to beware lest they are
being deceived.

Neglect.

How watchful men should be of their thoughts, their practices, their
feelings! The reason of deception is, for the most part, neglect.
Men do not stop to examine themselves, to lay their hearts and minds
bare as in the sight of God, and judge themselves by His most holy
will. A man need not shoot himself in order to commit suicide: he
need only neglect the proper means of sustenance, and he will soon
die. Where an enemy is strong and aggressive, an army is doomed to
sure defeat and capture unless a sharp look-out is kept, every man
wide awake at his post of duty.

It has been noticed that there are more accidents in Switzerland in
fine seasons than in stormy ones. People are apt to undertake
expeditions that they would not take under less favorable
conditions, and they are less careful in their conduct. And so it is
that moral and spiritual disaster usually overtakes men when they
are off their guard, careless against temptation. They become proud
and self-reliant in seasons of prosperity, whereas adversity drives
them to the living God for guidance and comfort.

Dr. Johnson once said that it is more from carelessness regarding
the truth than from intentional lying that there is so much
falsehood in the world.

Hence the necessity of continual watchfulness. The Persians had an
annual festival when they slew all the serpents and venomous
creatures they could find; but they allowed them to swarm as fast
and freely as ever until the festival came round once more. It was
poor policy. Sins, like serpents, breed quickly, and need to be
constantly watched.

And we ought to watch on every side. Many a man has fallen at the
very point where he thought he was safest. The meekness of Moses has
passed into a proverb. Yet he lost the Promised Land, because he
allowed the children of Israel to provoke him, and "he spake
unadvisedly with his lips." Peter was the most zealous and defiant
of the disciples, bold and outspoken; yet he degenerated for a short
time into a lying, swearing, sneaking coward, afraid of a maid.

There is an old fable that a doe that had but one eye used to graze
near the sea; and in order to be safe, she kept her blind eye toward
the water, from which side she expected no danger, while with the
good eye she watched the country. Some men, perceiving this, took a
boat and came upon her from the sea and shot her. With her dying
breath, she said:

"Oh