He was still a-pointing at the toads in their bosoms – Thomas Brooks

How shall we find out that particular sin, for which God corrects us for which He has brought the rod upon us?

Seriously observe what that sin is, which your soul would have spared above all, which your soul is most unwilling to leave, and bid an everlasting farewell to. Observe what your right-hand sin, your bosom sin, your constitutional sin, your complexion sin, is; for it is a hundred to one that God has sent the rod for the subduing of that very sin! Commonly by the rod, God points at the mortifying of that particular sin to which the heart stands most strongly inclined.

It may be that sin which you cannot endure should be touched, or reproved, or spoken against. Ah! how proud, how impatient, how passionate, how mad are many when you come to touch their right-eye sin! When you come to touch them in the tender part, oh! then they fume, and swell, and rage, and carry on like people out of their wits; as you may see in the scribes and pharisees, who were so angry and mad with Christ that they sought His death; and all because He was still a-pointing at the toads in their bosoms; namely, pride, vainglory, hypocrisy, and self-righteousness. Oh! they could not endure that the sharp razor of reproof should come near their sorest part!

Certainly that Christian must be under a very bad distemper, who smites a righteous man with reproach for smiting him with a reproof. Though gracious reproofs are a choice remedy, yet few stomachs can bear them. Who is angry with the physician for prescribing a bitter medicine? And yet, ah! how angry are many Christians when they fall under holy reproofs. Now, doubtless, the voice of the rod is this, “Soul! take heed of that sin which you cannot endure should be touched. Labor mightily with God to get that particular sin mortified which you cannot endure should be reproved.” It is very probable that, for the subduing of that particular sin, the Lord has visited you with His fatherly rod.