nd crucified under Pontius Pilate, is
the Maker, the Master, the Ruler of this world, and of all worlds. By
what laws He rules other worlds we know not, save that they are, because
they must be--just and merciful laws. But of the laws by which He rules
this world we do know, by experience, that His laws are of most terrible
and unbending severity, as I have warned you again and again, and shall
warn you, as long as there is a liar or an idler, a drunkard or an
adulteress in this parish.

And if this be so--if Christ be a God of severity as well as a God of
love, a God who punishes sinners as well as a God who forgives penitents-
-what then? We are, He tells us, made in His likeness. Then, according
to His likeness we must behave. We must copy His love, by helping the
poor and afflicted, the weak and the oppressed. But we must copy His
severity, by punishing whenever we have the power, without cowardice or
indulgence, all wilful offenders; and, above all, the man who destroys
God's image in himself, by murdering and destroying the mortal life of a
man made in the image of God. And more; if we be made in the likeness of
God and of Christ, we must remember, morning and night, and all day long,
that most awful and most blessed fact. We must say to ourselves, again
and again, "I am not a mere animal, and like a mere animal I must not
behave; I dare not behave like a mere animal, for I was made in the
likeness of God; and when I was baptised the Spirit of God took
possession of me to restore me to God's likeness, and to call out and
perfect God's likeness in me all my life long. Therefore, I am no mere
animal; and never was intended to be. I am the temple of God; my body
and soul belong to God, and not to my own fancies and passions and lusts,
and whosoever defiles the temple of God, him will God destroy."

Therefore, this is our duty, this is our only hope or safety--to do our
best to keep alive and strong the likeness of God in ourselves; to try to
grow, not more and more mean, and brutal, and carnal, but more and more
noble, and human, and spiritual; to crush down our base passions, our
selfish inclinations, by the help of the Spirit of God, and to think of
and to pray for, whatsoever is like Christ and like God; to pray for a
noble love of what is good and noble, for a noble hate of what is bad;
and whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report to think of
these things.