Our Own Faults | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 22, 1866

Our Own Faults.

LET us not be over-curious about the faults or failings of others, but take account of our own. Let us bear in mind the excellencies of others when we reckon up our own faults, for then shall we be well pleasing to God. For he who looks at the failings of others, and at his own excellencies, is injured in two ways: by the latter he is carried up to arrogance, through the former he falls into listlessness. For when he perceives that such an one hath sinned, very

easily he will sin himself; when he perceives he hath excelled, very easily he will become arrogant. He who consigns to oblivion his own excellencies and looks at his failings only, while he is a curious engineer of the excellencies, not the sins, of others, is profitable in many ways. And why? I will tell you: When he sees that such an one hath done excellently, he is raised to emulate the same; when he sees that he himself hath sinned, he is rendered humble and modest. If we thus regulate ourselves, we shall be able to obtain the good things which we are promised through the loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ.