A little while ago, in one of the mining districts of England, a young man attended one of our meetings, and refused to go from the place till he had found peace in the Savior. The next day he went down into the pit, and the coal fell in upon him; and when they took him out he was broken and mangled, and had only about two or three minutes of life left in him. His friends gathered about him, saw his lips moving, and, bending down their ears to catch his words, this was what they heard him say: “It was a good thing I settled it last night.” * * * * * Begin now to confess your sins, and to pray the Lord to remember you when He cometh into His kingdom. THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. In this first parable we are told that men ought to pray always and everywhere; that prayer should not be left to a few in the churches, but all men ought to pray. Jesus gives us a picture, so that we may understand in what spirit we ought to pray. Two men went up to the Temple--one to pray to himself and the other to pray to God. I think it will be safe to divide the audience into two bodies, and put them under these two heads. However, whether we divide the audience or not, we come under these two heads--those who have the spirit of the publican and those who have the spirit of the Pharisee. You can find that the entire community may be correctly divided into these two classes. The spirit of the prodigal and the spirit of an elder brother are still in the world; the spirits of Cain and Abel are still in the world, and these two are representative men. One of them trusted in his own righteousness and the other did not have any trust in it, and I say I think all men will come under these two heads. They have either given up all their self-righteousness--renounced it all and turned their backs upon it--or else they are clinging to their own righteousness; and you will find that these self-righteous men that are ever clinging to their own righteousness are continually measuring themselves by their neighbors. “I thank God that I am not as other men are.” This was the spirit of that Pharisee, and this is the spirit today of one class in this community, and the other class comes under the head of this other man. Let us look at the man Christ pictured first. It is evident that he was full of egotism--full of conceit--full of pride; and I believe, as I have said before on this platform, that is one of the greatest enemies the Son of God has today, and I believe it keeps more men from the kingdom of God than any thing else. Pride can grow on any soil, in any climate. No place is too hot for it, and no place is too cold for its growth. How much misery it has caused in this world! How many men here are kept from salvation by pride!