It is an exercise of the soul designed to yield a discovery of sin in the heart and life, and to induce penitence and contrition and so secure pardon and peace.

But too often, my friends," and here his voice became a shade softer, "it results in a self-righteous and sinful self-complaisance.

What is required is a simple honesty of mind and spiritual illumination, and the latter cannot be without the former.

There are those who are ever searching for 'the marks' of a genuinely godly state of heart, and they have the idea that these marks are obscure and difficult for plain people to discover.

Make no mistake, my brethren, they are as easily seen as are the apples on a tree.