Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid! for by every sin of ours we crucify the Lord afresh, and put Him to an open shame. The programme of the Christian life is not sin and pardon, sin and pardon, sin and pardon, day after day, month after month, year after year. The programme of the Christian life is pardon, sanctification, holiness. After pardon comes the daily struggle with sin, until its power in our souls is broken, and we come off more than conquerors, through Him who loved us. Not that I would imply that any one on this side the grave attains to a state of sinless perfection, or that the time will ever come on earth when the prayer, “Forgive us our sins,” will be out of place on our lips. But the goal set before us is the perfect life; towards that goal we must daily press, and though on earth we may never attain to it, yet to-day ought to see us nearer to it than yesterday, and to-morrow ought to find us nearer than to-day. There is something radically wrong with us if sin has as great a power over us to-day as it had, say, ten years ago. Repentance is never genuine and sincere unless it creates within us a hatred and loathing of sin. We have never been truly forgiven if we can go on sinning the old sins day after day; for we never hear Christ say to us, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” without hearing Him add this charge, “From henceforth sin no more.” But the command _is a hard one to obey_. In a world so full of trial and temptation, so full of seductions and enticements to evil, how hard it is for poor, weak, frail men to obey the command, “Go, sin no more.” In a world that presses in upon us on every side, that spreads its glittering prizes before our eyes to tempt us, how hard it is to be unworldly, to hold earth’s best gifts cheap, while we set our affections on things above! In a world so full of uncleanness and impurity, how hard it is to keep one’s garments clean and unspotted! Hard, did I say? Nay, impossible. With the world as it is, and man as he is, the task is impossible. To obey that command, we need help and strength. The task is too difficult for us. It is more than we can do in our own native strength. So we cast the burden back again upon our Lord and say to Him, “Master we would fain obey Thee: we would fain live without sin; but we are weak, and the world is strong—too strong for us. Lord, undertake Thou for us. Have pity on our weakness, and bring us not into temptation.” There it stands, a prayer for the _future_; a cry to God that He will not suffer the world to overcome us, and drag us down again to sin. Now you will notice that this prayer recognises the fact that—