earth,
he shall hearken to other voices, never listened to before. When the
last farewell is spoken, and the last hand clasped on earth, there will
come the meeting with a new and glorious company, and the touch of
those dear Hands once wounded for our transgressions. Be sure that
God, who is with us in life, is specially with us in the moment of
death; we die alone, but we are alone with God. My brothers, we are
tempted sometimes to murmur because our life and its work are dull,
monotonous and solitary. Let this thought help us to check the
rebellious sigh, the thought that if we are trying to do our duty, God
is with us, and He that seeth in secret, shall Himself reward us
openly. We may be tempted to cry sometimes in our darkest hours, "My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me;" but the loving Hand has not
gone from us, though we cannot feel its touch. Those dark hours often
bring out the light of Christ's great love most clearly. I have seen a
famous picture of the Crucifixion, which shows its sad beauty best when
the window is darkened. Then there seems to shine a light of hope and
splendour behind the Cross, and the face of the Saviour beams with
tenderest love. So when the windows of our life are darkened, when
bereavement, or ill-health, or disappointment come upon us, let us turn
our eyes to the Crucified, and see a new light, a new meaning in our
Saviour's sorrow, and our own. Let us learn that the trouble has come
to lead us apart from the world and its selfish ways, that we may be
alone--alone with God.

SERMON XLII.

SERVANTS OF SIN.

(Seventh Sunday after Trinity.)

ROMANS vi. 20.

"The servants of sin."

There is no existence in the world so sad as that of a slave; and there
is no slavery so hard as that of sin, no taskmaster so bitter as the
devil. There was a tyrant in the old times who ordered one of his
subjects to make an iron chain of a certain length, in a given time.
The man brought the work, and the tyrant bade him make it longer still.
And he continued to add link to link, till at length the cruel
taskmaster ordered his servants to bind the worker with his own chain,
and cast him into the fire. That hardest of tyrants, the devil, treats
his slaves in like manner. At first the chain of sin is light, and
could easily be cast off. But day by day Satan bids his victims add
another link. The servant of sin grows more hardened, more daring,
more reckless in his evil wa