praying for our own ruin? How can we be sure that the prophet, if he could speak to us also, would not say, as to the people of Israel, "why desire the Day of the Lord? It will come too soon for you; to you it will be darkness and not light." Alas! is there not chance enough of a man's going wrong in that day, among the many and grievous temptations which are around us, but we must as it were bring the temptation home to ourselves, invite it and pray for it by presumptuous and profane cursing, or as some others do, in a sort of unbelieving, sportive way, challenging God as it were to do His worst with us; saying, "Let Him make speed, and hasten His work, that we may see it, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it?" What will such unbelievers do, when they shall find God taking them at their word? when His dreadful work of judgement shall indeed come hastening on, and they, looking on to Eternity, shall behold nothing but darkness and sorrow, and shall feel themselves driven to darkness, forced onward to that never-ending darkness, which God had told them of, and they would not believe.

And yet had they chosen, they might have perceived even in this present world the beginnings of that miserable state. For even in this world, as Scripture warns us, and as is very plain to be seen by the lives of wicked men, even in this world, if men give themselves over to sin, the very light which is in them becomes darkness, "and how great is that darkness!" That very reason and understanding, which God gave to be a "lantern to their ways"

k Isa. v. 19.

shines, so far as it does shine, with a false light; it is worse than darkness to them. As for example, dishonest persons employ all their wit and cleverness in contriving how to cheat and steal, and unchaste persons in inventing ways to come to the satisfaction of their sinful lusts. And again; many turn even the mercy, which God has shewn them for the salvation of their souls, into an occasion for eternally ruining their souls; they make themselves easy in some of the worst sins, saying to themselves, "These sins will not be laid to my charge; Christ has died for me and borne the punishment of them; and so why need I trouble and grieve about them?" Thus they go on, and die without serious repentance: and what is this, but practising beforehand the dark stumblings to which they will be brought, who will lose their way in the other world? It is our Lord's own description of such: "He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth: " and "If a man walk in the night he stumbleth, because there is no light in him :" and "He that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved," and S. John says, mHe that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes." Thus the Bible plainly tells us, that when we walk blindly in any sin, we are not only earning our own damnation, but are already entering on it, practising beforehand the miserable blindness which will itself be a great part of the pains of hell.

Yes, it is indeed a sort of hell upon earth, when 1 S. John.xii. 35. xi. 10. iii. 20.

m 1 S. John ii. 11.

Christian people, quenching the light that is in them, blind their own eyes, turning them away from God's truth, in order that they may go on more at their ease in some darling sin. So it is continually in re

gard of sins of impurity. They do in an especial manner, (as Solomon says) take away the heart; they destroy the very power of discerning right from wrong; people become past feeling when they give themselves over to lasciviousness, and they "love to have it so," they love to put out their own eyes, to silence the misgivings of their own better minds, that they may "commit all uncleanness with greediness." And it is much the same with the spiritual sins, such as malice, pride, covetousness. In such measure as a Christian indulges himself in any of these, he blinds his own heart, he plunges himself beforehand into the same dark condition, in which, if he do not repent here, he will be left for ever at the Last Day.

These are all works of darkness, doings and imaginations of which men are naturally ashamed, and they who give themselves to such things, of course love and court the darkness; and by the Lord's most righteous decree, they shall have the darkness which they desire; the darkness of evil habit and wilful ignorance in this world, in the other world the darkness incurable and intolerable, of being for ever without Christ, Who is the true Light.

Do you, my brethren, earnestly desire to be freed from this horrible sentence? We may be freed from it, we may have secured to us a place in the heavenly light for ever; if we do but desire that blessing, steadily and in earnest. For then we shall endea

vour to "walk in the Light, even as He is in the Light;" "to walk honestly as in the day;" to be true, real, frank, open, unfeigned, in all our behaviour to God and man. We shall be true and real in our thoughts; not hiding our eyes from truths which are uncomfortable to believe, but accepting them with all their discomfort, because they are truths; looking our past sins boldly in the face, when we are about examining ourselves; and also facing boldly the tasks whatever they are, pleasant or unpleasant, which our Master may set us to do. We shall be true and real in our words, especially in confession of sins, and in all sayings uttered to any one relating in any way to ourselves. We shall be true andreal in our actions, "doing the truth," as S. John says, i. e., really behaving as if the great things we profess were true. Thus, and thus only, shall we be found walking in the light, as He is in the light; and the Blood of Jesus Christ shall cleanse us from all sin.

n 1 S. John i. 7.

。 Rom. xiii. 13.

SERMON XXV.

SELF EXAMINATION; ITS SHARP BUT HEALING

PAIN.

แ

PSALM CXXXIX. 23, 24.

Try me O God, and seek the ground of my heart; prove me and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

If we really seek to please God we must make up our minds to more or less of suffering. The Cross must be in some way taken up; something unpleasant must be endured for Christ's sake. We are not to think to enjoy ourselves altogether, while He is in the wilderness; to have none but pleasant company while He is with the wild beasts. And I have told you of one sort of suffering likely to try many of us; viz., the rude remarks, the jeers, the dislike, the scorn of those, who think it strange that we run not with them to the same excesses as before. This will be found trying, to those especially, who have to make visible outward changes in their conduct.

But there is another sort of suffering inseparable from Lent exercises (i. e., from the practise of real repentance) on which I shall now speak; an inward invisible penance, yet not the less real. I mean the pain and horror of searching out our own sins,