mark! your going into the house of Rimmon, your doing things which are not strictly right, is sure to paralyze your moral nature. The thought of this will haunt you when you least expect it; the consciousness of it will make you feel powerless when you need most to be strong. When you endeavour to do good, you will feel as if you had no right to do it; when you reprove sin in others, you will be smitten by your own words; when you ought to play the hero, you will act the part of a coward.

This is the

3. It hampers spiritual aspirations. worst thing of all about it. Man has been created in God's image; his soul is a temple for. the Holy Ghost to dwell in; he is satisfied-content-happy, only as he is able to hold communion with the Infinite. Do you need proof of this? Is there not a hunger, a craving in your own souls, for something better than this world can bestow? Do you not endeavour to contemplate the unseen-to penetrate the veil by which the eternal world is hidden from your view? You do. It is your nature. You will never be at rest until you find God. But who is God? What are your notions concerning Him? Is He not the highest, the purest, the best -to whom unrighteousness is an abomination not to be endured? That questionable conduct of yours, therefore, makes you shudder at the very thought of

1

God; you cannot possibly converse with Him; when you retire to your chamber, to pray in secret, your words must die on your lips, your holy desires

must be too weak to find utterance; you feel that if God should regard you at all, it must be with a frown. Ah! my friends, do you sometimes feel impotent in prayer? If so, let me urge you to find out the

cause.

XVI.

THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE;

OR,

WORLDLY AMBITION.

"And He said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto Him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on Thy right hand, and the other on the left, in Thy kingdom." &c. MATT. XX. 21–23.

Ir is passing strange how men will cling to their favourite theories. You may prove them to be mistaken, you may refute their arguments, you may answer their objections; but when you fondly imagine that you have succeeded in convincing them, you are astonished to discover that you have simply been wasting time-for they adhere to their own more firmly than ever! Christ was now on His way to Jerusalem; and He thought proper to inform His disciples of the terrible sufferings about to overtake Him-sufferings of which the persecutions He had endured before were but dim foreshadowings. "Behold," said He, "we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief

priests and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles, to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him: and the third day He shall rise again." This language was so plain-this statement was so explicit-that it is difficult to conceive how anyone should have failed to understand it. Nevertheless, to James and John, and their mother, it seems to have been perfectly incomprehensible. Immediately the mother comes at her sons' request-or, at least, with their consent and seeks to secure for them the most honourable positions in the magnificent worldly kingdom which they suppose He will speedily establish!

We are apt to imagine that a teacher's success depends mainly upon himself-his own abilities, zeal, and perseverance-and we consequently associate with failure a degree of reproach. Yet some of the noblest attempts to elevate men have been fruitless-some of the grandest efforts to instruct men have been in vain; too frequently has the teacher been fired with a holy enthusiasm, which, while it produced no impression upon others, utterly consumed himself. We have a most remarkable instance of this in the life of the Great Teacher; a more glaring failure, in many respects, cannot be found in all history. With infinite powers, with unlimited resources, and—above all—with unparal

leled devotedness, He unfolded the beauties of God's truth both to indifferent hearers and to attached followers, but apparently with less effect than that produced by rain and sunshine upon the fruitless. wilderness. Now, if there was any one lesson which He endeavoured to inculcate above all others, it was that of humility. Most earnestly He exhorted His disciples not to be highminded, but rather to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him. On one occasion, when they had asked Him, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He placed a little child in their midst, saying, “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." On another occasion He girded Himself with a towel, and poured water into a bason, and washed the feet of His disciples-thus making Himself their servant. For what purpose? Simply to teach them humility by His own example. But mark the discouraging result. Even His favourite disciples-those in whom He placed the greatest confidence-understood Him not! At the end of His three years' ministry the principal topic of His discourses had never arrested their attention. How strange-how sad!-how disappointing! Every religious teacher is liable to be tried in the