This world is not, and never was intended
to be, our rest. It is a wilderness we are
passing through, and shame, shame to us,
that we so often want to sit down amid its
weeds and briars, and amuse ourselves with
the trifles of a fallen world lying in the wicked
one. All here is polluted and tainted by sin;
therefore does Christ say, "Arise, my love,
my fair one, and come away."
(adapted from Mary Winslow's, "Life in Jesus")
