llowing, because it is more honest. Be honest with yourselves and each
other, and, what is of more consequence, be honest with God too. A
well-known agnostic lecturer once said that no god could afford to damn
an honest man, and I am not sure that he was not right; but if the words
of Christ were not the empty mouthings of a charlatan or a dreamer,
there cannot be the slightest doubt about the fate of the hypocrite.
Remember that on the only occasion on which the gentle nature of our
Lord was roused to anger he denounced in the most terrible language that
human ears have ever heard those whom He called hypocrites, and,
therefore, I say to you, at whatever cost, either to your pockets or to
your souls, for you can take your choice which, cease to be hypocrites.

"Cease this pitiful pretence which, though it may deceive yourselves,
certainly does not deceive Him from whom no secrets are hid. If you
cannot forsake the service of Mammon, if you really are so tightly bound
by his golden chains to the things of this world that you cannot or will
not break loose from the entrancing bondage, then, in the name of
honesty, say so, say to yourselves and to your fellow men: 'I cannot do
this thing. If I must give up the service of Mammon before I can call
myself the servant of God, then I cannot become the servant of God, and
I will make a hypocrite and a liar of myself no longer.' Then at least
you would be honest and truthful, honest with yourselves and with your
brother men and with your sister women and with God. You would, as I
believe, and as you are now trying to make yourselves believe, have made
the wrong choice, a choice whose consequences must inevitably face you
on the other side of the grave, but you would, at least, be able to face
the tribunal of Eternal Justice without shame, and, with all reverence I
say it, I, as a Christian man, believe that for this reason the infinite
mercy of God would find a means of salvation for you.

"Be honest. For God's sake and your own, be honest, even though in
becoming so, you cease to be what is commonly called respectable. If you
really cannot serve God with a whole soul and without reservation, give
up the attempt to serve Him and say so before all men. It would be a
terrible thing to do, and yet, awful as such a step would be, it might
be the first one towards your ultimate salvation. The angels might weep,
but I hardly think that the devils would laugh, for the worst enemy of
th