Self-Conceit in Morals
H. Ward Beecher. Matthew 21:28-32 But what think you? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.… The corruptions of the passions are more likely to be healed than is spiritual conceit. The passage teaches, not the safety of passional corruption, but the danger of self-righteousness. A man in the almost hopeless state of passional corruption may recover; but for the recovery of a man that is in the hopeless state of spiritual corruption and conceit, there is scarcely a chance. The value and excellence of the photographer's plate which is hidden within the camera does not consist in what it is, but upon its susceptibility when the object-glass of the camera is open to that light which streams upon it. If it is unprepared, and is like the common glass, all beauty might sit before it, and no change would be produced by the streaming of light. The glass might be as good in the first case as in the second, with the exception that, when it is prepared, the photographer's glass reveals the impression of beauty made upon it by the light. The criterion of hopefulness in a man, then, is not that he has gone so high in moral excellence. A man's hopefulness consists in the fact that eternal life is the gift of God. It consists in the mixing, as it were, the Divine nature with ours, and the breathing into us of the spirit of God's love. The criterion of hopefulness is the openness of a man's soul to the Divine influence, and its susceptibility under the Divine shining. (H. Ward Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. WEB: But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work today in my vineyard.'