Signs of Spiritual Decline.
WHEN you are averse to religious conversation or the company of heavenly-minded Christians. When, from preference, and without necessity, you absent yourselves from religious services. When you are more concerned about pacifying conscience than honoring Christ in performing. When you are more afraid of being counted over-strict than of dishonoring Christ. When you trifle with temptation or think lightly of sin. When the faults of others are more a matter of censorious conversation than of secret grief and prayer. When you are impatient and unforgiving toward the faults of others. When you confess, but do not forsake sin; and when you acknowledge, but still neglect duty. When your cheerfulness has more of the levity of the unregenerate, than the holy joy of the children of God. When you shrink from self-examination. When the sorrows and cares of the world follow you further into the Sabbath than the savor and sanctity of the Sabbath follow you into the week. When you are easily prevailed upon to let your duty as a Christian yield to your worldly interest or the opinions of your neighbors. When you associate with men of the world without solicitude of doing good or having your own spiritual life injured.—Sel.