unto us." It must be the one labour of our lives to be " sincere, and without offence, until the day of ChristV]
Address —
1 . Mark well the beginnings of declension —
[" Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith," says the Apostle : "prove your ownselves1." Let the first symp- toms of spiritual declension be carefully noted by you, and be made an occasion of augmented diligence in your heavenly course. Many evils will you avoid by such watchfulness. Happy would it have been for David, if he had marked the first risings of desire, which the sight of Bathsheba excited in his soul. And happy will it be for us, if we determine, through grace, to abstain, not from evil only, but from the first motions of it, yea, and even " the very appearance of it," whether in heart or lifek.]
2. Avoid the means and occasions of it —
[Our Lord teaches us to pray, that we may " not be led into temptation." In truth, if we willingly subject ourselves to temptation, we cannot expect to be kept. We must " take heed to our ways," and shun the scenes of vice and folly ; and avoid the company, and conversation, and books, and sights, that would ensnare us, if we would be preserved "holy and unblameable and unreprovable in the world." If we " come out from among the ungodly, and touch not the unclean thing, then will God be a Father unto us, and we shall be his sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty1."]
h Phil. i. 10. * 2 Cor. xiii. 5.
k 1 Thess. v. 22. i 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.