! hard fate! that I should receive my death-wound from that side
whence I expected no harm, and be safe in the part where I looked
for most danger."

Let danger and need drive you closer to God. He never slumbers or
sleeps, and in His keeping you will be safe. Seize hold of Him in
prayer. "Watch and pray."

Christianity Not Responsible.

Christianity is not responsible for the deception that exists among
its professing disciples. The illustration has been used before that
you might just as reasonably hold the Cunard company responsible for
the suicide of a passenger who jumps overboard one of their vessels
at sea. Had the person remained on the vessel, he would have been
safe; and had the disciple remained true to his principles, he would
never have turned out a hypocrite. Was anybody ever more severe in
denouncing hypocrisy than Christ? Do you want to know the reason
why, every now and then, the church is scandalized by the exposure
of some leading church member or Sabbath school superintendent? It
is not his Christianity, but his lack of it. Some secret sin has
been eating at the heart of the tree, and in a critical moment it is
blown down and its rottenness revealed.

The Deception Can Not Last Forever.

It is impossible for the deception to last forever. Lincoln had a
saying that you may be able to deceive all the people some of the
time, and some of the people all of the time, but you will not be
able to deceive all the people all of the time. Death will uncover
the deception, if it has not been detected sooner; and the
unfortunate victim will stand, undeceived, in the presence of a God
who cannot be mocked.

WHEN A MAN SOWS, HE EXPECTS TO REAP.

"_Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the
earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and
latter rain_."--James v: 7.

CHAPTER III.

When a Man Sows, He Expects to Reap.

Notice these four things about sowing and reaping: A man expects to
reap when he sows; he expects to reap the same kind of seed that he
sows; he expects to reap more; and ignorance of the kind of seed
makes no difference.

First: _When a man sows, he expects to reap_.

If a farmer went on sowing, spring after spring, and never reaping
in the autumn, you would say he was a fit subject for the lunatic
asylum. No; he is always looking forward to the time when he will
reap the reward of his toil. He never expects that the seed he has