Now, against such satanic schemes, there is no safeguard but one--the truth as it is in Jesus, planted in the heart by his Spirit, and tended there by his grace. Our religion, or what we call religion, will perish like flax before the flame, when such deceivers assail, unless we have felt the truth in its power, and know, in spite of all opposition, that it /can/ guide, /can/ purify, /can/ bless the soul. What more congenial to man than to be told that he need not care much about his soul? What can throw open the door for indulgence so widely as to be assured that we need not prepare for hereafter--that earth is all? What can more perfectly pamper the selfishness of man than to be told that "spiritual dependence may lead to material destruction?" Hence the danger of such bold blasphemies. They find an ally, and often a ready welcome, in the heart of man; and hence also the necessity of getting hold and keeping hold of the heavenly antidote to all such delusions. That antidote is the truth--the truth of God felt in the heart, and guiding the life; and with that in our possession, we repeat /in our possession/, we may humbly take up the great Reformer's eulogy, and say, "I will not fear the face of man." God and man, this world and the next, are alike provided for in the Word; and when we learn to welcome all God's revelation, we shall be guided into every good and holy way. THE COWARDICE OF SIN. III. A third counsel for our guidance in the workshop is, briefly --Be consistent. Never forget that the man who tries to be a Christian to-day, and complies with the enticements of sinners to-morrow, is one who is easily despised. The ungodly are lynx-eyed to mark his inconsistency, and prompt enough to pour contempt upon him. A single rash act, a single rash word, may inflict a wound upon the soul, or a blemish upon the character, from which it will not easily recover; nay, like a moral palsy, it may strike us with weakness and timidity for life. If we would be Christians at all, we must be Christians always. Then by the grace of God we are safe, and it would be pleasant to tell of some who have thus resisted the tide of iniquity which broke against them in the workshop, or silenced the abundance of abuse.--The sinner is, by a necessary law, a coward. He fears God, though he will not own it; he fears conscience, and tries to trample it out as a dangerous spark; he fears perdition, though he seems to be stout against it; and, moreover, he fears a humble, living, consistent Christian, though he pretends only to despise him. The sinner, we repeat, is a coward, by a necessary law. Terror is part of the wages of sin; and though sinners in crowds be courageous, /alone/ they are timid and discomposed. They shrink from the glance of a good man's eye; in their secret heart they fear him with a fear which in some cases passes into love. A MORAL PESTILENCE.