that was done by our Lord, he was perplexed." He said, "John have I beheaded, but who is this ? " Great and powerful as he was, the tidings of our Lord's min- istry called his sins to remembrance, and disturbed him even in his royal palace. Surrounded as he was by every- thing which is considered to make life enjoyable, the report of another preacher of righteousness filled him with alarm. The recollection of his own wickedness in killing John the Baptist flashed on his mind. He knew he had done wrong. He felt guilty, self-condemned, and self-dissatisfied. Faith- ful and true is that saying of Solomon's, " The way of transgressors is hard." (Prov. xiii. 15.) Herod's sin had found him out. The prison and the sword had silenced John the Baptist's tongue, but they could not silence the voice of Herod's inward man. God's truth can neither be silenced, nor bound, nor killed.
Conscience is a most powerful part of our natural constitution. It cannot save our souls. It never leads a man to Christ. It is often blind, and ignorant, and misdirected. Yet conscience often raises a mighty testi- mony against sin in the sinner's heart, and makes him feel that "it is an evil and a bitter thing" to depart from God. Young persons ought especially to remember this, and, remembering it, to take heed to their ways. Let them not flatter themselves that all is right, when their sins are past, and done, and forgotten by the world. Let them know that conscience can bring up each sin before the eyes of their minds, and make it bite like a serpent. Millions will testify at the last day that Herod's experi- ence was their own. Conscience called old sins from their graves, and made them walk up and down in their
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