(edited from Spurgeon's "Moab Is My Washpot" Psalm 60:8)

When we read in the newspaper a sad case of
lasciviousness, or any other breach of the laws of
God and man, if we were aforetime guilty of the
like sin, and have now been renewed in heart, it will
make us blush; it will humble us, and cause us to
admire the power and sovereignty of divine grace.

Now the blush of repentance, the shamefacedness of
humility, and the tear of gratitude, are three helpful
things, and all tend under God's grace to set us
purging out the old leaven.

Remember, O believer, that there is no wretch
upon earth so bad, but what you were once his
equal in alienation from God and death in sin!

In outward acts there may have been much
difference, but in the inner man how little!

The seed of all the sin which you see in him,
lies in your corrupt nature, and needs only a
fit season to bring forth and bud.

You were once in that fire of sin, in which he
is consumed by his passions. You have been
plucked as a brand from the burning, else
you would be there still.

Yonder is a prodigal, all bespattered from head
to foot. But we also once were plunged into the
ditch, until our own clothes abhorred us; and we
would be sinking in the mire even now, if the
mighty hand of grace had not lifted us up from
the horrible pit, and washed us in the Savior's blood.

We were "heirs of wrath even as others."

"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Our sins may be different, but we were
all without exception, shaped in iniquity.

The old nature so remains in us, that, if we were
to be deserted by God, we should even yet become
such as the ungodly are. Need I quote to you the
speech of John Bradford, one of the godliest of men?
When he saw a wretch taken out to be hanged, the
tears were in his eyes, and when they asked him
why, he said, "There goes John Bradford, but for
the grace of God."

Ah, and when we see a prodigal plunging into excess
of riot, there goes the best among us, if we are not
preserved in Christ Jesus.

Ay, and when the damned go down to hell, there
must I go, unless the same grace which restrains
me now from sin, shall uphold me to my last day;
and keep me from falling.