That is a sound body that continues healthful in a pest house. It is a far greater wonder to see a saint maintain his purity among sinners, than it is to behold, a sinner becoming pure among saints. Christians are not always like fish, which retain their freshness in a salt sea; or like the rose, which preserves its sweetness among the most noisome weeds; or like the fire, which burns the hottest when the season is coldest. A good man was once heard to lament, "that as often as he went into the company of the wicked he returned less a man from them than he was before he joined with them." The Lord's people, by keeping evil company, are like persons who are much exposed to the sun, insensibly tanned.
(T. Seeker.)

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