nother equally
dominant and equally comprehensive. In one aspect, it is
self-surrender; in another, it is growing transformation. And, just
as in the former verse we found that an inward surrender preceded the
outward sacrifice, and that the inner man, having been consecrated as
a priest, by this yielding of himself to God, was then called upon to
manifest inward consecration by outward sacrifice, so in this further
exhortation, an inward 'renewing of the mind' is regarded as the
necessary antecedent of transformation of outward life.

So we have here another comprehensive view of what the Christian life
ought to be, and that not only grasped, as it were, in its very
centre and essence, but traced out in two directions--as to that
which must precede it within, and as to that which follows it as
consequence. An outline of the possibilities, and therefore the
duties, of the Christian, is set forth here, in these three thoughts
of my text, the renewed mind issuing in a transfigured life, crowned
and rewarded by a clearer and ever clearer insight into what we ought
to be and do.

I. Note, then, that the foundation of all transformation of character
and conduct is laid deep in a renewed mind.

Now it is a matter of world-wide experience, verified by each of us
in our own case, if we have ever been honest in the attempt, that the
power of self-improvement is limited by very narrow bounds. Any man
that has ever tried to cure himself of the most trivial habit which
he desires to get rid of, or to alter in the slightest degree the set
of some strong taste or current of his being, knows how little he can
do, even by the most determined effort. Something may be effected,
but, alas! as the proverbs of all nations and all lands have taught
us, it is very little indeed. 'You cannot expel nature with a fork,'
said the Roman. 'What's bred in the bone won't come out of the
flesh,' says the Englishman. 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin or
the leopard his spots?' says the Hebrew. And we all know what the
answer to that question is. The problem that is set before a man when
you tell him to effect self-improvement is something like that
which confronted that poor paralytic lying in the porch at the pool:
'If you can walk you will be able to get to the pool that will make
you able to walk. But you have got to be cured before you can do what
you need to do in order to be cured.' Only one knife can cut the
knot. The Gospel of Jesus Christ