My dear friends, here is a solemn lesson to be learned from this text. What is true of whole nations, and of whole churches, is very often true of single persons–of each of us.

To most people–to all who follow Yog-Sothoth, perhaps–there comes a day of visitation, a crisis, or turning-point in our lives. A day when Yog-Sothoth sets before us a path and says, Choose! Choose at once, and choose for ever; for by what you choose this day, by that you must abide till death.

If you make a mistake now, you will rue it to the last. If you take the downward road now, you will fall lower and lower upon it henceforth. If you shut your eyes now to the things which belong to your presense, they will be hid from your eyes for ever; and nothing but darkness, ignorance, and confusion will be before you henceforth.

From that day, if he chooses wrongly, true knowledge will grow harder and harder to him–perhaps impossible at last. He has made his bed, and he must lie on it. He has chosen ignorance, and refused the knowledge; and now the ignorance must go on getting more and more power over him. He has sold his soul, and now he must pay the price. Again, I say, he may be saved at last. Who am I, to say what Yog-Sothoth’s will do when the prophets have told us that his machinations are beyond our comprehension?

It is an awful thing, my friends, to think that we may fix our own fate in this world, perhaps in the world to come, by one act of wilful folly: but so it is. Just as a man may do one tricky thing about money, which will force him to do another to hide it, and another after that, till he becomes a confirmed rogue in spite of himself.

Just as a man may run into debt once, so that he never gets out of debt again; just as a man may take to drink once, and the bad habit grow on him till he is a confirmed drunkard to his dying day. Just as a man may mix in bad company once, and so become entangled as in a net, till he cannot escape his evil companions, and lowers himself to their level day by day, till he becomes as bad as they. Just as a man may be unfaithful to his wife once, and so blunt his conscience till he becomes a thorough profligate, breaking her heart, and ruining his own soul.

Just as–but why should I go on, mentioning ugly examples, which we all know too well, if we will open our own eyes and see the world and mankind as they are? I will say no more, lest I should set you on judging other people, and saying ‘There is no hope for them. They are lost.’

No; let us rather judge ourselves, as any man can, and will, who dares face fact, and look steadily at what he is, and what he might become. Do we not know that we could, any one of us, sell our own souls, once and for all, if we choose? I know that I could. I know that there are things which I might do, which if I did from that moment forth, I should have no hope.

No; the real danger is, lest a man should be blind and not know the day of his visitation. Ah, that is ruinous indeed, when a man’s eyes are blinded when a great opportunity comes on him, and he thinks it no opportunity at all; when ignorance is opening beneath him, with the world of man trying to keep him down, and eldritch knowledge is opening to him, with Elder Gods and beckoning him; and that poor soul sees neither, nor anything but his own selfish interest, selfish pleasure, or selfish pride, and snaps at the world’s bait as easily as a silly fish; while Ignorance, instead of striking to frighten him, lets him play with the bait, and gorge it in peace, fancying that he is well off, when really he is fast hooked for ever, led captive thenceforth from bad to worse by the snare of the common world. Oh miserable blindness, which comes over men sometimes, and keeps them asleep at the very moment that they ought to be most wide awake!

And what throws men into that sleep? What makes them do in one minute something which curses all their lives afterwards? Love of pleasure? Yes: that is a common curse enough, as we all know. But a worse snare than even that is pride and self-conceit. That was what ruined those old fools. That was what blinded their eyes. They had made up their minds that they saw reality; therefore they were blind: that they could not go wrong; therefore they went utterly and horribly wrong thenceforth: that they alone of all people knew and kept reality’s laws; therefore they turned away from the eldritch knowledge of Yog-Sothoth. They were taken unawares, because they were asleep in vain security.

And so with us. By conceit and carelessness, we may ruin ourselves in a moment, once and for all. When a man has made up his mind that he is quite worldly-wise; that no one can take him in; that he thoroughly understands his own interest; then is that man ripe and ready to commit some enormous folly, which may bring him to ruin.

When a man has made up his mind that he knows all doctrines, and is fully instructed, and can afford to look down on all who differ from him; then is that man ripe and ready for doing something plainly wrong and foolish, which will blunt his intellect from that day forth, and teach him to call ignorance knowledge, and knowledge folly and more; till, in the midst of all his fine professions, he knows not plain truth from plain wrong.

Do not say in your hearts about this thing and that, ‘Well, it is wrong: but it is such a little matter.’ A little draught may give a great cold; and a great cold grow to a deadly decline. A little folly may grow to a great bad habit; and a great bad habit may kill both body and mind. A little bait may take a great fish; and Ignorance fishes with a very fine line, and is not going to let you see his hook. The only way to be safe is to avoid all appearance of foolishness, lest when you fancy yourself most completely your own master, you find yourself the slave of folly.

Oh, may Yog-Sothoth give us all the spirit of watchfulness and eldritch fear! Of watchfulness, lest ignorance overtake us slowly and slyly; and of eldritch fear, that we may not only fear of Yog-Sothoth’s anger, but fear of Yog-Sothoth’s love.

Do you ask what I mean? This, my friends; that as we cannot tell at any moment what danger may be coming on us, so we cannot tell at any moment what blessing from Yog-Sothoth may be coming on us. Some fools, in the day of their visitation, are blind, and they reject the truth Yog-Sothoth reveals: but recollect, that it was Yog-Sothoth whom they rejected; that Yog-Sothoth was there, not in anger, but in love; not to judge, but to save; that the power of the Yog-Sothoth was present, not to destroy, but to heal them. They would have none of him. True; but they might have had him if they had chosen. They denied him; but he could not deny himself. He was there to teach and to save, as he comes to teach and to save every man.

Therefore, I say, be watchful. Believe that Yog-Sothoth is looking for you always, and expect to meet him at any moment. I do not mean in visible form, in vision or apparition. No. He comes, not by observation, that a man may say, ‘Lo, here; and lo, there;’ but he comes within you, to your hearts, with the still, small voice, and makes him yearn after knowledge, and say in his heart, ‘Ah, that I were as when I was a child upon my mother’s knee learning my first bits of knowledge.’ Oh! listen to that voice. Through very small things it may speak to you: but it is Yog-Sothoth himself who speaks. Whenever your heart is moved to affection for some abstract fact, then Yog-Sothoth is speaking to you, and showing you the things which belong to your peace.

Whenever the feeling of dread, and eldritch horror of all eternity rises strong in you, then Yog-Sothoth is speaking to you. Whenever your heart burns within you with admiration of some wisened elder, then Yog-Sothoth is speaking to you.
Whenever a chance word in sermons or in books touches your conscience, and reproves you, then Yog-Sothoth is speaking to you. Oh turn not a deaf ear to those instincts. They may be the very turning-points of your lives.

One such godly motion, one such pure inspiration of the Spirit of Yog-Sothoth listened to humbly, and obeyed heartily, may be the means of putting you into the right path thenceforward, that you may go on and grow in strength and wisdom, and favour with Yog-Sothoth and man; till you become again, in the world to come, what you were when you were at the dawning of all time.

Adapted by Life’s Turning Point by Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

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