There is a lot in here to take to heart, but I was especially surprised by the call to rebuke unbelievers when they are in sin: "If you do not rebuke sin – I mean, of course, on all suitable occasions and in a proper spirit – your silence will give consent to the sin, and you will be encouraging and supporting the sin...The person who can hear swearing or see impurity and never utter a word of protest may well question whether he is righteous himself." He points to the thief on the cross, as well as Ezekiel 33:8 "It is more than ever needful in these days that believers in Christ do not allow sin to go unrebuked, and yet a great many of them do so. Do you not know that a person who is silent when a wrong thing is said or done has become a participant in the sin? 'When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die for his sin; but I will require his blood at thine hand'."

He also spends a lot of time trying to open our eyes to the worthlessness of earthly pleasures and enjoyments, warning us that our comfort must be in the gospel of Jesus Christ, not luxury, selfish ease, amusement, indulgence, or lightheartedness. "He who does not love Christ more than all things does not love Him. Oh, for men and women of principle, who consider nothing as loss but loss of faith, and desire no gain except the glory of God!"

And throughout, he calls us to both a private and public faith. If we only have one or the other, that is not genuine faith: "The fact is that our Lord requires an open confession as well as a secret faith. If you will not give it, there is no promise of salvation for you, but instead a threat of being denied in the end. The apostle Paul puts it this way: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Romans 10:9)." ( )