In our own day there is danger of mistaking lazy or weak indifferentism for Christian charity. It is a convenient doctrine that the beliefs of our fellow-Christians are no concern of ours, even when they try to propagate what contradicts the creed. And, while emphasis is laid upon the responsibility of accepting articles of faith, it is assumed that there is little or no responsibility in refusing to accept, or in teaching others to refuse also. To plead for tenderness, where severity is needed, is not charity, but Laodicean lukewarmness; and mistaken tenderness may easily end in making us "partakers in evil works." To be severe, when severity is imperatively called for, is not only charity to the offenders, it "is also charity towards all men besides. It is charity towards the _ignorant_ as carrying instruction along with it; charity towards the _unwary_, as giving them warning to stand off from infection; charity towards the _confirmed_ Christians, as encouraging them still more, and preserving them from insults; charity towards the _whole Church_, as supporting both their unity and purity; charity towards _all mankind_, towards them that are _without_, as it is recommending pure religion to them in the most advantageous light, obviating their most plausible calumnies, and giving them less occasion to blaspheme."[87]
[84] It is worth noting that Tertullian, with several other Latin writers, omits the second admonition: _hominem haereticum post primam correptionem recusandum_. Similarly Cyprian: _haereticum hominem post unam correptionem devita_ (_Test._, III. 78).
[85] =hairesis=, from =hairein=, =haireisthai=, "to choose": not from _haerere_, "to stick fast," as has been ignorantly asserted.
[86] T. Ll. Davies in a remarkable paper on "The Higher Life," in the _Fortnightly Review_, January, 1888.
[87] Waterland, _The Importance of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity_ IV. ii. 2; Works, vol. v. p. 96. Oxford, 1823.