I am the vine, ye are the branches said Jesus to his disciples. The branches are the same as the vine was in the beginning. The abiding in Christ is not a profession of being a follower of Jesus, and living in the observance of a standard laid down in rules for faith and practice; but living in the same holiness of life that determined the character of Jesus Christ. Christianity is a life, a profession of religion is Pharisaic. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

But let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. The debasement of language is a sure mark of the degeneracy of the morals of a people. The insincerity of the use of words is an unfailing proof of an insincere conscience; no matter how much a man may boast about his nearness to God. Acrimonious epithets, bitter denunciations expressing disgust, especially when sacred terms are employed, are used by men who would like to swear, and are profane to the extent that circumstances will permit. The man who indulges in severe condemnations for oratorical effect is in the same class with the man who uses false weights and short yard sticks that he may sell goods cheaper and catch customers; who while they think they are gainers by dealing with him, in the end are losers.

The unfeigned love of Jesus has not failed to impress

*Math. 5:37.

every thoughtful reader of the sacred story. My judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. Ye judge after the flesh, I judge no man. The words of Jesus were the exact measure of what was in his mind, and he knew his judgment was just, because it was the intuition by the holiness of the spirit from the Father in him, free from the selfishness of the flesh. The character of a man's words reveals the man as he is at heart, that the pretence of no profession can hide. Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

If my words abide in you, or if my spirit abides in you so that my words are upon your lips, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. Severe as the woes against the Pharisees may appear to be, they were not in the heat of acrimony as invective condemnations, but words used in their true meaning expressing an unemphasized classification. The religion of the Pharisees was not by the holiness of the spirit in them, but it was righteousness before a standard in the law. They proscribed all manner of sinning which the prudence of the flesh condemned. They worshiped God as a great ruler suing for favors, denouncing those who did not observe their legal standard for righteousness as his enemies, and expected for their service rest in Abraham's bosom after death. Their legal standard for righteousness was perhaps the highest ever made and the most conscientiously observed. The Master himself said they were beautiful as white polished marble, outward, but were selfish at heart. Their hypocrisy was that they sat in holy Moses' seat claiming that they were the children of faithful Abraham, when their righteousness was before the law;-the righteousness before the law is of this world. Satan is the prince of this world, so the lust of their father the devil they did.

All forms of righteousness before the law at best are 'striving about words to no profit, having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image, a profession of one's own righteousness is before the law. They set up a standard of commandments of men taught for doctrine, the righteous observe its dictates, they endeavor by all manner of restraint to compel all others to do the same, praying God to make their efforts a success, saying, We believe on thy name and thy promises we claim, as if God was not diligent in doing his part.

Jacob prevailed with God, not by coaxing that God would help him to overcome his enemy, nor even that God would protect his life from the hands of Esau, nor if slain the next day that God would save his spirit in Abraham's bosom; but greater holiness of life, which brought him to a confession of his treachery, and prevailing with God, he had power with men. Prayer is not a coaxing God into compliance with our plans, but rather a wrestle with God for the gift of his holiness of spirit. Elijah prayed, bringing himself into nearness with God, till he commanded the forces of nature at will. Jesus never prayed for protection from his enemies, nor for the salvation of his spirit after death, that would have been in the interests of self which he had denied, and commanded his followers to deny also. His prayers were the coming into a closer communion with God, by which power he prevailed over men and the world. He prayed before he raised Lazarus from the dead. He prayed approaching the crucifixion until he gained absolute dominion over the worldly emotions of his flesh, and his life gained its sanctifying influ

ence over men.

The disciples left in Jerusalem after his ascension were men with the holiness of spirit, waiting the promised outpouring of

2 Tim. 2:14; Heb. 1:10; Phil. 3:9.

the holiness of spirit from on high. They had no legal standard for righteousness, they did not have even a form of organization. The "ecclesia" translated "church" was a coming out from under the restraint of the law to live by the high principle of the holiness of life in them. The five thousand, which were added to the church, were people who had renounced the law as for righteousness, beginning lives of faith as it was in the Son of God and were such as should be saved. Their conversion was a turning away from the observance of commandments of men taught for doctrine to obedience of a sincere conscience unfeigned as before God, under the anointing of the holy spirit from on high. The love of money, the service for money, which our present view of Christianity has scarcely touched, was entirely removed, so that no one said that aught which he possessed was his own, but every one sold whatsoever he had and they had all things common, they did eat their meat with gladness, praising God and having favor with all the people.

God's care was so great over them that when a man and his wife undertook to perform a little deceit against them, (though nothing more than is common in business affairs, naming a different sum than what a thing was sold for), they were both at once struck dead for lying. Peter explaining it said that it was not because of the villainous nature of the lie, but because they had lied to men in the holiness of the spirit of God. The angels of God encamp about them that fear him.

It was not till selfishness entered that an organization, officers and the work of the law became necessary. The law was added because of transgression. But the apostles refused to become officers in the organization and agents to enforce the law. As ministers become active instruments in the enforcement of law for righteousness, they become narrow par

tisans, and cease to be ministering shepherds to all classes of

men.

Jesus was the recognized friend of the publicans, and of those whom we today proscribe as sinners. There is no record of drunkards nor harlots being among the number who cried, Crucify him, Crucify him, but it was the low servient scurf of Jerusalem acting at the instigation of the righteous Pharisees. Jesus never shut up the avenues of reaching men, (even those who had been overtaken in a fault by the weakness of the flesh,) by the use of bitter epithets and stilted profession of righteousness. He talked kindly to women who were sinners, not in a professional way, but as a man whose heart was kind to all. His words of divine love, kindled the embers of the love of truth in their souls, giving them power to resist temptations. The great fact is that at death they are freed from the environments above which they could not rise on earth. May it not be, in the great beyond that these women, who have been sinned against more than they have sinned, when their spirits meet him, who lit hope in their sisters' souls, will grow in grace attaining to the resurrection of the just? It is astonishing to record the fact that Jesus said to the Pharisees, the leaders of all great moral movements, I say unto you that harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you.

When the drunkard dies he leaves his inflamed body in the grave, while his spirit returns to God who gave it, and if he loves the truth and desires for holiness, he will seek the society of the holy, and in the association with him who glorified his body, may also rise to the power at the end of the world of glorifying his body in everlasting life.

It is different with those who sin deliberately, by the choice of their wills; they sin by the intuitions of their spirits, and