“He left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.” — Genesis 39:12

In contending with certain sins there remains no mode of victory but by flight. The ancient naturalists wrote much of basilisks, whose eyes fascinated their victims and rendered them easy victims; so the mere gaze of wickedness puts us in solemn danger. He who would be safe from acts of evil must haste away from occasions of it. A covenant must be made with our eyes not even to look upon the cause of temptation, for such sins only need a spark to begin with and a blaze follows in an instant. Who would wantonly enter the leper’s prison and sleep amid its horrible corruption? He only who desires to be leprous himself would thus court contagion. If the mariner knew how to…

avoid a storm, he would doanything rather than run the risk of weathering it. Cautious pilots have nodesire to try how near the quicksand they can sail, or how often they maytouch a rock without springing a leak; their aim is to keep as nearly aspossible in the midst of a safe channel.

This day I may be exposed to great peril, let me have the serpent’swisdom to keep out of it and avoid it. The wings of a dove may be of moreuse to me to-day than the jaws of a lion. It is true I may be an apparentloser by declining evil company, but I had better leave my cloak than losemy character; it is not needful that I should be rich, but it is imperativeupon me to be pure. No ties of friendship, no chains of beauty, noflashings of talent, no shafts of ridicule must turn me from the wise resolveto flee from sin. The devil I am to resist and he will flee from me, but thelusts of the flesh, I must flee, or they will surely overcome me. O God ofholiness preserve thy Josephs, that Madam Bubble bewitch them not withher vile suggestions. May the horrible trinity of the world, the flesh, andthe devil, never overcome us!

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Producer: Todd Adkins
Voice Artist: Ian Cullen