Sins Remembered 2
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By closely and devoutly studying the holiness of God. The perfection of the Divine character is the best mirror in which to see reflected the imperfection of our own—and the sinfulness of man never comes out so fully and so impressively to view as when seen in contrast with the holiness of God. Accustomed to look on the imperfect displays of spiritual excellence which are to be found in the church, and imperfect indeed they are, and on the total lack of all that is holy in the men of the world, we are apt to form very low ideas of that piety which is required of us; and at the same time to entertain too high ideas of what we have attained. And thus, comparing ourselves with ourselves, and with each other—we have neither the knowledge of our sinfulness, nor, of course, the due humiliation on account of it, which we ought to have.
It is only when we fix our gaze upon the HOLY ONE, and contemplate his infinite purity, that we become properly sensible of our deep depravity, and our still remaining corruption. This was the effect of a clearer manifestation of God's glory upon the mind of JOB. He who had been considered, and called, 'a perfect man', comparatively, thus describes the influence upon his mind of a clearer manifestation of the Divine glory—"I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes!" Job 42:5, 6. A similar effect was produced on the mind of the prophet Isaiah, by the vision of God's majesty in the temple—"Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips—for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!" Isaiah 6:5.
A clear and impressive view of the purity, spirituality, extent, and perfection of the law, will have the same effect in discovering to us our numberless and great imperfections. By that law everything sinful is forbidden—even to an unholy feeling; and everything holy is required—even to absolute moral perfection. Oh, when the blazing, searching light of that holy rule of action shines into and fills the mind—what corruption is disclosed, what depravity is unveiled! Our sins appear like the particles of matter which float in the sunbeam that enters a dark room, small, perhaps, as compared with actual vices, but absolutely innumerable. Study God's holy character, then, and his holy law, and you will soon find out that your sins are more in number than the hairs of your head!
Do not think lightly of these sins, nor excuse them on the ground of their comparative smallness, and because they are found in the best of men. It is true they ought not, except they are indulged, defended, and allowed to remain unopposed and unmortified—to unsettle your confidence in Christ, and your hope of personal saving interest in his salvation; for if assurance could rest only on perfection, who could possess it? But what deep penitence should they produce, what profound humiliation before God. Here is matter for daily abasement, confession and prayer. If a pardoned sinner, conscious of being such, need not pray while this assurance is in his mind, for the forgiveness of the sins of an unconverted state, he may still daily and hourly pray for the sins of a converted state. If he need not to ask God as a Judge to justify him, he has cause to ask God as a Father to forgive him.
If he has not to ask for the curse to be removed, he has to solicit that the rod may be averted. Though we are not to conceive of God as actually looking after causes and grounds for the condemnation of his children, but as knowing their frame, and remembering that they are dust; still they are never to lose sight of their imperfections, nor to cease abasing themselves before him on account of them. Far remote are this humiliation and penitence, from a spirit of bondage and dread; it is the humility, and meekness of a child, that does not doubt his own sonship, or his father's love, but who has such a sense of his father's excellence and claims, that he is even disposed to condemn himself for the defects of his gratitude and love, of his devotedness and obedience. His sense of his daily sins does not take from him the peace of believing—but it sends him to the throne of grace with tears of penitence, mingling with those of joy.
How prevailing an ingredient should humility be, in the composition of the Christian character! For what is he? A pardoned rebel, and still the subject of innumerable imperfections. How inconsistent is pride of every degree and every kind, with such a character! And how preposterous and absurd, as well as wicked! How humbly should he be, and how softly should he walk! How strangely must he forget what he was, and how ignorant must he be of what he is—if his heart is lofty, or his eyes be lifted up!
How much is there yet to be done in the work of sanctification, and how diligently should we be employed in doing it. If even an apostle could say of himself, "Not as though I had attained, or were already perfect," how much more truly and emphatically may we say the same thing. What a height of holiness is there above our head, which we have not yet reached; and what a depth of obligation we have scarcely yet sounded. How much is there yet for us to do, by the help of God's blessed Spirit, in these hearts of ours. Yes, in these hearts, for to shut out sin from the outward LIFE, may after all be but a refined selfishness—if there is not equal solicitude to put it out, and keep it out, from the HEART. For vice would degrade us and disgrace us in the estimation of our fellow Christians, and fellow men; would in consequence be felt as a calamity, as well as a crime; and may by possibility be avoided on other grounds than a love of holiness for its own sake.
If therefore it is only great sins we are seeking to avoid, while we give ourselves no concern about mortifying and avoiding lesser ones; if it is the outward LIFE only we are striving to keep pure, while the HEART is left uncleansed and unwatched. If it is the sins of commission only which trouble us, and not those of omission, we are certainly deceiving ourselves, and what seeming holiness we possess, is for the love of self, and not for the love of God. Dear brethren, bear about with you a sense of those lesser sins, which though they do not disprove your conversion, diminish your sanctification, and hinder your perfection. Feel like a person who, though he had no loathsome defilement on his clothes, which would render him an object of disgust to all who witnessed it, was conscious that there was much dust, which, though it did not render him offensive, would blemish his garments, and which he was anxious to remove.
Watch against little sins; pray against them, yes, pray to understand them, and to see them—for many are so dull and indistinct in their spiritual vision that they do not properly discern them. A professing Christian's state may be much more accurately tested, and safely decided upon, by the way in which he is affected by these, than by his feelings towards greater ones. Natural conscience, the force of education, and a regard to his own reputation, may induce an abhorrence of open "presumptuous sins." But the detestation, dread, and mortification of "secret faults," is a pretty sure indication of a mind under the illumination, and a heart under the guidance of the Spirit of God.
How much you need the help of the Divine Spirit, and how earnestly should you pray for it to keep alive a due sense of your daily sins. The number and frequency of them have a tendency to produce a hardness of heart and an dullness of conscience, which greatly hinder our sanctification, and from which nothing can effectually preserve us but the grace which comes from above.
How delightful is the prospect, and how habitually should we contemplate it, of that state, where there will be no past sins unpardoned, no present ones committed, and no future ones dreaded. Nothing will remain of SIN but the remembrance of it, and even that of a kind which will not interfere, in the smallest degree, with the fullness of joy in God's presence, but which will in fact give new raptures of gratitude and love to the song of the blessed, who, in the possession of perfect holiness and perfect happiness, fall before the throne of Him from whom they have received both, saying, "You have redeemed us to God by your blood!"
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