Could we but utterly trust Him, and utterly believe in His presence: then we should welcome all truth, under whatever outward forms of the mere intellect it was uttered; then we should bless every good deed, by whomsoever and howsoever it was done; then we should rise above all party strifes, party cries, party fashions and shibboleths, to the contemplation of the One supreme good Spirit--the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and hold to the One Fashion of Almighty God, which never changes, for it is eternal by the necessity of His own eternal character; namely,--To be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect; because He causes His sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and His rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. SERMON VII. CONFUSION. PSALM CXIX. 31. I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, confound me not. What is the meaning of this text? What is this which the Psalmist and prophets call being confounded; being put to shame and confusion of face? What is it? It is something which they dread more than death; which they dread as much as hell. Nay, it seems in the mind of some of them to be part and parcel of hell itself; one of the very worst things which could happen to them after death: for what is written in the Book of the Prophet Daniel?--"Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." And we Christians are excusable if we dread it likewise. How often does St Paul speak of shame as an evil to be dreaded; just as he speaks, even more often, of glory and honour as a thing to be longed for and striven after. That one word, "ashamed," occurs twelve times and more in the New Testament, beside St John's warning, which alone is enough to prove what I allege, "that we have not to be ashamed before Christ at his coming." And how does the Te Deum--the noblest hymn written by man since St John finished his Book of Revelations--how does that end, but with the same old cry as that of the Psalmist in the 119th Psalm-- "O Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded"? Now it is difficult to tell men what being confounded means; difficult and almost needless; for there are those who know what it means without being told; and those who do not know what it means without being told, are not likely to know by my telling, or any man's telling. No, not if an angel from heaven came and told them what being confounded meant would they understand him, at least till they were confounded themselves; and then they would know by bitter experience--perhaps when it was too late. And who are they? What sort of people are they?