things. And ye know that a little while ago YE LIVED AND WALKED IN ALL
THESE THINGS." This last quotation tells what these brethren _had
been_, and the foregoing quotations show what they were when Paul
wrote to them.

After a careful study of these good instructions, these faithful
brethren could not mistake the way in which they were to walk. Paul
not only showed them how to get into the good way in the first place,
but he also told them how to _keep_ in the way. It is one thing _to
get into_ the right road to any place, but it is quite another thing
to keep it. In writing to his Galatian brethren, Paul says: "Ye did
run well for awhile; who turned you out of the way?" Ah, brethren,
there are many by-roads leading off from "the king's highway." I have
known brethren and sisters to start well, to all appearance, and run
well for a time; but by and by the cares of the world and the
deceitfulness of riches, and other things, like the thorns in the
parable, choked the Word in their hearts, so that they brought forth
no fruit unto perfection.


AN ILLUSTRATION.

In my travels among the mountains of our Virginia I have often seen
the laurel holding out its evergreen but poisonous leaves in sprays
of most enticing beauty. Miles and miles of road, in one unbroken
stretch, may there be seen densely hedged on either hand by this
beautiful emblem of sin and death. Herds of cattle and flocks of sheep
are every year driven over these roads. Every herdsman and shepherd
knows the danger to be apprehended from the inclination of some of
either kind to "sidle" off from the plain and beaten track and pluck