ot shrink from speaking it. The right time
for speaking it should be chosen, but it should not be left by us
unsaid. When Paley the great moralist was a student at Cambridge he
wasted his time in idleness and frivolity, and was the butt of his
fellow-students. One of them, however, took courage to remonstrate
with him, and did so with good effect. One morning he came to his
bedside and said to him earnestly, "Paley, I have not been able to
sleep for thinking about you. I have been thinking what a fool you
are! I have the means of dissipation, and could afford to be idle; you
are poor and cannot afford it. I could do nothing probably even if I
were to try; you are capable of doing anything. I have lain awake all
night thinking about your folly, and I have now come solemnly to warn
you. Indeed, if you persist in your indolence and go on in this way, I
must renounce your society altogether." The words took effect. Paley
became a changed man, and his after success sprang from his friend's
warning. This incident illustrates what may be the influence in this
form of one man upon another.

(_b_) Bearing testimony against evil. This is another line of direct
influence open to all. It is a precept of the book of Leviticus, "If a
soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he
hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his
iniquity." If he does not give evidence against evil, even to his own
hurt he sins. We are bound to protest against wrongdoing in any form;
and our protest, if distinct and well directed, always tends to good.
To be silent in certain circumstances makes us the accomplice of sin;
to speak out frees us from responsibility. To be the dumb auditor of a
shameful story, or to listen silently to the relation of a deed of
wickedness, and not be honest and resolute in expressing our disgust
and disapproval is to condone what no good man should condone. The
outspoken testimony against evil is incumbent on all Christian men.

(_c_) Taking part in Christian and benevolent work. There are many
ways, it is evident, in which we may do so _individually_. "The
greatest works that have been done have been done by the ones." No
learned society discovered America, but one man, Columbus. No
parliament saved English liberties, but one man, Pym. No confederate
nations rescued Scotland from her political and ecclesiastical enemies,
but one man, Knox. By one man,