Sin meets his eye wherever he turns!

[Berean]

(William Bacon Stevens, "The Parables" 1857)

The very fact that we have been renewed in the temper and disposition of our minds, that we have been born again of the Holy Spirit, that old things have passed away and that all things have become new--only makes us realize more vividly our sad condition--to be thus dwellers in an ungodly world, and to be thus of necessity so mixed up with sin and corruption and unbelief in all the walks of daily life.

The true Christian finds everything around him antagonistic to his thoughts and feelings.
He loves Christ supremely--the world hates Him supremely.
He delights to do God's will--the world revels in its disobedience.
His heart is set on heavenly and Divine things--"the heart of men is fully set to do evil."

He is daily pained at the manifestations of sin and unbelief. He mourns at the spiritual destitution of his fellow men, and at the rampant evils which rear themselves unbridled, and devour the vitals of society with rapacity! Sin meets his eye wherever he turns!

In the Church--he sees hypocrisy, formality, self-righteousness, censoriousness, lukewarmness, and backsliding.
In the family--he finds peevishness, ill temper, discord, variance, strifes, evil surmisings, and positive hatred.
In the state--he perceives crimes of every sort and hue, and the decalogue broken in each one of its commandments.
In business--he is made to witness fraud, greed, deceptions, lying!

We are ever made to feel that we are in an enemy's country; that here, as the Patriarchs confessed, "we have no abiding city--but we seek one to come;" that "we who are in tabernacles of flesh do groan, being burdened"--
burdened with the remaining corruption of our own hearts;
burdened with our daily short-comings and omissions of duty;
burdened with our positive transgressions;
burdened with our frequent infirmities; and
burdened with seeing and hearing the ungodliness which surrounds us, and which is ever crying to Heaven for vengeance!

We long for a release from the place where our soul, like that of righteous Lot, is daily "vexed with the filthy lives of the wicked!" So that, look where we will, we are constrained to say with the Psalmist, "Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech--that I live among the tents of Kedar!" Psalm 120:5

William Bacon Stevens
(1815—1887)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
--from Grace Gems!

 

[Rich Koster]

Thanks for posting this, Norm.

 

[Unoriginalname]

In the state--he perceives crimes of every sort and hue, and the decalogue broken in each one of its commandments.

Wait I thought only the second table counts for them bah-zing
sorry
That was a delightful post thankyou for sharing that. May we all feel and ever growing discomfort with this world.

 

[CharlieJ]

In one sense, I won't dispute that this text says true things. But I wonder if this isn't rather an example of an unhealthy negativism. Just to show how one part could have been rewritten:

In the Church--he sees the preaching of the gospel, the administration of the sacraments, discipleship, love, and endurance
In the family--he finds tenacious love, jovial friendship, a steady increase of faith, and unbroken fidelity
In the state--(ok, no argument here)
In business--he is made a witness to innovation and ingenuity, honest work, and useful service

This talk of burden upon burden upon burden, of regeneration making everything appear only worse, this strikes me as Luther before, not after, the discovery of sola fide.

 

[Alan D. Strange]

Charlie:

I think that Bishop Stevens was thinking in terms of seeing, mourning over, and confessing sin. The penitential psalms, Daniel 9 and many other places in Scriptures focus on sin, seeing, grieving over it and confessing it. They don't necessarily, at the same time, focus on thanksgiving.

You cite items for thanksgiving. All quite appropriate. I join you in thanking God for those wonderful blessings.

But why should we not be able, seriously and with grief, to mourn over our sins? If I have any problem with the Rt. Rev.'s catalogs, it's that they're too much about the world around me and what is wrong with it and not enough about the world within me and what is wrong with it. That's my reaction to the post.

Peace,
Alan

 

[Wayne]

I'll echo Alan's explanation

. . . (cheap shot, letting Alan do all the work)

Much longer treatment, but perhaps more explanatory of what Stevens is getting at, is William Jenkyns discourse,
"How Ought We to Bewail the Sins of the Places Where We Live?" :

http://www.pcahistory.org/HCLibrary/sermons/Jenkin-Bewail.pdf