how many have plucked their ruin! Election, free agency, trinity,
resurrection--in the discussion of these subjects hundreds and
thousands of people ruin the soul. There are men who have actually
been kept out of the kingdom of heaven because they could not
understand who Melchisedec was not!
Oh, how many have been destroyed by an unhealthful inquisitiveness! It
is seen in all directions. There are those who stand with the
eye-stare and mouth-gape of curiosity. They are the first to hear a
falsehood, build it another story high and two wings to it. About
other people's apparel, about other people's business, about other
people's financial condition, about other people's affairs, they are
over anxious. Every nice piece of gossip stops at their door, and they
fatten and luxuriate in the endless round of the great world of
tittle-tattle. They invite and sumptuously entertain at their house
Colonel Twaddle and Esquire Chitchat and Governor Smalltalk. Whoever
hath an innuendo, whoever hath a scandal, whoever hath a valuable
secret, let him come and sacrifice it to