God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
I am glad you know when persons are justified. It is a lesson I have not yet learnt. There are so many stony ground hearers, who receive the Word with joy, that I have determined to suspend my judgment till I know the tree by its fruits. That makes me so cautious now, which I was not thirty years ago, of dubbing converts too soon. I love now to wait a little, and see if people bring forth fruit; for there are so many blossoms which March winds you know blow away, that I cannot believe they are converts till I see fruit brought back; it will never do a sincere soul any harm.
Your flesh will whisper to you that strictness and anxious care about obedience are legalism – the gospel came to deliver you from such things! And besides, if you really do commit a sin, you can be forgiven later.
