The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-03-07
The Temptation of Lust.

ticed." So writes James, the practical
writer on Christian life. He has men
toned temptation as common thing
and lest his readers make the grave
mistake so easy for prejudiced human
nature to make he hastens to affirm the
folly of charging their temptations upon
God. He asserts plainly and strongly
that man has within himself that which
is the reason and source of wrong-doing.
He calls it lust. The doings of man
are chargeable to himself. He only is
responsible for them. Gods influence
upon him can never be anything but
good. The word lust, as used here,
means all our tendencies towards, and
desires for, that which is not good 1t
includes every propensity or predispo-
sition to evil which is transmitted from
parent to child. That such trans
mission is fact no one can think of
doubling. Physically and mentally
children are very largely what their
parents make them before their birth.
And the same is true of them morally,
as regards tastes and preferences. We
look for children to be what their par
ents were before them, improving
upon their stock by careful training, or
degenerating from it through lack of
care. Society is burdened with the
tacit expectation that children begotten
opJ borp II, o;, will tbap,c a1yac ho o,root
sinners. And the Church of Christ
POUNDS one of its brightest hopes for
the future upon the expectation equally
reasonable that the offspring of virtuous
men and women will become an honor
to their generation. These inherited
tendencies are not part of our char
acter. They belong rather to the under
lying nature. The character is what
every man makes for HIMSELF and no
man lives who cannot be good rather
than bad, if he will. Some begin life
these differences of inheritance. But
no one of us is born the victim of moral
hindrances which he can not overcome.
The expectations of society to which
allusion has Just been made are based
upon the accumulation of actual occur
rences rather than upon any proved
necessity. No such necessity exists.
This is shown conclusively by the fact
that some have risen out of the most
adverse circumstances of birth into
high and holy manhood. No mans
character need be bad. Every one has
the power himself to make it good--a
power which God will not, and the devil
can not, take away from him. An Elsie
Venner is either the Pigment of NOR
bid imagination or the exceptional
monstrosity which gives CHASTITY en-
phasis to the universal law.
Lust also means all the depraved APP
petites, desires and affections which
have resulted from personal self-indul-
gence. These are very many in every
case. And unless the check of grace is
applied early and continually they go
on increasing rapidly to the prime of
the individuals life. What man is
at twenty he will probably be at forty,
only stronger and more determined in
his ways of acting The stream flowing
down the mountain side surely though
imperceptibly gathers volume and force.
And so does the character of the indi-
vidual man. Only supernatural power
can reverse the law in the case of either.
God be thanked that in the case of our
SOULS life that supernatural power is
put within our reach; that by the exer-
else of the same will-force which gov
ems our actions in other respects we
may secure its help to make our motives
right and pure. The voluntary accept
condition upon which each of us may
have it's benefits. Freedom and re-
sponsibility are among the perpetual
utterances of intelligent consciousness,
and their recognition is one of the
necessities of religion. All our doings
and choosings are our own, and we must
answer for them.
Lust draws away and entices man.
These verbs are very significant One
of them means to catch or entrap by
the use of an alluring bait and The
other to draw or drag out. Both
together naturally suggest the way in
which fishes are taken. They greedily
seize the tempting bait, and the con-
cealed hook, skillfully handled, immedi-
ately brings them out to their death.
So the adversary who catches mems