SIGNS OF SPIRITUAL DECLINE

 

1.   When you are averse to religious conversation or the company of heavenly minded Christians.
2.   When from preference, and without necessity, you absent yourself from religious services.
3.   When you are more concerned about pacifying conscience than honoring Christ in the performance of your duty.
4.   When you are more afraid of being counted over strict than of dishonoring Christ.
5.   When you trifle with temptation, or think lightly of sin.
6.   When you condemn in others that which you tolerate in yourself.
7.   When the faults of others are more a matter of censorious conversation than of secret grief and prayer.
8.   When you are impatient and unforgiving toward the faults of others.
9.   When you confess, but do not forsake, sin; and when you acknowledge, but still neglect, duty.
10.  When you shrink from self-examination.
11.  When you strain out the gnat, but swallow the camel.
12.  When you are easily prevailed upon to let your duty as a Christian yield to your worldly interests or to the opinion of your neighbors.

From Gospel Guardian (3-20-41)