IV.—NEVER CEASE STRIVING TILL YOU HAVE WON.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Champness, Thomas
Your adversary will not. He will pursue you till you have gained the prize. “He who to the end endures,” is the saved man. It is very instructive to note how many backsliders there are among professors of mature age. The most grievous cases of falling away are not from the ranks of young disciples, but from those who ought to have been safe examples for them! If you have lived to be grey-headed, remember your silver hair may make a fool’s cap yet! There are other lessons, but they will keep till another year. We will end our Sermon with some lines of Charles Wesley’s, not known to all our readers:—
“But did the great apostle fear He should not to the end endure, Should not hold out, and persevere, And make his own election sure? Could Paul believe it possible, When all his toils and griefs were past, Himself should of salvation fail, And die a reprobate at last?”
“Who then art thou that dar’st reject The sacred terms, the humbling awe, As absolutely saved,—elect,— And free from an abolished law? Dost thou no self-denial need, No watch, or abstinence severe; In one short moment perfected! An angel—an immortal here?”