unholiness. We are indeed tempted often to underrate the sinfulness of sin; we look upon it as something so easily forgiven, and presume upon the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this easy view of forgiveness we plainly forget the work of the Spirit of God, and the real condition of those who have hindered His work. But there is a parallel error into which we may fall, we may get into a way of slighting the need of holiness and good works. Because men cannot earn heaven by their own works and deservings, we are apt to think that these works which are not our own, but which we are enabled to do, are not of any value, and somehow or other obscure the merits of our Lord, as though the good works of the Gospel were the dead works of the Law. Surely we speak against the work of the Spirit, when we say that good works, works He enables us to do, are to be made little of; nay, while we may wish to elevate the cross, in reality we pull it down, for it is by the cross that we have obtained those heavenly and spiritual gifts, whereby we work what is good and acceptable to God. JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON. Tracts for the Christian Seasons. TUESDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK. The Guidance of the Spirit into sound Doctrine. PROPER LESSONS: Morning, 1st. 1 Sam. xix. ver. 18; 2nd. 1 Thess. v. ver. 12-24; In a greater or less degree, more or less perfectly, we all feel the need of holiness in order to be prepared for the hour of death and the day of judgment. Men know themselves to be in danger when they give way to any sins, lusts, evil passions, vicious ways. They at once allow that in the pathway thereof there is no life; that such are the ways of death; and that those who die in such a state, without repentance and without change, bring down upon them the everlasting vengeance of the Lord. The workers of iniquity do not look upon themselves as safe, though to some degree they blind themselves in the midst of the course to the fearful issue of their deeds, or though they smooth down their fears by vague and self-deceiving hopes of repenting before they die. Though they may habitually push from their minds all thoughts of the judgment to come, and though they may fail to realize what it is they are hastening to, yet when they do meet the question, they will confess that theirs is not the path to eternal life, that they are treading the wrong road at present, and that in their mode of life the soul is unprepared for God. In short, we all feel more or less the danger of unholiness; we all feel that the most Holy God does require us to be holy; and that thefts, murders, adulteries, covetousness, revellings, drunkenness, and such things, do lead to hell and eternal death. The danger of error in life, of evil living, of ungodliness, is manifest to all. But while there is among men a consciousness, an admission of the danger of an unrighteous life, there is not the same consciousness or admission of the danger of wrong doctrine. Men are apt to underrate the peril of error in matters of belief, and this very laxity tends of course to multiply errors and to put men off their guard. We have fears about the future state of any who in our neighbourhood lead notoriously ill lives; we have often sad thoughts concerning them; but commonly we have no such degree of fear concerning those who hold strange doctrines, who do not accept the fulness of the Christian faith; if there is decency and propriety of life to give a fair covering to unsound faith, we are apt practically to consider such morality and decency of life as something like a set-off against the errors, as something like a title to salvation, notwithstanding that it is written, "He that believeth not shall be damned." Now as we pray to-day that we may have a right judgment in all things, so let us try to have a right judgment upon this point; and in order to inform our judgment, let us first see how much there is in Scripture about sound doctrine and false. Even a few passages strung together may perhaps lead us to think more of the danger of unsound doctrine, of the need and of the means of reading what is true. Take what St. Paul says to Timothy, "Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." "Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine." "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith." "Thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine." "Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth." He speaks of Hymenæus and Philetus, who "concerning the truth have erred," and of "holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck, of whom is Hymenæus and Alexander." Here in this single Epistle see what stress is laid on the matter of sound doctrine; and the same Apostle in his short Epistle to Titus describes a bishop as one "holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." He warns him against "Jewish fables and commandments of men, that turn from the truth." He says, "Speak thou the things which become sound doctrine." "A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth." To the Corinthians he speaks of himself as being not like " many which corrupt the word of God," and "there must be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among |