themselves, they can actually hold, when gone, any real and gratifying possession of the earth.

But should not the final lesson be, that the only essential good that can be gained from the world, is that which can be carried away from it? Alas! that mere sojournersbeings of transition-travellers rapidly passing away, should be mainly intent on obtaining that which they must leave, -doom themselves to depart in utter deprivation—when their inquisitive glance over the scene should be after any good that may go with them,-something that is not fixed in the soil, the rocks, or the walls.

Let us look on the earth in the spirit of this inquiry, "What has the bounteous Creator placed here ?—what has the glorious Redeemer left here, that I may by his grace, seize and take with me, and find it invaluable in another world?" It will then be delightful to look back, with the reflection, "I could not stay on that earth. I saw but a little while its enduring objects,-its grand solidities,-I saw them but to be admonished that I should remove. have left them maintaining their unchanging aspects; but in my passage I descried, by the aid of the Divine Spirit, something better than all that they signified to me was no possession for me-I seized the pearl of great price, and have brought it away."

September 25, 1823.

I

LECTURE XXXV

THE NECESSITY AND RIGHT METHOD OF SELF-EXAMINATION.

2 COR. xiii. 5.

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your i own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?"

WHEN the necessity and value of knowledge are thought of, it is readily admitted that self-knowledge is about the most necessary of all. From of oid, it has been accounted a precept of the highest wisdom," KNOW THYSELF.”

Might we not, then, wonder a little, that there should not be more of this knowledge among men, and more assiduity to acquire it? That attention should be so much averted from this concern? For I suppose our general belief is,— that there is but little. Is not this the notion? In a numerous assembly, or in the crowd of a city, it is presumed, by any one that happens to think of it, that very few, among the numbers around him have a deep, comprehensive, well-rectified, steady, estimate of themselves,-a true insight. The presumption, or surmise, is understood to go even as far as this; namely, that suppose any number of persons, acquainted with one another, the judgments they form of one another would, in the whole account, be nearer the truth than those which they entertain of their own selves, notwithstanding the great advantage men have for knowing themselves better than others can.

But, if the case be so, how comes it to be so? Can it be, that they do not think it worth while to apply a serious

attention to so near and interesting an object? or, that they have arbitrary and unsound rules in making the judgment? or, that no rules, nor force of understanding, can preserve their rectitude in the presence of self-love, as if they softened, melted, and lost their edge, in making their way through that warm, investing, protective passion? Or, again, there may be a reluctance to making a rigorous scrutiny from fear, and thus men remain in ignorance. There may be some apprehension of finding the state of the case less satisfactory than the man is allowing himself to assume it. This may seem like expressing an inconsistency-that a man will not know what he does know. But it is too real and common a case; intimations of something not right are unwillingly perceived; apprehension of what there may be beneath is felt; a man would rather not be sure of the whole truth; would wilfully hope for the best, and so pass off from the doubtful subject, afraid to go too far inward.

But here is a most remarkable and strange spectacle! A soul afraid of itself!-afraid of being deeply intimate with itself; of knowing itself; of seeing itself. It is easily apprehended how a human spirit might be afraid of another being, of another spirit in a human body; apprehensive in being near it,-within reach of its disposition, qualities, and action,-afraid to see and meet the corporeal person it is in; alarmed at what there may be, or is suspected to be, in that spirit; shrink from approach, communication, or any lure to confidence. "I have a perception of evil omen; a silent warning of danger; there is possible ruin to me in that spirit."

It is easy to apprehend that a human soul might be afraid of a disembodied spirit, evincing its presence by voice or appearance; if it seemed to attend a man in his solitary walk, or to be a temporary visitant in his apartment. It

would be an awful companionship!—the revealed proximity of the other world; dark mystery personified-a being presented as if in an equivocal conjunction of life and death; with powers unknown, and which the mortal can meet with no similar powers! All this, on the supposition that it were a departed human spirit. More than this, if it were deemed a spirit of mightier order.

Such fear, of other beings, would seem natural enough. But think of a human soul in dread of itself! having had some glimpses of itself, afraid to meet its own full visage afraid to stay with itself, alone, still, and attentive-afraid of intimate communication, lest the soul should speak out from its inmost recesses! All the while, what it is afraid of is its own very self, from which it is every where and for ever inseparable! A man uneasy and apprehensive in a local situation, or in the presence of other men, may think of escape; but in his own soul! there he is, and is to be perpetually. Then what a predicament, when a man, directly and immediately as being in himself, feels the apprehension of evil and danger!—feels in the presence of something he dreads to abide with, and would fly from; would be glad to separate by a partition-or veil. So that, be where he may, with other persons or alone, he has still the inevitable presence, with him and in him, of something which he cannot be at ease in trusting himself with.

We were led into this kind of digression by observing, that one cause of the deficiency of self-knowledge is a fear of having the full truth disclosed. But now think a moment of the absurd and pernicious operation of such fear. To fear that there may be, or is, something incompatible with safety, and therefore decline ascertaining it! To fear that the suspected evil may reach further and deeper than the signs distinctly betray,-therefore be careful to keep the alarm less than the evil may be! To fear the suspected

evil in reference to its ultimate effects and consequences; and, rather to venture those consequences than firmly look to see whether we are approaching them! Not to be willing to see how near is the precipice! In short, to resign and abandon ourselves to be all that we fear,—rather than encounter the self-manifestation and the discipline necessary for a happy change!

But let us still enforce the necessity of self-examination. Let us consider (it is a grave consideration, though it may sound insignificantly in terms), that every one actually stands placed against a standard unseen, but real-that by which God judges,—and marks the spiritual state of every one -the eternal law-the rule of Christian character. Every one stands in some certain, precise, discriminated, relation to this grand rule of judgment. That is his true and exact condition. Think of all our assembly thus placed, ascertained, and judged! If the fact could be an object of sight! or signified by some parallel manifestation to sight! If it were so,-whatever inquisitiveness each might feel respecting the rest, surely his own marked state would be the chief object of his eager attention. Well, but should it be less so when he considers and knows it is so discriminated, marked, signed, in the sight of God?—that there is the standard, and some certain degree upon it is his degree? Is there any thing in the world so important for him to know; not with the infallible precision which belongs to the judgment of God alone, but with a substantial conformity to truth? There is a manifestation of the divine rule-and there is himself to bring, with all his consciousness, into comparison with it. And the state he is in, by the decision of that rule, is the state of his relations with all that is the most solemn, in heaven and earth, in time and eternity. Therefore, "know your own selves."

Let us briefly notice the objects of self-examination. We