I do not go to any priest. If I had sinned merely against the priest or against such ordinances as the priest has to guard, then the priest might, on due submission, absolve and bless me. I do not go to any of my fellows whom my sin may have touched. They may receive or reject an apology or a compensation. How they may regard and treat me is now, comparatively, a secondary and subordinate consideration – serious, indeed, in one view, for I would fain have their forgiveness – but not the vital consideration. It is against God – God only – that I have sinned. And how God may deal with me is the real question. Nor can I go to my own heart. There, once, I might have reckoned upon a verdict of acquital or at least of apology. Now, however, nothing short of the sentence of God can relieve or content me.
But now, if God – the very God against whom, against whom only, I have sinned – does, in the exercise of His undoubted and irresistible sovereignty, purge me and wash me and make my broken bones to hear joy and gladness, who may gainsay or call in question the gracious act? The priest may refuse to absolve me. But, if God purges me, I am clean. My fellow sinners may not acquit or pardon me. But, if God washes me, I am whiter than the snow. My own heart may testify only evil of me and write bitter things against me. But, even from that verdict I appeal. If God makes me to hear joy and gladness, my broken bones may yet rejoice. There is much comfort in this thought of the sovereignty of God.
From: The Prayer of a Broken Heart: Expository Discourses on Psalm 51 by Robert S. Candlish (Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1873), pp. 27-28. Reprint: (Birmingham: Solid Ground Christian Books, n.d.)
