to fall on the house of David, and he who has slain the innocence of the mother is to witness that saddest of all sights, the dying of his own innocent little child. And in some way-in bitter memory if not in public shame; in lifelong humiliation before God if not in physical results of disease and sorrow-we must be punished for sin. There is no salvation which promises escape from that. It is for God to measure that punishment, and appoint its methods; let us be glad that it is not man who judges us and afflicts us. If we are sincerely penitent we shall not seek to escape punishment. Nor shall we forget that it is for us to do what we can in reparation of our error. Do not pray to be forgiven and reinstated till you have done that. Let him who has stolen not merely steal no more, but restore fourfold. Let the cruel and pas

sionate man humble himself before his victim. Let the man who once fell into impurity give up his life to rescuing the impure. God will not destroy while fulfilment is possible; let us seek to fulfil in sacrifice for the world what we nearly destroyed in our wrong done against the world. Are you penitent? Do you see as you never saw before the hideousness of your sin? Is your heart broken at the vision? Listen then to the words of the kingly penitent, written probably in those bitter hours when he mourned over his dying child, and bowed before God: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart Thou wilt not despise. Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart,

O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation. Then will I teach transgressors the way, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee."

Young men, I have specially addressed you because I know that the temptations to unchastity in a great city are numerous and incessant. I bid you remember that an impure man is as shameful as an impure woman, and should receive the same treatment; nor will he find any difference of treatment with that God who is no respecter of persons. The woman receives her punishment here: the man will receive his hereafter. You are and will be daily tempted to unchastity of thought and imagination, if not of act, and therefore I pray you keep the mind pure. Do not listen to the voice of unholy seduction. Learn to hate impurity in thought, in speech, in gesture, in suggestion, in literature, in life, with an invincible abhorrence. The crown of manhood as of womanhood is chastity. Respect and guard it in yourself and others with a sacred vigilance. And to those who have fallen into the snare, as to those who have resisted it, I preach Jesus Christ: Christ in His purity, His tenderness, His self-sacrifice, as the type of perfect manhood, and I bid you follow Him. In Him is forgiveness for the fallen, and strength for the tempted. In the abiding sense of our love and devotion to Him is the best safeguard against sensual surprises, and the best impulse toward the service of humanity. It was the vision of the Holy Grail that lifted Sir Galahad into supreme

purity and steadfastness of manhood; it is the vision of the living Christ Himself that inspires us; and when that blessed Presence is an abiding presence with and in us, then, and then alone, our

"Strength is as the strength of ten,

Because our hearts are pure."

XII.

THE IMPOTence of rEVOLT AGAINST THE TRUTH,

"For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.”2 Cor. xiii. 8.

ST;

PAUL is writing to a Church in which grave

disorders have arisen, and he says he comes with the mandate of God, and will not spare. He views the office of the Christian minister as not only persuasive but judicial. It is at once the most solemn, the most awful, and the most responsible, which any human creature can assume; none should dare to assume it except upon the irresistible call of God, and none who understand its privilege and burden rightly will attempt to do so on any other call. The issues of life and death for multitudes are in the lips of the Christian minister, and none can tell how far his lightest word may travel, or how much his invisible influence may accomplish. Words are like the feather-seed, carried afar on the wings of the wind over busy cities and void valleys, but sure to fall at last and spring up in prolific harvest. Influence is like the air that girds us, -invisible, but stirred by the slightest sound or movement, and multiplying that movement. To all men the power of speech and influence belongs, but to none

in more solemn degree than to the minister of Christ. Recreancy on his part is disaster to the whole army of God. If he dares not smite the wicked, if he is dumb when he should speak, or forgives where he should judge, or judges hastily where he should forgive, his defection weakens the whole Church of God, and what is sin in another becomes crime in him. He is specially set for the defence of the Gospel, and should be so completely under the guidance of the constraining love of Christ that he has the right to say: “I can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." He is the vassal of the truth, and the measure of his consecration is the measure of his power.

But these words obviously command larger issues than any which are personal to Paul: they involve great facts which concern all men. What are those facts? Briefly these that revolt against the truth is wholly futile; but that submission to the truth is the secret of peace and of service.

I. The futility of revolt against the truth.-Now there are two great truths against which the world has been in perpetual revolt: the one is the moral truth of God's government, the other is the spiritual truth of God's government by Jesus Christ.

(i) The moral truth of God's government.―That seems a vague and frigid phrase: let us try to translate it into living fact. What does it mean? What does it imply? It means that there is a living and a righteous God; that God's righteousness governs the world, and that all the strength of God is against evil. It