temptation. Very much is done I do not think we appreciate how much more could be done-by diminishing the temptations to which men and women are exposed. It is constantly said, "You cannot make a man moral by Act of Parliament." No, you cannot; but you can do the next best thing—you can often prevent him from becoming immoral. Let me give one proof of that. A hundred years ago gambling was common in all ranks—most of all in the upper ranks of society. Gambling-houses met

That,

you in London in every corner, and men played high. Everybody knew where they could find a gamingtable, as well as they know now where they can get a glass of beer. But public gambling-houses have been stopped; and what is the result? although not absolutely annihilated-for I suppose they still exist yet a man has to look for them. You might live in London or a provincial town for many years, and literally not know where you could go of an evening to lose a £5 note if you wished. Many a young man, therefore, has been saved from that form of temptation; he has been so far made moral by Act of Parliament. It is a great gain to young men, therefore, to remove temptation from them; and that is one of the things that must be done by future legislation. This may be done, and should be done, in University towns above all others. There is a need, perhaps, in Cambridge, of such a volunteer vigilance committee, to co-operate with the proctors and municipal authorities in clearing the streets of the town.

What are the

Now, let me say one word more. motives which keep men to such work as this? There is much hard work to be done; and we shall

not carry this work through without some strong impelling motive, and these motives are put on this excellent card in the shortest and most telling manner. "Members one of another," "Walk as children of light." That is the best comment on my sermon of this afternoon. "Members one of another" is but an

appeal to our brotherhood in Christ. We have our own brotherhood, stimulated by our home and school education, our College life, our University life; and if we can but generalise it, and make our sense of brotherhood grow until it includes all our countrymen and countrywomen, impurity would be impossible.

There is a story in Plutarch which I hope you will remember. He tells the story, in one of his moral essays, of a young man at the public games seeing a very beautiful girl, and becoming inflamed with desire and passion to possess her. He manages to meet her, and then he suddenly discovers that the beautiful girl is his own sister, and immediately the passion leaves him. How is it extinguished?

It is extinguished, as Plato would tell us, by that oμiкpòv ῥῆμα, that little word; that it is ἀνόσιον, αἰσχρῶν aloxiστov, unholy, most infamous. If we can but regard all women as our sisters, any unholy desires are extinguished by that thought, and by the oμixpòv pua, the word "sister."

But it is not, remember, the mere feeling of human brotherhood and sisterhood that we have to rely upon. I feel more strongly than I can possibly express to you that it is a spiritual union, and not merely the having a common parentage which has any moral effect upon us; and that spiritual union, as I have been trying to express this afternoon, is dependent in some unspeakable way on our common

relation to Christ. This leads us into difficult subjects of thought, into which I do not mean to enter at this late period of the evening. But we must and do believe that just as there is a common physical tie which connects us in one brotherhood, so there is some close spiritual tie and union in that great Spiritual Being, who is the Guide of our wills and the Father of our spirits, and whose chief manifestation in this world was in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is from Him, and our relation to Him, that flows this great power that will transform the world of human nature. It is our union in Him that is to the thoughtful and religious man the strong impulse to purity that nothing can suppress. It is impossible for me now to speak at length of this; I cannot convey to you a tenth part of my own earnestness in feeling that there, and there alonein no mere feeling of human brotherhood or love for an abstract humanity—but that in Christ is the great fountain of all our spiritual life, that He is the goal to which we all tend, as He is the Fount of Life from which we all flow; and that it is in our brotherhood to Him that there is to be found the strongest and the most enduring motive for purity.

And now I will only say to you one brief word more. I do appeal to you to strengthen one another in this University association, by strong hopefulness that you are on the winning side, on God's side, and by the strong conviction that you can in the long run-not at once, but in the long run-produce a sensible effect on your University and on society at large. Stand true to these colours wherever you may be. And you who are just beginning your University career, in your first enthusiasm for all that is pure

and true and noble, and of good report, can you—I put it to you-can you do a better thing than take up your line in this matter, and make it your lifelong work to contribute to the good of your University and of your country, by supporting earnestly in your life and in your conduct the principles on this card; and endeavouring more and more earnestly to base those principles upon the two motives expressed on this card, "members one of another," and "walking as children of light"; in other words, upon the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God? For remember that "God is Light." Light." Children of light are the children of God. And so I appeal to you by all you hold dearest to you, by the love of mother and sister, and by the dearer love that will, I trust, come one day to you all-the love of wedded wife to keep yourself unstained, by God's help, from every form of impurity, and to pledge yourselves to defend the weak and to avenge the wronged, through your life long. Be strong and of a good courage, and may God be with you.

God is

VI

OPINION AND SERVICE1

"Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how I much less this house that I have builded?"—1 KINGS viii. 27.

EVERY one will recall the scene. Solomon, the master-mind stored with all the learning of the day, was dedicating the Temple to God. He was speaking to a nation naturally given to idolatry and to the localisation of worship; to a nation exclusive in their religion, and almost incurable in their low semimaterialistic views of God-speaking, too, at the moment of dedicating their most magnificent Temple to their national God; and yet he rises far above, nay, he cuts clean across, their national prejudices, and in these sublime words reveals to them that which through his science God had taught him-that God is infinite, not to be comprehended in temple or shrine. It was a stage in the revelation of God, given to the world through Solomon, the great student of His works, a further revelation of the immensity, the inconceivability of God, "The heaven and heaven. of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?" What a hush, as in the presence of the unveiled majesty of God, must have 1 Preached in Westminster Abbey 9th March 1884.