SERMON XVIII.

JOHN XIII. 10.

He that is washed, needeth not, save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

HARDLY, since the very earliest days of the Gospel, could these words have been repeated with exactly the same truth to any assembly of Christians. In saying

to his disciples, "Ye are clean, but not all," our Lord declared, that the clean were by far the greater number amongst them, although there was one single person who was an exception. Eleven of those who heard him were pronounced to be clean, while one only was found wanting. What a state of almost heavenly blessedness should we think it now, if, when looking round upon any number of persons assembled in any Christian place of worship, we could persuade ourselves that eleven out of every twelve were such as Christ would pronounce to be clean!—not indeed free from sin, and far less removed above the reach of temptation; but yet so sound in principle, so sincere in their love of Christ, that they would need only to

wash the feet,—-to cleanse themselves from the common and almost necessary stains which daily life brings with it; and would then be accounted by Christ to be "clean every whit." Surely, when we look around on what men are, we should think that our lot was thrown in a most happy ground, if not eleven out of every twelve, but even one half of those whom we met in the house of God, could be thought such as Christ would call "clean."

The words of the text were spoken by our Lord just before he was beginning the season of his sufferings, and only a few hours before he was crucified. His disciples were all around him, and one of them said, that he was ready to go with his Master into prison and to death. The words were spoken in entire sincerity, and, therefore, Christ declared, that he who spoke them was clean, although he knew that when the trial came they would not be fulfilled in practice. Even so we are here assembled at the beginning of the week in which we celebrate the memory of our Lord's sufferings, -and only a few days before the time when we shall be invited to partake of his most blessed body and blood, in the sacrament of the holy communion. May we suppose Christ speaking to us as he did to his Apostles; could we hope that he would say to us, "Ye are clean, but not all;' although some few of you may be lost, yet by far the greater number are my true disciples, and will follow me whithersoever I go?" Or would he rather speak to us in the language which he himself foretold would be more fitting in these latter days,—" When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith upon the

earth?" Our own consciences will be able best to tell us; if we examine a little what it was in our Lord's Apostles which made him say of them, that, with one exception, they were all clean.

We have said already, that it certainly was not because they were free from sin altogether. The Gospels contain many instances of faults, even amongst the most eminent of their number, which prove quite clearly that they were far from perfect. There are marks of ambition, of violence, of worldlymindedness in their characters, which on different occasions drew forth our Lord's reproof. But yet he calls them "clean," because, as he said to them, that very same evening, "Ye are they who have continued with me in my temptations." They were men, who, when many others had gone back and walked no more with him, and when they themselves did not understand aright those words of their Lord which had given so much offence, yet replied to him, when he asked them, "Will ye also go away?" “Lord, to whom shall we go?-thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." He calls them "clean," therefore, because their faith in him had not failed; but they had continued with him in all his temptations, and loved him better than any other service.

If this is the case, then, we may think, at first sight, that we too are all clean, because our faith in Christ has never failed us, and we have continued in his service ever since we were born. And so, indeed, we might think justly, if our notions of faith were the same as those of the Scripture. True it is,

that none of us, perhaps, have ever doubted the fact of our Lord's resurrection; but it is, I fear, no less true, that many of us have, in the scripture sense of the word, never believed it; and I will go even further, and say, that many who have doubted the fact, even in the very moment of their doubting, have shown more of Christian faith than many who never doubted it at all. This sounds like a paradox; but it is a plain and certain truth to those who are familiar with the Scriptures on one side, and have ever watched the workings of their own hearts on the other. Many have doubted it, like the Apostle Thomas in the Gospel, from their exceeding wish to find it true; they believe not for very joy. Alive to their own sins,--alive to the utter darkness of all beyond the grave, without the aid of revelation,—alive to the surpassing wisdom and excellence of the great revelation of God in Christ Jesus,-it is almost too good to be hoped for, that, for all they most lament and shrink from, there should be so perfect a remedy, that all, and more than all, that their fondest imaginations could picture, of good and excellent, should be a real and sober truth. Surely all those who know the Gospel and the nature of man, would pray earnestly that thousands who never have doubted of Christ's resurrection might doubt of it this instant, so that they might have with their doubt so much of a real Christian faith,—a heart and mind so much in agreement with the mind of the Spirit of God. On the other hand, and this is to our present purpose most particularly, it does not at all follow that they who do not doubt, therefore believe.

Taught the facts of our religion from childhood,— taught to consider them as very certain and very sacred, but too often not taught how to use them,-the events of Christ's life and death have no more occupied their hearts and minds than the movements of the sun, and moon, and stars: as far as practice is concerned, they think of the one no more than they do of the other. As children, they have said their Catechism, as a lesson,—as boys they have gone to church, when at home, because it is the custom of their families, and when at school, because the rules of the school oblige them to do so. But neither the Catechism nor the church service have gone beyond the particular portion of time-I may almost say, the particular part and corner of the mind-that has been given to them. They have never fully entered into the system, so as visibly to affect the health and strength of the constitution. It is possible that, in many cases, a boy knows nothing of what may be called faith, till he begins to prepare for confirmation. But it is possible also that even that solemn service, admirable as is its design, and great as are its uses, if understood and applied, may pass over to some unprofitably. They may look upon it as a sort of examination in divinity, and think that if they can answer the questions put to them, so as to be reported fit for confirmation, in point of knowledge, they have done their business, and are qualified for the ceremony; and after it is over, they look upon it as on an examination when past, as a thing with which they have no further concern. Then comes the preparation, for the first time, of receiving the communion of the Lord's