placed you, that you may prove a vessel of
honour sanctified for His service.

XX. HE THAT OVERCOMETH.

"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God,
and he shall be My son."--REVELATION xxi. 7.

Year by year as at this time, when the week of our Saviour's Passion and
Death is just in front of us, and the shadow of His Cross is falling over
us, one generation after another of the boys of this school gather here,
and in the face of the congregation, young and old, they take upon them
the vows of a Christian life. So we met last Thursday, and your vow is
still fresh upon a great many of you, as indeed it can hardly fail to be
fresh in the memory of every one in this congregation who has ever taken
it. Let us pause for a moment and repeat its plain words. You have
declared your faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost, the Father, the Redeemer, the Sanctifier of your life. You have
vowed that you renounce the devil and his works, that you renounce
covetous desires, that you renounce the carnal desires of the flesh, so
that you will not follow nor be led by them. And you have vowed that you
will keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in them all the days
of your life. And you take this upon you, let us hope, in sincerity and
honesty of purpose.

And, if so, the text I have read to you declares God's promise, if you
persevere, just as another text in the same chapter declares that into
the City of God there shall not enter anything that defileth or worketh
abomination or maketh a lie. This, then, is the promise--"He that
overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall
be My son." But as we think of this and look forward, we have to
remember that this life to which you are dedicated is not an easy matter.
If you are to succeed in it, you have to think of it always as a life
under a vow, as in fact a consecrated life, consecrated by your own
promise and profession. And this is a great safeguard if you bear it
always in mind.

It is indeed the first condition of safety from the attacks and the
impulses of sin, this consciousness which you will carry about with you,
that you are self-dedicated--that there was a day on which you said "I
will"--so that if you are to be true to your profession and declared
purpose, you will strive to keep near to God in the spirit, and you will
have no dealings with the devil and his works, a