If you want to draw a straight line the wise thing to do is to use a rule. The longer the straight line, the harder it is to draw it without a rule. Each of our blackboards is about six feet long and five feet wide. I could not have drawn the straight lines in to-day’s picture unless I had used the rule (nearly five feet long) made for me by that old soldier who comes to our church, and is a first-class carpenter although - since the last war - he can scarcely use his left hand.

The way to heaven is long. The shortest way there is the straight way. That is the reason why God gives you the Ten Commandments. God’s rule keeps us

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A young tree in Victoria Park grows straight because it is supported by a straight stake. Once a man asked our Lord how to reach heaven; he was answered (St Mark 10, 19). If you do your best to keep the commandments, your way to heaven will be straight and the shortest; you will escape many of life’s failures 4nd difficulties (but not all of them). One day you will grow to be a saint in heaven (where there is no need of commandments); as the young tree grows into a mighty oak, with no need of a supporting stake.

Rule your life by God’s Rule (S. John 14, 21). You will be safer in this world, and saved in the next one. But to do this you must have God’s grace; so the next part of this queer Haggerston Catechism will be about Prayer.