Keep back Thy servant, O God,
from presumptuous sin. Let him be innocent of the great transgression.
Dr. Thomas Goodwin says somewhere that the worm that dieth not only comes
to its sharpest sting and to its deadliest venom when it is hatched up
under gospel light. The very light of nature itself greatly aggravates
some of our sins. The light of our early education greatly aggravates
others of our sins. But nothing wounds our conscience and then
exasperates the wound like a past experience of the same sin, and,
especially, an experience of the grace of God in forgiving that sin. Had
we found young Presumption in his irons before his conversion, we would
have been afraid enough at the sight. Had we found him laid by the heels
after his first uncleanness, it would have made us shudder for ourselves.
But we are horrified and speechless as we see him apprehended and laid in
irons on the very night of his first communion, and with the wine
scarcely dry on his unclean lips. Augustine postponed his baptism till
he should have his fill of sin, and till he should no longer return to
sin like a dog to his vomit.
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