He loses,
perhaps by a process so gradual that he is scarcely conscious of it for
a time, the tenderness of heart, and the elevation and fervor of devout
affection that he had been used to feel in meeting God. There is less
and less of spirit and more and more of form in his religious exercises.
He retires at the accustomed time rather from force of habit than
because inclination draws him. He is enclined to curtail his seasons of
retirement or to neglect it altogether if a plausible pretext can be
found. He reproaches himself, perhaps, but hopes that the evil will cure
itself at length. And so he goes on from day to day, and week to week.
Prayer--if his heartless service deserves the name--affords him no
pleasure and adds nothing to his strength. Where such a state of things
exists it is evident that the pulses of spiritual life are ebbing fast.
If the case is yours, dear reader, it ought to fill you with alarm.
Satan is gaining an advantage of you and seducing you from God.
A second sign of spiritual declension is indifference to the usual means
of grace. The spiritual life, not less than the natural life, requires
appropriate and continual nourishment.
Pages:
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91