History of Presbyteriant’sm

thing, be it remembered, entirely different from and vastly superior to that cold, lifeless, inopera- tive kind of morality which consists in merely ab- staining from those more flagrant eruptions of vice which of themselves necessarily expose their per— petrators to the open shame of the world. It is a holiness which implies not only the external per- sonal purity—a holiness, it is true, which consists in abstaining from all known sin, or in “denying un- godliness and worldly lusts,” a holiness which in very deed consists in much more than all this, even in living soberly, righteously and godly in this pres- ent evil world. In other words, it is a holiness which proves its possessor to be a true worker of righteousness by his daily actions, as well as by his verbal profession. This most important desidera— tum then, in every worthy Christian character, this indispensable holiness is something which must un- questionably have its seat in the heart, and must impel its owner to all incumbent deeds of vital re- ligion in his daily life. It is a holiness which ex- tends to all the powers of the soul, to all the opera- tions of the mind and to all the actions of the life, in such a way as to make it abundantly apparent, even to the most casual observer, that all who are the subjects of it are indeed “Trees of righteous— ness,” the planting of Jehovah himself. It is a “holi— ness without which no man shall see the Lord.” Such then are some of the plainest declarations of Scripture with regard to those who are really fit and proper persons to be received into the commun-

190