sins of the world, will ever generate heat enough to mould men's
wills, or kindle motives powerful enough to lead to a life of growing
imitation of and resemblance to Him. The dial may be all right, the
hours most accurately marked in their proper places, every minute
registered on the circle, the hands may be all right, delicately
fashioned, truly poised, but if there is no main-spring inside, dial
and hands are of little use, and a Christianity which says, 'Christ
is the Teacher; do you obey Him?' is as impotent as the dial face
with the broken main-spring. What we need, and what, thank God, in
'the teaching' we have, is the pattern brought near to us, and the
motive for imitating the pattern, set in motion by the great thought,
'He loved me and gave Himself for me.'

Still further, the teaching is a power to fashion life, inasmuch as
it brings with it a gift which secures the transformation of the
believer into the likeness of his Lord. Part of 'the teaching' is the
fact of Pentecost; part of the teaching is the fact of the Ascension;
and the consequence of the Ascension and the sure promise of the
Pentecost is that all who love Him, and wait upon Him, shall receive
into their hearts the 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' which shall
make them free from the law of sin and death.

So, dear friends, on the one hand, let us remember that our religion
is meant to work, that we have nothing in our creed that should not
be in our character, that all our _credenda_ are to be our _agenda_;
everything _believed_ to be something _done_; and that if we content
ourselves with the simple acceptance of the teaching, and make no
effort to translate that teaching into life, we are hypocrites or
self-deceivers.