" What are you to yourself? worthless? vile? empty?
What is Jesus to you? precious? lovely? all your salvation? all your desire?
What is sin to you? the most hateful thing in the world?
What is holiness to you? most lovely? most longed for?
What is the throne of grace to you? the most attractive spot?
What is the cross to you? the sweetest resting place in the universe?
What is God to you? your God? your Father? the spring of all your joys? the fountainhead of all your bliss? the center where your affections meet?
Is it so? Then you are a child of God!
Those low views of yourself ... that brokenness, that inward mourning, that secret confession, that longing for ... more spirituality, more grace, more devotedness, more love, does but prove the existence, reality, and growth of God's work within you.
Cheer up, precious soul!
That soul never perished, that felt itself to be vile, and Jesus to be precious!"
(Octavius Winslow, "Evening Thoughts")
(Found it on Boundless.org)
Sometimes it amazes me how smart people were hundreds of years ago. All we usually hear are the bad things, or, conversely, the idea of "the good old days," but it wasn't like that. There were good things and bad things, stupid people and brilliant people, greedy people and amazingly gracious and humble people.
I am particularly grateful for this wise person, who lived so long ago, because this quote has settled much of the turmoil that totally dominated my heart in the last couple of months.
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