2644 THE BORDERERS. diminish. Rest not, then, in that low state of religion which is satisfied with the hope of escaping punishment ; calcu- late not how small a measure may suffice to effect that escape. Search not out for an imaginary intermediate state between the children of wrath and the children of God. Rest not till you have attained that entire consecration of heart, whose object, aim, and end is eternal life. Forget not, that they who run in a race, though they may come closer to the goal, yet if they come short of it, fail of the prize as completely as those com- petitors whose distance is greater ; and, if we come short of heaven, whether' we lose it by more or fewer steps, the failure is equally decisive, the loss equally irreparable. Those worldly persons with whom you associate are entrenched on every side by numbers ; they therefore act as if they thought that the evil, supposing it to be evil, which is shared among so many, cannot be injurious to the indi-
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