Sermon XV, "The Sense of Sin Leads to Holiness, and the Conceit of Holiness Leads to Sin" (John 9:41), in William G. T. Shedd, Sermons to the Spiritual Man (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1884), p. 229

You may beg God to restore you to health from sickness; to give you competence instead of poverty; and he may see fit not to grant your prayer. But if you put up the publican's petition: "God be merciful to me a sinner;"…