TAKE COUNSEL AGAINST SELF-BLINDNESS

STUDY

1. They who timely descend into themselves, and cultivate the good seeds which nature hath set in them, prove not shrubs but cedars in their generation.

THY NATURE

2. Consideration is half conversion. It is for want of thinking that we are undone.

3. Be not a stranger to the condition of thine own soul, but look home till thou art acquainted what state it is in, and what it is in danger of, and what it wanteth.

4. Rather enlarge the dimensions of thy vices and their vicious objects, that their unseen deformities may not escape thy sense, and their poisonous parts and stings may appear massy and monstrous unto thee.

5. Judge not of thy heart upon every sudden glance or feeling, but upon a sober, deliberate examination, when thy mind is in a clear, composed frame:

6. And as then thou findest thyself, record the judgment or discovery and believe not every sudden, inconsiderate appearance, or passionate fear, against that record.

7. Judge not of thyself by that which is unusual and extraordinary with thee, but by the tenor and drift of thy heart and life. A bad man may seem good in

some good mood; and a good man may seem bad in some extraordinary fall.

8. Look not unequally at the good or evil that is in thee, but consider them both impartially as they

are.

9. If thou observe all the good only that is in thee, and overlook the bad; or search after nothing but thy faults, and overlook thy graces, neither of these ways will bring thee to true acquaintance with thyself.

10. Some look so much at the glory of that full perfection which they want, as that their present grace seemeth nothing to them; like a candle to one that hath been gazing on the sun.

11. And some look so much at the debauchery of the worst, that they think their lesser wickedness to be holiness.

12. Look not so much either at what thou shouldst be, or at what others are, as to forget what thou art thyself.

13. When the world blames and slanders us, our business is not to be vexed at it, but rather to consider whether there is any foundation for it, any truth at bottom.

KNOWING THE WORST OF

14. It is not when we are conscious of our faults that we are the most wicked; on the contrary we are less so. We see by a brighter light, and ONE'S SELF let us remember for our consolation that we never see our sins till we begin to cure them.

15. As light increases we see ourselves to be worse than we thought.

16. We are amazed at our former blindness as we see issuing from the depths of our heart a whole swarm of

shameful feelings, like reptiles crawling from a hidden

cave.

17. We never could have believed that we had harboured such things, and we stand aghast as we watch them gradually appear. But we must neither be amazed nor disheartened. We are not worse than we were; on the contrary we are better.

18. The highest and most profitable lesson is the true knowledge and lowly esteem of ourselves.

19. True dignity abides with him alone,

Who in the silent hour of inward thought,
Can still suspect and still revere himself
In lowliness of heart.

CHAPTER XXIII

AS A MAN IS SO WILL HE SEEM

1. In the actual practice of daily life you will find that wherever there is secrecy, there is either guilt or danger;

SIN AND

DARKNESS

2. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 3. Openness is the sweet fresh air of our moral life. 4. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

5. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

6. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.

7. How unsound and insincere is he who says: "I have determined to deal with thee in a fair way."

8. There is no occasion to give this notice. It will soon show itself by acts. Such as a man's character is, he immediately shows it in his eyes, and there is no mistaking it.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

ΤΟ

9. What manner of countenance may be expected in those who have all their life long, except on the rarest occasions, harboured nothing but petty, base, miserable thoughts, and vulgar, selfish, envious, wicked, and malicious desires? 10. There is confession in the glances of our eyes, in our smiles, in salutations, and the grasp of bands.

HIDE ONE'S
SOUL

11. A man's sin bedaubs him, mars all his good impression. Others know not why they do not trust him, but they do not trust him.

12. His vice glasses his eye, cuts lines of mean expression in his cheek, pinches the nose, sets the mark of the beast on the back of his head, and writes “O fool! fool!" on the forehead.

13. If thou wouldst not be known to do anything, never do it!

14. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

15. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

16. It is not in words explicable, with what divine lines and lights the exercise of godliness and charity will mould and gild the hardest and coldest countenance.

THE BEAUTY
OF

HOLINESS

17. For there is not any virtue, the exercise of which, even momentarily, will not impress a new fairness on the features:

18. Neither on them only, but on the whole body the moral and intellectual faculties have operation, for all the movements and gestures, however slight, are different in their modes, according to the mind that governs them.

19. There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behaviour, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.

20. Goodness and love mould the form into their own image, and cause the joy and beauty of love to shine forth from every part of the face.