tions of them all two companion precepts: one, with which we
have to deal, affecting mainly the outward life; its twin sister,
which follows in the next verse, affecting mainly the inward life. He
who has drunk in the spirit of Paul's doctrinal teaching will present
his body a living sacrifice, and be renewed in the spirit of his
mind; and thus, outwardly and inwardly, will be approximating to
God's ideal, and all specific virtues will be his in germ. Those two
precepts lay down the broad outline, and all that follow in the way
of specific commandments is but filling in its details.

I. We observe that we have here, first, an all-inclusive directory
for the outward life.

Now, it is to be noticed that the metaphor of sacrifice runs through
the whole of the phraseology of my text. The word rendered 'present'
is a technical expression for the sacerdotal action of offering. A
tacit contrast is drawn between the sacrificial ritual, which was
familiar to Romans as well as Jews, and the true Christian sacrifice
and service. In the former a large portion of the sacrifices
consisted of animals which were slain. Ours is to be 'a living
sacrifice.' In the former the offering was presented to the Deity,
and became His property. In the Christian service, the gift passes,
in like manner, from the possession of the worshipper, and is set
apart for the uses of God, for that is the proper meaning of the word
'holy.' The outward sacrifice gave an odour of a sweet smell, which,
by a strong metaphor, was declared to be fragrant in the nostrils of
Deity. In like manner, the Christian sacrifice is 'acceptable unto
God.' These other sacrifices were purely outward, and derived no
efficacy from the disposition of the worshipper. Our sacrifice,
though the material of the offering be corporeal, is the act of the
inner man, and so is called 'rational' rather than 'reasonable,' as
our Version has it, or as in other parts of Scripture, 'spiritual.'
And the last word of my text, 'service,' retains the sacerdotal
allusion, because it does not mean the service of a slave or
domestic, but that of a priest.

And so the sum of the whole is that the master-word for the outward
life of a Christian is sacrifice. That, again, includes two
things--self-surrender and surrender to God.

Now, Paul was not such a superficial moralist as to begin at the
wrong end, and talk about the surrender of the outward life, unless
as the result of the prior surrender of