His piety has declined; he no
longer lives in intimacy with God and in the atmosphere of heaven. His
light is dim. His glory has departed.
The last indication of religious declension that we shall now speak of
is a careless indifference to the danger arising from temptation. A
Christian whose piety is warm and vigorous has great tenderness of
conscience. He dreads the least approach of evil. Even the suggestions
of sin to the mind are painful. He therefore prays earnestly and daily,
"Lead me not into temptation," and carefully avoids placing himself in
dangerous circumstances. Sometimes, however, you will see professing
Christians who seem to want this instinctive sense of danger. They often
place themselves in circumstances when they might easily have foreseen
their strength of principle would be liable to be put to the severest
test. They keep company in which it is nearly impossible that their
moral feelings should not be defiled. They allow themselves to assort
with the idle, the frivolous, with those who are given to foolish
talking and jesting; they indulge idle thoughts, repeat amusing stories,
read hooks and papers that do not gender to piety, etc.
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