5:25. It is sin that destroys grace. Rom. 6:1, 2.

What is sin? Sin is the transgression of God's law. 1 John 3:4. Who in all
the earth has become so boldly defiant that he can in the face of clear
and plain Scriptural statements testify that he is in a state of grace
when he is living in known violation of some of God's commandments? His
boldness will forsake him and he wither like the frail flower beneath the
hoary frost when he comes into the awful majestic presence of a righteous
Creator in that great avenging day.

One of the inspired writers of the New Testament exhorts Christians to
give all diligence that we add virtue to our faith, and knowledge to our
virtue, and temperance to our knowledge, and to temperance patience, and
to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to
brotherly kindness charity. 2 Pet. 1:5-7. In the following verses he tells
us if these things abound in us we shall be neither barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord, and if we do these things we shall never
fall. Does not this obviously imply that if we do not do them that we
shall fall? Dear reader, if you are now a Christian and feel the glowing
of God's pure love in your heart, if you neglect to employ the means for
growth in grace that the Bible commands, that certainly you will
backslide, or fall from grace. You may retain a form of worship, but you
will be devoid of spirituality and your worship be unacceptable. We are
commanded to "grow in grace." 2 Pet. 3:18. In the verse above we are
warned against being led away by the error of the wicked and falling from
our own steadfastness.

Now it is a well established fact in the very nature of things that it
would be impossible to grow if there was no possibility of a decline. If
there be no retrogression, there can be no progression. The beloved John
from the lonely isle writes unto the church of Ephesus and tells them that
God had somewhat against them because they had left their first love. He
tells them to remember from whence they are fallen and repent. They once
enjoyed the love of God--they were spiritual. His redeeming grace had
removed the guilt of sin, but now they are fallen. He that hath an ear,
let him hear.

How often the apostle Paul warns the Christian against backsliding. His
motto was, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus." Phil. 3:14. In writing to the Colossians he says,
"Luke, the beloved physic