4

THR STAIN OF SIN.

sider that some hearts are wrought upon in a more winning and melting way, others are beat in pieces by a stroke of Omnipotency. But this we are sure, that soul's humbled enough that's brought to a sight and sense of his sin, so as to see the necessity of a Saviour; and to prize him, and love him as the fairest of ten thousand. When God hath made a soul to see his sins, he's ready to blot them out. Thou hast a book within thine own breast, and Conscience hath the pen of a ready writer; it can write as fast as the soul can dictate, Calamum in corde tingit, and with an accurate pencil it can give thee a full portraiture of thy most closeted behavior, of thy most reserved actions, of thy most retired motions; and though there be a curtain drawn over them here, yet hereafter they shall be made very apparent. God shall give Conscience an Imprimatur, and such works as thou would'st have supprest, shall be published to the eyes of men and Angels ; sins of the smallest print, of the most indiscernible character, shall be made clearly legible, and become as Atoms in the presence of a Sunbeam. With what a furious reflection wilt thou then read over thine own sinful life. Culverwel.

Besides the guilt of sin, and the power of sin, there's the stain of sin. Ib.

To tell a falsehood is like the cut of a sabre; for though the wound may heal, the scar of it will remain.

Sadi.

It was Talleyrand who, when Rulhières said he had

been guilty of only one wickedness in his life, asked 'When will it end?' There was more in this repartee than its readiness or its point; for there are mean, wicked, and degrading actions which never do end, and which color the entire current of a life. Edinburgh Review.

God hath promised pardon to him that repenteth, but he hath not promised repentance to him that sinneth. Quoted from Anselm.

When once the lake is cased in ice, heat from below cannot warm its surface; only the breath of heaven can bring life and motion.

There is always some danger of self-discipline leading to a state of self-confidence: and the more so, when the motives for it are of a poor and worldly character, or the results of it outward only, and superficial. But surely when a man has got the better of any bad habit or evil disposition, his sensations should not be those of exultation only: ought they not rather to be akin to the shuddering faintness with which he would survey a chasm that he had been guided to avoid, or with which he would recall to mind a dubious deadly struggle which had terminated in his favor?

Self-discipline is grounded on self-knowledge. A man may be led to resolve upon some general course of selfdiscipline by a faint glimpse of his moral degradation; let him not be contented with that small insight. He

must try to probe his own nature thoroughly; must strive to learn the whole truth about himself, and not shrink from telling it to his own soul.

Imagine the soul, then, thoroughly awake to its state of danger, and the whole energies of the man devoted to self-improvement. At this point, there often arises a habit of introspection which is too limited in its nature; we scrutinize each action as if it were a thing by itself, independent and self-originating; and so our scrutiny does less good, perhaps, than might be expected from the pain it gives and the resolution it requires. Any truthful examination into our actions must be good; but we ought not be satisfied with it, until it becomes both searching and progressive. Its aim should be not only to investigate instances, but to discover principles. Thus, suppose that our conscience upbraids us for any particular bad habit : we then regard each instance of it with intense selfreproach, and long for an opportunity of proving the amendment which seems certain to arise from our pangs of regret. The trial comes; and sometimes our former remorse is awakened and saves us; and sometimes it is forgotten, and our conduct is as bad as it was before our conscience was awakened. Now in such a case we should begin at the beginning, and strive to discover where it is that we are wrong in the heart. This is not to be done by weighing each particular instance, and observing after what interval it occurred, and whether with a little more or a little less temptation than usual; instead of dwelling chiefly on mere circumstances of this kind, we should try

and get at the substance of the thing, so as to ascertain what fundamental precept of God is violated by the habit in question. That precept we should make our study; and then there is more hope of a permanent amendment.

Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist; but by ascending a little, you may often look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvement; we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit, which would have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere.

It is by adding to our good purposes, and nourishing the affections which are rightly placed, that we shall best be able to combat the bad ones. By adopting such a course you will not have yielded to your enemy, but will have gone in all humility, to form new alliances: you will then resist an evil habit with the strength which you have gained in carrying out a good one. You will find too that when you set your heart upon the things that are worthy of it, the small selfish ends, which used to be so dear to it, will appear almost disgusting: you will wonder that they could have had such hold upon you.

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In the same way, if you extend and deepen your sympathies, the prejudices which have hitherto clung obstinately to you, will fall away; your former uncharitableness will seem absolutely distasteful; you will have brought home to it feelings and opinions with which it cannot live.

Man, a creature of twofold nature, body and soul, should have both parts of that nature engaged in any

8

THE CURE OF FAULTS.

matter in which he is concerned; spirit and form must both enter into it. It is idol worship to substitute the form for the spirit; but it is a vain philosophy which seeks to dispense with the form. All this applies to selfdiscipline.

See how most persons love to connect some outward circumstance with their good resolutions; they resolve on commencing the new year with a surrender of this bad habit; they will alter their conduct as soon as they are at such a place. The mind thus shows its feebleness; but we must not conclude that the support it naturally seeks is useless. At the same time that we are to turn our chief attention to the attainment of right principles, we cannot safely neglect any assistance which may strengthen us in contending against bad habits; far is it from the spirit of true humility to look down upon such assistance. Still these auxiliaries partake of a mechanical nature; we must not expect more from them than they can give; they may serve as aids to memory; they may form landmarks, as it were, of our progress; but they cannot, of themselves, maintain that progress. Helps.

The exercise of purging or cleansing the Soul cannot end but with our Life; let us not then afflict ourselves with our imperfections, for our perfection consists in resisting them; and we cannot resist them without seeing them; nor vanquish them without encountering them. Our Victory lies not in being not sensible of them, but in not consenting to them. But to be disturbed by them, is not