mation. All shall finally reap as they have sown, and at length stand revealed in their true character, crowned with glory or shame -"glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good;" but "tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil."*

This is sure; but not less sure is it that the process of moral retribution is daily working itself out before our eyes. Long before we gather into our arms the final harvest, we are receiving according to what we have done, whether it be good or evil. In the end we shall still be as we have been, only in more perfect "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still and he that is holy, let him be holy still."+ Let us not imagine that there will

measure.

be

any different principles of moral order in the end than at the beginning-God is always judging us as He will judge us at the last. The end is not yet. The harvest still tarries. The cornstalk is not matured, nor the full grain shown in the ear. But we are making our future every hour, and with many of us the crop is fast ripening into the eternal day.

*Romans, ii. 9, 10.

+ Revelations, xxii. 11.

Two practical reflections occur to us at the close:

(1.) Let us never trifle with conscience. Conscience is the revelation of the Divine order and law of our lives. We may be mistaken or in doubt about many things. But when conscience clearly says of any temptation, No; it is not right so to think or do,-then we may be sure that our duty is plain. And misled or uninformed as we may sometimes be, the great lines of conduct are always clear. We know at all times that it is better to be good than to be bad -to think truly, to act purely and generously, "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly." If we yield to falsehood or impurity; if we commit injustice; if we are envious of our brother's good, and would wrong him if we could; if we give way to sinful passion, and instead of bringing under obedience the body, pamper and indulge it,-there is a voice within us tells us we are wrong, even when we stifle it. Wrong assuredly we are whenever we trifle with duty or sink below our own sense of what is good and right; when the law in our members, warring against the law of the mind, brings us into captivity to the law of sin which is in our members. Moral deterioration and punishment

* Romans, vii. 23.

follow with sure foot such declension and conquest. If we would avoid the evil, then let us avoid it at the first. Let us shun its appearance, resist its approach, and when it assails us, overcome it by good.

(2.) Let us further reflect that no life is above the law of good, or can ever trample upon it with impunity. There is a not uncommon delusion that lives of exceptional greatness, either in quality or position, may allow themselves a licence which others dare not follow. A man of remarkable intellect or genius is supposed sometimes to be above ordinary rules; and his errors are spoken of with leniency, or even a sort of admiration. Still more frequently, perhaps, a man of exceptional position, born to rank and fortune, is thought to be only doing what might be expected in yielding to youthful pleasures beyond others. But truly there are no such exceptions to the great principles of moral order which govern the world. These principles never fail, and are never infringed without injurious consequences. For "he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons."* If any life is exceptionally endowed, or exceptionally privi* Colossians, iii. 25.

F

leged, that life, above all, should show forth the excellence of the Divine order which has enriched it or placed it above others. Any other thought betrays a secret scepticism of such an order at all-and is a deception, however it may seem justified. Whatever we may think, God is not mocked.

Let us be sure, one and all, that our sin will find us out; that there is one way of excellence, as there is one way of happiness-and one alone -the way of self-denial and duty, doing whatever we do in word or deed in the name of Christ, giving thanks unto God and the Father by Him. May God lead us all in this way, strengthen, stablish, settle us, till He finally bring us to the rewards of His eternal kingdom. And to His name be all the glory. Amen.

V.

THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.

JOHN, ii. 10.-" Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now."

EVERY

VERY one understands the natural meaning of these words. The incident which gave rise to them is one of the most striking in our Lord's life, and, like all its other incidents, has a significant bearing upon human life in general. As we read it, we seem to forget for a moment the "Man of Sorrows," and the tragic elevation of a self-sacrifice which knew no pause and invited none in others-whose great key-note was, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. me."* Here there is no shadow of the Cross. Neither the gloom of Calvary, nor the loneliness of the "Son of man, who had not where to lay His head," + is *Matthew, xvi. 24.

+ Ibid. viii. 20.