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118 you never segn it? Have you never seen a group of evil-doers deliberately set them selves to ruin a newcomer, scoffing at his innocence and enticing him to their orgies? And, when they succeeded, they rejoiced over his fall as if they had won a great triumph. So low can human nature sink. Sometimes it may be' self-interest that makes man a tempter. The sin of another may be necessary to secure some end of his own. The dishonest merchant, for his own gain, undermines the honesty of his apprentice; the employer, making haste to be rich, tempts his employees to break the Sabbath; the tyrannical landlord forces his tenants to vote against their conscience. Why, there are trades which flourish on other people’a sins. But perhaps the commonest way to become a tempter is through thoughtless ness. I protest, we have no pity for each other’s souls. We trample about among these most brittle and infinitely precious things, as if they were common ware, and we tempt one another and ruin one another without even being aware of it. Perhaps, indeed, no one wher goes to the place of woe goes there alone; perhaps every one takes at least one with him. I hear it said nowadays that the fear of hell no longer, moves men’s minds; and that preachers ought no longer to make use of it as a motive in religion. Well, I confess, I fear it myself; it is a motive still to me. But I will tell you what I fear ten times more. What! is there anything which a man can fear ten times more than the fire that never shall be quenched? Yes, it is to meet there any one who will say, You have brought me here; you were my tempter; and but for you I might never have come to this place of torment. God forbid that this should ever be said to me by any one. Will it be said to any of you? But now let us turn away from this side of bur subject and look at the bright side— at the three groups on the right.
THE KING’S BUSINESS
IV . T h e g ro u p of th e rig h t c en ter, o r th o se w ho a re successfully resist ing tem p tatio n . ì Not very long ago a letter chanced to come under my eye. It was by a young man attending one of the great English universities. One day two or three fellow students had come into his rooms and asked him to join them in some amusement of a questionable kind, which they were con templating. On the spur of the moment he promised ; but, when they had gone, he thought what his parents would say if they knew. It was a godly home he belonged to, and a very happy one, in which the children were bound to the parents in such a way that they kept no secrets from them. He thought of his home, and he had doubts whether what hè had promised to do might7 not cause pain there. He was afraid it would; and he promptly and frankly went and told his campanion that his engagement was off till he should inquire. The letter I saw was the query. It affected me deeply to read it; for it was easy to understand h*ow much manli ness was required to. do that which might be interpreted as unmanly. The memory of that man’s home came to him in the hour of temptation, and made him strong to resist. I wonder this influence does not prove a rescuing power oftener than it does. Young men, when you are tempted, think of home. I have been a minister away in a provincial town ; and, I think, if you could realize the mother’s terror, and the father’s stricken frame, and the silent, tearful circle, as I have seen them—it would make you fling thè cup of temptation from your lips, however per suasive was the hand that proffered it. Yet this will not always be a strong enough motive in the struggle with tempta tion. There will come times when you are tempted to great sin which will appear to you absolutely safe from discovery and not likely to inflict the slightest injury on your fortunes. In such circumstances nothing will sustain you if you do not respect your own nature and stand in awe of your own
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