Perils of the Last Days.
By A. P. Lawton
THINGS remain so much the same, many may suppose that we have not yet entered the perils of the last days. It is true we do not yet have to flee before our enemies; but is not the spirit of slumber, self-indulgence, and ease, as perilous? The spirit to put off the time, to be busy here and there, and allow the eventful moments to pass, and we be found sleeping when we should be watching and in earnest to put away our sins? These are now our perils. A little more sleep, a little more slumber. We love to return to our rest. Here is our danger. The good Spirit is grieved, and evil angels have the ascendency. We become weary in warring and striving. Evil propensities strengthen and predominate. The polite, light literature of the day with which the world is flooded steals time, vitiates the taste, dissipates the mind, and renders solid and spiritual reading dry and uninteresting. The precious time, the sands of which are so nearly run out, should not be spent in this kind of reading. We need not be ashamed of being ignorant of the merits or demerits of the latest magazines. What is that to us? We are, or should be, engaged in a more exalted work. A. P. LAWTON. Winfield, N. Y., Jan. 8, 1871.