of man, but the verdict of God himself. Ah, reader, you may plead guilty or not as you please, but God, who cannot lie, pronounces you a transgressor.

Now, what does the plea that you are not a great sinner avail to your justification? You may be sure that God's word does not call you worse than what you are. Though you are not the greatest of sinners, yet you are a sinner; and the simple fact that you have sinned at all, makes you amenable to the sentence of the law- the soul that sinneth it shall die.' It is not said, the soul that sinneth much or greatly, but simply- the soul that sinneth.' And the reason is obvious, for you are as truly a sinner by breaking one requirement of the law, as by breaking all -you are as truly a transgressor by one act of disobedience, as by a thousand. So by the commission of a single act of transgression, you are as subject to the wages of sin as by the perpetration of every conceivable crime. Hence it is written, He that offendeth in one point is guilty of all.' Nor can it be otherwise with an infinitely perfect law; for if one act of transgression on the part of one sinner may be passed over, why may not all acts of transgression on the part of all sinners be likewise tolerated? Is the first sin not the prelude to all succeeding sins? And how could an unsullied government be conducted, and the holiness of the universe be preserved, but by a law which should meet sin in its first indications-a law which should dam up the spring that swells into the flood-a law which should uproot the seed that produces the fruit-a law which should reprobate the thought that inspires the crime-a law which should deal with the thing sin itself in its true character, and not merely when it reaches a supposed degree of enormity.

It matters nothing, therefore, to the justification of the sinner, that he has not sinned to the same extent as others. True, he may not have to bear so heavy a punishment as the man who has sinned more, but this is not justification. The fact that he has sinned comparatively little cannot save him from the verdict of death. But although we admit that there are degrees in the amount of sin committed by different individuals, yet we must beg you, dear

reader, to beware of supposing that, before you shall appear odious in the sight of God, certain atrocious sins, as men regard them, must be chargeable against you. Men naturally regard certain crimes against society as the most heinous, because the family of mankind feels them most. But with God it is different. God, as a Spirit, searches the heart; and defection there is, in his unerring judgment, the great and leading crime. Thus, while to mankind in general, and yourself in particular, the escutcheon of your character may appear almost unblemished, to God the very reverse is manifest. We do not, then, give you to suppose that, though we grant that there are degrees of sinfulness in human character, that you are not so bad. If you have not, with all the powers of your soul and spirit, loved the Lord your God at all times with supreme affection, and if you have not regarded your fellow-men with the same amount of love which you bear toward yourself, God must regard you essentially and radically a sinner; for such is the necessarily unyielding requirement of his holy government.

Examine your character in this light, and how stands it with you? How have you felt and acted toward God? Have you loved him as you ought? or have you loved him at all? You have not; and herein lies the criminating point of your character-here the mainspring of all your sin. Now, seeing this, take a retrospect of your past life, and see if you can reckon up the vast multitude of the sins which you have committed under the defection of your heart from God. Can you give the number of them during the space of a single day? You cannot.

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number of your sins in course of but a few hours is altogether beyond your powers of reckoning. Yet you would have it, that you are not so bad. Ah, the deceitfulness of sin!

You are just so bad that your sins are enough to sink you to hell. You are just so bad that you must perish, unless you are saved by the divine Redeemer from the impending vengeance of the broken law. You are just so bad that there is no remedy, no escape for you, but through the One Mediator. Deceive yourself no longer with this

futile, false excuse. Behold your character in all the deformity in which it is beheld in heaven, and rejoice that, though the wages of sin is death, yet the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ah, sinner, hide not your sins but under the cover of the blessed Saviour's righteousness. There alone can you hide them never more to appear against you.

THERE ARE MANY AS BAD AS I AM.

Ir is not at all necessary for us to attempt to disprove this, dear reader. There may be tens of thousands as bad, or it may be, worse than you, but this can avail you nothing. Do you seriously imagine that, because others are as bad as you, your sins may therefore be palliated or excused? Can the fearful fact, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,' make you less a sinner, or less amenable to divine justice, than if you were the only transgressor on God's earth? Impossible! Suppose six men, separately, to commit certain capital offences, and all of them, one after another, to be sentenced to death for their crimes, what advantage would it be to any one of the six that there were five others as bad as himself? Would this make any of them less criminal? Must not each have to suffer for his own crime? Must not each have to die alone? Where, then, the advantage or comfort of the thought that five others were as bad? And where, sinner, is the gain to you of the reflection, that there are many as bad as you are? Is it not written, 'Every man shall bear his own burden?' You, therefore, must bear yours in all the solitariness of your own individuality. You know, that though God addresses all men in general, yet he deals with every man by himself. He sends home to each the arrow of conviction, in the language of the prophet to David, 'Thou art the man.' Ah, reader, there is a solemn individuality in sin. Every sin that you have committed

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- is registered against you as your sin, and not another's. You, and not another-you, and no one with you-must answer for your transgressions. If you refuse to realize this solemn truth now, you shall be made to feel it at the hour of death. You know that, though death takes away all, yet he takes them one by one. Though thousands may die at the same moment that the death-warrant is issued against you, still you must die alone. Then shall you feel your fearful solitariness as a sinner; and then, it shall be no comfort to you that you had companions and equals in sin.

We call upon you to dismiss at once this objection from your mind. We call upon you to dismiss it, not only because it is false and untenable, but because it is ruinously deceptive. Not only does it lead you erroneously to imagine that there is something extenuating in the humiliating fact that others are as bad as yourself, but it induces you to think lightly of sin; it leads you to entertain imperfect notions of the depth of your own criminality; it serves as a perpetual excuse for sin; and leads you gradually on to the perpetration of crimes of the deepest dye. There is no sin, however enormous in committing, which you cannot say there are others as bad as I am. In this way will it lead you down the broad road of destruction with fearful rapidity. It has no stopping point whatever. Give it lodgment in your mind, and it shall lead you down to the level of the worst of beings. It shall sink you into the grave of the damned as certainly as if you were already there. And still it will form the same excuse as now. It will learn you to point to Satan himself, and say-there are others as bad as I am. Believe it, reader, if you suffer yourself to be led by this fallacy, you ensure yourself against the possibility of repentance or salvation. You cannot come to see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, or the need you have of a Saviour, so long as you excuse your sins with the idea that you are no worse than others.

We again entreat you to consider, that it contains no real comfort or extenuation in your case whatever. Although others are as bad as you, will God compare you with them, or judge of you by them? No, indeed. He will

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institute no comparison of character between you--much less make their sinfulness the measure of yours. own holy and perfect law is the only standard with him. By it you are measured; and if you are found wanting in a single point, death is the sure award.

O then, fellow-sinner, flee from this soul-destroying delusion. Flee from it as would a bird from the fowler's snare. Give it no longer a place in your thoughts. Dismiss it now and for ever, never more to sway you. Look upon your character in all its deformity as mirrored forth by the law of God. Seek no extenuating plea. Compare yourself no more with your fellow-sinners. Keep before your mind how far you have offended. Remember what you are, and what you might have been. Flee at once to the sinner-receiving Saviour. Whatever the amount of your sins may be you need a Saviour, such a Saviour as Jesus is. You need a righteous, a perfect righteousness like his in which to approach the infinitely holy God. You need a work, a finished work like Christ's, on which to cast your sinful self. If, then, you will compare yourself with others, let the comparison run thus-there are many as bad as I am who, having taken refuge in Christ, are saved; I now do so too, and doing so, am likewise safe in Jesus.

I HAVE A GOOD HEART.

SUCH is the fondly cherished plea of many a sinful soul. Reader, is it yours? If so, what mean you by it? Do you not mean that you have a kind disposition-that you wish evil of no one--that you have not wilfully wronged your fellow-men, and would be very sorry to do so? This, we apprehend, is the amount of it. On this goodness of heart, then, rests your hope of heaven. We have known the aged sinner, on the verge of the grave, seek consolation from this very plea. Now, let us see what it is worth.