SELF-CONSIDERATION by Dr. Owen

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 25, 1858

SELF-CONSIDERATION.

By Dr. Owen

Who is there that considereth aright the vanity, darkness, and ignorance of his mind, the perverseness and stubbornness of his will, with the disorder, irregularity, and distemper of his affections, with respect unto things spiritual and heavenly, who is not ashamed of, who doth not abhor himself? This is that which hath given our nature its leprosy, and defiled it throughout. And he who hath no experience of spiritual shame and self-abhorrence on account of this inconformity of his nature, and the faculties of his soul, unto the holiness of God, is a great stranger to the whole work of sanctification. Who is there that can recount the unsteadiness of his mind in holy meditation, his low and unbecoming conceptions of God's excellencies, his proneness to foolish imaginations and vanities that profit not, his averseness to spirituality in duty, and fixedness in communion with God, his proneness to things sensual and evil, all arising from the spiritual irregularity of our natural faculties, (if ever he had any due apprehensions of divine purity and holiness,) that is not sensible of his own vileness and baseness, and is not oftentimes deeply affected with shame thereon? Isa. lxiv, 6: Dan. ix, 4.—Dr. Owen.