do our best to become good men; but the question still remains, What is being a good man?

It may seem a very simple rudimentary question to ask in a Christian pulpit, and many may be inclined to say, "Everybody knows what being a good man is." If they said everybody ought to know what being a good man is, I should perfectly agree with them; but judging from the remarks we sometimes hear, it is very evident that a great many people have only a conventional standard of goodness, and never exercise their minds sufficiently on the subject to feel that they are following the apostolic advice in at least trying to be wise, and understanding what the will of the Lord is. Indeed, if it had been at all a general habit with Christian men to use their brains in considering what being a good man meant, and what God really required of them— in other words, what is the difference between goodiness and godliness-it is hardly likely St. Paul would have found it necessary to make use of the exhortation about which I am trying to speak. Forgive me, then, if I ask you to dwell for a little with me upon the nature of goodness, in order to clear our minds on the subject of human duty. And, in the first place, it is evident we call a thing good or bad in proportion to the degree in which it answers the purpose it was designed to fulfil, or in which it approaches or recedes from the standard of the best

and highest specimens of its kind. If we look on an oak or a fir, we unconsciously compare it in our minds with the best and finest we have seen. If the tree is stunted or shabby, or if it appears to make no progress in its growth, we at once conclude that some law of its being has been violated; for the tree does not grow by magic, but by the building up into its substance of certain well-known elements, and if those elements have not been supplied, and supplied in a certain way, no healthful growth can be produced. In short, if a tree is to grow into a fine specimen of its kind, the laws of its being must in every respect be more or less complied with; and if it could think and speak, we can well imagine it would acknowledge that the business of its life was to make the best of its surroundings, and grow up into as fine a tree as it was possible to become. Now, as man can not only think and speak and reflect on his surroundings, but also modify and change those surroundings to a very great extent, it is evident that, if he is only minded to develop and complete his nature by consecrating his faculties to the best uses, and making the best of the circumstances in which he finds himself, he cannot fail of meeting with very considerable success. But it is also evident that, as in the case of the oak tree, success in growing into a good specimen of his kind will be the result, not of good intentions and sentimental

aspirations, but of definite work in a definite direction.

The man must have conformed to the laws of his being, which are the laws of God-the expression of His mind and will; he must have used his faculties as they were intended to be used; he must have looked round him to see what was the best thing open to him to do, and then devoted himself to the carrying of it out in the fear of God, or no good result can possibly be obtained. Nay, more than this he must have considered not only what is the best kind of use to which he can put his faculties for his own personal advantage and aggrandizement, but how he can use them in such a way that he will help rather than hinder his brothers and sisters in developing their natures, so that one and all may be co-operating together in pushing on the world, and the people that are upon it, to a fuller, freer, happier existence.

Now, if men would only take the trouble to follow the apostolic advice--if they would only try and not be unwise, but consider what the will of God is—they would have no difficulty in discovering, not only that to obey the will of God and to obey the laws of our being are one and the selfsame thing, but also that those laws which were made for our happiness, and the happiness of our race, are open and apparent, and easy to be obeyed. Everybody that has eyes to see

and a brain to think can perceive that, just as in the natural world there are facts and rules to be observed if we would preserve our existence, so in the spiritual there are facts and rules to be observed, or we can bring no good fruit to perfection. If a man eats unwholesome or poisonous food, he will sicken or die. If he drives an engine without knowing when to clap on the brakes, he will smash himself to pieces; and if, knowing that he is possessed of a reasonable soul, he refuses to act reasonably, but allows a selfish animal nature to run away with him, and render him indifferent to the welfare of other men, he knows very well that he is not in the way of growing into a good specimen of his kind, and that sooner or later he will reap the appropriate penalty of his folly: for goodness is not a matter of opinion, of obedience to authority and conventional observance, but a matter of obedience to the facts of our existence, and the laws by which that existence is constructed to work. And the laws and processes through which a man has to go in order to grow into a good specimen of his kind, are just as well known as those through which an acorn has to pass in order to grow into a good oak tree, or to which a steam-engine, a ship, or a gun has to be subjected before it is fit for the purpose for which it was designed.

We know that if a man would live and see good days he must aim at loving God--loving the best that

he knows, with all his heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, and his neighbour as himself; and, in order to do this, he must be willing to think and reflect on what he ought to do, and then to sacrifice, whenever it is necessary, a present pleasure for the sake of some higher and more enduring good. He must not allow his appetites and passions, his likes and dislikes, to run away with his higher nature, but take the trouble to learn how to apply the brakes, and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. All this is clear and apparent the moment we think of it; and if so, then it is also clear that as the Lord Jesus Christ stands before us as the Pattern and Example of what the highest and best type of man is intended to be, we are only followers of the law of our being-the law which makes for the highest human happiness when we do our best to walk in the steps of our Saviour's holy life.

But the mistake people make is something of this kind. Instead of seeing that the consecration of ourselves to the will of God by the endeavour to follow in the steps of our Saviour's holy life, and the devotion of ourselves to the best kind of life that is open to us to follow, or, in other words, the endeavour to be good and true men all round, inside and outside, and the endeavour to be good Christians, are one and the selfsame thing, they think that being a Christian pledges them to certain unnatural and artificial duties