Exodus 23:30 By little and little I will drive them out from before you, until you be increased, and inherit the land. How does it commonly come to pass, that a man who had been thoroughly alive to his moral responsibility, and who had acted under a manifest consciousness of the account which must one day be rendered at the judgment seat of Christ, falls away from the striving for salvation, and mingles with the multitude that walks the broad road? Is it ordinarily through one powerful and undisguised assault, that he is turned from the path — the enemies of his soul combining their strength in one united attack, and coming down on him with every weapon which their malice could suggest and their power obtain? Nay, not so; it is invariably through "little" things, that such a man destroys his soul. Like the heavenly bodies, the man of piety moves in a resisting medium, as he revolves about the Sun of righteousness, which is, and must be, the centre of our system. It may be only a very minute fraction of velocity, that this resisting medium is able at any one time to destroy; but its operation is constant, and therefore if the destroyed fraction remain unobserved and unrepaired, the waste will go on, till the whole motion is lost, and the star recedes from its pathway of light. As Christians we profess ourselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth; we are not at home, and the atmosphere of the earth is one which tends to retard our movements, and diminish the speed with which we might otherwise run the race set before us; and although, beyond doubt, the world may occasionally put huge impediments in the way, which may tend to block up the path, and force us, on a sudden either to stand still or turn aside, yet our chief danger lies in the almost imperceptible influence exerted by the world, like that of the resisting medium on the planets — a hindrance which offers no violent opposition to our principles, but which, confining itself to trifles, is perhaps allowed to act undisturbed, as though either there could be trifles when the soul's good is in debate, or as though, if there were, trifles upon trifles would not make up large amounts. There is a sort of continued attraction, resulting from our necessary intercourse with the world, which of itself deadens the attainments of the soul. There is, moreover, a continued temptation to yield in little points under the impression of conciliating, to indulge in little things, to forego little strictnesses, to omit little duties, and all owing to the idea, that what looks so slight cannot be of real moment. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. |
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