[1] You need not break the glasses of a telescope, or coat them
over with paint, in order to prevent you from seeing
through them. Just breathe upon them, and the dew of your
breath will shut out all the stars. So it does not require
great crimes to hide the light of God's countenance. Little
faults can do it just as well. Take a shield, and cast a
spear upon it, and it will leave in it one great dent.
Prick it all over with a million little needle shafts, and
they will take the polish from it far more than the
piercing of the spear. So it is not so much the great sins
which take the freshness from our consciences, as the
numberless petty faults which we are all the while
committing.--_Beecher._
[2] Our end or motive in acting determines more than anything
the quality of our actions. Not that a good end will
sanctify a bad action, but a bad end will vitiate every
action connected with it. If, for instance, in our
religious services we seek the applause of men, we must
expect no reward from God, the gratification of our pride
and vanity is all the reward that such polluted services
can obtain. In the account which is given of Jehu, we find
that the very same action which was rewarded on account of
its outward conformity with God's command, was punished on
account of the base principle by which he was influenced in
performing it. He did well in extirpating the seed of Ahab,
and was rewarded for it to the fourth generation: the blood
which was shed was imputed to him as murder. Nor is there
anything more common than for even religious persons to
mistake the path of duty through an inattention to their
own spirit. The disciples doubtless thought themselves
under the influence of a commendable zeal when they would
have called fire from heaven to consume a Samaritan
village; as did Peter, also, when he cut off the ear of
Malchus. We should therefore be peculiarly cautious with
respect to this, lest by the mixture of any selfish motive
or base affection we offend Him whom it is our desire and
endeavour to please.--_Simeon._
[3] If we so love our riches that we would eternally possess
them, let us not hoard them up in the earth, where we are
sure to leave them, carrying nothing with us but the canker
of our coin, which shall bear witness against us at the Day
of Judgment; but let us send them before us into heaven,
delivering them unto the poor, who are God's factors and
receivers; and so having conveyed and made over our goods,
as it were by bills of exchange, we shall find the Lord a
sure and all-sufficient paymaster, who will give us more
than double usance, and yet pay us at the first sight. If
we would have our coin continue sweet and good for a good
space, let us know that there are for this purpose no
garners comparable to poor men's stomachs, which will
preserve our grain for our use unto life eternal. If we
would have our clothes preserved from moths, and to last
long, the backs of the naked are our safest
wardrobes.--_Downame,_ 1644.