1. It is impossible to doubt, as well from our own experience as from the number of slaves which the devil has, that there is some attractiveness in sin. If it were not so, if the devil had no such bribes to offer, no such blinds to use, it would be impossible to conceive that men knowing the consequences of sin, in the present and in the future, could listen for one moment to his suggestions. But it is because they anticipate pleasure in the immediate gratification of their wishes that they consent to run the fearful risk of future punishment. And in what do the pleasures of sin consist? A. In the act of rebellion. It is a strange characteristic of our fallen nature that there is a strong tendency in us to disobey for the sake of disobedience. All law is felt to be a restraint upon the natural desires of our evil nature, and hence there is more or less of guilty joy in every act of disobedience, as it seems to give us more of that liberty which we crave after. It is this spirit of lawlessness in the world of which we see so much in the prevalent desire to upset all constituted authority, and to subvert all established forms of order. It is this which accounts for that spirit of liberalism which professes most delusively to have for its end greater individual freedom. It is this which accounts for the prevalence of that 'free thought' by which men seek to emancipate themselves from the laws of religious

faith laid down by God in His Church, and profess that in this act of rebellion they are but exercising a right inherent in their nature. Or to take a more common illustration, it is this which gives its force to the well known proverb, 'Stolen waters are sweet.'

B. There is the pleasure which springs from selfindulgence. Every temptation has its power over us through our self love; and it is through this individual love of self that we allow the momentary pleasure of gratifying our passions or senses to outweigh the graver considerations of our duty towards God, and of our future and more lasting interests. And now consider for a moment how unsatisfying are the 'pleasures' of sin. How short-lived are they! No sooner is the act of sin over, and the end gained for which we have perilled our soul, than feelings of remorse step in. We feel at once how foolish we have been, how little "the game was worth the candle," to use an expressive French proverb; how much wiser it would have been if we had exercised a little selfrestraint and denied ourselves the momentary pleasure which we anticipated from our self-indulgence. And then again there is to be considered the misery which sin always bring in its train, and which outweighs in such a degree its pleasures. Take as an illustration the case of the drunkard. I suppose it must be conceded that he finds some pleasure in his

degrading self-indulgence; and yet none can deny the utter misery of the drunkard's condition. His body is enfeebled by his self-indulgence, and made liable to the inroads of every kind of disease. He is a subject of mockery to his companions, of pity to his friends, shunned by all his respectable neighbours, and a curse to himself. Can any man look on the picture of a drunkard and believe in the reality of sin's 'pleasures ?'

2. Lawful pleasures which may be moderately used without sin. God did not intend that a religious life should be a morose and unhappy life, nor that it should debar us from a moderate use of pleasure, provided that we do not make it the end of our existence. We cannot look upon the world and see how beautiful God has made it, we cannot remember that He has given us an eye to see sights of beauty, and an ear to appreciate sounds of entrancing sweetness, and believe that such should be His will. It would not be possible that God, in whom all happiness resides, could wish His creatures to be unhappy, and therefore He has provided that we should have in various ways the means of enjoying ourselves without transgressing His laws. For this He has given us the powers of mind and sense, the gift of intellect, homes and friends, the bright sunshine, &c. &c. ; but with all this we must acknowledge again how unsatisfying

are even the lawful pleasures of this life. They are full of danger in that they have the power to draw us away from God. They are short-lived, liable to be interrupted by pain and sickness and sorrow; our present bodily powers do not allow us to indulge. in them save in a limited degree; they soon pall

upon us.

3. The pleasure of serving God. This is the greatest happiness of which man is capable on earth. There is nothing which is able to give us such solid satisfaction as the sense of having done God's will. Let any one recall his own feelings at any time when he has lain down to rest with the consciousness that he has done well and thoroughly the duties which God gave him to fulfil, and that he has being trying his very best to please God throughout the day, and this will teach him in some degree the supreme happiness of serving God. What else can compare with it? Not the pleasures of sin, for they are vain and deceitful, and always leave a fatal sting behind them: not even allowable worldly pleasures, for they are transitory and palling at the best. And yet even this happiness is on earth imperfect. We cannot serve God as we would; still less can we serve Him now as He would be served; when we have done all that is in our power, we have still to acknowledge the unprofitableness of our service. And the more we

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learn the great truth that our true happiness is to be found in doing the will of God, the more do we sigh for that time when all imperfections being done away our daily prayer shall receive its fulfilment, and God's will shall be done by us, even as it is now done by the Blessed Angels in Heaven. O my soul, do thou resolve to prepare thyself for that happy time by serving God as perfectly now as thou art able to do.

II. The Happiness of the Blessed.

Our last meditation has taught us something of the imperfection of all human joys. Let us now seek to comprehend the perfection of the happiness of the Blessed in Heaven: and yet every effort to do this must fall far short of the mark: for "eye hath not seen, neither ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."

The Judgment is over: and whilst the troops of the lost are hurried to their doom, those whose robes have been washed white in the Blood of the Lamb prepare to ascend with Him and the hosts of the Blessed Angels, to take possession of those mansions which His love has prepared for them. The great