and I wish well to every one as I do to myself; “all these things I have observed.” But if I say: you must also give up that intimacy, that company and occasion which is the radical cause of so many sins to you; you must renounce that vanity and love of dress that is a cause of scandal to others, and leads them into sin, then he goes away sad. A fifth thinks: this is not for me; “all these things I have observed.” But if I say: you must from day to day earnestly try to lessen and altogether give up your habit of cursing and swearing, then he shrugs his shoulders, and goes away sad. The sixth thinks: “all these things I have observed;” I do not curse or swear. But you must keep your unruly tongue in check, and give up that habit of fault-finding, abusing, and talking uncharitably of others and injuring their reputation, thus sinning against charity; that is not at all to his taste; he goes away sad. In a word, if piety and wickedness, virtue and vice, innocence and devotion, and guilt and transgression, the law of the Gospel of Christ and the laws and customs of the vain world, could be all mixed up and united together, then most people would have no difficulty, and would find courage and strength enough to tread the path to heaven.
But this is not enough; all the commandments without one exception must be kept. But you have to know that it is with the Christian life as with faith. If I refuse to believe one point of the law I am an unbeliever; if I fail to observe one point of the law I am wicked and deserve hell-fire. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all.”[1] It is not enough to keep one or several points of the commandments, to fulfil one or several of our Christian duties; they must all be fulfilled. When you are on a journey, does it help you to have three good and sound wheels 011 your carriage if the fourth is broken so that you cannot proceed? What does it avail your health to be free from fever if consumption chains you to your bed? What difference does it make to your life to be pierced with a sword or shot with a bullet? In the same way, how could it help your salvation to go with one foot towards heaven and with the other towards hell? You say: I am not a thief or an unjust man; that is all right; robbery and injustice will not keep you out of heaven; but you are puffed up and proud on account of your wealth, and you despise others, so that it is your pride that will send you to hell. You are not guilty of adultery
- ↑ Quicunque totam legem servaverit offendat autem in uno, factus est omnium reus.—James ii. 10.
