SERMON XIX.

ON SELF-EXAMINATION.

PSALM CXXXix. 23, 24, P. e. V.

“Try me, O God, and seek the ground of my heart: prove me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

THE practice of Self-Examination is well suited to make us know ourselves, and to counteract the erroneous conclusions we are apt to form of our spiritual state. If no one expects to be lost, while so many are living in sin, it is clear there must prevail a great deal of self-deception. And a most happy thing it is for those, who are not thus deceived themselves. For nothing more easily seduces the soul, than the deceitfulness of sin. This we may see in a very striking light in the case of David. We know of him, that he was a man of early piety, a devout, warm-hearted servant of God. And yet, when he sinned so grievously in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, his heart appears to have been insensible to all feeling of fear, nor do we read of any sorrow

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being awakened by his sin. It would seem as if he needed a Prophet to bring home to his conscience a due sense of his guilt. No doubt he must have known, that he had committed a most fearful sin, but no visions of terror seem to have haunted his repose, no overwhelming load of remorse seems to have weighed upon his spirit. It was not until his sin was brought to his remembrance by the Prophet's plain declaration, "Thou art the man," that he saw his guilt in all its dark colours and deadly consequences. Then, overpowered by feelings, which, while he was under the spell of sin, appear to have slept, he awoke to all the agony of a broken heart. Then it was his distressed soul broke out in those sorrowful strains, "Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness; according to the multitude of Thy mercies, do away mine offences."

If then the deceitfulness of sin was so subtle, as to hide from "the man after God's own heart" the evil and danger of his misdoings, are we not liable to be in like manner deceived? May we not be sinning day after day, without any sense of fear or shame: pursuing the ordinary round of our several occupations, as if we had no sin to confess and no danger to apprehend; while yet at the same time there is a fearful charge out against us, the accumulated guilt of unthought-of

sins, to be repented of in this world, or to be punished in the next? Yes, my brethren, it is possible we may live, and further, it is possible we may die, under the awful blindness engendered by the deceitfulness of sin.

And many things conspire to produce this result. In the first place, our own hearts naturally incline to the more favourable view of our religious condition; and again, the commonness of sin mitigates our abhorrence of it; and the indiscriminate mixture of good and evil in the church, and, unhappily, the undistinguishing manner in which all, whether they have lived in faith or in sin, are solemnly committed to the grave-all tends to uphold the delusion, which Satan is ever busy in instilling into our minds. Self-examination therefore, at once sincere and searching, is a religious habit most dangerous to neglect. It should be our daily practice. And while day by day we call ourselves to account; at special seasons, such as fast days, and before receiving the Holy Communion, we should with greater strictness institute an honest inquiry into our religious state. For so great is our danger of fancying that all is well, when in reality it is not; of seeing no cause for alarm, when in fact we are in greatest peril; that to search and try our ways seems the only means of being saved from self-deception.

And when we know how apt we are to heal slightly the wounds of sin, and to speak false peace to our souls, it may well lead us, in self-distrust, to apply to God Himself to try us and seek the ground of our heart; to prove us and examine our thoughts; to look well if there be any way of wickedness in us, and to lead us in the way everlasting. There is nothing we have so much to fear, as being at peace, while living in sin. Any thing is better than this. It is here our great danger lies. Nor should we mind what it may cost us to escape from it. We had better go mourning all the day long under a sense of sin, than be saying, peace, when there is no peace. Better grieve on still, after our sin has been pardoned, than fall short in our repentance, and thus forfeit our salvation. Let us then endeavour to ascertain our real state. Let us prove and examine our thoughts; let us look well, if there be any way of wickedness in us, resolving for the rest of our lives to walk in the way everlasting.

In proceeding with this examination let us first consider, how we have conducted ourselves with respect to God-whether we have believed in Him, feared Him and loved Him as we ought to do. Taking our whole life through, from the beginning to the present day, could we say that, in respect to this, our conscience acquits us?