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the Apostle Paul exhorts the Colossians to "walk in wisdom towards them that are without."-Col. iv. 5. If it be true that "in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin; but he that refraineth his lips is wise," Prov. x. 19, then he is specially wise who keeps a constant sentinel before his mouth in the presence of the wicked. Here is a place where inconsiderate speech may do injury lasting as eternity. The cause we love best, and the Saviour whom we adore, may be despised by the wicked on account of our words. The anxious may be turned away from Christ, and the careless be hardened into greater indifference. Our words may furnish food for jest and sneers with the unbelieving, and when we mingle with the world at large, this prayer should ever be on our lips-"Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth keep the door of my lips."

III. Permit me to suggest a few rules for keeping the door of the lips.

Perhaps in many, or even the most of cases, there will be no need of rules; but there are some cases in which one well-settled principle may save a vast amount of trouble and mischief.

1. In a great many cases it will be useful, before speaking, to ask yourself "What is the motive from which I am going to speak?"

Perhaps the question, honestly answered, will show you that anger, or envy, or prejudice, is the motive; and need I say that when such a motive is at the bottom, we will do well to shut those words in as we would lock up a wild beast. Usually but little that is valuable will be lost; and a great deal will be gained by such prudence.

I am convinced that this suggestion is one which will do us all good if we will but practice it; and that there is not a day when this rule, rigidly enforced, would not save us many idle words, which are worse than idle in their effects.

2. In cases of excitement, enlisting your feelings deeply, or in cases of doubt, ask yourself whether your words are likely, in the circumstances, to work mischief, or to wrong any one of whom you speak? Often cases arise in which you are certain that one course is not wrong, but you are doubtful whether another course is right; and it is a safe rule to pursue the course_concerning which there is no doubt. This rule applies to the keeping the door of the lips. The Apostle Paul announces this principle in relation to another subject; "He that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."-Rom. xiv. 23.

In like manner the reluctance to wrong others is a great safeguard in the use of that tremendous agent which is called articulate language. We cannot maintain "a conscience void of offence," and speak recklessly words to the injury of others.

3. It is a safe rule often to ask ourselves how our words will appear when we shall give an account thereof at the day of judg ment. "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned."-Matt. xii. 36, 37.

In conclusion, permit me to remark that I have used words with as much plainness as possible, in describing and rebuking what has become, and is still, a growing evil, which has "set a man at variance with his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,"Matt. x. 34; an evil which is setting at defiance the ties of blood and the bonds of friendship; an evil which is fretting and worrying society itself into a feverish excitement, and defeating those influences which we might hope would be exerted by a preached gospel and the other means of grace.

Some, perhaps, are looking and longing for a revival of religion, of which there is an urgent necessity; but if I am not mistaken, before we are likely to have a revival, at least professing Christians must sincerely pray, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth keep the door of my lips." Some chronic ailments must be cured; Christians must love one another; must weep more than rejoice over one another's frailties; must come together as the heart of one man, with one aim, one love, one desire, and one prayer.

To do this we must "set a watch before our mouth, and keep the door of our lips." We need not fear that the topics of social conversation will fail under these stringent rules, for the high themes of redemption through Christ will yet be ours.

These rules will cut off nothing noble or valuable in our converse with others. The useless, the pernicious, the debasing only will be lost, and the loss of these will be no loss.

The converse of Christ with his friends is the model for us to imitate; and Peter says of Christ, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth."-1 Peter ii. 22. Blessed Saviour!

"Such was thy truth, and such thy zeal,
Such deference to thy Father's will,—
Such love and meekness so divine,

I would transcribe and make them mine."

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"And Hazael said: But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria."-2 KINGS viii. 13.

"Know thyself!" was the concise maxim of ancient wisdom, but like many others, it is a maxim more easily uttered than obeyed. The true knowledge of ourself is, indeed, the most difficult of all human attainments; it is in fact, altogether beyond the reach of human attainments. A man may know something of himself, even as he may know something of external nature, and of his fellow-men. But in both cases, there is a limit beyond which he cannot go; there are hidden depths which he cannot penetrate. Especially in regard to his moral character, man is to himself an "unknowable individual." There are latent tendencies in his own heart, which may remain wholly unsuspected, until revealed, by an unlooked-for combination of circumstances, which shall call them into activity. It is on this account that men are so apt to misjudge themselves, and so prone to regard as harsh and unjust, the Scriptural account of human depravity. They will consent. that the strong language of the Bible, may be true of some monsters of iniquity, but that it is true of fallen and unregenerated human nature, as such; that it has any just application to themselves, they wholly deny. They even wax indignant, when we take the words of Christ, and of his Apostles, as the exposition of their own depravity and guilt. And when we trace out the

lines of their spiritual paternity, and exhibit the extravagance of their amazing folly, in the rejection of Christ, and assure them, that in themselves they have no security against a descent into the lowest depths of degradation and crime, they exclaim with Ha zael, "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" Now we would not needlessly disturb this self-complacency; we certainly would not do it, by any exaggerated representations of the inherent evil of the human heart. Nothing would be gained for the cause of truth and godliness, by painting the devil himself in darker colors than he wears, even if it were possible to do so. And yet it is the stale and standing charge against what is styled by ignorant witlings, a severe and sour Calvinism, that it delights to delineate human nature in the blackest lines, unrelieved by a single ray of love, or charity. But what could any system of doctrines possibly gain, except universal odium and detestation, by persisting in holding up such representations of human nature, if those representations were not true? It is not for the interest of any cause that would win the suffrages of men, to make them appear to themselves as worse than they really are. Satan some times plays a double game with sinners, and after having tempted them with flattering words, to great or long continued sin, he will turn and drive them to desperation, if he can, by persuading them that they are too bad to be forgiven. But by far his most fre quent and successful effort is in the way of fostering the convic tion, that they are too good to need forgiveness. The prevailing disposition of men is to think themselves better than they are. And as the faithful physician is often charged with unfeeling harshness, when urging the use of vigorous remedies, or even the amputating knife; he reveals the imminent danger of his patient; so, and with as little reason or justice, the faithful preacher of the word, is accused of delighting in denunciations, and exagger ating the moral malady of the soul, when he exhibits, from the word of God, its deep and damning depravity. If he had no remedy to propose, his representations, though truthful, might be regarded as needless, and his zeal, as wanton cruelty. But whilst, blessed be God! there is a remedy, yet such is man's inveterate aversion to it, that only the extremest sense of his need will bring him to consider and embrace that remedy. "They that are need not a physician, but they that are sick," and as to an application of the remedy, it is all the same, whether a man is really whole, or only imagines himself to be so.

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It is therefore of the first importance, that every man should at least so far know himself, as to be sensible of his own guilt and danger. Without this it is in vain that we speak of the remedy, for without this, there will be no application to the great physician of souls. It is not, then, in unkindness, but in love, that we lift the covering from that abyss of sin, the human heart; it is not in cynical bitterness, but in sorrow, that we point to its

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festering corruption; it is not with curious, but with weeping eyes, that we explore its secret chambers, and bring to light its hidden vileness. May the Spirit of all grace, guide our thoughts, and succeed our effort, as we endeavor this day to exhibit one phase of depravity, as illustrated in that fragment of sacred story which we have selected for our text.

Hazael was prime minister to Benhadad, King of Syria, and his eventual accession to the throne of that kingdom had been made known to Elisha, to whom God had revealed his purpose of punishing the sins of Israel by his instrumentality. When in after years Elisha came to Damascus, Hazael was sent by his master, who was then ill, to consult the prophet respecting his recovery. The answer was, that the king might certainly recover. Howbeit," added the prophet, "the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die?" Then fixing his eye steadily upon Hazael, as if he would read his secret thoughts, the guilty officer of the king became confused, and betrayed his embarrassment, whereupon the man of God wept; and when Hazael had inquired the cause of this outburst of tears, Elisha replied, by describing the vivid picture then present to his own mind, of all the evils which the man now before him would inflict upon Israel. At this portrait of himself, Hazael exclaimed, "But what! Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing?" The Prophet condescended to no further explanation than simply intimating, that, as king of Syria, he should do it. Hazael delivered to his master that part of the prophetic response which was intended for him; but the very next day, this man, cool and calculating in his ambition, took a thick cloth, and having dipped it in water, spread it over the face of the king, who in his feebleness, or in his sleep, was smothered by its weight, and died, what seemed to his people, a natural death. Having thus reached the throne, through the guilt of murder, Hazael made war upon Israel, and in a series of campaigns and victories, extending through forty years, he made good to the very letter, the appalling predictions of Elisha.

In considering the facts of this brief history, there are three points worthy of attention:

I. Hazael knew that he was a wicked man, and that his tendencies were wicked. It is not improbable that his ambition had already suggested and entertained the purpose of the foul murder of Benhadad, which he afterwards committed. Perhaps this thought was in his mind when the Prophet told him that the king's malady was not mortal, but that he should nevertheless die. If so, it was the consciousness of his bloody purpose that made him quail under the searching glance of Elisha. He supposed himself in the presence of one who could read his thoughts, and with such thoughts in his heart, no wonder that he was confused. Those significent words, "the Lord hath showed me that he shall

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