round world on his back, apparently casting his eyes upward at times as if he might be longing to reach the top of Mount Olympus, the home of the gods:  but alas! his head is bowed and his back bent under the mighty pressure, and he never got there.  It will fare no better with the man who tries to carry this world with him to heaven.  The apostle says:  “Let us cast off every weight” that would hinder our progress.

You know the devil is called a serpent.  No sane man ever yet invited a snake to bite him.  If one is bitten by a copperhead or rattlesnake, it is either because he has gone where he ought not go, or else, if compelled, he was not watchful, but was off his guard.  Besetting sins are these snakes in the grass and along the hedges.  The apostle here takes it for granted, as a thing settled long ago, that the Christian has laid aside his habitual sins.  Besetting sins are such as we meet or overtake unexpectedly in the way, and like robbers that beset us and take our goods, they spoil our peace and take away our joy.  The best way for all Christians is to keep out of the way of snakes and robbers.

“And let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”  In another place Paul says:  “I press forward to the mark for the prize.”  He represents the Christian as running, but not as uncertainly.  Not as if some one else might beat him and take the prize, and he thereby lose it.  No, no!  In the Christian race there is a prize for every one that runs with patience the race set before him.

But he also speaks of a mark.  The language here employed indicates that the mark must be reached before the prize can justly be claimed.  This mark is conformity to Christ in spirit and life.  “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”  “He has set us an example that we should follow in his steps.”  The prize is heaven and eternal happiness.  God is pleased to give to his children things which they are incapable of obtaining by their own efforts; but he will not give direct what they are capable of getting by judicious means rightly applied.  It is no credit to any one to depend on others for what he could win for himself.  It is so in the Christian’s race for eternal life.

“Looking unto Jesus.”  If you have ever been at sea you noticed the interest with which sailors watched the lighthouses along the shore in a dark night.  This figure may help us in our thought of looking to Jesus.  His word is a “lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.”  Friends, when you look prayerfully to the Lord’s Word for guidance in your religious life you are looking unto Jesus.  He is nowhere else to be found.  But he is always there, and whosoever will look may find him there unto the salvation of his soul.

They stayed all night at Michael B. Kline’s.

MONDAY, May 17.  They stopped awhile with Sister Rubicum in Philadelphia; and arrived at the Irving House, in New York City, at 10:30 P.M.