“Every sin, in its own nature, has a tendency towards a final apostasy; but there is a provision in the covenant of grace, and the Lord, in His own time, returns to convince, humble, pardon, comfort and renew the soul. We begin at length to learn that we are nothing, have nothing, can do nothing, but sin. And thus we are gradually prepared to live more out of ourselves, and to derive all our sufficiency of every kind from Jesus, the fountain of grace. We learn to tread more warily, to trust less to our own strength, to have lower thoughts of ourselves, and higher thoughts of Him.’”
–John Newton, The Utterance of the Heart, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979 rep.), pp. 13-14.
