It is natural that those who have experienced the agitations which frequently attend upon conversion, and have felt the peace which flows from a hope of acceptance with God, to imagine that the conflict is over, the victory won, and the work of religion accomplished. This imagination is soon dissipated. Birth is not the whole of life; neither is conversion the whole of religion. A young mother may, in the fullness of her joy, forget for a moment that her vocation as a mother is but just begun; but when she looks upon her infant, so wonderful in its organization and instinct with an immortal spirit, the sight of its helplessness makes her feel how great a work she has still to do. An hour’s neglect might prove the ruin of her hopes. Thus the young Christian, although at first disposed to think that his work is finished, soon finds that the feeble principle of spiritual life needs to be watched and nourished with ceaseless care. If abandoned at its birth, it must perish as certainly and as speedily as an exposed infant.

Charles Hodge | The Way Of Life (Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union, 1893), 286.

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