301 HELPLESSNESS OF MAN. trines of the Bible are built, -- even he who does nominally profess to as- sent to it as a doctrine of Scripture ; yet, if he does not experimentally ac- knowledge it ; if he does not feel it in the convictions of his own awakened conscience, in his discovery of the evil workings of his own heart, and the wrong propensities of his own nature, all bearing their testimony to its truth, - such a one will not pray earnestly for its cure, - will not pray with that feeling of his own helplessness, with that sense of dependence on Divine assistance, which alone makes prayer efficacious. Of this corruption he can never attain an adequate conception, till his progress in religion has opened his eyes on what is the natural state of man. Till this was the case, he himself was as far from desiring the change, as he was from believing it necessary. He does not even suspect its existence, till he is in some measure delivered from its dominion.
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