In the noise and glare of the day, we are all too apt to
fancy that all is right with us, and say, 'I am rich, and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing;' and the night does us a kindly
office if it helps us to find out that we knew not that we were poor,
and miserable, and blind, and naked--not only in the sight of God,
but in our own sight, when we look honestly at ourselves.
The wise man says:-
'Oh, would some power the gift but give us,
To see ourselves as others see us!'
and those painful thoughts make us do that. For if we see some
faults in ourselves, be sure our neighbours see them likewise, and
perhaps many more beside.
But more: these sad thoughts make us see ourselves as God sees us.
For if we see faults in ourselves, we may be sure that the pure and
holy God, in whose sight the very heavens are not clean, and who
charges his angels with folly, sees our faults with infinitely
greater clearness, and in infinitely greater number. So let us face
those sad night thoughts, however painful, however humiliating they
may be; for by them God is calling us to repentance, and forcing us
to keep Lent in spirit and in truth, whether we keep it outwardly or
not.
'What,' some may say, 'you would have us, then, afraid of the terror
by night?' My dear friends, that is exactly what I would not have.
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