eequencee, No man chooses perdition. But it comes to the same thing whether you leap over e. precipice or walk a.long the brink with your eyes shut. f;ometimes the einuer sins with open eyes, e.nd, just because he knows the danger, flatters himself he ce.n stop in time. He is not on the brink--only on the gentle grassy slope; bnt involuntarily bis steps quicken-he cannot stop-he is lost! A traveller through the euow kuows tbe.t the one fatal danger is to yield to sleep. "Only fur five minutes," he says; e.nd closes bis eyes, never to open a.gain. Or a thirsty wayfarer in the desert is warned that e. spring is poisr,nons. 'l'he bones of those who have encamped near it whiten the ground. "One draught only l" he says; a.no presently his hones whiten with the rest. Every one is ready to say, "He sought his fate; has only himself to hie.me." Are there none amongst us to whom conscience (if awake) woulrl answer, "Thou a.rt the man"? "Their eyes have they closed" (Matt. xiii. 15). They have "forsaken the fountain of living waters" (Jer. ii. 13). They" heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning" (Ezek. xxxiii. 5; Heh. x. 28, 29). If sin is folly, the clearer tbe light, the greater the folly. Thererore the sins of Christians must be the 11:reatest folly. This does not apply to sins of infirmity, against which we are watching, fighting, praying, of which the Christian is sadly conscious, but which have not "dominion over" him. But what these lead to, if we fail to watch, fight, pray: willing yielding to temptation, wilful persistence in wrong, against conscience, loving what we are pledged and bound to hate, ceasing to strive to please God ;-this is indeed to "turn aii;ain to folly." II. Goo's PURPOSE IN HIS DEALINGS WITH HIS CHILDREN 18 TO PREVENT THEIR TURNING BACK TO SIN. This both in his mercy and in his chastening. 1. In his mercy. "I will hear," etc. God's purpose in forgiving sin is both to incline and to enable us to forsake it. Its guilt is cancelled, that its power may be destroyed. Else forgiveness were useless, waskd. The cross of Chri,t, constantly set forth in the New Testament as the atonement for our sins, the reconciliation whereby we are brought back to God (Rom. v. 9, 10), is as plainly set forth a.s the mightiest motive to holiness (Ga.I. ii. 20; see the whole of Rom. vi.). 2. Gud's chastening discipline has the same end in view (Heb. xii. 10, 11 ; Ps. cxix. 67, 71 ). The danger is real. Christians are exposed to the ordinary temptations which beset human nature, though with diminished force; and have some special temptations. We need constantly to open our hearts to the force of all the motives here suggested. (1) God's forgiving mercy, and our enjoyment of it (Rom. xii. 1). (2) God's chastening, and our experience of it. (3) God's promises, and our hope. (4) God's warning, "Let them not turn again to folly," and the unspeakable folly and misery of neglecting it. For the ransomed slave to run back to slavery, the released prisoner to banker after bis cell and fetters, the man restored to health to long for bis sick-room, the blind whose eyes have been opened to shut himself up in the dark,-seems less insane than for those who "have escapee', the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," to be "again entangled therein and overcome" (2 Pet. ii. 20; Heh. vi. 4-6).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-13.-Temporal mercies of little avail without such as are spiritual. There had been great outward mercies (see vers. 1-3). Probably the wonderful deliverance of Judah, Jerusalem, and Hezekiah from the threatened might of .Assyria was the occasion of this_ burst of thanksgiving. But the psalmist-it may have been Isaiah himself-whilst grateful, indeed, for God's delivorance, as he well might be, was never- theless sore distressed at the spiritual condition of his countrymen (see Isaiah's denun- ciations of the wickedness of his people, eh. i. and passim). There needed, therefore, to be an inward conversion as well as an outward deliverance such as they bad experi- enced. And until this spiritual reformation was brought about, the anger of God rested on them still. Hence the prayer, "Revive us again," etc. In this psalm we have- I. THANKFUL A0KNOWLEDGMENT OF MERCIES RECEIVED. (Vers. 1--3.) II. EARNEST PRAYERS FOR YET GREATER ONES. (Vera. 4--7.) Ill. CONFIDENT BELIEF THAT TBE LoRD WILL ANSWER, (Ver, 8.) 206 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS, LXXXV, 1-13,
IV. Jo,FUL ANTICIPATION OF THE BLESSINGS THB LOBD WILL GlVB, (Vera. 9-13.)-S. c.