Let us not "compare ourselves with ourselves" -- that is, with the brethren and sisters around us. That, says the apostles, is "not wise" (2 Cor. 10:12). By this course, a community's standards of conduct and holiness and service and sacrifice gradually and imperceptibly sink lower and lower toward the way of the flesh, with blind complacence. Let us rather constantly and honestly compare our service and way of life with the holy precepts of the Word, and with the humbling and mortifying examples of Christ and of Paul, which are specifically set before us as patterns to copy and standards of comparison. This way a community's standards and accomplishments and devotion and service gradually get higher and higher, toward the Spirit, even "from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 2:18).

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