feax about the future. He has no anxiety about. his soul. He has no dread of falling into heU. All this is a false peace no doubt. It is a sleep which cannot last, and from which there must be one day an awful waking. But there is such a peace beyond ques- tion. Thoughtless, stolid, reckless insensibility about eternal things is one of the worst symptoms of the devil reigning over a man's soul.
Let us never think lightly of the devil. That common practice of idle jesting about Satan which we may often mark in the world, is a great evil. A prisoner must be a very hardened man who jests about the executioner and the gallows. The heart must be in a very bad state, when a man can talk with levity about hell and the devil.
Let us thank God that there is One who is stronger even than Satan. That One is the Friend of sinners, Jesus the Son of God. Mighty as the devil is, he was overcome by Jesus on the cross, when He triumphed over him openly. Strong as the devil is, Christ can pluck his captives out of his hands, and break the chains which bind them. May we never rest till we know that deliverance by experience, and have been set free by the Son of God !
Let us observe, for another thing in these verses, how strongly our Lord teaches the impossibility of neutrality. He says, " he that is not with me, is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth."
The principle laid down in these words should be con- stantly remembered by all who make any profession of decided religion. We all naturally love an easy Christ- ianity. We dislike collisions and separation. We like.