Love them for naked grace in them

[MW]

Thomas Boston, Works, 1:634-635:

When we love the godly for their godliness, the saints for their sanctity, we love God in them, and so may conclude, “that every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him,” 1 John 5:1. Hypocrites may love saints because of natural relation to them, their obliging conversation, their being of their way or opinion, and the like: but happy those who love them for naked grace in them, that pick the pearl out of the dunghill of many unpleasing things about them, and kindly love them for that.

 

[Free Christian]

Wise. It reminds me of metal detecting, I get a handful of dirt, im holding a handful of unsightly dirt, but if I look and sift through it I find that precious little piece of gold. I read a book once, an old one about the Aussie goldfields in the 1880's, and the author wrote at the end, words to this effect, that a man comes out well if at the end, his being is panned off and there is revealed a small tail of gold. All the rest useless dirt and gravel but amongst it something of worth.

 

[MW]

A very apt illustration!