(Thomas Reade, "Christian Meditations")

The enmity of the carnal mind is ever
directed against the work of Christ.

The moralist, the formalist, the worldling,
and the sensualist, are alike opposed to the
humbling, purifying doctrines of the Cross.

Holiness is offensive to the unrenewed mind.

The more spiritual any religious exercise or book
is, the more it is disliked. Give some truly scriptural
volume to a lover of the world, and how will he
receive it? After glancing his eyes over a few of
its pages, he will lay it down with a contemptuous
smile. He will pity the enthusiast who wrote it,
and the enthusiast who admires it.

Give him some newly launched novel, some work
replete with wit and humour, and he will devour
its contents, even though it requires the midnight
oil to finish it. Here, all his heart is engaged, all
his passions are excited, imagination ads wings
to his flight, and, soaring into the realms of fancy,
into the fairy land of unreal life, he sinks into his
slumbers, regardless whether he awake in time
or in eternity!