or more."

go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less So much he yielded to his sense of duty; but then the love of gain came in, and

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tempted him to add, " Tarry ye here this night, that I may know what the Lord will say to me more." He wanted to ask counsel of God, in the way that we ask it sometimes of our worldly friends; we let them see plainly what advice we wish them to give us; and if they have first answered us honestly according to the truth, we try to win from them some softening of their first opinion, something that may encourage us to do that which we are bent upon doing. But woe to him who deals thus deceitfully with God and with his conscience! Balaam gained exactly the very answer that he desired: God answered him according to his idols. He had said that he could not say any thing beyond what God should tell him; but still he might perhaps be allowed to go with the men. And even so was the answer, "If the men come to call thee, rise up and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do." God had spoken to him after his own heart, and Balaam was then fully satisfied; he did not ask the messengers to tarry yet another night, that he might know what the Lord would say to him more; he rose up in the morning, and went with the princes of Moab.

We are expressly told that the persons to whom

God sends strong delusion that they should believe a lie, are those who love not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness; whereas on the other hand our Lord assures us, that if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or no. There is no doubt that the fact is so; that men of honest and fair minds have a very clear and sound judgment in all points of practice, whilst insincere men, endowed perhaps with much higher abilities by nature, become absolutely blinded and weak, when they come to determine questions of duty. Nor is it to be doubted that this law of God's providence is a just and wise one; inasmuch as it enables persons of inferior understandings to correct their deficiencies by the goodness of their hearts, while it deprives the wicked man of the benefit of those talents which he is abusing. It is not without great reason that the Scripture so often recommends purity and singleness of heart, and threatens the doubleminded. Few men, comparatively speaking, will make up their minds to do evil at any rate; and the number of those who wish to serve mammon only, is perhaps even smaller than that of those who wish to serve God only. The great mass of mankind are undone by a vain endeavour to serve at once both God and mammon; to their consciences they hold out the quieting language of Balaam, “If Balak would give me his house full

of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord to say less or more;" while to their appetites they whisper at the same time,

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Tarry ye here awhile, that I may know what the Lord will say to me more." Then it is that the voice of the Lord, which they pretended to wait for, does indeed lead them to their ruin. For their conscience is God's voice speaking within them; and this, when dishonestly applied to, becomes a false guide, disguising the guilt of our conduct, or encouraging us to hope that the mercy of God will grant it forgiveness. It permits us to do things for which God's anger will surely be kindled; and although we should make answer that we did no more than we believed to be right, yet we shall be reminded that they who killed Christ's servants, thought that they were doing God service; but that this their blindness rather aggravated their sin than lessened it; for it was a proof, as Christ Himself declares, that they had neither known His Father nor Him. Man indeed may not be able to judge of the heart of man, nor can we pretend to say that our neighbour's ignorance in many points is not an innocent ignorance, rather than a blindness sent by God as an earnest of his future condemnation. But, though we may not judge of one another, yet He who judges us all, can see through every corner of our souls, can separate insincerity from truth, and can well perceive the weakness of

those excuses, which to human eyes might appear

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fair and reasonable. Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest, but suffer me first to go and bury my father," was a speech that could have conveyed no just suspicion to any man that heard it; but He to whom all hearts were open, knowing that the desire to follow Him was a mere pretence, cut down his hypocrisy, with calling on him, to "follow Him, and let the dead bury their dead."

Of all things, therefore, that we can impress upon the mind of a man when first entering into life, or at any after period, nothing is more important than the command of our Lord, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness "Purify your hearts, ye double minded "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." How many doubts and difficulties would be saved, if we were to keep stedfastly before our eyes the one grand object of a Christian's life, "to do all to the glory of God." It is the suffering lower motives to come in too much, and too habitually, that leads us into evil; we act from custom, or convenience, or inclination, or to please our friends, or to gain a good character, till we almost forget what should be our first question to ourselves in every thing that we do, "How will God regard this conduct at the day of judgment?" Nor is it true that such a question would condemn all cheerfulness and refreshment of the mind: it

would sanction innocent relaxations, but it would teach us to weigh carefully the difference between what is innocent and what is sinful; and whilst it led us to cast away every thing that might offend our Lord, it would enable us to enjoy with a free and confident pleasure whatever our Lord really permits to us. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," says the Apostle Paul; that is, whatsoever you cannot fully satisfy yourself to be right, that is wrong. But there are many men, like Balaam of old, who rather reverse this rule, and who seem to think that whatever they cannot clearly prove to be wrong, that must be right. To such it should be urged again and again, that God is not to be mocked, that He requires the free service of our hearts; and if we yield it so sullenly, that, instead of shaping our desires to His law, we try to make His law correspond with our desires, He who sees the secrets of all hearts, will find us wanting in the great day of our account.. Above all, the example of Balaam should be a warning to all those persons, who flatter themselves that they shall repent and turn to God when they are tired of the wages of unrighteousness. They do but deceive themselves by such a hope; for assuredly they never will repent. God will take away from them the little grace which they had, he will answer them according to their idols, and will encourage them to go on in their evil ways till

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