of evil company, they feel how destructive it is to their own real good, they deplore its seduction of their hearts, and, therefore, they desire to forsake it, they long for an opportunity to quit it. But they have not courage to make one for themselves, and thus they go on waiting and waiting for deliverance, and at the same time become faster and faster bound with the bonds of the society of which their conscience is afraid.

But the exhortation to forsake such is among the very first.

company St. Peter could not

preach the first sermon in the Church without speaking of it at length. And surely with good reason. He that would forsake sin must begin with forsaking sinners. He that would turn unto God must turn away from the enemies of God. And here is the grand struggle. And yet what is the separating ourselves from old companions, and enduring their mockery, if not their threats and spite, compared with that which Christ hath told us we must do, if need be, for his sake, namely, to forsake father, mother, sisters, brethren, all we have? And with what a spirit of watchfulness should we take heed of falling into evil company? How often are people led into it by careless, unthinking, carnal curiosity? They will go, they say, just to see who are there, or the sort of thing that is going on, but will not mingle with any that do evil. What a vain resolution! They

begin with resolving to see a sin, and be amongst the sinners. What can it end in, but doing the sin, and being sinners? Did any man in his senses ever say, I will go and see the plague, what it is, and I will see those that have it, how they look; but I will not catch it, and be ill of it? No! wherever any breach of any commandment of the Lord is going on, that is no place for the true Christian. Can a Christian man stay in company where the Lord's day is broken, where God's name is taken in vain, where Christ is put to open shame by the evil practices of men who take his name upon them by calling themselves Christians, where scoff, lewd merriment, and unseemly language take up the time which should be given to prayer and praise in the name of Jesus Christ; can any man stay in such company, endure its sights and sounds, and, as a Christian should, maintain himself in the company of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost? No surely, for, as St. Paul asks, What concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

We must save ourselves, we are told, from this untoward generation. If we be Christ's, we are then holy vessels, which must not be put to the common use of the world. Our bodies are then vessels of sanctification and honour, and we must remember the words of the Prophet which I have before reminded you of,

"Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord;" and the words of the Apostle, who asks, "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?" Our profession is to have come out from such company, to abhor the touch of all unclean things, to have departed from the city of evil-doers, and to have removed and taken our place, far away thence, in the city of the living God, amid the company of angels, and spirits of just men made perfect, and Christ the mediator of the new covenant.

The Lord gave warning to Noah to escape from the judgment of the flood, the Lord gave warning to Lot to escape from the brimstone and fire which He was about to rain upon the city of the ungodly, the Lord gave warning to his disciples to flee from Jerusalem before He brought the fire and the sword upon it. And so He now warns all his servants every where to come out from amid the untoward generation around them, to separate themselves from its sins, and so to save themselves from the plagues of that everlasting judgment which shall be revealed in fire on the last day. If even in the eyes of man's justice, the lookers-on at unlawful doings are considered as partakers in them, for their business was either to be out of the way, or active against them, how much more

3 2 Cor. vi. 14.

shall Almighty God execute his law which He has distinctly made known to us, that He will treat as a sinner the companion of sinners? How can any one be in their company without sin, were it only because God has forbidden such company, whatever we may think its consequences? Therefore let every one calling himself Christian, remember that he claims to be one of a peculiar people, a member of the Church of God, which Christ hath purchased for Himself with his own blood. And let him be assured, that in such company alone is salvation, and in every other judgment, and wrath, and everlasting destruction.

SERMON XVI.

THE SIN OF BAD EXAMPLE.

ACTs ix. 4.

"Saul! Saul! why persecutest thou me ?"

THERE is little danger, we may hope, of our being concerned in the immediate meaning of these words, by persecuting Christ through persecuting his disciples, or by being persecuted ourselves by others. Yet as no part of Scripture is without its lesson at all times, and to all persons, if it be read for the sake of reproof, of correction, of instruction in righteousness, and with a watchful eye on practice, we shall find something for us here. And that is the grand and awful truth, that Christ considers Himself one with his disciples. They are members of his body, and therefore He considers their sufferings as his sufferings, and their welfare as his welfare. He defends their cause as his own, and if He do not interfere openly in