his disease are contrary to one another, and are striving within him for the mastery.  His blood, according to its healthy nature, would flow calmly and steadily; his food, according to his healthy nature, would be received with appetite, and would give him nourishment and strength; but, behold, there is in him now another nature, contrary to his healthy nature:  and this other nature makes his blood flow with feverish quickness, and makes food distasteful to him, and makes the food which he has eaten before to become, as it were, poison; it does not nourish him or strengthen, but is a burden, a weakness, and a pain.  As long as these two natures thus struggle within him, the man is sick; as soon as the diseased nature prevails, the man sinks and dies.  He does not wish to die,—­not at all,—­most earnestly, it may be, does he wish to live; but his diseased nature has overcome his healthy nature, and so he must die.  If he would live, in any sense that deserves to be called life, the diseased nature must not overcome, must not struggle equally; it must be overcome, it must be kept down, it must be rendered powerless; and then, when the healthy nature has prevailed, its victory is health and strength.

So far all is alike; but what follows afterwards?  As “ye cannot do the things which ye would, because the flesh and the Spirit are contrary to one another,”—­what then?  “Therefore,” says the apostle, “walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.”  Surely there is some thing marvellous in this.  For, let us speak the same language to the sick man:  tell him, “Follow thy healthy nature, and them shalt not be sick,” what would the words be but a bitter mockery?  “How can you bid me,” he would say, “to follow my healthy nature, when ye know that my diseased nature has bound me?  Have ye no better comfort than this to offer me?  Tell me rather how I may become able to follow my healthy nature; show me the strength which may help my weakness; or else your words are vain, and I never can recover.”  Most true would be this answer; and therefore disease and death do make havoc of us all, and the healthy nature is in the end borne down by the diseased nature, and sooner or later the great enemy triumphs over us, and, in spite of all our wishes and fond desires for life, we go down, death’s conquered subjects, to the common grave of all living.

This happens to the bodies of us all; to the souls of only too many.  But why does it not happen also to the souls of all?  How is it that some do fulfil the apostle’s bidding? that they do walk in the Spirit, and therefore do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh; and therefore having conquered their diseased nature, they do walk according to their healthful nature, and are verily able to do, and do continually, the very things that they would?  Surely this so striking difference, between the universal conquest of our diseased nature in the body, and the occasional victory of the healthy nature in the soul, shows us clearly that for the soul there has appeared a Redeemer already, while for the body the redemption is delayed till death shall be swallowed up in victory.