That wonderful medicine!

That wonderful medicine!
(Letters of J. C. Philpot)

"He forgives all my sins and heals all my
 diseases." Psalm 103:3

What a mass of . . .
  filth and folly,
  blindness and ignorance,
  deceit and hypocrisy,
  carnality, sensuality, and devilism are we! 

Prone to all that is bad, utterly averse to all 
that is good--bent upon sin--hating holiness, 
heavenly-mindedness, and spirituality--what 
earthly wretches, guilty monsters, abominable 
creature are we! 

And if our minds are sometimes drawn upwards 
in faith and affection, and we pant after the living 
God--how soon, how almost instantly, do we drop 
down again into our earthly self, whence we are 
utterly unable to rise until the Blessed Spirit lifts
us out again! What fits of unbelief, shakings of 
infidelity, fevers of lust, agues of carelessness, 
consumptions of faith, hope, love and zeal; yes, 
what a host of diseases dwell in our poor soul!

But they all admit of a twofold cure--that wonderful
medicine which John saw run from the wounded side 
of the Redeemer--blood and water; the one to heal, 
the other to wash; the one to atone, the other to 
cleanse; justification by blood, and sanctification 
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the 
Holy Spirit. 

"The blood of Jesus, cleanses us from every sin." 
    1 John 1:7