Augustine's Story

“Take heed of giving way to sin. The heart that was easily troubled before, when otice it is imired to sin, loseth all its sensitiveness a7id tenderness, and what seemed intolerable at first grows into a delight. Alipius, St. Atisiin’s friend, first abhorred the bloody spectacles of the gladiators, but gave hi77iself leave f through the importunity of friends, to be present for once. He would not so much as open his eyes at first; but at length, when the people shouted, he gave himself liberty to see, and then not 07ily beheld the spectacles with delight but drew others to behold what himself once loathed” The story has had its counterpart in thousands of instances. Men who shuddered at the sight of a dead bird have, by famiharity with cruelty, come to commit murder without compunction. Those who sipped half-a-glass of wine have come to drink by the gallon. Staunch Protestants have given way to some little form and ceremony, and become more Popish than the Romanists themselves. There is no safety if we venture an inch over the boundary line; indeed, little allowances are more dangerous than greater compliances, since conscience does not receive a wound, and yet the man is undone, and falls by little and little.

Come, my soul, leave sin altogether. Do not give Sodom so much as a look, nor take from it so much as a thread. Do not set a foot within her doors, for God abhors the abode of sin, and would have his people refrain their foot from it.