Pharaoh, King of Egypt, was plagued with flies. They came upon his servants, and the houses of the Egyptians were full of swarms of flies, "and the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies." The heads of a great many people are like the houses of the Egyptians--full of swarms of evil thoughts thick as flies, and all as small, and in themselves as insignificant. The flies tormented the Egyptians when they sat in their chambers, flying round them, buzzing in their ears, lighting on their hands and faces; when they went to their meals the flies were there, all over the meat and the bread, and falling into their cups, and defiling every thing. When they went to bed the flies were in their bedrooms, and all night long were racing over their faces, and driving away sleep. Now look at your evil thoughts, you who are plagued with a swarm of them. When you kneel down to say your prayers, they are there distracting your attention. When you are at table or with friends, they are there disturbing your thoughts, perhaps corrupting your conversation. When you are alone, they are there filling your mind with images and sounds. When you are in bed, they are there, keeping you awake. Your thoughts--these evil thoughts, so numerous, in such swarms, never forsake you. In church they are present, disturbing you. When you walk, they surround you, when you work, they interrupt you. And, like the flies in Egypt, "the land is corrupted by reason of the swarm." Your hearts are corrupted by the bad thoughts always hovering over them, and settling down on them. Am I drawing a fanciful picture? Not at all. I know it is so with many, I do not say all, but with many. They disregard evil thoughts because they are such trifling things--like flies, so easily brushed away; like flies, so light and volatile; like flies, so little. And yet they utterly degrade and corrupt the heart. "The land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies." II. When Abraham prepared a sacrifice to the Lord, there came down on it swarms of birds of carrion (Gen. xv.) And when they did so, we are told that Abraham "drove them away." The chief Baker of Pharaoh had meats in a basket on his head, and the birds came down on them, and carried them off. "The birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head" (Gen. xl.) To Abraham was given a promise of a great blessing and glorious future. To the Baker was given a warning that he should be hanged within three days. One drove the birds away, and the other did not. Now this applies to evil thoughts. If you will be like Abraham and be blessed, you will drive the evil thoughts away as fast as they come on. If you let them come, and make no effort to repel them, they will carry away from you all the graces wherewith you have been endowed at baptism, and they will corrupt your heart as well. LVII. _THE HEAVENLY BANQUET._ 20th Sunday after Trinity. S. Matt. xxii. 4.