you obeyed it? It would be impossible, in addressing a Christian assembly, to trace out the weight which, individually, may be threatening each with defeat in his course: time would fail to sum up the long array of dangers which beset his path. But surely your own conscience will bear me witness, that slow has been your progress, and far distant yet the goal whereunto you profess the desire to attain; and why? because, without doubt, we do not lay aside every weight-some things we will consent indeed to forego, but one favorite sin, besetting and impeding us, remains; it involves us in its folds-for this is the image which the original expression brings before us-as a long and flowing robe would impede the candidate in the race. It is thus that the weight, the sin that besets the Christian, checks his career; and, eventually, if not cast aside, involves his rejection and disgrace.

Has nothing of this sort impeded us? Is

there no burden, of the earth earthly, which has weighed down our purer aspirations, and now, at the end of many years, leaves us but little if at all nearer Heaven in our life and affections-far still from the prize of our high calling? And if this be so; if, while I endeavour to impress on you the force of the Apostle's language, your hearts the while bear me witness, and you recal some weight, some besetting sin, which has retarded and cast you back, will you not hearken to the faithful monitor, and ask, if it be but for a moment, how shall I henceforth so run that I "

may obtain?" Will the burden become lighter, the further you bear it on? Will the sin impede you less, the more you suffer it to cling round you? or if, blinded by the God of this world, you still continue to run your course thus "sorely let and hindered," what but defeat and rejection can, in the end, await you?

My brethren, let us be assured that one of two things inevitably awaits us all either we

must part with the weight that delays, or we must relinquish the reward set before us. We must either put away the sin, whatever it may be, which most easily besets us, or we must renounce the crown-the bright reward that is offered. Neither the sound conclusions of reason, nor the warning language of the text, nor the awful denouncements of Christ himself, permit us to believe that the race which leadeth unto life eternal, can be accomplished unless on these terms: for "know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."* Do you ask why you seem still so far from securing the prize? Look upon this awful list of sins-the least one of which will effectually bar your progress, and here, it may be, that the cause will

* 1 Cor. vi. 9-10.

at once be revealed. Would God that the Apostle's exhortation might effectually find an entrance to the heart which feels convicted, so that laying aside that weight, and that besetting sin, you would now begin to run with patience the race that is set before you.

Running with

And how, we

And this brings us to consider the second point enforced by the Apostle. patience the appointed race. may well ask, shall any man run with patience his allotted course, if all the time he be carrying with him a burden which must bar the successful issue? All labours are comparatively light to him who feels a well grounded hope that the object sought will, in the end, be compassed; and every slight impediment and trial aggravated, where a man has reason to doubt the issue. Now the race appointed to each must be accomplished; and it must needs be checquered with many trials: for it is the decree of God, whose wisdom in this, as in all things, will one day be made manifest, that

"man is born to sorrow," in some form or other, "as the sparks fly upwards."* From this common lot there is no release; but what then? though the trials themselves may be the same, how utterly different are they in their influence and effect. He who is successfully pressing forward to the haven where he would be, and has cast off the weight and the sin that had beset him, feels in the chastenings of the Lord the tokens of his love, and "runs with patience the race that is set before him." If "free from sin, and become the servant of righteousness," there will then be no overwhelming burden; the way, indeed, may be thorny and rough, but being prepared for the journey, by having cast every weight and sin aside; it will be traversed with a cheerful composure, under the blessed conviction "that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."+ And with such a

* Job v. 7. + Romans viii. 18.