Job 9:20

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me." Job 9:20

There are two processes often going on together in human thought, self-justification and self-condemnation. The justification is often outward; that is, it takes a social range, going up and down amongst men, asking for charges, indictments, proofs of blame: but even whilst the soul is thus revelling in social applause, when it turns in upon itself, it is with bitterest reproaches. The hand has been clean, but the heart has been impure; the deed has had all the appearance of charming beneficence, but the motive out of which it came was one of the intensest selfishness. A man may justify himself logically; that is to say, he may prove a literal consistency in his behaviour; yet when he turns to spiritual considerations, he may overwhelm himself with proofs that all his outward life has been but a series of studied attitudes, a marvel in trickery, invention, and cunning arrangement. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he:" "The Lord looketh on the heart:" "Judge not by the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." It is at this point that the spirituality of the Christian religion is realised. God searches the heart, and tries the reins of the children of men. Innocence can be simulated; respectability can be put on like a cloak; even piety itself may be turned into a mere colour of the skin: but all these accessories are stripped by the spirit of divine judgment, and the eye of God looks upon the heart, its motive, its purpose, its supreme desire. This is at once a terror and a blessing: a terror to the evil man, how clever soever he may have been in his exterior arrangements, a blessing to the pure and genuine heart that has had to struggle against a thousand social disadvantages and oppositions. The great condemnation is self-condemnation. In vain the world applauds us, when we know that the applause is undeserved. The public assembly may welcome us with overwhelming acclamation, yet the soul within may say, All this noise is a tribute to my hypocrisy, not a recognition of my real state; could these people know me as I really am, these welcoming cheers would be turned into thundering denunciations: I do not accept the huzzas of the ignorant multitude, I tremble and cower under my own judgment. Self-justification is no commendation: he who justifies himself before men, is all the more likely to be guilty before God; for he tries to make up by boisterousness and declamation what is wanting in solidity and spiritual piety. "Brethren, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." Blessed is the man who condemns himself justly and thoroughly, for only by so doing does he prepare himself for the true revelation of God in the soul. God never sat down in the heart of self-conceit, but evermore hurled against that heart his judgments and retributions. The Pharisee justified himself, and was left unjustified by God: the publican condemned himself, and went down to his house justified.