Page:The Life and Works of Christopher Dock.djvu/124

112 to the greatness of the offense punishment must be increased or lessened.

I should gladly tell my friend all of this truly, but as the subject is such a broad one, I really do not know where to begin or end. This is because the wickedness of youth exhibits itself in so many ways, and the offenses which are taught them by those older than themselves are so various, and as God Himself declares: (I Moses viii, 21) “For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth,” so that from this impure spring (unless by constant effort the bad is suppressed and rooted out) there is little hope of improvement. Corruption is so great, and increases daily in so many ways, that I am convinced that it is impossible to do anything of one's own power. Where the Lord does not help build, all that build work in vain. The slap of the hand, hazel branch and birch rod are means of preventing wicked outburst, but they cannot change the stubborn heart, which holds us all in such sway since the fall, that we are all inclined more to the bad than to the good, so long as the heart is unchanged and not renewed by the spirit of God. But while the seed of wickedness is present, it could not grow if we were convinced of its presence, and strove earnestly to remove it, not only from ourselves, but from our fellow man and from our youth. As this old evil and serpent's sting is the same in all, we all are enabled to seek earnestly the same surgeon and apply the means of recovery which He prescribes for such evil, to ourselves and our youth. For withoutrecovery we cannot reach peace, for the worm