Page:Interesting particulars of the last moments, and execution, of Moses M'Donald.pdf/7

( 7 ) lament the insensability with which he had treated the warnings that Providence had given him; and he declared, that were he to obtain a free pardon, he could not tell whether he would not after all yield again even to the worst temptations of lust, or sloth, and of avarice. Let every one who even allows himself with secret desire, to contemplate the possibility of robbing, or pilfering without detection, think well of this declaration; for one act of dishonesty will lead him to another. Nay, let every slothful or dissipated person think well of this declaration: for his vices lead naturally to acts of dishonesty; and by acts is formed at last the habit. This poor man, in the prospect of death, seemed often to be deeply impressed with the sense of his guilt; he cried to God for mercy, and for the assistance of the Holy Spirit to prepare him for eternity; and he appeared to lament with bitterness of heart his folly and wickedness; but yet, when he thought of the opportunities of instruction which he had neglected, and of the warnings which he had despised, he could not venture, either in prayer to God, or in conversation with his fellow creatures, to say that, were his days to be prolonged, he would avoid in future the sins which he thought the grace of God had taught him to detest. What an awful lesson should this be to any one who thinks of an act of fraud, and flatters himself that, after securing the gain of that act, he will refrain from other or greater iniquities! Ah, what is the profit of any iniquitous act, that a man should give for it his peace of mind, or even risk the loss of his good name? And what profit can cverever [sic] compensate the unhappiness and the wretchedness of him who is exposed to the danger of an ignominious death? But though a man were secured from that danger, what madness is it to commit any act which shall debase and corrupt his whole character, increase and exasperate his emnity to God, and expose his immortal soul to a misery, whose horrors no language can express, no imagination can conceive! Yet