But what is the church to do? Are we to become Sabbathless? Thank God, No. What will be in eternity we do not know, but while time lasts the Sabbath will last. While there are days there will be "the seventh day." It has been set apart as the representative of God. It was made for man. Jehovah sanctified it. Jesus honored and kept it. The church has never wholly given it up. The unchristian world will never keep a Sabbath. How could they? Sabbath-keeping is a profession of religion. There is nothing that would so help the church to restrain the evil and strengthen the good as a return to the Sabbath which Jehovah sanctified and which Jesus honored. If the Bible is true the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath. If the seventh day is the Sabbath then God will yet honor it. Let us believe God. Let us labor and pray earnestly and without ceasing, that the truth, and beauty and value of the Sabbath may be recognized by every disciple of our Lord. "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it."

VII

"Evil communications corrupt good manners.

T

1 Cor. 15: 33

HIS text, taken from Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, is a quotation from the Greek poet Menander. It is not the only time that Paul quotes from heathen writers. In his sermon on Mars Hill, when he was speaking to the cultured men of Athens, he quoted from Aratus, prefacing the quotation by saying, "As certain also of your own poets have said." Again, in writing to Titus, he said of the Cretians that some of their own writers had said that they were also liars,-where the reference is supposed to be to Epimedes, another famous Greek, whose home was in Crete. "Evil communications corrupt good manners" sounds almost like a proverb; and those who know Menander's style would expect just this from him. He is said to be famous for the elegance with which he threw into the form of a single sentence the maxims of that practical wisdom in the affairs of common life which formed so important a feature of what was called "the New Comedy."

In the example which the text furnishes, each word is emphatic, "evil communications corrupt good manners," and the quotation is introduced by the warning, "be not deceived," and is followed by the ringing exhortation, "awake to righteousness and sin not.”

The particular play from which the quotation is made is said to be Thais; and Paul used it exactly as we would use a quotation from Hamlet. Paul does not refer to the origin of this statement, or say that it is a quotation, for the same reason that I might say, "God helps those who help themselves," without pausing to remind you that that particular form of the expression of truth is supposed to have originated with one Benjamin Franklin.

Let us now look briefly at the meaning of the text, "Evil communications corrupt good manners." The Revised Version translates the

word "communications" as "company," which makes the text say that bad company corrupts good manners. Most of the old English versions use expressions like "evil words," or "malicious speaking," which give the same idea. as communication. The original meaning of the word, and its use in this connection by the

apostle, seem to indicate a slightly broader meaning, including something back of the words. It might be called "association,"-evil association. Many evil associations are dangerous only, or largely, by reason of words of untruth. Some words are bad in themselves, while others are bad because they are the conveyors of evil. The Corinthians were in danger of the corruption of untruth as well as of vice. The term, "good manners," has also a meaning broader and deeper than surface culture. The words mean moral goodness, hence good character. This then is the thought, both of Menander and of Paul, bad associations destroy good character. Before this congregation there is no need of argument to prove the truth of this statement and I shall only illustrate and apply the truth.

The first thing to notice is not a pleasant thought, and that is, that the natural tendency of man is to do wrong. Without a thought of theology or philosophy we must all admit that the prevailing current is away from righteousness and unselfishness. It is easier to drift than to go against the tide and current. The Bible also says that the natural man is at enmity against God, that the heart of man is deceitful above all

things and desperately wicked; that the road to death is broad and easy, and that the path to life is narrow and difficult. History and reason and conscience agree with Scripture that it is easy to do wrong and that it is hard to do right. That righteousness is attained only through struggle. The current is downward, and only live fish go up the stream. Is it not true in the experience of each of you that the only way that Spiritual life and power can be maintained is by constant prayer and watchfulness and struggle?

Not long ago a bright young business man said to me, "It would be so easy to let go of the church and then let go of God." The expression he used was that the "lines of the least resistance" were all in the other direction. It matters little whether you are in business or professional life, in the school-room, office, shop, field or home, you are sure to be swept away unless you co-operate with the power of God in a manful resistance: for the lines of the least resistance will lead you into utter loss. Most diseases are catching but good health is not contagious. The good health of one may greatly benefit the health of another, but it will not be by transmitting health, but by helping resist disease. So it