ty, but the
Lord; not Church principles, not that great duty of cohesion about which
it will speak, and speak urgently, further on, but the Lord, in His
adorable personal greatness, in His unique and all-wonderful personal
achievement. To that attitude of thought it recurs again and again in
its later stages. In one way or another it is always bidding us look up
from even the greatest related subjects and "consider HIM."

Am I not right in saying that here is a message straight to the restless
heart of our time, and not least to the special conditions of Christian
life just now in our well-beloved Church? We must, of course we must,
think about a hundred problems presented by the circumference of the
life of the Christian and the life of the Church. At all times such
problems, asking for attention and solution, emerge to every thoughtful
disciple's sight. In our own time they seem to multiply upon one
another with an importunate demand--problems doctrinal, ritual,
governmental, social; the strife of principles and tendencies within the
Church; all that is involved in the relations between the Church and the
State, and again between the Church and the world, that is to say, human
life indifferent or opposed to the living Christian creed and the
spiritual Christian rule.

Well, for these very reasons let us make here first this brief appeal,
prompted by the opening paragraphs of the great Epistle. If you would
deal aright with the circumference, earnest Christian of the English
Church, live at the Centre. "Dwell deep." From the Church come back
evermore to Jesus Christ, that from Jesus Christ you may the better go
back to the Church, bearing the peace and the power of the Lord Himself
upon you.

There is nothing that can serve as a substitute for this. The
"consideration" of our blessed Redeemer and King is not merely good for
us; it is vital. To "behold His glory," deliberately, with worship, with
worshipping love, _and seen by direct attention to the mirror of His
Word_, can and must secure for us blessings which we shall otherwise
infallibly lose. This, and this alone, amidst the strife of tongues and
all the perplexities of life, can develope in us at once the humblest
reverence and the noblest liberty, convictions firm to resist a whole
world in opposition, yet the meekness and the fear which utterly exclude
injustice, untruth, hardness, or the bitter word. For us if for any, for
us now if ever, this first great m