Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

snares of the devil. There were many Jews that continued obstinate unbelievers during the whole course of our Lord's ministry, although he spake as never man had spoken, and yet were converted by the ministry of the apostles. Christ's people shall be willing in the day of his power, and they will never be willing till the day of his power is come. The husbandman waits patiently for the precious fruits of the earth, and does not intermit his labor in the season of drought or of tempest. At last he hopes to reap, and we also shall reap the fruit of our labors if we faint not. If those souls should finally perish, for whom we have wept, and labored, and prayed, our charity will not be lost.

3. Let your charity and zeal be regulated by the word of God.

It is to be lamented that many persons, not enemies to religion, should pay little regard in their practice to some of its rules. Charity is the soul of practical religion, and charity believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. How then comes it to pass, that many serious persons are so ready to form bad opinions of their neighbors? They hear a bad story, and they believe it without farther enquiry, although they might know that half of the bad stories they hear are downright falsehoods, and that nine out of ten are mi representations. And how comes it to pass, that some who are zealous against sin,

turn their zeal itself into sin, by judging their brethren, who must stand or fall not to their fellow servants, but to their own Master?

Your neighbor is guilty of a fault. What then? Is he a hypocrite because he is not unblemished? Was the apostle Peter a false Christian, because on a certain occasion at Antioch, he walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel.

Job's three friends considered him as a bad man, and earnestly labored for his conversion. They were wise and good men. They were honest in an eminent degree, and could bear to wound their own tenderest feelings, by speaking daggers to the heart of Job for his good. Yet they were greatly to be blamed, because they wanted that charity which will not form a bad opinion of one's neighbor without sufficient evidence. Their reproofs and advices would have been excellent, if they had been addressed to such a man as they took Job to be; but addressed to the man that Job was, they were poison infused into his wound, while they thought that they were discovering their ardent zeal for God, and their honest friendship for Job. They spake not of God the thing that was right, and they brake the good man in pieces with their words.

But whatever we may say with justice against the errors of these good men, they merit praise if you compare them with those cold hearted friends, who would not wound the too

delicate feelings of those whom they pretend to love, although it might save their souls from hell. Does that man love his child, who would not force a knife out of his hands lest he should sob and cry, although he knows not how soon he may use it to give himself a deadly wound; Charity suffers long, and is kind; yet it will not suffer sin in the beloved object. So God teaches us by Moses, when he says, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him," Lev. xix.

Charity believeth all things, yet it rejoiceth in the truth, and will not believe manifest falsehoods, nor refuse its assent to unpleasant truths, when they are too plain to be denied. You have very false notions of charity, when you think that it constrains you to think well, or to speak well of transgressors, whose sins are open beforehand going to judgement. If you endeavor to palliate every transgression of which you hear, and to wash Ethi opeans white, you employ your tongues to poison the morals of your hearers. You must not speak evil of your neighbors; but you must neither justify nor excuse those that are known to be evil doers, as if their crimes were only faults, and their perseverance in an evil course consistent with the character of a Christian. Is a man known to be a tipler, a reviler, or a liar? talk not of his spots as if

they could be the spots of God's children, for then you may embolden other men to lie, and drink to excess, and defame their brethren, by the notion you instil, that they may do all those things, and yet deserve the character of saints,

It is not charity, but cruelty, to hide your eyes from those faults that are but too evident. Was there a more charitable man than Paul, who, in his epistles, administered sharp reproofs to his beloved children, when their conduct was blameable? Jesus himself, whose love passeth knowlege, displayed it no less in the reproofs than in the comforts which he often gave to his disciples.

When we have no certain evidence that our friends or neighbors are destitute of the grace of God, charity will not only permit, but dispose us to be jealous over them with a godly jealousy. "I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice," said Paul to the Galatians, "for I stand in doubt of you. Was he unkind to them,

[ocr errors]

He

because he stood in doubt of them? Was he their enemy, because he told them the truth? No, he was their true friend. was their affectionate father. They were his little children, with whom he travelled in birth again, till Christ was formed in them.

Let all your things be done with charity. There are no duties which ought to have

the character of charity more plainly imprinted upon them, than those which may prove painful to the persons whose benefit we seek in doing them; and we ought to be careful that our charity be regulated by the example of Christ and his holy apoftles.

4. Beware of those weaknesses which may obstruct the success of your labors of love.

Spiritual pride is not to be ranked with those weaknesses which make our good to be evil spoken of. It is wickedness of the worst kind. But there are appearances of it which ought to be avoided, it we value our character and usefulness. You cannot but have observed with what wonderful caution Paul speaks of his own attainments, when he was under a necessity of mentioning them. Some people might have imagined that he was one of the proudest men alive, when he spoke of his own sufferings, and of his activity and success in the cause of Christ, if he had spoken of them in such a way as too many speak of themselves, when they think that self defence makes it justifiable. Yet, in these very passages

where he raises his own character to the highest pitch of glory, every candid reader finds that he was the humblest man in the world.

A supercilious and magisterial air in giving one's sentiments on religious subjects,

« AnteriorContinuar »