lse,
covetous, and hypocritical--and indulging, perhaps, the unclean
spirit of youth, as much as they dare without being found out. God
help them! for their last state is worse than their first. But that
is the fruit of trying to mortify and kill their own vices by mere
worldly prudence, and not by the Spirit of God, which alone can
cleanse the heart of any man, or make him strong enough really to
conquer and kill his sins.

And what is this spirit of God? We may know in this way. What says
our Lord in the Gospel? 'The tree is known by its fruits.' Then if
we know the fruits of the Spirit, we shall surely know something at
least of what the Spirit is like. What then says St. Paul, 'The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.' Therefore the Spirit is a
loving spirit--a peaceable, a gentle, a good, a faithful, a sober
and temperate spirit. And if you follow it, you will live. If you
give yourselves up honestly, frankly, and fully, to be led by that
good spirit, and obey it when it prompts you with right feelings,
you, your very self, will live. You will be what God intended you
to be; you will grow as God intended you to grow; grow as Christ
did, in grace; in all which is graceful, amiable, worthy of respect
and love; and therefore in favour with God and man. Your character
will improve and strengthen day by day; and rise day by day to
fuller, stronger, healthier spiritual life. You will be able more
and more to keep down low passions, evil tempers, and all the works
of the flesh, when they tempt you; you will despise and hate them
more and more; for having seen the beauty of goodness, you will see
the ugliness of sin. So the bad passions and tempers, instead of
being merely put to sleep for a while to wake up all the stronger
for their rest, will be really mortified and killed in you. They
will die out of you; and you, the real _you_ whom God made, will
live and grow continually. And, instead of having your character
dragged down, diseased, and at last ruined, it will rise and
progress, as you grow older, in the sure and safe road of eternal
life. To which God bring us all in his mercy! Amen.

SERMON XXIV. THE UNRIGHTEOUS MAMMON

(Ninth Sunday after Trinity.)

Luke xvi. 1-8. And he said also unto his disciples, There was a
certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto
him that he had wasted his goo