lbarrows and shovels are of little use, except to
remove some of the surface filth, and to litter all the passages in the
process. What is to be done with it? 'Turn the Elbe into it,' says he.
The flood will sweep away all the pollution. Not my own efforts, but the
influx of that pardoning, cleansing grace which is in Christ will wash
away the accumulations of years, and the ingrained evil which has
stained every part of my being. We cannot cleanse ourselves, we cannot
'put off' this old nature which has struck its roots so deep into our
being; but if we turn to Him with faith and say--Forgive me, and
cleanse, and strip from me the foul and ragged robe fit only for the
swine-troughs in the far-off land of disobedience, He will receive us
and answer all our desires, and cast around us the pure garment of His
own righteousness. 'The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus shall
make us free from the law of sin and death.'

THE NEW MAN

'And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness.'--Eph. iv. 24.

We had occasion to remark in a former sermon that Paul regards this and
the preceding clauses as the summing up of 'the truth in Jesus'; or, in
other words, he considers the radical transformation and renovation of
the whole moral nature as being the purpose of the revelation of God in
Christ. To this end they have 'heard Him.' To this end they have
'learned Him.' To this end they have been 'taught in Him,' receiving, by
union with Him, all the various processes of His patient discipline.
This is the inmost meaning of all the lessons in that great school in
which all Christians are scholars, and Christ is the teacher and the
theme, and union to Him the condition of entrance, and the manifold
workings of His providence and His grace the instruments of training,
and heaven the home when school time is over--that we should become new
men in Christ Jesus.

This great practical issue is set forth here under three aspects--one
negative, two positive. The negative process is single and simple--'put
off the old man.' The positive is double--a spiritual 'renewal' effected
in our spirits, in the deep centre of our personal being, by that
Divine Spirit who, dwelling in us, is 'the spirit of our minds'; and
then, consequent upon that inward renewal, a renovation of life and
character, which is described as being the 'putting on,' as if it were a
garment, of 'the new m