enemy and overrates his own, they neglect to place a picket-guard on the outskirts of their moral camp, and in such an hour as they think not they are surprized and lost.  Even possessors of religion are not always clear of this folly, or safe from its perils.  They “think more highly of themselves than they ought to think”; they come to regard themselves as specially favored of heaven; they talk of the Almighty in a free and easy manner, and of Jesus Christ as tho He were not the Judge at all.  When they pray, it is with a familiarity bordering on irreverence, and when they deal with sacred themes it is with a lightness that breeds contempt.  When they recount the marvels which they have wrought in the name of Christ, it is hardly-possible for them to hide their self-complacency; for, while they profess to give Him the glory, the manner of their speech shows that they are taking it to themselves.  They are like the disciples, who were as proud of their prowess in casting out devils as children are with their beautiful toys, and they are as much in need of the Savior’s warning:  “I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven.”  And because they have failed to give heed unto it, they have oftentimes followed the Evil One in his downward course, and in a moment have made shipwreck of their faith.

  “As sails, full spread, and bellying with the wind,
  Drop, suddenly collapsed, if the mast split;
  So to the ground down dropped the cruel fiend”;

and earthward have the unsaintly saints of God as swiftly sped, when they have fostered the pride which changed angels into demons.

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” What more pitiable spectacle than the ruin of an angel!  We have seen the forsaken halls of time-worn and dilapidated castles, have stood in the unroofed palaces of ancient princes, and have gazed on the moss-covered and ivy-decked towers of perishing churches, and the sight of them has tilled our hearts with melancholy, as we thought of what had been, and of the changes that had swept over the fair, valiant and pious throngs whose laughter, bravery and prayers once made these scenes so gay and vocal.  All is hushed now, and the silence is broken only by the hoot and screech of the owl, or by the rustle of the nightbat’s leathern wing.  But how much sadder is the form of the mighty spirit, who once sat regnant among the sons of light, emptied of his innocence, filled with foul, creeping, venomous thoughts and feelings, uncrowned, dethroned only with malignity and throned in evil!  The Bible calls him the prince and the god of this world; and everywhere we are surrounded with evidences of his despotic sway.  Unlike earthly rulers, whose exhausted natures exact repose, he is ever sleepless, and his plotting never ends.  Enter his somber presence-chamber, and commotion, bustle, activity will confront and amaze you.  He is continually sending his emissaries forth in every direction.  The perpetual wranglings,