a little more money than their neighbours; or caring for nothing but dress, and vanity, and gossiping, and tale-bearing; and yet, when one came to know them, one saw that that was not what God intended them to be; that He had given them hearts which they had hardened, good feelings which they had crushed, sound brains which they had left idle, till one was ready to weep over them, as over something beautiful and noble ruined and lost; and looked on them as one would on a grand tree struck by lightning, decayed and dead, useless, and only fit to be burned, with just enough of its proper shape to show what a tree it ought to have been.  And so it is with men and women:  hardly a day passes but one sees some one of whom one says, with a sigh, ’What a worthy, loveable, useful person, that might have been! what a blessing to himself and all around him! and now, by following his fallen nature, and indulging it, he is neither worthy, nor loveable, nor useful; neither a blessing to himself nor to any human being:  he might have been good for so much, and now he is good for nothing; for the spirit, the immortal soul which God gave him, is dead within him.’

My friends, I would not say this, unless I could say more.  I would not say sad words, if I could not follow them up by joyful and hopeful ones.  It is written, ’If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die;’ but it is written also, ’If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’  It is promised—­promised, my friends, ’Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.’

Through the Spirit, through God’s Spirit, every soul here can live, now and for ever.  Through God’s Spirit, Christ not only can, but will, give you light.  And that Spirit is near you, with you.  Your baptism is the blessed sign, the everlasting pledge, that God’s Spirit is with you.  Oh, believe that, and take heart.  I will not say, you do not know how much good there is in you; for in us dwells no good thing, and every good thought and feeling comes only from the Spirit of God:  but I will say boldly to every one of you, you do not know how much good there may be in you, if you will listen to those good thoughts of God’s Spirit; you do not know how wise, how right, how strong, how happy, how useful, you may become; you do not know what a blessing each of you may become to yourselves, and to all around you.  Only make up your mind to live by God’s law; only make up your mind, in all things, small and great, to go God’s way, and not your own.  Only make up your mind to listen, not to your own flesh, temper, and brain, which say this and that is pleasant, but to listen to God’s Spirit, which says this is right, and that is wrong:  this is your duty, do it.  Search out your own besetting sins; and if you cannot find them out for yourself, ask God to show you them; ask Him to give you truth in the inward parts, and make you to understand wisdom in the secret