f centuries, the practice of
holy men, and the example and the words of Christ Himself, have all
testified to the need there is for the spiritual observance of such
times, if men are to keep their soul alive in them--and who are we that
we should venture to set ourselves against such overpowering testimony?

Let us rather address ourselves seriously to making these weeks a time of
some special exercise or discipline such as our life may need.

There is hardly one of us but will confess, if he thinks of the matter
at all, that the world is too much with us; that its influence is too
strong upon us; that we are too ready to conform to its ways and follow
its indulgences. And such a confession is equivalent to an
acknowledgment that we need these Lenten seasons. And if with this
feeling in our hearts we use the coming weeks with any definite purpose,
praying to be rid of some temptation or weakness, or to be endowed with
some strength, or to be supported in some good purpose, we are sure to
recognise with thankfulness, when the time is over, that it has indeed
proved a time of some dislodgment, that some temptation or habit has
fallen away from us and left us free, so that some new spirit or purpose
has begun to grow in us.

We shall, in fact, be conscious, as the weeks go on, that a new life of
new tastes and new satisfactions has sprung up, as the first fruits of
our prayer. If we doubt the need of such exhortations as these, let us
reflect for a moment--Does it not sometimes happen to us that our souls
are only too like the soul of that sick child in the Gospel?

Good instincts, and intentions, and tendencies, are clearly felt and
recognised, but they are fitful, weak, and intermittent. Another spirit
seems to lay hold of us and carry us whither it will.

If in any sense this can be said to be your case, then remember, that
just what the Saviour's healing word was to that child, sick and
possessed, as He met it on His way from the Hill of Transfiguration, and
breathed over it the spirit of the higher life, reducing the chaos of the
soul to harmony, and bringing reason out of madness, and freedom out of
demoniac possession, these holy seasons of time-honoured observance may
be to your soul, if you use them reverently, and as God's appointed means
for your growth in the Spirit.

XIV. GOD'S CURSE ON SIN.

"Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to
his ways, saith the