But

last. Happy they whom early guidance has kept from the shame by keeping them from sin. happy only in the next degree are they to whom God in His love gives grace to break the proud or trembling silence of their hearts by a full confession.

Now what are the pleas that people make for keeping aloof from this office of mercy? They are only two. One is to say, "My conscience is not burdened." But how do you know that your conscience ought not to be burdened? Are you the best, the most discerning, the most impartial judge? May not this very feeling be your one

eternal mistake?

The other plea is, "I repent, and all sins are forgiven to a penitent." Yes, but this touches the very quick. Are you so sure that you do repent? Is it so easy to be a penitent, that you can forego the office of grace especially ordained for penitents? Are you so sure that your repentance is not the repentance of fear, that it is perfect in its extent, that it is fervent in its spirit; that it is the sorrow of pure love; that you have made due restitution in kind and in measure; that your confessions are without extenuations, and your self-examination without self-deceit? Are you sure of all this? Then you have one great reason to mistrust yourself; I mean, because you are so sure.

danger in a

Ask of God

If you were less satisfied, you might be surer; because you are so sure, you have most reason for misgiving. Why leave any room for risk so great? Make all doubly sure. grace to know yourself, and to lay yourself open with a full and true confession. Make the revelation of your sin, which, after all, must come upon the unwilling at the last day, to be now your free and penitential choice. Anticipate a shadow of the confusion which must cover all faces, when al hidden things shall be brought to light before men and angels. Let us not deceive ourselves. cause we are not open sinners, let us not be too secure. "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after," stealthily and surely, like shadows, cleaving to the whole man-turning as we turn -dwelling where we abide-mysterious and inseparable.

Be

Let us never believe ourselves to be secure, till we have washed the Feet that were wounded for us, with the tears of a living, purifying sorrow. Let us make haste to accuse ourselves at the foot of the Cross. Thither our sins cannot follow us. There only can we be safe from their pursuit. But let us not cheat ourselves by an imaginary conversion, or by a mock repentance. If you touch the Cross, it will leave its mark upon you.

If you bear no print of the Cross, be sure that you have never touched it yet. Sorrow, humility, self-denial, a tender conscience, a spirit of love, "the marks of the Lord Jesus," the

these are prints of the nails, and the pledges of our pardon.

Slack not your repentance, till you have made these your own.

SERMON VI.

SELF-DECEIT.

PROVERBS XXviii. 26.

He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool."

By these words the inspired writer condemns the folly of those who take counsel of no one but themselves. He means that whosoever trusts his own heart as his light, adviser, and guide, in the complex ways and actings of life, is a fool. Half the wisdom of the wise is in the choice of their advisers. Wise men discern wisdom in others, and call them to council: the wisest man is he who least trusts himself alone. He knows the difficulties of life and its intricacies, and gathers all the lights he can, and casts them upon his own case. He must, in the end, act on his own responsibility; but he seeks all counsellors, the experienced, and impartial, sometimes the opposed and unfriendly,

that he may be aware on all sides; for "in the multitude of counsellors is safety."

There is wisdom in the choice of advisers, as there is also folly. This is noted as the folly of Rehoboam, that he passed by the aged, and took the counsel of the younger.2 Unwise men call in only those that will advise what they have already determined to do; that is, not to advise, but to supply pleas and excuses. This is a high pitch of folly; but the highest of all is, to have no counsellor; to take no advice; to act upon our own lights alone; to trust our own heart. This, Solomon says, is to be a "fool."

In all the action and probation of life, the chief and universal element in our responsibility is our own character. It enters into every thing; into every deed, word, and thought. Our whole life, both active and passive, even to its remotest relations with those about us, our judgments, inclinations, and opinions, will be what we are. Like an instrument out of tune, or a rule out of square, any imperfection and the particular measure of it will be perpetually, reproduced. A biassed wheel, if it run a thousand years, will never run true. So it is with our hearts. Whatever be our resolutions, convictions, wishes, intentions, all will come out at last just as we are ourselves.

1 Prov. xi. 14.

21 Kings xii. 8.