Literature.— W. F. Adeney, art. 'Self-Surrender' in BDB Iv. ; W. L. Walker, The Spirit and the Incarnation, Edin- burgh, 1899, Index, s.v. ' Self- Renunciation ' ; J. Kostlin,
Christliche Ethik, Berlin, 1888-89, p. 119; A. Harnack, The Mission and Expanximi of Christianity in thp First Three Onturies, Kng. tr., London, 1904, vol. i. bk. i. ch. iii. ; T. H. Green, Pruteyuinena to Ethics^, Oxford, 1899, hk. iii. ch. v. ; see also various Commentaries on passages quoted.
Donald Mackenzie.
SELF-EXAMINATION.— In two passages of the NT (1 Co 11-8 and 2 Co 13') the duty of self- examination is expressly inculcated. In the former the verb used is Soxi/xds'u) ; in the latter iretpdfu is combined with So/ti/idfai. Both these words are more appropriate to the act of intro- spection than the more general terms signifying investigation, like aferd^oi or dfcLKplvui : for the object of self-knowledge in the Christian is to discover his relationship with the Good. 'Self- examination is often a direct result of a new awakening to a sense of the moral imperative such as we have already described as conversion ; but it may be carried on by men periodically, without any such reawakening ' (J. S. Mackenzie, Manual of Ethics*, London, 1900, p. 378).
For the purpose of self-examination SoKt/idi'oi carries with it the suggestion that the scrutiny will end in acceptance or approval, while Treipdfui more commonly indicates a test which will issue in the disclosure of what is defective and evil. But this distinction is not always obvious, nor can it always be pressed, for in 2 Co 13° St. Paul uses both words together : * Try yourselves (jrei/jdfeTc) if you are in the faith ; prove yourselves (5oKi/id- ferf ) ' ; and he proceeds, ' or do you not see when you look at yourselves (iinyLvuKTK^Te, ' know ye not as to your own selves,' RV) that Jesus Christ is in you ? unless it should be that you fail in the test ' (a56\-i/ioi). The passage is so rendered by A. Menzies (Second Epistle to the Corinthians, London, 1912, p. 103), who explains that ' the examination enjoined must lead to one of two results : either the convert must conclude that what is required of him is too much ; then he does not stand the test, he is not fit for the kingdom ; Jesus Christ is not so much a part of his life that he must give up everything in order to be with Him ; or he will conclude, on putting the necessary questions to himself, that Jesus Christ is in him and must dominate his whole life and action.' Thus, the Apostle throws his converts back upon the test of their own lieart-experience so as to produce a com- plete severance from pagan vices, and further so that he himself, who has to condemn these vices, will be approved as having done his duty and will be found to be undeserving of the censure that has been poured on him.
In 1 Co lp8. 29 ^ijQ exhortation is concerned with the Lord's Supper : by self-scrutiny the believer may be saved from eating and drinking judgment (Kpl/ia) to himself. The Communion had been allowed to degenerate into an ordinary feast in- stead of being a means of sanctifying grace. The Apostle urges upon the Christians the duty of self- examination on the ground that a right estimate of themselves is necessary for a right estimate of the Lord's ' body,' i.e. the spiritual significance of His glorified humanity.
Generally speaking, St. Paul appears to com- mend self-examination not so mucli with a view to the disclosure of personal weakness as in order to provide a stimulus to the spiritual life, an intelligent realization of what the faith claims from the Christian, ethical obedience and a clear apprehension of duty. The fact of nnworthiness in motive and life is already detected even if not generally admitted by the believer : self-examina- tion will bring it home to the conscience and show the necessity for aiming at the higher spiritual ideal in thought and action.
The duty of self-examination is not so familiar a feature in tihe early literatureof Christian experience
SENATE
SEPULCHRE
469
as it was afterwards to beconie under monasticism and in the writing's of mystics in all ai;es. Anion}" tlie niediieval mystics the i)urilication of self as the resnlt of the painful iiescent into the 'cell of self-knowledge' is a well-marked sta;;e in the ascent to the uncreated good (E. Underhill, Mi/^ti- cUiit', London, I'Jll, p. 24011'.). The apo.stolic Christian is urged to follow his Lord's example (1 Ti S*, 1 P 2-'), and to look away to Jesus (He 12-) rather than to engage in the exercises of self- scrutiny. One seeks in vain among the mystic Johannine writings for any such incentives to self-examination as were afterwards to lie adduced by St. Catherine of Siena : ' If thou wilt arrive at a perfect knowledge of Me, the Eternal Truth, thou shouldst never go outside the knowledge of thyself (cf. E. Underhill, o/). cit., p. 241); or by Thomas Jl Kempis, hinitili.i tui cugnitio certior via est ad Dciim, quam profunda .wicntim inqulsitio (de Iiiiit. Christi, i. 3. 4). Self-e.xaniination is a conspicuous element in all forms of pietism : it passed into evangelical Christianity ; and chietly in the mystical autobiographies of Quakerism, like the diaries of T. EUwood and J. Woolman, and in the hymnology of early Methodism we discover it to be a recognized exercise of the soul.