flict within. Why? Because the new nature in him is not begun. When a man is born of God he gets a new life. One is from heaven and comes from Christ, that heavenly manna that comes from the throne of God. The other is of the earth, and comes of the old Adam. When I was born of my father and mother I received their nature; when they were born of their parents they received their nature; and you can trace it back to Eden. We then received God's nature.

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There are two natures in man that are as distinct as day and night. With that old Adam in us, if we do not keep him down in the place of death, he brings us into captivity. I do not see how any one can explain the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of Romans in any other way. People sometimes tell me they have got out of the 7th chapter of Romans, but I notice they always get back there again. The fact is, we do not know ourselves. It takes us all our lives to find out who and what we are, and when we think we know something happens that makes us think we are not much further than we were when we started. The heart is deceitful above all things. In the 6th chapter of Romans it is written: Knowing this, that an old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." And in the 11th verse there are just three words to be specially considered: "Reckon yourselves dead." If we were really dead, we would not have to reckon ourselves dead; but if we were dead, as it means there, we have to think of it and "reckon " about it. Judicially we are dead, but in reality we are down here fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil. Some people seem to think they have got away from the flesh, and that they are soaring away in a sort of seventh heaven, but they get back again sooner or later. We find them wandering off down here. You cannot make the flesh

anything but flesh. It will be flesh all the time; it will bring us into captivity. If we do not put it off and crucify it, and keep it in the place of death, it will keep us there forever. What if a man does yield and says it is not he, but it is the sin in him? It is but one man after all, not two men ; and one man is responsible. If I am led astray by Satan, I may protest against it as much as my accuser does. I say I know I have been wrong; I was off guard; I was not watching; but I hate it as much as any one does. That is the reason why in the 17th chapter of Romans he calls it I protest." But protestation does not excuse us. A man went into court, having been arrested for something. He said he did not do it, and when it was proved against him he said he did not do it—it was the old man in him. The judge said: "Well, I will send the old man to prison: the other may do what he can."

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sin we have to suffer.

If we yield and

And at the very time that we are doing good Satan comes along and says, “That is a good action," and goes on and gets us all puffed up. There are a good many that have been ruined by spiritual pride. At the very time we are trying to do good the devil is present trying to get us to do it with some impure motive. We are to put him off. He is no longer our master. We have been redeemed, and we belong to the new man. We must starve out the old man; give him no food at all; not let him speak. The more we put him down the weaker he gets, and the more the new man speaks through us, the more power he has and the stronger he gets. As the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker, the house of David grew stronger. If you feed the old Adam he will go right on growing. If you go on with the world, and go to the theaters and to dancing halls in preference to prayer meetings, the old man will get stronger and stronger.

A friend of mine said that when he was converted and

began preaching he talked a good deal about himself. He said one day he saw in one of the hymn books left by a godly woman who had a seat in the church, a fly leaf on which was written these words: "Dear Harry, not I but Christ; not flesh but spirit ; not sight but faith." These words my friend pasted in his Bible, and never preached or thought any more about himself. He kept himself out of the way. That is just what the old man does not do. With him it is self, self, self. If it is the new man it is not I, but Christ. If it is the new man, it is not flesh, but spirit. If it is the new man, it is not sight, but faith. In the old Adam it is death; in the new Adam it is eternal life. We all come under the two heads. Which, my friend, do you belong to, the old creation or the new? Let us pray that we may stand by the throne of God clothed in the righteousness of the Second Adam.

THE SIX "ONE THINGS."

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I WANT to call your attention this afternoon to six " one things." The first, Mark x. 21: One thing thou lackest." We very often hear people say, "Oh, well, he is a very good man," or, "She is a very, very good person, but she lacks one thing," or, "He lacks one thing." But if that one thing is salvation, why he lacks everything. You might say all that a dead man lacks is life. That is all. All that a beggar lacks is money to make him rich. Only one thing! A sick man that is lying right on the borders of the eternal world only lacks his health to make him all right. That is one thing, but it is everything to a man that is sick. Money is everything to a man in want—a beggar; and if a man lacks salvation he lacks everything; and it seems to me it would be well for us just to pause in life once in a while and ask ourselves the question, "Do we lack that one thing? Now, that young man spoken of here came to Christ, and Christ beholding him loved him. He was a noble young man. He tried to save himself by the law. He had the law and the prophets, but when Christ just touched his heart-for he had his heart set on his possessions he found that he did not love God with all his heart; he did not love his neighbor as himself. He thought he did, but he didn't know himself. He spoke very well of himself. He had a good opinion of himself. There are a great many such people, and it is almost impossible to do

them good. It is a good deal better for God to say, "Well done!" than for us. It is a good deal better for God to say we lack nothing than it is for us to say ourselves we are not lacking. I am told Whitfield once was a guest of a General high in position, and Whitfield's courage failed him. He wanted to speak to him about his soul, but he didn't have the courage. He was up late one evening and the next morning he was to go away early. The General was an old man, but he was one of those men that lacked that one thing. He lacked Christ and lacked salvation; and Whitfield, when he went up stairs to retire, just took his diamond ring and wrote upon the pane of glass, “One thing thou lackest.” And after Whitfield had gone some of the servants found that text of Scripture and spoke to the General about it, and God used that to bring the old soldier to his knees and into the kingdom.

One thing thou lackest. My friends do you lack Christ? I was speaking once in Manchester on a platform very much higher than this, and right below me, in a seat close up to the platform, sat a man who strained his neck looking up at me all the time, and I looked right down on him and said: "My friend, won't you take Christ?" Said he, "I have got Him, thank God!" He did not lack Him. He had got Him; and it is the privilege of every one here to have salvation and to know you have got it. Now when I was out at sea some time ago we had been in a fog and storm and darkness for a day or two and didn't know just where we were; but the moment the clouds broke away a little and we could get a glimpse of the sun, we took an observation to find out where we were, and I think it would be well for sinners to take an observation and find out where they are. Have I a hope that will bear the light of eternity, or am I lacking that one thing that will be worth more than all the world when God calls me to stand for Him? You know when a man comes to die, church order