The Great Difference
by Rev. Augustus Toplady

Every religion except one puts upon you doing something in order to recommend yourself to God. It is only the religion in Christ (which runs counter to all the rest by affirming that we are saved and called with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to the Father’s own purpose and grace) which was not sold to us on certain conditions to be fulfilled by ourselves, but was given to us in Christ before the world began. It was long ago remarked by a good man that “It is the business of all false religion to patch up a righteousness in which the sinner is to stand before God. But it is the business of the glorious Gospel to bring near to us, by the hand of the Holy Spirit, a righteousness ready wrought, a robe of perfection ready made, wherein God’s people, to all the purposes of justification and happiness, stand perfect and without fault before the throne.
Try me, O God and search the ground of my heart; prove me and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any wickedness in me, any root of bitterness undiscovered; and lead me in the way everlasting. Show me the true state of my soul. Bring me out from every false refuge. Strip off every deceitful covering, every covering that is not of Thy Spirit. Forbid that the anchor of my hope should be cast, or the house of my dependence built, on any but Christ, the Rock of Ages. Forbid that I should rest short of my dependence built, on any but Christ, the Rock of Ages. Forbid that I should rest short of that repentance which is Thy gift, and is connected with life eternal: and forbid, O forbid, that I should that I should sit down without aspiring to that conformity unto Thee in righteousness and true holiness, abstracted from which repentance is false and faith is dead.

If you should find a website, or blog, that contains this short article, let me know, and I will make the proper attribution. I don't remember where I 'lifted' it.