Meanwhile, the friends who would have rescued him had been alienated by
his follies, and the principles which might have preserved him had been
eradicated by his guilt. He had long flung away the shield of prayer,
and the helmet of holiness, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God; and now, unarmed and helpless, Eric stood alone, a mark for
the fiery arrows of his enemies, while, through the weakened inlet of
every corrupted sense, temptation rushed in upon him perpetually
and unawares.
As the class-room they had selected was in a remote part of the
building, there was little immediate chance of detection. So the
laughter of the party grew louder and sillier; the talk more foolish and
random; the merriment more noisy and meaningless. But still most of them
mingled some sense of caution with their enjoyment, and warned Eric and
Wildney more than once that they must look out, and not take too much
that night for fear of being caught. But it was Wildney's birth-day, and
Eric's boyish mirth, suppressed by his recent troubles, was blazing out
unrestrained.
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