" And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye ? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."-Matt. 7:3-5.

We have all noticed that our nerves are of varying degrees of sensitiveness; certain parts of the body being much more susceptible to sensation than others. Nor is this an accident or an indication of an unhealthy state, but quite the reverse. The eye, for instance, is far more sensitive to a foreign object than the hand, and for a very simple reason-that it would be more easily injured. So, also,, with the nerves of the lips and tongue. They are so exceedingly sensitive that the presence of the smallest foreign object that would be likely to be injurious is detected. So exceedingly sensitive are the nerves of the eye and the mouth that foreign objects seem to be much larger than they really are when coming in contact with these. Thus, a cinder in the eye, so minute as to be scarcely detected by another person, seems a large thing to the sufferer. A slight cavity in a tooth, which would be almost passed over by the eye, feels to the tongue as though it were very large. A bone or foreign substance is detected in the same way. From this apparent enlargement of the objects that come in connection with them, these nerves have sometimes been called "magnifying nerves;)" not as giving undue importance to the objects, but as necessarily giving warning of the presence of any foreign matter that would do us injury; and in this, as in all His works of wisdom, we can see the goodness of our God in protecting us from what otherwise might be a very real danger.

Transferring all this to the realm of spiritual truth, and remembering that all truth is one, the application is very simple, and yet most important. In fact, our blessed Lord, in the passage which we have quoted above, applies this to us. That which is in our brother's eye, so far as we are concerned, is but a mote. To him, if he is conscious of its presence, it is indeed a beam, a large and distressing substance. Therefore, as our Lord says, that which is personal to ourselves is of far greater importance than that which concerns another. As we see, it is not that we would ignore that which concerns our brother, but we are really in no condition either to measure the trouble or help our brother if we ourselves have a beam in our own eye. Instinct leads one first to cast the object out of his own eye. Then his vision will be unhindered in helping his brother. This is one application made so plain in the words of our Lord that we need but point to them for the evident meaning.

If two persons commit the same fault under the same circumstances, all things being equal, God looks upon the fault as the same in each, of course; but each of those persons will look upon his own fault as of a far greater character, so far as he is concerned, than the fault of his brother. This is as it ought to be; but, alas, while our eye or tongue may be exquisitely Sensitive to the presence of any foreign object, and thus lead to the removal of it at once, our spiritual senses are too often dull, and not sensitive to that which should affect them. We need not say that this is due to no imperfection in the spiritual nature, that which is born of God, and whose every faculty has been adjusted by Himself; but we become hardened by living in a world where everything is hostile, and if we do not keep in communion with the Source of blessing we lose that sensitiveness to what surrounds us which is our main safeguard against it.

Look for a moment at our blessed Lord as He passed through this world. For one like Him there must have been constant suffering. Well did He merit the name, "Man of sorrows." One whose spiritual sensation was perfect, whose nerves, as we might say, were all in perfect accord and adjusted to the mind and thought of God, felt everything that was contrary to His Father. And what, we might ask, was there that was not contrary to the blessed God in a world which had turned from Him ? Was He thrown with the great, the wise, the religious so-called, our blessed Lord found only, in various ways, that which would jar upon the spiritual senses. So, too, when He was dealing with the masses,- carnal selfishness, gross unbelief, to say nothing of the dark sins which blotted the lives of many, must have ever given Him constant pain. And yet nothing was ever allowed to intrude into those spiritual organs of vision and taste which would have marred or injured the perfection of His manhood. Our Lord shrank from the very presence of sin so perfectly that He passed through life unscathed, without a blemish, or without a spot. When 'we compare ourselves with this perfect One, how we must realize the dullness of those spiritual nerves which, on the contrary, should be particularly sensitive!

How little do we, beloved, as we are thrown in contact with self – will, pride, self – righteousness, worldliness, envy, and the various forms of fleshly evil, shrink from contact with it and realize the need of separation from it all! Motes-alas, none too small-fly into our eyes and mar our spiritual vision, and we are not conscious of them, while the very presence of such seems to distort our view and oftentimes magnify that which may be in another's eye to something far worse than it really is.

But there is a very simple and evident remedy for this condition of things. As we said before, we are not so constituted spiritually. '' He that is born of God doth not commit sin." All his spiritual faculties are present. There is therefore nothing lacking in the believer. There must be, then, some hindrance to the activities of that new nature which was perfectly and solely in activity in our blessed Lord. The remedy, then, for this spiritual dulness is, first of all, judging that which interferes with our vision. " First cast out the beam out of thine own eye." No matter how great the evil in others, and how real our responsibility in connection with it, we can have no real power to deal with it save as we ourselves are in proper adjustment with the Lord. The beam must, dear brethren, be removed, if we are to use the surgeon's instrument in helping our brother with the mote. Let us, then, learn to judge ourselves; learn increasingly to be in the presence of our Lord with the Spirit ungrieved-above all, filled, controlled, saturated, we may say, with His Word, so that we shall think the thoughts of God as given to us in His Word. This will make us quick to detect the presence of anything in us that is contrary to His Word. The blessed Spirit of God delights to be active in us if He is unhindered. We may be sure that He will point out all in our ways that is not according to God, that He will check everything of a worldly or selfish character in us, and keep us constantly sensitive, if we will allow Him to do so. Our spiritual sensibilities will thus be practically magnifying, if we may use that expression, although it is not really magnifying, but simply properly sensitive to the presence of that which would be a great injury to us. Oh, what a help we could be to others, if, instead of weakly and painfully being occupied with their shortcomings, we were with purpose of heart seeking to clear our own spiritual vision! The very fact of our doing so would set a silent example which others would unconsciously imitate, for we can thank God that spiritual activities are imitated by the saints just as really as the energy of the flesh is also contagious.

We have been speaking of our relations to one another in illustration of the passage quoted at the beginning. We might apply the same principle of spiritual sensitiveness to the organs of our spiritual taste. The mind and heart need food just as the body does. We take it in through ear and eye largely in this day by reading, and, of course, by association with others. How important, then, it is that the conscience, the spiritual nerves of taste, should be fully active, that nothing which we read, nothing which is to form the food of our souls, will be received that has foreign or injurious matters in it. Here is the precious word of God, pure food; and the most tender conscience can never detect the slightest particle of that which would injure in it. But, supposing we are reading that which professes
to. be a ministry of that Word, that which professes to be the truth of God come down to us through human channels,-to preserve our illustration, some dish prepared by human hands from the materials which God's word supplies. Here at once there is a danger of foreign admixture, and the spiritual senses of taste must be unhindered, to detect this. A teaching may be never so sweet, never so attractive, and yet within it there may lurk that which would bring poison and death. It is to be feared-nay, alas, we know it is only too true-that much of the teaching from modern pulpits has this admixture of error in it. Men who claim to be presenting the truth of God will tell us that His precious Word is not all to be believed, that it was written by fallible men, and that modern thought and research must be allowed to sift out the myths or stories which our fathers used to feed upon. Even Christ may be presented in a most attractive way, as is frequently done by those who would hold Him up as an example of lovely humanity for our imitation. And yet there may be the subtle poison lurking within this attractive food which makes it deadly to the soul. The proper deity of our holy Lord may be denied, the perfect sufficiency of His atoning work, and other fundamental truths of similar character. If the heart is in communion with God, no such teaching will be allowed to pass further than the guardians to the heart. It will be rejected as that which is foreign, and the whole class of such teaching will be refused as dangerous. It would be useless to say to a spiritual person, "There is much that is good in such teaching." The reply would be at once, "I must reject it all because of the evil that is in it. I can find all the good in the word of God, and in that which magnifies it."

Passing on a little further, let us see to it that nothing hinders the sensitiveness of the conscience in our conversation, in our ways, in all that is connected with us. Let us indeed be "of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord," and we will find in the joy of an ungrieved Spirit, in the elevation and liberty of soul given by Him, ample recompense for what the world might call over-sensitiveness and needless particularity. Let us learn, beloved, to magnify the evil that is in ourselves, if present, in order that we may reject it absolutely. This will not make us harsh with our brethren, but will give us, indeed, that true grace which never loves at the expense of holiness, but would seek to deliver others, even as we are ourselves delivered.