houses fall to pieces-one on a couch of down and the other on the stones of the streets-at the gate of the mansion there is a wonderful transformation scene. Dives leaves his beautiful robes behind, to live forever after in the vile rags of his sins; while Lazarus leaves his rags behind, to be clothed upon forever with robes of light and dwell in fellowship with princely natures like Abraham. Where are your fellowships? I don't ask you whose parties you go to, on whose visiting-list you are found; but where are the fellowships of your soul? Are they with the friends of Jesus Christ, the people who love God and are seeking to walk in the heavenly way? Or are your fellowships with those who forget God, who are careless of his law, and who render no loving testimony to Jesus Christ?

Then we have the thought of purity. That is the supreme result of all. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin." The light of God's heart, the life produced in this cheerful atmosphere, the fellowship with the holiest, is to lead us to that perfect surrender to Jesus Christ which will result not only in the forgiveness of all our sins, but in the cleansing and purifying of our hearts, so that we shall do God's will out of wholesome, loving natures. Let us make no mistake. Walking in the very light of God's countenance will not save us. Satan walked there once, and yet through his pride and rebellion

fell to the lowest hell. There is no power in the walking or in the light to save us. We may have the closest association with Christian people in daily fellowship, and yet die in our sins. Judas walked in close fellowship with Christ and his disciples for years, and was a trusted officer among them, and yet died the death of a traitor and a suicide. No; there is no salvation save in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. We have sinned against the law of God, and because of our sin we are already under condemnation. If we were to turn over a new leaf right now, and never sin again, we still would not dare to face the Judgment Day, for the sins that are back of us would cover us with everlasting confusion and sink us in the blackness of despair. Our hope is in the fact that Jesus Christ came to the earth of his own accord, and was born under the law, took upon himself our flesh, and, after being tempted in all points like as we are, died the death of the cross in our behalf. When we repent of our sins and believe on Christ as our Savior, God transfers our sins to Christ's account, and we are forgiven.

We are not only forgiven, but cleansed and renewed. We would still be helpless if there were no change in our moral nature, which has learned to love that which is sinful. But when we take Jesus Christ as our Savior, God by his divine Spirit adopts us into the inner circle of his children. He takes away the hard heart and gives us a heart of

love and gratitude.

The old sins which we once

loved we now hate. Our moral nature becomes healthy and normal, and we worship God and serve him in the loving spirit of childhood.

I know that I speak to-night to many who are saying in their hearts: "It would be a glorious thing if such a transformation could come to my heart and life; but it is too good to be true." Do not, I pray you, allow the enemy of your souls to deceive you in that way. It is good enough to be true, and it will be true, if you will obey Christ at this time. I know there is something in your hearts that answers this appeal. There is an old legend that in the valley of Eusserthal, in Switzerland, where are the ruins of a convent choir, there was once a golden organ that stood in the church and was played during divine service. When the convent was attacked, the first care of the monks was to save this treasure; and they dragged it to a marsh and sank it as deep as they could. The old legend holds that it is still in the neighborhood, though the spot has never been found, and that it sometimes rises out of the swamp at midnight, and its sublime tones are heard in the distance. Nothing is comparable to the gentle breathings of the golden pipes in the solemn stillness of the night. At such times the soft tones swell into mighty billows of song which rush along the valley and die out at last in echoes through the forests. So the harmonies of the noble and pure life that was seen

us.

in Jesus Christ belong by right to every one of In some of you they have been buried deep beneath selfishness and sin; but you have moments of memory and vision when, rising up out of the swamp of worldliness in which you have drowned your better self, you catch swee: tones of hope and love and faith. I know that you have midnight hours of penitence and aspiration, when you loathe your sins, and when the Christ-life seems infinitely beautiful and appears very near and possible to you. May this be one of your vision hours! May the Holy Spirit so enlighten the eyes of your heart that this noble life in Christ Jesus may seem possible to you now; and may you rise up and respond to this appeal which comes to you through the mercy of God!

IV.

THE PERIL OF SELF-DELUSION.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.-1 John i. 8 (Revised Version).

IT is hard to conceive of a more pitiable state than to be self-deluded in a matter of great importance. It is sad to see a man who has struggled and toiled through all the strong years of his life to gain a competency and to lay by something for old age, and who has believed that his investments were so made that his fortune was secure and his resources abundant, find, when it is too late to remedy it, that he has been deceived, and that all the earnings of his years of toil have taken wings and flown away, and that the apparently secure investments were only frauds and delusions. It is sad to see a man whose health is being undermined by an insidious disease, the ravages of which are apparent to his friends and acquaintances, but the victim himself deluded into believing that he is in no danger; that he is indeed on the high road to recovery, and will soon be well again. Who of us has not known of such cases, where up to the very day of death this self-delusion continued? But it