''a mote/' or trifling thing in a brother's eye, while he himself hafl ''a beam/' or some large and formidable object sticking in his own eye.
The leasoa must doubtless be received with suitable and Scriptural qualifications. If no man is to teach or preach to others, until he himself is faultless, there could be no teaching or preaching in the world. The erring would never be corrected, and the wicked would never be reproved. To put such a sense as this on our Lord's words, brings them into collision with other plain passages of Scripture.
The main object of our Lord Jesus appears to be to impress on ministers and teachers the importance of con- sistency of life. The passage is a solemn warning not to contradict by our lives what we have said with our lips. The office of the preacher wiU never command attention, unless he practises what he preaches. Episcopal ordination, university degrees, high-sounding titles, a loud profession of doctrinal purity, will never procure respect for a minis- ter's sermon, if his congregation sees him cleaving to ungodly habits.
But there is much here which we shall all do well to remember. The lesson is one which many besides ministers should seriously consider. All heads of families and masters of households, all parents, all teachers of schools, all tutors, all managers of young people, — should often think of the "mote" and the "beam." All such should see in our Lord's words the mighty lesson, that nothing influences others so much as con- sistency. Let the lesson be treasured up and not forgotten.
"We learn, lastly, from these verses, that there is only
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one satUfactory test of a marCs reUgiom character. That test is his conduct and conversation.
The words of our Lord on this subject are dear and unmistakeable. He draws an illustration from a tree, and lays down the broad principle, " every tree is known by his own fruit/' But our Lord does not stop here. He proceeds further to show that a man's conyersation is one indication of his state of heart. " Of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." Both these sayings are deeply important. Both should be stored up among the leading maxims of our practical Christianity.
Let it be a settled principle in our religion that when a man brings forth no fruits of the Spirit, he has not the Holy Ghost within him. Let us resist as a deadly error the common idea, that all baptized people are bom again, and that all members of the Church, as a matter of course, have the Holy Ghost. One simple question must be our rule. What fruit does a man bring forth P Does he repent P Does he believe with the heart on Jesus P Does he live a holy life ? Does he overcome the world P Habits like these are what Scripture calls "fruit." When these "fruits" are wanting, it is profane to talk of a man having the Spirit of God within him.
Let it be a settied principle eugsin. in our religion, that when a man's general conversation is ungodly, his heart is graceless and unconverted. Let us not give way to the vulgar notion, that no one can know anything of the state of another's heart, and that although men are living wickedly, they have got good hearts at the bottom. Such notions are flatly contradictory to our Lord's teach* ing. Is the general tone of a man's communication