2 Thess. ii. obedience therein to the traditions of Christ 'which

15; iii. 6.

TÁTOUS:

comp.

1 Thess. v.

14; 2 Thess. iii. 3, 6.

IV.

Mono

theism not

a speculation.

they had received of him ;' once more he claims their submission to his Apostolate, and commands them to suspend from their Society any irregular and dissolute persons who rejected his holy message.

This is precisely what emerges in all its simplicity from the facts as they lie before us in this second letter of the Apostle. His mission is 'to turn men' from baseness to goodness, from false gods to the true. This is the first element of the conversion of the world; this the will of God, even your Sanctification.' They could only be sanctified by the Truth.' There is no turning of fallen conscience to virtue, without a turning from this world's idols, 'to serve the living and true God.'

IV. Assuredly then we find it was no mere dogma to which S. Paul had devoted his life, when he sought to lead men to God. If it had been a speculation of the schools only, if a matter of real unconcern, a question, whether men should have an opinion that there were several gods, or only one, most certainly a conversion to monotheism had been worth no Apostle's toil. But it was a simple fact, that the Moral Conversion of the Thessalonians turned wholly on this.

Such was our historical beginning in Europe. The mission of the Apostle was beforehand declared by Christ to be, to turn men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to GOD:' and it was so. And it was the fulfilment of the work of Jesus Himself, Who came that He might bring us to GOD.'

cation, a

It was the only possible thing to begin with, Its incul among ruined nations; as it is also the

real primary

63

work of the in Apostle.

end of all existence, that God must be all
all.' The Apostle's own conversion from a hard
and worldly Pharisaism had taught him that he
was morally raised only by 'light from Heaven.'
His knowledge of God had now become intense,
close and personal. All that he had perceived of
religion as Saul of Tarsus, had been but the outer
framework of truth, as recognized here on earth :
his conversion opened his eyes to another world.
His knowledge of Jesus was such a revelation, and
to him as truly as to the elder Apostles, Jesus
'had shown the FATHER.' He had learned to pro-
nounce with a meaning, unutterably beyond all that
he had known before, that overwhelming article of
a holy Faith, I believe in God.' Nothing can be
done with any man till he has known this. This
solemn act of Faith is the beginning of all reality
in Religion.

trast of

theism and

And this Faith was sanctifying just in proportion Moral conas it was real; while all forms of earth's idolatries, Monowhatever else their character, had been found essen- Polytheism. tially impure. The moral contrast is a fact. Polytheism had many phases, but it constantly dissipated the noblest aspirations of man. Polytheism always deifies, and then worships, greatness,-any greatness --and that of itself is vile. For greatness which is not goodness is essential evil. And, theory apart, the worships of the old world all demoralized the worshippers. Idealized men, or passions, or virtues,

This had

been' God's

with Israel.

or powers,-gods of the old world,-what were they all, but the world itself magnified? what but partners with us in the dread hierarchy of this sad present life? Evils of our lower plain were all reflected by heathenism into the overarching sky of successful might, and there adored. Calm goodness had no place in the Theodicé. The action and existence of such 'gods' seemed but a 'war in the heavens ;' and goodness and justice unknown.

The Apostle saw then in 'light from Heaven' what the state of men had been universally, and how Conversion to God was the one need of mankind. He controversy knew that the controversy morally waged in Israel for ages had been this. That people had yielded to the abominations' of Canaan, Tyre, and Babylon, and lastly, of Roman power and pride. Chemosh and Ashtoreth and Molech and Remphan in the old time, differed indeed from the Herodian secularity of a later day; but they were all impure, and denounced as such by prophet after prophet, from Elijah to the Baptist.

All impure. For think of the searching energy of the true thought of GOD, and see how the philosophy and the fact correspond. Has your moral nature ever turned to this,-the conviction that the Eye of searching Purity is directly on you?-about your path, and about your bed?—your constant Watcher, whether you wake or sleep, whether you speak or are silent? close to your eye as you gaze, close to your breath as you breathe, close to your thought as you think?— I believe in GOD!'

And the nations around Israel the Apostle perceived

11.] REUNION OF RELIGION AND CONSCIENCE

65

condemna

world also.

to be all involved in this guilt, even alienation from This, the God. If Israel's formalism had been an inward denial tion of the of the truth of God, the Gentile sensualism had been not less, but more infidel. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge' is the solemn testimony against them. The annals even of the Religions of heathenism would be but the record of incredible orgies, all horrible cruelties and crimes, and indecencies insulting human nature itself in her most sacred instincts. There could be no hope for Ezekiel Israel, no hope for the world, but in entire conversion to God, and so to Goodness.

This, and this only, purifies the aims and ennobles the whole bearing of any man. To hold high and

constant communion with Him Who is above usthe Supreme, the Pure, the Everlasting; to know that for us there is a Sympathy ever true, whenever we are right-a Justice ever ruling all with love; to know that we have personal nearness to the "Father of spirits,' and live with Him,-this is Religion, this the pure beginning of Holiness, the basis of Christianity. You may talk, you may speculate, you may dogmatize easily, without this; but you are pretenders only, you do but beat the air. Religion and Conscience being separate, you have no faith, no life of Goodness.

And had it indeed come to this, that that vital seed of good had to be sown as if afresh in the world that God had made? Yes and the Sower was the Son of Man.' For never until He came to us from the invisible, and showed the certainty of a

F

xxxvi. 38.

How the

approach to

God may

purify us.

Christ came

'to bring us to God.'

28; xx. 17.

1 S. Peter

i. 23.

world beyond this present, was it possible largely to revive in our nature the true thought of the Invisible Lord of all. The Only Begotten Who is in the bosom of the Father hath declared Him.' He so declared Him that countless hearts of men in fact soon awoke, responsive to His call. The mesS.John xvi. sage from the lip of Jesus, 'I come unto you from the Father,' the same message of His Apostle, 'grace from God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord,' was as the seed of an incorruptible life to man. Never at the mere bidding of an earthly teacher, had Thessalonica 'turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God.' A Heavenlier call was needed, the voice of His Son Whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus.' Europe had never 'come to itself' and returned as a prodigal to the Divine Father, but through faith in Him Who stirred the moral memories of a higher home, a paradise for man, and taught a new reliance on the love that was there to be found. Farther and farther the whole world had wandered away, until in most marvellous love He came, True Light from heaven above the brightness of the sun,'-' I am JESUS ;' and then, as never before, was man brought nigh.'-Ere long, the whole darkness we know must pass; while nations recovered of their blindness' arise and are baptized.'

He alone

has power to do it.

Seems it to any that we assert an enigma to them, when, with all the facts of the past on our side, we thus boldly include in one formula, true Faith in God and the Moral elevation of man? We cannot shrink from it; for the only possible beginning of a