x. THE LOOKING-GLASS AND THE LAYER. 179 



cause it reveals to us the mode of purification and 

 deliverance. 



It might seem unnecessary to say what is so simple 

 and self-evident, that the contemplation of our own 

 image in this divine looking-glass of itself can produce 

 no moral change in us. And yet there are many 

 professors of religion who imagine that by the mere 

 confession of sin they are spiritually benefited, that 

 by the mere cry of " Unclean, unclean " in their 

 public and private devotions, they are magically 

 cleansed from their spiritual leprosy. They look 

 into the mirror of the gospel, and they see their 

 own vile image reflected; and they suppose that 

 gazing upon this image, and describing what they see 

 is all that their religion demands of them. They have 

 a sort of " acquiescent self-reproach," which reconciles 

 the mind to the sinfulness it confesses and the corrup- 

 tion it laments, as if this were a stereotyped and normal 

 state of things that could not be remedied. But this 

 is obviously an abuse of the mirror. It is necessary 

 that a man should not only know himself, but also 

 a way of escape from himself, lest he should sink 

 into chronic and indolent despair, or grow to tolerate, 

 and even take pride in, the evil which he does not 

 remove. The mirror must lead to the laver. Having 

 learned what our true condition is, we must cease to 

 look at ourselves, and have recourse to the cleansing 

 bath which God has provided in the gospel for the 

 sinner conscious of his sin. The fact that the laver 

 was made of the looking-glasses teaches this practical 



