S. Unleavened Bread

UNLEAVENED BREAD

“Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” - 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 THE command, that the bread used at the paschal feast should be without leaven, was very peremptory and very penetrating. It was enjoined generally, in strong terms, as an indispensable condition of the solemnity: “Whosoever eateth leavened bread, that soul shall be cut off from Israel” (Exodus 12:15). And it is enjoined with minute penetrating particularity: “There shall no leavened bread be seen with thee; neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters” (Exodus 13:7). The same prohibition of leaven, equally stern and equally searching, is here connected with the New Testament paschal feast; whether that is viewed in its wide aspect, as descriptive of the entire Christian life; or in its narrower sense, as having reference to the sacrament of the supper, the sign and seal of that life. In the light of this application of the command, in all its emphatic force and thorough-going reach, to the Christian life generally, and to the sacrament which represents it in particular, I propose, -

I. To consider the reasons for the peremptory prohibition of leaven as applicable to the Old Testament paschal feast; and also to that of the New Testament. And II. To consider the propriety, or rather the necessity, of the prohibition being made very thorough, searching, and penetrating, as that is brought out in the New Testament use of the saying: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9).

Part First The paschal solemnity was of old twofold. There was, first, an atoning sacrifice offered; and secondly, a feasting upon the sacrifice. Let us consider the reasons for the prohibition of leaven, as applicable to both of these parts of the solemnity.

I, Two reasons for the prohibition of leaven in connection with the paschal solemnity, viewed as the offering of a sacrifice, are given in the Old Testament. The one is found in Deuteronomy 16:3 : “Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction.” The other is also found in that passage (“for thou camest out of the land of Egypt in haste”); but it is more fully brought out in Exodus 12:11 : “And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.” The lamb is slain, and its blood sprinkled for an atonement. The passover is sacrificed; and the only bread suitable and appropriate to the occasion is unleavened bread; the bread of affliction; the bread of haste.

1. It must be the bread of affliction. But is it not a time of rejoicing? Is not the occasion on which the sacrifice is offered a great and glorious deliverance? Does it not call for congratulation and gladness, rather than grief? True. But let us look at the occasion in the light of the peculiar character and meaning of that last of the ten plagues, which ended the period of the Lord’s long-suffering patience with Egypt, and brought in the redemption of Israel. It stands apart from all the preceding nine. Hitherto the visitations of God have told directly on the Egyptians alone, upon Pharaoh and his land for not letting the Lord’s people go. And they were nothing more. They did not touch Goshen where the Lord’s people dwelt. But the tenth miracle is altogether peculiar. It comes home to the Israelites as much as to the Egyptians, or rather more. It brings out at once their just liability to the same condemnation with their oppressors, and the very peculiar manner of their escape. The sentence goes forth; death is to be in every dwelling; the first-born in every house is to be smitten. Are the Israelites exempted from the sweeping force of the terrible decree? Is there any peculiar immunity for them? Are they better than the Egyptians, that this doom should not be inflicted upon them?

No; in no wise. Among them also the deadly sentence must take effect. Death must pass upon them, for that they also have sinned.

But, lo! a wondrous interposition of grace; and of grace wholly unmerited, gratuitous, and free. As when Isaac was about to be slain on Mount Moriah, a ram caught in the thicket was provided by God to ransom him, so, by the appointment of the same God, the first-born of his seed in Egypt are, on that memorable night, redeemed; and every family in Israel can attest the efficacy of the atoning blood of the lamb.

What more suitable to such a sacrifice, in such circumstances, than the use of unleavened bread, as bread of affliction? And affliction of what sort? Not now affliction merely in the remembrance of their sufferings; but now specially, and now for the first time fully, affliction in the remembrance of their sins. In the previous plagues there might be room for imagining, that upon some ground of merit or goodness in themselves or their fathers, they were well-pleasing to God, while their enemies were simply objects of his wrath; but now that imagination is dashed for ever. They are made to perceive the common sentence of death for sin lying on them as well as on their oppressors. They are themselves the children of wrath even as others. It seems as if God were now saying to them, - Think not that I am displeased with your adversaries only, and that I altogether approve of you. What, are ye better than they? Is it merely Pharaoh’s hardness of heart that hinders your escape from bondage? Is it not rather your own guilt? The obstinacy of Pharaoh and all his host cannot, as you shall presently see, frustrate my purpose on your behalf. But your iniquities are great. For you may not imagine that it is on the footing of any claim you have on my favour, or any regard I am bound to have to you, that while Pharaoh and his host are destined to perish in the Red Sea, you and your children are to inherit a goodly land. Before the struggle ends between your enemy and your God, before Pharaoh is overthrown and you are saved, you must be taught to know that you have no right or claim to expect any other treatment than what was meted out so terribly to the Egyptians; that you are in the same condemnation with them, and, if saved at all, must be saved by grace through faith; by grace sovereign and free, through faith in the sacrifice of the vicarious lamb, offered and accepted on the part of God, appropriated and realised by you as partakers of it.

What a call, in these circumstances, for bread of affliction! Truly it was a time for them to afflict their souls. They had now to call to mind, not only the long train of misery they had suffered, but the accumulated and aggravated sins they had been committing, and, above all, the sin of their ever imagining, for a moment, that they had any right or claim to the favour of Jehovah, or differed at all from the Egyptians otherwise than by grace alone. When, in every family apart, the father plunged his knife into the bosom of the lamb, as the only substitute for his own firstborn, what thoughts might rise in the breasts of the household! But for this lamb, what loss must have been ours! What wailing and bitter weeping! Our beautiful, our beloved, our firstborn, must have gone! And justly; how justly, we now only for the first time begin to see. Certainly this judgment is deserved by us not less than by the Egyptians; nay, even more; for our sin against covenanted mercy, our grievous sin of unbelief, our murmuring and doubting and distrust. Is it not indeed an hour for eating the bread of affliction? And now Christ your Passover is sacrificed for you; and whatever feast you keep, you may well keep it, considering the meaning of the sacrifice, with unleavened bread as the bread of affliction. Do you indeed, the Spirit of grace and of supplication being poured on you, look on him whom you have pierced? Must it not be to mourn as one mourneth for an only son; and be in bitterness as one that is in bitterness for a first-born? The Israelites might be afflicted as if they had literally lost their firstborn, when they so narrowly escaped that very calamity through the substitution of the paschal lamb, and the shedding and the sprinkling of his blood. How much more may you be thus afflicted in proportion to the clearer view you have, both of the real value and spiritual meaning of the sacrifice, and the accursed cause or occasion of it, which is your own sin? It may well be the bread of affliction, on account of sin, that you eat, beside that sacrifice of atonement for sin. It cannot be the bread of indifference to sin. It cannot be the bread of complacency in sin. If you know why that sacrifice is needed; if you feel the reality of that substitution of Christ in the room and stead of sinners, and of yourself the chief of sinners; if you have anything of a spiritual insight into the pain, and shame, and agony, and curse of the cross of Christ, you cannot but mourn, - I call on you to mourn, - over sin and its exceeding sinfulness; over your own sin in all its heinousness. And affliction for sin, remember, implies the putting away from you of all its leaven.

2. Unleavened bread is the bread of haste. And haste is assigned, at least in part, as the reason of the bread being unleavened. This haste as well as the affliction is connected with the sacrifice, considered simply in itself, and apart from any feasting upon it. The affliction springs out of meditation on the need and occasion for the sacrifice: the haste turns on a consideration of its design and aim. It is a sacrifice called for an account of your helpless participation in the guilt and condemnation of the world: it is a sacrifice designed and fitted to secure your escape out of the world, and your entrance into rest. The last link is now severed of the chain that kept the Israelites in bondage, Not by any compromise with Pharaoh, or any propitiation offered to him, is their deliverance achieved. It is not really Pharaoh, with all his hardness of heart, but a greater than Pharaoh that has to deal with them, even God himself. God has to reckon with them for their sins, no less than with the Egyptians for theirs, and to exact the stern and unrelenting penalty. Behold the lamb slain! The very God who is the avenger himself appoints the victim. Atoning blood is shed, and sprinkled on every door post. And now all is ready; every obstacle is taken out of the way; justice is satisfied; guilt expiated; God pacified and reconciled; Israel, God’s first-born, and all the first-born of Israel redeemed. Up; arise: the enemy’s power is broken, on the very same night and by the very same transaction that has secured your freedom. Therefore, bestir yourselves. There is need of haste. The opportunity is as precarious as it is precious. All now is favourable: the tyrant is confounded; the atonement is accepted; nothing farther is required; on - on at once and in haste, for the pilgrimage and for the promised land. Whatever feast you have to eat, it must be in haste; whatever bread you have to prepare, it must be bread of haste. Lose no time in costly or dilatory preparation. Care not for any seasoning you might once find necessary to make your bread palatable. Take it unleavened; you have no leisure to be nice or punctilious or delicate; your leaving Egypt is a movement of haste. And so, my friends, is your leaving the fellowship of this evil world, upon the footing of Christ your passover being sacrificed for you. You have no time to be leavening the bread you have to eat. Consider the work you have on hand; the design of the sacrifice of Christ for you. It is to give you a full, free, and final escape from the wrath to come, from the corruption that is in the world through lust, from the world itself, wholly lying in wickedness. It is to open to you the way without money and without price, for hastening on with the light of God’s face shining upon you, and the power of God’s Spirit working in you, to the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Hastening on, I say; for surely there is need of promptness, decision, alacrity. Haste, flee for your lives, look not behind you, neither stay in all the plain. And be not careful about the mere condiments and relishing ingredients of the food you are to eat. “Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.” It is loss of time to be concerning yourselves about leaven in your bread. Let it be unleavened. The leaven of sin, or sinful indulgence, or sinful ease, is a hindrance and delay. You are in haste and have no time for sin, even as you are in affliction and have no heart for sin. The bread for you is godly sorrow for sin and pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

II. There is a feast to be kept. It is (1), a feast upon the sacrifice, and (2), a feast preparatory and preliminary to the journey for which the sacrifice opens up the way. And in both views of the feast there is a propriety in the bread used at it being unleavened.

1. When the paschal lamb was slain, its flesh was eaten; a significant act, implying, when spiritually understood and performed in faith, a personal appropriation of the sacrifice; in all its painful and bitter reality no doubt; but also in all its blessed efficacy. Your life, believers, is a constant feeding upon Christ as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, as your passover sacrificed for you. You feed on him by faith, a personal appropriating faith, laying hold of Christ not as the Saviour of sinners generally, but as your own Saviour in particular; living by the faith of him who loved you and gave himself for you. The ample warrant you have, in the gracious promises and peremptory commands of the gospel thus to appropriate Christ as your own, and the power of the Holy Ghost, by which you are enabled to do so, I need not now set forth. Neither need I dwell on the necessity of this appropriating act or habit of faith being continued in constant exercise, if the spiritual life is to be sustained and cherished. But while Christ your passover sacrificed for you is thus the staple and substantial food of your souls, while you are to feed on him alone, by a simple appropriating faith, you are yourselves to provide and bring with you to the feast suitable bread. For the flesh of the lamb, which you have to eat requires bread. The meat which God appoints and provides is to be eaten with bread that you are yourselves to prepare. In preparing it, you have the help of the Holy Spirit. And by his help, you make it unleavened. For the bread, thus viewed, is the frame of mind in which you feed on Christ. Let that be simple, pure, unadulterated, unalloyed. Let there be nothing in the bread to mar the sweet relish and nutritive power of the meat. Other feasts may need high seasoning, pungent sauces, exciting stimulants. This needs nothing of the sort. It is to be eaten with bread wholly unleavened. There need not be any leaven, even of spiritual rapture or ecstasy. There cannot be any leaven of sin, of guilt or guile, of insincerity or impurity, of malice or wickedness. It must be the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Sincerity and truth! Yes! that is all. That is the only bread. Let me bring that to the feast, that and nothing more! Not deep feeling, high wrought enthusiasm, convictions, frames, emotions; but only, malice and wickedness being purged out, the plain bread of sincerity and truth, guileless sincerity, truthful simplicity, the single eye, the honest heart. Give me that, blessed Spirit; and then shall I taste the full flavour and relish of that flesh which is meat indeed and that blood which is drink indeed.

2. The feast upon the sacrifice was a feast for the way with all its work and all its warfare. The slain lamb was eaten, not merely for present refreshment and satisfaction; but for strength to face the coming trial of the march through the wilderness to Canaan. So Christ your passover, sacrificed for you, is to be the food of your souls, not only that you may be ever freshly recreated and revived, with experiences ever fresh of his sufficiency for your wants as sinners and his sweetness to your taste as believers, but that you may be ever freshly animated, enlivened, invigorated, for going forth at his call to whatever journey, or labour, or strife, or suffering; whatever exercise of self-denial or self-sacrifice; whatever service of godliness or brotherly kindness or charity he may be pleased to set before you. In truth, his flesh will not be meat to you, his blood will not be drink to you, for the nourishment of your own spiritual life, unless they are so also for the quickening and nerving of all your powers, as called to be pilgrims, soldiers, workers along with him and in his cause. In the view of that calling, how deeply does it concern you; that, as you feed on Christ alone as your strength, your life, Christ your passover sacrificed for you; so you should feed on him with unleavened bread; that you should suffer nothing at any time in your manner of feeding upon him that may hinder your getting the full good of your feeding on him, not only for your own. ease, but for the doing of his will; or in other words, that you should lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset you, and run with patience the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus.

Part Second The prohibition of leaven was very searching and very thorough. It was to be utterly excluded or expelled. ‘Not a trace or vestige of it was to be allowed to remain in the most obscure dwelling, in the remotest corner of the land. The propriety, or rather the necessity of this, in a spiritual point of view, may be seen if we consider this saying of the apostle: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Twice he uses it in writing to the Galatians (Galatians 5:9), as well as here.

He is there speaking of doctrine, of the taint of error allowed to insinuate itself into the system of the truth as it is in Jesus, or into the minds of those who embrace it. In particular he is deprecating any interference with the simplicity of the gospel, as it opens up the way of a sinner’s justification or acceptance, through the righteousness of Christ alone, received by faith alone. The point at issue in the Galatian Church seemed a very narrow one; it was not a question as to the sufficiency of the meritorious obedience and atoning death of Christ as the ground of peace with God, or even as to the efficacy of faith, resting on that ground. It had respect merely to the expediency of so far giving in to the prejudice of the Jewish converts, for the purpose of avoiding offence, as to allow the rite of circumcision still to be administered, or at least to make some little distinction in favour of such as were circumcised. This in itself might seem a matter of comparative indifference, and the concession might be put on such a footing as not very directly to touch the essential freeness and fulness of the salvation of the gospel. But Paul instantly detects the snare and discovers the danger. No man could be more careless than Paul was about circumcision considered simply in itself, now that it had ceased to be a sacrament, a sign and seal of the righteousness of the faith which Abraham had while yet uncircumcised, and had become really nothing, a thing of no avail, which whether a man had or not, was not worthy of a moment’s thought. He was willing to go very far in the way of becoming all things to all men in this very particular; and made no scruple about allowing Timothy to be circumcised, inasmuch as being a Jew by the mother’s side, he ought to have been circumcised before. But whenever the attempt was made to insist on circumcision, under whatever plea or pretence of propriety and good feeling, as a preliminary to the enjoyment of Christian fellowship, or a help to the assurance of Christian faith; Paul would not give place by subjection, no not for an hour. True, the thing itself is of no consequence; circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. But if circumcision or uncircumcision, or anything else whatever, be it a mere form or the holiest sacrament, be introduced in any way as an element, however subordinate and subsidiary, in the matter of our acceptance in the sight of God; if any stress be laid upon it as determining our state and standing before God; the whole gospel method of salvation is overturned; it is no more by grace exclusively that we are saved.

Hence the apostle’s extreme jealousy of whatever might divide the believer’s confidence for his peace with God, between Christ, presented to him and embraced by him, and anything in or upon himself. And hence the strenuous earnestness With which he protests against the small beginnings of error in connection with this great and vital doctrine of Christianity: “Behold, I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” Yes. Though you may think it a light thing to give in with reference to so trifling a matter as your mere submission to a harmless ceremony - and I own that in one aspect it is a trifle, - yet I testify to every man that is thus circumcised, that he thereby puts himself again under the conditions of the covenant of works, and is a debtor to do the whole law. He virtually makes his election. And not choosing to stand on the footing of Christ’s righteousness alone, he must make up his mind to what is the only alternative, even to dispense with it altogether, and work out his claim on the footing of his own obedience. So Christ hath become really of no effect to you, whosoever of you are thus returning to the old way of being justified by the law: ye are fallen from grace. And all this flows from your being weak enough to consent to such a compliance, as might seem at first a very trifling accommodation, on the subject of what is now become a very insignificant ceremony! Well, therefore, may you be warned to beware of a little leaven leavening the whole lump. And the danger is all the greater, if, instead of circumcision, an obsolete ordinance, what you are tempted to lean on, as in part at least efficacious, be an ordinance still in force, a sacrament having, in the right use of it, a precious value and significancy. Precious, I say, are the sacraments of Baptism and of the Lord’s Supper as seals of righteousness otherwise received, even by faith alone. But if you begin to attach importance to them, as if by some mystical charm or potent spell they contributed somewhat to the making of your peace with God - away with them. Better the sacrament perish than you go down to destruction with this lie in your hand. Yes; away with whatever works or services or ceremonies could come in between you and Christ, you as sinners, Christ as your Saviour; count all things but loss, that you may win Christ.

Here, with the Corinthians, Paul uses the maxim differently; not as with the Galatians in its application to a question of doctrine, but in its bearing on a question of morals. The connection, however, between the two is very close, more so than might at first appear.

We may observe, indeed, that both gospel faith and gospel holiness have this in common, that generally, in point of fact, they, both of them, are substances of so fine a texture, so delicate and divine, as to be peculiarly sensitive to the influence of any uncongenial element insinuating itself into the mass. It is the most perfect and exact instrument that is most easily disordered. It is the purest mirror that is dimmed by the slightest stain; the richest robe that suffers most from the least ruffling of an untender hand; the plant nearest the sun that a single blast of pestilential atmosphere will cause to droop, and wither, and die. So is it with holiness, as well as faith in a community of Christians, or in the breast of an individual believer. A little leaven, and who shall say how little, leaveneth the whole lump. Thus, both in a question of faith and in a question of holiness the maxim applies. And as to holiness, there are three senses in which it may be urged.

1. Consider the injury the very least tolerated sin may do to your character or good name. That is a most important practical consideration. You may be tempted to think that you have credit enough to carry you through with untarnished honour and unimpaired influence, even though you venture within the limits of what may be dangerous or doubtful, and that one questionable spot, it may be, contracted in your familiar conformity to the world, or your occasional compliance with its ways, will not be so noticeable as to detract from the clear shining of your light before men, and the weight of your testimony among them. But beware. It is on that single spot that all eyes will be turned. What! will ye expect to find a world that is on the watch to speak evil, even of your good, ready to put a kind and candid and generous construction on your evil? Nay, will they not rather use the little leaven for leavening the whole lump? They will not give your single sin the benefit of your otherwise unimpeachable holiness: but they will give your holiness the full scathe and scorn of your sin. They will take advantage of the little leaven of your one infirmity or slight inconsistency to discredit your entire Christian profession. They will make such good use of it as to ensure that in the eyes of men it shall leaven the whole lump,

2, But there is a far more serious consideration to be weighed. It is a small matter to be judged of man’s judgment. In the judgment of God, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. So James teaches (James 2:10), “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all,” If you break the law at all, you break it altogether. A single breach of it brings you in for the full guilt of breaking the whole of it. For the law is one whole. And so are you, who, by breaking it in one point, become guilty of all. You cannot isolate your one solitary offence, so as to make it perform quarantine, and rid you of its risk and its responsibility. No; for guilt is a personal quality or condition. It is an attribute or circumstance attaching not abstractly to the sin, but personally to the sinner. It is I who am guilty, not my sin, as if it were something apart from me. Beware of a subtle snare here. It is the snare of imagining that you may somehow separate some little fault in you or about you from yourselves; the notion, the fiction, of a sort of dualism, in virtue of which you dream, that though you cannot but acknowledge yourselves to be more or less chargeable with guilt, in some one particular feature of character or line of conduct, you may yet be on the whole, as one believing generally the gospel, righteous in the sight of God. Be very sure, that if the guilt of but one breach of the law still lies upon you, you really are guilty of all. And so long as the guilt of that one offence remains uncancelled, you cannot warrantably appropriate to yourselves any of the blessedness of a justified state before God. In other words, you have really no sin pardoned if all be not pardoned. For you cannot be in two opposite states, or in two opposite relations to God at one and the same time. You are either guilty altogether or righteous altogether; guilty altogether through your continued breach of the law, be it but in one, and that ever so insignificant a particular; guilty of all, or righteous altogether, through your unreserved acceptance of the righteousness of Christ; justified altogether, justified from all. Is there any one evil thing still cleaving to you for which your heart condemns you? Are you allowing yourself in any practice, following any course of life of which you are not quite sure that it is quite blameless? Then, at least in respect of that one particular, you are not, you cannot be, justified. And if not in respect of that, then not in respect of anything; not at all. If the guilt of a single unconfessed and unforgiven sin lies upon you, you have no part or lot in the justifying grace of God as the gospel reveals it; no peace in believing; no joy in the Holy Ghost. That is great truth to be deeply pondered.

3. The proverb, however, as here applied by the apostle, has reference chiefly and ultimately to the influence of cherished or tolerated sin, as affecting not merely your character before men, and your judicial standing before God, but your personal purity and holiness. It penetrates, pervades, pollutes, the whole inner man. We need no proof or illustration here. The fact is but too often matter of observation, and, alas! also of sad experience. Consider only how little leaven will suffice; and how thoroughly the very least will leaven the whole lump.

How little leaven will do the work! A casual walk on the house top, the idle glance of a wandering eye, began the movement in David’s heart which, issuing in foul lust and murder, left him with conscience seared and callous, till the prophet’s voice broke the spell: “Thou art the man.” It was but a little, a very little, secret covetousness that lurked in the bosom of the traitor apostle, a slight leaning towards worldly gain, which he hoped to make compatible with following Jesus. But it practised and prospered until it blackened his whole soul, making it a fit habitation for the devil, who was to hurry him down a steep place to treachery, remorse, and suicide. The beginning of evil may be but a single thought, a solitary image in a disordered fancy; a single liberty taken but for once; a rare instance of neglected duty or omitted prayer. But the same occasion occurs again. The thought, the imagination, the desire, springs up again. The accursed thing has got a footing within you. It is an inmate in your breast. You have to deal with it one way or other; to grapple with, it, or to make terms with it. Alas! this last expedient is the readiest. You give in to it, at the expense of your conscious standing in the favour and fellowship of God. You cease to be so much concerned and vexed about it as once you would have been. You become indifferent. Your conscience is defiled. Secret prayer is straitened, or turned into a form. Heart religion declines. For you have no heart now to go so deep within as once you did in searching yourselves; no heart to be as honest and open as once you were in laying out all before God. Thus soon, too soon, either a worthless, lifeless, routine of ceremony, or loose worldly living somehow reconciled with a profession of godliness, or open backsliding, and profligate apostasy ensue. For consider not only how little leaven will do the work, but how thoroughly it will do it; leavening the whole lump. It was after all but a little tolerance of sin in an offending brother for which Paul had to reprove the Corinthians. And yet see how it worked! See this in what it cost them to get the leaven ultimately cast out (2 Corinthians 7:11). They sorrowed unto repentance! They sorrowed after a godly sort! And how did their very sorrow prove the deep and wide working of the evil leaven! “For behold, the selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!” Yes! it was no slight or superficial penitential exercise they had undergone before Paul could say, “In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” So also David’s bitter anguish as he pours out his all but despairing grief, may attest the same sad truth. Read and ponder the recorded instances, whether of backsliding healed, or of apostasy never forgiven. What awful testimonies have you to the rapid, resistless, thorough-going influence, of one little habit of evil, first perhaps apologised for in a brother, and then tolerated in yourself, eating away all spirituality, and landing you in mere carnal formality or unconcern. Purge out therefore the leaven. It is always dangerous. And never is it more so than when you come to prayer, or any solemn service, regarding any iniquity in your heart.