e is nothing in me keeping me back from the grossest and
vilest sin. This is a delusion of the devil. My only safety is
to know, feel, and confess my helplessness, that I may hang upon
the arm of Omnipotence ... I daily wish that sin had been rooted
out of my heart. I say, 'Why did God leave the root of
lasciviousness, pride, anger, etc., in my bosom? He hates sin,
and I hate it; why did He not take it clean away?' I know many
answers to this which completely satisfy my judgment, but still
I do not _feel_ satisfied. This is wrong. It is right to be
weary of the being of sin, but not right to quarrel with my
present 'good fight of faith.' ... The falls of professors into
sin make me tremble. I have been driven away from prayer, and
burdened in a fearful manner by hearing or seeing their sin.
This is wrong. It is right to tremble, and to make every sin of
every professor a lesson of my own helplessness; but it should
lead me the more to Christ ... If I were more deeply convinced
of my utter helplessness, I think I would not be so alarmed when
I hear of the falls of other men ... I should study those sins
in which I am most helpless, in which passion becomes like a
whirlwind and I like a straw. No figure of speech can represent
my utter want of power to resist the torrent of sin ... I ought
to study Christ's omnipotence more: Heb. 7:25, I Thess. 5:23,
Rom. 6:14, Rom. 5:9, 10, and such scriptures, should be ever
before me ... Paul's thorn, II Cor. 12, is the experience of the
greater part of my life. It should be ever before me ... There
are many subsidiary methods of seeking deliverance from sins,
which must not be neglected,--thus, marriage, I Cor. 7:2;
fleeing, I Tim. 6:11, I Cor. 6:18; watch and pray, Matt. 26:41;
the word, 'It is written, It is written.' So Christ defended
himself; Matt. 4. ... But the main defence is casting myself
into the arms of Christ like a helpless child, and beseeching
Him to fill me with the Holy Spirit. 'This is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith,' I John 5:4, 5,--a
wonderful passage.

"I ought to study Christ as a living Saviour more,--as a
Shepherd, carrying the sheep He finds,--as a King, reigning in
and over the souls He has redeemed,--as a Captain, fighting with
those who fight with me, Ps. 35.,--as one who has engaged to
bring me through all temptations