Yes; a man's secret opinion of himself is
almost a better test of his true spiritual state than even secret prayer.
But, then, these two are not competing and exclusive tests; they always
go together and are never found apart. And at the mouth of these two
witnesses every true hypocrite shall be condemned and every true
Christian justified.
Dr. Pusey says somewhere that the perfect hypocrite is the man who has
the truth of God in his mind, but is without the love of God in his
heart. 'Truth without love,' says that saintly scholar, 'makes a
finished Pharisee.' Now we Scottish and Free Church people believe we
have the truth, if any people on the face of the earth have it; and if we
have not love mixed with it, you see where and what we are. We are
called to display a banner because of the truth, but let love always be
our flag-staff. Let us be jealous for the truth, but let it be a godly,
that is to say, a loving jealousy. When we contend for purity of
doctrine and for purity of worship, when we protest against popery and
priestcraft, when we resist rationalism and infidelity, when we do battle
now for national religion, as we call it, and now for the freedom of the
church, let us do it all in love to all men, else we had better not do it
at all.
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