THE REMEDY FOR SELF-DECEPTION.
LIABLE as self-deception is to prove permanent, it may be detected. There is a remedy for the evil, which, when applied in time, has proved effectual. That remedy is self-examination. The mistakes which are made in religion may all be traced to the neglect of this duty. Could men but be persuaded to search their hearts by the light of divine truth, and under the teachings of the Holy Spirit, how many hopes now firm, would at once be shaken, and be exchanged for better ones. "Let every man prove his own work." "Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith." The Bible is a plain book, and was written for minds of every order—for the unlearned as well as the learned. So clearly has it revealed the way of salvation, that even, the way-faring men, though fools, shall not err therein. In a matter of such infinite moment it might be supposed that the Holy Spirit would be explicit. It would be a reflection both on his wisdom and benevolence to say that he is not to be understood. Self-deception is not owing to any thing mysterious or ambiguous in the evidences of piety themselves, but to the want of proper attention to those evidences, and their application to our individual cases. Men may and ought to know their true character. We may have something of the same consciousness of love to God, of repentance toward God, of faith in God, or of obedience to God, as we have these exercises in reference to any human being. If the child may know that he loves his parents, that he respects their authority, that he trusts in their veracity, and that he is grieved for any offences committed against them, why may not the christian know that his heart is right with God? "Lord," said Peter, "thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." Hezekiah could appeal to God that he had walked before him in truth and with a perfect heart, and had done that which was good in his sight. Isaiah, xxxviii, 3. "We know," says John, "that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." 1. In entering upon the investigation of our spiritual state, it is of the highest importance that we place before us the proper standard of piety. The standard by which we are to try ourselves is not the suggestions of our own hearts; these are deceitful above all things, and prone to lead us astray—not the sentiments and conduct of our fellow-men; these are often in direct opposition to the mind and will of God—not the experience of other professors; for that experience, like our own, may be spurious; and though all true christians are born of the same Spirit, the operations of that Spirit are greatly diversified. The proper test of piety as well as of truth is the Bible. This is "the man of our counsel and the guide of our life," "the law and the testimony," to which all our feelings and actions must be referred, and by which they must be tried. It is by this we are to be judged at the last day; and by this we should now prove the reality of our piety. Nothing is religion that will not bear the application of this test. Let the Bible then be our only rule of faith, of experience, and of practice. Let the question be settled, what is the religion which God demands, and which he will finally own? Should we adopt a different standard, we may fall into the most serious mistakes, and when our state calls for alarm, it may be regarded with complacency. Our model must be, the perfect example of Him whose disciples we profess to be, and who has required us to walk even as he walked. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 2. Not only should we fix upon a proper standard, but also endeavor to form clear conceptions of the evidences of piety. Without this, we shall be liable either to the extreme of presumption or despondency. While some will cry peace when there is no peace, others, overlooking the exercises of a renewed heart, will be held in perpetual bondage to their doubts and fears. Great care should be taken to ascertain what the Scriptures insist on as essential to christian character. It is by these points, and not by such as are merely circumstantial, that we are to determine the genuineness of our piety. There are some who place great dependence upon the pungency of their convictions, the ecstasy of their joys, remarkable dreams, sudden impulses, the unexpected application of some Scripture promise, or the fact that they can refer to the particular moment and place of their supposed conversion. None of these things, however, constitute the distinguishing marks of grace. Instead therefore of directing our minds to those circumstances which may be as marked in the cases of the self-deceived as in the cases of true believers, our inquiries should relate to those traits of character which are the invariable fruits of the Spirit, and which are common to all the subjects of his saving influence. The following questions from the pen of Dr. Ashbel Green are so much in point here, that we shall take the liberty of presenting them to the reader, with the earnest request that he would consider them as addressed to himself. Have you seen yourself to be, by nature and by practice, a lost and helpless sinner? Have you not only seen the sinfulness of particular acts of transgression, but also that your heart is the seat and fountain of sin? That in you, naturally, there is no good thing? Has a view of this led you to despair of help from yourself? To see that you must be altogether indebted to Christ for salvation, and to the gracious aid of the Holy Spirit for strength and ability rightly to perform any duty? On what has your hope of acceptance with God been founded? On your reformation? on your sorrow for your sins? on your prayers? on your tears? on your good works and religious observances? or has it been on Christ alone, as your all in all? Has Christ ever appeared very precious to you? Do you mourn that he does not appear more so? Have you sometimes felt great freedom to commit your soul to him? In doing this (if you have done it) has it been, not only to be delivered from the punishment162due to your sins, but also from the power, pollution, dominion, and existence of sin in your soul? As far as you know yourself, do you hate, and desire to be delivered from all sin—without any exception of a favorite lust? Do you pray much to be delivered from sin? Do you watch against it, and against temptation to it? Do you strive against it, and in some degree get the victory over it? Have you so repented of it as to have your soul really set against it? Have you counted the cost of following Christ or of being truly religious? That it will cut you off from vain amusement, from the indulgence of your lusts, and from a sinful conformity to the world? That it may expose you to ridicule and contempt; possibly to more serious persecution? In the view of all these things, are you willing to take up the cross and to follow Christ whithersoever he shall lead you? Is it your solemn purpose, in reliance on his grace and aid, to cleave to him, and to his cause and people, to the end of life? Do you love holiness? Do you earnestly desire to be more and more conformed to God and to his holy law? to bear more and more the likeness of your Redeemer? Do you seek and sometimes find communion with your God and Saviour. Are you resolved, in God's strength, to endeavor conscientiously to perform your whole duty—to God, to your neighbor and to yourself? Do you make conscience of secret prayer daily? Do you sometimes feel a backwardness to this duty? Do you at other times feel a great delight in it? Have you a set time, and place, and order of exercises for performing this duty? Do you daily read a portion of the holy Scriptures in a devout manner? Do you love to read the Bible? Do you ever perceive a sweetness in the truths of holy Scripture? Do you find them adapted to your necessities, and see at times, a wonderful beauty, excellence and glory in God's word? Do you make it the man of your counsel, and endeavor to have both your heart and life conformed to its doctrines and requisitions? Have you ever attempted to covenant with God? To give yourself away to him, solemnly and irrevocably, hoping for acceptance through Christ alone; and taking God, in Christ, as the covenant God and satisfying portion of your soul? Does the glory of God ever appear to you as the first, greatest, and best of all objects? Do you feel a love to mankind, such as you did not formerly feel? Have you a great desire that the souls of men should be saved, by being brought to a genuine faith and trust in the Redeemer? Do you love God's people with a peculiar attachment, because they bear their Saviour's image, and because they love and pursue the objects, and delight in the exercises which are most pleasing and delightful to yourself? Do you feel it to be very important to adorn religion by a holy, exemplary, amiable, and blameless walk and conversation? Do you fear to bring a reproach on the cause of Christ? Does this appear to you extremely dreadful? Are you afraid of back-sliding, and of being left to return to a state of carelessness and indifference in religion? Do you desire and endeavor to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ your Saviour more and more? Are you willing to sit at his feet as a little child, and to submit your reason and understanding implicitly to his teaching; imploring his Spirit to guide you into all necessary truth, to save you from all fatal errors, to enable you to receive the truth in the love of it, and to transform you, more and more, into a likeness to himself? 3. It will tend to assist you in this examination, if your minds are directed to those objects which are calculated to elicit feeling. You cannot determine your state simply by looking into your hearts; you must look at truth. Every christian grace has reference to some Bible truth, and without a distinct apprehension of that truth we cannot from the nature of the case determine the character of our exercises. Do you wish to ascertain, for example, whether you love God? Then you must contemplate his character. Study that character as revealed in his word; and having formed scriptural views of what God is, next inquire what are the affections with which you regard him. Do you delight in his holiness, approve of his justice, acquiesce in his sovereignty, adore him for his mercy? Do you wish to determine whether you have repented? Then look at sin—its nature, its malignancy, its ill-desert. If your heart be right, the object being presented to your mind, there will follow those affections which the character of the object is calculated to produce—self-abhorrence and contrition. Do you wish to know how you stand affected towards the scheme of redemption? Fix your attention upon that scheme as revealed in the gospel. Reflect on the character of Christ, the design of his mission, the sufferings he endured, and the atonement he made; and with these truths before you, inquire what has been their practical influence. Do you feel the attractions of the cross and the constraining influence of a Saviour's love; and abandoning every other ground of dependence, do you trust alone for salvation in Him who "was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities"? 4. Do not judge your state so much by your external conduct as by your internal exercises. We would by no means have you overlook the actions of your life. Religion is practical as well as experimental; the character of our conduct, however, is to be determined by the state of our hearts. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Our judgment of others must be formed by their actions. The motives which prompt to those actions we have no power to discern. But in passing sentence upon ourselves the case is materially different. If we cannot search the hearts of our fellow-men, we may search our own; and nothing but the consciousness that we are under the influence of right affections can afford any proof of the existence of piety. The form of our actions may be right, while the principle from which they flow may be wrong. True religion consists in a "new heart and a right spirit." 5. Do not determine your state merely by the circumstances of your supposed conversion, but by the fruit of that conversion. I am far from intimating that you may not be assisted in the judgment you form of your case by resorting to your first exercises. It should be a serious inquiry, what views you then entertained of yourself—of your depravity, guilt and condemnation. Carefully, too, should you determine by what means your mind became relieved—whether your hope was the result of cordial submission to Christ, or whether it originated from some other cause. Beware, however, that you do not place undue dependence upon what might be regarded an extraordinary experience, while you overlook the influence which that experience has exerted upon your subsequent practice. The only evidence which some appear to furnish of their conversion, is that they were once the subjects of deep conviction, which was eventually succeeded by hope and joy. But all this may be felt while the heart is unchanged. Thousands, perhaps, have gone through this process, whose whole deportment evinces that they are yet under the dominion of sin. "Mistaken souls that dream of heaven,
"And make their empty boast
"Of inward joys and sins forgiven,
"While they are slaves to lust."
After all, the surest test of a genuine experience is holy living. We must "bring forth fruits meet for repentance." "Herein," says the Saviour, "is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." 6. Judge your state more by your habitual than by your occasional exercises. Under certain circumstances an unrenewed man may be deeply excited on religious subjects, while the general tenor of his conduct may be manifestly against him. Who can forbear feeling under the hand of affliction—amid the scenes of a religious revival—or under the forcible exhibition of divine truth? The genuineness of this feeling, however, must be tested by its permanency. Piety is not spasmodic or periodical, but uniform and progressive. "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." "They go from strength to strength," "always abounding in the work of the Lord." The affections of the christian may not indeed be always alike vigorous. While there are times when he may pour out his soul in prayer with unutterable fervor, there may be times when the spirit of prayer may seem to have vanished, and his petitions be to him only like a "chattering noise." He may even wofully backslide from God, and become remiss in duty. Such, however, is not his ordinary state, nor is it a state in which he can remain long. His repentance will be as deep as his fall; and forgetting those things which are behind, he will press forward with renewed vigor to the immortal prize. The late Mrs. S. Huntington has well remarked: "Character is not what a person does, or is, once a year, or once in half a dozen years, but what he is and does habitually. A very generous man may from mistake, or from some other cause, do what will appear the excess of littleness. A very meek man may, from the pressure of the perplexing circumstances, get so much off his guard as to utter things unadvisedly and improper, which he would weep tears of blood to recall. A very humble man may be placed, by the imputation of charges which he knows to be false, in a situation so irksome as to induce him to defend himself with a tone and manner entirely foreign from the general disposition and habit of his mind." 7. In determining the reality of your piety, examine not so much the strength of your affections as their nature. Many are kept in a state of suspense, not because they believe themselves entirely destitute of holiness, but because their religious character is so imperfect. Now, though none ought to be satisfied with present attainments, and though no true christian can be satisfied with the advance he has already made, still the possession of any degree of holiness is as decided proof of a state of grace as the possession of the highest degree to which the most eminent saints on earth may have arrived. The difference between a saint and a sinner is not that the one has more holiness than the other, but that the one possesses some holiness, and the other none. As the heart of man by nature is destitute of all moral goodness, the exercise of any right affections is evidence of a gracious renewal. While, then, it is certainly proper that we should examine the degree of our piety, the point now to be determined is its reality. The question is not whether you love God as you ought, but do you love him at all—not whether you have that measure of godly sorrow which the malignancy of sin demands, but whether your heart is really contrite and humble—not whether your faith in Christ is as strong as the Scriptures encourage you to exercise, but whether it is indeed the "faith that worketh by love"—not whether you pray with as much fervency as your wants call for and the gracious nature of God permits, but whether you have indeed "the spirit of supplication." I am aware that this distinction is liable to abuse; still it is one of vast importance, and the man who, after having as he supposes, ascertained that he possesses any measure of holiness, can content himself with its bare existence, and aspires not after the perfection of the gospel, that man betrays unquestionable evidence, that, instead of loving holiness for its own sake, he regards it merely as a means to the accomplishment of some selfish end. The writer cannot close this "labor of love" without an affectionate and earnest admonition to the reader, immediately to enter upon a thorough examination of his spiritual state. The subject before you is one of pre-eminent importance, relating not merely to your welfare in time, but to your destiny for eternity. Have you a trial at court, involving your property or your reputation? You cannot rest until it be decided. Are you threatened with failure in your worldly business? with what anxiety do you examine your accounts and inquire into the state of your affairs. Are you afflicted with some dangerous disease? how seriously do you163mark its symptoms and calculate on its probable result. Why then leave the greatest of all interests at stake? If our solicitude to avoid any impending evil or to secure any anticipated good should be in proportion to their magnitude, then the salvation of the soul demands our first and principal attention. What is time to eternity? What is earth to heaven? What are all the evils of the present life to that undying worm, that quenchless fire which must ere long be the portion of the finally impenitent? Remember that the points to be settled are no less than these: "Am I in a state of nature, or in a state of grace—in a state of justification, or in a state of condemnation—am I a child of God, or a child of Satan—an object of divine favor, or an object of divine wrath—shall I ascend to heaven, or sink to hell—shall I mingle with the ransomed around the throne, or shall I be doomed to take up my portion with the lost in outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?" The man who can leave questions like these unsettled, betrays a degree of moral infatuation and insensibility exceedingly alarming. Dear Reader! whatever else you neglect, leave not this momentous interest in suspense. Earth with all its scenes will soon vanish. Time is your only season of probation. As you now sow, you will hereafter reap. The soul once lost, is lost irretrievably. You need not perish. The way of life is clearly marked out. If you are deceived, your deception is voluntary and criminal. If you wish to know your state, you may. Shrink not from impartial self-examination, with fervent and persevering prayer for the teachings of the Holy Spirit. It is a business upon which you must enter yourself—the writer cannot do it for you. He may furnish you with the means, but it remains for you to use them. Look to God for light. Plead with him in the language of the Psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Should you have come to the conclusion that you are yet a stranger to grace, and are ready in the agony of your soul to exclaim,
> "My former hopes are fled,
> "My terror now begins!"
let me beseech you—go at once to Christ. If you have never truly given yourself to him, do it now. If you have never repented, repent now. If God has shown you your danger, he also points you to your Refuge. The door of hope is yet open. You may yet be saved. Hasten to the Saviour of your soul. He waits to be gracious, and has assured you that you shall "in no wise be cast out."—Helffenstein.