Coming to God

The nice people rarely come to God; they take their moral tone form the society in which they live. Like the Pharisee in front of the temple, they believe themselves respectable citizens. Elegance is their test of virtue; to them, the moral is the aesthetic, the evil is the ugly. Every more they make is dictated, not by a love of goodness, but by the influence of their age. They intellects are cultivated—in knowledge of current events; they read only the bestsellers, bu their hearts are undisciplined. They say they would go to church if the Church were only better—but they never tell you how much better the Church must be before they will join it. They sometimes condemn the gross sins of society such as murder; they are not tempted to these because they fear the opprobium which comes to them who commit them. By avoiding the sin which society condemns, the escape reproach, they consider themselves par excellence.