Some people admit there is a spiritual life to
live, and that they have not lived it, and they are sorry for themselves,
and pity themselves, and think, "How sad that I am too feeble for it! How
sad that God gives it to others, but has not given it to me!" They have
great compassion upon themselves, instead of saying, "Alas! it has been
our unfaithfulness, our unbelief, our disobedience, that has kept us from
giving ourselves utterly to God. We have to blush and to be ashamed before
God that we do not live as spiritual men."
A man does not get converted without having conviction of sin. When that
conviction of sin comes, and his eyes are opened, he learns to be afraid of
his sin, and to flee from it to Christ, and to accept Christ as a mighty
deliverer. But a man needs a second conviction of sin; a believer must be
convicted of his peculiar sin. The sins of an unconverted man are different
from the sins of a believer. An unconverted man, for instance, is not
ordinarily convicted of the corruption of his nature; he thinks principally
about external sins,--"I have sworn, been a liar, and I am on the way to
hell.
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