Your Critics Flatter You

About 2 weeks ago, I posted these quotes from the hammer-pen of Jonathan Edwards that strikes quite a blow to our pride. Bill Hughes recently sent me a link to this post by C.J. Mahaney. In it, he shares a Spurgeon quote that has "served [him] big time when it comes to personal criticism." It sounds to me like a big hearty "Amen" to what Edwards was saying. Here you go:

Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth. (Charles Spurgeon, sermon, “David Dancing before the Ark because of His Election,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 35.)