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to fulfill the sacred trust committed to them,—to bring up their children
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
It is almost impossible to arouse those who need to be awakened,
to any just sense of the power which Satan has over the mind. Neither
are they aware of the corruption teeming all around them. Satan has
blinded them, and lulled them to carnal security. Iniquity abounds,
and it is not confined merely to the unbeliever and the scoffer: many
who profess the religion of Christ are also guilty. Their love is waxing
cold. Alas! how few there are, even among professed Christians, who
do the right for its own sake,—who will shun evil when public opinion
does not restrain them!
In the battle with inward corruption and outward temptation, even
the wise and powerful Solomon was vanquished. His life began under
favorable auspices. He was beloved of God; and, had virtue been
preserved, his life might have closed in prosperity and honor. But
he surrendered this special grace to lustful passion. In his youth he
trusted in God, and looked to him for guidance; and the Lord gave him
power and wisdom that astonished the world. His fame reached to all
lands. But when he began to descend the declivity of life, he yielded
principle, thus placing himself in the current of evil, and separating
himself from God, the foundation and source of his strength; he lost
his firmness of character, and wavered, like a giddy youth, between
right and wrong. His love of women was his sin. This passion he did
not control in his manhood, and it proved a snare to him. He took
many wives, some of whom were daughters of heathen kings; and they
led him into idolatry. In his youth, wisdom had been more precious to
him than the golden wedge of Ophir. But, alas! lustful passions gained
the victory. He was deceived and ruined by women. What a lesson is
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here taught! What a demonstration of the need of strength from God
to the very last! It is not safe to permit the least departure from strict
integrity.
“Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should
obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instru-
ments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as
those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God.” [
Romans 6:12, 13
.] Professed Christians,
if there were no further light given you than that contained in this text,
you would be without excuse in suffering yourselves to be controlled