the heavenly fire descends, is it not rash to anticipate God by sitting in judgment on one another? Selfjudgment is nothing more than the examination of one's conscience, a sacred duty incumbent on every Christian, a powerful incentive to repentance, and a valuable aid in the production of the proper dispositions for prayer. It is of self-examination that St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: " If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged," for such salutary effects would this exercise produce in us that we would thereby escape God's weightier condemnation. But would we thereby escape human criticism? Alas! the more virtuous a man is the more fault will be found with him, and the cavilings of his critics will be bitter in proportion to their wickedness. The vicious resent goodness in others as a personal reproach. " Let us," say they (Wis. ii), " let us lie in wait for the just because he is contrary to our doings, upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us our sins. He is become a censurer of our thoughts, grievous to us even to behold, for his life is not like other men's, and his ways very different. He esteemeth us as triflers and abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and glorieth that he hath God for his Father. Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness and try his patience, and let us condemn him to a most shameful death." Ah, Brethren, what a commentary on human nature is this; what a picture of that malice which could torture and crucify even the irreproachable, the loving and gentle Saviour. We
