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Earthly joys. The joys of this life are like the ice palace of Montreal, which is fair to look upon while the winter lasts, but it all dissolves as the spring comes on. All things round about us here are myths and dreams. This is the land of fancies and of shadows.

Earthly things degrading. Do not slice pieces out of your manhood, and then hope to fill up the vacancies with bank notes. He who loses manliness or godliness to gain gold is a great cheater of himself. Keep yourselves entice for God, and for His Christ, and let all other matters be additions, not subtractions. Live above the world. Its goods will come to you when you do not bid high for them. If you hunt the butterfly of wealth too eagerly, you may spoil it by the stroke with which you secure it. When earthly things are sought for as the main object, they are degraded into rubbish, and the seeker of them has fallen to be a mere man with a muck rake, turning over a dunghill to find nothing. Set your hearts on nobler things than self.

Ebb-and-flow Christians. Is not Christian life with a great many very like the condition of the sea? The sea advances, it gains gradually upon the beach—you would think it was about to inundate the land; but after it has reached its highest point it retires, and so it spends its force in perpetual ebb and flow. Are not ebb and flow Christians as common as sea-shells?

Ebenezer!

We feel something of the mind of Sir Francis Drake, who, after he had sailed round the world, was buffeted with a storm in the Thames. "What!" said he, "have we sailed round the world safely, and shall we be drowned in a ditch?" So do we say at this day. Helped so long, and helped so often! God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Why should we fear? How dare we fear?

Effects of evil fellowship.

"Look," said a wife to her husband, "how can you drink at the rate you do? Why, a hog would not do so." The wretched man replied, "No, I do not suppose that it would. It would be more sensible than I am, no doubt; but," he said, "if there was another hog at the other side of the trough that said ' I will drink your health,' this hog would be obliged to do the same; and if there were half a dozen together, and they kept on toasting one another, I expect the hog would get as drunk as I am." Sad are the effects of evil fellowship.

Efficacy of earthly prayer. A lady was one day at an evening party, and there met with Caesar Malan, the famous divine of Geneva, who, in his usual manner, enquired of her whether she was a Christian. She was startled, surprised, and vexed, and made a short reply to the effect that it was not a question she cared to discuss; whereupon Mr. Malan replied with great sweetness that he would not persist in speaking of it, but he would pray that she might be led to give her heart to Christ, and become a useful worker for Him. Within a fortnight she met the minister again, and asked him how she must come to Jesus. Mr. Malan's reply was, "Come to Him just as you are." The lady gave herself up to Jesus: it was Charlotte Elliott, to whom we owe that precious hymn,—

" Just as I am—without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God I come."

It was a blessed thing for her that she was at that party, and that the servant of God from Geneva should have been there, and should have spoken to her so faithfully.

Encouragement.

You remember the story of the man who had a good wife, and one said to him, "Why, she is worth her weight in gold." "Yes," he said, "she is worth a Gibralter rock in gold, but I never tell her that. You know that it is necessary to maintain discipline, and if I were to tell her how much I really value her, she would not know herself." Well, now, that is wrong. It does people good to be told how highly we value them. There is many a Christian man and woman, who would do better if now and then some one would speak a kindly word to them, and let them know they had done well.

Encouragement, gentle.

What trouble some of us used to have, forty five years ago, when we got up of a morning, and had to strike a light in the old fashioned way. There we were, with a flint and a steel, striking away, in a tiresome manner, till we spied a little spark down in the tinder; oh, such a little one, and then we gently tried to blow it into a flame! How we used to prize a spark on a cold, frosty morning, when our fingers were pretty well frozen! We never put out sparks by shutting the lid on the top of the tinder, but we tried if we could to light our match. Now, the Lord Jesus will blow upon you with the soft breath of His love, till the little spark will rise into a flame.

End strife—death is near.

I remember well the story of a husband who had grieved his wife. I do not know what had happened,—some little awkward word or deed. He went out of the house. He had to fell timber that day, and he turned back and said, "Wife, I am very sorry. Let us part good friends. Give me a kiss." Alas, she turned away! All day long she sorrowed, for she loved him well, and she grieved to think that he was gone without that kiss of love. He never came back alive. Four men brought him home a corpse. She would have given a thousand worlds if they had not parted so. Now, do not part with anybody that you love with any kind of tiffs or quarrellings. End all that, for death is near. If there is but a step between you and death—if the judge is at the door—go and wind up your little difficulties. You that have family quarrels, wipe them out. You that have got any malice in your hearts, turn it out.

Endurance to the end.

Sir Francis Drake, after he had sailed round the world, came up the Thames, and when he had passed Gravesend there came a storm which threatened the ship. The brave commander said, "What! go round the world safely, and then get drowned in a ditch? Never!" So we ought to say God has upheld us in great tribulations, and we are not going to be cast down about trials which are common to men.

Endurance wins.

It is said that the French had courage enough on the spur of the moment to have rushed up to the cannon's mouth, but that the German was the victor because he could quietly abide the heat of the battle; and when affairs looked black, he doggedly kept his post. In the long run stay is the winning virtue; he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved. He who can wait with hope is the man to fight with courage.

Eternal life—a free gift.

I have heard that a missionary, trying to make an Oriental understand salvation by grace, set it out in many ways to him and failed, until at last he cried, "Salvation is a back-sheesh of the Almighty." Then the Eastern caught the idea. Eternal life is the free gift of God, which He bestows on men not because of anything in them, or anything that they have done, or felt, or promised but because of His own infinite bounty, and the delight which He has in showing mercy.

Evil company.

You have your comfort and joy: refuse to be robbed of them. Why, if you were in a room, and you saw a certain number of gentlemen of a suspicious character, and you had your watch with you, you would not feel it necessary to stop and see whether they were able to extract your watch from you, but you would say to yourself, "No, I am best out of this company." We are safest out of the society of those whose great object it is to rob us of our faith.

Evil conquered. The very easiest way to give resurrection to old corruptions is to erect a trophy over their graves; they will at once lift up their heads and howl out, "We are alive still." It is a great thing to overcome any sinful habit, but it is needful to guard against it still, for you have not conquered it so long as you congratulate yourself upon the conquest.

Evil turned to good.

I had once a friend, an upright, gracious man, a gentleman whom God had prospered. He had, when engaged in a bank, acted uprightly in a matter in which his superiors judged him to be scrupulously foolish, and therefore dismissed him. He could not do wrong; and so he was left with a wife and family, without a situation, and, as everybody told him, irretrievably ruined, because of his "foolish conscience." He was for years the head of that very bank. In a singular way, the Lord made his discharge the means of his advancement, so that he rose, step by step, to be the master, where he had been the rejected servant; and this, humanly speaking, would not have come about, if it had not been for the incident mentioned. Have faith that God can turn the evil into good, and that which threatens to annihilate you, will be the means of your enlargement.

Excess in right. A little excess in the right may be faulty. It may be wise to look, but foolish to gaze. There is a very thin partition sometimes between that which is commendable and that which is censurable. There is a golden mean which it is not easy to keep. There is a gazing which is not commendable when the look becomes not that of reverent worship, but of an overweening curiosity, when there mingles with the desire to know what should be known a prying into that which it is for God's glory to conceal. It is of little use to look up into an empty heaven.

Experience. When fresh water sailors first go to sea every capful of wind frightens them; and if the vessel lurches a little they cry, "She will certainly go over"; but the old tar, who knows what a storm means, thanks God for the wind, for it will drive the ship more rapidly into port, and he never minds a lurch or two; he has his sea legs by this time; and so men who have been blessed of God for years ought to be equally at ease.

Experience my own. An infidel once sneered at a poor woman, and said, "How do you know the Bible is true?" She answered, "I have experienced the truth of it." He replied, "Your experience, that is nothing to do with me." "No," she said, "that's very likely, but it's all to do with me." And so it is. My experience may not convince another man, but my experience has rooted, grounded, and settled myself.

Experience teaches. A boy climbed into a neighbor's garden, and stole some unripe plums, and, after eating them, he became very ill, and was forced to drink pints of horrible physic to save his life. When he was better, his schoolfellows said to him, "Come with us, and steal some plums"; but they seemed to be mocking him. The boy is very straitlaced, is he not? He recollects the gripes and pains which those plums brought him, and he will have no more of them. The burnt child dreads the fire. Thus the Lord often brings His people away from their sins by giving them sharp, cutting experiences of what evil will do for them.

External religion. At sea the dredge brings up creeping things innumerable, and among them creatures that have their own natural shell to live in; but here comes a fellow who has annexed the shell of a whelk, and bears it about as if it were his own. He lives in it while it suits him, and he gives up the tenancy when it becomes inconvenient; the shell is not part of himself. Avoid such a religion. Beware of a Sunday shell and a week-day without the shell. That religion you can part with, you had better part with. If you can get rid of it, get rid of it. If it is not a part and parcel of yourself, it is good for nothing. If it does not run right through you like a silver thread through a piece of embroidery, it will not avail for your eternal salvation.

Extremity, God's opportunity.

If we have still a batch of dough in the kneading trough which we brought out of Egypt the windows of heaven will not yet be opened, but when the last little cake has been baked the manna will fall around the camp. As long as we can feel the bottom of the river we have not reached the best waters to swim in. When the barley loaves and the few small fishes are all broken, then the miracle of multiplying begins.

Empty buckets are fittest for the well of grace. Every ungodly man may have his life lease run out tomorrow.

Every day wear the red cross on your arm, by avowing your faith in the atoning blood.

Everything it will honestly bear, you may pile upon the back of a divine promise.

Every believer in the cross must bear the cross.