t self, knowing good and evil. And
while he spoke with her, he breathed into her, in those words, the very
poison and the very pride of hell. His own evil spirit, the very poison of
hell, entered humanity, and it is this cursed self that we have inherited
from our first parents. It was that self that ruined and brought
destruction upon this world, and all that there has been of sin, and of
darkness, and of wretchedness, and of misery; and all that there will be
throughout the countless ages of eternity in hell, will be nothing but the
reign of self, the curse of self, separating man and turning him away from
his God. And if we are to understand fully what Christ is to do for us, and
are to become partakers of a full salvation, we must learn to know, and to
hate, and to give up entirely this cursed self.

Now what are the works of self? I might mention many, but let us take the
simplest words that we are continually using,--self-will, self-confidence,
self-exaltation. Self-will, pleasing self, is the great sin of man, and it
is at the root of all that compromising with the world which is the ruin of
so many. Men can not understand why they should not please themselves and
do their own will. Numbers of Christians have never gotten hold of the idea
that a Christian is a man who is never to seek his own will, but is always
to seek the will of God, as a man in whom the very spirit of Christ lives.
"Lo, I come to do Thy will, oh, my God!" We find Christians pleasing
themselves in a thousand ways, and yet trying to be happy, and good, and
useful; and they do not know that at the root of it all is self-will
robbing them of the blessing. Christ said to Peter, "Peter, deny yourself."
But instead of doing that, Peter said, "I will deny my Lord and not
myself." He never said it in words, but Christ said to him in the last
night, "Thou shalt deny Me," and he did it. What was the cause of this?
Self-pleasing. He became afraid when the woman servant charged him with
belonging to Jesus, and three times said, "I know not this man, I have
nothing to do with Him." He denied Christ. Just think of it! No wonder
Peter wept those bitter tears. It was a choice between self, that ugly,
cursed self, and that beautiful, blessed Son of God; and Peter chose self.
No wonder that he thought: "Instead of denying myself, I have denied Jesus;
what a choice I have made!" No wonder that he wept bitterly.

Christians, look at your own lives in the light of