carry out the determination in the Lord’s power, and not in our own.  The resolution and determination once made, must be given over to the Lord to be kept by Him; not by our own effort and energy, but with perfect distrust of self and in dependence upon Him to enable us to keep it.  Without this, there is no security whatever for anything more than temporary success, too often succeeded by a sorrowful fall.  The flesh is too strong for us, and even if it were not so, the devil is; these two together, besides the lax example of the world, are sure to overpower the weak one.  Young Christians need to put away at once the sin, whatever it is, that “so easily besets” them, or they will be entangled by it.  There is no real and thorough deliverance, except by renouncing sin, and self too, giving up and yielding to the Lord.

That soul was saved; but it was a miserable bondage of fear in which he lived and died.  He was brought home at last, like a wrecked ship into harbour, who might have come in with a good freight, a happy welcome, and an “abundant entrance.”

The next day, Monday, we heard of other cases which were ordinary in their character, and therefore need not be detailed; but in the evening there was one which it will be instructive to mention.

It was that of a clergyman of private means who came to this parish as a curate; but he had given up “taking duty,” because, he said, “it was all humbug reading prayers, and all that.”  He drove a tandem,’ and smoked all day instead; nevertheless, he was the object of much and earnest prayer.  He also happened to be at church the day I preached about the clock; and declared likewise that I said there was a clock in hell.  The sermon had evidently made a great impression upon him.  He came to church again the next day, and heard something else that he was unable to forget.  After the service, as soon as I was free, he asked me to walk with him, to which I assented, though I was feeling very tired.  We rambled on the beach, and talked about many things.  I tried in vain to bring up the subject of my discourse.  When I spoke about it he was silent; and when I was silent, he went off into other matters.  He talked about Jerusalem and the sands of the desert, and the partridges, which, he said, were of the same colour as the sand.  Was it from looking at sand always that they became that colour?  Do people become alike who look much at one another?  Is that why husbands and wives so often resemble each other? and so on.  These questions made an impression on me, so that they always come up to my memory in connection with that evening’s walk.  Certainly, the apostle says that, “Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from...glory to glory;” therefore there may be something in my companion’s idea.  But, however interesting the subject might be to consider.  I was far too tired for anything else but real soul-to-soil! work, and therefore proposed that we should return home.  We did so; and when my friend left me at the vicarage door, he said abruptly, “Will you let me write to you?”