Alexander MacLaren

As long as you and I have two things – viz, strong and hot desires, and weak and flabby wills – so long shall we, in this world full of combustibles, not be beyond the possibility of a dreadful conflagration being kindled by some devil-blown sparks. There are plenty of dry sticks lying about to put under the cauldron of our hearts, to make them boil and bubble over! And we have, alas! but weak wills, which do not always keep the reins in their hands as they ought to do, nor coerce these lower parts of our nature into their proper subordination. Fire is a good servant, but a bad master; and we are all far us too apt to let it become master, and then the whole “course of nature” is “set on fire of hell”. The servant of God may yet, with open eyes and obstinate disregard of his better self, and all its remonstrances, go straight into “presumptuous sin.” ~Alexander MacLaren, Take Up the Challenge