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Danger at Every Step, July 8
Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity,
peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2
Timothy 2:22
.
The moral dangers to which all, both old and young, are exposed
are daily increasing. Moral derangement, which we call depravity, finds
ample room to work, and an influence is exerted by men, women, and
youth professing to be Christians that is low, sensual, devilish....
Those who have learned the truth and do not have works corresponding
with their profession of faith are subject to Satan’s temptations. They
encounter danger at every step they advance. They are brought into
contact with evil, they see sights, they hear sounds, that will awaken
their unsubdued passions; they are subjected to influences that lead them
to choose the evil rather than the good, because they are not sound at
heart. Just at the time when the power of the will is to be exercised,
when firmness is required to resist the first approach of temptation, you
find them easy subjects of Satan’s devices, a mere plaything of the devil.
Every temptation is now at work to lead those who claim to keep God’s
commandments, to break them....
All must learn the lesson of what power there is in a good character.
There is no training we need so much now as the preparing of young men
and women to have moral rectitude and to cleanse their souls of every
spot and stain of moral defilement. The standard of morality and holiness
is trailing in the dust....
We are near the close of probation, when every case is to pass in
review before God. Now, in probation, is the time God has given us for
the formation of pure and holy characters. If this time is not improved, if
the thoughts are impure, if the heart is not sanctified, if unholy practices
are indulged, be sure that the portion of such will be with the unholy, the
debased, the abominable.
It is now, in probationary time, that every soul must make his choice.
This choice will be seen in the family, will be seen in the association
with the church. Virtue and true, unselfish principles will bring their own
reward, for they will be reproduced in others.... “By their fruits ye shall
know them” (
Matthew 7:20
).
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