xe,
and he cuts away the obnoxious growths, and burns the roots out of
the ground with fire.

If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee:
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy
right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is
profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not
that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Remember that the tares and the wheat will be separated at the
judgment day, if not before. Sowing to the flesh and sowing to the
spirit inevitably lead in diverging paths. The axe will be laid at
the root of the trees, and every tree that bringeth not forth good
fruit will be hewn down and cast into the fire. The threshing-floor
will be thoroughly purged, and the wheat will be gathered into the
garner, while the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.

Beware of your habits. A recent writer has said: "Could the young
but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of
habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the
plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and
never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice
leaves its never so little scar. The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in
Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by
saying, '_I won't count this time_.' Well, he may not count it, and
a kind heaven may not count it, but it is being counted none the
less. Down among his nerve cells and fibres the molecules are
counting it, registering and storing it up, to be used against him
when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict
scientific literalness, wiped out. Of course, this has its good side
as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so many
separate drinks, so we become saints in the moral sphere, and
authorities and experts in the practical and scientific spheres, by
so many separate acts and hours of work."

Beware of temptations. "Lead us not into temptation," our Lord
taught us to pray: and again he said, "Watch and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation." We are weak and sinful by nature, and it is a good
deal better for us to pray for deliverance rather than for strength
to resist when temptation has overtaken us. Prevention is better
than cure. Hidden under the soil may be seeds of passion and
wickedness that only wait for a favo