intends to care for others; a man must have hope for himself first,
if he is to have hope for others. He may stop there, and turn his
religion into a selfish superstition, and spend his life in asking
all day long, "Shall I be saved, shall I be damned?" or worse still,
in chuckling over his own good fortune, and saying to himself, "I
shall be saved, whoever else is damned;" but whether he ends there or
not, he must begin there; begin by trying to get himself saved. For
if he does not know what is right and good for himself, how can he
tell what is right and good for others? If he wishes to bring his
neighbours out of their sins, he must surely first have been brought
out of his own sins, and so know what forgiveness and sanctification
means. If he wishes to make others at peace with God, he must first
be at peace with God himself, to know what God's peace is. If he
wants to teach others their duty, he must first know his own duty,
for all men's duty is one and the same. If he wishes to have hope
for the world, he must first have hope for himself, for he is in the
world, a part of it, and he must learn what blessings God intends for
him, and they will teach him what blessings God has in store for the
earth. Faith and hope, like charity, must begin at home. By
learning the corruption of our own hearts, we learn the corruption of
human nature. By learning what is the only medicine which can cure
our own sick hearts, we learn what is the only medicine which can
cure human nature. We learn by our own experience, that God is all-
forgiving love; that His peace shines bright upon the soul which
casts itself utterly on Jesus Christ the Lord for pardon, strength,
and safety; that God's Spirit is ready and able to raise us out of
all our sin, and sottishness, and weakness, and wilfulness, and
selfishness, and renew us into quite new men, different characters
from what we used to be; and so, by having hope for ourselves, we
learn step by step and year by year to have hope for our friends, for