| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 19 |
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Yet there is a duty of fault finding. The Master himself teaches it. In the Sermon on the Mount he makes it very plain. We must note carefully, however, where the duty begins. We are to look first after our own faults. “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” The form of this question suggest that we are naturally inclined to pay more attention to flaws and blemishes in others than in ourselves, and also that a very small fault – a mere mote of fault – in another may seem larger to us than a blemish many times greater in ourselves.
Of course, it is easier to see other people’s faults than our own. Our eyes are set in our head in such a way that we can look at our neighbor better than at ourself. Yet we all have faults of our own. Most of us have quite enough of them to occupy our thought, to the exclusion of our neighbor’s faults, if only we would give them our attention.
Really, too, our own faults ought to interest us more than our neighbor’s because they are our own, and being our own, we are responsible for them. We do not have to answer for any other one’s sins, but for our own we must answer, and the responsibility for getting rid of them is ours. “Every man must bear his own burden.” No faithful friend, no wise teacher, can cure our faults for us. If ever they are taken out of our life it must be by our own decision, our own faith, our own firm, persistent effort. The prayer of others may avail to bring divine help, and the sympathy and encouragement of others may make us stronger in our struggle, but the real work is our own.
Then before we are ready to deal in an effective way with our neighbor’s sins we must get measurably right ourself. That is what Jesus tells us: “Cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” There is little use in our reproving our brother for a fault when with half an eye he can see the same or some other fault twice as large in us. This is one of the principal causes of the smallness of our influence in our witnessing for Christ. Our lips are sealed by the consciousness that our own life is not what it should be. Or if we speak men sneer and say that we need not preach to them while we live as we do. We must be holy ourselves if we would help to make others holy.
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