accept it. It is an old trick of people who want to turn men's hearts from religion to endeavour to persuade them that religion is (as they put it) not in accordance with common sense, or that it is something above men; something which might be very good if we could only catch hold of it, and bring it down here amongst us; something that the monks might be able to realise; something for clergymen some will even say for women, but not for practical, working men.

Now, my friends, these people are deceivers indeed; for, first of all, they must deceive themselves before they deceive us, and if you will only look into your own hearts, those of you who are men in this room, you will find that there is very little that you have learned out of the Bible that is not proved by things you have seen in your daily life to be true, and that has not been really of immense value to you. But while this holds good of the general teaching of the Bible, there are some things of which

it

may be specially asserted, which are like the sums we learned from our arithmetic-books when at school; and this is one of them, in the words of the old prophet who spoke so sternly by the Word of God to God's own people. He says to you, and he says to me, 'Can two walk together except they be agreed?'

Here is a truth which even the infidel, if he were to come upon this platform, could not deny. Here, at least, we have something which the experience

of every home will prove to be true. It is put in the form of a question, but it is the assertion of a positive fact. You are asked whether two can walk together except they be agreed; but you are really invited to assent to the proposition that they cannot do so.

Now there are some of you here who in your own experience have had this brought home to you. Those who are married, and there are many such in this room, know this full well. The records of what is called the Divorce Court-records which some of us would fain see blotted out of our daily newspapers, because they can do no good to any one who reads them-teach us a sad, a mournful lesson, drawn, in not a few cases, from the experience of those who have tried to walk together without being agreed, and have made shipwreck of their lives, if not of their souls. Others here know how impossible it is for two sisters, two brothers, two friends, to walk together unless they be agreed. But these words refer to something of far greater importance even than the union of husband and wife, or brothers, or friends; they refer to the walking together of God and His people, not only of the Church of God with God, but of each individual soul with God; and the prophet asks, 'Can God and His creature walk together if they are not agreed?'

My friends, you might at first.sight suppose that there was not very much in this question; but if

you think for a moment you will see that there is a very great deal in it; for, after all, what is it that we are living for? Are we only living from Monday morning till Saturday night to buy our food, our clothes, to take care of our children, and then to get over Sunday and go through the week again? Are we only working like so many cab-horses-some of us, perhaps, with almost as little rest as the poor toiling animals-or is there not in each one of us something that will live on for ever and ever? And is it not because of the importance of this, and of the way in which the eternal part of us is living, that the question strikes home to us, and it becomes a matter of serious import to ask ourselves if we are walking together with God, and in accordance with His will? It is no useless question, no unimportant question. It is the most awful question that could be brought before us; for, unless we are walking in agreement with God, unless we are striving to gain those virtues and graces which God would have us gain, we have very little chance of happiness when this world ends. There are too many men, and women also, who live as if this world were all-indeed, we are so apt to say to ourselves, as we lay our friends in the grave, that they are gone, that we almost believe that we leave them there, instead of only leaving the shell-the outer framework of the great living spirit -which has gone to God. But is it so?

Go and look at a group of old pensioners: a leg off here, an arm off there; but it is the same man, though he has left his leg on the field of battle, or his arm on the deck of the ship. If he lost both arms, both legs, the man might still be there; and so when the body is laid in the dust, it is only the outside of him that is there, the rest has gone somewhere, whether it has gone to Paradise, to wait for the second coming of Christ, or with a fearful looking for the judgment to come.

Now, my friends, it is because man has not merely a body but an immortal soul, it is because this life is only the entrance to the real existence, that it is of such vital importance to us what answer we give to this question, 'Can two walk together except they be agreed?'

I was reading the other day a book of lectures by one of the greatest of American preachers, who has recently visited this country, and the object of his addresses was to prove how truly foolish are the notions of those men who would persuade us that there is no such thing as a God or a hereafter. In one of these lectures, in a very forcible passage, he told the people how the fact, the certainty, that there was a God, that there was a judgment, and a life to come, was forced upon his own mind. He had been brought up a Christian, educated as a clergyman. Of course he believed in Christianity; but it was only at the almost supreme moment of his life of which he spoke that the great fact was

forced upon his mind in a way which made it a living, vitalising power. He was travelling one night on one of the great railways in the United States in what is called a Pullman car. They were going at tremendous speed, and he was halfsleeping, when suddenly he felt that sort of jerk that men tell us of in a railway accident, and before he had time to think he found he had been thrown down a deep embankment. His first thought was that he must be nearly killed; but the strength of this particular carriage was so great that it resisted the force with which they came down, and, notwithstanding the shock, he was saved. Still, he said, that at the moment all his past life came before him; everything rushed upon his mind, and the only question which seemed to be of any importance to him was, 'Am I at this moment at peace with God? Now that I am going into the actual presence of God, am I at peace with Him?'

My friends, you and I may never be in a railway accident; God grant we may die quietly in our beds, with time to think and pray before we hear the angel call but some day the time must come when that will be the only question which will have any interest for us, 'Am I at peace with God?' and the only answer to it will be found in that question which the prophet Amos asks, 'Can two walk together except they be agreed?'

If you would feel at peace with God, make your peace with God now. Do not put it off.