No; the real danger is, lest a man should be as those Jews, and not
know the day of his visitation. Ah, that is ruinous indeed, when a
man's eyes are blinded as those Jews' eyes were; when a great
temptation comes on him, and he thinks it no temptation at all; when
hell is opening beneath him, with the devils trying to pluck him
down, and heaven opening above him, with God's saints and martyrs
beckoning him up, looking with eyes of unutterable pity and anxiety
and love on a poor soul; and that poor soul sees neither heaven nor
hell, nor anything but his own selfish interest, selfish pleasure,
or selfish pride, and snaps at the devil's bait as easily as a silly
fish; while the devil, instead of striking to frighten him, lets him
play with the bait, and gorge it in peace, fancying that he is well
off, when really he is fast hooked for ever, led captive thenceforth
from bad to worse by the snare of the devil. Oh miserable
blindness, which comes over men sometimes, and keeps them asleep at
the very moment that they ought to be most wide awake!
And what throws men into that sleep? What makes them do in one
minute something which curses all their lives afterwards? Love of
pleasure? Yes: that is a common curse enough, as we all know. But
a worse snare than even that is pride and self-conceit.
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