to jest, and to lie,
and to steal: but I know thee; thou art Satan, and I come unto thee in
the name of the Living God, in the Name of Jesus Christ my Saviour.
That is a powerful name, which can put to flight many foes: Jesus is a
name at which devils tremble. To speak it, is to scare away many a bad
thought. I come against thee in His All-powerful, All-conquering Name.
David came on with a staff; my staff is the Cross--the Holy Cross on
which Christ suffered, in which I glory, which is my salvation. David
chose five smooth stones out of the brook, and with them he smote the
giant. We, too, have armour, not of this world, but of God; weapons
which the world despises, but which are powerful in God. David took
not sword, spear, or shield; but he slew Goliath with a sling and a
stone. Our weapons are as simple, as powerful. The Lord's Prayer is
one such weapon; when we are tempted to sin, let us turn away, kneel
down seriously and solemnly, and say to God that prayer which the Lord
taught us. The Creed is another weapon, equally powerful, through
God's grace, equally contemptible in the eyes of the world. One or two
holy texts, such as our Saviour used when He was tempted by the devil,
is another weapon for our need. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is
another such, and greater; holy, mysterious, life-giving, but equally
simple. What is so simple as a little bread and a little wine? but, in
the hands of the Spirit of God, it is the power of God unto salvation.
God grant us grace to use the arms which He gives us; not to neglect
them, not to take arms of our own! God grant us to use His arms, and
to conquer!

[1] Fifth Sunday after Trinity.

[2] 1 Sam. xvi. 7.

[3] James ii. 6.

SERMON V.

Curiosity a Temptation to Sin.

"_Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil
men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away._"--Proverbs
iv. 14, 15.

The chief cause of the wickedness which is every where seen in the world,
and in which, alas! each of us has more or less his share, is our
curiosity to have some fellowship with darkness, some experience of sin,
to know what the pleasures of sin are like. I believe it is even thought
unmanly by many persons (though they may not like to say so in plain
words), unmanly and a thing to be ashamed of, to have no knowledge of sin
by experience, as if it argued a strange seclusion from the world, a
childish ignorance of l