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And somewhere still there may be valleys dim That thou must pass to reach the hills sublime. Then all the more because thou canst not hear Poor human words of blessing will I pray. O true, brave heart! God bless thee, whereso'er In His great universe thou art to-day." At Mass this morning pray for the dead.

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FORFEITED BLESSINGS

For ye know how afterward, when he (Esau) would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."-Heb. xii. 17.

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LAST Sunday morning we all of us pitied Esau, because he had sold his birthright for a morsel of meat, the recompense seemed so inadequate. And, as I told you, to-day we will go on with the subject, because it is a difficult matter, and now we seem to pity him more than ever, because he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully and with tears." Is this realism? Is it really possible for a man to cry his eyes out-is it possible that his repentance can come to the point of hot, scalding tears chasing down his cheeks-and-no good? Is this conceivable? Oh, what a tragedy it seems then to live and to die. Why, then, to be born is a tragedy, and to die ought to be redeemed from the contempt of annihilation by the hope of immortality beyond. And between the two, to be born and die, and count all things as lost! No place of repentance? What do you mean by lost? Only God knows what is really meant by lost, God Who is our salvation.

What was it then that Esau really sought? That is the first lesson I want you to think of in this most difficult passage. What was it Esau sought? He did not seek true repentance. He sought the blessing

lost. Put the word "blessing" where the word "it" comes, for so the text should be read. What Esau wanted was his inheritance back again, and penitence was gone. It was not so much that he repented for having sold his birthright, but he repented because he had lost it. The man wanted to gain the restitution of his rights. They were gone, and it was impossible to have them back again. There was no place for his repentance, and his tears were no good-the inheritance was gone, and gone for ever!

When I went the other day (because a young lad got into trouble) to the police court, when the boy was condemned to three months' imprisonment, he burst into tears, and it was not sorrow for what he had done, not in the least, but it was repentance with tears, that he had lost his inheritance and liberty for three months. When he comes out again, I am not sure he won't do the same thing again.

And, dear brethren, for ourselves there is a certain truth about this "place of repentance." We cannot find it, and it is sometimes possible for those, oh! even in grace, to feel that they cannot find the proper place of repentance, though they seek it with tears. Oh, let not your hearts he hardened through the deceitfulness of sin! for it is possible for the heart to feel so hardened that the soul may say: "I should like to repent, but I feel, somehow or other, I cannot." The place of repentance seems to be lost. This is a tragedy of the spiritual soul, which is not unknown, may I say, to most of us-" Esau found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."

Well, now, let me give you three instances to make this still more plain to you.

Here is a farmer who last November missed the November sowing altogether, for he said, "The two years have been wet, and the cereal crops have been spoilt, I will not sow again!" And when the March sowing came on, he said the same thing. It may have been want of trust in God, or he was too careless or too niggardly. The ground was good and the season favourable, but he put no grain into the ground, and sowed it merely with stuff that would be used for fodder. Then came the glorious summer which we have just had, with its many hundreds of hours of sunshine, and the cereal crops in England have never been so good. He repented. He said, "What a fool! Oh, I only wish I had sown my field with corn and trusted to God. What a fool I was! What can I do? I can't call back the spring-the opportunity is lost!" And so it is the harvest was lost to him for ever and ever and ever. It never can come back again. It is no good, his tears. He can cry his eyes out-the harvest is lost and gone, and gone for ever. There is no place of repentance, no, though he might have sought it carefully even with tears-gone!

Now let me take another instance. This is a matter of education. I put it personally, to make it more clear. The Almighty God gave me wits, a brain to think, and my parents gave me the opportunity of education, and I missed it for a morsel of meat, fooled away the time of the years that are so precious, and the opportunity is gone for ever and ever, and oh ! how I regret it. I could almost curse my folly. It is no good. Is there no place for repentance? None! I can never go back to my youth. I can never be a boy again. I cannot go back to school. The brain is now

no longer so elastic, the susceptibilities are not so keen. Must I then remain for ever an ignoramus, a dunce? Yes, for ever. Yes, it has gone. Is there any place of repentance? No, none. Not even if I seek it with tears? It is gone. God! what might I not have done! I might have made a mark in the world. I might have helped many, I might have made my name. No good! Gone! Oh, I was a fool! No place even though I seek it with tears.

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Well, now, let me take the third case. who has lost his position, his money, his respect, and everything a man holds dear, because he has given way to an insane and unnatural impulse. Is it a matter of history? Yes. Is there any place of repentance for that man? None. Will society ever forgive him? Never. Must he go down? He must go down. He must go down, and just as the criminal at the docks goes down, and is never seen again, he must go down, and never be seen again. No place of repentance-no, not if he seeks it with tears. No, no, no, not if he seeks it with tears however carefully.

And yet, dear brethren, as I tell you these things, as they recommend themselves to your mind as right, for you know these cases are true-the faculty within you discerning what is true and false, tells you these things are true-yet there are men who stand up six feet high, and so high in their estimation, they hang their hats on the stars, they are the men who tell us there is no such thing as eternal punishment. And our own experience verifies the fact-these are the people who say there is no hell, whereas the dear old Book says, that they who go away from the works of righteousness and from the laws of God, go down into hell,

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