But she had her own reasons for her delight in
this particular kind of discourse, and it was seldom that she lighted on
a pilgrim who both understood her questions and responded to them as did
this man now sitting beside her. Now, my brethren, all parable apart, is
that your religious experience? Are you full of shame and detestation at
your inward cogitations? Are you tormented, enslaved, and downright
cursed with your own evil thoughts? I do not ask whether or no you have
such thoughts always within you. I do not ask, because I know. But I
ask, because I would like to make sure that you know what, and the true
nature of what, goes on incessantly in your mind and in your heart. Do
you, or do you not, spit out your most inward thoughts ten times a day
like poison? If you do, you are a truly religious man, and if you do
not, you do not yet know the very ABC of true religion, and your dog has
a better errand at the Lord's table than you have. And if your minister
lets you sit down at the Lord's table without holding from time to time
some particular discourse with you about your sinful thoughts, he is
deceiving and misleading you, besides laying up for himself an awakening
at last to shame and everlasting contempt.
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