Lessons.—1. This doctrine affords comfort and hope to struggling Christians. 2. The grounds of assurance forbid presumptuous confidence and stimulate to watchfulness and effort.—Homiletic Monthly.

The Perseverance of the Saints.

I. I shall adduce some of the principal arguments in support of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.—1. The decree of election. 2. The merit of Christ’s sufferings and death. 3. The intercession of Christ. 4. The promises of God. 5. The constitution of the covenant of grace. 6. The statements of Scripture in regard to the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers.

II. I shall consider some of the most plausible objections which have been urged against this doctrine.—1. That some of the most eminent saints have fallen into very grievous sins. They did not fall totally and finally. 2. That many who were long regarded as true Christians do in point of fact finally apostatise. They never were true Christians. 3. That there are in Scripture many earnest exhortations to watchfulness, and many awful warnings against apostasy. God works by means and motives. 4. That believers being assured of their ultimate recovery will be encouraged to sin. The perseverance of the saints is perseverance in holiness. (1) Has a good work begun in you? (2) If so, remember that while the perseverance of the saints is promised as a privilege, it is also enjoined as a duty.—G. Brooks.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 9–11.

A Prayer for Christian Love—

I. That it may be regulated by knowledge and discretion.—“And this I pray, that your love may abound . . . in knowledge and in all judgment” (ver. 9).

1. So as to test what is best.—“That ye may approve things that are excellent” (ver. 10)—test things that differ. Two faculties of the mind are to be brought into exercise—knowledge, the acquisitive faculty; and judgment, the perceptive faculty. Love is not a wild, ignorant enthusiasm, but the warm affection of a heart, guided by extensive and accurate knowledge, and by a clear, spiritual perception. From a number of good things we select and utilise the best.

2. So as to maintain a blameless life.—“That ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ” (ver. 10). Be so transparent in heart and life as neither to give or take offence, and when examined in the light of the day of Christ to be adjudged blameless. To live a useful and holy life we must both think and feel aright. Love will ever prompt us to the holiest conduct and to the best work. “I once asked a distinguished artist,” said Boree, “what place he gave to labour in art. ‘Labour is the beginning, the middle, and the end of art,’ was the answer. I turned to another and inquired, ‘What do you consider as the great force in art?’ ‘Love,’ was the reply. In these two answers I found but one truth.”

II. That it may stimulate the growth of a high Christian character.—1. A high Christian character is the outcome of righteous principles. “Being filled with the fruits—the fruit—of righteousness.” All Christian virtues are from the one common root of the Spirit. It is He who plants them in the heart, fosters their growth, brings them to perfection, and fills the soul with them as the trees are laden with ripened fruit. The apostle prays for more love, because love impels us to act righteously in all things, even in the minor affairs of life. “Just as the quality of life,” says Maclaren, “may be as perfect in the minutest animalculæ, of which there may be millions in a cubic inch and generations may die in an hour—just as perfect in the smallest insect as in behemoth, biggest born of earth, so righteousness may be as completely embodied, as perfectly set forth, as fully operative in the tiniest action that I can do, as in the largest that an immortal spirit can be set to perform. The circle that is in a gnat’s eye is as true as circle as the one that holds within its sweep all the stars, and the sphere that a dewdrop makes is as perfect a sphere as that of the world. All duties are the same which are done from the same motives; all actions which are not so done are all alike sins.”