vacillating life, which is the seed-field of sin, you were praying to God
every day--"Lead us not into temptation."

If we remember any such experience we may at least gather from it some
lessons of safety and strength for the time to come. It reminds us first
of all how vitally important is our general attitude towards every form
of sin and its allurements. On this attitude it very often depends
whether your life is to be comparatively free from pitfalls, or whether
it is to be beset with dangers at every turning. If by your attitude and
behaviour you cause it to be felt that sin is hateful to you, and that
you are sincere when you pray that God may keep you from all evil, a
great many of the temptations that would otherwise make your life
difficult and dangerous will shrink away abashed; or if the tempter
ventures to assail you, he will do it half-heartedly when he sees that
you repel him with a whole-hearted repugnance. It is this attitude even
more than individual acts which fixes the tone of a society.

When there is no prevalent sense that there are those present who
maintain this attitude of hatred and contempt for sin and everything that
breeds or fosters it, the tone, as men say, becomes low, or lax, the air
becomes corrupt, and life in such surroundings becomes full of peril. If
the good are timid, shrinking, showing no positive fervour, no zeal for
virtue, and no moral indignation against evil influence, then the bad in
their society will lift up their heads and walk boldly. But when, on the
other hand, they who are in their hearts convinced of the sinfulness of
sin, and of the infinite mischief that may arise out of any form of it,
are not ashamed to show it by their attitude, they cause the base to hide
itself in its proper darkness, and they create an atmosphere around them
in which temptations lose a great deal of their force and strength.