Self-Examination | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Jun 26, 1855

Self-Examination.

ANY truthful examination into our actions must be good; but we ought not to be satisfied with it until it becomes both searching and progressive. Its aim should be not only to investigate instances, but to discover principles. Thus—suppose that conscience upbraids us for any particular habit; we then regard each instance of it with intense self-reproach, and long for an opportunity of proving the amendment which seems certain to rise from our pangs of regret. The trial comes, and sometimes our former remorse is remembered and saves us; but sometimes it is forgotten, and our conduct is as bad as it was before our conscience was awakened. Now in such a case, we should begin at the beginning, and strive to discover where it is that we are wrong in the heart. This is not to be done by weighing each particular instance, and observing after what interval it occurred, and whether with a little more or a little less temptation than usual. Instead of dwelling on a mere circumstance of this kind, we should try and get at the substance of the thing, so as to be certain what fundamental precept of God is violated by the habit in question. That precept we should make our study; and then there is more hope of a permanent amendment.—Helps.