Evening, October 27
Go To Morning Reading
“We are all as an unclean thing.”
Isaiah 64:6
The believer is a new creature, he belongs to a holy generation and a peculiar people—the Spirit of God is in him, and in all respects he is far removed
from the natural man; but for all that the Christian is a sinner still.
He is so from the imperfection of his nature, and will continue so
to the end of his earthly life. The black fingers of sin leave smuts
upon our fairest robes. Sin mars our repentance, ere the great Potter
has finished it, upon the wheel. Selfishness defiles our tears, and
unbelief tampers with our faith. The best thing we ever did apart
from the merit of Jesus only swelled the number of our sins; for when
we have been most pure in our own sight, yet, like the heavens, we
are not pure in God’s sight; and as he charged his angels with folly, much more must he
charge us with it, even in our most angelic frames of mind. The song
which thrills to heaven, and seeks to emulate seraphic strains, hath
human discords in it. The prayer which moves the arm of God is still
a bruised and battered prayer, and only moves that arm because the
sinless One, the great Mediator, has stepped in to take away the sin
of our supplication. The most golden faith or the purest degree of
sanctification to which a Christian ever attained on earth, has still
so much alloy in it as to be only worthy of the flames, in itself
considered. Every night we look in the glass we see a sinner, and
had need confess, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags.” Oh, how precious the blood of Christ to such hearts as ours! How
priceless a gift is his perfect righteousness! And how bright the
hope of perfect holiness hereafter! Even now, though sin dwells in
us, its power is broken . It has no dominion; it is a broken-backed snake; we are in bitter
conflict with it, but it is with a vanquished foe that we have to
deal. Yet a little while and we shall enter victoriously into the
city where nothing defileth.