Hosts of capable souls have heedlessly put themselves into the enemy's power by yielding to the treacherous invitation to fraternize with sin. Such a one is made welcome in the camp of the foe, and, at first a visitor, he sooner or later awakens to the fact that he is a prisoner, and withal a deserter from the ranks of patriotism and honor.
The young man, rich in hope and promise, sets out to see the world for himself—just to see, that's all, he says—and is overpowered in the grog-shop trench or the wanton's den—a prisoner in the power of a merciless and exulting foe.
Solemn as the sound of doom, piercing as the blast of angel's trump, is the Lord's affirmation: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." (John 8:34.)
Who can find so much as excuse to think of himself as a freeman when he knows he is a slave—to base passion, to dishonorable desire, to hypocrisy and crime?
The prisoner's fate is as commonly the result of negative sin—of neglect, indolence, failure to do—as it is the consequence of ill-directed activity and positive transgression. Refusal to comply with the prescribed laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to permit or invite capture by the arch-enemy of souls.
Obedience is the test of allegiance, and he whom we obey, the leader we elect to follow, is the master who directs our destiny, whether in the liberty of righteousness or the serfdom of sin.
"Know ye not," wrote Paul of old to the proud Romans, "that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Rom 6:16.)
The certainty of capture by the enemy through passive irresolution or aggressive violation of Divine law, together with the actuality of the captive state was set forth by a Hebrew prophet on the Western Hemisphere centuries before the birth of Christ, as follows:
"For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger and perish.
"For behold, at that day [this latter, modern, present day] shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.