so dark, and that the more we feel our own shortcomings, the more
hopeful should we be of a future unlike the past, and the more earnest
in our effort to make that future the present! There is a type of
Christian experience not uncommon among devout people, in which the
consciousness of imperfection paralyses effort instead of quickening it;
men lament their evil, their slow progress and so on, and remain the
same year after year. They are stirred to no effort. There is no
straining onwards. They almost seem to lose the faith that they can ever
be any better. How different this from the grand, wholesome completeness
of Paul's view here, which embraces both elements, and even draws the
undying brightness of his forward-looking confidence from the very
darkness of his sense of present imperfection!

So should it be with us, 'as many as be perfect.' Before us stretch
indefinite possibilities of approximating to the unattainable fulness of
the divine life. We may grow in knowledge and in holiness through
endless ages and grades of advance. In a most blessed sense we may have
that for our highest joy which in another meaning is a punishment of
unfaithfulness and indocility, that we shall be 'ever learning, and
never coming to the full knowledge of the truth.' No limit can be put to
what we may receive of God, nor to the closeness, the fulness of our
communion with Him, nor to the beauty of holiness which may pass from
Him into our poor characters, and irradiate our homely faces. Then,
brethren, let us cherish a noble discontent with all that we at present
are. Let our spirits stretch out all their powers to the better things
beyond, as the plants grown in darkness will send out pale shoots that
feel blindly towards the light, or the seed sown on the top of a rock
will grope down the bare stone for the earth by which it must be fed.
Let the sense of our own weakness ever lead to a buoyant confidence in
what we, even we, may become if we will only take the grace we have. To
this touchstone let us bring all claims to higher holiness--they who are
perfect are most conscious of imperfection, and most eager in their
efforts after a further progress in the knowledge, love, and likeness of
God in Christ.

III. We have here also distinctly brought out the co-existence with
these characteristics of their opposites.

'If in anything ye are otherwise minded,' says Paul. I have already
suggested that this expression evidently refers no