Words to Ponder
Sit down, and take pen and paper, and count up the sins that you have probably sinned since you first knew good from evil. Sit down, I say, and make a sum. Grant for a moment that there have been on an average, fifteen hours in every twenty-four during which you have been awake, and an active and accountable being. Grant for a moment that in each one of these fifteen hours you have sinned only two sins. Surely you will not say that this is an unfair supposition. Remember we may sin against God in thought, word, or deed. I repeat, it cannot be thought an extreme thing to suppose that in each waking hour of your life you have, in thought, or word, or deed, sinned two sins. And now add up the sins of your life, and see to what sum they will amount. At the rate of fifteen waking hours in a day, you have sinned every day thirty sins! - At the rate of seven days in a week, you have sinned two hundred and ten sins every week! - At the rate of four weeks in every month, you have sinned eight hundred and forty sins every month! - At the rate of twelve months in every year, you have sinned ten thousand and eighty sins every year! - And, in short, not to go further with the calculation, every ten years of you life you have sinned, at the lowest computation, more than ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND SINS! I invite you to look calmly at this sum. I defy you to disprove its correctness. I ask you, on the contrary, whether I have not entirely understated your case? I appeal to you, as an honest person, whether it be not true, that many an hour, and many a day in your life, you have sinned incessantly? I ask you confidently, whether the sum would not be far more correct if the total number of your sins was multiplied ten-fold? - J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)