Cautions to Christians

1 ?VERY one — whether within or without ’ the visible Church — is in danger of falling through temptation. No church-wall can be built so high as to exclude the Tempter. And there is no one who has not weak points — some one or more combustible spots, on which the stray sparks of temptation may alight and kindle into a blaze. However far any Christian has travelled on his spiritual way, he has not got beyond the reach of danger. However firm he may stand, he will stand all the firmer if he feels constantly the need of caution, the need of prayer, and the need of clinging close to Christ.

Young converts, in the ardors of their “first love,” are in danger; so are all who are enjoying peculiar spiritual prosperity. It is the sunshiny day that brings out the adders. Every state of mind that tends to breed vain confidence and good opinion of ourselves is a state of peril. Peter boasted that he stood impregnable when he uttered the vaunt, “Though all men forsake thee, yet will not Z” Hark! listen for a moment after that presumptuous boast, and you will hear a fall! “Then Peter began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man.” Poor Peter! bruised, bleeding, crestfallen! as he goes away weeping into the garden, methinks some one might whisper into his ear, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

Worldly prosperity is always a state of danger. A man is led to feel rich, when in heart-graces he may be really becoming poorer every hour. He wins friends, and feels strong. He has a high standing in society for wealth, popularity, or culture; and yet all the time he may be waning in his spiritual life. He is growing less humble, less devout, less dependent on God. He is being gradually undermined, and leans slowly over more and more from the perpendicular, like a dwelling whose corner-stone has been washed away. Let him who thinketh he standeth on such a quicksand take heed lest he fall.

A presumptuous spirit is always perilous. “Who is afraid?” is the vaunt of the presumptuous professor. “Who fears?” says every self-confident Peter in the Church — “others may fall, but I am in no danger.” Yet Peter was the very first disciple to desert his Master. I always feel apprehensions for those who, on entering the Church, make a very fluent, showy profession, in which the little word “I” is painfully prominent. They are often the first to backslide. I had rather hear more self-distrust and less of complacency. Poor “Mr. Fearing,” in Bunyan’s allegory, managed to reach heaven at the last, though with a very poor opinion of himself; while self-conceited “Mr. Presumption” was left on the road fast asleep, with the fetters of sin upon his heels. When a church-member says “Who fears?” I am ready to answer “lam afraid for you, as your pastor.” I alway7s expect to see men stumble when they hold their heads too high. I am always anxious for those who have an unbounded self-confidence — who are glib in self-commendation, or else most suspiciously severe in denouncing themselves as the very “chief of sinners.” Self-conceit has always been the intoxication that preceded a fall, ever since the days when a backsliding church boasted — “now we are rich, now we are increased in goods, now we have need of nothing.” My brother, when you begin to expose yourself to irreligious influences, and feel no fear, then may your Christian friends begin to tremble for you. When the pilot, in steering his ship along the coast of Sicily, finds that she will not obey the helm, he knows that he is within the suck of the whirlpool of Charybdis. It is an imder-current of tremendous power on a ship’s keel. David was in such a spiritual under-current when he swept into the maelstrom of adultery with Bathsheba. Conscience did not hold the ship.

What is the safeguard at such times? you ask. We answer, Keep out of the currents. Avoid the region of danger. Go not nigh it. Where the ice is thin, keep off it, and you will never be drowned. Whenever you feel a sinful inclination drawing you toward any object, or pleasure, or pursuit, then brace your foot down, and say to yourself, “No! I’ll not go one inch!” A church-member, or any man, who finds a glass of wine tasting good has no business to touch another drop. He is in danger. He does not see it yet; but there is an adder coiled in the bottom of that glass for him. No Christian, no minister of God, no saint, however saintly, has any right to tamper with that cup that has sent millions to damnation. If God says to me, “Look not on the wine when it giveth its color in the cup,” what right have I to sip where the serpent lies hidden in the ruby depths? If one visit to a theatre or a ball-room makes him want to go again, then let him stay away. He is getting into the under-current. He will be wrecked on the rocks before he is aware. The safest rule for the child of God is to practice a total abstinence from the glass, from the theatre, from the card-table, from the dancing-hall, from every thing that leads the footsteps into slippery places. A Christian should never go where he is not willing to pray to his Saviour to keep him! How would it sound for a young church-member to say, “Oh, Lord! I am going to take a social glass with some of my companions to-night; I pray thee to keep me from loving the drink or from setting a bad example?” We close these few familiar cautions with reiterating this one safe rule — Never do what you can not ash Christ to bless; and never go into any place or any pursuit in which you can not ash Christ Jesus to go with you.