Let not our standard of duty ever touch the ground. It is so easy to give up our principles; so hard to stand by them. It is so hard to remember the dreams of our youth, so hard to fight the good fight, day by day, year by year. But we lose all if we willingly yield anything, or if we yield at the last. What avails it to have stood by the flag through the roar of a long battle, if we surrender at the end? Let the cedar stand alone, firm and tall, on its mountain height, and condescend to no base alliance with low, false, sinful evil. Hold fast, therefore, the confidence and the rejoicing of hope, firm unto the end. Be not weary of well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." The Roman poet said: "Do not, then, yield to evil, but rather go on more bravely in the midst of evil." What is good becomes better when we have to fight for it; truth is nobler and dearer which is earned by toil and sacrifice. "Count it all joy," says the Apostle, "that ye fall into divers temptations" and trials. Out of these comes a deeper experience, a manlier patience, a surer hope, a more intense conviction. For God loves those whom he chastens, and it is a sign of his confidence in us when he lays burdens on us. These burdens are the means by which we gain new strength, power, success. XII. MEN'S SINS GOING BEFORE AND AFTER THEM. "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after." IT T is not often that you find united in the same mind the keen penetration which can distinguish finely between unapparent differences, and the large grasp of thought which can ascend to the universal laws of being. But the intellect of the Apostle Paul possessed both of these mental qualities. We find in his writings the sharpest distinctions joined with the broadest generalizations. The above passage from his first letter to Timothy is an instance of his power of delicate analysis. He here describes two kinds of human characters in a very subtle way. "There are sins of two kinds," says the Apostle, "and virtues of two kinds; recognize them both." Some men's sins are open, patent to all; vices of éclat, bringing down swift and present retribution. These sins all see. They go before men to judg ment. The man's sins precede him; we see them before we see him. We read them in his face, hear them in his voice, recognize them in his whole. being. The judgment of those sins is falling upon them almost before he can commit them. He is a careless man; he is reckless; he is passionate; he is self-indulgent; he is conceited; he is lazy. His character in all such particulars announces itself from afar. Poor fellow! We know that he is guilty of such faults before we hear of them. They go before him to judgment. As the band of music precedes the military company, announcing its approach, so this sounding troop of follies marches before the man, causing him to be judged, to be censured, to be disliked, to be shunned by his fellow-men. But other men's sins are latent, following after them. They are not the vices of éclat, but more subtle and interior, consuming slowly the centre of their being. In their case the judgment is deferred, not speedily executed, and they deem they have escaped the penalty. Thus there are two sorts of hidden lives, the life of goodness, "hid with Christ in God;" the life of evil, hid with Satan in hell. But there is nothing covered, good or bad, which shall not be revealed, nor anything hid which shall not be known. The evil which follows after us will overtake us at last if we do not repent of it and forsake it. The good which follows after us will bless us with its presence and glory. |