d instead of letting their own animal
nature drag them downward, they are the sons of God. And how can a son
of God perish? How can that which is like God and like Christ perish?
How can he perish, who like Christ is full of the fruits of the spirit?
of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance? The world did not give them to him, and the world
cannot take them from him. They were not bestowed on him at his bodily
birth--neither shall they be taken from him at his bodily death--for
those blessed fruits of the spirit belong neither to the flesh nor to the
world, but to Christ's spirit, and to heaven--to that heaven in which
they dwell before the throne of God--yea, rather in the mind of God
Himself, the eternal forms of the truth, the beauty, the goodness--which
were before all worlds--and shall be after all worlds have passed away.

Oh! choose my friends, especially you who are young and entering into
life. Remember the parable of the old heathen, about the two horses who
draw your soul. Choose in time whether the better horse shall win, or
the worse; whether your better self, or your worse, the Spirit of God or
your own flesh, shall be your master--whether you will rise step by step
to heaven, or sink step by step to death and hell? And let no one tell
you. That is not the question. That is not what we care about. We know
we shall do a great many wrong things before we die. Every one does
that; but we hope we shall be able to make our peace with God before we
die, and so be forgiven at last.

My dear friends, that kind of religion has done more harm than most kinds
of _irreligion_. It tells you to take your chance of beginning at the
end--that is just before you die. Common sense tells you that the only
way to get to the end, is by beginning at the beginning, which is _now_.
Now is the accepted time. _Now_ is the day of salvation, and you are
accepted now, already, long ago.

What do you or any man want with making your peace with God? You are at
peace with God already. He has made His peace with you. An infinitely
better peace than any priest or preacher can make for you. _You are
God's child_. He looks down on you with boundless love. The great heart
of Christ, your King, your Redeemer, your elder brother, yearns over you
with boundless longing to draw you up to Him, that you may be noble as He
is noble, pure as He is pure, loving as He is loving, just as