is the deliberate volition-the consciously criminal intention to murder. And, secondly, there is the nature capable of originating and harboring such an intention. Beneath the surface of acts and passions and volitions and intentions—things of which he was conscious-there is a deep undercurrent of guilt, a profoundly criminal nature or tendency, of which he may or may not, at any given instant, have been conscious. Your verdict, after a thorough investigation of the moral elements of the case, will be this: Guilty as this man is in that he intended to murder, he is guiltier in that he has a nature which is capable of giving birth to such an intention. Judging him in the forum of God's vision, where sin is surveyed, not as fruit but as germ, not as it appears to be but as it actually is, you feel that the chief element of this man's guilt lies, not in his intent to murder, but in his having a nature capable of originating and cherishing a murderous intent. That is to say: the murder lay not in the pistol, or in the hand that fired the pistol, or even in the volition that directed the hand to fire the pistol the murder lay in the nature capable of the volition to move the hand to fire the pistol. You feel that it would have made but little difference in God's judgment whether the man had ever actually committed the murder or not. In God's sight the murder was in the nature, and this before the man himself became conscious of it through his murderous desire, purpose, and deed. And the Mountain Teacher knew this. Himself the Son of Man, He knew what was in

man; and He interpreted the Law and the Prophets accordingly. He did not undertake to lop the branches of the upas tree of sin; He laid His axe at the root of the tree. Here is the reason why He taught as One having authority, and not Matt. vii. 29. as the scribes. They taught the letter: He taught the spirit. In listening to His teachings then, take care, O friend, that your righteousness exceed that of the letter: otherwise you can not enter His kingdom of heaven.

Question.

Secondly: Who of us can keep the sixth com- 2. A Searching mandment as the Mountain Teacher has interpreted it? Who of us has kept it? Who of us has not been angry, passionate, revengeful, petulant, censorious? Who of us has not exclaimed, "Raca! Moreh!" We call such expressions harmless expletives—the safety-valves of social intercourse. The Judge of quick and dead says: "Whoever utters them exposes himself to the everlasting death." Remembering, then, these quarrels of ours, these grudges and piques and petulances and faults of temper, who of us is not in danger of the eternal Gehenna?

Thirdly: What, then, shall we do? What but this Agree with our adversary quickly, even while we are on the way with him to the judgment? For another adversary there is besides our foes of the court-room; it is the adversary of broken law, the adversary of conscience, ay, the adversary of God Himself; and all of us are on the road with him to a magistrate mightier than any earthly, even the judgmentseat of Jesus Christ. Agree, then, with thine

3. Agree with

thine Adversary quickly.

4. Fly to the One Mediator.

Psalm ii. 12.

Collect.

Adversary quickly, even while thou art with Him
in the way lest He hale thee to the judge, and
the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the offi-
cer cast thee into prison; I say unto thee, thou
wilt not come out thence till thou hast paid the
very last mite.
And that thou canst never do:

and so thy fate will be hopeless.

Lastly: But how shall we agree with Him? There is but one answer: Jesus Christ-Jesus Christ only is the one Mediator, the one Peacemaker between God and man, reconciling Lawgiver and law-breaker. Sinai's interpreter is the only deliverer who can save us from Sinai's thunderbolts. This, in the eminent sense of the phrase, is Christ's Doctrine of Reconciliation. Receive not, then, the grace of God in vain. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way for soon His wrath may kindle. Blessed are all who put their trust in Him!

O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send Thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before Thee: Grant this for Thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF ASCETICISM.

MATTHEW V. 27-32.

Jesus said unto His disciples: If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

MATTHEW Xvi. 24.