No permanent Christian life can be built upon the foundation of an
unsanctified heart. For a time the graces of the Spirit may seem to
grow, but in some sad hour the surface will split open and the man will
leap back aghast at the blue flames of Gehenna, which singe his brows
and blacken his cheeks.

THE PROPHET AND PRINCE.

An old white-haired prophet and a gay young prince are in conversation.
The aged man bows his head upon his staff and weeps.

"For what are you weeping, old man?"

"Ah, I am thinking of the black and dastardly crimes you will commit
when you have once become king."

"Is thy servant a dog, a ruthless town whelp, that he should do such
things?"

PROPHECY FULFILLED

But years roll on and the young man is king, and his hands are stained
with crime, and the old man's predictions come true. God had given the
aged saint a view of the boy's breast, and he saw the embryonic seeds
of sin which, if allowed to remain, would sprout and produce a fruitage
of evil deeds.

THE BROKEN FLOWER

The secret of the downfall of many a brilliant character is a bosom
sinfulness little expected to be in existence. No man saw the black and
ugly thing but it was there. A lady had a tall and graceful plant. The
flowers were white and beautiful and all the town said, "What a fine
flower!" One day a storm swept across the garden. One plant was
injured; it was the one which people had admired and praised. Filled
with grief, the lady stooped to examine the stem, and found that it had
been pierced by a worm-hole. The insect had worked silently and
secretly. No one saw him cutting into the heart of the tall and
magnificent flower, but in a storm, under a test severe and protracted,
the stem snapped and the choice beauty of the garden was a thing of the
past.

THE WORM IN THE HEART.

It is the worm in the heart with his relentless and resistless tooth,
which weakens the character. Under severe and protracted temptation the
will snaps and yields, and the beautiful life is a wreck and fit only
for the dump of the Universe.

STUMPS AND ROOTS.

There are many roots, hidden roots, which bury themselves deep in the
soil of the heart. They extend far below clear cerebration, twisting
and twining themselves in "the fringe of consciousness." It takes the
fire of the Holy Ghost to follow them deep into the ground and destroy
them. It used to be a pastime of the boys in eastern Ohio to pile great
heaps of brush upon huge stum