find it given by a superintendent of police. There was lately in a town in the north of England a public house, of which the superintendent says-" At this place therc was a number of boys, varying from 16 to 18 years of age, assembled after they left the factories, and also young girls of corresponding ages. They were in the habit, twelve of them, of putting down each a penny piece, and then throwing dice in a basin, and the one who threw the highest number was the winner of the prize-and that prize was that he could select any one of those girls, and take her up stairs for prostitution." Now I am informed, on most indisputable authority, that precisely the same form of gambling goes on in this town; and that there are beer-houses, that there is at least one, in which a similar raffle is held every Saturday evening! I mention this, because I think it right that attention should be called to such shocking impurities; because it is necessary that all men, desirous of doing good, should know something of the evils with which they have to contend. There are other facts far worse than this, which I cannot bring myself to describe; and perhaps what has been said is enough to show that there is more dirt in Liverpool than some persons are aware of, and that there is a great need of active effort in the way of moral, as well as sanitary reform.

But whence does all this uncleanness arise? Its source is the human heart; it is deeply and strongly rooted in our moral nature; for, as our Saviour says, "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, and these are the things that defile a man." And if the heart could but be purified, then there would be

purity of feeling, purity of speech, purity of conduct; then there would be no more filthy communication out of our mouth; then all obscene and dirty books, pictures. songs would be discarded as utterly detestable; and uncleanness in every form would be shrunk from with disgust. So, if the heart were clean, would not cleanliness. come very near to godliness? Now I can perhaps expose, and show up, and denounce what is dirty; I can demonstrate such a feeling, such an expression, such a practice to be unclean; I can expostulate and I can advise; but when all is done, I find that I cannot cleanse my own heart, much less yours. But I know who can do this for you and for me. I have also His word; "A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." Come now, it's no use pretending to boast that we can purify ourselves from sinful feelings, which burst out in sinful conduct; let us have none of this proud nonsense; we are all of us poor, miserable, unreformable incurables, without God's help. What I intend to do is this-you of course will do as you please-but I shall pray to my Father in heaven, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.' With nothing less than this can I feel satisfied, for nothing less than this will do.

LECTURE IX.

A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED.

YES "A friend in need is a friend indeed;" but where is he to be found? Does not Solomon tell us that "the poor is despised of his own neighbour, but the rich hath many friends?" If a man is in needy circumstances, is not this enough to make all his socalled friends shy of him? and if he asks a favor, does he not soon discover how shallow and valueless this thing called friendship almost always is? I am aware that there is too much truth in these complaints; that friendship, when put to the test, often most bitterly disappoints us; that it is seldom to be trusted, in any trying emergency; that selfishness soon checks its generous impulses, and that the merest trifle sometimes converts it into enmity and hatred. But still I hope to be able to show that "there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother;" that on his friendship the neediest man may rely; that there is at least one friend in need, and therefore at least one friend indeed, who is the friend of all. I dare say you know whom I mean. There is but one person to whom this description applies; there is but one who is the Friend of all; there is but one who is

willing to help all; there is but one who can afford to help all; there is but one whose friendship is abiding, whose friendship triumphs over death and the grave, and lives for ever and ever. I presume that all who hear me know that friend's name. But lest in this I should presume too much, I will with the utmost pleasure mention his name; his name is Jesus Christ. To speak of his friendship, and to contrast it with other friendships, is my object on the present occasion. Some of us, I believe, I know, have found him to be our rejoicing and trusting in his friendship. tell what he has done for us, how he has

friend, and are Some of us can loved us, taught Some of us,

us, guided us, consoled us, supported us. on the other hand, are probably strangers to himstrangers who, though they have heard his name, and been told of his friendship to the world, have never gone to him to receive those gifts of friendship which he is prepared to bestow. If this lecture should be the means of inducing any to seek and to make the acquaintance of Christ, to repair to him as their friend in need and friend indeed, I shall have great reason to rejoice, I shall not have labored in vain.

Now, when I contemplate the friendships that exist amongst men, while I see in them much that is very beautiful and very valuable, I also see that those friendships are often productive of mischief, because they are not always conducted and governed by wisdom and prudence. . For example; I have known young men, and so have you, who, blessed with friends able and willing to help them, have relied upon those friends, instead of relying upon themselves, for advancement in secular

life; and so their energies have never been called out, their talents have never been brought into exercise, and they have lived in comparative indolence, and indolence almost of necessity leads to dissipation. A wealthy and kind-hearted friend, who is ready to supply us with money when we are hard-up-a rich father, uncle, aunt, or other relative, in whose will we expect not to be forgotten-such a friend is in many cases, perhaps in most cases, a source of mischief rather than advantage. Depend upon it, if there is anything in you, there is nothing like being obliged to stand on your own legs, to be reduced to your own physical and mental resources; and you are far better off without any friends at all, than with such as are prepared to help you whenever you get into trouble, for with such friends yon will always be getting into trouble, and never learn how to get yourself out of it. I can assure you that if my own experience is of any value to you, I can say most truly that there are few things for which I am more thankful than for this that, when I commenced the active business of life, I commenced it amongst persons not one of whose faces I had seen before, not one of whose names I had ever so much as heard, amongst utter strangers; and I had not a friend in the world who could bear a hand and help me in the onset of the battle of life. Now the friend of whom I have to speak is one who does not help us by the direct bestowment of secular advantages. He did help men in this way when he lived on the earth, and when amongst other exercises of benevolence, he fed some thousands of hungry people with food provided by his miraculous power; but when the people whom he had