(2) Secondly, the Psalmist's self-communion is for the trial of a man's spiritual condition. " Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves." And the questions to be asked by one who sets about it are not merely concerning what he does, or what he feels, or what he fancies. The inquiry is not what he once was, or what he hopes to be, but what he is. What is the prevailing tone and bias of his mind ? What does he take most pleasure in ? From what motive does he act ? What are his friendships, and his favourite haunts ? What is he in the unrestrained intercourse of private life ? For many are the self- deceits that men put upon themselves. Scarcely any danger indeed is more earnestly exposed in Scripture than the danger of thinking we are safe when we are not : the danger of fancying ourselves accepted sons of God whilst unmortified passions pro- claim us children of the wicked one : the danger of speaking and thinking confidently of our religious hopes, whilst the entire or partial absence of the Spirit's fruits declares our hopes a lie. And when the Psalmist calls us to self-communion, he would have us use it to test ourselves, by sound Scripture rules, whether the Spirit of Christ have real possession of us or not.
^ If thou canst not continually recollect thyself, yet do it sometimes, at the least once a day, namely, in the morning or at night. In the morning fix thy good purpose, and at night
200 THE FOUR ACTS OF RELIGION
examine thyself what thou hast done, how thou hast behaved thyself in word, deed, and thought; for in these, perhaps, thou hast oftentimes offended against God and thy neighbour. "Examine me, 0 Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart." i
^ If, after a serious retrospect of your past lives, of the objects you have pursued, and the principles which have determined your conduct, they appear to be such as will ill sustain the scrutiny of a dying hour, dare to be faithful to yourselves, and shun with horror that cruel treachery to your best interests which would impel you to sacrifice the happiness of eternity to the quiet of a moment.^
(3) And thus, thirdly, its proper office is to convince us of sin, and to humble us in remorse and shame for it. Humility, says one — genuine humility — is almost the last virtue man learns upon earth. All that lies around us is framed as if to teach us pride. And the only remedy is the consciousness of sin. To produce in us through grace this consciousness of sin, we are exhorted to self-communion. For genuine humility, observe, is not the mere vague self-condemnatory tone of a man merely lamenting his fallen nature. Many will confess their sinfulness who give no heed to their daily sins. Many will be heard to speak in the most exaggerated language of the depravity of their human nature who have no idea whatever of their own specific faults. They call themselves the worst of sinners, but they do not search out and confess their sins. And hence it often happens that no men slight the Church's calls to self-discipline so contemptuously as those who need them most.
^ Although I had long known and admired Dr. McLaren in his preaching and his writings, it was only during the later years of his life that I became personally acquainted with him. My first introduction to him took place in Aberdeen in the house of my friend Sir George Eeid, to whom he was sitting for his portrait. After this he was frequently under my medical care on his visits to Edinburgh, and especially during the year preceding his death. From the first of this acquaintance I was deeply impressed with his remarkable personality. While my inter- views with him mainly bore reference to matters concerning his health, there soon began to grow up a feeling of something
^ Thomas h Kempis.
^ Robert Hall, Funeral Sermon for the Princess Charlotte.
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more than professional relationship, namely, a true and firm friendship.
Of Dr. M'^Laren it might truly be said he was clotlied with humility. Who could have known from anything he said of himself that this man was one of the foremost preachers and expositors of the age, whose name was a household word through- out Christendom ? Yet who could be for any time in his company without feeling that his presence and his words were at once an inspiration and a benediction ? ^
(4) But, fourthly, the believer's self-communion is no mere idle and fruitless habit of morbid self-contemplation. Its use is, that it is the handmaid of real repentance. It is the healthy self- scrutiny of one earnestly desirous of amendment : whose remorse and shame are not the mere sorrow of the world, but the natural outpouring of a heart that God has touched, and awakened to a real longing to be wholly His. He communes with his own heart to see his dangers and through grace to avoid them. He marks how the infinite variety of his passions, feelings, and ideas ripened into words and actions. He breaks up the ground of his heart, to find the seeds of those habits which are ready to spring up and give the colour to his life. He watches how some trivial indul- gence strengthens into a criminal necessity ; how a momentary thought returns, and becomes rooted in one's bosom, and springs up a plant of iniquity ; how an action, which startled him at first, steals silently and rapidly into the train of things committed without hesitation.