religion, and ask constantly, " What will the world say?" but never, "What will my God and Saviour say?" if I do this or that.
"Why does St. Paul say, "But neither do I judge my own self"?
Because he could not know how God would judge him, " For man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred (Eccles. ix. 1); therefore he adds, " I am not conscious to my self of anything, yet am I not hereby justified, but He that judgeth me is the Lord." We should, therefore, examine our selves thoroughly whether we are in sin; but if we find nothing in us which displeases God we are not on that account at liberty to think ourselves better than others, for before the mirror of our self-esteem we look quite different to what we are in truth before God, Who cannot be bribed. Oh, how many, who now think themselves innocent and holy, shall appear at the day of judgment stripped of their disguises, and the most secret workings of their hearts revealed by God to their eternal disgrace! This should determine us not to judge before the time, either ourselves or any one else, of whose hearts we must know even less than of our own. " Let us therefore work out our salvation with fear and trembling " (Phil. ii. 12).
Aspiration.
O Lord, enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight no man living shall be justified (Ps. cxlii. 2).
GOSPEL. Luke iii. 1-6.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina, under the high priests Annas and Caiphas: the word of the Lord was made unto John the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins, as it was written in the book of the sayings of Isaias the prophet: A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. Every valley shall be filled: and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and the crooked shall be made
