is not pleased to behold himself righteous in his own
eyes, and in the eyes of others? or, who is it doubts that such
righteousness is sufficient to please God? Yet, we see the indignation
of our Lord manifested against such. He who was the perfect pattern of
tenderness and meekness, such as flowed from the depth of the heart,
and not that affected meekness, which under the form of a dove, hides
the hawk's heart. He appears severe only to these self-righteous
people, and He publicly dishonored them. In what strange colors does He
represent them, while He beholds the poor sinner with mercy, compassion
and love, and declares that for them only He was come, that it was the
sick who needed the physician; and that He came only to save the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.

O thou Source of Love! Thou dost indeed seem so jealous of the
salvation Thou hast purchased, that Thou dost prefer the sinner to the
righteous! The poor sinner beholds himself vile and wretched, is in a
manner constrained to detest himself; and finding his state so
horrible, casts himself in his desperation into the arms of his
Saviour, and plunges into the healing fountain, and comes forth "white
as wool." Then confounded at the review of his disordered state, and
overflowing with love for Him, who having alone the power, had also the
compassion to save him--the excess of his love is proportioned to the
enormity of his crimes, and the fullness of his gratitude to the extent
of the debt remitted. The self-righteous, relying on the many good
works he imagines he has performed, seems to hold salvation in his own
hand, and considers Heaven as a just reward of his merits. In the
bitterness of his zeal he exclaims against all sinners, and represents
the gates of mercy as barred against them, and Heaven as a place to
which they have no claim. What need have such self-righteous persons of
a Saviour? they are already burdened with the load of their own merits.
Oh, how long they bear the flattering load, while sinners divested of
everything, fly rapidly on the wings of faith and love into their
Saviour's arms, who freely bestows on them that which he has so freely
promised!

How full of self-love are the self-righteous, and how void of the love
of God! They esteem and admire themselves in their works of
righteousness, which they suppose to be a fountain of happiness. These
works are no sooner exposed to the Sun of Righteousness, than they
discover all to be so