Your sins, and errors, and follies

(William S. Plumer, "The Rock of Our Salvation" 1867)

Jesus knows your sins, and errors, and follies--but
He still loves you tenderly! Your weakness affords Him
a welcome opportunity to show pity. There are heights,
and depths, and lengths, and breadths of mercy in Christ
--beyond all human necessities, miseries, and sins!
He has helped myriads to glory--who were as weak, as
unworthy, as desponding as any of us! His mercies are . . .
  shoreless,
  fathomless,
  eternal,
  unchangeable!

Some humble child of God may say, "I have made but
poor progress. I have sore troubles, "fears within, and
fightings without." Let such remember, that whatever
makes us humble is good for us. Humility is the most
lovely of graces. Without it, there is no real progress
heavenward. It is a precious token of God's regard to
us, that He so deals with us, as to . . .
  destroy our carnal security,
  mortify our pride,
  make us loathe and abhor ourselves,
and yet gives us a relish for spiritual enjoyments,
and leads us to seek them above all other things.

He is a growing Christian, to whom Christ is more and
more precious. As our estimate of Christ rises--our
estimate of ourselves necessarily becomes lower. To
believers, Christ is everything. He is all their salvation.

If we are guilty, He has atoned.

If we are vile, He is worthy.

If we are nothing, He is all in all.

To be in Christ is heaven begun! To be with
Christ and like Christ is heaven completed!

He . . .
  to whom Christ is precious,
  to whom the word of God is sweeter than honey,
  to whom sin is odious,
  to whom secret devotion is a delight,
  who strives to honor his Master in his life,
  who regards the world as a broken idol
--has passed from death unto life.