The Cathedral Close

I have thought of self-examination as a duty to be performed in Lent.  Now let’s consider what self-examination is.  As its name implies, it is a taking of ourselves to task at set seasons.  We take stock of ourselves so that we may see whether we are going backward or forward in our love and obedience towards God.

A merchant at certain intervals takes stock of his goods that he may see how his temporal affairs stand; whether his business is prospering and whether he is able to pay his way. He knows that, if he did not do this, his loss might be very great.  If he did not sometimes put his receipts and stock side by side with his expenses, and see on which side the balance lies, he might find some day that his expenses had outrun his receipts.  Then, his own great loss and confusion he was not able to pay his debts. It is something like this when we endeavor to see from time to time how we are going on, and how we stand towards God, lest when it is too late we find that we have been neglecting or disobeying Him, perhaps without thinking about it, or deliberately intending it.

DIRECT us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally, by thy mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This, then, must be my endeavor. I need not worry myself, but quietly, and with all simplicity, ask myself what is my aim m life; and whether my aim, like that of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to do the will of God. But if I am not careful, I may think that I am doing God’s will when I am not; or I may be failing to obey His word, and yet perhaps not troubling myself much on account of it. Or I may be giving way to some fault which God calls me to renounce and overcome; or I may be leading myself astray by allowing myself to think that I have nothing to repent of when I have; or that sins and follies indulged in earlier life are forgiven because I have forgotten them; when I have no real reason to suppose that they are pardoned, since I have never confessed them to God, nor asked Him to forgive me through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Help me, then, 0 God, for. His sake, to look well ‘into my heart and life, that, Confessing and forsaking my sins, I may obtain forgiveness through Him. Amen.