of Truth, while all around Him was
agitation--hesitation in the breast of Pilate, hatred in the bosom of
the Pharisees, and consternation in the heart of the disciples.

And this in truth, is what we want: we want the vision of a calmer
and simpler Beauty, to tranquillize us in the midst of artificial
tastes--we want the draught of a purer spring to cool the flame of our
excited life;--we want in other words, the Spirit of the Life of
Christ, simple, natural, with power to calm and soothe the feelings
which it rouses: the fulness of the Spirit which can never intoxicate!

X.

_Preached August 11, 1850._

PURITY.

"Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and
conscience is defiled."--Titus i. 15.

For the evils of this world there are two classes of remedies--one is
the world's, the other is God's. The world proposes to remedy evil by
adjusting the circumstances of this life to man's desires. The world
says, give us a perfect set of _circumstances_, and then we shall have
a set of perfect men. This principle lies at the root of the system
called Socialism. Socialism proceeds on the principle that all moral
and even physical evil arises from unjust laws. If the cause be
remedied, the effect will be good. But Christianity throws aside all
that as merely chimerical. It proves that the fault is not in outward
circumstances, but in ourselves. Like the wise physician, who, instead
of busying himself with transcendental theories to improve the
climate, and the outward circumstances of man, endeavours to relieve
and get rid of the tendencies of disease which are from within,
Christianity, leaving all outward circumstances to ameliorate
themselves, fastens its attention on the spirit which has to deal with
them. Christ has declared that the kingdom of heaven is from within.
He said to the Pharisee, "Ye make clean the outside of the cup and
platter, but within ye are full of extortion and excess." The remedy
for all this is a large and liberal charity, so overflowing that "Unto
the pure all things are pure." To internal purity all external things
_become_ pure. The principle that St. Paul has here laid down is, that
each man is the creator of his own world; he walks in a universe of
his own creation.

As the free air is to one out of health the cause of cold and diseased
lungs, so to the hea