way and say, "This man does not preach the Gospel." And none but those who have felt it know, I suppose, the grief and pain which such brawling judgments" bring to those who resolve to be alone with God, and to speak the truths He teaches them upon their solitary height.

But, my brethren, though a brave man must needs be alone in the world, it does not follow that he who chooses to walk alone is therefore brave. There is a solitude in which we may be, not alone with God, but alone with self-alone with pride, and uncharity, and a rebellious heart. The infidel, who hugs himself that he is more enlightened than the ignorant vulgar, and superior to their superstitious terrors, is alone indeed; for he has no true pity for his fellows, or sympathy with his Maker. It is possible to be alone, having no religious sympathy with those about us, without any sense of the deep unity which, whether we care to recognize it or not, nevertheless abides; that unity belonging to all men as children of the common Father. But this loneliness is not the mark of a strong brave man; nay, and cannot be the mark of a Godloving man; for "he who loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how shall he love his Father

whom he hath not seen?" And if a man claims to have penetrated the Divine mysteries, and to be wiser than his brethren, and yet is full of scorn and the spirit of separation, he is wandering away from God; for we approach God, not by understanding His mysteries, but through the revelation of His nature in the Son, which is righteousness and love. The truly brave teacher and man is he who, loving his kind, is content to give himself up for their sake— to yield the sweets of popularity and the applause of the foolish, if only he may keep before them the truths which they are so likely to forget. He will not fear the charge of being a "legalist" or a "moralist," because he teaches that the object of religion is to make you better men, and that if it fail in that, then, though your scientific creed may be faultless, your religion is wholly vain. He will not fear to be called indifferent, or a trimmer, or a Gallio, or any other of the numerous epithets from the armory of the controversialist, because he feels. and says that the utmost hatred of heterodoxy, if it goes with an unforgiving nature, is no sign of a regenerate heart; and that religion which consists mainly in the dislike or contempt of opponents is not from Heaven, but from Hell.

He who teaches this cannot escape making enemies, however tenderly he does it. For it is the doing it, not how it is done, which is the real offence to the religionist. It is so natural to desire that our religion should be an easy thing; and it is easier to be orthodox than to be good. Let us always suspect ourselves when we are offering to God that which costs us so little; and try whether a single victory over self, a single act of duty performed against the grain because it is duty, is not a worthier product of the religion of Him who came on earth not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him.

And so, my brethren, at the opening of another session of united worship, let us resolve, with God's help, to be bold, because, like Daniel, we believe in God; assured that in that case "no manner of hurt will be found upon us." We need Christian boldness-that which consists in being and feeling that we are on God's side. “I believe in God” are the opening words of the creed we repeat every time we assemble for worship. They may be thoughtlessly said; looked upon as a very rudimentary and superfluous announcement; and yet they represent the hardest of all beliefs-hardest, because

when that is mastered all else is easy. For to "believe in God" is to be assured that "good" is the law of Him who made us, and that apart from it there is no health and happiness for the world. To "believe in God" is to resolve, that in whatever else we trip and fall, we will, with God's help, try to go about like our Master, doing good-knowing no higher nor any lower ideal of religion than that of loving God with all our heart and our neighbour as ourself. With this resolve, we shall look with new and purged eyes upon much in the world that is disheartening and repelling. When we are filled with a sense of the beauty of holiness-the glory of being like God-we shall not find a stumbling-block in the belief that without His Spirit we can do nothing; that it is the sacrifice of the Son of God which has reunited us sinful men to a God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. To hold this faith requires all our boldness; nay, not our boldness, but that which God alone can give. The temptations to obey our lower tastes; to yield to the easy creed and the comfortable standard of the world; to come down from the purer heights, where the air is fine and hard to breathe, into the luxurious valleys where there is food and

drink and merry-making: these temptations are about us always; not coming at stated times, and in solemn form, but in the very atmosphere in which we move. Not the great crises of our lives, so much as the common tasks of every day, require the indwelling Spirit. Seldom come the great temptations, the overpowering griefs, the den of lions, and the fiery furnace. But the temptation to fall down before the golden calf of sensual gratification, the mammon of worldly ease, this is perpetual. The world's heralds cry from morning to night, "Bow down to the golden image which we have set up." Only by the strength which comes of confidence in God. can we reply, "We will not bow down, O king; for we are subjects of another kingdom which is eternal in the heavens."