objection to circumcision. What he objected to was its being forced upon
all as a necessary preliminary to entering the Church. And as soon as
the opposite party took that ground, then there was nothing for it but
to fight against them to the last. They had turned an indifferent thing
into an essential, and he could no longer treat it as indifferent.

So whenever parties or Churches insist on external rites as essential,
or elevate any of the subordinate means of grace into the place of the
one bond which fastens our souls to Jesus, and is the channel of grace
as well as the bond of union, then it is time to arm for the defence of
the spirituality of Christ's kingdom, and to resist the attempt to bind
on free shoulders the iron yoke. Let men and parties do as they like, so
long as they do not turn their forms into essentials. In broad freedom
of speech and spirit, which holds by the one central principle too
firmly to be much troubled about subordinate matters--in tolerance of
diversities, which does not spring from indifference, but from the very
clearness of our perception of, and from the very fervour of our
adherence to, the one essential of the Christian life--let us take for
our guide the large, calm, lofty thoughts which this text sets forth
before us. Let us thankfully believe that men may love Jesus, and be fed
from His fulness, whether they be on one side of this undying
controversy or on the other. Let us watch jealously the tendencies in
our own hearts to trust in our forms or in our freedom. And whensoever
or wheresoever these subordinates are made into things essential, and
the ordinances of Christ's Church are elevated into the place which
belongs to loving trust in Christ's love, then let _our_ voices at least
be heard on the side of that mighty truth that 'in Jesus Christ neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which
worketh by love.'

'WALK IN THE SPIRIT'

'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the
lust of the flesh.'--GAL. v. 16.

We are not to suppose that the Apostle here uses the familiar contrast
of spirit and flesh to express simply different elements of human
nature. Without entering here on questions for which a sermon is
scarcely a suitable vehicle of discussion, it may be sufficient for our
present purpose to say that, as usually, when employing this antithesis
the Apostle means by Spirit the divine, the Spirit of God, which h