amely, the bestowal of eternal life, by means of a divine act
and a human response. 'God _so_ loved the world, that He _gave_ His
only begotten Son, that whosoever _believeth_ in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.' So all the universal love of God
for you and me and for all our brethren is 'in Christ Jesus our
Lord,' and faith in Him unites us to it by bonds which no foe can
break, no shock of change can snap, no time can rot, no distance can
stretch to breaking. 'For I am persuaded, that neither death nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.'

THE SACRIFICE OF THE BODY

'I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service.'--ROMANS xii. 1.

In the former part of this letter the Apostle has been building up a
massive fabric of doctrine, which has stood the waste of centuries,
and the assaults of enemies, and has been the home of devout souls.
He now passes to speak of practice, and he binds the two halves of
his letter indissolubly together by that significant 'therefore,'
which does not only look back to the thing last said, but to the
whole of the preceding portion of the letter. 'What God hath joined
together let no man put asunder.' Christian living is inseparably
connected with Christian believing. Possibly the error of our
forefathers was in cutting faith too much loose from practice, and
supposing that an orthodox creed was sufficient, though I think the
extent to which they did suppose that has been very much exaggerated.
The temptation of this day is precisely the opposite. 'Conduct is
three-fourths of life,' says one of our teachers. Yes. But what about
the _fourth_ fourth which underlies conduct? Paul's way is the
right way. Lay broad and deep the foundations of God's facts revealed
to us, and then build upon that the fabric of a noble life. This
generation superficially tends to cut practice loose from faith, and
so to look for grapes from thorns and figs from thistles. Wrong
thinking will not lead to right doing. 'I beseech you, _therefore_,
brethren, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.'

The Apostle, in beginning his practical exhortations, lays as the
founda