Psalms 119:53

       ""Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law."" 
              — Psalms 119:53

My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at the sins of others? for
otherwise thou lackest inward holiness. David’s cheeks were wet with
rivers of waters because of prevailing unholiness; Jeremiah desired
eyes like fountains that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and
Lot was vexed with the conversation of the men of Sodom. Those upon
whom the mark was set in Ezekiel’s vision, were those who sighed and
cried for the abominations of Jerusalem. It cannot but grieve gracious
souls to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of
sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to see others flying like
moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder, because it
violates a holy law, which it is to every man’s highest interest to
keep; it pulls down the pillars of the commonwealth. Sin in others
horrifies a believer, because it puts him in mind of the baseness of
his own heart: when he sees a transgressor he cries with the saint
mentioned by Bernard, ""He fell to-day, and I may fall to-morrow."" Sin
to a believer is horrible, because it crucified the Saviour; he sees in
every iniquity the nails and spear. How can a saved soul behold that
cursed kill-Christ sin without abhorrence? Say, my heart, dost thou
sensibly join in all this? It is an awful thing to insult God to his
face. The good God deserves better treatment, the great God claims it,
the just God will have it, or repay his adversary to his face. An
awakened heart trembles at the audacity of sin, and stands alarmed at
the contemplation of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is
rebellion! How direful a doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul,
never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself.
It is thine enemy, and thy Lord’s enemy-view it with detestation, for
so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness, without which
no man can see the Lord.

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