ard tokens of religious life and feeling, such as
standing up, raising the hand, coming to the table, and similar modes
of testimony; but if any of these outward acts are mere forms, they are
next to useless. The heart must be in it if the covenant is to be
properly made and maintained.

One frequently hears it said, 'Ah, yes, I do it in my heart. I can get
the blessing in my seat or at home quietly. I do not believe in this
public line of declaration, and this parade of one's sacred
experiences'. Well, I believe, in both the inward and the outward. If,
however, we cannot have both, by all means let us have the covenant
made in sincerity of heart, for without that the whole thing is in
vain.

We may learn much from an old Hebrew custom referred to in the
twenty-first chapter of Exodus, which shows that the Jewish people
understood the nature of true devotion. Under the Mosaic law a
bondservant could only be held by his master for six years; in the
seventh he was 'to go out free for nothing'. But if the servant came to
his master, and said, 'I don't want to go; I love you; I will not go
out free; I will serve you for ever', the master would reply, 'If you
really mean that, let us have it settled, and settled in public'. The
master would then bring the servant to the judges to register the
agreement, and would also take him to the doorpost, and with an awl
bore a hole through the man's ear, fastening him to the post. This was
the sign of a perpetual covenant, and everybody who saw it knew that
the man's self-surrender to his master was real, binding, and
permanent.

We have no such ceremony in our public Meetings, but we can have the
definite declaration, 'I love Thee, O Lord, and I will serve Thee; and
here and now I bind myself in an everlasting covenant to serve Thee for
ever'.

2. Then, again, a true covenant is _a deed which commits you to active
and definite service_. Some covenant-makings are largely sentimental; a
kind of religious IOU or promise to pay, and I fear some are treated as
the Irishman treated his responsibility when, having signed a
promissory note for a debt, he exclaimed, 'Thank God, that is done
with!'

The vows and covenant-making which God wants are those which will be
followed by something practical. The states of emotion and high
spiritual contemplation are right in so far as they assist men to
realize the presence of God and Divine things; but to answer their
purpose they must carry me