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| Johann Arndt |
Something good from
John Arndt:
[18] Whoever yields
too much to one sin, undoubtedly opens a door to many others.
Sin never comes alone, but, like a noxious weed, spreads
itself on every side, and gains more ground every day. And as
the darkness becomes greater accordingly as the sun retires,
so as the holy life of Christ departs from us, the darkness
and sin increase, till at length the man is swallowed up in
eternal darkness.
On the contrary, if
a man devote himself to the practice of one virtue, he gains
thereby an opportunity of practicing all the rest in time, and
cannot but daily proceed from one to another.
This admirable
connection is represented by St. Peter as a chain, in which
all the rings are linked together, and none is suffered to
separate from another. “Add,” he says, “to your faith, virtue;
and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to
temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to
godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness,
charity;” superadding one virtue continually to another, and
crowning all at last with this promise: “If these things be in
you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2
Peter 1:5-8.
To sum up all in a
few words: Whoever is not earnestly bent on the exercise of
such heavenly virtues as these, certainly knows not Christ,
and is void of all saving knowledge: whereas, if a man by
faith grow in virtue, he also grows in Christ himself. On the
contrary, the wrathful, the covetous, the proud, the
impatient, do not grow in Christ, but in the devil.
From: John Arndt. True
Christianity New American Edition by Charles F.
Schaeffer. 1868. LutheranLibrary.org
