the thoughts go, the heart goes; and which way the heart goes, the whole drift of your nature runs.

That sin is apt to be first in your morning-thoughts, and last in your night-thoughts; present when you awake, present as you go asleep, and present when you awake again. He that is in love with a person cannot keep his thoughts from her. It is thus you may detect the predominant sin of your nature.

,

3. It is that sin which leads you CAPTIVE the easiest. That is the beloved sin of your soul; the darling of your heart. Other sins may ask entertainment, but you can easily put them off, and congratulate yourself that you are better than other men. But, when the beloved sin is suitor, you cannot deny it; it quite overcomes you. That one sin is your bosom sin. The young ruler, who visited our Lord, inquiring, "What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" had denied himself of many sins; but one sin foiled him,- covetousness; rather than part with that, he parted with the hopes of eternal life. He went away very sorrowful, but would not be divorced from his beloved sin.

Here let me pause. Has any light dawned upon your darkness? Can you yet discover the features of your idol sin, through the murky gloom that surrounds it? Beware of it, else it may yet constitute you a guest of hell. Jesus once said, "Make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, that, when ye fail upon earth, they may receive you into everlasting habitations; "--that is, be charitable and kind to the Lord's poor; for they may yet requite you in heaven, by being the first at heaven's gate to meet and welcome you; or they may receive you joyfully into their heavenly mansions, reminding you of all you did for them while in your own earthly mansions upon earth. So,

by making to yourself a friend of this bosom sin, it may turn out to be a FIEND,- the first at hell's gate, to receive and conduct you to the eternal prisons,- to be your There is no gratitude in hell. But let us

torment!

proceed:

4. It is that sin which, usually, you use most· ARGU

MENTS to DEFEND.·

That is the darling sin. He that has a jewel in his bosom which he loves dear as life will defend it as his life, and with his life, at the risk of life, to the death.

"Doest thou well to be angry?" said the Lord to Jonah. "I do well to be angry even unto death," replied the irritated prophet.

It is that sin for which you will advocate and dispute with conscience and others,- perhaps wrest Scripture to justify. Be sure that is the sin that lies nearest your heart; for any other you will neither dispute nor plead. Let others plead for them, if they will; or, let Baal plead for himself. But this sin never lacks an advocate when you are awake, or it is present; unless, indeed, it has procured you a soiled character, a broken skin, or a wounded conscience. Then you may be angry with it for a little while, as Samson with his Delilah, when she thrice jeopardized his life, but only to make up the quarrel again, soon, and to be taken again to the bosom, and to the soul's undoing, as poor Samson.-Judges 16.

5. It is that sin which most troubles your conscience when in TROuble.

In business losses, in family affliction, or in personal sickness, then it flies in your face, and taunts conscience. That is the Delilah sin. "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson! and I have been the cause of it!" O, what a stab that is! O, what a bitter pill of real ill from the

hand of one you loved better than you did your own soul, and your God! And memory, busy memory, acknowledges, and conscience lectures, and frowns the sky of the soul, lurid as the judgment heavens; with a pale face, and trembling lip, and sorrowful soul, you acknowledge to it all. O, how heavily does affliction lie upon soul and body at such a time! How did it double that sore trial of Joseph's brethren, when they said one to another, "We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us." - Gen. 42: 21.

Had not their besetting sin, envy, and its doings, stared them in the face, they could have borne their trial with manly courage, trusting in God; even with starvation at home, and imprisonment abroad, staring them in the face.

6. It is that sin which, above all, you are most unwilling to let go of.

That is the endeared sin. You can part with all other sins easier than that. Jacob could risk all his sons into Egypt, Benjamin excepted. You can risk all sins else under the word, but your Benjamin-sin. When Benjamin was demanded, or the family must starve, Jacob cried out, "Me have ye bereaved of my children; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take BENJAMIN away. All these things are against me." He had ten sons beside him; but they were as nothing in his eyes compared with Benjamin. It is thus you may know your besetting sin; all may go but that. What is life without that?

A CASTLE may have several forts round about it. The first and second are taken, perhaps the third; but, when it comes to the castle itself, the governor will fight for that, and die, rather than surrender.

It is thus you may detect your besetting sin. last you will deliver up to the sword of truth,

it for dear life.

It is the clinging to

Are you ready for the text? Hearken: "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

"And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched ; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell-fire; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." — Mark 9: 43, 48.

The allusion is medical or surgical. Men do not refuse to part with a hand, a foot or an eye, to save the body from death. Christ would have us part with a SIN, dear and pleasing as a hand, or foot, or eye, to save the soul from eternal death. Such a motive is necessary for him who sets out to cope with the besetting sin. It is by losing sight of the consequence that some fall such an easy prey to the secret vice. Jesus Christ would have us throw "hell-fire” between us and it, as the retreating general did against the pursuing enemy; he entered a narrow pass, filled it with wood and brush, and set fire to it; and, while the enemy was fighting fire, he made good his retreat and escaped.. May the living God help every one of us to do the same towards our besetting sin,—yes, every sin,- till we finally escape to the land of the blest!

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CHAPTER XIII.

THE BESETTING SIN" DETECTED AND SLAIN.

THE subject of the last chapter is continued in this, in the same quaint, pungent and heart-searching style of address.

And so you have detected your "Besetting Sin"? You and it have been like some married couples, who know little of each other's real feelings, though they have lived together for years. You say, "When this sin was preached about, it was in my sight as a lion painted upon a wall; now, it is like a living lion meeting me, and roaring in the way, with all his whelps after him." Just so; what a change! It is like its father the Devil, who is said to have great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time,- Rev. 12: 12, and so he and all his fiends are in motion. Your bosom and all its brood are in motion. "When the commandment came, SIN revived, and I died," says the apostle.

The Lord has been showing you not only the particular sin of your heart, but the entire sinfulness of your nature, as well as your practice; "the body of sin," as St. Paul terms it; the original fountain, which has been the evil spring of all the streams which have defiled you.

So your defences are gone, your excuses ended, your plea is annulled, and sin is nonsuited. It is well for thee.