gets loose at times with the best of us--it runs wild and plays
dreadful havoc with those who are not the best; there is always in you
the baser self--always the dry torches of evil passions which a spark
may kindle--always the moral weaknesses and lusts, half-sleeping, which
some stronger blast of temptation may awaken and bring out; and if you
wish to escape the evil and hold fast to the good, you will commit your
way unto the Lord, and put on the Christian armour, and strengthen
yourselves by prayer. Do not presume too much--better men than you
have fallen every day. God only can save you from yourselves.



II.

It is just as needful to remember the other side--the side of better
possibilities.


Some of you are tempted to say at times with Hazael, "_Thy servant is
but a dog; how can he do these great things_?" You are disposed to
underrate your gifts, your opportunities, your happy chances in
life--in a word, your possibilities. You despair of finding any
opening; you are sure that you will never hear a call to come up
higher; you think your lives must always be ill-paid drudgery, with no
promotion. It is sad to work with a conviction of that kind. You
never work well if there is nothing to look forward to, and it is
cowardly to give way to a conviction of that kind. Perhaps you are not
specially clever--no, but there are better things than cleverness in
the world, and things which have more to do with life's real successes.