A man who has not learned to say "no"—who is not resolved that he will take God's way in spite of every dog that can bark at him, in spite of every silvery voice that can woo him aside—will be a weak and wretched man till he dies.
To be energetic and firm where principle demands it, and tolerant in all else, is not easy. It is not easy to abhor wickedness, and oppose it with every energy, and at the same time to have the meekness and gentleness of Christ, becoming all things to all men for the truth's sake. The energy of patience, the most godlike of all, is not easy.
I hate to see things done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly; if it be wrong, leave it undone.
In such a world as this, with such hearts as ours, weakness is wickedness in the long run. Whoever lets himself be shaped and guided by any thing lower than an inflexible will, fixed in obedience to God, will in the end be shaped into a deformity, and guided to wreck and ruin.
The souls of men of feeble purpose are the graveyards of good intentions.
DENOMINATIONALISM.
Sects differ; but, with few exceptions, they agree not only that a life of unselfish love will insure heaven, but that repentance and faith are the way by which one enters into this path of life.
