'
Will you, my friend? Then you will soon grow tired of thinking of
that likewise, at least I hope and trust that you will. For, however
much faith you may have had, you will find that you have not had
enough. However so many good works you may have done, you will find
that you have not done enough. The better man you are, the more you
will be dissatisfied with yourself; the more you will be ashamed of
yourself; till with all saints, Romanist or Protestant, or other, who
have been worthy of the name of saints, you will be driven--if you
are in earnest about your own soul--to give up thinking of yourself,
and to think only of the cross of Christ, and of the love of Christ
which shines thereon; and ask--Is it great enough to cover my sins?
to save one as utterly unworthy to be saved as I. And so, after all,
you will be forced to throw yourself--where you ought to have thrown
yourself at the outset--at the foot of Christ's cross; and say in
spirit and in truth -
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling -
In plain words, I throw myself, with all my sins, upon that absolute
and boundless love of God which made all things, and me among them,
and hateth nothing that he hath made; who redeemed all mankind, and
me among them, and hath said by the mouth of his only-begotten Son,
'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
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