ed into the mere instrument of social
revolution, its development would have been thrown back for
centuries, and the whole worth and power of it, for those who first
apprehended it, would have been lost. So you know Paul never said a
word to encourage any precipitate attempts to change externals. He
let slavery--he let war alone; he let the tyranny of the Roman Empire
alone--not because he was a coward, not because he thought that
these things were not worth meddling with, but because he, like all
wise men, believed in making the tree good and then its fruit good.
He believed in the diffusion of the principles which he proclaimed,
and the mighty Name which he served, as able to girdle the
poison-tree, and to take the bark off it, and the rest, the slow
dying, might be left to the work of time. And the same general idea
underlies the words of my text. 'Do not try to change,' he says, 'do
not trouble about external conditions; keep to your Christian
profession; let those alone, they will right themselves. Art thou a
slave? Seek not to be freed. Art thou circumcised? Seek not to be
uncircumcised. Get hold of the central, vivifying, transmuting
influence, and all the rest is a question of time.'

But, besides this more especial application of the words of my text
to the primitive times, it carries with it, dear brethren, a large
general principle that applies to all times--a principle, I may say,
dead in the teeth of the maxims upon which life is being ordered by
the most of us. _Our_ maxim is, 'Get on!' Paul's is, 'Never mind
about getting _on_, get _up_!' Our notion is--'Try to make the
circumstances what I would like to have them.' Paul's is--'Leave
circumstances to take care of themselves, or rather leave God to take
care of the circumstances. You get close to Him, and hold His hand,
and everything else will right itself.' Only he is not preaching
stolid acquiescence. His previous injunctions were--'Let every man
abide in the same calling wherein he was called.' He sees that that
may be misconceived and abused, and so, in his third reiteration of
the precept, he puts in a word which throws a flood of light upon the
whole thing--'Let every man wherein he is called therein abide.' Yes,
but that is not all--'therein abide _with God_!' Ay, that is it! not
an impossible stoicism; not hypocritical, fanatical contempt of the
external. But whilst that gets its due force and weight, whilst a
man yields himself in a measure to t