things, save in sin, stood in the place of us all, did resist and overcome, and which are classed under those three great divisions, the flesh, the world, and the devil. True it is that the temptations of the flesh and of the world are also temptations of the devil, and by one or both of these he wins most of his victories over us. But as there are some temptations which seem not properly to belong to the flesh or the world, so they are put by themselves, and are called especially the temptations or works of the devil, because they have no other distinguishing name. These, however, are comparatively few in number, and comparatively few are tempted by them. It is either by the temptations of the flesh, or by those of the world, or by both, that by far the greatest number of souls, and in by far the greatest portion of their lives, are tempted and are overcome.

But the words are not, perhaps, plain to us; if we understand their meaning it is but in part. The words may not be plain to us, but the things which they mean are familiar enough to the very youngest of us. Ask a child, ask many a boy, nay, ask many a man, whether he renounces the flesh and the world, and the question will not come home to his mind, and the flesh and the world will be merely unmeaning words to him, so that his answer cannot be said to be given in sincerity, because in fact he knows not what he is saying.

Yet take any boy and ask him to tell you some of the things which give him the greatest pleasure, and if he would tell you honestly, he would name eating and drinking, and lying long in bed, and having little or no work, and having a great variety of amusements. Also he would like being made of consequence; he would like being praised, and being admired, and being a general favourite. Now the first named pleasures, eating and drinking, and sleeping, and idleness, and amusements, may be called the temptations of the flesh; liking to be made of consequence, to be admired, and to be thought much of, may be called temptations of the world. And do we not see that almost all the faults of which young boys are guilty arise from one or other of these kinds of temptation? So that whether they understand the names "flesh and world" or not, yet they know well enough the real things which those names mean, and they must know very well that it is owing to the power of those things over them, that all their faults are committed. I might name some other very familiar things in each kind, but what I have said will be sufficient to shew what they are.

These things lead us into faults; faults as we call them in common speech, sins as God regards them. There is a wonderful difference in the force of these two words. Faults are things which are to be made allowance for, which are not to de

stroy the regard and love which our friends feel for us, which may cause those who have authority over us to look gravely at us for a minute, but soon the displeasure passes away, and with it passes from our minds also all painful sensations with regard to our conduct. But sins, even to our careless minds, are something deeper. Will they pass away too and be forgotten? Will God love us in spite of them? Will He receive us notwithstanding them? Will He regard them with displeasure only for a moment, and then be gracious to us, as if they had never been committed? May we forget them wholly, and be rid of all sorrow and of all shame? What is the answer to this? I know what would be the answer of a boy's heart if he liked to put it out in words, and the answer of many a man's heart would agree with it. Nay, the answer of all our hearts would in some sort agree with it; for even those who in old times felt remorse for evil done most keenly, yet felt it for a few great crimes only, and for lesser sins appear not to have given themselves much concern. We are all apt to call and to think our sins mere faults, things amply wiped out by expressing sorrow for them, things which it is quite unkind and unreasonable in any one to remember long with severity. It is not the young only who do so, we all more or less should by nature do the same. And why then

should we not do so? Why should we regard our sins very seriously? Why should we pray earnestly to be enabled to regard them more and more seriously, to be enabled to feel them deeply, perpetually? I will tell you why: because Christ died for us.

This does indeed speak to us in a language which it is not possible to express too strongly. But does it speak alone, or does it not confirm what the whole of the Old Testament declares from one end to the other? What is the story of this morning's lesson; of the fourteen thousand and five hundred cut off by the plague for murmuring; of the two hundred and fifty burned with fire from the Lord for a breach of His ceremonial law only; of Dathan and Abiram, with their children,―for so it is expressly said,-with their children and all that belonged to them, going down alive into the pit, because they were in heart and in tongue,—for it can hardly be said that the sin had shewed itself in any flagrant act,— but because they were in heart and in tongue discontented and rebellious against God's appointments? All this we have in one single chapter, and I need not say how many other chapters speak the same lesson. Therefore the Old Testament speaks in no doubtful language, that sin is not a little thing, to be unnoticed by God, to be soon forgotten by us. It tells us that sin is a very great

thing, and a lasting. means pass it over.

It tells us that God will by no And what it tells us, that the death of Christ our Lord does indeed confirm in infinite measure. If sin were really a little thing, why should Christ have died? I dare not attempt to dwell on the awfulness of that sacrifice, which neither word nor thought of created being can reach to. But only consider such language as this, and think whether it is possible to estimate it worthily. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, to the end that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son," and yet sin, which required such a sacrifice, we think may be no sooner committed than forgotten. Wherefore, when we promise in our baptism to renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil, and when we break this promise, as we do daily, and commit sins, both of the flesh and the world, it is not a little matter, but an infinitely great one; and the evil not renounced, but allowed to overcome us, is a thing which requires of us indeed a deeper thought and a deeper sorrow than to many of us may seem even possible. With this I would now conclude, for it is the point on which all that I hope to say hereafter depends. We shall not care to believe God's truths, nor shall we care to follow His holiness, unless we do earnestly desire to renounce