fall from heaven and kindle the bonfire of Christian victory over
demolished sin. It is kindling now! Huzzah! The day is ours!

Still further, I learn from this subject the danger of false refuges.
As soon as these Shechemites got into the temple they thought they
were safe. They said: "Berith will take care of us. Abimelech may
batter down everything else; he can not batter down this temple where
we are now hid." But very soon they heard the timbers crackling, and
they were smothered with smoke, and they miserably died. And you and I
are just as much tempted to false refuges. The mirror this morning may
have persuaded you that you have a comely cheek; your best friends
may have persuaded you that you have elegant manners. Satan may have
told you that you are all right; but bear with me if I tell you that,
if unpardoned, you are all wrong. I have no clinometer by which to
measure how steep is the inclined plane you are descending, but I know
it is very steep. "Well," you say, "if the Bible is true I am a
sinner. Show me some refuge; I will step right into it."

I suppose every person in this audience this moment is stepping into
some kind of refuge. Here you step in the tower of good works. You
say: "I shall be safe here in this refuge." The battlements are
adorned; the steps are varnished; on the wall are pictures of all the
suffering you have alleviated, and all the schools you have
established, and all the fine things you have ever done. Up in that
tower you feel you are safe. But hear you not the tramp of your
unpardoned sins all around the tower? They each have a match. They are
kindling the combustible material. You feel the heat and the
suffocation. Oh, may you leap in time, the Gospel declaring: "By the
deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified."