the next twenty-four hours. You might do it in
about forty eight hours, but go the second time, and after you have
done it about half-a-dozen times, you will get out of the business,
because it makes the old flesh burn.

A lady said to me once, "I have got so in the habit of exaggerating
that my friends accuse me of exaggerating so that they don't
understand me."

She said, "Can you help me? What can I do to overcome it?"

"Well," I said, "the next time you catch yourself lying, go right to
that party and say you have lied, and tell him you are sorry. Say it
is a lie; stamp it out, root and branch; that is what you want to do."

"Oh," she said, "I wouldn't like to call it _lying_." But that is what
it was.

Christianity isn't worth a snap of your finger if it doesn't
straighten out your character. I have got tired of all mere gush and
sentiment. If people can't tell when you are telling the truth, there
is something radically wrong, and you had better straighten it out
right away. Now, are you ready to do it? Bring yourself to it whether
you want to or not. Do you find someone who has been offended by
something you have done? Go right to them and tell them you are sorry.
You say you are not to blame. Never mind, go right to them, and tell
them you are sorry. I have had to do it a good many times. An
impulsive man like myself has to do it often, but I sleep all the
sweeter at night when I get things straightened out. Confession never
fails to bring a blessing. I have sometimes had to get off the
platform and go down and ask a man's forgiveness before I could go on
preaching. A Christian man ought to be a gentleman every time; but if
he is not, and he finds he has wounded or hurt someone, he ought to go
and straighten it out at once. You know there are a great many people
who want just Christianity enough to make them respectable. They don't
think about this overcoming life that gets the victory all the time.
They have their blue days and their cross days, and the children say,

"Mother is cross to-day, and you will have to be very careful."

We don't want any of these touchy blue days; these ups and downs. If
we are overcoming, that is the effect our life is going to have on
others, they will have confidence in our Christianity. The reason that
many a man has no power, is that there is some cursed sin covered up.
There will not be a drop of dew until that sin is brought to light.
Get right inside. Then we can go