[Before that plea can be of any avail, you must inquire whether others are as holy as they ought to be : for if they be not, your equality with them can be no ground of satisfaction in the prospect of the future judgment. What consolation will it be to those who shall experience the wrath of God in hell, that they were as good as any who walked in " the broad road that led them to destruction? " It is not by any human standard that you will be judged in the last day, but by the standard of God's unerring word : and whether you be as good or better than others, it will avail you nothing, if you be not found such as God requires, " Israelites indeed, and without guile " ]
2. How desirable is it to have our evidences of piety clear and decisive !
[The question put to us in the text, will be put to us in the last day; " What did ye more than others ?" This ques- tion we ought to be able to answer now, in order that we may give a satisfactory answer then : and the more satisfactorily we can answer it now, the more comfort we shall have in look- ing forward to that day, and the more boldness when we shall stand at the judgment-seat of Christ^. Whatever then ye have attained, forget it all, and press forward for yet higher attain- ments'*, that so, whenever the day of Christ shall arrive, ye may rejoice, " and not be ashamed before him at his coming\"]
g 1 John iii. 20, 21. and iv. 17. ^ phU. Hi. 13, 14.
i 1 John ii. 28.