vants, as a "speaking to him face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend"-there is in that knowledge, in its very first elements, an attractive and a satisfying power such as forbids and precludes its abandonment. "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." And he who thus seeks the Lord, seeks him that he may know him, seeks him that he may love him, seeks him that he may serve him, seeks him that he may be like him, seeks him that he may hereafter be with him, and see him as he is, that man is doing the work of life: he is answering the object for which he was sent into the world: he is doing God's work, and therefore he can do man's also. That man will be diligent in all duty, that he may be about his Father's business. That man will renounce and resist all sin, because sin is God's enemy, and because he is able to say with the Psalmist of all the enemies of God and of holiness, "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Yea, I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies." That man will bear patiently all life's trials, because he sees in them his Father's hand, and knows that they are the necessary discipline for a life in which there will be no will but

one.

"To seek the Lord" is thus our one business: but we are reminded, further, that there is a condition, a requisite, for this search after God-without which it will fail. It is said of Rehoboam, "He prepared not his heart to seek the Lord." (2 Chron. xii. 14.) Or, as the margin gives it, "He fixed not his heart to seek the Lord." Just as it is said elsewhere of a king of Israel, "He took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart." It reminds us of the expressions of our Lord, as to the necessity of sitting down first and counting the cost, before we lay the first

the Christian building, before we set out on that enwhich is to match us against a foe that is stronger

paration of the heart is the condition of our search d. To seek the Lord is a serious matter; in one difficult and laborious matter: it implies so deep a the importance of its success, that we shall readily all else for it; and this, not once for all, by a sacrie made, and instantly recompensed with its eternal but constantly, perseveringly, again and yet again, ccession of daily efforts, daily struggles, daily selfwhich are painful to the natural will, and beyond ngth of a merely human resolution. Therefore the ust be prepared for this; the mind made up; the nted beforehand, and the eye fixed steadfastly on an ot of sight, but of faith.

his it is which is so difficult-with man impossible. hat which so many lack; we might almost say, which ave. How far more common is it, to put off so seriep as that of really seeking God: not indeed to avow Ives that we do so; not to refuse the call; not to say, not;" but just to postpone the decision, just to trifle e command; to say (when the call reaches us to go rk to-day in God's vineyard), "I go, Lord," but yet o! This is the life of most men who call themselves ns. They pacify their own consciences by a show of ce; they are far from insensible to the beauty of the or the justice of the demand; but they do not make usiness of life to attend to God's voice, to seek the feel after him, if happily they may find him. They the homage of a creature, by thanking him for his nd asking his protection; but they have no real, no - no heart-stirring desire for that which he offers his acquaintance, his friendship, his presence, his

love. And therefore they do not prepare their hearts to seek the Lord.

We are taught, in the last place, the result of this. "He did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord." It must be so, when we consider what it is, in God's sight, "to do evil," and how alone we could ever be enabled to do what is in his sight good.

"To do evil" is a far wider term than may be at first apparent. Even in its narrowest sense-the commission of definite acts of sin-it is but too probable that he who is not heartily seeking God will be tempted, successfully tempted, to do evil. He casts away his only safeguard against the worst and vilest transgressions, when he forsakes, or neglects, or trifles with Him whose office it is to keep us from falling. The probability is, that, sooner or later, perhaps when he least of all expects it, the assault of temptation will come upon him, and, finding him off his guard, will at once or soon overthrow him. Sin may be more or less heinous, more or less open, more or less notorious to others; but it is not often that a whole life is spent even virtuously, when it is spent without God-without seeking God, without knowing God, without loving God. Well may he tremble for his very honour, for his very morality, for his very character, who is not preparing his heart to seek the Lord.

But, supposing all this to be in a particular case falsified; supposing such a man to pass through life, year after year, without any marked or fatal fall, it is none the less certain that his whole life will have been a doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

We are all familiar with a passage in the Book of Psalms, where the parallel, the synonyme, of "wickedness" is made to be the "forgetfulness of God." "The wicked shall be turned into hell: and all the people that forget God." Forgetfulness of God-the not cherishing the thought of him

times, as that which he is the not referring everyo his will, the not taking delight in his worship, the uiescing cheerfully in his appointments, the not seeknestly his glory, the not ministering to him in his es and his children-this is sin; apart from any open secret outbreaks of evil, apart from any words of pros, apart from any acts of oppression or immorality, th everything that is respectable, and amiable, and orthy in man's judgment, this state-the state of a being who has broken loose from the bonds of his 's love, who is indifferent to his Creator's honour, indisposed for his Creator's presence-this is a state a life of evil; this man has the mark of God's enemy is forehead, and shall be pronounced his servant in y of the manifestation of the sons of God.

an easy test to which to bring our present condition sight of God, to inquire, not so much, What have I what am I doing, that deserves God's displeasure? but Is my present mind and feeling such that I should heaven, such as would qualify me for the occupations, pleasures, for the repose, of a place where God is all -a place of which the Lord God Almighty and the are the very light and the temple?

judged, my brethren—and is it an unfair test?dged, which of us shall see salvation?

how much have we to do, every one of us, before the f our earthly life, few or many, be finally spent, and ones are set for judgment! This is the thought which to press upon all of us. Granted that we are not able with acts of gross transgression; granted that our re outwardly blameless; granted that no forms of palevil haunt us in these days of our youth and gladness; are we making preparation for heaven? are we seekm, preparing our hearts to seek him, whom to know

is eternal life, whom to love is heaven? If not now, when shall we begin this work? When? When the evil days come-days of weakness, and of remorse, and of bitterness? when the sound is already in our ears, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh?" when the door is already shut, and they who stand without cannot enter? God forbid that this should be the fate of any one of us-capable of such happiness, but capable, too, of such misery, as no imagination can conceive beforehand, and no power change when once felt!