One reason why admonitions are so little attended to,
is, that mentors think too little of the dispositions of those they
reprove, and so seek to work a miracle, not to perform a cure. Talk to a
selfish person about being disinterested, and he will utter a few fine
sentences till you fancy his heart is enlarged, when, in fact, he is but
more wedded to the idol he worships, by recollecting that he has spoken
liberally: but shew him 'honesty is the best policy,' and that he is
most likely to succeed by keeping straight courses, and he will quit his
crooked paths through policy, which is something gained on the side of
integrity; and perhaps acting right, may, in time, induce him to change
his motives too. I have looked on all sorts of offenders, and there is
no violator of scriptural holiness of whom I have so little hope as the
self-idolator, for so I deem him who is not only wise in his own
conceit, but who sees no other object worthy the favour or attention of
God or man. Such a one considers misfortune not as a chastisement but as
a wrong; nor can he be grateful for mercies, because he esteems the
greatest to be merely his due.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185