■ 
 
 A 1 
 
 ANSWERING AGAIN. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. 
 
 Seta watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the 
 door of my lips." Psalm cxli. a 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 DUBLIN; 
 PRINTED BY THOMAS I. WHITE, 
 
 149, ABBE V STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXXXI. 
 
ANSWERING AGAIN. 
 
 I once knew a little boy, who was 
 
 as well taught as most children of his 
 
 age, and who had sense enough to 
 
 listen to good advice ; and he had 
 
 earned many things very useful for 
 
 him to know. I hope that he also 
 
 loved God, and prayed much to Him, 
 and pra i soc i him . ~ { haye reagon ^ 
 
 think that the little boy knew him- 
 self to be a sinner, and that he could 
 not be saved or go to heaven unless 
 OM sins were washed away in the 
 blood of the Lamb— of the blessed 
 ■Lord Jesus, who died to redeem us 
 to God by His blood t and the little 
 boy told me that he often asked in 
 prayer for a new heart and a right 
 
spirit, which he knew must be the 
 cift of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 All this was well, butmy dear little 
 boy had a fault which grieved his 
 friends; and the more so as they 
 could not convince him that it was a 
 crreatfault. He could not bear to own 
 himself in the wrong, in such little 
 matters of mistake or neglect as he 
 was often reproved for. Some excuse 
 he always had; and if you would be- 
 lieve him, it was never owing to him 
 that everv thing was not properly 
 done. This was not like what the 
 Bible commands, " Confess your 
 faults one to another ; and pray one 
 for another, that ye may be healed. 
 
 James v. 16. 
 
 Now, this way of " answering 
 •again," as the apostle calls it Titus 
 ii 9, is very wrong: and 1 think that 
 I can prove it to have been done by 
 those who were committing great sin 
 at the time. If I do this, 1 hope that 
 all little boys and girls, all servants. 
 
2s 
 
 and others, will see how bad an ex- 
 ample they are following, and endea- 
 vour to leave it off, the more so, he- 
 cause I can tell how very differently 
 
 the best and holiestpersonshave acted. 
 
 The first people whom I find in 
 the Bible, « answering again," were 
 the first man and the first woman that 
 ever lived; and when did they do so' 
 not while they were obeying God and 
 bring innocently, but as soon as they 
 had become very sinful, they be^aii 
 to justify themselves. They knew so 
 well what wickedness they had done, 
 that they hid themselves from the 
 Lord God, as they thought: but who 
 can be hidden from Him who seeth 
 all things ! They were called out of 
 their hiding place, and when the Lord 
 questioned Adam about eating of the 
 truit of the tree, he threw the blame 
 upon Eve.and when Eve was reproved 
 she threw the blame on the serpent, 
 yet Adam and Eve both kneAv that 
 '»ey were disobeying God by tastin«- 
 
6 
 
 that fruit; and the serpent could not 
 have forced them to it against their 
 wills. We are ready enough to lay 
 the blame of our bad actions on the 
 devil; but though he may tempt us 
 to sin, it is entirely our own fault if 
 Ave agree to it. 
 
 The next example is that of Cain, 
 wicked ungodly Cain, who killed his 
 pious brother Abel. " And the Lord 
 said unto Cain, where is Abel thy 
 brother? And he said, 1 know not ; 
 am I my brother's keeper?" See how 
 anxious the murderer is to hide the 
 sin which he was not afraid to com- 
 mit! and shall not such an example 
 alarm us? 
 
 I cannot wait to tell you of all the 
 people mentioned in the Bible who 
 have done the same thing; but it was 
 always when they had been very 
 wrong. What a silly excuse Aa- 
 ron made to Moses ! " When Moses 
 was in the Mount with the Lorn, 
 the people of Israel would have an 
 
idol made for them to worship ; so 
 they gave their golden ear-rings to 
 Aaron, and he melted them, and with 
 a graving tool made the gold into the 
 figure of a calf. When Moses came 
 down from the Mount, he was very 
 angry, and reproved Aaron for his 
 great sin. Aaron threw all the blame 
 on the people, and said that when 
 they had given him the gold, he cast 
 it into the fire, and there came out 
 that calf. As if the calf had come 
 out of the fire ready made ; when 
 Aaron indeed had shaped it himself 
 with a graving tool. For this thing 
 three thousand men were put to death. 
 A sad proof how much it displeased 
 the Lord ! 
 
 Job was a holy man, and satan got 
 leave to afflict him very much, for the 
 trial of his faith. Job's friends came 
 to see him, and thought that his being 
 so distressed was a proof of his great 
 wickedness. So Job began to praise 
 "iniself, and to prove that he was 
 
8 
 
 quite righteous and innocent. As 
 long as he did this, he got no relief 
 nor comfort; but when at last he con- 
 fessed himself vile in God's sight ; 
 when lie abhorred himself, and re- 
 pented in dust and ashes, leaving off 
 to say one word in his own defence, 
 then God restored him to all that he 
 had lost, and declared His favour to 
 him, and reproved his unkind friends. 
 If we submit to reproach when we 
 do not deserve it, and leave our cause 
 with God, He will clear our characters 
 in His own good time. 
 
 When our Lord told Simon Peter 
 that he would deny him, Peter, in- 
 stead of praying to be kept from such 
 wickedness, began toboast of himself, 
 and declared that though all men 
 should deny the Lord, he would never 
 do so. For this, he was left to him- 
 self and to Satan ; and you know that 
 he not only denied the blessed Jesus 
 three times, but cursed and swore 
 about it. This should be a great 
 warning to us. 
 
9 
 
 And what an instance of this folly 
 and wickedness we have in Pontius 
 Pilate ! He condemned the Lord 
 Jesus to suffer a cruel death, and then 
 washing his own hands in a basin of 
 water, declared himself innocent of 
 his blood ! Nobody accused him ; 
 his own conscience did that — and 
 you see what an answer the devil put 
 into his mouth to silence it. Oh, it 
 is a dangerous thing to be fond of 
 justifying ourselves ! 
 
 Far different was the conduct of 
 David. When he was reproved for 
 sin, how humbly he acknowledged 
 his guilt, and how earnestly he prayed 
 for pardon ! You may see this in the 
 fifty-first Psalm, and several others. 
 And when David was unjustly re- 
 proached, he committed his cause to 
 the Lord, saying, " I will keep my 
 mouth with a bridle while the wicked 
 is before me." 
 
 But what a beautiful example we 
 have in the Lord Jesus Christ ! " Who 
 
10 
 
 when He was reviled, reviled not 
 again ; when He suffered he threat- 
 ened not; but committed Himself to 
 Him that judgeth righteously. 
 Peter ii. 23. The hlessed J esus who 
 did no sin, answered not a word to all 
 the false accusations of His enemies; 
 how then can we who are so very sin- 
 ful and unholy dare to shew such im- 
 patience under every reproof? home 
 people when told that they should no 
 have done such and such things, will 
 directly set about proving to you 
 either that it was right, or that they 
 were obliged to do so ; and that too, 
 when everybody may plainly see that 
 it was wrong, and that it was through 
 neglect or ill-judgment they did it. 
 
 « You ought to have brought out 
 some tracts for these poor Cottagers, 
 said I to a little friend who was walk- 
 ing with me. 
 
 '« Yes," he replied, "but you came 
 out in such a hurry at last that I had 
 not time." 
 
11 
 
 « Now stop," said I, "and see whe- 
 ther you are not telling an untruth 
 in your anxiety to avoid being blamed. 
 It is true that I was obliged to hasten 
 you at last; but what were you doing 
 for an hour and a half before ! put 
 on my bonnet? I told you that I was 
 coming here, and that I had a letter 
 to write first ; and yesterday I had 
 charged you never to go out* without 
 a few tracts in your hat. Why can- 
 not you own that you forgot this, and 
 say that you will be more careful 
 another time, instead of trying to de- 
 fend yourself from a little reproof by 
 deserving a much greater? 
 
 " Pride is the cause of all this; and 
 pnde is a very dangerous thing, hate- 
 nil to God, and contrary to the spirit 
 of Christ. The Scripture says, 'Every 
 one that exalteth himself shall be 
 abased,' Luke, xviii. 14. and likewise 
 jjat < God resisteth the proud/ 1 
 f eterv.S.for 'everyone that is proud 
 1,1 heart, is an abomination to the 
 
12 
 
 Lord.' Prov. xvi. 5. The pride of 
 man's heart makes him dislike to be 
 blamed ; and a child who loves to 
 make excuses for himself, when re- 
 proved by his teachers and governors, 
 will learn by little and little to justify 
 himself before God. That is, he will 
 be denying* that his heart is as evil, 
 and his conduct as sinful, as God's 
 law declares them to be ; and so in 
 the end, he may even persuade him- 
 self that he does not stand in need 
 of Christ's blood and righteousness, 
 and depend, at least partly, on his 
 own works for pardon and salvation. 
 This would shut him out of heaven 
 for ever ; because God would then 
 judge him according to His most 
 righteous law ; and the least offence 
 against any part of that law, from the 
 moment of his birth to the moment 
 of his death, would occasion his being 
 cast into hell." 
 
 Do you understand this ? I will try 
 to explain it more to you. God gave 
 
13 
 
 His holy Jaw, to shew us what was 
 pleasing m im sight, and to please 
 Him we must keep it perfectly—ne- 
 ver doing, or saying, or thinking any 
 lung contrary to it. Have you kept 
 tha law? Oh no, it is not possible 
 that you should have done so. If ever 
 you wished for a single thing that did 
 not belong to you, you broke the 
 tenth commandment: and if V ou 
 broke only one of them, i„ the least 
 degree, you could not be forgiven 
 
 feo you see that you and all mankind 
 must ha gone tQ heUj . nto which 
 
 ah the wicked shall be turned, if there 
 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came 
 from heaven, to keep the whole of this 
 «W, which men and women and chil- 
 dren had been breaking every hour, 
 mce ; Eve eat the fruit of that tree 
 vhidi iGodhadforbidden. AndJesus 
 UHWt suffered death which He never 
 »W deserved, to make amends for 
 
14 
 
 us, who deserve it every moment. 
 Thus you may perceive that if we 
 would be saved, we must leave off tak- 
 ing any merit at all to ourselves, and 
 only speak to the Lord God of what 
 His Blessed Son has done and suffered 
 for sinners. This will keep us very 
 humble: for we are forced to confess 
 that, as the Prophet says, « We are 
 all as an unclean thing; and all our 
 righteousness are as filthy rags ; and 
 we all do fade as a leaf; and our ini- 
 quities, like the wind, have taken us 
 away." Isaiah Ixiv. 5. It is therefore 
 plain that we should take great care 
 not to indulge ourselves in any thing 
 that can help to keep us proud, but 
 rather say, with Job, « Behold I am 
 vile ; I will lay my hand upon my 
 mouth?" Children and servants 
 should be very careful not to get the 
 habit of answering again; or, if they 
 have got it, to pray and watch, that 
 they may lay it aside; for if they an- 
 swer those who have authority over 
 
15 
 
 them on earth, they may presently 
 be led to answer God, when He re- 
 proves them for sin, by His holy word, 
 or by the afflictions that He sends. 
 And parents and masters must be 
 careful too, not to set the example to 
 those who are very ready to copy 
 whatever they do. That is a beautiful 
 passage which speaks of submitting 
 ourselves one to another in the fear 
 of God. Eph. v. 21. 
 
 It is better to bear a little unjust 
 blame silently and meekly, than by 
 being in a hurry to clear ourselves 
 run into danger of becoming im- 
 patient under rebuke where it is 
 deserving. " Let nothing be done 
 through strife or vain glory; but in 
 lowliness of mind, let each esteem 
 other better than themselves.' , 
 
 When I am justly blamed, 
 
 Oh let me not reply; 
 But of my many faults ashamed, 
 
 To God for pardon cry. 
 
16 
 
 And let me humbly speak 
 To those who she w my sin ; 
 
 They my improvement kindly seek, 
 And they my love should win. 
 
 But if my conscience says 
 
 " This* blame is wrongly thrown," 
 I'll think how many sinful ways 
 
 Are to my Maker known. 
 
 And this should keep me low, 
 And my proud spirit bend, 
 
 For those who chide me cannot know 
 How often I offend. 
 
 If God should judge me now 
 For all that I have done — 
 
 The thought is dreadful! let me bow 
 Before His blessed Son. 
 
 To thee, O Christ, I look, 
 And for thy mercy pray — 
 
 Thy blood alone can blot the book, 
 And take my sins away ! 
 
 THE END,