Leading Homily.

THE MAN OF NOBLEST CHOICE.

"BY FAITH MOSES, WHEN HE WAS COME TO YEARS, TO BE CALLED THE SON OF PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER.

REFUSED

CHOOS

ING RATHER TO SUFFER AFFLICTION WITH THE PEOPLE OF

GOD, THAN TO ENJOY THE PLEASURES OF SIN FOR A SEASON. ESTEEMING THE REPROACH OF CHRIST GREATER RICHES THAN THE TREASURES IN EGYPT: FOR HE HAD RESPECT UNTO THE RECOMPENCE OF THE REWARD." Heb. xi. 24-26.

N reading these verses several questions urge themselves on our attention. What is meant by the expression, "When he was come to years? ? "" The answer, I think, is this, when he reached maturity, when he reached the full manhood of his life, and all his faculties were vigorous and in full play. His whole life was divided into three equal periods; forty years he spent in the royal court of Egypt as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, forty years in Midian, and forty years in conducting the children of Israel through the wilderness to the verge of the promised land. It must, therefore, have been when he was about forty years of age that is here VOL. L. No. 1,

B

meant by the expression, "When he was come to years." What is meant by the expression, "Refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter?" For forty years he had been acknowledged as her son, treated as her son, enjoyed all the royal privileges of her son, but now he renounced the relationship, and renounced all the honours and enjoyments connected therewith. Another question is, "What is meant by the words to "Suffer affliction with the people of God?" The children of Abraham, undoubtedly, the Israelites, are meant. They were the chosen of God to enjoy special privileges and to discharge a special mission on the earth. Their "affliction" here mentioned referred to the oppressions, and the cruelties they endured under the despotism of Pharaoh. These are described in Exodus i. 13 14. "And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage,"&c. The meaning is that Moses resolved to identify himself with the children of Abraham, the "people of God," his own race, in all their oppressions and afflictions. Another question is, what is meant by the phrase, "To enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season? " Primarily, the pleasures of the Egyptian court. The members of a royal family generally abound in the resources of pleasure, they have everything that can gratify their senses, their appetites, and their mental cravings: and these pleasures are too frequently, alas, the "pleasures of sin." It was so in the Egyptian court, and it is too generally so in all the courts of royalty. Another question is, What is meant by the expression, "The reproach of Christ ? Did he know Christ? Fifteen long centuries would roll away before He

would appear on the earth, and endure "reproach." The word Christ means anointed, and is applied in the Old Testament to the "people of God" collectively, and the expression may mean the reproaches of God's people. Yet another question is here urged on our attention. What is meant by the words, "The recompence of the reward?" Does this mean the possession of Canaan? Though he never entered the promised land, he was undoubtedly influenced by the Divine. promise of its becoming the inheritance of the children. of Abraham to whom he belonged, and with whose interests he identified himself. But, perhaps, the words point to the culminating retributions of eternity. Now in order to give the text a practical meaning to us all, and to men everywhere and at all times, I would fasten attention upon three general remarks which it suggests, viz.-That sin here has its pleasures; that religion here has its trials; that destiny here has its choice. I. SIN HERE, NOT YONDER, Enjoy the pleasures of sin.'

66

HAS ITS PLEASURES.

The men who deny

But what

this proposition are blind to the facts of human nature, and to the general experience of mankind. are the "pleasures of sin?" Not all pleasures. The benign Creator has so constituted us that pleasure comes with the gratification of every sense, and the relief of every craving appetite. How many pleasurable sensations are conveyed to us through beautiful forms, and melodious sounds; through fruits delicious to the palate, and touches that thrill the nerves; through the bracing breeze and the glowing light. Aye, there are pleasures that come to us in this natural way that make us feel that to live is delicious, and that we are breathing Elysian atmospheres, and feasting with the

gods. These pleasures are not the "pleasures of sin." They are such that are enjoyed according to their nature and measure by all sentient beings; by the finny tribes of ocean, the winged tribes that luxuriate in the sunny air, the creeping things on and under the earth, as well as the cattle that gambol on mountain and mead. What, then, are the "pleasures of sin?" They may, I think, be described as all those pleasures that come to men as the result of their leading purpose and pursuit in life. There are men by millions who go in for pleasure, they make it the grand purpose of their life. As beings endowed (as brutes are not) with the powers of imagination and contrivance, we can, by bringing the productions of the earth into new combinations, not only give our natural appetites inordinate fire and force, but can create new ones. But to do this is a perversion of nature, and all the gratifications rising out of those unnaturally heightened, and artificially created, appetites are the "pleasures of sin." And, alas! how they abound everywhere, how they preponderate over every simple natural gratification! (1) They include the pleasures of the sensualist. The sensualist is a man who pursues the pleasure of the senses. The voluptuary, the epicure, the wine-bibber, and the debauchee are all sensualists, and have they not pleasures? Undoubtedly, but their pleasures are the "pleasures of sin." (2) They include the pleasures of the ambitious. A desire to excel in true excellence is natural and right; both the pursuit and possessions of this will yield a pleasure that is innocent and natural. But the man who pursues pleasure turus this desire into worldly ambition, he transmutes it into a greed for power

Over men.

He labours and struggles for this power as the great purpose of his life. By methods often questionable, and seldom righteous, he obtains a high position, he is in the civic chair, on the judicial bench, or in the legislative assembly, men look up to him, flatter him, he looks down upon them with a supercilious and patronising air. In all this he has pleasures, but they are the "pleasures" of sin." (3) They include the pleasures of avarice. The acquisitive desire-as phrenologists term it-is an instinct in human nature. Both the pursuit and possession of what is really valuable yields pleasure. and is not the "pleasure of sin." The man who prizes pleasure turns this instinct into a passion for worldly wealth; for gold he plans and toils, he gains it, and its possession yields him pleasures, but the pleasures are the " pleasures of sin.” He has perverted a divine instinct within him, turned it in a wrong direction, and instead of obtaining heavenly treasures, he has only gained an accumulation of worldly pelf. So that, I maintain, all the pleasures that come to a man as the result of the leading purpose of his life the "pleasures of sin. The very purpose is a perversion of his nature and mission in life. Great is the distinction between pleasure and happiness. (a) The one is the gratification of some one appetite or passion. A physical nerve it may be, the seeing nerve, the hearing nerve, the smelling nerve, or the touching nerve has yielded a pleasant sensation. But these nerves are only part of our nature, and of our lower nature too. But happiness is a satisfying condition of the whole man, all the powers equally balanced and harmoniously developed. (b) The sources

are