"And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that over-lived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that He had done for Israel." (Joshua 24:31.)

So long as the people had a leader whom God had raised up, who passed through the trials and experienced the joys of a journey from Egypt to Canaan in dependence upon the living God, so long did they abide faithful, outwardly at least, to the Lord. When, however, the old generation had passed away, and when those were placed in responsibility to whom all the past had been simply a history and not an experience, they showed how much they were influenced by man, and how little by divine power.

In our day, too, there is the same danger. Truths for which the men of God went to the stake in years gone by, are now taken upon the lips with little thought as to their preciousness or their gravity. Truths which were learned through prayers and tears, earnest crying to God through sleepless nights and anxious days, can now be mastered by a little attentive reading of the proper books. Need we be surprised, then, if these truths which took those who had found them, out of the world, made them in reality pilgrims, should now be pronounced "trippingly on the tongue" by those who have known but little of the exercise in acquiring and correspondingly little of the transforming power of the truths ?

God forbid that we should say there are none now who know the power of divine truth; we speak of tendencies just as dangerous to-day as in the days of Israel. Is it not the Laodicean state, complacent possession of that which begets pride, rather than obedient cleaving to Christ.

Even where there is real love to Christ, is there not the danger of not realizing the priceless value of truths and testimony gained in the past ? The conflicts are over, and we have been enjoying the benefits of the victory; now comes the danger of despising that conflict and its results. Let us remember that the faith which was once delivered to the saints has to be always earnestly contended for; that in things spiritual as in temporal "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

It may be said, Is this the necessary and inevitable tendency of the second generation, and is there no remedy ? We believe the tendency is real, and, thank God, the remedy is real. It is when traditionalism comes in, and the past seems but a story, when the heart has not passed through deep exercise, that the danger is great. O brethren, if the truths for which our elders suffered, wept, and prayed to gain, are as real to us, we too will be ready to suffer, weep, and pray to keep them, and we will keep them. Let us remember that we are living in restless times, when almost everything seems to be going to pieces. Let us therefore not be drawn aside, but hold all the more closely what is against the democracy of the day-the truth of God. Largeness of heart ever flows from communion with God, but we will not be unmindful of his works in the past, nor will we be ashamed to own the grace of God in those who stood for Him when it cost to be faithful.