A Sin Which We Do Not Intend To Renounce

March 22.

He that contemneth small things
shall fall by little and little.

ECCLESIASTICUS 19, verse 1.


One finger's-breadth at hand will mar
A world of light in heaven afar,
A mote eclipse a glorious star,
An eyelid hide the sky.

J. KEBLE.


A single sin, however apparently trifling,
however hidden in some obscure corner of our
consciousness, a sin which we do not intend to
renounce, is enough to render real prayer
impracticable. A course of action not wholly
upright and honorable, feelings not entirely
kind and loving, habits not spotlessly chaste
and temperate, any of these are impassable
obstacles. If we know of a kind act which we
might, but do not intend to, perform, if we be aware
that our moral health requires the abandonment
of some pleasure which yet we do not intend to
abandon, here is cause enough
for the loss of all spiritual power.

F. P. COBBE.


It is astonishing how soon the whole conscience
begins to unravel, if a single stitch drops;
one little sin indulged makes a hole you
could put your head through.

CHARLES BUXTON.