[1] One of the affecting features in a life of vice is the
longing, wistful outlooks given by the wretches who
struggle with unbridled passions towards virtue which are
no longer within their reach. Men in the tide of vice are
sometimes like the poor creatures swept down the stream of
mighty rivers, who see people safe on shore, and trees and
flowers, as they go quickly past, and all things that are
desirable gleam upon them a moment to heighten their
trouble, and to aggravate their swift-coming
destruction.--_Beecher._
[2] A brand that has been once in the fire easily catches the
second time.--_Flavel,_ 1630-1696.
Every commission of sin imprints upon the soul further
disposition and proneness to sin; as the second, third, and
fourth degrees of heat are more easily introduced than the
first. Every one is both a preparative and a step to the
next. Drinking both quenches the present thirst and
provokes it for the future. When the soul is beaten from
its first station, and the mounds and earthworks of virtue
are once broken down, it becomes quite another thing from
what it was before. In one single eating of the forbidden
fruit, when the act is gone, yet the relish remains; and
the remembrance of the first is an easy allurement to the
second. One visit is enough to begin an acquaintance; and
this point is gained by it, that when the visitant comes
again, he is no more a stranger.--_South,_ 1633-1716.
[3] Sin is like the descent of a hill, where every step we take
increase the difficulty of our return. Sin, in its habits,
becomes stronger every day--the heart grows harder, the
conscience grows duller, the distance between God and the
soul grows greater, and like a rock hurled from a
mountain's top, the further we descend we go down, and
down, and down, with greater and greater
rapidity.--_Guthrie._
[4] It is in our own bosom that the power of temptation is
found. Temptation is but a spark; and if a spark fall upon
ice, if it fall upon snow, if it fall upon water, what is
the harm of a spark? But if it fall upon powder--the powder
is yours, the spark only is the devil's.--_Beecher._
The power of temptation is in proportion to the nature of
the soul tempted. A thoughtless miner takes an uncovered
light into the mine: where there is but little gas, there
is but a wavering and flickering of a transient
flame,--hardly flame, indeed; but where there is an
accumulation of gas, the uncovered light occasions an
explosion which shivers the rocks and brings swift
destruction upon all who are in the mine. In both cases it
was the same mine, the same miner, but the condition of the
air was different. So is it with the fiery darts of the
wicked one; they are shot into all human hearts, and just
in proportion to the materials, so to speak, which are to
be found there, will be the success or failure of the
enemy.--_Dr. Parker._