r
gets out of debt again; just as a man may take to drink once, and
the bad habit grow on him till he is a confirmed drunkard to his
dying day. Just as a man may mix in bad company once, and so become
entangled as in a net, till he cannot escape his evil companions,
and lowers himself to their level day by day, till he becomes as bad
as they. Just as a man may be unfaithful to his wife once, and so
blunt his conscience till he becomes a thorough profligate, breaking
her heart, and ruining his own soul. Just as--but why should I go
on, mentioning ugly examples, which we all know too well, if we will
open our own eyes and see the world and mankind as they are? I will
say no more, lest I should set you on judging other people, and
saying 'There is no hope for them. They are lost.' No; let us
rather judge ourselves, as any man can, and will, who dares face
fact, and look steadily at what he is, and what he might become. Do
we not know that we could, any one of us, sell our own souls, once
and for all, if we choose? I know that I could. I know that there
are things which I might do, which if I did from that moment forth,
I should have no hope, but only a fearful looking forward to
judgment and fiery indignation. And have you never felt, when you
were tempted to do wrong: 'I dare not do it for my own sake; for if
I did this one wickedness, I feel sure that I never should be an
honest man again?' If you have felt that, thank God, indeed; for
then you have seen the things which belong to your peace; you have
known the day of your visitation; and you will be a better man as
long as you live, for having fought against that one temptation, and
chosen the good, and refused the evil, when God put them
unmistakeably before you.

No; the real danger is, lest a man should be as those Jews, and not
know the day of his visitation. Ah, that is ruinous indeed, when a
man's eyes are blinded as those Jews' eyes were; when a great
temptation comes on him, and he thinks it no temptation at all; when
hell is opening beneath him, with the devils trying to pluck him
down, and heaven opening above him, with God's saints and martyrs
beckoning him up, looking with eyes of unutterable pity and anxiety
and love on a poor soul; and that poor soul sees neither heaven nor
hell, nor anything but his own selfish interest, selfish pleasure,
or selfish pride, and snaps at the devil's bait as easily as a silly
fish; while the devil, instead of