tempt to mock God. Be not deceived, God cannot be mocked. Hear the solemn assurance of the blessed Jesus:

V. 24. "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." It is quite possible that a servant may yield obedience to the commands of two masters, provided their interests and their inclinations are quite in harmony. But the case to which our Lord refers is one in which the interests and the commands of two masters are directly opposed to one another, and the servant's mind is distracted, therefore, between two entirely different and opposite influences. He would wish to serve and please them both, but all his attempts are unavailing; he finds they are so completely at variance, that to hate the one is to love the other, and to hold to the one is to despise the other. Such is the opposition between God and the world, that, whosoever loveth the world, the love of the Father dwelleth not in him, and even the very friendship of the world is enmity with God; and, therefore, whoever would be a friend of the world, proclaims himself thereby an enemy of God. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." "Know ye

not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey ?" If, then, we

surrender ourselves to the service of the world, giving up the affections of our hearts, and energies of our lives, to mammon, we are plainly guilty of giving to the world the service, the glory and the honour that are due to God alone. Covetousness is plainly declared in the Word of God to be idolatry, the setting up of an idol in our hearts instead of the living God. The difference between a man of the world and a man of God is marked and striking. The one prefers his worldly interests to his religion, and will make all bend before the golden idol which he hath set up in his heart. The other will make his worldly interests entirely subservient to the glory of God and the promotion of His cause. The worldly man is only a friend to religion as long as it seems to favour his own advancement, but let a time of sifting come, and straightway he turns his back upon his Lord, and walks no longer with Him. Multitudes of these false friends of Christ are to be found in the world. There was a Judas among the twelve, and there is many a Judas still who is quite prepared to sell his Lord for thirty pieces of silver. He will walk with Christ outwardly, he will follow Him with apparent steadiness until the world offers its tempting bribe, and then, with a kiss of pretended affection, he will betray his Lord. Ah! it is an easy matter to be a formalist; to cry Lord, Lord; to carry full in the face of the world the lamp of an outward pro

fession, while there is not a single drop of the oil of grace in the heart. This is all very easy in the meantime; but it is not so easy to be a Christian with the heart given to God, and our worldly all, without a single reserve, laid at the feet of Jesus, and the whole soul, and body, and spirit, with singleness of purpose, devoted to the service and the glory of God. This, and no other, is true religion; any other is a divided service, which God abhors,-a wavering between the service of God and the service of the world; and if any man be in such a state, "let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."

Here Jesus sets before you, reader, the two claimants for your heart-God and the world. Choose you, then, which you will serve. If God be God, follow him; if the world be God, follow it. But do not halt between two opinions. You cannot serve God and Mammon. One or the other must be surrendered. Let your decision be made now, once for all; the blessing or the curse, life or death, heaven or hell. Do not imagine that you can please both the world and God. You cannot love the world and love God; ; you cannot be the friend of the world and the friend of God; you cannot live to the service of the world and live to the service of God. Renounce either the one or the other. Be honest, be decided. Take your stand either for God or for the world.

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The world presents itself before you in the most inviting aspect. It offers you many deceitful promises, many lying vanities, many disappointing hopes, many unsatisfying joys. O believe it not! The world's ways, the world's maxims, the world's pleasures lead down to death. Enrol yourselves, then, among the friends of the Most High God.

But are there not many who are so pleased with the service of the world, that, like the madman, they sport with their chains? They are slaves and they know it not. They are degraded idolaters, and they flatter themselves that they are worshippers of the true God. Think for a moment, deluded worldling, what religion is. It is not the stated observance on the Sabbath of a few outward forms; it is not the daily repetition of a few unmeaning words on your bended knees. It is the unconditional surrender of the heart to God. Have you made this surrender, and are your affections now centred upon the everlasting and unchangeable Jehovah? Nothing short of this is religion. You must rise like Levi from the receipt of custom— you must leave all and follow Christ. This is a hard saying, who can bear it? Yet it is the solemn truth of God.

Perhaps the reader may be saying to himself, I may enjoy the pleasures of the world now, and afterwards I shall enjoy the blessedness of heaven. Strange delusion! Has not Jesus said, "Ye cannot

deceive your

serve God and Mammon ;" and yet you self by the thought, that however busily and perseveringly you may spend your strength in the service of the world, you will at last receive the reward which remaineth for the servants of God. It cannot be. If you serve sin and the world, for they are one and the same master, justice and righteousness require that you should receive the wages, and the wages of sin is death.

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In conclusion, we would solemnly urge on every child of God to strive earnestly after that singleness of heart and oneness of purpose, which Jesus requires of all His people. Look not back to the world. 'Forget thine own people, and thy father's house. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty." Let your heart be fixed upon God; let your steps proceed steadily along the way to Zion, with your face heavenward, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left; and though now you may often be called to walk in comparative darkness, yet at eventide it shall be light, and at last you shall be privileged to enter the regions of eternal day, where you shall dwell for ever with Him who is light, and in whom is no darkness at all.