1. It will be the greatest possible help to you to practise daily Self-examination. Perhaps this sounds. hard. But it is not really so. I do not want you to go through a long string of questions every day. What I want you to do is this:-Think over your life and character, and choose out two or three sins which you find yourself most often tempted to. Then each night when you first kneel down to say your prayers examine yourself briefly as to these. Think of them in turn, and see whether you have given way to them, or whether you have watched against them, during the day, praying God to forgive you if you have given way to them, and thanking Him if you have been able to resist them. This would only take you two or three minutes, and would greatly help you to know yourself and to watch against your besetting sins. If you practise this carefully, and if you come very often to Holy Communion, it will not be necessary to go through the Ten Commandments every time. Perhaps it would be enough to do this once in the month; and at the other times when you are preparing for Holy Communion you might simply examine yourself more carefully and searchingly as to the same sins which you think of every night.

2. There is always a double danger in a long list of questions. Partly, there is the danger of their being gone through in a formal unreal way, which

can do no good at all. And partly, there is the danger of feeling self-satisfied, and as if one was not so great a sinner after all, when one finds many questions as to sins of which one is not guilty. This last is a great danger, against which you must guard carefully, remembering that these questions are set down for all to use, and that some of them will be most needful for some persons, and some for others. So I should advise you to put a little mark against those questions you feel you most need to ask yourself, taking care, if possible, to have at least one so marked under each Commandment, and in general to ask yourself only these. Still it will be well sometimes to go through all the questions carefully, for God very often shows us at such times that we have really been guilty of sins we never suspected, and we learn to know some of our "secret faults."

3. I am afraid I must keep you a little longer still before we come to our questions, for I think I ought to try to show you how you ought to understand those Commandments by which you are going to examine yourself. This is just what Jesus Christ Himself did in the Sermon on the Mount. He showed how the Jews of old took the Commandments in the letter only, while Christians must take them in the spirit. By the letter is meant only just exactly what the very words themselves say. By the

spirit is meant all that God intended the words to mean. You can see what the difference is if you think of our Lord's first example. He took the Sixth Commandment, "Thou shalt do no murder." Now the Jews thought they never broke this Commandment unless they killed some one, but Jesus says even angry feelings and cruel unkind words break it.

I should like to give you three rules to help you to understand the Commandments in the spirit.

A. When anything is commanded or forbidden, all lesser things of the same kind are commanded or forbidden. [Anger is a lesser thing of the sam kind as murder.]

B. When anything is commanded or forbidden, all like things of other kinds are commanded or forbidden. [Honouring the Queen is a like thing of another kind to honouring your father and mother.]

C. When anything is commanded the opposite is forbidden, and when anything is forbidden the opposite is commanded. [You are commanded to honour your parents; therefore disrespect to them is forbidden. You are forbidden to murder; therefore love is commanded.]

And now, when shall the Self-examination take place?

This little book is meant for those who come frequently to Holy Communion; so I think it will

bo sufficient if you make your Self-examination for the Sunday's Communion on the

FRIDAY EVENING.

First kneel down and say this short prayer :

O MERCIFUL FATHER, I am about to search and examine my conscience by the rule of Thy Commandments. Teach me to know myself, and let no self love, nor any slothfulness or careless unconcern, veil and cloak my sins from my sight. May Thy Holy Spirit enlighten me, that I may search into the most secret chambers of my soul, and discern the evil that is in me. And make me more and more to hate and mourn over my sin, that I may truly repent, and stedfastly purpose to lead a new life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then ask yourself the questions which follow slowly and thoughtfully, answering each one in your conscience honestly and truthfully. And when your conscience tells you you have sinned, then say :

O MERCIFUL GOD, forgive me this sin, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

EXAMINATION UPON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

COMMANDMENT I.

Have I honestly and heartily given myself to God, to serve Him with all my powers?

Have I loved God with all my heart?

Have I loved anything better than God, such as myself or pleasure-or the world-or some other person?

COMMANDMENT II.

Have I worshipped God with true heart-worship? Have I always tried to think of God as a Spirit, and to feel His presence, both in public and in private prayer?

Have my prayers never been a dead dry form?

COMMANDMENT III.

Have I always honoured God's holy Name, speaking it with reverence, whether in conversation or in prayer?

Have I always honoured all that belongs to God, such as His word, His house, His ministers, His people?

Have I ever made, or repeated, jokes about holy things, or upon words in the Bible?

COMMANDMENT IV.

Have I been thankful for God's Day, and used it to His glory?

Have I been glad to go to God's house, and to join in the prayers and praises of the Church?