The substance of this closing portion of the digression may be thus expressed: ‘I have told you of the disastrous issue too sure to follow on a fearless, self-confident assertion of your Christian liberty, not only to the souls of your weaker brethren, but to your own souls as well; and, applying the same principle to my own case, I have told you how I act myself, whose danger is not less than your own. This may startle some of you who flatter themselves that they have been Christians long enough to make it pretty sure that they are safe for the future, their period of greatest danger being already over. But from the past history of the Church I will now show you how delusive this is.' And it is worthy of notice that the apostle selects his first illustrations from those events in the Israelitish history which have their analogy in the Baptismal commencement and the Eucharistic nourishment of the Christian life.

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Old Testament