I. First, then, IN THE MATTER OP SELF-EXAMINATION.
This is a most desirable and important business, but every believer should desire to have communion with Christ while he is attending to it. Self-examination is of the utmost importance. No trader who would wish to succeed would neglect to keep his books. No husbandman who wishes to prosper would be careless as to the state of his fields. No flock-master who would see his herds abundantly increase, would leave to his servants the care of them, and fail to tend them with a watchful eye. If thou wouldst have thy business prosper, see to it carefully thyself. In soul-business, it is of no use taking anything for granted where there are so many temptations to self-deception in our own hearts; where so many around us are deceived, and are willing to help us to be deceived too; and where Satan sedulously and craftily seeks to cry to us, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace: it is of the first and last importance that we should search ourselves whether we be in the faith, and whether, being in the faith, our graces are growing, our faith increasing, and our love deepening. Well does the spouse suggest that she should see whether the vine flourished, whether the tender grape appeared and the pomegranates budded forth; for our spiritual vineyard needs perpetual watchfulness. While you are attending to this important business, see to it at the same time that you keep up your communion with Christ, for you will never know so well the importance of self-examination as when you see him. Mark him there! fastened to the accursed tree, wearing the thorn-crown own all set with ruby drops of his own blood; look at his griefs, if repenting tears do not blind you; behold his awful agonies; gaze into that visage more marred than that of any man, and stay awhile and listen to the heartrending shriek, “Eloi! Eloi! lama sabbacthani?” And did Christ suffer all this that souls might be saved? Then surely, my soul, it should be thy chief business, to see that thou hast an interest in him. What! shall I miss that which is purchased with such a price? When such a crimson stream from Christ’s own heart flows to cleanse away sin, shall I think it a matter of no account whether I am cleansed or no? When that head, which once was reverenced by angels, is now crowned with the thorns of mockery and cruelty, shall I not use all the thoughts of my head and brain, to find out whether I am one with Christ, and a partaker of his passion? That cannot be a little heritage which Christ hath purchased with such agonies: let me fear lest I should lose it. That cannot be a slight evil which cost my Saviour such griefs: let me search myself to see whether I am delivered from it. I am sure, beloved, you cannot have a better candle to look into the secret recesses of your soul, than a candle lit at the fire of Jesus’ love. Know his love for you, and all his griefs on your behalf, and you will charge your own heart after this fashion—“See to it, that thou make sure work as to thine interest in Jesus, that thou be really one with him, that thy faith in him be genuine, and that thou shalt be found in him in peace at the day of his appearing.”
Self-examination, however, is very laborious work: the text hints at it. It does not say, “Let us go,” but “Let us get up” Self-examination is ever up-hill work. It is by no means a pleasant task; it is one from which flesh recoils, for the flesh cries, “Let well alone; you are easy and comfortable; you have a hope which affords you much solace; do not dig too deep, the house stands well enough just now; be not too anxious about the foundations; rest assured that it is all right; you would not have all these joys and present comforts if you had built upon the sand.” We need to school ourselves to perform a duty so irksome. But, beloved, if we attempt to examine this, feeling that Christ is with us, and that we are having communion with him, we shall forget all the labor of the deed. There I see him in the garden, sweating great drops of blood in prayer! Can I view him prostrate on that cold winter’s night (when the ground was hard with frost), so burning with his soul’s travail that huge gouts of blood-red gore are falling upon the frozen earth! and shall I think any toil too great to make sure of my interest in him? Does he, when the cup is put to him, say, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt,” and drink it up with resignation? and shall the far less bitter cup of self-examination, which is so much for my good, be refused by me? No, Saviour of the world, I have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin; but if it must be, if all my powers and members must be made to bleed, if my poor heart must be brayed as in a mortar, then let it be, so that I may but be found one with thee, washed in thy blood and covered with thy righteousness. Keep close to the Saviour and the difficulties of self-examination will vanish, and the labor will become light.
Self-examination amination should always be very earnest work. The text says, “Let us get up early.” It has been well observed that all men in Scripture who have done earnest work, rose up early to do it. The dew of the morning, before the smoke and dust of the world’s business have tainted the atmosphere, is a choice and special season for all holy work. In this passage, getting up early signifies that the Church felt she must give her best hour to this necessary work; and as the work might be long, she gets up early that she may have a long day before her; that before the sun goes down, she may have examined every vine, and looked to every pomegranate, and examined all the mandrakes of the garden. So we must set to work earnestly about self-examination. This is no child’s-play. If thou wouldst find out the trickery of thy deceitful heart, thou must be very careful and watchful. If thou wouldst know on what foundation thy hope is built, it is a laborer’s work to dig out the rubbish, and to find out where the foundation is laid. He who has to prove the title-deeds of his estate, doth not always find it an easy business: there are many manuscripts through which he must wade, and numerous title-deeds eds to be read, verified, and collated, before the case will be clear. And so it must be with you. The great matter, “Do I believe in Jesus,” needs no hours of deliberation, for if I do not, I will now begin again; but to know the growing state of one’s graces is not so easy. After all, you may be deceived; therefore come to it with a soul all glowing with zeal, saying, in earnest prayer, “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.” Now, methinks, there is nothing which can make you do this earnest work so well as to say to your Master and your Lord, “Lord, come with me.” “While we examine ourselves, abide with us to help us in the work.” I cannot be careless when I hear Christ say, “My meat and my drink is to do the will of him that sent me.” I cannot be careless in my own Christian career when I see him straining every nerve that he may run the race and win the crown for me. When I see him sitting yonder, above all principalities and powers, pleading for my soul with never-ceasing intercession, I cannot be dull and sluggish. Wake up, ye drowsy powers; be stirred up, ye sleeping passions, to examine yourselves anxiously and carefully, since Christ for Zion’s sake doth not hold his peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake doth not rest.
And yet again, self-examination, it seems to me (I may be wrong), is not the simple work that some people think, but is beset with difficulties I do believe that the most of self-examinations go on a wrong principle. You take Moses with you when you examine yourself, and consequently you fall into despair. He who looks at his own character and position from a legal point of view, will not only despair when he comes to the end of his reckoning, but he will be a wise man if he despair not at the beginning; for if we are to be judged on the footing of the law, there shall no flesh living be justified. The very brightest members of Christ’s family, those who wear the most of the Savior’s image, and honor him best among men, may well shrink from the place where even Moses did “exceedingly fear and quake.” O brethren, remember to take Jesus with you, and not Moses, lest you dishonor the grace of God, and harbor suspicion against the faithfulness of God, when you ought rather to have suspected yourself. If I take Jesus with me, see on what different principles the examination is carried on! I do not ask, “Am I perfect?” That question Moses would suggest—“Am I perfect in myself ?” but I ask, “ Am I perfect in Christ Jesus?” That is a very different matter. I do not put it thus, “Am I without sin, naturally?” but thus—“Have I been washed in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness?” It is not, “Am I in myself well-pleasing to God?” but it is, “Am I accepted in the beloved?” The Christian man sometimes looks at his evidences, and grows ashamed of them, and alarmed concerning his own salvation. “Why,” saith he, “my faith has unbelief in it, it is not able to save me.” Suppose he had looked at the object of his faith instead of his faith, then he would have said, “There is no failure in him, and therefore I am safe.” He looks at his hope: “Why,” saith he, “my very hope is marred and dimmed by an anxious carefulness about present things; how can I be accepted?” Yes, but if he had looked at the ground of his hope, he would have seen that the promise of God standeth sure, and that whatever our hope may be, that promise never faileth. Then he looks at his love: “Oh!” saith he, “surely I am condemned, for my love is so cold;” but if he had looked at Christ’s love, he would have said “No, never shall I be condemned; for many waters cannot quench his love, neither can the floods drown it, and, loving me as he does, he will never condemn me, nor cast me away.” I do not want you to look at Christ so as to think less of your sin, but to think more of it; for you can never see sin to be so black as when you see the suffering which Christ endured on its behalf: but I do desire you, dear friends, never to look at sin apart from the Saviour. If you gaze at the disease and forget the remedy, you will be driven to despair. If you look at the gathering gangrene and forget the all-gracious Surgeon who is able to remove it, you may well lie down and die. If you see your own emptiness and poverty, and forget his fulness, you will never glorify his name. If you are lost in a sense of your own corruptions, and forget the eternal glory which belongs to you in Christ, so that you arc even now raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in him, I say, if you forget this grace-given brightness, and only remember your native blackness, your spirit will turn aside from the path of faith, and you will hang your harp upon the willows, and fail to glorify your God. Examine yourselves, but let it be in the light of Calvary; not by the blazing fires of Sinai’s lightnings, but by the milder radiance of the Savior’s griefs. Am I resting upon thee, thou Son of God? Are thy wounds my hiding place? Have thy nails nailed me to thy cross? Has thy spear pierced my heart, and broken it with grief for sin; and am I now crucified with thee to the world, buried with thee to the power of sin, risen with thee to newness of life, and, like thyself, waiting for the day of manifestation, when sin, death, and hell, shall be trodden under foot, and Jesus shall be all in all? Come, let us look to the vines and pomegranates, but let us make sure that our crucified Lord accompanies us; for else, we shall do the work amiss.
It appears, from the words of the spouse, that the work of self-examination should be carried on in detail, if it is to be of real service, It is written, “Let us see if the vine flourish, the tender grape appear-and and the pomegranates bud forth.” We must not take a general view of the garden, but particularize, and give special attention to each point. If a candle be guarded on all sides, if there be but one place left open, the wind will find it out, and blow out the light. So in self-examination, if we find ourselves right in many points, it is not enough: we must seek to be right in all points. The main thing is your faith. Is that faith simple? Does it depend upon Jesus only? Is it real? Is it an active living faith? Does it work by love? Does it purify the soul? But when you have examined faith, you may possibly make a mistake; therefore go on to see what your love is. Do you love the Saviour? Can you truly say, “The very thought of thee with rapture fills my breast?” Can you hear the music of his name without feeling your blood leap in your veins? Oh! if you can, methinks, dear friend, you have reason for grave questioning. Try your active graces; go from one to the other, and search them all. The worm may be at the root just in that part of the soil where you have not upturned the sod. One leak may sink a ship, therefore search well the vessel before you launch her upon the stormy deep. It is by little, and by little, that backsliders fall; even Judas doth not betray his Master with a kiss at first. Men are schooled in the downward road. Let us be particularly anxious, therefore, that we do not fall by little and little; and let us watch that we do not suffer small sins to get force and head, till, like little sparks, they have kindled a great fire?
If you wish to be exact in prying into every part and comer, you cannot do better than take Jesus with you. Tempted in all points like as we are, he will know all the points in which we are tempted; and, while we are earnestly examining, his gracious finger will point out the spots where our weakness may lie, and we shall thus fulfil the prayer we have often prayed: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know mv thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” When boys are at school, and have to learn to write, every schoolmaster knows that at the first line they keep their eye upon the copy at the top; the next line they look at their own writing, and their penmanship is not quite so good; and the next line they probably look at the last they have written, and so they write worse and worse as they reach the bottom of the page, because they have been imitating themselves, and copying their own writing. It is well for the Christian, if he do not fall into this mistake. He must keep his eye upon his great Exemplar, not upon himself. He will be far more likely to see his own faults by looking to Christ, than by looking at any of his own attainments. What a delightfully white thing this snow is! When it has newly fallen, take the whitest linen you may have ever seen, and put it down, you will find it looks positively yellow by the side of it. Take the fairest sheet of paper that ever came from the mill, and compare it; it does not look white at all. There is no whiteness, that I know of, which can at all emulate the heavenly whiteness of the snow. So, if I put my character side by side with another man’s, I may say of it, “It will bear comparison;” but if I put it by the side of Christ’s perfections, since his whole life is like the pure and spotless snow, I discover at once my own failures and spots. Oh! to have our great pattern ever before our eye! Jesus should not be a friend who calls upon us now and then, but one with whom we walk evermore. Thou hast a difficult road to travel; see, O traveler to heaven, that thou go not without thy guide. Thou hast to pass through the fiery furnace: enter it not, unless like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, there is a fourth with thee, like unto the Son of Man. Thon hast to storm the Jericho of thine own deceptions: attempt not the scaling until like Joshua, thou hast seen the Captain of the Lord’s host, with his sword drawn in his hand. Thou hast to meet the Esau of thy many temptations: meet him not until at Jabbok’s brook thou hast laid hold of the angel, and wrestled with him, and prevailed. In every case, in every condition, thou needest Jesus; but most of all, when thou comest to deal with thine own heart’s eternal interests. O, keep thou close to him, lean thy head upon his bosom, ask to be refreshed with the spiced wine of his pomegranate, and then there shall be no fear but that thou shalt be found of him at the last, without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. Seeing thou hast lived with him, and lived in him here, thou shalt live with him for ever.