1. It perverts all they do by directing them to a wrong end.
2. It withdraws the mind from Christ.
3. It sours the temper. It breeds fears.
4. It gives Satan peculiar advantage against the soul.
5. The providence of God appears dark to such a soul.
6. It occasions false comfort.
7. It tarnishes the profession of such a person. (J. Cooke.)
Safety of believers in seeming perils
A British subject may be safe although surrounded by enemies in a distant land-not that he has strength to contend alone against armed thousands, but because he is a subject of our Queen. A despot on his throne, a horde of savages in their desert, have permitted a helpless traveller to pass unharmed, like a lamb among lions-although, like lions looking on a lamb, they thirsted for his blood-because they knew his sovereign’s watchfulness, and feared his sovereign’s power. The feeble stranger has a charmed life in the midst of his enemies, because a royal arm unseen encompasses him as with a shield. The power thus wielded by an earthly throne may suggest and symbolize the perfect protection of Omnipotence. A British subject’s confidence in his Queen may rebuke the feeble faith of a Christian. “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” What though there be fears within and fightings without? He who bought His people with His own Blood cannot lose his inheritance, and will not permit any enemy to wrest from His hand the satisfaction of His soul. The man with a deceitful heart and a darkened mind, a feeble frame and a slippery way, a fainting heart and a daring foe-such a man would stumble and fall; but the member of Christ’s body cannot drop off; the portion of the Redeemer cannot be wrenched from His grasp. “Ye are His.” Christ is the safety of a Christian. (W. Arnot.)
