The order of Scripture is every where most important, and no where more so than in its practical exhortations. We can only read the Word of God aright as we have faith in its absolute perfection, and therefore study it in its connection as well as in its separate sentences. It is not a mosaic of beautiful but unconnected utterances,-even the book of Proverbs is not that, and Scripture in general is not a book of Proverbs either. Nor is it like a creed, or a text-book of theology, or a code of laws, or a digest of practical rules. It differs from all these as a field of living plants from the botanist's herbarium. The latter may have its uses, but it is dry and artificial evidently. The truth as given in Scripture is instinct with life, and clothed with the inimitable freshness and beauty which belong to it. To tear it from its connection is to deprive it of its vitality.

The connection is always practical:it is the highway by which you must travel if you would reach the point to which it leads you ; you can view it, no doubt, from other points, but you cannot reach it,-and that is what is to be your constant aim.

So, then, with the passage before us. To " follow faith," we must "follow righteousness," and it is the relation of these to one another that I would dwell on a little now.

It is, of course, in the adoption of it for ourselves, and not in the exaction of it from others, that we are called to "follow righteousness." This should be plain; and yet it may not be needless to remind ourselves of it. There are those who imagine what the apostle exhorts the Corinthians to-"Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded ?"-to be really inconsistent with the following of righteousness. They think that we are called to maintain righteousness upon the earth, and that we are therefore morally bound to make war upon unrighteousness ; whereas it is grace of which we are the witnesses, as having received grace. Yet this also may be [not carried too far,-that is impossible, but] misunderstood and abused therefore.

Suppose I hid a thief from the officers that were in pursuit of him, or refused to give him up into their hands, this would not be grace, but a perversion of it. It would be unrighteousness indeed on my own part, for I should be interfering with that which God has established for the restraint of evil. Nor have I liberty to show grace, nor would this be grace, where another's rights are concerned and not my own. In my own case alone can I show it or talk of it aright.

But in my own case I am to be the witness of it, as the Lord's words as to the non-resistance of evil so emphatically enjoin :words indeed so little akin to the spirit of the world in which we are, that if we drink into this at all, we shall not be able to understand them. The maintenance of rights has all the logic of common sense in its support, and except we are ready to maintain them, we shall be counted cravens, and recreants to the truth. The Lord, indeed, has said, " If My kingdom were of this world, then should My servants fight" (Jno. 18:36), and the mass have decided that His kingdom is of this world.

But of this it is not my purpose now to speak. I only notice it, that none may infer a contradiction between following righteousness and showing grace. Guarding this point, then, it is of the utmost importance to see that in our personal conduct, in what we do, and in what we go with, righteousness is the very first necessity. No question can be rightly allowed to precede it or to interfere with it. What is not righteousness is not of God, and to sanction it as of Him in any conceivable case is nothing else than blasphemy against His name and nature. It involves, in fact, that " Let us do evil that good may come," of which the apostle says, as to those who say it, "their condemnation is just" (Rom. 3:8).

"Righteousness" defines, then, for the Christian a circle beyond which he cannot go-a boundary-line he dare not transgress. He must therefore know precisely the limit, and in no case move until he is sure that he is within the limit. Here is need for continual exercise, for the line is not always perceptible at first sight, and to be unexercised is the sure way to transgress it. Nay, more :he who is careless is already in spirit a transgressor.

God has denounced an emphatic "woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" (Isa. 5:20.) There must be no blurring of the moral boundary-lines. And here, therefore, is the first question always for us. We may not put "faith" before "righteousness." We may not argue, "This is of God, and therefore it is good." We must argue the other way,-"This is good, and therefore it is of God." "God is light," and "light is that which doth make manifest" (Eph. 5:13). Thus, only as walking in the light, and with our eye single to take it in, can we walk without stumbling.

But, alas ! how common a thing it is to allow ourselves in that of which the character is all uncertain to us ! How many think it enough to stop where they are convicted of evil, rather than require to see first before they move that what they do is good ! Such souls are not in the presence of God, and cannot therefore attain to any clear vision. It is already "evil" to walk in the darkness, and the rule is first "Cease to do evil," and then " Learn to do well."

We have further to consider, before we can pass on from this, that righteousness always has respect also to our position and relationships :it is to act in consistency with these. Thus, to show grace is for a Christian only righteousness. " Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me :shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee ?" The manifestation of grace is not something over and above what is required of us,-something which (because it is grace,) we can refuse without unrighteousness. Righteousness embraces the whole sphere of conduct, for "to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (Jas. 4:17). How solemn, how penetrating, are such words as these ! There is no "work of supererogation," as the papists say. Purchased with the precious blood of Christ, we are His in all things, His absolutely. The "consecration" of ourselves to God, of which so many are speaking now, is nothing else than that sanctification by the blood of Christ supposes, of which the epistle to the Hebrews speaks. His we are by that blood shed for us, and to take our own way in any thing is simply to deny in that respect His title. Yet how many indeed think it the liberty of grace to be free to please themselves in some particulars !-as if it were " liberty " to mire ourselves in the ditch instead of walking on the well-made road, or to serve a weak and foolish tyrant rather than the wisest, noblest, meekest, of masters.

" Consecrated " we are, every one of us:"called saints," -that is, saints by calling ; sanctified in Christ Jesus. Only let us walk as saints.

"Righteousness," then, is the first thing to follow; but it is not all,-it is only the first thing. This secured, we are next to follow "faith."

And this contracts materially the road we travel. It is in this that we first perceive that it is indeed a " narrow way." So narrow, indeed, that, in whatever situation we may be, there is but one spot upon which we can rightly put our foot next,-one, and one only. There is no choice, in that sense, permitted us.

" Faith" supposes more than a mere rule of conduct, however perfect. Faith is in a person; not a rule (though there may be a rule), but a ruler. " I commend you to the word of His grace," says the apostle to the Ephesians (Acts 20:32). Is that all? No, but "to God and the word of His grace." There is a living God whose eye is upon us, whose heart goes with us, whose hand holds us. Ah, if there were not such, we should indeed be orphans! As with Israel in the wilderness, where there was "no WAV." the way was marked out for them by the pillar of cloud and fire, which showed the presence of Jehovah with them,-this was but the vailed presence of One who for faith is found without a vail by the Christian now. These things happened unto them for types (i Cor. 10:ii), and are written for our admonition. The glorious presence that goes with us is the Antitype, and faith is more to us than was the sight of the eyes to them.

Faith, then, for us puts under a living Leader, from whose love we cannot for a moment withdraw ourselves. His eye ever upon us, His heart ever occupied with us, there cannot be a step that we can take in which He is uninterested or has not a mind for us. Perfect wisdom has employed itself about the path we tread, and it is for us to consult that unerring wisdom, and to govern ourselves according to the will of Him who is both Master and Lord. The path is indeed narrow, but who could wish it wider-some room for our own wills to act, some room in which our ignorance may display itself, and in which our folly and frailty may work disaster for us ? How blessed to be saved from this! How great the grace that will thus patiently instruct us ! " He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learner." (Isa. 1. 4-Heb.) This is the language prophetically ascribed to our blessed Lord Himself. Himself the perfect example of faith, He has gone before us in this path in which we follow Him,-a path thus doubly endeared to us, by its own intrinsic blessedness and by our fellowship with Him in it.

It is in following "faith" that we find our true individuality before God, for faith is of necessity individual. How earnestly the apostle insists upon this ! To induce another to do so innocent a thing as to eat meats, to the Christian perfectly clean, but where he could not eat in faith, was in his mind to "destroy" him:"Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died" (Rom. 14:15). "For meat destroy not the work of God. . . . He that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin " (10:20, 23).

Thus the doing of what in itself was no evil-of what in another might be an act of Christian liberty-yet without faith would be only sin, and an act of real self-destruction. That the mercy of God might avert this in any particular case alters nothing as to the essential character or inherent tendency of the thing in itself, and this is what the Spirit of God by the apostle would press upon us. How often in a presumptuous way we bring in God's care for His own, and His eternal purposes of love toward them, to blind ourselves as to the character of our own ! But if I put poison upon a man's plate, I am responsible to the full extent of all that would naturally be the result of it, I should be a murderer, though he were never murdered. Oh that the Word of God may have thus its edge for us ! " Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died " !
What a view of our responsibilities does this open up to us! and what a sense should it give us of the necessity of faith in every step that we take in our path down here ! "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." If, then, as is most certain, God our Father has so deep concern for us as to make our every step a matter of importance and interest to Him,-if He has His own mind for us in all things, His way for us to walk in,-then what a necessity there is for us to seek and learn that mind ! and what disaster must result from inattention as to it! Is not here the secret of many otherwise inexplicable failures where the end sought seems right enough, and the way to the end also to be irreproachable ? Is it not the secret that it was but poor halting reason that we followed,-that we mistook the road because the torch-light that we walked by did not throw its light far enough for guidance, and we waited not for heaven's illumination? "Are there not twelve hours in the day ? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world ; but if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him." (Jno. 11:9, 10.)

Will any call it legality, or tedious strictness, to have to walk in the full light of the day alone,-to have need ever of a Father's counsel,-to be made to seek ever a wisdom higher than one's own, and to be subject to a will that rules all things, and that carries with it unfailing power and victory ? How strange that we should count as liberty the license to go astray-to bring down upon ourselves sorrow and suffering, and regret that cannot recall the past, or undo what is once done, or avail to turn away the inevitable consequences !

We do, indeed, perhaps recognize in matters of greater importance the need of knowing and following the divine will. But life is made up mainly of smaller matters. From how much, then, of our lives we must banish God ! and as we look not for His will to declare itself, so, naturally enough, we have no eyes to see it when it does most plainly do so. The joy and sweetness, the ineffable delight of a walk with God, are concentrated upon a few days of our life's course, in which we rather met than "walked with" Him. And then what mistakes we make as to what is of importance ! how little we realize, often, what are the controlling points of our own history! we enter all unconsciously upon what we should look back upon with the keenest emotion. Only, then, in cleaving closely to our Guide and Guardian can we be a moment safe. In this sense, truly "happy is the man that feareth alway."

Here, too, we have need to remember that "there is a way that seemeth right to a man, and the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12). Alas ! how often are we seduced by the right seeming of a way, which has only against it that which is its sufficient condemnation-that it is our "own way"! How many a man is busy with things in themselves most excellent, and yet wholly out of his place and astray ! Man may do nothing but praise him, and his own conscience also approve him, and yet he may be thus astray. The light is not in us :in the light of God alone we see light.

I leave this now with the one remark that nothing, therefore, must be allowed to interfere with this maintenance of our individuality before God. All that would conflict with it condemns itself as evil by the very fact. The Lord has bought us for Himself. He is "both Master (or Teacher) and Lord." We may help each other in ascertaining His will, but no more. "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." (Matt. 23:8.)