_CRITICISM AND PIETY_
"_Thinkest thou, that judgest them that do such things,
that thou shalt escape?_"
--ROMANS ii. 1-11.
That is always my peril, to assume that by being severe with others I
exculpate myself. I go on to the bench, and deliver sentence upon my
brother, when my proper place is in the dock. And this is the subtlety of
the snare, that I regard my criticisms and condemnations of other people
as signs of my own innocence. This is the last refinement in temptation,
and multitudes fall before its power.
The way to moral and spiritual health is to direct my criticisms upon
myself. I must stand in the dock, and hear the grave indictment of my own
soul. Unless I pass through the second chapter of Romans I can never enter
the fifth and sixth, and still less the glorious forgiveness of the
eighth. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus." I pass into that warm, cheery light through the cold road of
acknowledged guilt and sin.
"If we confess our sins He is just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness."