There is no testimony to God's hatred of sin like the Cross of Christ. There are testimonies thereto above, around, and beneath us; but in the cross, and that only, we see to the full God's hatred of sin. Christ _descended_ lower and lower, even to the depths of the Cross; but in God's sight it was a perpetual ascent to the throne of glory. If with godly sorrow we would grieve for sin, we must regard it in fellowship with Christ in the light of the Cross. The law of nature, the law of Moses, and a corrupted gospel, are so many refuges of lies which men flee to for salvation, instead of coming to the Cross of Christ. The Cross of Christ is the meeting-place for God and the sinner. It is the meeting-place of God with His people. It is also the meeting-place of saints with one another: it is only as Jesus crucified dwells in the midst of them that they can meet each other to profit. Mercy to Christ, my Surety, would have been death eternal to me. In the Cross of Christ the holiness of God is perfectly revealed: such is His holiness that the heavens are not clean in His sight. The Scriptures show us that it is by the Cross of Christ God bears with the ungodly. The justice of God is so magnified by that Cross, that it can delight in long-suffering towards the unregenerate; one great end of this long-suffering is the calling out of the church. All the trials and all the sufferings of all creatures—were they heaped together—must not be compared with Christ's sufferings on the cross. As the sin avenging God of holiness and justice, God forsook Christ on the Cross; but He was infinitely well-pleased with Christ and His death of atonement. God accepted the work of His beloved Son, and in token of that acceptance, raised Him from the dead. Human Nature The carnal mind ever lies in wait for self-exaltation, and will catch at any straw for this end. Deceptions are recorded in God's Word with their corrections, that we may avoid them: if Abraham deceived, we find him corrected; if Isaac deceived, he is rebuked; and the deception Jacob practised on his father was visited upon him for almost all his life. If David and Jonathan had agreed to cast themselves only upon God, how much after-trouble would have been prevented! (1 Sam. 20 and on.) Correction does not always consist in bitter things coming upon us, but it may be in our failing to obtain some higher honour, which, had we walked in greater simplicity, we should have received from God. That is the hardest to bear which touches my pride; offended pride has no bowels, and hearkens to no reason. Hurry is the working of the flesh; faith, like God, works at leisure. Angels have no envy, because they have no pride. Is God glorified? angels are happy. Let the glory of God be our delight, our meat, our drink. Love envieth not: if one member be honoured, saith love, that is my honour, my joy.