the bright gates of heaven, and opened the dark avenues of hell. Temptation was the engine of that infernal triumph that has scattered such a prodigious deformity over the whole earth, which when fresh from its Maker's hand, he pronounced to be "very good;" where harmony and joy and gladness reigned in undisturbed supremacy, but of which there is not now a spot within its vast circumference that has not felt the ravages occasioned by the first signal conquest of sin.

To what has temptation reduced a world, at whose birth the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" To a scene of guilt, of violence, of misery! That world which was once the habitation of innocence and peace, has become the abiding-place of sin and death! Where "the lion lay down with the lamb," the former now makes his lair of destruction-a Golgotha of carnage and of blood.

We should remember that man was created perfect in form and mind, innocent in heart and in the enjoyment of an earthly abode where there was everything, short of heaven, to complete the pefection of human bliss. What marred this bliss? Temptation! She has invested the world with a might and influence which no human efforts can repel; she has cast upon us the fetters of her tyranny, and subjected us to the most terrible slavery-for she has placed us under the despotic dominion of sin. On all ́

sides she surrounds us, and within her charmed circle how often are we gradually, but unsuspectingly, drawn towards the centre, where the sweeping vortex roars and hisses, when we are sucked into that whirling eddy which leads to the dark chambers of death. What a change from our primitive condition! How is the beauty of holiness" converted into the deformity of corruption! In spite of the partial glory which yet surrounds us, the darkness of evil casts it into perpetual eclipse. "What is brighter than the sun? Yet the light thereof faileth, and flesh and blood will imagine evil.”

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These are the sad issues of temptation! Let us revert to the period when it first secured the supremacy of evil, and we shall be forced to confess that the words of the text should be inscribed upon every heart—“ Watch ye, and pray, lest enter into temptation." This insidious enemy stole into the peaceful recesses of Eden, and converted that blissful spot into a forbidden land, around which the flaming sword of divine vengeance was indignantly waved, to exclude those who had forfeited by transgression that happy inheritance. The woman, lovely in her most perfect creation at once the glory of her Creator and the pride of his creature, found her tempter in the devil, and man found his tempter in her! Alas! how frequently since has the first temptation been realized! How frequently have

we all felt the sad effects of that fearful triumph of seduction, when, in the sublime language of the evangelical poet:

"Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

Sighing thro' all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost."—

Not only do we now find a tempter in the great
archetype of evil, but we are mutually tempters
one of another. We fight under the banners of
sin against God, whom we are powerless to
harm, and against ourselves, whom we but too
successfully overthrow. How often do we fall
through the devices, the deceptions, the iniqui-
ties of each other! Temptation is the mighty
lever which sets in motion the whole machinery
of our thoughts, words and works.
"We sow
upon the furrows of unrighteousness, and reap
them seven-fold;" but it is temptation that directs
the plough in the furrow, and wields the sickle
in the harvest.

Let us wisely bear in mind that its seductions are strewed before us, upon "the fat pastures" as well as upon the unproductive desert, alluring our touch and inviting our taste; and let us also bear in mind that the essence of the specious, yet baneful, growth is poison. "Though it be sweet in the mouth, though we hide it under the tongue, it is as gall within us." When

the rose is recklessly plucked, the thorn is frequently felt to pierce sore and deeply; so when we heedlessly quaff the sweets of sensual solicitation, the bitters of sin will be found upon the lees of the draught.

Should any one ask me why I have depicted temptation under such a dark and fearful aspect? This is my reply. Because it is our greatest enemy! It drew down upon us the doom of death and the curse of perdition, until that curse was reversed by divine expiation. It is the devil's most successful agent. He employed it to seduce the Saviour, who practically knew the difficulty of resistance, and could therefore be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,

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being in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin ;" but "the gates of hell" could not prevail against those "everlasting doors," whence that Saviour had issued for the redemption of mankind. Nothing, however, less than Divinity could have come unscathed out of such a fiery trial; nothing less than Omnipotence could have vanquished in such a conflict, though in every struggle of our probation upon earth we may also "come off more than conquerors through Him that loved us." He who "breaketh the bow and knappeth the spear in sunder," will enable us to overcome if we manfully fight under him-"the Captain of our salvation."

Is not temptation then an enemy which we

should resist with all the combined energies of our faculites? But, it may be asked, by what process of moral endeavour are we to resist it? The text furnishes the reply-"Watch and pray." Who would forbear to watch against such a foe? Who would forbear to pray against the influence of such a dangerous adversary? Nevertheless with what indifference do we apply our minds to guard against the perils with which it surrounds us! How recklessly do we court its approach! How heedlessly familiarise ourselves with its allurements, laugh at the calamities which it threatens, and "mock when our fear cometh." But this is playing with the cockatrice, which, though its graceful evolutions may charm the eye, bears deadly venom in its fangs. This is to bare our brows to the thunderbolt because it is clothed with light, not reflecting that the element from which it derives its brightness is the vehicle of that destruction whereby its progress is so often and so fearfully marked.

However lightly we may be disposed to think of the evil which the text commands us to avoidand there are probably few who have seriously reflected upon the extent of its influence over them-it is absolutely astonishing how deeply this is blended with the spiritual economy of our being. It is no contingent evil, but universal in its influence, and unceasing in its operation. There is scarcely a feeling of our minds or