Now I began to construe the words mentioned above “Call on me, and I will deliver thee,” in a different sense from what I had ever done before; for then I had no notion of anything being called deliverance, but my being delivered from the captivity I was in: for though I was indeed at large in the place, yet the island was certainly a prison to me, and that, in the worst sense in the world; but now I learned to take it in another sense. Now I looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of God, but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort. As for my solitary life, it was nothing; I did not so much as pray to be delivered from it, or think of it; it was all of no consideration, in comparison of this. And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction.
The end of that is really the crux, yes? Deliverance from sin rather than affliction? Thanks for sharing!
We are in our third year of reading RC aloud together. It's a slow read for us. We have done this with no other book to date. I have finally come to appreciate this book. And likely will find myself re-reading it again at a faster pace. Thanks for sharing it.145