V.

The Four Compromises.

FIRST.

"Go ye and sacrifice to your God in the land."

ow this is the first of four compromises that Pharaoh endeavoured to make with God, in order to avoid obeying, in its simple sense, His commandment-" let the people go;" and I beseech you to give me your prayerful attention while I bring the whole four before you, and endeavour to show you how precisely similar they are to the compromising suggestions still made by Satan.

As God called Israel of old to come out of Egypt, so He now calls on His people to come out from the world; and the same struggle is

yet going on between the natural man and God's Spirit in the heart of the sinner, as went on between Pharaoh and God in the land of Egypt. The sinner is awakened, he is afraid of God's judgments, he has become anxious about his soul, he wishes to be a Christian; but then he wishes also to keep the world. What is to be done? Satan whispers to him what he prompted Pharaoh to propose to Moses, "Sacrifice to your God IN THE LAND."

Now every one of us may receive it as a fundamental truth of God, that such a compromise is simply impossible: you cannot serve God and mammon. There are two distinct kingdoms on earth, and only two, and each kingdom has its own ruler. The one is the kingdom of this world, of which Satan is the prince; the other is the kingdom of God's dear Son, of which Jesus Christ is King. The subjects of these two are at utter variance; they have no single thing in common. Their belief, their habits, their customs, their laws,

their opinions, their pursuits, their aims are all antagonistic; the objects of the one are temporal, the objects of the other are eternal; and what makes for the welfare of the one is proportionately hurtful to the interests of the other. As well might a man profess to be a good and loyal subject to his sovereign while openly fighting against him in the ranks of his enemies, as for a man to call himself a Christian whose conduct and conversation is according to the course of this world, and who makes no endeavour to separate himself from the impenitent and the ungodly.

I know that I have now come to a part of my subject which is sure to stir up the enmity of Satan, for it strikes at the very root of his power and dominion. He will allow people, with little hindrance from him, to go great lengths in religion; they may do many things that look peculiar and strange in the eyes of the world, if they will only remain in the world and do them; for so long as they do that, they are still his subjects: their religion may bring

quiet to their consciences, but well he knows that it will never save their souls.

But what an opposition does Satan raise in the heart when the Spirit of God tells a man that He will not be satisfied with anything short of his coming out from the world;—that the command to those he receives is,-" Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing." (2 Cor. vi. 17.) What struggles he makes to effect a comproImise and to avoid the direct conclusion from this and such-like Scriptures. Oh how many consciences there are that bear witness to the truth of what I am saying! Well do they know that the religion that tells them they can remain in the world, and yet serve God acceptably, is mere self-deception; that God demands their separation, and will be satisfied with nothing less. But though they know it, yet like Pharaoh they cannot make up their minds to let everything go; they are still, and peradventure have long been, trying to effect a compromise, and the consequence has been

they have never yet really come out; they are

STILL IN THE LAND.

Oh! let such pause, and consider the import of these words-" STILL IN THE LAND." It is very simple, but very awful. It is STILL IN SATAN'S KINGDOM-STILL IN SATAN'S POWER. Like Herod, you have listened to faithful preachers, and done many things; like Felix, you have trembled; like Agrippa, you have been almost persuaded to become a Christian; but you know in your heart of hearts that you have never thoroughly come out from Egypt-that you are still IN THE LAND, and consequently STILL UNSAVED.

Some will say-What is the world? how would you define the land from which you tell us we must separate ?

Now, I believe that every man knows quite well what God means by the world, if he will only be honest; but he asks the question in the same spirit that Pharaoh asked of Moses "Who are they that shall go?" in the hope that the answer may not be quite so sweeping