dying man the accusing cry-I am verily guilty—I do remember my faults this day. My sins have taken such hold upon me that I am not able to look up: yea, they are more in number than the hairs of my head, and my heart hath failed me!

O my brethren, if you would not be thus utterly confounded and terror-stricken, when you come to die, try to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and man. Do nothing that may need concealing. Walk as children of light; proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

But again-there is a further lesson for us in the text -They said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, note the last words, concerning our brother. They tell us that the remorse of Jacob's sons, was for a wrong done against another person, and that other person their own brother!

Now it is not every sin that affects others. Some sins. are strictly personal sins-done against our own body and soul-and when the awakening for these comes, bitter as it will be, it will yet have in it this consolation, "I am free from blood guiltiness-I have sinned, deeply sinned, but I have sinned by myself and against myself -I have had no partner in my guilt: I have not decoyed others from the path of right."

There will be, I say, this thought,-such as it is-to alleviate their sufferings, who in the day of repentance, shall not have upon their souls acts of evil done against their brethren.

But, alas! in how very few cases can men reckon on such comfort! Most sins by their very nature are double

-they are sins that in their consequence affect more than the single agent-sins against ourselves, and against our neighbours. For example, the drunkard who spends on himself the wages that ought to have gone to make his home more comfortable-to clothe his wife and children decently, to provide them with better and more abundant food-the drunkard is most assuredly guilty concerning his brother—he sins not only against his own soul, but against all who are in any way dependent on him. The Sabbathbreaker again, who loiters at the corner of the streets when the bells are chiming for Church-sins a double sin-against God, and against his neighbours. So, too, does the man who uses foul and profane language. So does the seducer -the selfish libertine who to gratify his passion seeks the ruin of a fellow-creature. All these, and most of all the last, sins a double sin. And as their sin is double, so when God visits them, it will be with a double stroke.

We can imagine nothing more terrible than will be their awakening-no cry so sharp as that which shall proclaim their inward agony-" I am verily guilty concerning my brother-concerning my neglected wife and children-concerning the young companion-my fellow servant perhaps to whom I set so bad an example, whom I first taught to make a mock at sin-concerning my sister, the poor girl whom I beguiled into shame!"

I repeat, brethren, it is impossible to over draw the misery and anguish that awaits these sinners when they come-if they ever do-to repentance. With the thought that they have plunged others into guilt: that at their door lies not one burden, but many-that a brother or a sister's blood is crying against them before God-hope to

obtain mercy must be well nigh shut out! With them the words are realized-my soul is sore troubled. I stick fast in the deep mire where no ground is. I am so fast in prison that I cannot get forth!

We do not say, even for such as these, that pardon is impossible. The Blood that cleanseth from all sin, can cleanse even sin like theirs-wipe it utterly and for ever away. But this we say, that pardon can only come to them after a terrible wrestling of inward agony-that their repentance must be accompanied with the deepest self-loathing, and with the acutest stings of their avenging conscience. This we say, that although God may forgive, they will hardly dare to take His forgiveness. They will never cease to heap reproaches upon themselves. Be where they may, go where they may, they will be haunted by the recollection of their sin-the echo of that old upbraiding will be ever sounding in their ears-Where is Abel thy brother?

O my friends, let us spare ourselves such an awakening as this! We have sins enough of our own to answer for, without adding to the burden the guilt of our brother's ruin. Let us then walk circumspectly. Let us not by word or deed of ours be any hindrance to those with whom we live.

Especially, I would say, let us as parents, as teachers, as older companions, consider well the effect of our conduct upon the young. Let there be no opening for Reuben's charge hereafter-Spake I not unto you saying, Do not sin against this child; and ye would not hear! Let us as elder brothers or sisters set an example to the

younger in our homes. Let us all look out for opportunities of working good, not evil to one another.

Think how so doing we shall be consulting for our own true peace and happiness. Think what it will be to have but helped one soul to persevere in the right course! Think what it will be to have hindered but one, who, till we crossed his path, was running well!

Yes, think of this-think how at God's judgment seat it will make a difference, whether we shall be recognized there by some happy face whom we first taught the true wisdom-the fear and the love of God-or whether in that awful hour, we shall see beside us some lost ruined soul crying out against us; laying his sin to our charge; declaring before God and His holy angels, that but for us-but for our teaching-our neglect--our example, he had not come into that condemnation!

Think of these things brethren-and let the thought stir you up to consider every man his neighbour's welfare. Remember always that God has joined us together in links of social union, in families, in parishes, in the bond of fellowship and friendship, on purpose that we might be of use to one another-might comfort one another, and instruct one another, and lift up one another, and do all that in us lies to defeat the malice of our great enemy, and preserve souls alive that should not die, and add, of our brethren, true disciples to the Lord—multitudes both of men and women!

FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT.

ST. PETER'S REPENTANCE.

ST. MARK XIV. 72.

And when he thought thereon he wept.

Ir is not long since I brought before you from this place, the character of the false Apostle Judas; and one chief lesson that I observed we ought to gain from his sad history, was a lesson of repentance. By what befell him, we had most powerfully proved to us that all repentance is not genuine repentance-does not avail to save the soul alive.

To-day, brethren, I would again call your thoughts to the subject of repentance; a subject which ought, at this season, to be much in our mind-to repentance, however, of a different kind, of a more hopeful kind, such as we may wish and pray to be realized in ourselves-repentance unto life not to be repented of again.

And this the true repentance I would connect with a person, even with the Apostle St. Peter,-while from Judas (as I have pointed out) we learn that there is a sorrow for sin which will not profit-which worketh only