o do evil, that
means to take strong drink that causes drunkenness, or to take God's
name in vain, or to steal something, or defraud someone, or to kill,
or to commit adultery, or to wish evil to some one, or to tell for the
truth what one knows is not true, self-denial for Christ's sake, stays
the hand from doing the evil and restrains the heart from desiring to
do the evil. This is the self-denial taught by our Lord, and this is
the cause of the Jews not receiving him.

But self-denial with the enlightened Christian goes still further and
suppresses all sense of pride or desire to appear above others. This
feeling was often checked by our Lord. He told his disciples always to
take the lowest seat when invited to a feast; that to be his disciples
in the true sense and become prepared for the kingdom of heaven, they
must have the meek and teachable spirit of a little child. With all
this and more, the enlightened Christian is not desirous of being
conformed to the world. True self-denial forbids all conformity to the
vain and useless styles in dress which are ever changing in the
circles of fashionable society. I will here relate what I once heard a
preacher tell from the stand. He gave it as a fact that really
occurred; but it appears plain to my mind that the incident proceeded
more from a desire to amuse than to reform; nevertheless it does show
that fashions, long ago, were probably subject to as frequent changes
as at the present time. This is it: A man who had several grown-up
daughters in his family was going home, apparently in a great hurry,
with a fashionable headdress or hat for each one, which he had just
purchased at a shop in the city. On his way he met a friend who seemed
inclined to exchange courtesies and a few words with him. But he
apologized for being in a hurry by holding up the hats he had bought
for his girls, saying as he went: "I must hurry home, or they will go
out of style before my daughters get to try them on."

Friends, the Lord claims you for his own--all of you. "Ye are his
people, ye his care; your souls and all your mortal frame." Ye are his
by creation and providence. Say, will ye be his by salvation and
redemption? He comes to you. Will the next century write the same sad
history of your case that stands recorded of the Jews: "He came unto
his own, and his own received him not"? Will this be the story? I hope
and pray that it may not be. But it remains for you to decide this
questio