save men from their sins, whose blood was trodden under foot, whose tender love was despised by these lovers of gain, and sloth, and drink, and pleasure.

And now, my friend, let me turn round to you and ask you, Where were you last Sunday? Were you in Church? Were you in your place in the House of God? Were you among the worshippers of your Lord? Or were you dawdling away your time, wasting it, profaning it, forgetting God, forgetting even your own soul? Tell me this. Alas, were you not among the breakers, the despisers of the Lord's day and of the service of the Lord? Were you not following your pleasure, or yielding to sloth, or looking over your goods, or dosing by your fire, or walking over the fields, when you should have been confessing your sins, seeking forgiveness, bowing both flesh and spirit at the throne of grace, and craving, in the Name of your Redeemer, deliverance from death and hell?

Tell me, I say, where you were, what you did, what you were about. If you dislike to give an answer, let me remind you that all is known; every thought, every word, every deed, every step was traced. Last Sunday is not gone; you cannot bundle it away and cast it off,

and say it is a "by-gone;" it is not gone; it will come back; it will wheel round and meet you again face to face; it will witness against you; for all your days you have to be judged, but especially for those which are especially due to God, which He gave you for your soul's work, for especial acts of worship, for especial prayer. Your Sundays are not common days; woe be to you, if you spend them as common days; woe be to you hereafter, if you fool and fritter them away, if you spend them carelessly and shun God's presence and God's House, if you withdraw yourself from the power of the Spirit, if you turn away from Christ, if you refuse His love, His care, His mercy, His grace, His word of life.

Hence, I say, ask yourself, "Where were you last Sunday ?" How will you give answer before the throne of God? Would you like to say, or dare to say, before the Almighty Lord of heaven and earth, your Lord Jesus Christ, "I slept and did not pray; or I took my pleasure and did not pray; or I looked over my goods and farm and did not pray; or I idled and did not pray; or I went with the wicked and foolish and did not pray." How will such an answer sound on the day of judgment?

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

SWEAR NOT AT ALL.

Ir is said by God in Holy Scripture that for every idle word men shall give account in the day of judgment. Every idle word, think of that! What then will be said of oaths? If idle words, vain foolish words, will be condemned by our Judge, the Lord Jesus Christ, what fearful heavy condemnation will fall on those who have done worse than talk foolishly, on those who have let oaths come forth from their mouths, who have been wont to swear and to take God's Name in vain? Very heavily will the wrath of God fall on the swearer at the last great day. God Himself warns us of this; He tells us beforehand in plain strong words, that He will judge us severely and severely punish us for our oaths. We are all forewarned. No man who swears, no man who gives vent to oaths, can say, "I did not know that I provoked the Lord to wrath." We all know that He utterly hates oaths, that He abhors them, that He commands us not to utter them, that He will take vengeance, that He will punish all swearers.

And yet are not oaths uttered every day? Men swear when they are angry; they swear in their common talk; they swear at their horses; they swear at their companions; they swear in the fields, in the streets, in jest and in earnest. O what thousands of oaths and blasphemous words ascend up every day to the ears of God! What thousands of oaths pollute men's mouths and put men's souls in peril and provoke the Lord who looketh down upon the children of men! Men make no more of swearing than of walking; one would think that they had been commanded to swear, that it was a proper thing to do, that there was no sin in it. Many seein hardly to know when they swear; it has become quite natural to them, and not a day passes without some light use of God's most holy, most awful Name. To find a single day in all the year without an oath would be a hard matter in this or any parish. We may see mere boys beginning to take God's Name in vain, as though it were a fine and manly thing to do. No wonder when they hear their fathers and their elders swear so much the sin goes down from the father to the son, and the son catches up and copies the father's evil and guilty ways.

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And yet, I ask you, Is there not a God that

judgeth the earth? Will all the oaths go for nothing, and have no punishment when we are judged? Will men be able to swear all their lives and call on God in a light reckless way and suffer nothing for this sin hereafter? O how sore, how terrible will be the punishment! When the swearer stands before the judgment-seat of God, how he will wish and long and yearn to recal every vain oath, every light use of God's holy Name! How he will wish to unsay what he has said! How he will wish that he had been dumb! For by his tongue he will be condemned; his tongue ill used in former days will bring down vengeance; torment will come upon him, and he will exclaim in the bitterness of his soul, "How could I have ever thought so little about that fearful sin of swearing? What agony it has brought upon me, and yet I thought little about it when I was in the world ?"

And now let me ask you plainly, "Do you swear? Have you been in the habit of using the Name of God in your common talk?" If so, I implore you to curb your tongue; break off this guilty habit that will bring anguish to your soul by and by. Repent at once of all the oaths that you have mixed with your common talk, repent deeply of all those sinful words that are