The unclean spirit found his home swept and garnished: but
empty. All very neat and respectable: but empty. There was no
other spirit dwelling there. No good spirit, who could fight the
unclean spirit and keep him out. So he took to himself seven other
spirits worse than himself--hypocrisy, cant, cunning, covetousness,
and all the smooth-shaven sins which beset middle-aged and elderly
men; and they dwell there, and so does the unclean spirit of youth
too.
Alas! How often have I seen men whom that description would fit but
too well--men who have kept themselves respectable till they have
got back their character in the world's eyes: and when they get
into years, and have risen perhaps in life, and made money, are
looked up to by their fellows: but what are they at heart? As
great scoundrels as they were thirty years before--cunning, false,
covetous, and hypocritical--and indulging, perhaps, the unclean
spirit of youth, as much as they dare without being found out. God
help them! for their last state is worse than their first. But that
is the fruit of trying to mortify and kill their own vices by mere
worldly prudence, and not by the Spirit of God, which alone can
cleanse the heart of any man, or make him strong enough really to
conquer and kill his sins.
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