04. Examining Ourselves
Examining Ourselves
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?—On the wall of a building in Scotland was inscribed this searching question: “What would Jesus do?”
SEXTUS’ DAILY EXAMINATION.—It is said that Sextus, every night before going to sleep, would ask his heart, “What evil hast thou amended? what vice hast thou shunned? what good hast thou done? in what part art thou bettered?”
BERNARD’S QUESTION.—Bernard was in the habit of warning himself by the question, Bernard, for what purpose art thou here?
EGYPTIAN GUANO.—The tombs about Alexandria contain the remains of once proud princes as well as the dust of the poor. This has been taken out and sold as a fertilizer, and is known in the trade as “Egyptian guano.” Four thousand years ago no pains or cost was spared to honor this dust now so dishonored. THE SALT.—A person who was once striving. to shield from reproof those Christians who love worldly society, said to another: “You know believers are called to be the salt of the earth.” “Yes,” said the other, “but if the salt be cast into the ocean, from whence it was taken, it will melt away and vanish.”
DELUDED LADY.—A lady who had passed for a devoted Christian came to the portals of death. But what a sequel. Now, upon her deathbed she confessed that her life had been hypocritical, and declared that Satan stood by her bed. When requesting a drink of water, she asked that it might be brought from a distance, as that at home tasted of brimstone. NO TIME TO LOOK UP.—King Henry IV. asked the Duke of Alva whether he had observed the great eclipse of the sun, which had recently occurred. “No,” replied the Duke, “I have so much to do on earth that I have no leisure to look up to Heaven.”
LIKE TRAVELERS AND TRADESMEN.—The reason why there is so little self-condemnation is because there is so little self-examination. For want of it many are like travelers skilled in other countries, but ignorant of their own. As it is an evidence that those tradesmen are embarrassed in their business who are afraid to have their books examined, so it is plain that there is something wrong within, among all those who are afraid to look within.
POPE SELF.—Luther once said: “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and his Cardinals. I have within pope self.”
GOOD MEASURE.—A man was once asked why he was so particular to give good measure, and he replied: “God has given me but one journey through this world; and when I am gone I cannot return to correct mistakes.”
BALLOON ASCENSION.—When men have ascended a short distance above the earth in a balloon thing’s down here begin to look small. The higher they rise the smaller everything on earth appears—it gets fainter and fainter as the balloon goes up, until a train of cars seem like a mere thread, and the great masses of houses and factories look like mere clots. The balloonist carries with him what he calls ballast—that is, small bags of sand, and when he wants to rise higher, he throws out some of the sand, and the balloon, thus freed from weight, shoots upward still higher and higher.