Very few persons, even the most depraved, would be willing to admit, if the question were put to them, that they were permanent travelers on the road to ruin. They might acknowledge that their habits were bad and their moral purposes iniquitous; that they drank, or swore, or stole, or lied, or were ill-tempered, or idle, or impure, or even admit that they were growing worse all the time; but they would, nevertheless, if really compelled to consider the question, believe, or at any rate say that they believed, that somehow or other, at some time or other, things would take an upward turn. But just here lies one of the most fatal fallacies of sin. Things do not take a turn unless the individual makes them
do so; and reform is quite sure to grow hard rather than easier, as the hours, days, and years hurry on. There is no slipping up hill again, and no standing still, when once you have begun to slip down. And yet the sole hope which many a man and woman has of escaping earthly woe and future penalty, is the hope of slipping up hill on some lucky day which a more propitious future shall bring. The sooner a soul finds that deliberate sinning is not to be followed by accidental salvation, the sooner will it be ready to respond to the call of the Holy Spirit.
The Advent Review and Herald Nov. 21, 1882