^ The ancient precept, " Man, know thyself ! " was recognized as so wise and good that it was thought to be of Divine origin. The best of the ancients regarded self-knowledge as the very beginning of wisdom, just as they regarded self-mastery as the very beginning of practical virtue. It is said that Socrates, on one occasion, excused himself from giving attention to some important questions, on the ground that he could not possibly come to know such things, as he had not yet been able to know himself. There, the grand old heathen felt, was the true starting- place of all true knowledge. Wisdom, like charity, began at home. And he could not bring himself to admire those who carried on their researches at the ends of the earth, ignorant of what was proceeding in their own domains.^
2, Though we may be unconscious of it, sin is always sin. The principle of evil is the same whether it be hand-murder or heart-mm-der. Sin is not confined to the outward act ; it lies also in the thoughts and motives behind the act. "The thought of the foolish is sin." The desire to injure your neighbour is sin, though it may never result in outward action. The plan to sin is sinful whether you carry it out or not. Human judges have nothing to do with inward desires, for all these are beyond their reach ; but the Divine Judge reads the reins and hearts of men. The heart makes the man, and if the heart is wrong, all is wrong.
^ In the Book of Leviticus different sacrifices are required for the sin of ignorance in the priest, the ruler of the people, and the private individual and proselyte. The priest stood at the head of the chosen people, and, in virtue of his exceptional position, might justly be expected to possess superior knowledge and a more than average sense of the authority and penetrating power of the Divine law. For a sin of inadvertence in the priest, the sacrifice of a bullock, the most costly offering known to the Levitical law, was required. The inadvertence was scarcely excusable in one living in the heart of the daily sanctities. The light of the holy place was about the man's footsteps, and in this case a sin of ignorance crept up almost to the margin of conscious sin. It demanded a costlier atonement than in others. Again, when the ruler of the people had committed a sin of ignorance, he was required to offer a he-goat. His position was ^ A. Maclaren, The God of the Amen, 78. ^ J. Thew, Broken Ideals, 107.
350 HIDDEN FAULTS
not quite so sacred as that of the priest, nor were his religious op- portunities so rich and inspiring. But still his life was devoted to high tasks of moral discrimination. He occupied a representa- tive position, and ought to stand out from the rank and file of the congregation in quick perception and sensitive religious tone. When the private individual or proselyte had unwittingly sinned, a she-goat only, a still less costly form of sacrifice, was required. The lowliest were members of the elect congregation and worshippers of Jehovah, and could not be quite absolved from all responsibility, although the opportunities of others might be higher.^
3. Hidden sin is a great peril, and if unchecked will manifest itself in overt deed. Every man has two lives — the inward and the outward. Christianity directs its chief attention to the inner man, and the " inwardness " of its teachings renders it unique. Of old, murder was a thing of the hand — an outward act ; but Christ speaks of murder as a thing of the heart — an inward thought or feeling. You may commit murder without shedding one drop of blood, for a man who is " angry with his brother without a cause " is a murderer. In the Sermon on the Mount there are two voices — the one an ancient voice dealing with the outward, and the other a new Voice from heaven dealing with the inner empire of the spirit. Christianity is not a painted paganism, but a condition of soul. Its great question is this, " How is it with thine heart ? What is the state of thy spirit ? What of the man within the man ? " The Bible is the heart-book, 'par excellence. The human race is suffering, not from skin-disease, but from heart-disease ; and if man is to be lifted up he must be lifted up from the very root of his being. It is the glory of the Gospel that its master- purpose is to subject every thought to the obedience of Christ.
\ These secret faults are like a fungus that has grown in a wine-cask, whose presence nobody suspected. It sucks up all the generous liquor to feed its own filthiness, and when the staves are broken, there is no wine left, nothing but the foul growth. Many a Christian man and woman has the whole Christian life arrested, and all but annihilated, by the unsuspected influence of a secret sin. I do not believe it would be exaggeration to say that, for one man who has made shipwreck of his faith and lost his peace by reason of some gross transgression, there are twenty who have