All we have to do to stand right before the people, is to _be sound_ in heart, in the faith, in the life; true to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; honest and faithful in the whole matter; maintaining, defending, advocating it, as the only divine and gracious system for the salvation of a lost world; enforcing it on men for its own sake, and for the sake of humanity. Our safety is not in a tribunal of learned men, who are _censors_ for us, but in the _judgment of an intelligent and enlightened brotherhood_. They render no hasty judgment and make no uncertain decisions. They do not anathematize nor hate any man. They do not pronounce on a man for a single utterance or an inadvertence. But when a man becomes perverse, his general course and bearing evincing alienation, and a disposition to be in the wrong—an aversion to the good, the true and the faithful—they begin to lose their interest in him. Every step he takes in the wrong direction lessens the affection for him in the hearts of the people of God, till he finds himself cut off, if not literally by the action of a church, that which is equally as fatal, the general turning away from him, and utter failure in any sense to support him. May we all maintain soundness in the faith, in the gospel, integrity to it, faithfulness to it in all things, soundness in character, purity and holiness. May we strive to live nearer and still nearer to God. DELAY IN TURNING TO THE LORD. If a person has delayed turning to the Lord, till some hindrance comes, so that he can not take the steps, or do what the Lord has commanded, to become a christian, he has simply delayed till he can not become a christian. If he defers on any account, he simply defers becoming a christian. At some point, a man passes the possibility of becoming a christian. That point, or period, is generally thought to be at death. Some still sing, “While the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return,” but this is not true. It is true that after death none can turn to God, but it is not true that before death all can turn to God. The apostle speaks of some men who were living in the literal sense, but whom he compares to “trees twice dead and plucked up by the roots. Such a tree as that never grows again.” He speaks of other men “past feeling,” and others, still living, for whom nothing remains “but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries,” and still others for whom nothing remains but “the blackness of darkness forever.” Some are given over to believe the lie and be condemned.