enable him to shine in society, and he can still be firm, and steady, and uncompromisingly true; when he can be as undaunted before the rich as before the poor; when rank and fashion cannot subdue him into silence:  when he hates moral evil as sternly in a great man as he would in a peasant, there is truth in that man.  This was the test to which the Baptist was submitted.

And now contemplate him for a moment; forget that he is an historical personage, and remember that he was a man like us.  Then comes the trial.  All the habits and rules of polite life would be whispering such advice as this:  “Only keep your remarks within the limits of politeness.  If you cannot approve, be silent; you can do no good by finding fault with the great.”  We know how the whole spirit of a man like John would have revolted at that.  Imprisonment?  Yes.  Death?  Well, a man can die but once,—­anything but not cowardice,—­not meanness,—­not pretending what I do not feel, and disguising what I do feel.  Brethren, death is not the worst thing in this life; it is not difficult to die—­five minutes and the sharpest agony is past.  The worst thing in this life is cowardly untruthfulness.  Let men be rough if they will, let them be unpolished, but let Christian men in all they say be sincere.  No flattery, no speaking smoothly to a man before his face, while all the time there is a disapproval of his conduct in the heart.  The thing we want in Christianity is not politeness, it is sincerity.

There are three things which we remark in this truthfulness of John.  The first is its straightforwardness, the second is its unconsciousness, and the last its unselfishness.  The straightforwardness is remarkable in this circumstance, that there is no indirect coming to the point.  At once, without circumlocution, the true man speaks.  “It is not lawful for thee to have her.”  There are some men whom God has gifted with a rare simplicity of heart, which make them utterly incapable of pursuing the subtle excuses which can be made for evil.  There is in John no morbid sympathy for the offender:  “It is not lawful.”  He does not say, “It is best to do otherwise; it is unprofitable for your own happiness to live in this way.”  He says plainly, “It is wrong for you to do this evil.”

Earnest men in this world have no time for subtleties and casuistry.  Sin is detestable, horrible, in God’s sight, and when once it has been made clear that it is not lawful, a Christian has nothing to do with toleration of it.  If we dare not tell our patron of his sin we must give up his patronage.  In the next place there was unconsciousness in John’s rebuke.  We remark, brethren, that he was utterly ignorant that he was doing a fine thing.  There was no sidelong glance, as in a mirror, of admiration for himself.  He was not feeling, This is brave.  He never stopped to feel that after-ages would stand by, and look at that deed of his, and say, “Well done.”