DEFINITENESS.

No one can make himself a good marksman by shooting at a bank of fog; he must have a definite mark. This truth can be carried around the entire circle of life, thought and religion; and it is specially true that definiteness is needed in religion. There is only one time when we can afford to be indefinite, and that is when we have a secret and definite reason for being so. The next worst thing to blindness, is to have the visual nerves so diseased that everything is thrown into a mixed haziness. If the devil can not put our spiritual eyes out, his next device is to put the spiritual vision out of harmony, and thereby throw the Bible, heaven, Christ, salvation and experience into one general landscape of brilliant mist. Indefinite books may be bound in calf and gold, but they do not cut any swath in the yellow field of the brain. Indefinite sermons may flash with wit or ripple with poesy, but they plow no everlasting furrows in the red clay of human hearts. Indefinite experiences as to what the Holy Spirit does in our hearts and lives, may meet the ordinary standard of love-feasts and class-meetings, but they set no one in the meeting panting for the land of fat things. We need more definiteness in our pulpits. An able sermon on sin may not convict a single sinner, but a very simple statement of the sin of unbelief, or pride, or selfishness, will be likely to strike fire every time. The power of the atonement may be preached in Miltonic style, and do little or no good; but the power of Christ's blood to save from habit or inbred evil, or all fret, may cause daylight to dawn on many a sad soul.

I suppose that all Methodist preachers believe in the doctrine and experience of perfect love, and we may all preach it; but we may preach the doctrine of perfect love for fifty years in such a mixed, confused and indefinite manner as not to lead one single Christian to the attainment of the definite experience. The sermons of Wesley do not compare in sublimity and style with those of Hall and Chalmers, but Wesley hits the definite mark every time, and does not waste an ounce of powder in fireworks.

We need definiteness in prayer — especially public prayer. It is very refreshing and instructive to study the prayers of the Bible; how the heart seems to walk right toward the thing that is wanted, and there is no rambling of petition.

We need definiteness in our experience. Re member, the Holy Spirit is given to us for the purpose of giving us clear, definite experiences and discernments; and if our experience is a Newfoundland mist, is it not because we stay too near the frozen zones of the world and flesh? There are two ways to cure a mist: a hard, dry freeze, or plenty of warm, tropic sunshine; and there are two ways to cure an indefinite religious experience; to go back into the dead, cold, perishing world, or get a clean heart and be filled with the blessed light, warmth and sweetness of the eternal Spirit.

Definiteness wins. People will walk faster if we show them plain, definite steps. The depraved brain is too lazy to think out a fixed, religious point, and they who are spiritual must make these fine points for others. Show a man a clear, definite attainment, and he is very apt to reach it. Make a point, and things will crystallize around it.