livered her up to her enemies, were those of impurity and incest. Phinehas, the priest, is praised for his zeal, and Balaam, the false prophet, given over to the contempt of posterity; the one boldly grappled with the sin, and the other showed by his crafty counsel the power of the sin. Later on, we have Elijah, the man of God, in his lofty asceticism witnessing against the impurity of the worship of Astoroth. And so through the troubles of Manasseh until we come to the days when Christ proclaimed a new Gospel to a sinful and adulterous generation. And what was this new gospel ? Even that the very thoughts and intents of the heart are to be watched and governed, and kept in subjection, as well as the actions. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, "Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery already with her in his heart." And so He nipped the sin in its bud. He struck at the root of the disease by condemning the cause, the desire, and thought of the heart, which is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Throughout the epistles there is but one warning, and that with the same motive in view, that Christians are members of Christ and temples of God. To the Corinthian Church, which was peculiarly affected by this kind

of sin, S. Paul_writes, "Flee fornication neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, shall inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. vi. 9-10. And "he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." And in verses 18-20, he gives the reason, "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price." Having here, as in the third chapter, reminded them that they are temples of the Holy Ghost, and that whosoever defileth the temple of God, him shall God destroy. So to the Thessalonians he speaks of the will of God being their "sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication, for God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness." To the Ephesians, " Fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."

To the Colossians, that in such sins "The wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience."

To the Galatians, "They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

To the Hebrews, "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge"; and so, too, S. Peter. 1 Peter ii. 11; 2 Peter ii. 9-10.

And the future of the sensualist is yet

more fearfully depicted by the beloved disciple, who was taken up that he might see the things which should be hereafter; he tells of a lake of fire and brimstone, and a second death (Rev. xxi. 8), and of a heavenly Jerusalem, without which, that is, those shut out and hopeless, are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremonger, and murderers, and idolaterers, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." Rev. xxii. 15. Such is the language of Him who hath also said that the pure in heart are Blessed, for they shall see God.

Very severe were the rules of the early church on the subject of impurity, going so far even as to deny communion in the hour of death, as may be seen by referring to Bingham, bk. xvi., chap. x., where the whole matter is fully discussed.

Whence then, in the face of Bible teaching and the voice of the church, has this vice of impurity such power? There are influences at work in modern life against the influence of the Holy Spirit, and these which are so often fatal to those who surrender themselves to them cannot be passed by.

First in order is the literature of the present day. Amid much that is good there is an infinite amount of what is fatally evil. Men have run to and fro, and knowledge has increased, and herewith a hungering

after what is sensational and exciting to the passions, hence too much of what is produced in the pages of magazines and in the shape of three-volume novels touches so closely on the region of the forbidden, and panders so much to a heated imagina tion, that it is difficult to know where the mischief of such reading ends. "There are books, and very popular books too, in which, notwithstanding their refinement, a del cate taste recognises a taint which cannot but corrupt the purity of the soul. There is an unwholesome curiosity in some directions about sins of which it were better to know nothing." I don't think that we are a whit behind the last century in the impurity of our literature, we have attained the point of concealment, but this only makes the poison the more deadly.

Next are the amusements, which are scarcely less to be condemned. No one can honestly recommend the drama as a moral agent, no one can say, as we ought to be able to say, that to see a play is to learn a great moral lesson, nor can we say that the means provided of social entertainment in the casinoes and saloons of our towns are such as will give rest to the mind and, as a change of thought, do good to the spiritual man also. Not so. It is impossible to recommend them to the young, nay, our first duty, by way of checking the