Man’s Own Character No Ground of Peace

There is nothing worse than an outwardly religious person, secretly trusting in their "best" religious activity to earn merit. Simply put this person is by definition a hypocrite and in as much need of God's saving grace as the one who is outwardly sinful. Of course, the outlandish sinner gets much "play" in terms of their dramatic need for conversion. However, very little is made of the one who has the "externals" correct, but whose heart remains frozen. Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), a Scottish Presbyterian minister, provides us with the following showing how one pharisaical heart warmed to the gospel.

"I knew an awakened soul who in the bitterness of his spirit, thus set himself to work and to pray, in order to get peace. He doubled the amount of his devotions, saying to himself, 'Surely God will give me peace.' But the peace did not come. He set up family worship, saying 'Surely God will give me peace.' Again the peace did not come. At last he thought of having a prayer meeting in his house, as a certain remedy; he fixed the night, called his neighbors, and prepared himself for conducting the meeting by writing a prayer and learning it by heart. As he finished the operation of learning it, preparatory to the meeting, he threw it down on the table saying, 'Surely that will do; God will give me peace now.' In that moment a still small voice in his ear seemed to be saying, 'No that will not do; but Christ will do.' Straightway the scales fell from his eyes, and the burden from his shoulders. Peace poured in like a river. 'Christ will do', was his watchword ever after.