Januar. 119 ; Socr. i. 37, v. 21 ; Sozom. ii. 29, iii. 6).
(5) Refusal of luxury. — Another region in which self-denial might be exercised was found in the surroundings of life, clothes, household arrange- ments, etc. Our Lord's own example (Mt 82") was appealed to, and certain hints in His teaching were felt to have a bearing on the subject (Mt 10^" 11^, Lk 16'^). The teaching of the Apostles was more detailed and deiinite (1 Ti 2^ 1 P "S^-). The ques- tion of the amount of luxury permissible to Christians came up in the Montanist controversy (Euseb. V. 18. 4; Tertull. de Coron. Mil. 5, 10, 11). It occu])ies a considerable part of the Pcedag. of Clem, of Alex, (see especially ii. 11, ii. 8-12, iii. 2, etc.), and is discussed by Cyprian (de Virg. vel. and de Cidt. fern. ).
2. The denial of the higher intellectual and psychical self. — When we consider the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are at once struck by His definite and marked departure from the ethics of classical antiquity. For Him there is no such word as dperr) (cf. "Apris, and the Lat. vir-tus) with the sense of elevated manliness. Nor has He anything to correspond with the classical tetrad (ppovTjtns (or (70(pia), dvdpeia, aw(ppocFvv7], diKaioavvT]. These express the completest development of the higher, better self in man, and proclaim as the ideal the attainment of the truest ' manliness ' in the face of an appreciative and admiring world. For our Lord the ideal is a different one. His life fulfils the conception of the prophet. He has no beauty that men should desire Him. He is despised, rejected, a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He is ' meek and lowly of heart ' (cf. Zee 9^ 2 Co 10\ Ph 2^). He is ' one that serveth ' (Mt 2028, Jn 13^3-17) It is ' the poor in spirit,' ' they that mourn,' 'the meek,' and those that 'are re- viled ' whom He calls blessed (cf. Mt 183- ■* 193" oo", Mk 1027ff-, Lk 1*8). It is quite evident that the ideal here set up is wholly dift'erent from that of the classical philosophers. The two are, in fact, in fundamental opposition. The one is the ideal of the development, the other the ideal of the denial of the higher self. The Apostles under- stood the Master very well and taught as He did (but see the use of dperrj in what viay be its classi- cal sense in Ph 48 and in 2 P P). Indeed, they insisted with even more than His iteration on the denial of self (1 Co 128-29, 2 Co P 6^", Ph 2«-8. 2 Co W, 1 P 221, Gal 523 6\ Eph 42, Col 3^2, Ja pi 3", 1 P 55, 2 Co 122').
Literature. — 1. Historical : Zockler, Askese iind Monchtum (1894), Die Tugendlehre des Christentums (1904) ; Mayer, Die Christl. Askese, ihre Wesen und ihre histor. Entfaltung (1894) ; A. Ritschl, Gesch. des Pietisnim (1880-86); W. Bright, Some Aspects of Primitine Church Life (1898); J. O. Hannay, The Spirit and Origin of Christian Monasticism (1902); Migne, Dictionnaire d'Ascetisme, Encycl. Theol. vols. 45, 46 ; Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Chxirch.
Theological and Devotional : — Rothe, Theol. Ethik, iii. (1848); Dorner, S)/st. d. chr. Sittenlehre ; Newman Smyth, Christian Ethics (1894) ; Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living and Holy Dying ; J. Keble, Letters of Spiritual Counsel ; J. H. Newman, Historical Sketches ; Bp. Paget, The Spirit of Discipline ; J. O. Hannay, The Wisdom of the Desert (1904) ; Thomas k Kempis, The Imitation of Christ ; Baxter, Self-Denial.
J. O. Hannay.
SELF-EXAMINATION.—' Our conclusion, tlien, is that the state of mind which is now^ most natur- ally expressed by the unspoken questions, Have I been what I should be ? Shall I be what I should be, in doing so and so ? is that in tvhich all moral progress originates^ (T. H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, p. 337).
1. Duty of self-examination. — Every man's con- science bears witness to the reasonableness and necessity of self-examination. It means taking oneself seriously, and applying to the moral and spiritual life methods analogous to those adopted in all other departments of knowledge and skill.
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SELF-EXAMINATION
SELFISHNESS
It is the comparison of our motives and actions with the Ideal of what they should be ; and all such self-scrutiny, as T. H. Green suggests, has a real identity with the reformer's comparison of what is actual with a social ideal. He who would attain excellence in any difficult work must be constantly testing and examining his results. He must be on the alert to overcome slackness, discover errors, ensure progress. In Christian discipleship, the most arduous, as it is the most noble, of all pursuits, there is the same imperative demand. This duty is enforced (1) By Holy Scripture. The mission of the ancient prophet, as distinct from that of the priest, was to apply a constant spur to the con- sciences of men. Much of his message was ex- pressed in the exhortation, ' Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord * (La 3^"). He bade men examine themselves in the light of God's known character and will (Is l"-^", Jer 7^"^*, Ezk 1819-32^ Hos 14^-^ etc.). If Jesus did not in so many words call on men to examine themselves, yet the necessity and duty of such self-criticism were im- plied in all His ministry and teaching. In the Sermon on the Mount, as in so many of His par- ables. He was holding up before men the ideal by which they must test their lives. And the same may be said of all the Apostolic Epistles (1 Co 11^*, 2 Co 13^). — (2) By the experience of wise and good men. The saying, ' Man, know thyself,' was frequently on the lips of Socrates. He made it the text of his life and teaching. But how shall a man know himself unless he brings his thoughts, his passions, his conduct, into strict review, and scrutinizes them in the light of conscience and duty ? What a large place, again, did this work of self-examination fill in the lives of serious- minded men and women of earlier and simpler times than ours. Thomas a Kempis, in the Lnita- tion of Christ, is much occupied with this duty ; and Jeremj' Taylor, in Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying (chapter ii. ), devotes many pages to the reasons and benefits of the habit of the daily examination of our actions. ' He that does not frequently search his conscience,' he remarks, ' is a house without a window.'