and simplest state of knowledge, it is plain that the first question to put to ourselves will be, “Do I understand the meaning of all the words and expressions in what I have been reading?” I know that this is taking things at their very beginning, but it is my wish to do so.  Now, so plain and forcible is the English of our Bible, generally speaking, that the words difficult to be understood will probably not be many:  yet some such do occur, owing, in some instances, to a change of the language; as in the words “let,” and “prevent,” which now signify, the one, “to allow, or suffer to be done,” and the other “to stop, or hinder,” but which signified, when our translation was made, the first, “to stop or hinder,” and the second, “to be beforehand with us;” as in the prayer, “Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favour;” the meaning is, “Let thy favour be with us beforehand, O Lord, in whatever we are going to do.”  In other instances the words are difficult because they are used in a particular sense, such as we do not learn from our common language; of which kind are the words “elect,” “saints,” “justification,” “righteousness,” and many others.  Now, if we ask ourselves “whether we understand these words or no,” our common sense, when thus questioned, will readily tell us, whether we do or not; although if we had not directly asked the question, it might never have thought about it.  Of course, our common sense cannot tell us what the true meaning is; that is a matter of information, and our means of gaining information may be more or less; but still, a great step is gained, the mist is partly cleared away; we can say to ourselves, “Here is something which I do understand, and here is something which I do not; I must keep the two distinct, for the first I may use, the second I cannot; I will mark it down as a thing about which I may get explanation at another time; but at present it is a blank in the picture, it is the same as if it were not there.”  This, then, is the first process of self-questioning, adapted, as I have already said, to those whose knowledge is most elementary.

Suppose, however, that we are got beyond difficulties of this sort—­that the words and particular expressions of the Scriptures are mostly clear to us.  Now, take again one of our Lord’s parables; say, for instance, that of the labourers in the vineyard:  we read it, and find that he who went to work at the eleventh hour received as much as he who had been working all the day.  This seems to say, that he who begins to serve God in his old age shall receive his crown of glory no less than he who has served him all his life.  But now try the process of self-questioning:  what do I think that Christ means me to learn from this? what is the lesson to me? what is it to make me feel, or think, or do?  If it makes me think that I shall receive an equal crown of glory if I begin to serve God in my old age, and therefore if it leads me to live carelessly, this is clearly making Christ