The Christian in Complete Armor - Choice Extracts!

converts came flying as a cloud, as the doves to the window in flocks. Now
gospel news grows stale, few are taken with it. Our old store of saints, the
treasure of their times, wears away apace; what will become of us, if no new
ones come in their room? Alas! when our burials are more than our births —
we must needs be on the losing hand. There is a sad list of holy names taken
away from us; but where are those who are born to God? If the good go, and
those which are left continue bad, yes, become worse and worse — we have
reason to fear that God is clearing the ground, and making way for a
judgment.
None sink so far into Hell as those that come nearest Heaven, because they
fall from the greatest height. None will have such a sad parting from Christ
as those who went half way with Him, and then left Him.
3. PRIDE AND WORLDLINESS
"A man's pride shall bring him low." Proverbs 29:23
Religious Pride. Some are as blind as Laodicea, and know it not (Rev. 3:17). As
ignorance blinds the mind, so pride is a blind before their ignorance, that
they know it not. These have such a high opinion of themselves, that they
take it ill that any should suspect them as such. These of all men, are most
out of the way to knowledge; they are too good to learn from others, as they
think, and too bad to be taught of God. The gate into Christ's school is low,
and these cannot stoop. The Master Himself is so humble and lowly that He
will not teach a proud scholar.
Ah, poor creatures, what a sad change have they made, to leave the word,
which can no more deceive them than God Himself to trust the guidance of
themselves to themselves. "He who is his own teacher," says Bernard, "is sure
to have a fool for a master."
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