We will do all the words of the Lord which He hath spoken, should be our settled resolution, as heartily declared, but more faithfully kept, than by the people of Israel in the wilderness. There was more than one great error in their case, but against one I will now warn you. It regards the motive of such a resolution, the principle it springs from, and the spirit in which it is acted on. Self-recommendation to God, or the notion that our own obedience purchases His favour, must be watched against. That something of truth mixes with this error, makes it more delusive. The alone sufficiency of Christ's merits is a first great truth of Christianity. When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which we ought to do. All our obedience needs the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. We must practice the resolution of the people of Israel on the principle Saint Paul puts before us: The charity of Christ presseth us; judging this, that Christ died for all, that they who live may not live to themselves but unto Him, who died for them, and rose again. There is no principle of uniform persevering obedience to God's commandment comparable to this in purity, soundness, effectiveness, and truth. Other motives may do something, but let us be influenced by this principle, and to know the love of Christ for ourselves, not as a tale told which we cannot or dare not deny, but as a truth that concerns each of us, and is influentially felt by us. It is too true that we may go on in a decorous, respectable course of life, and yet never give our thoughts or affections, with any serious regard, to the work of Christ on the Cross, and now in Heaven for us.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp