Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/498

 II. Christ pronounces  him  to  be  a  foolish  man  who builds his  house  on  sand,  for  what  can  be  greater  folly than to  incur  the  expense  of  raising  an  edifice  which  the first storm  may  overthrow. By the  sand  are  represented all earthly  things,  and  he  builds  on  sand  who  places  all his thoughts  and  affections  on  the  transitory  things  of this  life. A man  of  this  character  is  tossed  to  and  fro  by the  winds  of  vanity,  swallowed  up  by  the  floods  of  pleasure, and  completely  overthrown  by  the  tempests  of  adversity. Hence, the  Prophet  compares  the  wicked  to "  the  dust  which  the  wind  driveth  from  the  face  of  the earth." (Ps. i.  4.)

III. All mankind  scorn  the  name  of  "a  foolish  man," but there  are  few  who  do  not  act  consistently  with  this character. Hence the  wisest  of  men  observes  that  "  the number  of  fools  is  infinite"  (Eccles.  i.  15),  because  most men build  upon  sand. Examine if  it  be  not  your  case; and remember  that  as  both  these  houses  were  attacked by storms  and  tempests,  so  temptations  equally  attack  the virtuous and  the  wicked;  and  if  you  ever  yield  to  temptation, do  not  ascribe  your  fall  to  the  temptation,  but  to the  sandy  foundation  on  which  your  spiritual  edifice  is built.

I. Christ  is  recorded  in  the  gospel  of  to-day  to  have restored to  life  the  daughter  of  a  ruler  of  the  synagogue, and to  have  cured  a  woman  of  the  bloody  flux. (Matt, ix. 18;  Mark  v.  22;  Luke  viii.  41.)    Lastly,  He  bestowed