day may be able to take up for his own those beautiful words of a good divine and poet, whose beauty lies just in this, that they have so saturated themselves with the very spirit of the beautiful and hopeful text, of which God in His kindness has allowed us to think at this time!

"Love found me in the wilderness, at cost
Of painful quests, when I myself had lost.

"Love on its shoulders joyfully did lay

Me, weary with the greatness of my way.

"Love lit the lamp, and swept the house all round,
Till the lost money in the end was found.

"'T was Love whose quick and ever-watchful eye
The wanderer's first step homeward did espy.

"From its own wardrobe Love gave word to bring

What things I needed, - shoes, and robe, and ring."

XII.

CONSEQUENCES.

"And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this." 2 CHRONICLES XXV. 9.

ERE is a text full of practical wisdom and instruction. All of us may, by God's blessing, be the better for weighing and considering the things which are suggested to us by these words. But at the same time there is nothing more certain than this: that that verse of Scripture might be understood in such a way as that it should counsel to folly rather than wisdom, as that it should seem to point in a wrong direction and not in a right one. For it seems to be a rule, running through all God's government of this world, that every good thing may be abused to a bad purpose, and God's holy Word itself like other things. You remember how St. Paul said, speaking of even God's own law, that "the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." And in like manner we may say assuredly, that God's Word will always lead us right

if we understand it rightly. But men have often understood it wrongly; and accordingly it has come to be that some of the cruellest and wickedest deeds that ever have been done in this world have been justified by the authority of the Bible. And more than this: when the Devil himself sought to tempt the Saviour to presumptuous sin, you remember that he did so with a verse of holy Scripture. Let us pray, then, my friends, that the Blessed Spirit of light and truth may guide us to the right understanding of what the text teaches us.

As we go on through life, and gradually learn many things which we did not know nor believe in earlier days, there are few things which impress a thoughtful person more than the difficulty of laying down broad general principles. We come to discern how much may be said on either side of any question. We come to discern that there are not many questions, bearing upon morality and life, that can be answered by a simple Yes or No. An unexperienced person states conclusions broadly, without any limitation or exception. He knows; he is quite sure; he has no doubt nor difficulty. Longer thought shows that there is something to be said on the other side. There is a curious instance, probably familiar to many of of you, the different ways in which men may think upon a very simple matter. You know the proverbial saying among us, universally accepted as a wise saying, that we should never put off till to-morrow what ought to

of

be done to-day.

And Procrastination, which just

means a habit of putting off till to-morrow what ought to be done to - day, is universally esteemed as a wrong thing, and often as a ruinous thing. And no doubt all this is sound and good. But still there is something to be said on the other side. And accordingly, in Spain, which is a country especially rich in proverbial sayings, there is current a proverb which is just the direct contrary of ours. It is this: Never do to-day what you can put off till to-morrow. Now, our proverb is certainly the safer advice for most people; yet there is reason on the other side too. While our proverb cautions against procrastination, the Spanish proverb cautions against undue and inconsiderate haste. Its spirit, in short, is precisely the spirit of the saying current among us, that we should look before we leap. It means, in fact, that, before doing anything, we should weigh the consequences of it, we should think what it is to lead to. And, beyond all question, that is something which a wise man will try to do.

And so we are brought back to the text, which suggests for our consideration precisely that subject. Almost any text may be made to speak what its writer did not mean, may be pushed into an extreme which is opposed to common sense, and to the teaching of God's Word, taken as a whole. Especially is it so with this text. It might easily be treated in a rash and sweeping fashion, which would be very mis

chievous indeed. The advice it implies must be cautiously and guardedly stated. This text is like a sharp edge-tool: very serviceable and quite safe in hands that know how to use it; extremely dangerous and mischievous in hands that do not. The subject brought before us in the text is the weighing of consequences. It is the looking before we leap. It is the propriety of considering what is to follow from what we do before we do it.

You

Now, here is a case in which there is much to be said on both sides. You may lay down sweeping principles on either side, which are at once true and untrue. They are true in a certain sense, and to a certain length. Beyond these, they are false. may remember how a poet tells us of a certain great man, whose rule, through all his life, was Duty. Wherever placed, he inquired what it was he ought to do; and then he did that, or tried to do it. And the poet adds, by way of special praise of that great man, that he did it, "disdaining consequences!" did his duty; he did right; and he did not care how people might like it, or what the result might be. Now, all that, in a certain sense, was very fine, and very noble.

He

But, on the other hand, you could hardly ascribe to a man any greater folly than that he systematically shut his eyes to what might follow from anything he proposed to do. In a certain sense it is the doing of a fool to disdain consequences; and it is the glory of a rational being that he can calculate,