ing it from above: overawing meanness by greatness, shaming impurity by the beauty of holiness, and driving out sadness by the expulsive power of an exceeding great joy.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things." "These things." Is this our trend? Is it not rather our unhappy habit to revolve in our thought and imagination whatsoever things are painful, humiliating, ugly, and discouraging? We shall never overcome evil by this fellowship with sin and sadness. We overcome the evil in the good. The cardinal matter is to fix our thought and affection on things above, not on things on the earth: we cannot even think of such things without being blessed. The thought of beauty leaves a stain of sweet colour on the soul; to think of greatness is to grow; to muse on purity is to suffer a sea change into the whiteness and preciousness of the pearl.

In a word, the secret of perfect character is to look away from self to Him who is the supreme example and perfecter. It has pleased God to reveal Himself in His Son, and looking unto Jesus we behold the full vision of glorious character. We must live with Him until He is formed in the heart. The poppies wither fastest beneath the shade of the Rose of Sharon.

A philosopher has said, "Cultivate your defects in the shadow of your qualities"; which is, indeed, the very lesson we have sought to enforce, only to give the principle inculcated in this aphorism full expression and efficacy we must cultivate our defects in the shadow of Christ's qualities and grace. "But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."

II. In dealing with DOMESTIC EVIL, that which we witness and deplore in our immediate neighbourhood, the text must furnish guidance. The faults and follies of husband, wife, children, companions, servants, neighbours, occasion frequent and sincere distress. How are these lapses to be effectually combated? Not by good advice even, much less by scorn and contempt. Verbal censure and social penalty do not largely avail against the evils which trouble our environment; the effectual remedy is unspeakably more costly. Our guilty neighbours must see in us the virtues they lack. Again, the poppies must be smothered by the golden corn. "In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behaviour of their wives." "Without the word." Embodied excellence was to do the whole work of rebuking and charming, dispensing with eloquence, whether sacred or profane. On the walls of a chamber of great beauty in the Alhambra this sentence is inscribed:

"Look attentively at my elegance, and thou wilt reap the advantage of a commentary on decoration." The variety, loveliness, and harmony of the architecture of that chamber are themselves a commentary on decoration, and render literary criticism and description superfluous. In like manner the fine character and blameless doing of the Christian are a commentary on nobleness, rendering argument and expostulation unnecessary. Offending neighbours see "how awful goodness is, and virtue in her shape how lovely," and words can add nothing to this incarnation of the true and beautiful. In South Africa snakes are expelled from the gardens by planting geraniums-the vermin do not abide the red flower; and by sweet graces of character and conduct we make it difficult for evil to disport itself.

It must not be forgotten, either, that it is chiefly in the gentleness of Christ that we circumvent and overcome evil. Already the fact has been recalled that in Him the dove replaces the eagle, and the olive branch the thunderbolt-a truth full of suggestion to His disciples. Great is the efficacy of kindness. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head." Love looks little less than absurd as she steps down into the arena of strife and rage, and essays to "fetter madness with a silken thread"; yet are her victories many and glorious. Great is the efficacy of endurance. Patience is more potent than

passion, and in her perfect work she is invulnerable and irresistible. Great is the efficacy of humility. How often do we stoop to conquer, whilst pride bites the dust! Great is the efficacy of sympathy. To recognize frankly and generously whatever can be said for the erring is often to make him ashamed of himself, and to strive for a better self. Great is the efficacy of clemency. Not rarely to forgive the sinner is to save him.

They who scout the gentler sentiments and methods to which Christianity trusts are duped by appearances. To superficial sense law seems more commanding than love, thunderstorms more than the dew of silent nights, blood and iron more effectual than a sweet reasonableness; but those who see below the surface recognize in right, truth, and longsuffering sovereign forces which prevail all the more certainly purged from wrath. Jesus Christ made no mistake in relying upon the passive virtues as the annihilators of evil and the purifiers of society. Practical men say that there is no barricade like snow. A bullet fired from a distance of fifty yards will not penetrate a wall of snow six feet thick; whereas the same bullet passes through dense earthworks and shatters trees when discharged from a much greater distance. The trick of the snow is all its own. It greets the murderous missile with disarming courtesy, lulls it with a caress, kills it with a kiss. Strangely enough the fairy flakes are more effectual than solid cores of wood or steel. So gentle goodness

flouted by the carnal overcomes evil in all its pride and wrath.

To accept an alternative reading, "We overcome evil in the good." In rich, positive, personal, overflowing goodness we make our neighbourhood impossible to wickedness. As in the crystal depths of the sea foul streams are lost, as in the infinite purple of the sky black smoke disappears, so the goodness of the saints in its fullness and beauty must go on cleansing society until evil be no more. No affectation of goodness, no partial, shallow goodness, will suffice: if we are to be cleansing forces, goodness must be our very self, the element in which we live and move. Saturated with sweetness like a flower, pulsating with light like a star, overbrimming with joy as a bird rains. music, we drive from our homes, offices, shops, and neighbourhoods bad odours, dark things, unhappy tempers, or, at least, make it impossible for them to thrive and prevail.

III. The effectual way to subdue PUBLIC EVIL is the strategy of the text.

We do not really overcome evil by substituting one evil for another, or by setting one evil to drive out another. Scientists neutralize one kind of microbe by introducing another, and sometimes, it would seem, one disease to expel another; but manœuvres have little place in the moral world. Statesmen will attempt to end an evil practice or institution by introducing it in a different shape, as the Siamese are said to domes