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and less heeded by the soul, if what we once could not do, is now done almost without regret, it is high time to awake out of sleep if we would not become utterly hardened in sin, if we would not be found in that state in which our only desire shall be to gratify self and to banish from our minds the claims of God.

Let us learn, too, that sin is the separating thing between us and our God. Balaam knew this from his own hapless experience, and hence he taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before Israel; the savour of the sacrifices of the princes of Moab went up in vain, the desires of the prophet went up in vain, but when once sin entered in its defiling character, then was the breach made, then was the purpose of the enemies of God in some degree attained. Oh! flee fornication, crucify the flesh, trifle not with that which the LORD so fearfully denounces; it breeds the worm that dieth not, it lighteth up the fire that never shall be quenched. "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap: he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

I Galatians vi. 7, 8.

Lastly dwell on God's mercy in Christ as the great preservative against sin. This was the apostle Paul's antidote against the power of this present evil world, "whereby," saith he, "the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world;" this kept Stephen stedfast in the midst of persecution unto death: "Behold! I see the heavens opened and Jesus standing on the right hand of God;" this sent the eunuch "on his way rejoicing," for Philip began at the same Scripture which he was reading, and "preached unto him Jesus; this comforted Job under pressing trials: "I know," he exclaims, "that my Redeemer liveth." Oh! let your mind be taken up with the contemplation of that great love wherewith God hath loved us, "quickening us" when we were "dead in trespasses and sins," and setting before us as the reward of grace the crown of life "that fadeth not away." In the view of this mercy in its present earnest and future fulness you shall by faith overcome the world, crucify the flesh, resist the devil. The rewards of divination shall not draw you aside, "knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance." And even if fallen, if wanderers from

refuge of the cross; still trust in a pardoning God; still say, "there is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayst be feared;" still cry, "I will arise and go to my Father;" so shall sin not have dominion over you, so shall you not be long estranged from your God, so shall you, not, like Balaam, become reckless in your sin, but, acknowledging your iniquity, returning to your Lord, you shall find Him to be that Shepherd who "restoreth thy soul, and leadeth thee in the paths of righteousness, for His name's sake;" with fresh energy shall you press on, mortify sin, grow in grace, yea, be "kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation."

III.

BALAAM.

NUMBERS, chap. xxiii., last part of 10th verse; and chap. xxxi., last part of 8th verse.

"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his !"

"Balaam also, the son of Beor, they slew with the

sword."

WONDROUS Contrast, between the wish and the event!-Blessed words did that wish contain, had his deeds but corresponded therewith; but strange words, and sad words, and awful words are they when set side by side with his life, and character, and end; strange words are they to be uttered by one who strove not that the desire therein expressed might be fulfilled; sad words, when we mark him, shortly after the utterance, slain by Israel as one found on the side of the enemies of God; awful words, when we think of the day of reckoning, the judgment-seat of Christ, the eternity that is at hand. Without the

especial consideration of these words, expressive of so earnest a desire, the history of Balaam-his inner history--had been incomplete; -let us attempt, in dependence on God's gracious aid, to

I. Dissect his Character.

II. Account for his Desire.
III. Contemplate his End.

I. Let us endeavour to Dissect his Character. The history we have in the two discourses brought before you has laid open, in part, that character; so that the present attempt will be directed, more particularly to search out some of the various roots of evil whence sprang such awful results.

1. There was profession without principle; he appears to present an union of the defects both of the stony ground and thorny ground hearer; "having no root he endured but for a time," whilst also "the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in," helped forward the destruction of the plant. Too ready to take all for granted, unwilling to dig deep and lay the foundation on the rock, no sooner did the flood come, than gradually, indeed, but surely his house fell. Have you not

St. Mark iv. 16-19.

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