is given us, not to make us something _other
than_ men, but to make us, what without His gracious aid we never shall
be, upright, self-mastering men, humble and obedient children of our
Lord and Saviour.

In that day of trial all these deceits will be laid aside; we shall
stand in our own real form, whether it be of heaven or of earth, the
wedding garment, or the old raiment of sin[36]; and then, how many (do
we think) will be revealed as the heirs of light, who have followed
Christ in His narrow way, and humbled themselves after His manner
(though not in His perfection, and with nothing of His merit) to the
daily duties of soberness, mercy, gentleness, self-denial, and the fear
of God?

These, be they many or few, will then receive their prize from Him who
died for them, who has made them what they are, and completes in heaven
what first by conscience, then by His Spirit, He began here. Surely
they were despised on the earth by the world; both by the open sinners,
who thought their scrupulousness to be foolishness, and by such
pretenders to God's favour as thought it ignorance. But, in reality,
they had received from their Lord the treasures both of wisdom and of
knowledge, though men knew it not; and they then will be acknowledged
by Him before all creatures, as heirs of the glory prepared for them
before the beginning of the world.

[1] Eccles. xii. 13.

[2] Rom. xii. 2.

[3] 1 Cor. vii. 19.

[4] Phil. iv. 8.

[5] James ii. 10.

[6] 2 Pet. i. 5-7.

[7] John xiv. 21.

[8] Matt. v. 19.

[9] John vi. 46.

[10] John iii. 21.

[11] John vii. 17.

[12] John xv. 23.

[13] John viii. 19.

[14] 1 John ii. 23.

[15] 2 John 9.

[16] 2 Cor. iv. 4.

[17] Luke i. 6.

[18] Matt. i. 19.

[19] Luke ii. 25.

[20] John i. 47.

[21] Luke xxiii. 50.

[22] Acts x. 2.

[23] Acts xiii.

[24] Acts xvii.

[25] John iv. 3, 7.

[26] Luke i. 6.

[27] Luke xv. 7.

[28] Prov. viii. 17, 20.

[29] Luke xvi. 10.

[30] Mark iv. 25.

[31] Eph. v. 14.

[32] John i. 12.

[33] Gal. vi. 7

[34] Acts xxiii. 1.

[35] Rom. x. 8.

[36] Zech. iii. 4.

SERMON XV.

Sudden Conversions.

"_By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain._"--1 Cor. xv. 10.

We can hardly conceive that grace, such as that given to the great
Apostle who speaks in the text, would have been given in vain; that is,
we should not expect that it would have been gi