* * * * *
From "Lectures on the Pilgrim's Progress."
=_42._=. SIN DISTORTS THE JUDGMENT.
On the other hand, those who do not love God, cannot expect to find in
his Word a system of truth that will please their own hearts. A sinful
heart can have no right views of God, and of course will have defective
views of his Word: for sin distorts the judgment, and overturns the
balance of the mind on all moral subjects, far more than even the best
of men are aware of. There is, there can be, no true reflection of God
or of his Word, from the bosom darkened with guilt, from the heart at
enmity with him. That man will always look at God through the medium of
his own selfishness, and at God's Word through the coloring of his own
wishes, prejudices, and fears.
A heart that loves the Saviour, and rejoices in God as its Sovereign,
reflects back in calmness the perfect view of his character, which
it finds in his Word. Behold on the borders of a mountain lake, the
reflection of the scene above, received into the bosom of the lake
below! See that crag projecting, the wild flowers that, hang out from
it, and bend as if to gaze at their own forms in the water beneath.
Observe that plot of green grass above, that tree springing from the
cleft, and over all, the quiet sky reflected in all its softness and
depth from the lake's steady surface.
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