law unto righteousness to every one that believeth."

"We are saved by our Better Self." This is just now a popular cry. Our better self is to be stimulated to antagonize our baser self, and just as we reinforce the former shall we attain emancipation and perfection. This is quite right: we can be redeemed only by our better self. But where do we find this better self? A ghost of him we shall find within; but that ghost will not prevail to deliver us from the law of sin and death. Jesus Christ is the better self we seek, He is the ideal man; and as He is more and more fully revealed within us shall the baser self be subjugated and expelled.

"We are saved by Man." We met with this fine sentence the other day in a tract inculcating secularism: "The oath of the Universe is pledged that that only shall stand which has for its corner-stone Man." Very good, and very true, only not exactly in the sense its author meant. Salvation comes to man through man; the hope of humanity is in humanity. But what man? Any man? Certainly none will affirm this. What humanity? The whole of men put together in some way or in some sense? Each man is imperfect, and millions of imperfect men put together make only a gigantic imperfection; and we cannot expect redemption in any such conception of humanity. "The man Christ

Jesus," He is the man we are seeking; He is the revelation of the humanity that saves. "For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost."

"Let us leave our

"We are saved by God." selves in the hands of the merciful God, and He will see us through." Now, this is right again. But what God? The God revealed in the confusions and tragedies of nature? Surely we want clearer light on the divine character before we trust Him as a Saviour. Or is He the God commonly recognized as "The Unknown God"? We perishing men and women can look for little from Him. "We are saved by God." Yes, by God in Christ. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses." "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."

Christ alone gives peace, purity, and hope. Many instruct, amuse, and govern us, but only One can save us; He, however, is equal to His work, saving to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.

XIX

INDECISION

And Elijah came near unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions?—1 Kings 18 : 21.

HERE are two entirely distinct schemes of life. Here the people are called to serve the Lord God or Baal; in the New Testament the alternative is, God or Mammon; and to-day we say that men must choose either Christ or the World. These are only different ways of stating the same thing. They express altogether distinct and antagonistic views of life. The two classes may often look much alike, yet they are really profoundly different; they constitute an absolute contrast and antagonism. Judging by appearance, we might imagine certain plants to belong to the same family; but the botanist knows that the resemblance is wholly superficial, the plants being of entirely different types: in like manner some animals which appear to belong to the same species are structurally distinct, the anatomist knowing that they have no relationship whatever. He who fears God and he who fears Him not may have much in common; the difference between them, however, is practically infinite. Their spirit is differ

ent, the principle by which they regulate life, their motive, and their aim. We must obey either the divine will or our own; and between these courses a great gulf is fixed.

2. These schemes of life are utterly irreconcilable. The Israelites tried to combine the service of Baal and the worship of God. "How long halt ye on both sides?" Solomon first tried this experiment; and although a very clever man, he was not nearly clever enough for this. Nor are we. There cannot be any compromise between God and the devil, between conscience and passion, between self-will and submission to the divine will. An eccentric man once built his house on the extreme western coast of Ireland, because he wished to reside next to an American town. In a sense he did live next to one, yet the Atlantic Ocean stretched between. When we have brought the worldly, selfish, or sensual life as near to the Christian life as possible, an ocean wider and deeper than the Atlantic will roll between them. We must belong to one or the other. The Israelites must serve God or Baal. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

3. It is intolerable to waver between the two. Think of the misery of indecision. "Why halt ye?" The image is drawn from those who go lame, who totter, resting first on one foot and then on the other. How deeply, inexpressibly unhappy is the life of vacillation! Sir John

Bowring tells of a poor fellow, who was a strong Protestant, falling a victim to the strange hallucination that one of his legs had become Roman Catholic, and henceforth his life was full of unspeakable wretchedness. Yet who shall express the misery of a soul divided within itself on the highest question of all? Not a mental delusion this time, but a conscious, terrible, and voluntary confusion and contradiction within the moral personality. No dignity, progress, or peace. Now bowing the knee to reason, and again to appetite; now to conscience, and then to selfwill; now to the living, loving God and His son Jesus Christ, and anon to an ugly idol. Sinning and repenting. Hobbling up and down; limping first to one side and then to the opposite; shuffling to and fro, ashamed and despairing. How much truer, nobler, happier, to take our stand on the Lord's side!

Think of the perils of indecision. A crisis like this is really one of acute danger. Many undecided souls feel that they may safely leave their decision an open question month after month and year after year. It is a great mistake, and may easily be a fatal one. Everybody knows the extreme danger in many worldly situations of being " caught between two minds"; and such danger is not less in spiritual perplexity. We are then peculiarly exposed to temptations of all kinds, and are specially defenseless. All