contradictory life, which of the two do you think is likely to win in
the tug? I beseech you, take the words that I am now trying to speak,
to yourselves. Do not pass them to the man in the next pew and think
how well they fit him, but accept them as needed by you. And
remember, that just as a bit of sealing-wax, if you rub it on your
sleeve and so warm it, develops an attractive power, the Church which
is warmed will draw many to itself. If the earlier words of this
context apply to any Christian community, then certainly its blessed
promise too will apply to it, and to such a church the Lord will 'add
day by day them that are being saved.'

III. And now, lastly, observe the definition given here of the class
of persons gathered into the community.

I have already observed, in the earlier portion of this discourse,
that here we have salvation represented as a process, a progressive
thing which runs on all through life. In the New Testament there are
various points of view from which that great idea of salvation is
represented. It is sometimes spoken of as past, in so far as in the
definite act of conversion and the first exercise of faith in Jesus
Christ the whole subsequent evolution and development are involved,
and the process of salvation has its beginning then, when a man turns
to God. It is sometimes spoken of as present, in so far as the joy of
deliverance from evil and possession of good, which is God, is
realised day by day. It is sometimes spoken of as future, in so far
as all the imperfect possession and pre-libations of salvation which
we taste here on earth prophesy and point onwards to their own
perfecting in the climax of heaven. But all these three points of
view, past, present, and future, may be merged into this one of my
text, which speaks of every saint on earth, from the infantile to the