men forget God; they turn their backs upon Him, and then complain that they cannot see Him; their eyes and their souls cleave to the dust, till they impair their spiritual vision, and cannot bear to turn them upon the brightness of His Face. Next we must watch our great spiritual enemy. Remember our first picture, and is not the Christian a soldier? Does not an Apostle bid us "put on the whole armour of God," and "watch, stand fast, quit you like men"? But this is not all; we must watch not only as a soldier watches, but in other ways. We must watch like the master of a house that has been marked for attack by midnight burglars; we must watch like the owner of a field in which good seed is sown, lest, if we sleep, a spiteful enemy come and sow tares; we must watch lest He whom we love be lost to us, and we have to seek Him sorrowing, like the Bride in the Canticles, or Mary and Joseph at Jerusalem; we must watch as they do who live in the midst of wild beasts, for we are told of evil ones that go about like roaring lions seeking whom they may devour. "My soul is among lions," said David; so Isaiah, "The Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, and let him declare what he seeth; and he cried, A lion, my lord." If we watch we shall, like David, slay the lion that would rend us; and, like the shepherds at Bethlehem, we shall see heavenly visions and be told how to find our Lord. But our dangers are not wholly from without, they come from within also. "A man's foes are they of his own household." Our falls do not all come through Satan's temptations. "The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked." "Every man is tempted of his own lusts and enticed." From within, out of the heart proceed the whole host of deadly sins. There is an evil treasure in the heart where sins and lusts are stored, waiting for the day of temptation to bring them forth; like the seeds of weeds long hidden under ground, at last thrown upon the surface and made to spring into vigorous life by rain and sun; like the germs of disease floating in the air that propagate themselves as soon as they find a resting-place with suitable conditions. David little thought that one day he would be a murderer and an adulterer; Hazael was indignant when Elisha told him what he would one day do; Judas could not take our Lord's warning, because he would not believe that his heart was so bad as it really was; Peter was confident in himself, because he had not learned his weakness by watching himself.* Our fallen nature is like a volcano; vines and flowers grow where men mostly frequent; if we go further there are unprofitable wastes; further still there are snow and fire side by side, contradictions, and lurking mischief for ourselves and others. "God help us, what strangers we are to ourselves! In every man's nature there is an interior unexplored as that of Africa; and over that region what wild beasts may roam!"Alexander Smith. How can we be safe in the midst of all this if we do not watch? If a wise heathen could say the first precept of wisdom was "Know thyself," how much more must Christians practise it who both know its necessity better and possess more powerful means to carry it into effect? For instance, how well may we discover the condition of our hearts by watching our tongues. The tongue is an index of the heart. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;" and so God Himself declares, "By Thy words shalt thou be justified, and by Thy words shalt thou be condemned." "I say unto all, Watch." This is His command who knows us and our enemies. Soon He will come Himself, and then blessed shall those servants be whom He finds watching. "Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things, and to stand before the Son of Man." CHAPTER XXXIII. THE CHRISTIAN SOUL'S MOTTO. "Not anything, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."1 CORINTHIANS ii. 2. "The Cross of Christ is the invincible sanctuary of the humble, the dejection of the proud, the victory of Christ, the destruction of the devil, the confirmation of the faithful, the death of the unbeliever, the life of the just. It is the key of Paradise, the weak man's staff, the convert's convoy, the upright man's perfection, the soul and body's health, the prevention of all evil, and the procurer of all good."-QUARLES. "O Cross, O Cross of joy, O sweetness without cloy, Still wound and pierce my bleeding heart, O crimson, crimson Tree, Still let me cling to Thee; On thy dear arms reposing day by day, Still let me die alway; For He I love is by my side, And death is sweet, for He has died." "Cling to the Crucified : His death is life to thee, His pains thy pardon seal; F. S. PIERPOINT. His Cross proclaims thy peace, His Blood is all to thee, It purges thee from sin; It sets the spirit free, It keeps thy conscience clean : BONAR. THE writings of St. Paul are full of striking phrases. Among these there is one which may be taken as his life's motto, "Not anything, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." It was the acceptance of this as the rule of his life that made him a saint in himself and an Apostle to others. Christ was ever before his eyes, his guide, pattern, example. Christ crucified was ever in his heart; his one hope, and the one topic of his preaching. Nor is this all; wherever there has been a saint in the world, it is by this that he has been made a saint. The Son of God came into the world for a threefold purpose; to die for it; to be a pattern of godliness; and to found the Catholic Church. He did not write a book, but He came Himself and showed men how to live, and then provided them with helps to do as He had done. The Christian's life-work is to imitate Jesus Christ; and the Church's work is to help him to do it. All the year round this is the Church's cry; this is her business. At every season, every day, and by every ordinance this is her function and her endless occupation. Her instruments sometimes fail her, proving unworthy, unprofitable; but all her |