the past will, he thinks, secure him from any future failure. He retires to confirm his thoughts by meditation, and feels sentiments of piety powerful within him. He ventures again into the stream of life, and finds himself again carried away by the current.
That to such men, the sense of their danger may not be useless; that they may no longer trifle with their own conviction; it is necessary to remind them, that "man is of few days;" that the life allotted to human beings is short, and, while they stand still in idle suspense, is growing always shorter; that as this little time is spent well or ill, their whole future existence will be happy, or miserable; that he who begins the great work of his salvation early, has employment adequate to all his powers; and that he who has delayed it, can hope to accomplish it only by delaying it no longer.
To him who turns his thoughts late to the duties of religion, the time is not only shorter, but the work is greater. The more sin has prevailed, with the more difficulty is its dominion resisted. Habits are formed by repeated acts, and therefore old habits are always strongest. The mode of life to which we have been accustomed, and which has entwined itself with all our thoughts and actions, is not quitted but with much difficulty. The want of those vanities which have hitherto filled the day, is not easily supplied. Accustomed pleasures rush upon the imagination; the passions clamour for their usual gratifications; and sin, though resolutely shaken off, will struggle to regain its former hold.
To overcome all these difficulties, and overcome they must be, who can tell what time will be sufficient! To disburden the conscience, to reclaim the desires, to combat sensuality, and repress vanity, is not the work of an hour, or of a day. Many conflicts must be endured, many falls recovered, and many temptations repelled. The arts of the enemy must be counteracted, and the deceitfulness of our own hearts detected, by steady and persevering vigilance.
But how much more dreadful does the danger of delay
