habited, and carrying his plan into execution. — ^He describes him finding that heart empty of any good, and like a house "swept and garnished" for his reception. — He describes him as entering in once more, with seven spirits worse than himself, and once more making it his abode. And He winds up all by the solemn saying, " the last state of that man is worse than the first."
We must feel in reading these fearful words, that Jesus is speaking of things which we faintly comprehend. He is lifting a comer of the veil which hangs over the unseen world. His words, no doubt, illustrate the state of things which existed in the Jewish nation during the time of his own ministry. But the main lesson of His words, which concerns us, is the danger of our own individual souls. They are a solemn warning to us, never to be satisfied with religious reformation without heart conversion.
There is no safety excepting in thorough Christianity. To lay aside open sin is nothing, unless grace reigns in our .hearts. To cease to do evil is a small matter, if we do not also learn to do well. — The house must not only be swept and whitewashed. A new tenant must be intro- duced, or else the leprosy may yet appear again in the walls. — The outward life must not only be garnished with the formal trappings of religion. The power of vital religion must be experienced in the inward man. — The devil must not only be cast out. The Holy Ghost must take his place. Christ must dwell in our hearts by faith. We must not only be moralized, but spiritualized. We must not only be reformed, but bom again.
Let us lay these things to heart. Many professing Chris- tians, it may be feared, are deceiving themselves. They are