Self-Knowledge and Self-Discipline / B. W. Maturin

Originally printed in 1915. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that it should never be out of print: it has been, but now it is back. Fr Maturin was a convert from the Anglican Church, and chaplain at Oxford.

The knowledge of God and the knowledge of self. We can all readily perceive the necessity of growth in the knowledge of God as essential to any develop ment of the spiritual life. The connection is obvious. This, said our Lord, is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. A certain moral sympathy is absolutely necessary as a condition of friendship, and holi ness consists in friendship with God. If we would be in any sense the friends of God, we must have at least that desire for holiness without which such friendship would be impossible, the growth in the knowledge of God is the deepening of this friendship. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in dark ness, we lie and do not the truth.