Twenty-first Day—On Bad Example.
1. Bad example has damned more souls than the preaching and good example of all the saints together have been the means of saving.
2. Were the gates of hell to be laid open, scarcely would any one be found that would not say, it is such or such-a-one that has damned me. O what a reproach! We are commanded to love our enemies: why then should we destroy souls which have never done us an injury? A man who has been unfortunate enough to ruin souls redeemed by the blood of a God, hath much reason to fear for his salvation. What can we reasonably hope from Jesus Christ, after having torn from him what he hath so dearly purchased? O fathers and mothers, who do not live as Christians ought to live, it were far better for your children that they had never been born! You have given them life only to put them to death; that dreadful death which is eternal! When they shall require of you the heaven they have lost, what will you he able to answer them?
3. Let us clothe ourselves with Jesus Christ, according to the words of the apostle; let his conduct, his virtue, and his spirit shine forth in us, so that he may be remembered when we are seen. We contribute not less to our neighbour's salvation by an edifying life, than we do to his damnation by a scandalous one.
Be very careful to do nothing that may scandalize your neighbour; and humbly beg pardon of God for the sins you have occasioned.
"Wo be to the man by whom scandal cometh."
St. Matt. xviii.
"The scandalous sinner must answer for the crimes which his bad example hath caused to be committed."
Salvian.