On apt occasions the French people quote one of their old proverbs: "Qui s'excuse, s'accuse" (He who excuses himself, accuses himself). This saying is indeed quite correct in its analysis. Those who are unwittingly drawn into the habit of making excuses for self-indulgence, or for lapses from the performance of any known duty, can readily determine that back of their habitual excuses there is neglect of those things which if done at the right time would remove the occasions for making excuse.
Not a few mortals attempt to find extenuation of their errors in the negative circumstances recited in the Biblical narratives, or in Scriptural verses separated from their contexts. They fail to see that a right understanding of such passages proves that they merely contributed something to illustrate either the overcoming of evil with good or the possibility of such an achievement. The practise of looking on the wrong side of Scriptural narratives is pernicious, for it never leads thought to higher planes of consciousness, and to such mistaken students of the holy book Christian Science says that, in the words of Paul to the Romans, "they are without excuse," and "vain in their imaginations." This Science teaches that the Bible is a safe guide to health and holiness, and that to deduce excuses for wrong-doing from any of its narratives or statements is a sin, and an inexcusable one, because such palliations tend to encourage sin, the real purpose of all Scriptural writings being the establishment of heaven on earth through obedience to God's law, and the consequent destruction of all sin, whatever its nature.
Students of the Bible must remember that the narratives of Moses, Jacob, Joseph, Elias, Daniel, Solomon, Peter, Paul, or other Scriptural characters, were exclusively representative of the times, circumstances, and individualities of those prophets and apostles. No modern Bible student has identically the same environment or temptations to deal with. The particular problems and struggles of the ancients have no exact duplicates in our own times, although the Christian of today may have experiences which in some essentials are similar. We certainly can find encouragement from the triumphs wrought over evil by the power of God, in the lives of the prophets, but we can never in the least be justified in the indulgence of any form of evil because the Scriptural records tell of incidental lapses from the ways of rectitude by some of the ancient prophets.
