Beer and spirits make more gaps in a man’s character than righteous women can mend.
The finest pottery has to pass through three crucial stages during manufacture before it can be said to be perfect. First is the “biscuit oven,” whereby the vessels are made hard and durable. Second is the “hardening-on kiln,” or an oven with an even, moderate heat to harden or burn on the surface the various designs and colours which have been placed there by artistic hands. And the third is the “glost oven,” which brings out the transparent gloss and finish, and gives beauty to the gold, oxide, cobalt, nickel, manganese, ochre, stone, flint, bone, iron, and clay, &c. So in like manner it is with the highest type of a Christian character. First, there is the family circle with its moulding and parental influence: this may be called the “biscuit oven,” fixing on the preparation for the fights and hardships of life. Second, there is the school and educational progress, which may be compared to the “hardening-on kiln.” And third, there is the work of the Holy Spirit: this may be compared to the “glost oven,” which gives the gloss, touch, and transparency to the vessel. Each of these stages will include the progressive steps of manufacture leading up to them.
Spectacles are of no use to a man in the dark. So in like manner scientific problems cannot help a man to see his way if he is in spiritual darkness.
Acrobatic Christians are those whose spiritual backbone and moral uprightness have been damaged by contortions, megrims, twirlings, and twisting their Christian character to suit circumstances.
So long as a man keeps upright the law of gravitation has but little power over him; immediately he begins to stoop its influence is soon manifest. So in like manner it is with an upright Christian, and so long as he keeps his perpendicular position by walking erect in God’s love and favour he is all right, and the influence of hell trebled cannot bend or pull him down; immediately he stoops to listen to the voice of the charmer, and gives way to the gravitation of hell—sin—down he goes, and nothing but a miracle will bring him upright again.
A hollow, hypocritical, twirl-about Christian, with no principle to guide him, is as an empty, shallow vessel pushed out to sea without either compass, rudder, or sails.
A man who, Christ-like, stoops to pick up a fallen brother, or who guides and places a youth upon a successful path, leading to immortality, is a man among men whom God delights to honour, as Jupiter was among the heathen gods, and he will be doubly crowned. His crown upon earth will be studded with lasting pleasure, shining brighter than diamonds; but his crown in heaven will be studded and illumined with the everlasting smiles of those he has saved, surpassing in grandeur all the precious stones in creation.
When a professing Christian visits the tap-room and places of light amusement with the hope of finding safe anchorage from the storms of life, it may be taken as an indication that he is at sea without a rudder, and the temporary one manufactured in a gin-palace out of frothy conversation will not bring him safe to land.
To hold up good works without faith and prayer as a shelter from an angry God for wrong-doing, is like holding a riddle over your head as a protection from a thunderstorm.
A man indulging in a lifetime of sin and iniquity, and then praying to God and giving alms in the last hours of his existence in the hope of securing eternal life and endless joy, is like a fowl with a broken neck and wings struggling to pick up golden grain to give it life and strength to fly to roost.