t; He cleanses that inward tablet on
which we have been working out quite a different sum, whose total is
given in the words,--"The wages of sin is death"; He purifies it, that
there may be written thereon the steps and the summation of the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, some one will say, "Does
every one have to go through a process of development of virtues such
as is indicated in this epistle, and must every one have them all, and
produce them in the same order? May we not develop just a few of them,
by a sort of spiritual selection, as flowers have their own colours,
and the creatures their own forms and features?" To this we answer
(i.) that if you are to be a saint, as God has called you to be, you
must have the qualifications and nature of a saint; (ii.) we ought not
to recoil from this sum, as if the casting of the figures were
necessarily a long process. No, not long! how long does it take one to
reach love? Why, we commonly use the expression "falling in love"; and
when the heart is awakened to the sense of the universal presence of
the Father, it is not difficult to love men for His sake. As for the
virtues, we must have them all. Shall we imagine an impatient saint,
called to follow Him who when reviled, reviled not again; an ignorant
saint, a partaker of Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge; an intemperate saint, to follow Him who was living at a
cheaper rate, for a man, than the foxes or the fowls; an unloving
saint! into whose heart have been breathed the words, "Love is the
fulfilling of the law," or, which is the same thing, "Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth"? Yes, we
must have them all. What, will you complain, like little children,
because your Teacher has been giving you too many rows to add up? will
you say, "Lord, you overrate my powers; you think too highly of the
grace that you have given me; I know you, that you are a hard man, an
austere man"?

Does it matter in what order we ascend our virtue-scale? Not at all.
An addition sum comes to the same thing whether you put it 2 + 3 or 3 +
2. For myself, I would like to begin the addition from the bottom row,
starting with love; but it does not matter, so that all the figures are
included. The Apostle goes on to speak of the effect of such a chain
of experience upon the perceptive powers of the soul; he who has these
things, well; his eye shall see the King in His