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experience and further acquaintance what are the exceptions to this general rule, ie., whom may we receive to our confidence. In law, every man is regarded as innocent till proved guilty. But in our social economy we are obliged to reverse this order. And why? Why not receive the stranger on the broad ground that he is a man, your brother, and worthy of your undoubting confidence? Why wait to know whether you can confide in him who is bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh?

If sin had done no more, what mischief originated from this one fact, the want of confidence. In our distrust we may not recognize the great principle of brotherhood in the family of man.

It is said of the Bedouin Arabs, those wandering tribes that traverse the deserts of Arabia, that they admit every stranger to their hospitality on the ground that he is a man, and thereby a brother. They neither know nor wish to know anything further of him till they have discharged the common rites and duties of hospitality, which they do on the score of relationship. This they will do irrespective of moral character. Acting on this principle we always should, but for the fatal distrust of sin. But here they are obliged to stop, and act on the same principles of distrust as other men do,

Sin Entailed upon the Human Family.-But sin is more than a general or a social evil, It has an individuality, entailed, in the direful curse, on every son and daughter of Adam. It has despoiled man of his innocence, sunk him in ignorance, degraded his nature, and blighted his happiness. "It has multiplied our cares, originated our sorrows, awakened our apprehensions, and let loose upon us the fury of evil passions." It has filled the heart with discontent, the mind with uncertainty, and the body with pains. Does man sigh ?-is his soul made sick by the withering stroke of affliction ?-do his tears flow?-is he now bending over the death-couch of some beloved one? Ah! it is sin that has oepned these avenues of woe

and made man to mourn. But for this fell destroyer ma would have always been happy. He would always liv in the sunshine of God's countenance, and sorrow an sighing he would never know. Now he groans, bein burdened; now he looked for good and beheld evil; no he lives all his life long subject to bondage through th fear of death.

What a grievous thing, then, is sin! It has closed th issues of life; it has opened the avenues of death; has nerved the arm of rebellion against the eternal thron it has shut out the light of heaven, and turned awa the smile of the Divine complacency from our dark a wretched world. In Eden it filled the happiest of morta with shame and remorse, and entailed on the race t bitter fruits of death; it made a brother a murderer; filled the earth with pollution and crime, till indigna Heaven drowned the old world with a flood of wate Again, sin provoked the Almighty wrath on the cities the Plains. The fiery indignation of Jehovah consum them from the face of the earth. Wars, famines, p tilences and plagues sweep over the length and bread of the earth, and cover it with tears and anguish. The are thy ravages, O sin!

And again, see what sin has done in the introducti and establishment of False Religions, especially of Ido try. But we reserve this topic for a future chapter.

Sin Charged with all Existing Evil.--In all its wo ing it has worked evil and only evil continually. It ruined our world; it has despoiled it of its beauty, shor of its glory, and covered it with natural and moral def mity; it has spoiled man-made him a prey of eve evil propensity and every corrupt passion. It is the thor of every discord that disturbs the peaceful flow life; of every tear that falls; of every disappointm loss or bereavement we suffer; of every pain we f How grievous, hateful, ruinous! If it be the mothe all evil, it must be the abominable thing which God ha

SIN THE FOUNTAIN OF ALL EVIL.

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For, as the Controller of all events, if he thus make the fruits of sin bitter and grievous, if he make the way of the transgressor hard, we may be sure that sin is the thing his soul hateth, and that it will be followed by his indignation and wrath; and if not repented of and forsaken, with his eternal displeasure.

We have charged all evil on sin. We now charge all sin on the Devil. He decoyed our first parents into transgression, and is thus the author of all the calamities which have befallen our hapless race.

In our bill of indictment against his Satanic Majesty, we charge upon him all the oppression; all the fraud and corruption; all the licentiousness and intemperance; all the wars and their untold desolations; all the natural evils that afflict a suffering race; all social, civil and domestic evils that changed our world from a Paradise to a pandemonium; all the perversions of money, time, talent, influence, custom, fashion, and indeed all that makes our world differ from that beautiful, pure, holy, happy world where first dwelt the happy pair, basking in the sunshine of Heaven's smiles, fit companions of angels, and in delightful fellowship with God. But shall not these halycon days return, when the Usurper, as god of this world, shall be bound in everlasting chains and cast out for ever? Then shall the earth be transformed, and reassume its primeval beauty as it came from the hand of its creator; then shall man be reinstated in the image of his God, and righteousness, and peace, and heavenly felicity shall for ever dwell in the abodes of men.

The Son of God came into the world that he might destroy the works of the Devil. The triumph of our

blessed Redeemer on the earth will be the final overthrow of Satan and the complete annihilation of sin. Every advance in our world of a genuine Christianity, every Bible translated, circulated and piously read; every Christian school established; every gospel sermon preached; every Christian principle, grace or virtue inculcated,

is so much done toward the undermining and the final abolishing the empire of him who has the power of sin. Give the gospel free course and let it be glorified in the accomplishment of the work for which it was sent, and sin shall cease to have dominion, and the prince of the power of the air shall no longer be served as the god of this world, but shall be cast out for ever.

THE DEVIL IN BIBLE TIMES.

THE DEVIL BEFORE THE DELUGE-IN OLD TESTAMENT TIMES HE TURNS THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH TO IDOLATRY-THE DEVIL IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES-HIS CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCH-PAPAL APOSTASY.

Bur let us pass from what the Devil is to what he does, and we shall see little occasion to change our estimate of his real character, or of the relations he holds to the sons of men. The merest glance at the doings of the Devil, as detailed in the history of the world, indicates the controlling position he holds in the affairs of man. He began in the family of Adam. And "how earth has felt the wound," the direful history of sin doth but too sadly tell. If we could measure all the sighs and groans and tearsall the sorrows and woes that sin has inflicted on a suffering race-all the perversion of talent, time, influence, wealth, fashion, custom-all the wastes and woes of intemperance and war-all that comes of murders, arsons, robberies, and crime of every name-if we could fathom the depth, and measure the height and length and breadth of all the evil sin has done in our world, we should begin to comprehend something of the woful history of him who has the power of sin.