Maurice: individual depravity

Monday, April 1, 2013
    Commemoration of Frederick Denison Maurice, Priest, teacher, 1872
Meditation:
    If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
    —1 John 1:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is far better, safer, truer language to speak of individual depravity than of universal depravity. By individual depravity I mean my own. I find it out in myself; or rather, He who searcheth me and trieth my ways, finds it out in me. That sense of depravity implies the recognition of a law which I have violated, of an order from which I have broken loose, of a Divine image which my character has not resembled. It is the law and the order which are universal. It is this character of Christ which is the true human character. It is easy enough to own [to] a general depravity; under cover of it you and I escape.
    ... Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), Lincoln’s Inn Sermons, v. V, London: Macmillan, 1892, p. 267 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 1:8; Ps. 32:5; 38:18; 41:4; 51:1-10; 106:6; 130:1-3; John 3:19; Rom. 5:18; Jas. 5:16; 1 John 1:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I confess my guilt. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt