View source for Oh, how religious he once used to be!

'''Back to [[Man's religion & God's religion]]'''
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<em>&quot;For the Son of man came to seek and to save those who are <strong>lost</strong>.&quot;</em> Luke 19:10<br><br>
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<strong>Oh, how religious he once used to be!</strong> How comfortably he could walk to church with his Bible under his arm, and look as devout and holy as possible! How regularly also, he could read the Scriptures, and pray in his manner, and think himself pretty well, with one foot in heaven. <em>But a ray of heavenly light</em> has beamed into his soul, and shown him who and what <em>God </em>is—what<strong> </strong><em>sin </em>and a sinful heart is—and who and what he <em>himself </em>as a sinner is.<br><br> The keen dissecting knife of God has come into his heart, laid it all bare, and let the gory matter flow out. When his conscience is bleeding under the scalpel, and is streaming all over with the gore and filth thus let out, <em>where is the clean heart once boasted of?<br><br> Where is his religion now?</em><strong> </strong>All buried beneath a load of filth!<strong> </strong><em>Where is all his holiness gone?</em><strong> </strong>His holy looks, holy expressions, holy manners, holy gestures, holy garb—where are they all gone?<br><br> All are flooded and buried. The sewer has broken out, and the filthy stream has discharged itself over his holy looks, holy manners, holy words and holy gestures—and he is, as Job says, 'in the ditch.'<br><br>
We never find the right <em>religion</em>, until we have lost the wrong one. We never find <em>Christ</em>, until we have lost SELF. We never find <em>grace</em>, until we have lost our own pitiful self-holiness.<em>&quot;For the Son of man came to seek and to save those who are <strong>lost</strong>.&quot;</em>