And I answer, yes—­there is quite enough of the dog in you, or of the devil, if you like the word better, to do this and to do worse things—­if you play with the dog and let it loose, and let it have a free run now and then.  In my time I have heard scores of young men talk in this way.  I have heard them laugh scornfully when danger was mentioned to them, and I have seen a few of them fortunate enough to grow up to manhood with a fairly unspotted character; a few, but not many—­the greater part have gone wrong, and some deplorably wrong.  There is hardly one of us can keep that dog fastened up and chained down always, unless we rely upon a stronger power than our own.  It gets loose at times with the best of us—­it runs wild and plays dreadful havoc with those who are not the best; there is always in you the baser self—­always the dry torches of evil passions which a spark may kindle—­always the moral weaknesses and lusts, half-sleeping, which some stronger blast of temptation may awaken and bring out; and if you wish to escape the evil and hold fast to the good, you will commit your way unto the Lord, and put on the Christian armour, and strengthen yourselves by prayer.  Do not presume too much—­better men than you have fallen every day.  God only can save you from yourselves.

II.

It is just as needful to remember the other side—­the side of better possibilities.

Some of you are tempted to say at times with Hazael, “Thy servant is but a dog; how can he do these great things?” You are disposed to underrate your gifts, your opportunities, your happy chances in life—­in a word, your possibilities.  You despair of finding any opening; you are sure that you will never hear a call to come up higher; you think your lives must always be ill-paid drudgery, with no promotion.  It is sad to work with a conviction of that kind.  You never work well if there is nothing to look forward to, and it is cowardly to give way to a conviction of that kind.  Perhaps you are not specially clever—­no, but there are better things than cleverness in the world, and things which have more to do with life’s real successes.

If you have in you some power of plodding, to do steady work, doing it always honestly; if you have perseverance, self-control, a sense of duty, a determination to do always the thing that is right, all will be well—­these are the qualities which lift a man up to the best places, and one of those places is being prepared for you if you are worthy to fill it.  You say, perhaps, “I can never be a good man.  I can never be a Christian.  I am not made for these high things; it is not in me.”  I answer, “It is in you, or if it be not in you now, God will put it in you if you diligently ask Him.”