supposition! Yet so it came to pass. The heart is deceitful above all
things, and he who trusts in it is "cursed." Multitudes find their own
case the renewal of Hazael's experience. When Elijah told him the
enormities he, when on the throne of Syria, would practice, he
exclaimed--"Is thy servant a dog that he should do these things?" He was
not then, but he afterwards became just such a dog.

But if the heart be deceitful, sin is scarcely less so. When the poor
boy first clutched his prize, as he esteemed it, he promised himself
nothing but pleasure and profit, but how miserably was he deceived!
After he had converted the draft into money, and thus rendered its
return impossible without detection, he saw his guilt in its true
character, and for many nights tossed in torment on a sleepless bed,
while at last he was made to take his place along with hardened convicts
in a city prison. Thus it always is with sin. Like the book the apostle
ate in vision, it is sweet as honey in the mouth, but bitter in the
belly. Like the wine Solomon describes, it may sparkle in the cup and
shoot up its bright beads on the surface, but at the last it biteth like
a serpent and stingeth like an adder. The experiment has been tried
times without number, from the beginning in Eden down to our own day, by
communities and by individuals, but invariably with the same result. The
way of transgressors is hard, however it may seem to them who are
entering upon it a path of primrose dalliance. And surely "whosoever is
deceived thereby is not wise."

Finally, how needful is it to pray--"Lead us not into temptation."
Snares lie all around us, whether old or young, and it is vain to seek
an entire escape from their intrusion. The lad we are considering, had
not gone out of his way to meet the temptation by which he fell. On the
contrary, he was doing his duty, he was just where he ought to have