What! you the spouse of Christ, and yet content without his company! Surely, surely, surely, you have fallen into a sad state. You must have gone astray, if such is your experience, for the true chaste spouse of Christ mourns like a dove without her mate, when he has left her. Ask, then, the question, what has driven Christ from you? He hides his face behind the wall of your sins. That wall may be built up with little pebbles, as easily as with great stones. The sea is made of drops, the rocks are made of grains; and ah! surely the sea which divides you from Christ may be filled with the drops of your little sins; and the rock which is to wreck your barque, may have been made by daily working of the coral insects of your little sins. Therefore, take heed to it; for if you wish to live with Christ, and walk with Christ, and see Christ, and have fellowship with Christ, please take heed of the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.
13. And now, leaving the child of God, I turn myself to address others of you who have some thought with regard to your souls, but who could not yet be ranked among those who fear God with a true heart. To you, I know, Satan often offers this temptation — “Is it not a little one?” May God help you to answer him whenever he thus attacks you. “Is it not a little one?” And so, young man, the devil has tempted you to commit the first petty theft. “Is it not a little one?” And so he has bidden you, young man, for the first time in your life to spend the day of rest in foolish pleasure. It was only a little one, he said, and you have taken him at his word, and you have committed it. It was only a little one, and so you have told a lie. It was only a little one, and you have gone into the assembly of the frivolous and mixed in the society of scorners. It was only a little one, there could not be much harm in it, it could not do much mischief to your soul. Ah! stop awhile. Do you know that a little sin, if wantonly indulged, will prevent your salvation? “The foundation of God stands sure having this seal, the Lord knows those who are his, and let every one who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” Christ will reveal salvation from all his sins to the man who hates all his sins; but if you keep one sin to yourself, you shall never have mercy from his hands. If you will forsake all your ways, and turn with full purpose of heart to Christ, the biggest sin you have ever committed shall not destroy your soul; but if a little sin is harboured, your prayers will be unheard, your sighs disregarded, and your earnest cries shall return into your bosom without a blessing. You have been in prayer lately, you have been seeking Christ, you have been praying with all your might that God would meet with you. Now months have rolled by, you are still not yet saved, nor have you received the comfortable assurance of your pardon. Young man, is it not likely that some little known sin is still harboured in your heart? Note, then, God will never be united with you until you and your sins are separated. Part with your sins, or else part with all hope, though you only hide so much as a grain of sin back from God. He will not, he cannot have any mercy on you. Come to him just as you are, but renounce your sins. Ask him to set you free from every lust, from every false way, from every evil thing, or else, note, you shall never find grace and favour from his hands. The greatest sin in the world, repented of, shall be forgiven, but the least unrepented sin shall sink your soul lower than the lowest hell. Note then, again, sinner, you who sometimes indulge in little sins. These little sins show that you are yet in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Rowland Hill tells a curious tale of one of his hearers who occasionally visited the theatre. He was a member of the church. So going to see him, he said, I understand Mr. So-and-So, you are very fond of frequenting the theatre. No, sir, he said, that is false. I go now and then just for a great treat, still I do not go because I like it; it is not a habit of mine. Well, said Rowland Hill, suppose someone should say to me, Mr. Hill, I understand you eat carrion, and I should say, no, no, I do not eat carrion. It is true, I now and then have a piece of stinking carrion for a great treat. Why, he would say, you have convicted yourself, it shows that you like it better than most people, because you save it up for a special treat. Other men only take it as common daily food, but you keep it for a treat. It shows the deceitfulness of your heart, and reveals that you still love the ways and wages of sin.
14. Ah, my friends, those men who say little sins have no vice in them whatever, they only give indications of their own character; they show which way the stream runs. A straw may let you know which way the wind blows, or even a floating feather; and so may some little sin be an indication of the prevailing tendency of the heart. My hearer, if you love sin, though it is only a little one, your heart is not right in the sight of God. You are still a stranger to divine grace. The wrath of God abides on you. You are a lost soul unless God changes your heart.
15. And yet, another remark here. Sinner, you say it is only a little one. But do you know that God will damn you for your little sins? Look angry now, and say the minister is harsh. But will you look angry at your God in the day when he shall condemn you for ever? If there should be a good man in a prison today and you did not go to see him, would you think that to be a great sin? Certainly not, you say, I would not think of doing such a thing. If you saw a man hungry and you did not feed him, would you think that to be a great sin? No, you say, I would not. Nevertheless, these are the very things for which men are sent to hell. What did the Judge say? “I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Forasmuch as you have not done this to the least of these, my brethren, you have not done it to me.” Now, if these things, which we only consider to be little sins, actually send myriads to hell, ought we not to stop and tremble before we talk lightly of sin, since little sins may be our eternal destroyers. Ah, man, the pit of hell is dug for little sins. An eternity of woe is prepared for what men call little sins. It is not only the murderer, the drunkard, the fornicator, that shall be sent to hell. The wicked, it is true, shall be sent there, but the little sinner with all the nations that forget God shall have his portion there also. Tremble, therefore, on account of little sins.
16. When I was a little lad, I one day read at family prayer the chapter in the Revelations concerning the “bottomless pit.” Stopping in the midst of it, I said to my grandfather, “Grandfather, what does this mean — ‘the bottomless pit?’ ” He said, “Go on child, go on.” So I read that chapter, but I took great care to read it the next morning also. Stopping again I said, “Bottomless pit, what does this mean?” “Go on,” he said, “Go on.” Well it came the next morning, and so on for two weeks; there was nothing to be read by me in the morning except this same chapter, for I would understand it if I read it for a month. And I can remember the horror of my mind when he told me what the idea was. There is a deep pit, and the soul is falling down, — oh how fast it is falling! There! the last ray of light at the top has disappeared, and it falls on — on — on, and so it goes on falling — on — on — on — for a thousand years! “Is it not getting near the bottom yet? will it not stop?” No, no; the cry is, on — on — on, “I have been falling a million years, is it not near the bottom yet?” No, you are no nearer the bottom yet: it is the “bottomless pit”; it is on — on — on, and so the soul goes on falling, perpetually, into a deeper depth still, falling for ever into the “bottomless pit” — on — on — on, into the pit that has no bottom! Woe without termination, without hope of it’s coming to a conclusion. The same dreadful idea is contained in those words, “The wrath to come.” Note, hell is always “the wrath to come.” If a man has been in hell a thousand years, it is still “to come.” As to what you have suffered in the past it is as nothing, in the dread account, for still the wrath is “to come.” And when the world has grown grey with age, and the fires of the sun are quenched in darkness, it is still “the wrath to come.” And when other worlds have sprung up, and have turned into their palsied age, it is still “the wrath to come.” And when your soul, burnt through and through with anguish, sighs at last to be annihilated, even then this awful thunder shall be heard, “the wrath to come — to come — to come.” Oh, what an idea! I do not know how to utter it! And yet for little sins, remember you incur “the wrath to come.” Oh, if I am to be damned, I would be damned for something; but to be delivered up to the executioner and sent into “the wrath to come” for little sins which do not even make me famous as a rebel, this is to be damned indeed. Oh that you would arise, that you would flee from the wrath to come, that you would forsake the little sins, and flee to the great cross of Christ to have little sins blotted out,
