think that you could stand firm if brought before the tribunal of a heathen persecutor and offered your life only on condition of your denying your faith. But that is not the task imposed on you. Nothing may be required of you but to give faithful utterance to the convictions of your heart, when you incur no danger by speech, but merely put yourself out of sympathy with those with whom you are associating. A scoff at your faith is uttered; an impure story is told. You feel that some words of protest are demanded of you, and yet you are silent and let it appear as if you took pleasure in that from which you can find no word of dissent. Or your temper may be tried, and you speak unadvisedly with your lips as one ought not to speak who professes to follow Him, who, when He was reviled, reviled not again. tell a lie you not only believe to be a sin, but also to be dishonourable and ungentlemanly; and yet does it never happen to you to slip into untruthfulness to avoid some trifling loss or escape some small inconvenience? and though the untruthfulness may be but petty, perhaps the temptation to which you yielded was quite as insignificant.

To

And in this and many another case where you fail at the right moment to say the right word or do the right thing, the shame of owning your fault may lead you like Peter to try to cover sin

by the addition of other sin. How often after we have ourselves perceived that we have been in the wrong does unwillingness to acknowledge this keep us silent; and often induce us to be consistent in going on in a wrong course rather than incur the humiliation of retracing our steps! I might speak of many other forms of temptation through which men slide into actions of which they had thought themselves incapable: how, for example, men who really desire to be generous will find themselves doing things which they cannot deny were selfish, not to say mean or shabby.

We manage to keep on good terms with ourselves because we judge ourselves not by our actions but by the good feelings of which we are conscious, and the good principles which we attribute to ourselves.

In judging others we do well charitably to remember that the man may be better than his conduct. One would have greatly erred who had supposed that Peter did not love his Lord because he denied Him. But when we judge ourselves we must bear in mind that the good feelings and good principles which are not strong enough to keep us from sin are apt to wear away under the corroding influence of the deceitfulness of sin. If these feelings are real they

will exhibit their existence by the force of recoil which they produce. An elastic spring will yield to sudden pressure, but if it be not broken it starts back again: it contains a power of In the Peter of the Acts of the Apostles we find no disposition to be ashamed of his Master, no disinclination to brave suffering for His sake.

reaction.

And what awoke Peter's slumbering conscience? The look of Jesus. Jesus turned and looked upon Peter. Who can venture to put into words all that that look conveyed to the mind of the Apostle? Your thoughts would outrun me if I attempted the description. Could we but see that look directed on ourselves, how would it shame our cowardice and rebuke the coldness of

our love! And why do we see it not? It is because in the deadness of our faith we turn our

eyes away from Him. The Apostle directs us to run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. If we strove to keep ever before us the thoughts of what He has done for us, and of what He has asked us to do for Him, even to follow in His steps and to imitate His holy example, there would be ever present in our hearts a force which, even though at times overmastered by sudden temptation, would be strong for reaction and restoration.

May

God grant, brethren, that the fatal words, "too late," be not stamped on your repentance. Sorrow for sin is sure to come: for sin must always be followed by sorrow. But may yours be that godly sorrow which leadeth to repentance. yours be the sorrow of Peter whose bitter weeping was the beginning of a happier life-who sowed in tears what he should reap in joy-not the sorrow of Esau who, when he came too late to value what he had despised before, found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with

tears.

XI

CHARITY AND LOVE1

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."--I CORINTHIANS xiii. 13.

In the Revised Version it is: "But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love."

ONE of the features which distinguishes the new version from the old is that a different rule is followed with regard to the translation of the same Greek by the same English word. This is not a thing that is always possible to be done consistently with faithful translation; for it constantly happens that corresponding words in different languages do not so completely correspond, but that the meaning of one somewhat overlaps that of the other, so that often two words in one language must be used to express all that is meant by one word in the other.

But King James's translators of set purpose disregarded any attempt to preserve uniformity of rendering in this respect, and without any neces1 Preached on Quinquagesima, 1882.