things are so, or are not so: affirm them, when they are true, and deny them, when they are false, for if you go beyond this, your conduct will be of the evil one, the lusts of the evil one, or devil, you will do, and his fate you will share. Our Saviour goes on: Ye have heard, says he, that it hath been said: an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also: and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain; give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. From these words we learn, that we had better give up small rights, what is our due in little matters, rather than quarrel about them: that we are to be of yielding and obliging tempers, willing to do a favour to every one that asketh one of us, and even to go beyond what he asks. And, indeed, my friends, nothing will make more for peace and quiet, than a disposition not to be quarrelling about every trifle, meeting evil with evil, and injury with injury, and straining every point to make others behave to us to the full of our due. No, my friends, be of more humble tempers: be ready to forgive a wrong, not to return it: be obliging and friendly to each other: let no opportunity pass you of doing a favour and a kindness, and your Saviour will love you and receive you into those happy abodes, where the blessed spirits never quarrel nor contend, where they are happy, happy for ever in themselves, and in his presence who made them. How much you must wish to be Christians indeed, to have so Christian a temper, to have so much of the temper of Heaven. Oh! happy day, when we shall quit this world of toil, of sorrow, and of contention, this sink of misery and sin, and with bodies spiritual and immortal, and souls free from every sin, shall never know what pain of body, or distress of mind are, and be as good and as happy, as the angels which are in Heaven. Ye have heard, says our Saviour, that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy. And so perhaps it is still said by them, who are not Christians: love your friends and hate your enemies. But I say unto you, says the blessed Jesus, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. A hard saying this, perhaps you will say: but yet a true one, I answer, and one which shews that the temper of Christ is formed within us: He died to save his enemies: He prayed for them, who put Him to death. Father, forgive them, he said. You cannot be expected to love your enemies in the same manner as you do your friends: but you can love them in such a way, as will prevent you from doing them any injury, as will make you do them a kindness, when you can: you can love them in such a way, as to pray for them, to pray that they may have better hearts and better tempers, that they may see the error of their ways, and turn to God, before it be too late for them to be saved. Look to the Almighty Father of us all. Doth he not make his sun to rise on the evil as well as the good? Doth he not send his rains on the just and on the unjust, on the fields of him who serveth him, and of him who serveth him not? And if ye are kind to your enemies, ye will be the children of your Father, which is in Heaven; and if ye be his children, he will receive you into Heaven, saying unto you, inherit the kingdom prepared for you and for all repenting mortals, from the beginning of the world. If ye love them, who love you, what do ye more than the savage, who will do the same. But if ye are kind to them who hate you, then ye are Christians, ye are the true followers of Jesus Christ. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. Follow |