Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/445

 of nothing,  and  knowest  not  that  thou  are  wretched and miserable  and  poor  and  blind  and  naked."  For no  man  is  a  judge  in  his  own  cause,  not  because  he has  not  within  him  a  voice  to  call  him  to  account,  but because  that  voice,  conscience,  is  apt  to  be  stilled  or perverted  by  self-love  and  self-conceit.  In  examining ourselves  we  find  it  hard  to  be  strictly  honest,  to tell  the  whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  to admit  that  a  beam  in  the  eye  is  a  beam  indeed  and not  a  mere  mote.  And  even  when  we  do  succeed fairly  well  in  extracting  all  the  evidence  for  and against,  we  still  decide  the  case  according  to  a  standard all  our  own,  and  the  prisoner  in  consequence  is honorably  acquitted  or  even  highly  commended. Sin,  too,  is  something  that  is  ever  recurring,  and  the judge  soon  tires  and  grows  lax  with  usage.  Favorable self-judgments,  I  have  said,  are  usually  erroneous, and,  in  a  measure,  the  same  is  true  of  all  selfjudgments. Even the  publican's  estimate  of  himself was just  only  in  so  far  as  it  was  self-depreciatory. Christ's commendation  of  him,  that  he  went  down  to his  house  justified  rather  than  the  Pharisee,  is,  you notice, more  relative  than  absolute. Doubtless there were many  other  grades  of  society,  the  Gentiles,  the harlots, the  unclean,  upon  whom  the  publican,  Jew as he  was,  would  have  looked  as  the  Pharisee  looked on him,  and  with  his  lips  have  thanked  God  and  in his  heart  have  thanked  himself,  as  did  the  Pharisee, that he  was  not  as  some  other  men. Or perhaps  his self-depreciation, like  the  Pharisee's  complacency, was based  on  the  notion  that  outward  observance  is