We have here a truly humbling view of human nature as looked at in the light of the holiness of God. It is as if the Lord would say to us, Look here! behold a man clothed in nature's blackest garb, and presenting nature's most forbidding aspect. Examine him closely, in order that you, seeing what _man is_ when stripped of all that false clothing which ignorance or vain self-righteousness would put upon him, may know the rich aboundings of My grace, which can avail to lift even such a one into the loftiest heights of communion--heights which human conception would utterly fail to mount, but which My grace, through the blood of the cross, can make available to the very chief of sinners. In reading such a description as that which the above passage presents to us, how needful it is for the sinner to bear in mind that it is not only in the light of _God's holiness_ that he is called to look at himself, but also in the light of _His grace_. When this is learned he needs not be afraid to penetrate deeply into the dark recesses of his heart's corruption; for if God in grace _fill_ the scene, the sinner (so far as his own righteousness is concerned) must necessarily be _out_ of the scene; and then it is no longer a question of what _we_ think about sin, but how _God_ will deal with it in grace, and that is simply to put it away forever--yea, to bury it forever in the waters of His forgetfulness: thus it will be placing _our sin_ side by side with _God's grace_; which is what the gospel invites us to do, and which, moreover, is the only way to arrive at a proper settlement of the question of sin. On the other hand, where this saving principle is not known--not believed--the sinner will undoubtedly seek to make the load of his guilt as light as possible, in order that he may have as little to do as he may. This will ever lead to the most unutterable and intolerable bondage; or if not to this, to that which is much worse, even to detestable religious pride, which is of all things most truly abominable in the sight of God.