the citizens of the commonwealth, in case they are destitute of it.  How often do we hear the remark, that it is impossible to legislate either morality or religion into the people.  When the Supreme Governor first placed man under the obligations and sovereignty of law, He created him in His own image and likeness:  endowing him with that holy heart and right inclination which obeys the law of God with ease and delight.  God made man upright, and in this state he could and did keep the commands of God perfectly.  If, therefore, by any subsequent action upon their part, mankind have gone out of the primary relationship in which they stood to law, and have by their apostasy lost all holy sympathy with it, and all affectionate disposition to obey it, it only remains for the law (not to change along with them, but) to continue immutably the same pure and righteous thing, and to say, “Obey perfectly, and thou shalt live; disobey in a single instance, and thou shalt die.”

But the text teaches us, that although the law can make no sinful man perfect, either upon the side of justification, or of sanctification, “the bringing in of a better hope” can.  This hope is the evangelic hope,—­the yearning desire, and the humble trust,—­to be forgiven through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to be sanctified by the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost.  A simple, but a most powerful thing!  Does the law, in its abrupt and terrible operation in my conscience, start out the feeling of guiltiness until I throb with anguish, and moral fear?  I hope, I trust, I ask, to be pardoned through the blood of the Eternal Son of God my Redeemer.  I will answer all these accusations of law and conscience, by pleading what my Lord has done.

Again, does the law search me, and probe me, and elicit me, and reveal me, until I would shrink out of the sight of God and of myself?  I hope, I trust, I ask, to be made pure as the angels, spotless as the seraphim, by the transforming grace of the Holy Spirit.  This confidence in Christ’s Person and Work is the anchor,—­an anchor that was never yet wrenched from the clefts of the Rock of Ages, and never will be through the aeons of aeons.  By this hope, which goes away from self, and goes away from the law, to Christ’s oblation and the Holy Spirit’s energy, we do indeed draw very nigh to God,—­“heart to heart, spirit to spirit, life to life.”

1.  The unfolding of this text of Scripture shows, in the first place, the importance of having a distinct and discriminating conception of law, and especially of its proper function in reference to a sinful being.  Very much is gained when we understand precisely what the moral law, as taught in the Scriptures, and written in our consciences, can do, and cannot do, towards our salvation.  It can do nothing positively and efficiently.  It cannot extinguish a particle of our guilt, and it cannot purge away a particle of our corruption.  Its operation is wholly negative and preparatory.  It is merely a schoolmaster to conduct us to Christ.  And the more definitely this truth and fact is fixed in our minds, the more intelligently shall we proceed in our use of law and conscience.