May 20

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. - Job 14:4.

THE natural state of man as a sinner, as described in the Scriptures, differs very widely from the notions entertained of him by some. For while there are those who altogether deny his fall and depravity, there are others who suppose he yet possesses a very large degree of rectitude, and that the common grace which every man is supposed to bring into the world, if well managed, is sufficient for his salvation. It is easier to bring men to a confession of their guilt than of their inability. They cannot indeed very well deny that they have sinned, but as to their neglecting their duty, they mean to attend to this, and they never questioned their ability to repent and obey whenever they please. But surely such persons cannot have read the Scriptures with attention or they would have found that Paul himself acknowledges that “in him,” that is in his “flesh, dwelt no good thing.”

No stream can rise higher than its fountain. The effect cannot be better than its cause. As we cannot perform natural actions without the concurrence of nature, how can we perform Spiritual actions without the concurrence of the Spirit? If we “live and move and have our being” in God naturally, surely we must live and move and have our being in God Spiritually, especially when we consider that this life is of so much higher an order than every other.

What but pride can render a man averse to this design? for it only brings a man where he ought to be, that is, feeling himself to be “nothing at all,” and holds forth God as what he really is, “all in all.” This is not a mere speculation. It is a truth of importance. It serves to show those who are the subjects of this work what is their duty-to bless and praise God, who by his sovereign grace has not only provided for them salvation, but has “enabled them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ unto life everlasting.” So that they are not allowed to “starve rather than come,” but are graciously compelled to come in that his house may be filled.

On the other hand, if strangers to it, it shows what is their duty, namely, prayer to him who alone can accomplish this, and “who works in us to will and to do, of his good pleasure;” who is always able to do it, always willing to do it; and far more willing to save us than we are to be saved, and to make us holy than we are to be made holy. It is, therefore, infinitely better that the power should be in him than in ourselves.