Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SERMON III. GROSS SINS. Ephesians, chap. iv. 25—-29. " Wherefore, Putting Away Lying, Speak Every Man Truth With ins Neighbor: For We Are Members One Of AnOther. Be YE ANGRY, AND SIN NOT ; LET NOT THE SUN GO DOWN UPON YOUR WRATH ; NEITHER GIVE PLACE TO THE DEVIL. Let HIM THAT STOLE, STEAL NO MORE; BUT RATHER LET HIM LABOR, WORKING WITH HIS HANDS THE THING WHICH IS GOOD, THAT HE MAY HAVE TO GIVE TO HIM THAT NEEDETH. LET NO CORRUPT COMMUNICATION PROCEED OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, BUT THAT WHICH IS GOOD TO THE USE OF EDIFYING, THAT IT MAY MINISTER - GRACE UNTO THE HEARERS." In discourses addressed to a congregation assembled in the house of God, it is very common to suppose that those to whom they are addressed, already possess a certain elevation and pureness of moral principle. Often, it seems to be presumed, that even of the less devout amongst them, each one resembles the young man to whom our Saviour said, " one thing thou lackest." It is, indeed, quite fair topresume that the. worst portion of society are not collected in places of public worship. But it by no means follows that all who are there are free from even the grosser vices; much less, that they can never be brought into gross temptation. St. Paul, in the text, admonishes the members of a Christian Church to abstain from lying and stealing, from wrathful contention, and from corrupt communication; and the nature of man must be greatly changed before similar exhortations can be deemed wholly unsuitable in any mingled assembly. The barrier between common propriety of conduct and vice is not so high, that it may not be overleaped; nor can any man who nourishes in his heart an evil root, determine to what stature tke plant shall grow. They who have not the security of God's grace, may at any time be far nearer than the... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.