CHRISTIAN: A COURSE OF PRACTICAL SERMONS. BY THE REV. SAMUEL WALKER, A.B. CURATE OF TRURO IN CORNWALL. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY THE REV. CHARLES SIMEON, CAMBRIDGE. GLASGOW: PRINTED FOR CHALMERS AND COLLINS; WILLIAM WHYTE & CO. AND WILLIAM OLIPHANT, EDINBURGH; R. M. TIMS, AND WM. CURRY, JUN. & CO. DUBLIN ; AND G. B. WHITTAKER, LONDON. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. WE can have derived but little improvement from our intercourse with the world, if we have not observed how rare an attainment self-knowledge is, and how superficial is men's acquaintance with their own hearts. This is an observation which every one. makes in relation to others, whilst no one suspects its applicability to himself. In many cases we are perfectly astonished at the degree in which men are blinded, in reference to their own characters, which are as manifest to those around them as the sun at noon-day. Now whence arises this? Every one knows what he does, and, to a certain degree, why he does it: and he has within himself such a knowledge of good and evil, as would suffice for forming, in some degree, a correct judgment, if only he brought his conduct fairly to the test. But there is in every one a principle of self-love, which indisposes him for exercising any great strictness, (we had almost said, any great degree of candour,) in scrutinizing his own habits. We all like to entertain a good opinion of ourselves; and we give ourselves credit for meaning to do right, even though our conduct should not exactly approve itself to all who behold it. However severely we may judge others, we are sure to put a favourable construction on our own actions: and if others view them in an unfavourable light, we have reasons in plenty to urge in justification of them. If we cannot prove them altogether right in an abstract point of view, yet we maintain, that they were such as the occasion called for; or that, if there have been any thing wrong in them, the fault was, not in ourselves, but in those who, by their conduct or example, betrayed us into the error. In some cases, this is carried so far as to cast the blame even on God himself, rather than admit the criminality of our conduct in its full extent; as when men plead the strength of their passions as their excuse for their unlawful gratification of them. If constrained to acknowledge our faults in some respects, we assume a degree of merit to ourselves for not going to the extent to which others proceed in the very same ways; and we bring forward our virtues in other respects, to counterbalance our failure in the particulars referred to. Besides, we take care to put a good name upon those dispositions or habits which may have exposed us to blame. A man of a hasty, violent, and vindictive temper, thinks that he has a manly spirit, which is necessary to keep him from being trampled under foot. A covetous man, who thinks of nothing but amassing wealth, is actuated only (as he would have us suppose) by a prudent regard for the |
