if possible, to keep in with both sides. We fear extremes. We dread being righteous overmuch. We are anxious not to go too far. — Such thoughts as these are full of peril to the soul. Once allowed to get the upper hand, they may do us inunense harm. Nothing is so offensive to Christ as lukewarmness in religion. To be utteriy dead and ignorant, is to be an object of pity as well as blame. But to know the truth and yet " halt between two opinions," is one of the chiefest of sins.
Let it be the settled determination of our minds, that we will serve Christ with all our hearts, if we serve Him at all. Let there be no reserve, no compromise, no half- heartedness, no attempt to reconcile God and mammon in our Christianity. Let us resolve, by God's help, to be " with Christ," and " gather " by Christ's side, and allow the world to say and do what it will. — It may cost us something at first. It will certainly repay us in the long run. Without decision there is no happiness in religion. He that follows Jesus most fully, will always follow TTirn most comfortably. — ^Without decision in religion, there is no usefulness to others. The half-hearted Christian attracts none by the beauty of his life, and wins no respect from the world.
Let us observe finally, in these verses, h>ow dangerous it is to he content with any change in religion short of thorough conversion to God. This is a truth which our Lord teaches by an awful picture of one from whom a devil has been cast forth, but into whose heart the Holy Spirit has not entered. He describes the evil spirit, after his expulsion, as seeking rest and finding none. — He describes liiTn planning a return to the heart which he once in-