August 25, 2010 (delivered from a worldly spirit)

delivered from a worldy spirit

“The ways, and fashions, and amusements,
and recreations of the world
have a continually decreasing place
in the heart of a growing Christian.
He does not condemn them as downright sinful,
nor say that those who have
anything to do with them are going to hell.
He only feels they have a constantly diminishing hold
on his own affections and gradually seem
smaller and more trifling in his eyes.”
- J.C. Ryle

“To be in the world, and yet not of the world;
to use it for our temporal necessities,
and yet not to abuse it for carnal purposes,
is a high Christian attainment.
May we be graciously delivered from a worldly spirit,
which can assume a thousand forms
to allure and to deceive.”
- Thomas Reade