If I had my deserts!

(James Smith, "An Antidote" 1857)

There are some things that we should never forget:
  what we were before God called us by His grace;
  what we might have been—but for His sovereign mercy;
  what we certainly would be—if left wholly to ourselves.

We were . . .
  rebels against God's government,
  traitors to His cause, and
  doomed to an eternal Hell!

Everything short of Hell—is mercy!

If I had my deserts—I would be in Hell today!

I would be feeling its fierce flames, enduring its scorching torments, and horrified by its dreadful inhabitants!

I was enmity against God by nature. I would be enmity against God this day—if it were not for His glorious grace. I deserve Hell most justly—and would have been in hell—but for His kindness!

"Look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you are dug!" Look at the horrible pit from which He raised you, and the miry clay from which He extricated you.

Look—and admire!

Look—and love Him!

Look—and praise His thrice blessed and most glorious name!