The Fundamentals.
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be of his purposes and hopes. On such a task as this, he would embark with bands playing and colors flying. There would be credit and eclat from the first. Alas! vain man; this can only end disastrously. Thou art building on the sand. This is not of God, and must therefore come to naught. The Divine Spirit humbles men to conviction and deep repentance; He never prompts to self-righteousness and pride; as Hart’s simple stanza has i t : “He never moves a man to say, ‘Thank God, I am so good,' But turns his eye another way— To Jesus and His blood.” He would boast in progress. How his meanest achievement would elate him? What crowing there would be over the slightest advance! There would be no need for indebtedness to God. The new birth, the cleansing blood, the converting Spirit—what call for these? The. self-made man, they say, worships his creator, and the self-righteous man adores his saviour, that is to say, himself. While the Pharisee is brag ging of what he does, the publican mourns over what he is. Because his heart smites him, he smites his heart; he cannot look up, for he has looked within, but because he cries for mercy he is justified. This is as God would have it, for He hath said: “My glory will I not give unto another.” He would boast when perfect. If real peace and lasting joy could come to him, he would boast anew. “I have made my heart clean, and washed my hands in innocency,” he would cry. There would be no room for God, and for His sovereign claim to the whole praise of our salvation. Instead of the sweet chiming of the bells of St. Saviour’s, “I forgave thee—I forgave thee—I forgave thee all that debt,” we should be deafened with the hoarse brass of every man’s own trumpet blaring about the good—some will even dare to say, the God i—that is in all.
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