Brother Kline could not help applying the last point in the above incident to some features in the lives of men.  He says:  “That minister who gets up and in a beautiful and glowing discourse sets forth the Christian ‘cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit;’ and then comes down to mix with the world, and follow its fashions and vanities, is cooking his turkey in the same water he washed it in.  That professor of religion who, to appearance, makes a very humble confession of his sins, with seeming repentance and deep contrition of heart, only to go away and thrust himself again into the filthiness of his former life, is cooking his turkey in the same water he washed it in.”

REFLECTIONS ON THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR.  FROM THE ENTRY OF DECEMBER 31.

This evening closes the work of another year.  The record of this year is now nearly complete.  Have I any idea of that record?  I think I have.  Of one thing I feel sure.  It has not been kept with paper, pen and ink.  Neither has it been written in the skies.  Each one’s yearly record is written by no hand but his own, and upon no tablet but that of his own heart.  Each one’s LIFE, therefore, is his record.  This, before God and the angels, is a faithful transcript of his mind and heart within.  “A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things; likewise an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things.”  The good things of the one and the evil things of the other constitute the life record of every man.  This makes character, and character is the basis on which men make up their opinions of one another; but the HEART, out of which the character grows, is the BOOK that will be opened before the throne, out of which every one will be judged.  A good heart is each redeemed saint’s BOOK OF LIFE:  and an evil heart is each lost soul’s book of condemnation.

Hence we are told by our Lord “that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment;” and that “whatsoever is spoken in the ear in the closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetop.”  Good words leave the lines of their light upon the heart’s love-tablet; but evil words leave their shadows in the chambers of the soul, and deepen the darkness there.

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached on Lost River, West Virginia, March 3.

TEXT.—­Enter ye in by the narrow gate:  for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby.  For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.—­Matt. 7:13, 14.

It is declared that our Lord spake to his disciples in parables; “and without a parable spake he not unto them.”  A parable is a brief statement of such facts as men are well acquainted with;