possible, after all, to live away from it. It gives him a motive to work; and he labors the harder that he may the sooner go back to gladden the dear hearts there, and to make some little return to a father and a mother for all they did for him. And even when there is no prospect of meeting again in this world, we can bear to part from those linked by the closest ties. It is bitter, bitter; but still it has been done; it is done every day. What home of all our homes has not parted with its best and bestloved one; what family has not lost its purest and sweetest member; what fireside is there," howsoe'er defended, but has one vacant chair!" And yet the brothers, the sisters, the parents, go about their duties as usual, and to the careless world look much as before. Ah, that world does not know that now in that home there are doors that are never unlocked, books that are never looked into, thresholds that are crossed no more! Still, we can, sooner or later in some way or other, do without every one from whom we can ever be called to part. Thanks be to God that we need never never at any moment, never anywhere part from that One best and kindest Friend "without whom we can do nothing!" "Without Me," He says, "ye can do nothing:" sad, sad words if without Him we ever needed to be; but He can be "with us" in spite of all external parting. "Lo," He says, "I am with you alway, even to the end of the world!" Blessed Saviour, fulfil that gra

cious promise to our hearts. Go with us where we go, and dwell with us where we dwell! We never know what we can bear till we are tried; we do not know what endurance there is in these hearts; yet we know that we can bear all partings else, but not that last hopeless destitution which lies in being abandoned by Thee!

VII.

THE PROSPECT PAINFUL YET SALUTARY.

"And my sin is ever before me."— PSALM li. 3.

S that our way, my friends? Is that the prospect that is ever before our eyes and minds? Do we train ourselves to think habitually of our faults, our unworthiness, the foolish things we have often said, the hasty, silly, ill-set, conceited, false, unjust, sinful things we have often done? Or would it not be nearer the truth, in the case of many a man, if he were to say, My merits are ever before me? Many a man is constantly thinking of his good qualities, and his praiseworthy doings, thinking how clever, and wise, and skilful, and judicious, and good he is, and what great things he has done. And instead of taking the text for his own, and saying, "My sin is ever before me,” he would speak the truth if he were to say, "My eminent abilities and deservings are ever before me, and it shall not be my fault if I do not bring them conspicuously before my fellow-men." And hence it comes that men are sometimes disappointed and discontented because other people will not recognize their

merits and good qualities as they think they ought, and because they are not advanced to places of greater distinction and advantage than they are ever likely to be. There are persons who not merely have their own claims and excellences and services continually before them, but keep making comparisons between their own and the doings and deservings of their neighbors, more especially of those in their own walk of life, comparisons very much in their own favor. And hence come discontent, ingratitude for the many blessings they have, envying and grieving at a neighbor's good or success, and undutiful murmuring against the appointments of God's providence. Hence comes, too, a self-sufficient spirit, far removed from the humblemindedness of the true Christian; a disposition to be pleased with one's self, and to forget what poor helpless sinners we all are in the sight of God. Yes, my friends, all this evil, and more, comes of our looking in only one of the two great directions in which man may look, as regards his own doings and deservings. It comes of our forgetting the wise counsel to us all, which is conveyed in this text, in which the Psalmist tells us of something which he was wont to do. Ah, he looked at the other side of the page! He looked to see how the account stood against him, as well as how it stood for him! He looked back over his past life; and he did not see much on which he could look with entire satisfaction. He looked away, over those departed years, from the day when

present with him on He saw many blesslabors, many cares;

he was a little boy in his father's house and about the sheep, down to the day then which he was an anointed king. ings, many deliverances, many but there was one dark figure that kept always intruding itself, look where he might, which he knew only too well. There was one reproachful face, one warning and threatening hand, always there! sometimes think, he seems to say, - I sometimes think of my doings, my cares, my toils; but there is one thing I never can forget: "My sin is ever before me!"

I

Ah, my brethren, if it were with us more as it was with David, if we bethought ourselves oftentimes of our sins, our failings, our mistakes, our ill-deservings,

we should be more humble, more thankful, more content, more earnestly desirous to fly to that Saviour in whom is all sufficiency, and help, and grace! To look back on our past history would effectually take us down from all high thoughts of ourselves, would keep us lowly, would lead us, in our utter helplessness, to the Redeemer's feet!

Here, then, is the subject for our consideration today. I trust, before we have done, we may all feel its practical importance. I have no doubt, that most of us have our habits of thinking: have tracks, beaten paths (as it were) of thought, into which we naturally fall when our minds are not directly occupied with