conviction of sin as mine a conviction of righteousness as mine? I
know but one way, 'Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is of God through faith.' When a man is convinced
of sin, there will dawn upon the heart the wondrous thought that a
righteousness may be his, given to him from above, which will sweep
away all his sin and make him righteous as Christ is righteous. That
conviction will never awake in its blessed and hope-giving power
unless it be preceded by the other. It is of no use to exhibit
medicine to a man who does not know himself diseased. It is of no use
to talk about righteousness to a man who has not found himself to be
a sinner. And it is of as little use to talk to a man of sin unless
you are ready to tell him of a righteousness that will cover all his
sin. The one conviction without the other is misery, the second
without the first is irrelevant and far away.

The world as a world has but dim and inadequate conceptions of what
righteousness is. A Pharisee is its type, or a man that keeps a clean
life in regard to great transgressions; a whited sepulchre of some
sort or other. The world apart from Christ has but languid desires
after even the poor righteousness that it understands, and the world
apart from Christ is afflicted by a despairing scepticism as to the
possibility of ever being righteous at all. And there are men
listening to me now in every one of these three conditions--not
caring to be righteous, not understanding what it is to be righteous,
and cynically disbelieving that it is possible to be so. My brother,
here comes the message to you--first, Thou art sinful; second, God's
righteousness lies at thy side to take and wear if thou wilt.

The last of these triple convictions is 'judgment.' If there be in
the world these two things both operating, sin and righteousness, and