The Fallen Sot

“A sottish drunkard, that is overpoised with his own excess, lieth where hefalleth, a?td except some friendly ha?id lift him tip, there he perisheth; ajidjust so it is with sinners, they are pleased with their condition, and if they be 7iot sotmdly roused up and awakejied, they lie and die, and fry in their sins. Oh! theii, pluck them out of the fire, warn theni to flee from the wrath to come.” Be in earnest with them! Exhort, rebuke, entreat. Do not leave them to perish in their sins. Use a holy violence with them, and pull them out of the mire. Common humanity would lead us to help a sheep which had fallen into a ditch, and shall we not come to the rescue of an immortal soul .? The sottishness and folly of the ungodly must not dispirit us; we must take that into the account, and we shall not wonder at their uncouth and ungrateful treatment of us. As a drunken man does not want to be helped, and curses those who would serve him, so is it often with those ungodly ones who most of all require our aid. Let us not be put off by them, but labour to save them even though they are resolved to destroy themselves. Whatever evil expressions they use towards us now, they will think and speak very differently if they are saved by our means. We will appeal from the verdict of their present drunkenness to the thankfulness of their future sobriety.

Blessed Master, make us more concerned to win souls, and let us never give over, however bad men may be. How can we let them perish when we remember that thou wouldst not leave US to die in our sins, though we were as far gone as any of those around us?