Homilist Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Habit may be looked on — 1. As a necessary law. (1) A facility of performing an act in proportion to its repetition. (2) A tendency grows up in us to repeat what we have often done. 2. As a beneficent law. It is because acts grow easier and generally more attractive the oftener they are performed, that men advance in the arts, the sciences, the morality, and the religion of life. 3. As an abused law. The text is a strong expression of its abuse. The words of course are not to be taken in an absolutely unqualified sense. The idea is great difficulty. Our subject is the difficulty of converting old sinners, men "accustomed to do evil." I. IT IS A SELF-CREATED DIFFICULTY. 1. Habit is but an accumulation of acts, and in each of the aggregate acts the actor was free. 2. The sinner himself feels that he has given his moral complexion the Ethiopian stain, and painted his character with the leopard spots. This fact shows — (1) The moral force of human nature. Man forging chains to manacle his spirit, creating a despot to control his energies and his destiny. (2) The egregious folly of wickedness. It makes man his own enemy, tyrant, destroyer. II. IT IS A GRADUALLY AUGMENTING DIFFICULTY. Habit is a cord. It is strengthened with every action. At first it is as fine as silk, and can be broken with but little effort. As it proceeds it becomes a cable strong enough to hold a man of war, steady amidst boisterous billows and furious winds. Habit is a momentum. It increases with motion. At first a child's hand can arrest the progress. As the motion increases it gets a power difficult for an army of giants to overcome. Habit is a river, at its headspring you can arrest its progress with ease, and turn it in any direction you please, but as it approaches the ocean it defies opposition, and rolls with a thunderous majesty into the sea. 1. The awful condition of the sinner. 2. The urgency for an immediate decision Procrastination is folly. 3. The necessity of the special prayers of the Church on behalf of aged sinners. III. IT IS A POSSIBLY CONQUERABLE DIFFICULTY. 1. The history of conversions shows the possibility of overcoming this difficulty. 2. The mightiness of Christ shows the possibility of overcoming this difficulty, He saves to the uttermost.Uttermost in relation to the enormity of the sin — uttermost in relation to the age of the sinner. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. |
    |