Sentimentalism
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not always be agreeable or pleasant to unite with the Master and be
co-workers with him in helping the very class who stand most in need
of help. But this is the work Christ humbled himself to do. Is the
servant greater than his Lord? He has given the example, and enjoins
upon us to copy it. It may be disagreeable, yet duty demands that just
such a work be performed.
I have felt deeply as I have seen the powerful influence animal
passions have had in controlling men and women of no ordinary intel-
ligence and ability. They are capable of engaging in a good work, of
exerting a powerful influence, were they not enslaved by base passions.
They have listened to the most solemn, impressive discourses upon
the judgment, which seemed to bring them before the tribunal of God,
causing them to fear and quake, yet an hour would hardly elapse be-
fore they have been engaged in their favorite, bewitching sin, polluting
their own bodies. They were such slaves to this awful crime that they
seemed devoid of power to control their passions. We have labored
for some earnestly; we have entreated, we have wept and prayed over
them, yet we have known that right amid all our earnest effort and
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distress, the force of sinful habit has obtained the mastery. These sins
would be committed. The consciences of some of the guilty, through
severe attacks of sickness, or by being powerfully convicted, have been
aroused, and have so scourged them, that it has led to confession of
these things, with deep humiliation. Others are alike guilty. They have
practiced this sin nearly their whole lifetime, and with their broken-
down constitutions, and, with their sieve-like memories, are reaping
the result of this pernicious habit, yet are too proud to confess. They
are secretive, and have not shown compunctions of conscience for this
great sin and wickedness. They seem to be insensible to the influence
of the Spirit of God. The sacred and common are alike to them. The
common practice of a vice so degrading as polluting their own bodies
has not led to bitter tears and heartfelt repentance. They feel that their
sin is against themselves alone. Here they mistake. Are they diseased
in body or mind, others are made to feel. Others suffer. Mistakes are
made. The memory is deficient. The imagination is at fault. And there
is a deficiency everywhere which seriously affects those with whom
they live, and who associate with them. These feel mortification and
regret because these things are known by another.
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