Devotional Excerpts

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Oct 24, 1854

Devotional Excerpts

DEVOTIONAL EXCERPTS.—Faith does not consist of my thinking that my sins were comparatively little, and therefore may be forgiven; but in knowing that they are very great, and believing that though they are never so many and great, past or present, Christ's blood is above them all.

Those who deny salvation by faith alone, do not pretend to say that it is by works alone, but partly by faith and partly by works, and they will accept of Christ to make good deficiencies. But they might as well make sure work of it, and take him for all; for their very best works, it is to be feared, will make but a sorry appearance; and consequently their own persons, when tried in the balance, be found miserably wanting.

Nothing but Christ's blood, taking away, and, as it were, annihilating sin, can quiet an awakened conscience. Repentance implies an abiding self-dislike and self-abhorrence; and can neither destroy the existence nor extinguish the remembrance nor heal the smart of past sin; the torment of it can never die but with a conviction that Christ took it all upon himself.

No sin is so great but the sanctification of Christ and his mercies are greater; it is beyond comparison. Fathers and mothers, in tenderest affections, are but beams and trains to lead us upward to the infinite mercy of God in Christ.