author says it is with those who are in reputation for wisdom and honor when a little folly gets into their lives.

You will not misunderstand me I know when I say that Seventh-day Baptists are in reputation for wisdom and honor. The sifting process of our environments is such that it would not be easy to find more intelligent, loyal and cleaner congregations than those that meet on the Sabbath in our churches. It would certainly be out of place for me to stand here and harangue you about the ordinary forms of stealing and blasphemy and wife beating, drunkenness or murder.

And yet, dear friends, how often is it that in place of a sweet fragrance our lives send forth. an awful stench by reason of the little flies of folly that are compounded into the make-up of our every-day experience. "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour; so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor." You all know how easily some garments show dirt. Now there is nothing that will show dirt so easily as a Christian character. Little defects that would hardly be thought of as moral, and

that would not show on a man of the world, terribly disfigure a follower of the Perfect One.

It has been found that a great telescope is extremely sensitive to the least jar. The observatory must have absolute quiet. Sometimes when very careful observations are being taken it has been found that the trotting of a dray horse a block away has spoiled the whole experiment. You can see every time he puts his foot down. It is exactly so with the life of a Christian.

Why is it that so much is said about minister's sons. It is not because they are more apt to go astray than are the sons of other men, but because so much more is expected of them. I have it on the authority of Professor Thompson, a writer on social science, and on some calculations of my own, that the sons of ministers are better than the sons of any other class of men. You say that Ingersoll was a minister's son; so were John and Charles Wesley. You are thinking of some unworthy sons of Seventh-day Baptist ministers-but think also of B. C. and S. H. Davis, of Geo. W. and Clayton A. Burdick, of M. B. Kelly and others. The reason that minister's sons are in such bad repute is

because the background of the picture is so white.

Exactly the same is true of deacons and the daughters of deacons. Why is it that some men, even outside a newspaper office, when they have a story to tell of some mean, stingy, old hypocrite, will say that it was "the deacon." It makes me indignant, whether it is in some popular novel or from some common grocery-store loafer. If there is any reason for this, aside from the promptings of the evil one, it is because when a deacon is found of this exceptional character, he stands in so remarkable contrast to the splendid body of men that we know as deacons. They are not perfect, and the best care has not always been shown in their selection, but in general they are the best men and we ought to exalt the office and defend it against slander. But I am getting away from my theme.

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These flies are as numerous as their Egyptian prototype. We could not count them. Like the iniquities of the Psalmist they are than the hairs of our heads. There is impatience, rudeness, selfishness, indolence, parsimony, egotism, gossip, pride, backbiting, temper uncontrolled, sensitiveness, unforgive

ness, carelessness about the Sabbath, love of praise or of gold or of pleasure or of easebut you know all about them. You have seen some of them in yourselves and all of them in others. These follies spoil our lives in at least two ways: 1. They mar the character. 2. They destroy our usefulness.

Among all the grains of sand on all the shores of all the seas there is not one that is perfectly round. If one is found that seems to be so it is sure to be small and when placed under a microscope all sorts of defects are at once seen. Many are nearly round, but all have their flat places. So it seems to me to be with human lives. There is none that is perfectly round; and if one is found that seems so, put it under the eye of God and who shall stand! We all have our flat places and some even have edges and corners. The ideal is perfect, but the real of our lives is imperfect and will doubtless always be. A young man, now a prominent Seventh-day Baptist, was once giving an oration at Milton College. His subject was, "The Real and the Ideal." In the midst of one of his choicest flights of eloquence he forgot himself, or more likely he thought of himself, and broke

down completely. As he fished about in his pocket for his manuscript he coolly remarked that this was a part of the real and not the ideal.

So it is that while we aim at the ideal we find ourselves constantly face to face with the real in life. Oh, the little foxes that spoil the vines, that creep through the hedges unawares and often do more damage than the large ones would do! One is indolent, let us say lazy. Another is parsimonious, shall we call it stingy? Each can see the mote in his brother's eye and would gladly lend a hand in getting it out. Both are good men, honest men, Christian men. A third, who is neither lazy nor stingy, may not have charity for these, and his flat spot is the want of charity, of Christian love. One is rude and thoughtless of the feelings of others. X is headstrong, Y is ambitious, Z is sulky. Another is proud-proud of appearance, of attainments or of family, or possibly proud that you are not proud. There is such a thing as a proper pride and there is a pride which exalteth itself unto heaven but which shall be brought down to hell. Some of us talk too much, and some of us do not talk enough. Some of us think and talk too much about ourselves; and some of us think and