d to this attitude, which is the result of the
possession of grace, we may say that it indicates not only stability
and steadfastness, but erectness, as in opposition to crouching or
bowing. A man's independence is guaranteed by his dependence upon,
and his possession of, that communicated grace of God. And so you
have the fact that the phase of the Christian teaching which has laid
most stress on the decrees and sovereign will of God, on divine grace
in fact, and too little upon the human side--the phase which is
roughly described as Calvinism--has underlain the liberties of
Europe, and has stiffened men into the rejection of all priestly and
civic domination. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty,' and if a man has in his heart the grace of God, then he
stands erect as a man. 'Ye are bought with a price; be ye not the
servants of men.' The Christian democracy, the Christian rejection of
all sacerdotal and other domination, flows from the access of each
individual Christian to the fountain of all wisdom, the only source
of law and command, the inspirer of all strength, the giver of all
grace. By faith ye stand. 'Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made you free.'

III. Lastly, and only a word; we have here the Christian way of
entrance into grace.

I have already remarked on the emphasis with which, both in my text
and in the preceding clause, there are laid down the two conditions
of possessing this grace, or the peace which precedes it: 'By
Christ--through faith.' Notice, too, that Jesus Christ gives us
'access.' Now that expression is but an imperfect rendering of the
original. If it were not for its trivial associations, one might read
instead of 'access,' introduction, 'by whom we have introduction into
this grace wherein we stand.' The thought is that Jesus Christ
secures us entry into this ample space, this treasure-house, as some
court officer might take by the hand a poor rustic, standing on the
threshold of the palace, and lead him through all the glittering
series of unfamiliar splendour, and present him at last in the
central ring around the king. The reality that underlies the metaphor
is plain. We sinners can never pass into that central glory, nor ever
possess those gifts of grace, unless the barrier that stands between
us and God, between us and His highest gifts of love, is swept away.

I recall an old legend where two knights are represented as seeking
to enter a