matter, because he himself is a gainer by it, he is no better than the receiver of stolen goods, and he will find in the day of the Lord, that the sin will lie at his door, as Jezebel's sin lay at Ahab's. There was no need for Ahab to say, 'Jezebel did it, and not I.' The prophet did not even give him time to excuse himself: 'Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?' By taking possession of Naboth's vineyard, and so profiting by his murder, he made himself partaker in that murder, and had to hear the terrible sentence, 'In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick thy blood, even thine.'

Oh, my friends, whatsoever you do, keep clean hands and a pure heart. If you touch pitch, it will surely stick to you. Let no gain tempt you to be partaker of other men's sins; never fancy that, because men cannot lay the blame on the right person, God cannot. God will surely lay the burden on the man who helped to make the burden; God will surely require part payment from the man who profited by the bargain; so keep yourselves clear of other men's sins, that you may be clear also of their condemnation.

So Ahab had committed a horrible and great sin, and had received sentence for it; and now, as I said before, there was nothing to be done but to repent; and he did so, after his fashion.

Ahab, it seems, was not an utterly bad man; he was a weak man, fond of his own pleasure, a slave to his own passions, and easily led, sometimes to good, but generally to evil. And God did not execute full vengeance on him: his repentance was a poor one enough; but such as it was, the good and merciful God gave him credit for it as far as it went, and promised him that the worst part of his sentence, the ruin of his family, should not come in his time. But still the sentence against him stood, and was fulfilled. Not long after, as we read in the second lesson, he was killed in battle, and that not bravely and with honour (for if he had been, that would have been but a slight punishment, my friends), but shamefully by a chance shot, after he had disguised himself, in the cowardice of his guilty conscience, and tried to throw all the danger on his ally, good King Jehoshaphat of Judah; 'and they washed his chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah the prophet.'

So ends one of the most clear and terrible stories in the whole Bible, of God's impartial justice. May God give us all grace to lay it to heart. We are all tempted as Ahab was; rich or poor, our temptation is alike to give place to the Devil, and let him lead us into dark and deep sin, by giving

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way to our own fancies, longings, pride, and temper. We are all tempted, as Ahab was, to over-reach our neighbour in some way; I do not mean always in cheating them, but in being unfair to them, in caring more for ourselves than for them; thinking of ourselves first, and of them last; trying to make ourselves comfortable, or to feed our own pride, at their expense. Oh my friends, whenever we are tempted to be selfish and grasping, be sure that we are opening a door to the very Devil of hell himself, though he may look so smooth, and gentle, and respectable, that perhaps we shall not know him when he comes to us, and shall take his counsels for the counsel of an angel of light. But be sure that if it is selfishness which has opened the door of our heart, not God, but the Devil, will come in, let him disguise himself as cunningly as he will; and our only hope is to flee to Him in whom there was no selfishness, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came not to do His own will, but His Father's; not to glorify Himself, but His Father; not to save his own life, but to sacrifice it freely, for us, his selfish, weak, greedy, wandering sheep. Pray to Him to give you His Spirit, that glorious spirit of love, and duty, and self-sacrifice, by which all the good deeds on earth are done; which teaches a man not to care about himself, but about others; to help others, to feel

for others, to rejoice in their happiness, to grieve over their sorrows, to give to them, rather than take from them-in one word, The Holy Spirit of God, which may He pour out on you, and me, and all mankind, that we may live justly and lovingly, as children of one just and loving Father in heaven.

SERMON XII.

GOD THE JUDGE.

PSALM xcix. I.

"The Lord is King, be the people never so impatient: He sitteth between the cherubim, be the earth never so unquiet.'

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TOLD you last Sunday one part of what the

Doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer meant, by teaching us to say, 'Father, Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.' But it means more. Not only the natural world, which we can see and handle, is under our Heavenly Father's government, but also the spiritual world, which we cannot see nor handle; the spiritual world, to which belong the spirits, that is, the souls, and wills, and minds, and hearts of men, and of angels, and of evil spirits. Of this, too, our Heavenly Father is King. All power in it comes from Him. All glory in it is His glory, and shows forth His righteousness, and love, and wisdom, and perfect beauty.

Ah, my friends, this is far more difficult to believe than the other. It is easy, comparatively,