A Sermon
Delivered On Sunday Evening,
January 5, 1851
BY THE REV. C. G. FINNEY
(Of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, America,)
AT THE TABERNACLE,
MOORFIELDS
Modernized by Cliff Collins
“Do yourself no harm, for we
are all here.” Acts (16:28)
While
Paul and Silas were preaching the gospel at Philippi, Satan, it appears, used a
different tactic against them, which, for a while, really embarrassed them. A demon possessed woman lived there, and
when the apostles were preaching she followed them from place to place, and
called out after them, “These are the servants of the Most High God, who show
us the way of salvation”. Because her reputation was so well-known in
Philippi, Paul was very grieved that she would follow him like this, saying the
things that she proclaimed. He
therefore cast the unclean spirit out of her in the name of Jesus Christ. This naturally upset those who were
profiting by her proceedings, and since they were influential people, they
stirred up the city. They brought them
before the magistrates, and charged them with “turning the world upside
down”. After this, they were sent to
jail, and thrown into the inner prison, and, lest they should possibly escape,
their feet were put into stocks. At midnight,
they prayed and sang praises to God, and all the prisoners heard them. There was a great earthquake, and the very
foundations of the prison were shaken, the bars and bolts were removed, and the
doors were thrown open. The jailer, who
was sleeping in a part of the same building, was startled to his feet. Coming
from his room, and looking at the state of things around him, he concluded that
the prisoners had escaped; and knowing that he should be severely dealt with,
he was greatly disturbed, and drawing his sword, was about to commit
suicide. Seeing this, Paul cried out
with a loud voice “Do yourself no harm:
we are all here”. Then the jailer
called for a light, rushed in, came trembling, and fell down before Paul and
Silas. The jailer led them out, and
said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved”?
And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be
saved, and your house”.
God is always
concerned lest the sinner should do himself harm, and what Paul said to the
jailer in this situation needs to be said to multitudes of people today. Indeed, one way or another, God is continually
cautioning them not to harm themselves.
It is not because this text teaches any particular doctrine that I have
chosen it tonight, but for the purpose of calling attention to some very
important things.
I.
NO ONE CAN REALLY DO YOU SPIRITUAL HARM BUT YOURSELF.
II. SIN IS THE
GREATEST HARM.
III. THE SOURCES
OF DANGER.
IV. THINGS THAT
YOU SHOULD GUARD AGAINST, BECAUSE THEY ARE FATAL.
I.
ONLY YOU CAN HARM YOURSELF SPIRITUALLY.
People can tempt others, but unless the individual who is tempted
consents, there is no sin on his part.
The tempter may sin, but to be tempted is no sin. Truly and properly even Satan himself cannot
inflict spiritual harm on men without their consent; for, unless they consent,
they are not really harmed by temptation.
In fact, although Satan never wants them to benefit, they often benefit
from, rather than being injured by temptation, when they courageously resist that
temptation. Where individuals
deliberately tempt others, it is no thanks to them if it produces good instead
of evil. No one can inflict sin on
another; sin is a voluntary act on the part of the sinner; nobody can sin for
you, or make you sin without your own consent in any such sense as that God
will hold you responsible for it.
II. SIN IS THE
GREATEST HARM YOU CAN INFLICT ON YOURSELF.
Whatever
else you may do, it is not important compared with this. Sin is an eternal wrong to the immortal
soul. But I only need to mention these
points; it is unnecessary to dwell on them.
Whenever you wrong others by sin, you always do yourselves more harm
than you do to others. Suppose, for
example, that you have cheated another man, damaged his character, or in some
way inflicted him with pain and suffering; you have not inflicted any spiritual
harm on him, although you have wronged him physically. But listen, in wronging him you have far
more deeply wronged yourself; for your act was sin, but the wrong you have done
to him is not as important, it is not as great a wrong to him as if he himself
had committed a sin.
III.
THE SOURCES OF DANGER.
You
are all aware of the existence of temptation, which the Bible divides into
three categories: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world means all that is external. The flesh means our own nature. The devil means the infernal influences by
which we are sometimes tempted.
But my main
purpose is to call attention to certain things that put people in danger of
doing themselves harm, and to warn them –
IV.
TO BE ON THEIR GUARD AGAINST THEM.
First,
men are in danger of doing themselves harm by indulging in prejudices. I have no doubt that prejudice is one of the
most common occasions of sin. Men are
in very great danger of being prejudiced.
For example, nearly the entire Jewish nation appears to have been ruined
by prejudice. They were so committed to
certain views, and so prejudiced in favor of certain doctrines that they had
been taught; that when Christ came, His lifestyle so completely exposed their
prejudices and He was so different from what they expected that; because they
were so completely committed to their prejudices, it became their ruin. Who can contemplate the influence of
religious prejudice without feeling inclined to warn everybody to be on his or
her guard against it?
Prejudice is a
pre-judgment, a making up of the mind beforehand without the necessary light
and evidence. Now, in every age, this
has been one of the great evils of mankind, and probably the judgment day will
reveal the fact, that prejudice has ruined as many souls as almost any other
thing in the world. Religion consists
in believing and obeying the truth.
Now, the more an individual is prejudiced, the less he will be under the
influence of the truth. If he is committed
to a one-sided view he will not know, do, or be sanctified by the truth, and of
course, therefore, he will not be saved.
It is striking to see to what an extent mere prejudice often governs
people on questions so infinitely important as that of religion.
I have already referred to the history of the
Jewish nation, but the same is true, to an amazing extent, concerning nominal
Christians in the church. There is,
perhaps, no denomination of Christians in which you will not find individuals
who give the strongest evidence that their religion is a religion of prejudice. In fact, in some communities, most of the
members appear to be in this condition; so that any attempt to preach to them
something that is contrary to their views is useless, because the more opposed
to their views you are, the more they deem your teaching erroneous. This is an all-powerful argument with
them. So among Roman Catholics, for
example; every individual who knows anything about them knows how extremely
difficult it is to get them to listen to anything unless it comes to them in a
certain way. Their religion itself is a cluttered mass of prejudices, and not,
in reality, true religion at all, and so most of them clearly show this in
their lives.
Several
years ago, I was called to labor somewhere in the United States where a large
group of Germans had settled. They were
strongly imbued with the peculiar views entertained by their denomination. They were taught their catechism up to a
certain age, when they come before the minister to answer certain questions;
and if they could answer those questions they were allowed to receive communion,
and be confirmed. They are taught to
believe that this is religion. I have
frequently been told, when laboring among them, “Oh! I’m a Christian already”.
“Are you? Indeed! Who made you a Christian?” “Dr. Millenberg”, was the reply in one
case. “Fine, but do you call that
religion?” I asked. “Oh, yes, that is our religion.” Now, every drunk that I met in the streets
had been to communion, said his catechism, learned his lessons, and been received
into the bosom of the church. So fatal
and deep was their prejudice that it was astonishing to see everybody in this
sorry state. Their minister, for
example, if there were any great revivals of religion in the neighborhood,
would make an appeal to them like this:
“Why do you go to hear that kind of preaching? If you embrace that religion you will turn against your fathers,
and you may as well say that your fathers have all gone to hell! Did they pray and do such things? Did they talk about their religious
‘experiences’, and how they were ‘converted’?
Will you turn against your fathers, give them all up, and proclaim by
your conduct that they have all gone to hell?”
In this way, they were harassed from Sunday to Sunday; and it is not
surprising that as long as people have their prejudices appealed to this way,
that they die in their sins by the thousands. No minister, who appeals to the
people’s prejudices, can hope to promote religion thereby. They cannot be in a more unfavorable
attitude to become truly religious; for, until they become honest-hearted, like
little children, they will not be converted.
Prejudices
against individuals are often a very great obstacle to conversion. People do not seem to see that even when
convicted, these prejudices prevent them from being converted. In fact, it is as great an obstacle to being
converted as stealing, drinking, or anything else of that kind. This is not sufficiently understood. People, who indulge unreasonable prejudices
in this way, are often surprised to find they make little progress in religion;
they can’t understand why. Some people
are apt to fall into this error from their natural temperament; and such people
are in danger of doing themselves fatal harm.
This is one of the most common sources of destruction among men. There are so many who are so unreasonably
committed either in favor of, or against somebody, that their minds have become
completely dishonest. Press them with
religion, if you please, but their dishonesty prevents you from doing them any
good. I need to share this with you in
detail because, when talking with these people, I have often found that they
have never thought that these prejudices were hindering their spiritual
prayers.
Another
thing, against which people need to be warned, is resistance to, and not taking
their own consciences seriously. The
reason that there is so little feelings concerning religion is, that people
have trifled so long with their own consciences. People complain that they don’t have the influence of the Holy
Spirit. This is very common. Why?
If we could view their whole lives we would see times when they felt
strongly on religious subjects, especially when they sinned. But, when they first indulged in one sin
they disregarded the reproof of their conscience, and when they indulged in another
sin, they did this again. The more they
sinned the easier it became to ignore their conscience until, after some time,
the voice of their inward monitor was allowed to pass unheeded, and eventually,
except in very extreme cases, it scarcely spoke at all. Finally, the conscience sinks down into an
indignant silence!
There are three
things that belongs to what we generally term conscience: 1) the mind’s
judgment, 2) the moral character of the man, and 3) that kind of feeling
created by them; that is, a feeling answerable to the mind’s judgment of our
moral conduct. That which is more
generally understood by the term conscience is an emotional twinge; for our
reason is so related to our feelings that when reason points out sin in an
individual, (that is before he becomes numbed by resistance) it will produce a
feeling driving the mind to avoid such things.
When your mind says that something is right, and it is your duty to do
it; that is, when the judgment of your mind says so; there is a feeling
pressing you to do it. Or, if you have
done something without the consent of your conscience, it causes a deep sting
of remorse. When this feeling has not
been trifled with; it makes the mind bleed to the very center. However, when your conscience is resisted,
the impulsive part ceases, the remorse ceases, and after a while, when you
clearly see that you should do a certain thing, you feel no impulse to do
it. Your conscience affirms that you
should do this thing or that thing, but you have no echoing feeling or tendency
in your mind to go in that direction; only a cold naked judgment that you
should do it.
You
have done something wrong. Oh! Yes!
And there is the cold judgment; but that’s all. There is no remorse. When people have finally silenced that
impulsive voice, and nothing is left but the cold naked judgment. What then?
They complain about the “lack of conviction”. They have “no heart to become religious”. They have no feeling on the subject. They know that they are sinners, but they
don‘t feel it, and don’t care about it.
They know they are in danger of going to hell, but it doesn’t alarm
them. They know they have lived in sin,
but they don’t feel it. They are like a
marble pillar. I have no doubt that
some of you recognize in this picture your own past or present condition. Can you remember when you believed that
something you were about to do was wrong?
You had a strong feeling to back away from it; or, if you did it, you
felt a sting of remorse that made you writhe, and perhaps even led you to pray
and confess it to God? But what is it
like now? Where is that sting of
remorse now? Perhaps the cold naked
affirmation is present, which you can never resist. But listen, perhaps all the results that tended to life within
you are gone. Where are you now? Ah!
Where are you now? I would
earnestly caution you to be careful how you trifle with your conscience, for
when you have once silenced its voice; where are you then?
Another
way, that puts men in danger of doing themselves fatal harm, is by resisting
the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it is always
true that when the conscience is resisted, the Holy Spirit is
resisted, and the voice of conscience is often, if not always, connected with
God’s influence. When the Spirit of God
is quenched and grieved away, there is the utmost danger that the conscience
will become entirely silent, and then no truth can save the soul. Why?
Because, it is through the conscience that the Spirit of God works, and
that the truth takes hold of men; if it weren’t for a man’s conscience, he
could no more be converted than a marble pillar. If you slowly remove the conscience by continually resisting it,
there is no more hope of your conversion than if you had no conscience at all.
There
is another thing that people need to be warned about, and that is falling into
some snare from which they can barely escape.
It is dreadful to see how men fall into such snares. Satan’s policy is to crowd men, early in
life, into some position from which he knows they will not retreat. Men sometimes do certain things that are
almost sure to be fatal to them. Satan
therefore crowds them into these false corners, into the commission of some
sin, or the assumption of some false position.
They commit themselves to something that they dare not confess, and they
can’t repent without confessing. How
can they get out of their predicament?
For example, who does not know the influence of telling a lie? Sometimes a sinner’s telling a lie will
almost certainly ruin him. He will back
himself into a corner by telling this lie in order to “make everything
straight”, and then telling another to cover up the first lie, and so on and so
forth, until the results of this one sin will often prove fatal. It wasn’t that the original offence, all by
itself, was unpardonable, but it naturally committed the mind to a course of lying,
and it continues on in that direction involving the sacrifice of one principle
after another, and onward and downward you go.
Let me ask all
people here; have you really thought about this point? Did you young men ever seriously reflected
on the danger of telling your employer a lie?
Have you done so? Then you have
taken a very serious step! You will
probably be led to tell someone else a lie in order to cover up the first lie,
and then you will be led to lie again and again and so on. Where will you stop? The same is true of business transactions;
the devil never shocks men at first by some atrocious proposition; he strives
to lead them into unguarded positions; to push them into danger by committing
themselves, by some apparently innocent act, into a certain course of conduct;
and then he seeks to cut off their retreat!
For instance, here is a young man who has taken some small advantage of
his employer, and he’s afraid to confess it for fear of being fired. What shall he do? He conceals it, and then goes on in a course of deceit to keep it
concealed. Whenever it is likely to be
exposed, he resorts to some new fraud to cover it up; and thus his escape is
made increasingly difficult. Oh! Sinner, do yourself no harm! Don’t take the first penny or the first
farthing! Sinners, of all people, must
be on their guard against placing themselves in such a position that they cut
off their own retreat.
Another thing to
be guarded against is the formation of some bad habit. How many thousands of young men have come to
the City of London, for example, and allowed themselves to get into some bad
habit! They were taught better at home;
their parents warned them; and watched them leave for London with fear and
trembling. They came here, gave up
their old orderly habits, stayed up to all hours of the night yielding to
intemperance, and so the occasional indulgence develops into a habit, and often
becomes impossible to eradicate. People
should be on their guard against forming these artificial appetites; for they
are always more oppressive and dangerous than those that are natural.
For
example, the appetite for alcohol is an artificial appetite; that is, no
un-perverted constitution ever sought poison, loved it, and decided to use it
habitually; and once this habit gains mastery over an individual, how very
dangerous is their position! The use of
tobacco belongs in the same category; it, too, is a totally artificial
appetite; there is nothing more repulsive
to the taste, at first. When I walk
along the streets, and see your poor ill-clad artisans with their pipes in
their mouths, how I pity them! It has
gotten such a hold on many people, that the sacrifice, to them, would be great
indeed. Let me say to all smokers,
snuffers, and chewers, who are present tonight. Is this a proper way for you to make use of God’s money? Is this the way to treat your physical
bodies? Will this practice commend
itself when you stand to render an account before God? Perhaps some of you will say, these, after
all, are very insignificant things to preach about; but to you, young men, they
are not small things at all; for such habits invariably lead to something
worse.
Men also need to
be warned against engaging in any improper business. I mean a business that will ruin your souls, if you persisted in
it. Be careful what you do in this direction. Undertake no business that is harmful to
your fellow men; nothing that is inconsistent with the well being of society,
no business, in short, that you can’t pursue honestly with an enlightened,
upright heart for the glory of God. Now this is a very common sense thing. Everyone can see that when an individual engages
in a business he can’t consecrate to God, by that very engagement he has
formally withdrawn his allegiance from Christ, and engages in business for
himself.
Be
careful, then, it is better for you to have no business at all, ten thousand
times better, than engage in a business where you can’t keep your conscience
free from offence. But you must also be
careful not to err by pursuing a proper business from improper motives. If you take the most proper business in the
world, and pursue it improperly, it will be fatal. You can even go around selling Bibles for selfish purposes and
gain, and yet say, “I am selling Bibles”.
So what? Take care! Listen to me. You can just as easily be selfish in that calling as in anything
else. In fact, the more pious a
business appears on the surface, the greater is your danger of pursuing it from
the wrong motives without being aware of it.
Take, for example, preaching the gospel. You can all see, that a man who preaches the gospel because of
the nature of the profession, might easily take credit for it because his
motives for doing what he does are all selfish. He is preaching the gospel so he can take it for granted that he
is in the service of God. In other words,
he is preaching the gospel only to serve himself. Be careful, then, that you do not pursue your business selfishly;
for if you do, it will be fatal to your souls.
Avoid dangerous
companions; if they are agreeable, they are even more dangerous because of
that. It is always a great snare to a
young person when he falls in with a very agreeable but unprincipled
companion. That young man is a very
friendly companion; he often calls on you, treats you very politely; sometimes
asks you if you would like to go to a movie with him, or perhaps to get a bite
to eat. But he is an unprincipled young
man, although it doesn’t immediately appear that way. You are worse off because your danger is ever greater. If he were not agreeable, you would not be
in so much danger of fatally falling into his snare. But he is very agreeable, and the devil knows it. The devil loves to make himself agreeable. He may draw you into some snare, and you are
committed for life and for death. The
same with books; they are often more dangerous because they can be so
agreeable.
And then there are
amusements. Ah! How very amusing they are! But where do they lead? You
“must have some entertainment”, you say. How many millions have been destroyed by not being on their guard
against these things!
Beware
also, of worldly ambition. You see a
great many examples of this.
Beware
of the love of gain. What would it
profit you to gain the whole world if you lose your own soul? Look at such a man getting rich; do you envy
him? The Lord may let him have plenty,
but what then? Many years ago, a person
who was employed to write his biography called on the richest man in America. (A person who knew him well told me that he
was the most wretched man he ever knew.
The calls that came to him for charitable reasons were so numerous, that
after a while he became uneasy whenever someone called, lest it might be
someone begging for some of his money; and this was his state of mind when his
biographer called on him.) “Overall,
what do you think of your life, now that your life is nearly over?” said the
biographer. “I think it’s a failure”,
was his reply. “A failure?” exclaims
the biographer. “Yes, a failure”, was
the response again. He had more money
than any man in America, yet he considered his life to have been a
failure. Ah! He had been greedy for gain.
He had loved money. He had
acquired lots of money, but he had lost his soul. He had committed himself to gain, until it had become a passion,
and he was eaten up with it. Are you,
any of you, doing yourselves harm in this way?
Are you so intent on obtaining property that it haunts you even on Sunday? Indeed?
Why then are you numbing your souls and fastening your own chains. You should listen to the warning, and run
from it, as if you were running from the very gates of Hell!
Another great
danger is that when people become wealthy, they are liable to become
“purse-proud”, and thus ruin themselves.
Even intemperance itself is may not be more fatal to the soul. It is clearly inconsistent with the spirit
of the gospel; and there is a great temptation to it. It is remarkable to what an extent men, who succeed in acquiring
property, become proud. Others indeed
need to be warned against family pride. This is a fatal snare, by which men do
themselves infinite harm.
People often run
to men for advice instead of to God.
Several years ago, in Detroit, in America, there lived a gentleman who
belonged to one of the most influential families in Detroit, and who was surrounded
by a large circle of the society’s elite.
He was deeply convicted of his sins and very anxious about his
soul. After a while, he became so
intensely anxious that he could no longer refrain from speaking to me on the subject. I pressed him to submit. “I can’t do it," he said, “without consulting my friends, without whom
I never take any important step, since they would think it was unkind and
ungenerous of me”. “But are you going
to consult unconverted men about your soul?”
“Oh! Yes.” “But I am certain if you do this, you will
tempt the Spirit of God.” But he felt
that he shouldn’t consult his friends.
I pressed him for half an hour to immediately make his peace with
God. But no, he persisted to the end
that his friends must be consulted; and such an important step must not be
taken without their consent. People
often consult their friends this way, and virtually commit themselves to their
advice, rather than follow the dictates of their own conscience, their sense of
right, and the law of God. They want no
advice where the path of duty is so plain; but the fact is, they are afraid to
displease their friends, and they therefore go on displeasing God! What a foolish and fatal course is
this! They make flesh and blood more
important than God!
The next rock that
may block your path is harboring resentments, and as long as you do this, conversion
is completely impossible. You don’t
have the spirit that God requires; for unless you forgive others their trespasses,
God will not forgive you yours. Some
people harbor resentment more easily than others, and they seem almost
unconscious about it. They appear
unable to see that they are injuring themselves by doing this. Have you been injured? “Yes!”
Do you entertain a spirit of resentment, and have you thought about
retaliation if you had an opportunity?
Do you, indeed? Now don’t you
know that Satan pleases himself with these thoughts; for even if someone has
ruined you, you are doing yourself more harm than he has done; for listen to
me, the wrong that he has done to you can not damage your soul if you don’t
harbor resentment. You walk past that
man, and don’t speak to him no matter what; and I ask you, is that the spirit
to be saved in?
Avoid,
therefore, doing yourself harm by harboring a spirit of revenge. Be equally careful to shun feelings of envy
and jealousy. I have often thought that
if we were to look over human society we should find, perhaps, a lot of people
who are kept from being converted, and go down to their graves in their sins,
because they have been harboring ill-feelings towards someone who has injured
them. Something has occurred in early
youth, or even in childhood, which has placed an individual, or, perhaps, an
entire family, in the position of enemies, and you go down to the grave hating
them. Now the Bible teaches us plainly
that this state of mind is fatal to the soul.
Satan chuckles over it. Avoid
it! Guard against all feelings of
enmity or retaliation towards anybody, for any reason whatever. I have always taken the greatest pains on
this point with my own family.
Parents! What kind of an example
are you setting for your children on this point? Consider very carefully and examine your position concerning
this.
Guard against
carrying any sin in your conscience.
There is some sin of omission or of commission that, perhaps, you are
putting off. Perhaps you are planning
to deal with it on your deathbed. You
have wronged somebody, and you think confessing to him or her and making
restitution, as far as current circumstances permit, will disgrace you, but you
plan to deal with it before you die.
You are too proud, in fact, to do it now; you will do it when you ready
to die. But do you think that God will
accept the act then? When death knocks, you will not find yourself in any
condition to do what you are planning to do.
If you thus deliberately refuse or neglect to confess and forsake your
sins, you are all but certain to die as you have lived, for you have been
tempting God. Do not, therefore, delay
in attending to this matter. Many
neglect to do what they know they should do, and yet they pray to God as if
they had really done everything they should do, until they eventually harden
their hearts so much that it becomes fatal; until they have, in fact,
completely lost their religious sensibility.
Beware, then, of the delusion that you can possibly be saved while you
are still guilty of dishonesty. Beware
of tempting God and ruining yourselves by indulging in so fatal an error. If God forgave you, while you are dishonest
or insincere in any respect, He would become the minister of unrighteousness. God can’t do it.
Before
I close, let me mention a few other things that need to be guarded
against. Be careful lest, by some rash
act, you are drawn into a position that requires the practice of habitual
deception; which requires you to either confess, which might perhaps disgrace
you, or to turn your life into a perfect lie. Sometimes lovers deceive each other
concerning financial prospects or something else, and what awful consequences
have been known to result! But the
wrong you are doing to yourselves is, in all such cases, even greater than the
wrong you do to others. Sin is the
greatest absurdity in the universe.
Yet, just think! Here you are,
selfish beings, doing yourselves the greatest injury that can possibly be done
to you! All the wicked men on earth, or
all the devils in hell could never have done what you will do if you go on in
your present course; they could never have ruined your soul! No doubt,this will be the most agonizing
consideration in hell; that you have done it all by yourself. You, and you alone, have done this infinite
harm to your immortal soul!
Suppose some of you
have taken some false oath, committed some theft, or done harm in some way, and
you are sorry for it; but you refuse to confess it to the party concerned and
do all in your power to make restitution!
Suppose that it should be told on judgment day that, instead of making
restitution, you threw yourself on Christ?
Suppose it should be found that God had forgiven you while in your
dishonest state of mind? But you cannot
suppose such an absurdity, for it would disgrace God before the whole
universe. But you are too proud to make
restitution. Indeed! Then you are too proud to be saved!
Beware,
then, I speak to young men particularly.
Beware, young men, of taking the FIRST step in a direction, the results
of which are so terrible! Beware of the
first lie, the first dishonest act! If
you have already started on such a course, forsake it at once; no results which
may ensue, can be as great an evil as your going to hell. There is no evil so great as that. But many are too proud, and prefer to go on
in deceit, because they have gone on in it so long that they tremble at the
sacrifice. But one hour of hell will be
infinitely worse than the worst of such cases can possibly be!
Do not leave
anything until your deathbed, after you have gone on in injustice, quenching
the Spirit and stifling your conscience.
How do you think you will make it up so easily with God at your last
moments, when the breath is just departing from your body? Oh! sinner, how awful will then be your
reflections! How your weakened memory
will suddenly become active, and recall the time when you told the lie that
committed you to a course of lying to cover it up; when you indulged in the
first act of extravagance, which finally led you to plunder your
employers! You will then see the vast
and awful importance of the counsel I now give: to avoid the first act, or, if
it is too late, to come out of it while the sacrifice is yet comparatively
small. Do not, I beg you, do not put it
off until the matter becomes so serious as you make your confession and
restitution next to impossible! Perhaps
a week, or a day, longer in your present course, may lead you to some act which
will make retracing your steps ten times more difficult than it is now; and, in
fact, may thereby seal your destiny for eternity!
Sinner! Mercy yet calls. Jesus is here with the offer or pardon and salvation, no matter
how great your sin. If you will now,
indeed, back right out, and pour it all out before the Lord, wash you hands in
innocence, and bathe yourself in the blood of Jesus; you will be forgiven!