t sophisticated nonsense out of
our heads, and to make us feel that the law which puts an unattainable
ideal before the Christian as his duty is an intensely practical one,
and may be reduced to practice at each step in his career. Imitation of
the Father, and to be perfect, 'as our Father in heaven is perfect,' is
the elementary and the ultimate commandment of all Christian morality.
'Be ye holy as He that hath called you is holy.'

Then let me remind you that the unattainableness is by no means so
demonstrable as some people seem to think. A very tiny circle may have
the same centre as one that reaches beyond the suburbs of the universe,
and holds all stars and systems within its great round. And the tiniest
circle will have the same geometrical laws applied to it as the
greatest. The difference between finite and infinite has nothing to do
with the possibility of our becoming like God, if we believe that 'in
the image of God created He him'; and that men who have been not only
made by original creation in the Divine image, but have been born again
by the incorruptible seed of the Word into a kindred life with His, and
derived from Him, can surely grow like what they have got, and unfold
into actually possessed and achieved resemblance to their Father the
kindred life that is poured into their veins.

So every way it is better indefinitely to approximate to that great
likeness, though with many flaws and failures, than to say it cannot be
reached, and so I will content myself down here, in my sins and my
meannesses. No! dear brethren, 'we are saved by hope,' and one prime
condition of growth in nobleness is to believe it possible that, by His
blessing we may be like Him here on earth in the measure of our
perception of His beauty and reception of His grace.

II. Again, notice the field of this Godlike holiness.

'In all manner of conversation.' Of course I do not need to remind you
that the word 'conversation' does not mean _talk_, but _conduct_; that
it applies to the whole of the outward life. Peter says that every part
of the Christian man's activity is to be the field on which his
possession of the holiness derived from and like God's is to be
exhibited. It is to be seen in all common life. Here is no cloistered
and ascetic holiness which tabooes large provinces of every man's
experience, and says 'we must not go in there, for fear of losing our
purity,' but rather wherever Christ has trod before we can go. Tha