III. DRINK, All who he.ve looked carefully into the condition of the miserably poor of great cities a.re driven to the one conclusion the.t the most prolific source of enl le intemperance, No doubt the overcrowding, the miRery, the absence of all other resources drive people to this one desperate consolation. We must remove the causes of intemperance if we would sweep a.way the vice. Still, it is e. vice. Indulgence in it is more.Uy degrading. So huge II vice demands exceptional treatment. It is the duty of Christian people not merely to enjoy their lllsthetic worship, but also to follow Obrist in saving the lost. Temperance work must take e. prominent place in the activities of the Ohurch. IV. NARROWNESS OIi' Llll'E, The town life is dingy and compressed. The influences of nature are not felt. The School Board has not yet brought the spirit of culture within the horizon of the crowded people in the lower parts of great cities. Religion is little more than a name to too many of these unhappy people. Such a cramped and crushed life cannot grow e.nd bear fruit in the graces of human experience. Here, then, is a bitter cry that all Christians should hearken to for Christ's sake. It is humiliating to a Christian nation that such a cry should be heard in our land; it will be a sign that our religion is but hypocritical Pharisaism if the cry is unheeded.-W. F. A. Ver. 19.-17ie death-penaUy of sin. Job admits this as freely as his friends. Sin must lead to the grave. It may not do this so swiftly as the friends assume ; nor may the course thither be what they anticipate. But, in the long run, a man's sin must be his death. I. THE SPE0il!'I0 PENALTY OF BIN IB DEATH. Sin may fulfil, and more than fulfil, some of its promises first; but the end is death. This dreadful fact, which is made clear to us from the story of Adam and Eve, throughout the whole of the Old and New Testaments, is obscured by popular conceptions of the future. The Church has regarded pain as the main consequence of sin. The gruesome medireval hell has been presented to the trembling sinner as the goal of his evil course. Now suffering, bitter and grievous, is in store for the impenitent, for Christ speaks of "wailing and gnashing of teeth." But suffering is not the only end of sin. Much more frequent than any references to the suffering of the wicked are the Scripture warnings of death and destruction. Whatever interpretation we put upon these warnings-whether we take them as denoting absolute extinction of being, pure annihilation, or whether we regard them as pointing to some corrupting, dissolving influence-they mean something else thnn keen, wakeful pain. IJ. 'l'HE DEATH-PENALTY 18 A NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF BIN. Job tells '1s that the effect is like that of drought and heat consuming the snow-waters. No destroying angel need be sent forth with fla.ming sword to cut down the army of sinners. They are their own destroyers. The sword is in their own conduct. This is often seen in the physical effects of vice, which sows seeds of disease, and hastens premature decay. It is always present in the moral consequences of evil. The spiritual nature is diseased, cor- rupted, lowered. Powers and faculties fade and wither away. The true self shrinks and shrivels, Existence in the body on earth becomes a living death. Wheu the life of the body is gone it is difficult to see what life is left, for this life seemed to be all that waB possessed. Ill. THE DEATH-PENALTY 0AN ONLY BE AVOIDED BY THE GENERATION OF A NEW LIFE. Sentence has gone out against us; the sentence is in our own constitution. Here is the difficult,y. If it were external, an external process might abolish it; but seeing that it is internal, it must be dealt with internally. No mere decree of pardon will be suffi~ cient, for the poison is in the blood, the death is already at work there. A simple order of forgiveness can do nothing. The pressing need is for an antidote within. Nay, the , old self has been so injured and corrupted by sin, that a new life is needed. We are beyond cure; we are like lepers who have lost limbs in their disease. Healing is not enough; a new creation in necessary. Now, this is just what Christ effects. He does not only give external pardon, he ie not satisfied to me.n.ipulate legal points; he regene- rates. He says," Ye must be born again" (John iii. 3); and St. Paul tells us that "he that is in Christ Jesus is a new creature" (2 Cor. v. 17).-W. F. A.
Ver. 24.-" A little while." Job is here taking a step towards the solution of the 422 Tttk Molt OF .m'B.