understand the doctrines and principles of believers. But the world is very keen-sighted about their practice.
The sin against which our Lord warns us was the sin of David. When he had broken the seventh command- menty and taken the wife of Uriah to be his wife, the prophet Nathan said to him, ''Thou hast ^ven great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme." (2 Sam. xii. 14.) It was the sin which St. Paul charges on the Jews, when he says, " the name of God is blas- phemed among the Gentiles through you.*' (Rom. ii. 24.) It is the sin of which he frequently entreats Christians to beware : — " Give none oflFence, neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God." (1 Cor. x. 32.)
The subject is a deeply searching one. The sin which our Lord brings before us is unhappily very common. The inconsistencies of professing Christians too often supply the men of the world with an excuse for neglect- ing religion altogether. An inconsistent believer, whether he knows it or not, is daily doing harm to souls. His life is a positive injury to the Gospel of Christ.
Let us often ask ourselves whether we are doing good or harm in the world. We cannot live to ourselves, if we are Christians. The eyes of many will always be upon us. Men will judge by what they see, far more than by what they hear. If they see the Christian con-i tradicting by his practice what he professes to believe, they are justly stumbled and offended. For the world's Bake» as well as for our own, let us labour to be eminently holy. Let us endeavour to make our religion beautiful in the eyes of men, and to adorn the doctrine of Christ in all things. Let us strive daily to lay aside every