"'Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
Thy name and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many
wonderful works?

"'And then I will profess unto them: I never knew you, depart from me ye
that work iniquity.'

"Remember that in that day when these words will be spoken hypocrisy and
self-deceit will have become impossibilities. It will not be possible
then for you to persuade yourselves, as no doubt you do now, that you
are good Christians, or that you are Christians at all, because you
believe certain doctrines and carry out certain ecclesiastical
observances. You will see your own souls naked then, and the eye of
Eternal and Immutable Justice will see them too--and unless you have
proved that you have obedience as well as faith; that you have not only
believed but also obeyed, you will most assuredly hear those words 'I
never knew you; depart from me ye that work iniquity!'

"But," he went on again, after another little pause during which some of
his audience began to look round at each other with something like fear
in their eyes, "do not forget that there is another course open to you.
It may be that the things of this world, the conventions of society, the
fear of poverty and the love of wealth, have taken such a hold upon you,
that, although you dare not even confess it to yourselves, you prefer
these things to obedience to the Divine command and all that it may
bring.

"You have it in perfectly plain language and on the highest possible
authority that you cannot serve God and Mammon. Those are no empty
words, they are one of the most solemn pronouncements ever made, and
they affect you here and to all eternity. So long as you go on striving
to increase your wealth by those means which must nowadays be employed
to make money, you are not and you cannot be Christians. Those are harsh
words, and yet if they are not true, the words of Christ himself are
false. There is no escape from this dilemma, and if you think that
devoting one day a week to the nominal service of God and six to the
real, practical service of Mammon, you earn the right to call yourselves
Christians, that is to say, followers of Christ, you are merely
practising a pitiful piece of self-deception which would be ludicrous
were its consequences not so solemn.

"But, as I have said, there is another course open to you, a course
which, terrible as it is, is better than the one that you are now
fo