Traitors in camp / by John F.W. Ware.

  • Ware, John F. W. (John Fothergill Waterhouse), 1818-1881.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Traitors in camp / by John F.W. Ware. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be right is the great cause of sin. There is hardly a more important warning, or one that needs more frequently to he repeated, than that contained in the last line of a verse many of you have often heard read and sung: — “ Thou tread’st upon enchanted ground; Perils and snares beset thee round: Beware of all; guard every part; But most the traitor in thy heart” It will not do, however, to think that there is but one traitor in the heart, one great secret foe. There are many, and in themselves they are gen- erally small, — so small individually that we either overlook them or consider them of no importance. What possible harm can come of such little things ? There is our mistake ; there is our danger. It is the little foxes that destroy the vines; the little mites that eat out the strength of the strongest ship; the little sins that sap the vigor of the no- blest manhood. If there were but one, and that a Goliah in the camp, which went up and down raging and boasting and challenging, we should have little to fear. Some smooth stone from our faithful arm would lay it low. But these little things do not alarm us, do not set us on the watch, do not call our prudence or principle into exercise. They lull us rather into security, and we rouse ourselves at last only to find that we are utterly, fatally, within their grasp. Perhaps, in the old