to live, not by impulse, by accident,
by inclination, but by principle. We are not intended to live by rule,
but we _are_ intended to live by law. And unless we know _why_ we do as
well as _what_ we do, and give a rational account of our conduct, we
fall beneath the height on which God intends us to walk. Impulse is all
very well, but impulse is blind and needs a guide. The imitation of
those around us, or the acceptance of the apparent necessities of
circumstances, are, to some extent, inevitable and right. But to be
driven merely by the force of externals is to surrender the highest
prerogative of manhood. The highest part of human nature is the reason
guided by conscience, and a man's conscience is only then rightly
illuminated when it is illuminated by his creed, which is founded on the
acceptance of the revelation that God has made of Himself.

And whilst we are clearly meant to be guided by the intelligent
appropriation of God's truth, that truth is evidently all meant for
guidance. We are not told anything in the Bible in order that we may
know as an ultimate object, but we are told it all in order that,
knowing, we may be, and, being, we may do, according to His will.

Just think of the intensely practical tendency of all the greatest
truths of Christianity. The Cross is the law of life. The revelation
that was made there was made, not merely that we might cling to it as a
refuge from our sins, but that we might accept it as the rule of our
conduct. All our duties to mankind are summed up in the word 'Love one
another as I have loved you.' We say that we believe in the divinity of
Christ; we say that we believe in the great incarnation and sacrificial
death and eternal priesthood of the loving Son of God. We say that we
believe in a judgment to come and a future life. Well, then, do these
truths produce any effect upon my life? have they shaped me in any
measure into conformity with their great principles? Does there issue
from them constraining power which grasps me and moulds me as a sculptor
would a bit of clay in his hands? Am I subject to the Gospel's
authority, and is the word in which God has revealed Himself to me the
word which dominates and impels all my life? 'Whereunto we have already
attained, by the same let us walk.'

But we shall not do that without a distinct effort. For it is a great
deal easier to live from hand to mouth than to live by principle. It is
a great deal easier to accept what see