Puslapio vaizdai
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efforts, to avoid sin by resisting every temptation to it, and to please God by doing every thing which he requires.

If, therefore, my friends, you have ever allowed yourselves, in any such expressions of zeal as that to which we are alluding if you have ever been guilty of disregarding truth, or honesty, or humanity, with a view to promote religion-if, in your eagerness to grow in knowledge of sacred things, and to attend public ordinances, and to abound in benevolent deeds, you have been in the habit of violating any of your social or relative duties if, in the spirit of a system which professes a devoted earnestness in the cause of God, and at the same time holds that the end sanctifies the means, you have been addicted to such practices as that of endeavouring to make people read the Word of God, by putting into their hands along with it, under the same title and the same aspect, that which you know is only the word of man-if, for the purpose of making the Gospel more palatable to those whom you are anxious to see adopting it, you conceal certain truths, and disguise or misrepresent othersor, if in any other respect, you are chargeable in the behalf of Christianity, with " doing evil that good may come"-then we exhort you to be "zealous, and repent." Repent of having transgressed God's law. Let your repentance be the deeper, that your transgression has been committed with the view of serving your Maker and advancing your own holiness. And let your zeal be henceforth exerted in a manner more accordant with the divine will; and in all its manifestations let it never be permitted to deviate one hair-breadth from the path of rectitude and truth, or to receive assistance from iniquity, be it ever so powerful, and be it ever so well concealed.

V. In the next place, our religious zeal must be under the government of charity.

Great things are spoken of charity in the sacred Scriptures. And while to be destitute of it, is to be destitute of what is equally graceful and essential in the Christian character; so to possess it, and to have our hearts and lives pervaded by it, is to have what most assimilates us to God, and best prepares us for heaven.

Charity is of unspeakable consequence in the exercise of zeal. If we were not induced by charity to take an interest in our brethren of mankind, we could take no great pains and make no great exertion to promote their welfare. Though we saw in Christianity an adaptation to their character and necessities, and an engine mighty for accomplishing their salvation, yet not loving them, we could not be expected to go beyond a speculative belief in its excellence and its usefulness; whereas, if they were the objects of our sympathy and affection, we would feel our

selves impelled to apply it to their spiritual case, and to use every means for rendering its application efficacious in securing their happiness.

And then our zeal being awakened to care for them, charity comes in to soften that aspect of sternness and severity, which it might otherwise assume, and to mould it into a form more consonant to the nature and circumstances of those for whom it is to labour, as well as to the spirit and precepts of that religion which it is desirous to propagate. If we have been brought to entertain just views of the holiness of God to feel our infinite obligations to his mercy-to hate sin and to mourn for its prevalence-to regard those who are living under its power as hostile to Him whom we love with all our heart-to recognise in such as reject the Saviour the enemies of all righteousness, the opposers of the divine will, and the great hindrances to man's salvation,-we are apt to feel more than ordinary indignation at them, to think and speak and act concerning them harshly and relentlessly, and to consider our sincerity in the cause of religion as requiring us to cast them out from the pale of our favourable regards. But such an expression of our zeal is altogether unjustifiable and injurious. Religion is worthy of the zeal that we cherish and exhibit, because it brings glory to God by bringing salvation to men. Our zeal, therefore, should put forth its energies in behalf of all to whom the Gospel is necessary and for whom it is intended. But the more sinful and the more opposed any individuals are, the more requisite it is that our zeal should be employed to bring them to the acknowledgment of the truth and to the obedience of Christ. And, consequently, it is of high importance that we cultivate that charity which leads us to be forbearing-to repress harsh judgment and uncandid suspicions-to hope for change even where appearances are most forbidding and untoward and to show the kindness that is undeserved instead of the anger that is provoked. This will have the double effect of encouraging us to make efforts which a contrary temper would have prevented, for the benefit of those who are far from God and from righteousness; and of giving these efforts a greater chance of being successful, by gaining the attention which we are desirous to fix on the things of God, and by conciliating the hearts which we are anxious to win to the love and obedience of " the truth as it is in Jesus."

Thus charity serves to excite our zeal-to animate us to the exercise of it, and to make it bear with greater effect on the mind and conduct of those whom it endeavours to benefit. We do not say, indeed, that we are to be charitable in such a manner, and to such a degree, as that we should look on the righteous and the wicked with an equal eye-that we should give credit for faith

where infidelity is avowed that we should conclude him to be a lover of holiness who is habitually indulging himself in sin, -that we should praise where blame and reproof are evidently merited, or that we should give countenance and indulgent treatment to hardened transgressors of

God's law. This would, to say the least of it, betray utter imbecility. It would tend to confound the distinctions of right and wrong in our own minds. And it would tend to produce the same confusion in the minds of others, and lead them to practise, without compunction, what we should earnestly wish them to avoid. In certain circumstances there are individuals of whom we cannot help forming an unfavourable opinion; norcan we help speaking of them in the language of decided disapprobation and censure, and behaving towards them with marked and determinate aversion. And all this may be not only just but expedient and necessary, both for them and for ourselves. Still, however, there is no reason for excluding charity. That virtue may find here ample scope for its exercise, in qualifying those views which have excited our displeasure, in moderating the expression which we give to the feelings that have been awakened, and in stimulating us to correct, if possible, the errors that we have detected, and to reform, if possible, the evil habits that we have reprobated. And while charity constrains us, amidst our abhorrence of the of

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