It is not so much the bigher crimes which have need of self-examination : No one asks of a murderer, on the opening of the year, to reflect on blood-guiltiness; no one invites an adultress to think on her husband, and children, and on that misery which she is preparing for her own soul: these feelings do not wait for our call; they come unasked for, and unwanted to torment the guilty before their time: But the vices which need self-examination, are those which condemn us in the sight of God, without creating in our minds any instant, and pressing alarm. All the fruitful family of original sin, pride, anger, lust, hypocrisy, deceit, envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness; for all these things a man shall surely die, though they do not make him pale with fear, or rouse him from his sleep, to tremble at the spectres of a guilty mind. Nor let it be supposed, that in urging our fellow creatures to self-examination, we put them upon any exercise which is difficult, or profound; or in which one human creature can make a greater progress than another; for it is fine to observe, that reason, when she meddles with science, or with any thing which has a cold, and distant connection with human life, can wait to be intricate, and subtle; she can toil through many steps, and be content with small acquirements, and wait patiently, and retrace carefully; but when she comes to the business of salvation, to right and wrong, to holy and unholy, she is as quick as an Eagle's wing, and as rapid as the lightning of God: In a moment she pierces through a thousand intricacies, shivers into atoms the dull, heartless sophistry which is opposed to her course, and, breaking into the chambers of the soul, scares guilt with the amazing splendor of truth. Seck and ус shall find; ask and ye shall have; knock and it shall be opened to you. No man ever turned to look for the evil that was within him and was repulsed with the difficulty. Whatever God has made necessary, God has made easy every man who scarcheth his heart diligently, will find in it the issues of life. There is nothing which can be substituted instead of self-examination, renewed at intervals; self-examination, voluntarily, and intentionally entered into. Sickness prompts us to examine our own hearts; but we may not be in that manner visited by the Almighty; old age warns us to this salutary task; but we may perish in youth; misfortune is a great master of reflection; but we may be successful in our sins, and a long course of lucky vice may obliterate every chance, and possibility of melioration. Self-examination drives men to great exertions, by inflicting upon them great pains; for the remembrance of a mispent life, commonly brings on remorse, a feeling that the harm cannot be recalled, or repaired; it is not like falsehood, which may be corrected, and injustice, which may be atoned for; but the evil done is often out of the power of repentance, and beyond the possibility of change. It is this which makes a man start up in the midst of irreverent old age, and struggle to give a few months, or years to God, doubting of mercy, and not knowing if the relics of his days will be accepted at the throne of grace : If timely thought can save us from a state, -- like this, it is, indeed, worth while to think. In this process of self-examination, we should, among other subjects of enquiry, put to our own hearts these two questions: are we happy ourselves, are we beloved by our fellow creatures :-if we are really contented, it is no mean evidence that we have a right to be so: if no human being is in a state of hostility against us, it is presumptive evidence, that we have given no occasion of offence; by tracing up our miseries we shall arrive at our vices; and by putting on the feelings of our enemies, and entering into their views of our conduct, we may make their hostility a motive for compensation, and a mean of improvement. In self-examination I would have a man think of death; he should ask his own heart, if he is afraid of death, why he is afraid of death? what he has done to make it an object of fear? what he could do to make it an object of hope? in what way he can make ready to appear before his Saviour, and all the host of Heayen, at the sound of the everlasting trum-' pet, when the Heavens, and the earth are expiring? The use of self-examination is to prepare for the worst, to place ourselves in other situations, and other circumstances, before they really exist, that we may meet them with the proper energy, when they are brought round by the revolutions of the world. The business is to think of sickness in health, to reflect upon old age in youth, to remember death in life, to think of the necessity of rendering an account now, while perfect freedom of action remains: to feel that these are not situations which may happen, but situations which must happen. Consider the life which human beings lead, and tell me if there are many men who put these things faithfully, and strongly to their own hearts: Look at a young man in all the flower, and freshness of youth; he acts, and he thinks, and he speaks, as if that condition of body' was ever to remain; he forgets, when his strength is gone, and his nerves are trembling with old age, that another set of opinions, congenial to the mouldring frame, will get possession of his mind; and that all his animal bravery, and animal happiness, |