HELPLESSNESS OF MAN. 308 The petitioner to human power, who may formerly have offended his bene- factor, contrives to soften his displeasure, by representing that the offence was a small one. The devout petitioner to God uses no such subterfuge. In the boldness of faith, and the humility of repentance, lie cries, " Pardon my ini. quity, for it is great." It is no paradox, then, to assert that attendance on God is the only true safety ; dependence upon Him, the only true freedom - freedom from doubt, and fear, and sin ; freedom from human dependence ; above all, freedom from dependence on ourselves. As pardoned sinners, through the redemption wrought for them, find, in the renewed nature, a restoration to that dignity they had for- feited, so those who are most destitute of the dignity which arises from this dependence, missing the reality, deceive themselves with the shadow. He who does not believe this funda- mental' truth, on which the other doe-
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