How simple this is.  And yet men will not believe it, will not understand it, and therefore they wreck so often each man his own ship—­his own life and immortal soul, and sink and perish, for lack of knowledge.

For each one of us is at sea, each in his own ship; and each must sail her and steer her, as best he can, or sink and drown for ever.

For the sea which each of us is sailing over is this world, and the ship in which each of us sails, is our own nature and character; what St Paul, like a truly scientific man, calls our flesh; and what modern scientific men, and rightly, call our organisation.  And the land to which we are sailing is eternal Life.  Shall we make a prosperous voyage?  Shall we fail, or shall we succeed?  Shall we founder and drown at sea, and sink to eternal death?  Or shall we, as the clergyman prayed for us when we were baptized, so pass through the waves of this troublesome world, that finally we may come to the land of everlasting life?  Which shall it be, my friends?  Shall we sink, or shall we swim?  Certain is one thing—­that we shall sink, and not swim, if we do not learn and keep the law, and commandments, and testimonies, and judgments of God, concerning this our mortal life.  If we do not, then we shall go through life, without knowing how to go through life, ignorantly and blindly; and the end of that will be failure, and ruin, and death to our souls.  If we do not know and keep the Laws of God, the Laws of God will keep themselves, in spite of us, and grind us to powder.  Do not fancy that you may do wrong without being punished; and break God’s Law, because you are not under the law, but under grace.  You are only under grace, as long as you keep clear of God’s Law.  The moment you do wrong you put yourself under the Law, and the Law will punish you.  Suppose that you went into a mill; and that the owner of that mill was your best friend, even your father.  Would that prevent your being crushed by the machinery, if you got entangled in it through ignorance or heedlessness?  I think not.  Even so, though God be your best of friends, ay, your Father in heaven, that will not prevent your being injured, it may be ruined, not only by wilful sins, but by mere folly and ignorance.  Therefore your only chance for safety in this life and for ever, is to learn God’s laws and statutes about your life, that you may pass through it justly, honourably, virtuously, successfully.  And the man who wrote the 119th Psalm knew that, and said, “Oh that my ways were made so direct, that I might keep thy statutes.”

But moreover, you must learn God’s commandments.  He has laid down certain commands, certain positive rules which must be kept if you do not intend to die the eternal death.  So says our Lord.  “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul, and thy neighbour as thyself.”  There the ten commandments are, and kept they must be; and if you break one of them, it will punish you, and you cannot escape.  And the man who wrote the 119th Psalm knew that, and said, “With my whole heart have I sought thee:  oh let me not go wrong out of Thy commandments.”