There is a wide difference between a self-deceiver and a hypocrite. The one may be honest,-the other cannot be, for hypocrisy is the essence of dishonesty. A hypocrite is one who seeks to deceive his neighbor,-a self-deceiver is one who, in all good faith it may be, builds on a foundation, which, though it may perfectly satisfy himself, is nevertheless faulty and truthless in the estimation of God. He deceives himself. He may be, then, thoroughly honest and sincere in his motives and ideas, may seek to defraud no one, and may preserve a conscience that by no means upbraids him.
He walks in the light of his own sincerity, but fails to come beneath the power of the truth. His conscience and not the revelation of the mind of God,-his ideas of right and wrong, and not the divine standard, form the ground of his confidence and therefore the cause of his self-deception. He deceives himself because he refuses to yield to the conviction of the truth when brought to bear upon him-thus he holds honestly and sincerely what he considers the truth, yet disallows the authority over his conscience of revelation. He is a self-deceiver. No true believer deceives himself,-and yet how frequently we hear such an one saying, " May I not be deceiving myself?"
Never does faith enter a soul, without that soul having to pass through spiritual exercises 'both in reference to God, His word, His ways, &c., and also as to its own sincerity,-and in these exercises unbelief may intrude and the soul be led to question whether it be not mere feeling pr imagination or self-deception, after all, and not real divine or effectual work.
Now a believer is one who is, at least, ready to submit himself and his ways to the word of God. He is willing to stand or fall by its ultimatum-to abide by its decision. Like one of old, he exclaims, " Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there he any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." That word has spoken to him, has commanded him, has made itself a final appeal to him. By it he, when a sinner, was measured and proved deficient, weighed and found wanting. And not only so, but in it he has now discovered an answer to his case, a remedy for his disease. If it has wounded it has likewise told of healing, if it has unmasked sin it has also unveiled Christ. Hence he clings to it, it is precious to him. Its every word is of infinite value to him, as the chart to the tempest-tossed mariner. His motives, his ideas, his feelings, his imagination, and his conscience also, are all viewed as untrustworthy. From them he turns to it,-but in so doing gives testimony to the reality of the work in his soul-just as when Peter, finding himself sinking beneath the wave, cried, "Lord save me or I perish," gave evidence of his confidence in the Lord rather than in himself as able to swim back to the ship. So faith ever distrusts self, and never distrusts God.
But not so with the self-deceiver. God is his last resource, and the word of God his last though not final appeal. God is not in his reckonings, or if so, but in name.
Different again is it with the hypocrite. He assumes the name and word of God unblushingly, but does so only to practice deception on those around him. Yet he cannot deceive God! How changed is each aspect when God is brought in! He is for the trembling, doubting believer, seeking to gain his fullest confidence, and thus to elicit his child-like praise; but He is against the hypocrite, and waits the day when all falsehood, all guile, all treachery, shall be shown up and punished. J. W. S.