Presumptuous Confidence
1 Corinthians 10:12
Why let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.


Dr. Talmage tells a story of an experience-meeting held in Louisville, Kentucky, that is not without its lessons. It seems to have been a meeting where what our Transatlantic friends call "high falutin' talk" was in the ascendant. A man rose up and said, "I'm a ship steaming right ahead for glory. I can tell ye I'm going along at a spanking pace, and soon expect to enter the blessed haven of eternal felicity." Another man, whose jealousy seems to have been excited by this very high-sounding profession, immediately rose and said, "Yes, friends, like our brother who has just sat down, I also am a ship in full sail, steaming straight and fast for the heavenly shore. I'm going along at the rate of forty knots an hour, and soon shall hail the mountaintops of Immanuel's land. Glory! glor!" An aged sister who was present, and whose experience of Christian life extended over many years, rose and said, "Well, you are all gettin' 'long mighty fast. I have been a-goin' to heaven for seventy years, and I've had to walk all the way, and have often stumbled and fallen, but have got up again, and if I ever get there at all I expect I'll have jest to walk the rest of the way. As to you men who are going so fast, all I've got to say is, that if you get to goin' much faster you'll bust your bilers and never git there at all." Dr. Talmage naively adds, "There are a good many folk whose bilers have busted, all about."



Parallel Verses
KJV: Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

WEB: Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn't fall.




Forewarned, Forearmed
Top of Page
Top of Page