vices menacing and
great, and which, alas, are altogether too frequent.

Let us look back and note to what depths of darkness, of delusion and
abomination, we had sunk when we knew not how we ought to walk, how to
please God. Alas, we have forgotten all about it; we have become
indolent and ungrateful, and are dealt with accordingly. Well does the
apostle say in the lesson for the Sunday preceding this (2 Cor 6, 1):
"And working together with him we entreat also that ye receive not the
grace of God in vain, for he saith, At an acceptable time I hearkened
unto thee, and in a day of salvation did I succor thee."

3. In our present lesson he treats chiefly of two vices: unchastity,
which is a sin against oneself and destructive of the fruits of faith;
and fraud in business, which is a sin against the neighbor and
likewise destructive of faith and charity. Paul would have every man
keep himself chaste and free from wrong against every man, pronouncing
the wrath of God on offenses of this character.

4. It was a fact reflecting much credit and honor on the Thessalonians
in contrast to the Corinthians and the Galatians, that they continued
upright in doctrine and true in the knowledge of the faith, though
perhaps deficient in the above-mentioned two self-evident features of
Christian life. While it is true that if sins of immorality are not
renounced God will punish, yet punishment in such cases is for the
most part temporal, these sins being less pernicious than such gross
offenses as error in faith and doctrine.

5. Paul, however, threatens such sins with the wrath of God, lest
anyone become remiss and indolent, imagining the kingdom of Christ a
kingdom to tolerate with impunity such offenses. As Paul expresses it,
"God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification [holiness]."
The thought is: Unchastity does not come within the limits of
Christian liberty and privilege, nor does God treat the offender with
indulgence and impunity. No, indeed. In fact, he will more rigorously
punish this sin among Christians than among heathen. Paul tells us (1
Cor 11, 30) that many were sickly and many had succumbed to the sleep
of death in consequence of eating and drinking unworthily. And Psalm
89, 32 testifies, "Then will I visit their transgression with the
rod."

6. True, they who sin through infirmity, who, conscious of their
transgressions, suffer themselves to be reproved, repenting at
once--for these the kingdom of Ch