HOW TO RETAIN THE TRUE IDEA AND PRACTICE OF TRUE RELIGION.
By Oberlin Evangelist
1. Inquire after the fundamental reasons of your conduct. Reader, do nothing, and commit yourself to no course of action, without raising the inquiry, what is the great fundamental reason by which you are actuated; and suffer not yourself to go forward without the testimony of your own conscientiousness, that you are disinterestedly benevolent in what you do. 2. Keep Christ's life and temper before you as the great exemplar, the great and powerful instrument of making you benevolent as he was. Faith in the truths of the gospel, unwavering confidence that those things recorded of Christ are true, gives the life and example of Christ the greatest power over you to make you benevolent like himself. 3. Pray much in the Holy Ghost, and remember that unless you pray in the Spirit, you are sure to let slip the true idea and practice of true religion. 4. In order to pray in the Holy Ghost, you must watch unto prayer. Unless you watch you will be sure to grieve the Spirit of God away. 5. Be sure that you neglect no duty. Remember that neglect is just as absolutely a violation of the law of God, as any positive crime is. 6. Maintain a consciousness that you do everything for the glory of God. This is perfectly practicable. A worldly man is conscious of the great end he has in view in all his ways. He knows why he labors and toils, why he refuses to make this expenditure, and why he makes that speculation.