends, believe earnestly this blessed news! the news of Christmas-day, that you are not God’s slaves, but his sons, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;—­joint-heirs with Christ!  In what?  Who can tell?  But what an inheritance of glory and bliss that must be, which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is to inherit with us—­an inheritance such as eye hath not seen, and incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, preserved in heaven for us; an inheritance of all that is wise, loving, noble, holy, peaceful—­all that can make us happy, all that can make us like God Himself.  Oh, what can we expect, if we neglect so great salvation?  What can we expect, if when the Great God of heaven and earth tells us that we are His children, we turn away and fall down, become like the brutes, and the savages, or worse, like the evil spirits who rebel against God, instead of growing up to become the sons of God, perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect?  May He keep us all from that great sin!  May He awaken each and every one of you to know the glory and honour which Jesus Christ brought for you when He was born at Bethlehem—­the glory and honour which was proclaimed to belong to you when you were christened at that font!  May He awaken you to know that you are the sons of God, and to look up to Him with loving, trustful, obedient souls, saying from your hearts, morning and night ‘Our Father which art in heaven,’ and feeling that those words give you daily strength to conquer your sins, and feel assurance of hope that your Heavenly Father will help and prosper you, His family, every time you struggle to obey His commandments, and follow the example of His perfect and spotless Son, Jesus Christ the Lord!

SERMON XVII.  DEATH IN LIFE

Romans viii. 12, 13.  Brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:  but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Does it seem strange to you that St. Paul should warn you, that you are not debtors to your own flesh?  It is not strange, when you come to understand him; certainly not unnecessary:  for as in his time, so now, most people do live as if they were debtors to their own flesh, as if their great duty, their one duty in life, was to please their own bodies, and brains, and tempers, and fancies, and feelings.  Poor people have not much time to indulge their brains; and no time at all, happily for them, to indulge their fancies and feelings, as rich people do when they grow idle, and dainty, and luxurious.  But still, too many of them live as if they were debtors to their own flesh; as if their own bodies and their own tempers were the masters of them, and ought to be their masters.