There are some who would persuade themselves that their sin hurts no one but themselves. The Christian who has once grasped his relation to God can never so console himself. We believe that God has taken human nature, that: Jesus Christ was true man" end true God. We believe that by the peace mind Ho other too. He ruined an honourable he com-
TTisned and done this evil a The aight." By our sin we injure our-our own, we have born bought with solvea; that la true, yet we are nob property, spoiling with which He would scoomplish His will in the world. If we had only 8 truer perception of our bodies as temples of the Holy Ghost," bow much less easily we should fall into rose common sins of the flesh.
Deep down in the inmost fast nesses of the human soul the spirit of God dwells. We were made in His image. Thst image once spoiled by sin, has been restored by the spirit of Christ. It is no mere metaphor, but a literal that by our sin we "crucify the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." The liar hurts the Spirit of truth who dwells within him, the man who encourages himself in hatred and malice is doing despite to the Spirit of love within To live di for one's self is to crucify Christ.
Some years ago, a little boy in a fit of violent temper struck his mother with the toy spade with which he was digging. To-day, young man, when he looks into his mother's face, sees the cruel mark of his youthful sin. Some day, brethren, you and I will lok upon Him whom we have pierced, and as we gaze at those scars we shall realize our part in their infliction.
Ax Injory to Humanity, But sin is not only an outrage on God's love, it does an injury to our fellow-men. We Christians believe that we have been united by God's Spirit into a fellowship, a body through which our Lord continues the work which He began on yarth. The Church is the instrument through which God is carrying out His eternal purpose. We can never forget that we are not mere units, but are members of a unity. We are united in "'one fellowship and communion." If that is the case our individual lives re-act upon the whole body of which we are members. One knows how in school the bad boy may ruin the whole UN you get leave; when you are tempt ed to have one pint too many just say to yourself 'Another pint and 1 Keep the battalion back'.""
What St. Paul says is so opvivusly true. Ina body "if one member suffers all the members suffer with it." We are at times persuaded that our sin is a matter between ourselves and God, and perhaps sometimes temptation is so strong, and our love for God so weak that it provides no deterrent. Remember then that we are not mere individuals, that between our souls and God there is that body in which we are united to God, and that our the fact that they are no such things as secret sins, When we are tempted to "secret sins" lop us remember that we are members of an invisible army, we are keeping back, effects, effects that do not stop jin the compass of our own individual soul. Surely we can see about us the effects of sin, our own and others. It is sin that hinders and spoils the working out of the yn, the building up of into a united brotherhood of love and service.
The Ruin of a Soul.
Sin" outrages God's love, i jures our fellow-men, and lastly, sin ruins our own souls. Christianity has taught us something of the value of the individual soul in God's sight. We realize that the destiny of the human soul is to be united
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.