“Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Eph. v. 8, 9.
1 While Christianity reveals the pardon of sin and the promise of eternal life through the mediation of Christ, it also professes to point out means for the present improvement of our moral nature itself. This improvement, we know, is referred in Scripture to the Holy Spirit, as a first cause; and, as coming from Him, both the influence itself upon the mind and the moral character formed under that influence are each in turn called “the spirit.” Thus, St. Paul speaks of the law of “the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” [Rom. viii. 2.] and contrasts it with that character and conduct which are sin and death. He speaks too of receiving “the spirit of faith,” [2 Cor. iv. 13.] or the temper of which faith is the essence; and in the text, which is found in the Epistle for this Sunday, he refers to the outward manifestation or fruit of the same spirit, “goodness, righteousness, and truth.” “Light” is another word, used as in the text—to express the same moral change which the Gospel offers us; but this title is proper to our Lord, who is the true Light of men. Christians are said to be “called into His marvellous light,” to “walk as children of light,” to “abide in the light,” to “put on the armour of light.” [1 Pet. ii. 9. 1 John i. 7; ii. 10. Rom. xiii. 12.] Another similar term is newness or renewal of mind. Indeed, it is quite obvious that the phraseology of the New Testament is grounded in such views of the immediate inward benefits to be conferred upon the Church on the coming of Christ.
2. What, then, is meant by this language? language, which, if great words stand for great ideas, and an Apostle does not aim at eloquent speech rather than at the simple truth, must raise our expectations concerning the fulness of the present benefits resulting to us in the present state of things from Christianity. That it is not mere ordinary religious obedience, such as the Holy Spirit may foster among the heathen; nor, on the other hand, miraculous endowment of which St. Paul speaks, when he prays that “the Father of glory” might give to the Ephesians “the spirit of wisdom and revelation,” “enlightened understanding,” “knowledge of the riches of the glory of the Saints’ inheritance,” [Eph. i. 17, 18.] this surely is evident without formal proof, and least of all need be insisted on in this place.
3. Nor, again, does the question find its answer in the view of certain men of deeper piety than the mass of mankind,—of those, I mean, who, clearly perceiving that Christian morality and devotion are something extraordinarily excellent and divine, have sought to embody them in a strict outward separation from the world, a ceremonial worship, severe austerities, and a fixed adjustment of the claims of duty in all the varying minutiæ of daily conduct; and who, in consequence, have at length substituted dead forms for the “spirit” which they desired to honour.
4. Nor further may we seek an explanation of the difficulty from such men as consult their feelings and imaginations rather than the sure Word of God, and place that spiritual obedience, which all confess to be the very test of a Christian, in the indulgence of excited affections, in an impetuous, unrefined zeal, or in the language of an artificial devotion. For this view of spirituality, also, except in the case of minds peculiarly constituted, ends in a formal religion.
5. Moreover, the aspect of the Christian world affords us no elucidation of St. Paul’s language concerning the great gift of grace. Far from concurring with Scripture and interpreting it for us, doubtless the manners and habits even of the most refined society are rather calculated to prejudice the mind against any high views of religious and moral duty. And this has been the case even from the Apostle’s age, as may be inferred from his Epistle to the Corinthians, who could hardly have understood their own titles, as “sanctified in Christ,” “called to be saints,” [1 Cor. i. 2.] at the time that they have among them, “debates, envyings, whisperings, swellings, tumults, uncleanness, lasciviousness,” [2 Cor. xii. 20, 21.] unrepented of.
6. It is indeed by no means clear that Christianity has at any time been of any great spiritual advantage to the world at large. The general temper of mankind, taking man individually, is what it ever was, restless and discontented, or sensual, or unbelieving. In barbarous times, indeed, the influence of the Church was successful in effecting far greater social order and external decency of conduct than are known in heathen countries; and at all times it will abash and check excesses which conscience itself condemns. But it has ever been a restraint on the world rather than a guide to personal virtue and perfection on a large scale; its fruits are negative.