moved from me as a shepherd's tent." "For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass." "For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."

When you consider then the brevity of the life temporal as compared to the life eternal, surely the conviction cannot be avoided that an inquiry concerning it is of the last importance.

This conviction will surely be deepened when, in addition to this contrast as to duration, there is the further fact to be remembered that what that immeasurable future life is to be, must be determined in the present-fleeting as it is. And not only fleeting, even when its full measure is granted, but how much more so when you consider its uncertainty. "The places that now know us shall soon know us no more forever." Here to-day, perhaps in the flood-tide of life. And tomorrow the clods of the valley are over you.

"Like a snow flake on the river,

A moment white, then gone forever."

Surely then the brevity and uncertainty of human life here as compared to that of the fu

ture, and its determining influence in relation to the character of that future, gives surpassing interest and importance to an inquiry as to how the life that now is shall issue in a glorious immortality.

But still further, in order to enhance it, you are not to be unmindful of the tremendous individual interests, as to happiness or blessedness, which are involved. They are both personal and relative and in their sweep embrace the here and the hereafter. The natural result of sin when operative is to create and foster strife, and mutual repulsion between all the elements of being. From its baleful presence peace flees. Everything becomes Ishmaelitic, in so far forth as sin holds sway. An inkling of the horrid brood which it genders is given in Gal. Chap. V. Death is in the wake of all its movements. It throws everything out of gear. The chariot wheels of life drive heavily where it enters. And enter everywhere it would, if it could, dethrone God and reduce all being to chaos and night. The blessed harmony of the family life, as between the eternal Father and his human children, it destroyed. It sent them adrift. Instead of being made glad by the Father's presence and seeking it, it filled them with an awful dread and drove them to seek a hiding place from him whose name is LOVE.

"Can two walk together except they be agreed?" What fellowship hath light with darkness, love with hate, life with death? Is it a light thing to be thus thrown out of harmony with God? To become mutually repellant? What about your happiness, in view of such a relation, when it confronts you always and everywhere?

As between yourself and another human being the unhappiness engendered by the friction of one's presence might be measurably, if not altogether, neutralized through the separations of time and distance. But what think you when you cannot thus flee from the hated presence? When the element that engenders the hateful repulsion is ever present, irreconcilable, implacable? So long as such a relation continues, so long as you are consciously encompassed on all sides by One, between whom and you there is no harmony,then farewell happiness, blessedness, peace and enter the dark brood of death.

Now an inquiry concerning a way by which there will be a reversal of all these conditions and results-think you is the same unimportant? An affirmative reply to such a query would be the saddest and strongest indication of your individual need of it.

You are also to bear in mind that next to being in peace and harmony with God, your greatest

need so far as the restful comfort of your spirit is concerned-is to be at peace with yourself.

You know what dire havoc conscience plays at times with this inward rest. It frequently enkindles in the minds of the enemies of God the very fires of hell while they are yet upon the earth. And often does it sorely chastise the souls of God's redeemed children. They walk in bondage and darkness and great discomfort until the evil thing, in reference to which conscience applies the lash, is penitently put away. A disturbed conscience is a bad bed-fellow.

"O, coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me;" "My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,

And ever tongue brings a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villian."

"Now conscience wakes despair

That slumbered, wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be."

"Thus Conscience does make cowards of us all."

And what is true of conscience, as one of the factors of the soul's life, is also true of others. If there be friction in machinery it will not run smoothly. Destruction is at work. And similarly in the make-up of our personalities. There must be harmony between the various estates of

mansoul or the evil results of civil war will be experienced and shown. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." There must be peace within all our soul's borders if the happiness and blessedness and fruitfulness of a sweet content is to be our portion. But we are each aware that the balance of power has been destroyed by sin and the normal harmonies of the inner life have ceased. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh" even in the lives of God's children and would again abidingly lord it over them were it not for the divine help. But the consciousness of a progressive inner harmony with the assurance that the same will be at last perfected and abide forever-this brings the sweetness of the peace of heaven amid the warring conditions of the earthly life.

But to those who are not within the charmed circle of this goodly fellowship the elements and conditions of an abiding warfare in the soul are ever present. More pronounced in some they may be than in others, and in the same person at one time than at another. But this jarring discord within one's self will mar the soul life and be one of the conditions of the unspeakable wretchedness of the world to come. The perceivings of your understanding and the sober reflections and conclusions of your reason are