We cannot but confess that, hitherto, we have all, more or less, violated this plain injunction; and were we to be called away to our eternal home this moment, what could we hope for but the reward of our ill-spent lives—death! What, then, ought to be our present feelings? We should say SORROW, that we have hitherto lived in open violation of the Divine precept, and a determination, with the aid of our heavenly Father, to live in this state no longer. From this contrition may be dated the first step of reformation; now, if sin presents itself at this period, and in any of its alluring forms entices us to indulge in it, and thus prompts us to violate our resolution, and with it the Divine command; and if we resist this seduction, by prayer to the Lord, by using earnestly, from our very souls, some such language as, "O Lord, help me to resist this evil!"—the prayer will be heard, help will be afforded, the temptations to sin will be resisted, and reformation will become sanctified by repentance.
By continually looking unto the Lord for aid, by self-denial and resistance of every evil as it successively draws us to indulge in it, by abhorrence of sin, and by a love of goodness, we become gradually regenerated, and advance nearer and nearer to Him, who alone is "able to save to the uttermost."
But the eye must be kept single ere the body can be filled with light; and we must desire to do the will of our Father who is in heaven, before we can enjoy true peace, and experience that blessedness which keeping the commandments will communicate.
If, therefore, we would enter into life, we must commence the work of moral purification, by keeping the commandments, first in the letter, and secondly in the
