ing generous affections and cultivating the spirit of
social duty and religious aspiration, by walking in the footsteps of
Christ and living in the light of His presence, you are laying the only
possible foundation of any lasting progress, you are following the one
true method by which the mystery of sin is to be overcome.

We may wonder that this should be so difficult; for of selfishness we
should say that we all dislike it. In its grosser forms we repudiate it.
The very word is one which we articulate with a certain accent of
contempt.

But when we come to its refined and subtle workings in our nature, when
we think of its Proteus-like changeableness, its power of assuming the
various guises even of duty or religion; when we reflect how it can
clothe itself in the choicest garb of art, or science, or divine
philosophy, we find very likely that we are always in danger of being
enslaved by it.

And we do well to pray in all sincerity that grace may expel our
selfishness; for indeed the influence of true religion is to be gauged by
the extent to which this prayer is being fulfilled in us. The fulfilment
of it is what we mean by the regenerate life.

I need not ask you how you feel in the presence of any character which
you recognise as cleansed from all taint of selfishness, a character,
softened, refined, purified, inspired, consecrated. I would rather ask
whether you know of any personal influence to be compared with that of
such a character.

And if, as I anticipate, you would answer that there is none like it, I
would ask you to bear in mind that this influence may be yours. You are
invited by all the highest calls within and around you to make it yours.
"What is the aim and purpose of his life?" is a question which men are
justified in asking about us; and they are justified in passing their
verdict upon us by the answer which our life gives.

Does he live for himself, they will ask, for his own pleasures, his own
delights, be they coarse or refined, his own indulgence, his own
particular interest? Is there anything of the spirit or enthusiasm of
sacrifice visible in the ordinary tenor of his actions?

The world, this Christian world, is full of those concerning whom the
answer to such questions can only be a distinct negative; and yet we know
that in all such characters, whether in youth or age, Christianity is a
failure.

Therefore we shall accept it as our primary duty, the purpose of our
existe