Break off the yoke of inbred sin
And fully set my spirit free!
I cannot rest, till pure within,
Till I am wholly lost in thee!
3. We may learn from hence, secondly, that a deep conviction of our demerit after we are accepted, (which in one sense may be termed guilt) is absolutely necessary, in order to our seeing the true value of the atoning blood; in order to our feeling that we need this as much, after we are justified, as ever we did before. Without this conviction we cannot but account the blood of the covenant as a common thing, something of which we have not now any great need, seeing all our past sins are blotted out. Yea, but if both our hearts and lives are thus unclean, there is a kind of guilt which we are contracting every moment, and which of consequence would every moment expose us to fresh condemnation, but that
He ever lives above,
For us to intercede,
His all-atoning love,
His precious blood to plead.
It is this repentance and the faith intimately connected with it, which are expressed in those strong lines.