So it is still His way to make use of the Word, and of what the Word tells of the Savior. The Word is the glass or mirror in which the heart and mind of God are reflected and made known to us. Or, better still, let us pray that you, dear reader, may be as the poet Cowper, who, in the act of reading the very verses before us, obtained a clear view of the gospel, was filled with joy unspeakable, and spent some days thereafter in nothing but prayer and praise. Your eye is on the sentence against you. You read, The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Justification means more than pardon.
God is acting thus to thousands in our world, sinners like you. There is such a thing with God as justification. Your eye is on yourself . Though you see that God may justify sinners, yet, now when you look at yourself, hope is gone. I cannot bring even such amount of feeling, of repentance, of desire, as might be pleasing to God.