connivance of God which permits the godlessness of the world to go on unpunished is to Job incomprehensible. So far from sin being exposed and avenged, it is apparently entirely successful; the godly gather the vintage, and the rogue drinks the wine.

Sin has thus an attractive aspect. It is not, as one might expect, a realm of unrelieved failure and wretchedness; it often wears the air of gaiety, glitters with treasure, is vocal with the shout of them that triumph. This aspect is repeatedly recognized by the Scriptures. We read of "the pleasures of sin," "the song of the drunkard," "the laughter of the fool," "the triumphing of the wicked," and "the wages of unrighteousness." The godless obtain what they aim at— enjoyment, luxury, mirth, song, power, fortune, renown. "The glory of his house is increased"; "his eyes stand out with fatness"; he clothes himself "with scarlet," decks himself "with ornaments of gold," and enlarges his "eyes with paint." Let us beware lest we are misled by this meretricious show. It is our habit to think that sin is most terrible when it immediately entails infamy, disease, poverty, suffering, and death; whilst those who escape detection and penalty and enjoy gold, glory, or gaiety, are considered relatively fortunate. What I now design to show is that this view is entirely mistaken, and that wrongdoing is never more terrible than when it is successful, never more ghastly than when gay, never more expensive

than when it pays, never more tragical than when it is glorious. Note:

I. THE BLINDING POWER OF SUCCESSFUL SIN.

It obscures our highest beliefs. Sin of any kind has a tendency to spoil the inward vision; by a subtle law it tells on the soul's sensibility, and renders it difficult to see the things unseen, to grasp the higher truths by which we live. If an astronomer is to be equal to the utmost refinement of astronomical observation, he must be very careful about the personal equation, and come to the telescope in his best mental and physical condition. A distinguished astronomer is said "to abstain from everything which could affect the nervous system-from narcotics, alcohol, coffee, and whatever else might unfit him for accuracy of observation." Great is the difficulty of seeing, and strict abstemiousness is essential in those who would discern the more delicate phenomena of the heavens. How much truer is it, then, that spiritual vision is determined by our modes of thinking and living! If the great truths which are higher than the heavens are to become perfectly lucid, we must approach them with sincerity and purity of heart. Here everything depends upon the personal equation. As a cigar smoke will cloud the stars, and a sip of wine or coffee render inappreciable the delicate markings of suns and moons, so will a vain thought, a cherished appetite, a worldly passion, an evil act, impair the sight of the soul. Again and

again does God's most holy Word insist on the blinding power of sinfulness. Because men cultivate the secular mood and indulge the carnal appetite they fail to apprehend the things that are afar off. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see.

But whilst all sins damage and darken the soul, successful sin does so in a special degree. The existence of a righteous Ruler is feelingly brought home to the transgressor promptly chastened for his sin; he thinks of God and is troubled, but he does think of Him. "So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily He is a God that judgeth in the earth." When, however, ungodliness and iniquity go unpunished, when they seize and relish the prizes of life, the transgressor is ready to mutter, "How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?" When the wicked are apparelled in cloth of gold, decked with honours, and fare sumptuously every day, the faith of the righteous is staggered; and what imperils the faith of the saint confirms the scepticism of the ungodly. "The vintage of the wicked," proclaims atheism in a purple rhetoric, which is also apparently unanswerable logic.

The sin that prospers confuses the moral sense. When transgression manifestly fails, bringing immediate loss and anguish, it compels men afresh to recognize the reality and energy of the moral law; but when wrongdoing enjoys immunity from censure and retribution, we are inclined to regard conscience as a

mere superstition. The prophet Isaiah represents Israel as forgetting God and transgressing every item of the law of righteousness; yet the people continued to enjoy prosperity, and abandoned themselves to luxury and license. "The harp and the lute, the tabret and the pipe, and wine" were in their feasts. What was the consequence? "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." They adopted a code of morals that completely overturned the first principles of ethics, and that was utterly opposed to the law of God. Nothing produces ethical confusion like prosperity in unrighteousness. When we gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles, we begin to suspect our botany; and when we behold flowers of purple and fruits of gold springing from rotten roots of conduct, we are apt to lose faith in the fact and authority of moral law. He who suffers for sin knows evil to be evil, darkness to be darkness, bitterness to be bitterness, whilst to prosper in a false way is to call into question the fundamental and eternal truths of character and destiny. Successful sin disorders the moral faculty, persuades us that an accident is a law, produces colour-blindness of the soul; and if the light that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness!

II. THE BEGUILING POWER OF SUCCESSFUL SIN. Even whilst men suffer, and suffer severely, from sin, it exercises a strange fascination. If we did not actually see it, were we not so entirely familiar with the spectacle, we could never have believed it possible for transgressors to have held on so long and devotedly to courses which cost them so much. It is a part of the mystery of iniquity that it should be so. When the bones of the unclean are filled with pain, the fortunes of the unprincipled shipwrecked, and proud sinners cast down into ignominy, they reluctantly discontinue the practice which tortures and destroys; nay, often they do not break with it at all until it has consumed them. "Therefore He poured upon him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart." But if chastisement does not recall to better ways, how doubly hopeless is their case who pluck gay flowers, drink stolen waters, and eat delectable fruits in forbidden paths! "The way of the wicked seduceth them" (Prov. xii. 26). Much is to be said for this translation, although the Revised Version has not held by it. The pathway of the fortunate transgressor bewitches him, lures him farther and farther astray. Every few steps a new nugget gleams in the dust, a fresh flower blooms by the wayside; the pilgrims one encounters are so genial, the chariots invite, the halfway houses extend tempting hospitalities, there are few hills to