Article March 26, 1904 Issue

From our Exchanges

with contributions from Charles A. Allen

So it is with many excellent people; they are blind to higher ideals and are perfectly happy. "Better let well enough alone,"—this is exactly what our good habits are continually saying to us, making us feel, as Paul felt when he was a Pharisee, that we are already quite as good as we can be. We nestle down in our cosy corner of good habits and let these shut out the vision of something nobler, just as the little hills round about a pleasant country home may shut off the view of a great mountain, and the people nestling among those hills may think that nowhere in the world is there anything grander than those hills; and they never take the trouble to go beyond the little hills and climb the great mountain. So it is that our real virtues may be like those little hills, hiding from us something nobler and making us self-righteous.

And when we are blinded in this way by our good habits and cherish no generous aspiration, but are perfectly content to stay where we are and applaud ourselves for our virtues, what greater blessing can God send us in His infinite wisdom than to let us be suddenly tripped up by some cunning temptation, and thus have an experience of our moral weakness and know what it is to feel shame and repentance and a longing for a better life! Jesus saw far more to hope for in the publicans and sinners than in the respectable and self-righteous people of his day.

From our Exchanges

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access