. Lectures to young people:. s had instantly consumed them ; for that reli-gion on account of which they had died, would have beena certain passport to heaven. And so is every christiansafe who yields up his life in similar circumstances ; forthe crown of martyrdom here, will be exchanged for acrown of glory hereafter. 2. A decided course is the most easy course. I donot intend here to imply that a professing christian maynot sometimes, in consequence of his decision, be sub-jected to severe trials ; or, on the other hand, that by atimid and temporizing course, he may not sometimesavoid trials
. Lectures to young people:. s had instantly consumed them ; for that reli-gion on account of which they had died, would have beena certain passport to heaven. And so is every christiansafe who yields up his life in similar circumstances ; forthe crown of martyrdom here, will be exchanged for acrown of glory hereafter. 2. A decided course is the most easy course. I donot intend here to imply that a professing christian maynot sometimes, in consequence of his decision, be sub-jected to severe trials ; or, on the other hand, that by atimid and temporizing course, he may not sometimesavoid trials: but I mean that, on the whole, the decidedchristian will be far less embarrassed in the dischargeof duty, than any other. Would Nebuchadnezzar, doyou imagine, after having witnessed the decision of thesemen, and the consequences of it, have been likely to re-peat the experiment which he made, or to have tried anyother means to induce them to worship his idol ? Wouldhe not rather have abandoned it as a hopeless case, satis-. 221 fied that they were determined to adhere to the worshipof Jehovah, and that Jehovah would assuredly preserveand bless them in it? And the same effect, substan-tially, is produced upon the world by every instance ofdecision in christians. Let the christian, when the worldspreads its temptations before him, show himself deter-mined and able to resist them : let him, when solicited byhis former careless associates to the haunts of sin, ex-hibit a firmness of opposition, which their cavils, or sneers,or flatteries do not shake ; and let him repeat this in afew instances, and he will probably have occasion to re-peat it no more ; for they will become satisfied that theirefforts are unavailing, and will think it best to retire fromthe conflict. Let him, on the other hand, when he istempted, show himself half inclined to yield; let himmanifest a disposition to conform to the world so far ashe possibly can without sacrificing his christian charac-ter ; let him
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