s of his greeting
carries in it a summons as well as a promise. They are saints, and they
are so as being 'in Christ.' That name is often used as a clumsy
sarcasm, but it goes to the very root of Christian character. The
central idea contained in it is that of consecration to God, and that
which is often taken to be its whole meaning is but a secondary one, a
result of that consecration. The true basis of all real purity of
conduct lies in devotion of heart and life to God, and for want of
discerning the connection of these two elements the world's ethics fail
in theory and in practice. A 'saint' is not a faultless monster, and the
persistence of failures and inconsistencies, whilst affording only too
sad an occasion for penitence and struggle, afford no occasion for a
man's shrinking from taking to himself the humble claim to be a saint.
Both the elements of consecration to God and of real and progressive,
though never complete perfection of personal character, are realised
only in Christ; in and only in fellowship with Him whose life was
unbroken fellowship with the Father, and whose will was completely
accordant with the Father's, do we rise to the height of belonging to
God. And only in Him who could challenge a world to convict Him of sin
shall we make even a beginning of personal righteousness. If we are in
Christ we should be saints to-day however imperfect our holiness, and
shall be 'as the angels of God' in the day that is coming--nay, rather
as the Lord of the Angels, 'not having spot or blemish or any such
thing.'

The New Testament has other names for believers, each of which expresses
some great truth in regard to them; for example, the earliest name by
which they knew themselves was the simple one of 'brethren,' which spoke
of their common relation to a Father and pledged them to the sweetness
and blessedness of a family. The sarcastic wits of Antioch called them
Christians as seeing nothing in them other than what they had many a
time seen in the adherents of some founder of a school or a party. They
called themselves disciples or believers, revealing by both names their
humble attitude and their Lord's authority, and by the latter disclosing
to seeing eyes the central bond which bound them to Him. But the name of
Saint declares something more than these in that it speaks of their
relation to God, the fulfilment of the Old Testament ideal, and carries
in it a prophecy of personal character.

The sharers