The Christian in Complete Armor - Choice Extracts!

Sinning times have ever been the saint's praying times: this sent Ezra with a
heavy heart to confess the sin of his people (Ezra 9). And Jeremiah tells the
wicked of his degenerate age, that his "soul should weep in secret places for
their pride" (Jeremiah 13:17).
"The love of many shall wax cold," and no wonder when self-love waxes so
hot. It was foretold also by the apostle (2 Timothy 3:1, 2), "In the last days . . .
men shall be lovers of their own selves"; and what a black regiment follows
this captain, sin! If once a man makes self the whole of his aim, farewell
loving of, or praying for others. Charity cannot dwell in so narrow a house as
the self-lover's heart; yes, it is opposed to it: "Love seeks not her own"
(1 Corinthians 13:5).
They were none of the best Christians of whom Paul gives this character,
"They sought their own." As the heart advances in grace, so it grows more
public-spirited. The higher a man ascends a hill, the larger will be his
prospect: his eye is not confined within the compass of his own wall. The
carnal spirit thinks of none but himself; whereas grace elevates the soul, and
the more grace a man has, the more it will enable him to look from himself
into the condition of his brethren.
I have known one who when he had some envious unkind thoughts stirring
in him against anyone (and who so holy as may not find such vermin
sometimes creeping in his mind), he would go to the throne of grace where
he would most earnestly pray for the increase of those good things in them
which he before had seemed to grudge.
When love has once calmed the dust which passion and prejudice have
blown in our eyes, we shall then stand at greater advantage for finding out
truth. Pity your weak brother, and take him by the hand to help him — but
despise him not; God can make him to stand — and allow you to fall. Christ
does not quench the smoking flax — why should we?
The persecutor's sword is not at the church's throat among us — but
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