the Lord." His whole personality, his life, his works cried: " Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Works cry louder than words : " The heavens show forth the glory of God and the firmament declareth the work of His hands." And of John the Baptist it may be truly said, that " his voice hath gone forth into all the earth and his words unto the ends of the world."
Ah, Brethren, if we could only realize that words are to deeds as a whisper to a clarion note; that our deeds cry out even when we are silent. If I that preach could only realize the importance of example, I would cease to be a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; and oh, that you who listen would but learn that louder still is the vengeful cry of evil deeds — that the blood of Abel and the iniquities of Sodom and Gomorrha and the rich man's oppression of the poor cry to heaven for vengeance, and that the cries thereof enter into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. If we are in sin, you or I, our whole personality — our lives, our deeds, are but a voice in the wilderness of this world, crying: " Prepare ye the way of the Demon, make straight his paths." It is sin that makes this world a desert — a vast, wooded wilderness, where, if you except the anchorites and hermits, few real men are found. Many lose their way in the pursuit of phantoms; tirelessly they search for the fountains of water, and find them bitter; they climb for the fruit of the topmost branch, and find it sour. Through this world roams the devil like a roaring lion; wild beasts, too, are here in human shape, more cruel even than the dumb
