Unfaithfulness

“ The evil one suggests, that I can never be forgiven, and fills my soul with doubts and fears; but, oh Lord! thou hast said, ‘He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.’”
2nd mo. 24th. “Strong desires are in my heart, that I may be favoured with an assurance of forgiveness; but, oh! I fear that my repentance is not sincere, that the pride of the world still holds place in my heart. Oh Lord! I pray thee that thou wilt use thy sharp threshing instrument, and break in pieces all that is at variance with thy holy will.” ”

“ I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. ”

“ The small remains of fidelity, which still keep thee from sin, are nothing but a fund of sloth, timidity, and self-love. Thou wishest to live in peace with thyself: thou dreadest the embarrassments of a passion, and the remorse of a sullied conscience; iniquity has become a fatigue, and that alone displeases thee with it. Thou lovest thine own ease; and that is thy sole religion. Indolence is the only barrier which stops thee, and all thy virtue is limited to thyself. Assuredly thou wouldst wish to know whether this infidelity be a venial transgression, or if it extends farther. ”

“ Alas! that purity, that innocence so common formerly among children, is every day disappearing from their midst, many among them have become the victims of sin ere the passions of the heart manifested their presence; and their hearts have quivered from the sting of remorse ere they felt the perfidious lurings of pleasure. Many have received from sin that doleful experience, that premature craftiness, which, far from enlightening the mind, obscures and blinds it,—which, far from fortifying the will, enfeebles and enervates it. ”

“ But perhaps you are not conscious of even any sin of omission, which impairs your peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Is there not then some inward sin, which as a root of bitterness springs up in your heart to trouble you? Is not your dryness and barrenness of soul occasioned by your hearts departing from the living God? Has not the foot of pride come against you? Have you not thought of yourself more highly than you ought to think? ”

“ When they turned their hearts from God, their reason became more and more blinded by their evil passions, and they fell into the utmost spiritual ignorance, and into the most foolish idolatry. Pride and vice still lead many men to unbelief. ”

“ We are chargeable with the workings and defilements of pride and hypocrisy, of uncharitableness and sensuality of self-love, and worldliness of heart, notwithstanding all the methods thou hast taken to heal these diseases of our souls. We have sinned against the clear revelation of thy will, and the strongest obligations binding us to comply with it. We have sinned against thy most inviting promises, and thy most dreadful threatenings: against the frequent warnings of thy Word, the renewed motions and powerful convictions of thy Spirit, and the precious blood of Christ. ”

“ Walk ye in it. And first, repent, that is, know yourselves. This is the first repentance, previous to faith; even conviction, or self-knowledge. Awake then thou that sleepest. Know thyself to be a sinner, and what manner of sinner thou art. Know that corruption of thy inmost nature, whereby thou art very far gone from original righteousness, whereby the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit, through that carnal mind which is enmity against God, which is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Know that thou art corrupted in every power, in every faculty of thy soul ”

“ How shall the distrust that sin creates, the hardness that sin forms, the despair and helplessness that sin induces, the dreadful indifference which is its expression,—how shall they be removed? How shall the unfaith which the mystery, the suffering, the evil of the world induce be overcome? Being a sinner I do not dare, and being ignorant I do not believe, to come. ”

“ Why do you falsely accuse me of this wickedness and impurity?" With a smile she replied to me, "The desire of wickedness arose within your heart. Is it not your opinion that a righteous man commits sin when an evil desire arises in his heart? There is sin in such a case, and the sin is great," said she; "for the thoughts of a righteous man should be righteous. For by thinking righteously his character is established in the heavens, and he has the Lord merciful to him in every business. ”

“ As soon as we come to a right understanding of our lost and guilty condition, we shall cry: "Be merciful to me a sinner; create within me a clean heart, O God." Without such an understanding,—such an intelligent perception of our sin and guilt,—we never shall, and we never can. ”

“ The deficiencies which I deplore, I feel. Not only when I look abroad, am I persuaded of the general prevalence of evil by what I see; but when I look into my own heart, my conviction is confirmed by what I experience. I am conscious, not merely of frailties, but of sins. I will not hypocritically accuse myself of gross offenses which I have no temptation to commit, and from the commission of which, motives inferior to religion would preserve me. But I am continually humbled in detecting mixed motives in almost all I do. Such strugglings of pride with my endeavors after humility! ”

“ You find your conscience does not like a lie, but that it solemnly and dreadfully reproaches the liar; and you find too, my son, that to be holy is the only way to be happy."
"Yes, mamma, I do; but do you think the Saviour will forgive me, and make me happy again?"
"Yes, I have no doubt he will pardon your sin, if you are really sorry, and resolve to be watchful in future." ”

“ That even the dangers of your station became the vehicles of instruction, and means of cure for you; that the world disgusted you even with the world; that you found, continually and every where, the secret of offering up a thousand invisible sacrifices to the Almighty, and of making your most hurried and tumultuous occupations the sources of holy reflections, or of praiseworthy and salutary examples? Why do you not -cultivate these impressions of grace and salvation? It is not your situation in life, it is your infidelity and weakness, which have extinguished them in your heart. ”

“ You feel all the weight of the duties to which some remains of faith, and love of ease, hinder you from being unfaithful; but you feel not the secret testimony of a clear conscience, which soothes and supports the fervent Christian. You shun, perhaps, certain occasions of pleasure, where innocence is sure of being shipwrecked ”

“ It is a turning from a delight in sin, or an indifference to sin, or merely a moral aversion to it, to a deep-rooted hatred of every thought and act of sin, to penitence, and to an earnest desire to pattern after God. ”

“ Had they asked this question with a humble desire to be told more particularly where in they had offended, it would have been an evidence of their repentance, and would have given hopes of their reformation; but to ask it thus in disdain and defiance of the word of God argues their hearts fully set in them to do evil. Note, Sinners ruin themselves by studying to baffle their own convictions; but they will find it hard to kick against the pricks. ”

“ You have read, perhaps, the written record of some pure and saintly life, and you are overwhelmed with shame as you look inward and contrast your sullied heart and your self-seeking aims with his innocency and cleanness of heart. You are confronted—you, an avowedly religious person—in your business affairs with an upright man of the world; and his straightforward honesty is felt by you as a keen reproach to your disingenuousness and evasion, all the keener because he makes no profession of religion. ”

“ When I fall let me not add to my guilt the further sin of secrecy. Unconfessed sin breeds in its lurking-place and multiplies its hateful offspring. The soul that makes confession is washed through and through, and the seeds of iniquity are driven out of my soul. ”

“ Every infidelity is like an additional cloud, overspreading the mind and heart, which darkens to our sight the truths of salvation. In this manner the heart is gradually enveloped, the conscience becomes embarrassed, the lights of the mind are weakened; you are no longer that spiritual Christian, capable of a proper judgment. Insensibly you adopt maxims in secret, which, as you think, diminish your guilt; the blindness increases in the same proportion as the lukewarmness. ”

“ What dost Thou so much require of a guilty and miserable sinner, as that he be contrite, and humble himself for his sins? In true contrition and humiliation of heart is begotten the hope of pardon, the troubled conscience is reconciled, lost grace is recovered, a man is preserved from the wrath to come, and God and the penitent soul hasten to meet each other with a holy kiss. ”

“ Shall I dare, in the presence of Thy glance so infinitely pure, commit deeds which I dare not even show to man? Shall I dare to sin in Thy presence, knowing that sin and the sinner is hated by Thee, and to condemn the sinner Thou hast no wish? ”

“ But are the man's evils removed? Are those habits of sin, confirmed by long indulgence, so easily broken? Are those evil passions, which have been so long his masters, to be subdued and brought under by a repentant sigh and tear? ”

“ When they have sinned, they show how discord begins in mutual frailty, and how it ought to cease in mutual forbearance; how confidence of the divine favour is forfeited by sin; and how hope of pardon may be obtained by penitence and prayer. A state of innocence we can only conceive, if, indeed, in our present misery, it be possible to conceive it; but the sentiments and worship proper to a fallen and offending being, we have all to learn, as we have all to practise. ”

“ I know that I am a sinner, and that of myself I cannot repent, because I was born in iniquity, and in sin was I conceived ... I am clothed with a frail nature, and endowed with an evil inclination. How can I be made clean who sin every hour? ”

“ Show me, as my soul can bear, The depth of inbred sin; All the unbelief declare, The pride that lurks within. But when he heareth thy prayer, and unveils thy heart; when he shows thee throughly what spirit thou art of; then beware that thy faith fail thee not, that thou suffer not thy shield to be torn from thee. ”

“ For, as we shall afterwards say, a single unruly desire, although there be in it no matter of mortal sin, suffices to bring a soul into such bondage, foulness and vileness that it can in no wise come to accord with God in union [9] until the desire be purified. What, then, will be the vileness of the soul that is completely unrestrained with respect to its own passions and given up to its desires, and how far removed will it be from God and from His purity? ”

“ Doubts, scepticism, infidelity, find an open door, and an easy road, to his heart. If a man would keep fast hold of his Christian faith, let him take care to order his actions, as far as possible, in conformity to its precepts. But, on the other hand, let him give free rein to his appetites and ambitions,—yea, even to the commission of absolute crime,—if he wishes to become a mocker and an infidel, without love of God or man, without correct views of time or clear ones of eternity. For, to all these things, he will be sure to be holden with the cords of his sins. ”

“ This sin of selfish indolence, of weak-minded inaction, carries its own penalty with it. Who of us has not learned the terrible retribution by bitter experience? If you who ought to have been strong, who ought to have defended your Lord, were guilty of timidly shirking your duty, of feebly failing to declare your faith, then your faith will seem to you a poor, weakly thing, and Christianity itself feeble and infirm. ”

“ But to promise ourselves that we would believe, if we had such and such means and motives of faith as we ourselves would prescribe, when we do not improve what God has appointed, is not only a gross instance of the deceitfulness of our hearts, but the sorry refuge, or subterfuge rather, of an obstinate destroying infidelity. ”

“ The horrible infidelity which fills the air at the present day has penetrated your mind, and with the pride of intellectual impiety—that very pride for which Satan was cast from heaven—you profane the mysteries of your religion. ”

“ They can see clearly the lens of their telescope is not dim. Who drifts into unbelief? Those whose hearts are full of the smoke of sin, of the mist of evil passions; those who are averse to the holy truths of religion and detest its threats and admonitions on account of the sinful lives they are leading. It would be wonderful indeed, if such persons could see as clearly as those who, free from evil passions, follow after truth.
3. Yes, it is vice, evil, unruly, unbridled passions, which deprive men of their faith. ”

“ Similarly must we guard the particular faculty that we find has led us into sin. Is it pride of intellect, the desire to show what little we know, the instinctive tendency to monopolize conversation, or to instruct and correct others? Or is it a weakness that has its seat in our affections, a tendency to condone sin in those we love, or a critical spirit against those for whom we have no natural affinity? ”

“ Thou knowest the dulness and hardness, the vanity and deceitfulness of them: we were born sinners, and so have we lived. We have added sin to sin. We have abused thy great and manifold mercies, tempted thy patience, and despised thy goodness. And justly mightest thou have cast us into outer darkness, where is wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But of thy loving kindnesses there is no number. Thou still callest us to return to thee: and whosoever cometh to thee, thou wilt in no wise cast out. O meet us with thy heavenly grace, that we may be able to come to thee. ”