doubt : " Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" Now here was extreme injustice done to the people of that city : for though the majority of them might be worthless, there might be some as estimable characters as any in Israel. But it is in this way that prejudice condemns both things and persons in the mass. Nations will entertain these very notions respecting each other ; so that the belonging to a rival nation shall be sufficient to make a person our enemy, though we are utter strangers to his character. The same malignant principle operates also very strongly between different societies belonging to the same nation. As, in Catholic countries, rival orders of men hate each other ; so even in this Protestant land, where greater liberality might be expected to prevail, churchmen and dissenters are ready to question whether almost any measure of truth or piety be in the party to which they are opposed. It is scarcely necessary to say how strongly this unhallowed disposition prevails against individuals. A man may have embraced sentiments which are deemed strict and precise ; and may, in conformity to them, be living a more holy, mortified, and self-denying life than others around him ; and this shall be quite sufficient to render him odious and contemptible to all around him. From that moment, every one shall feel himself at liberty to speak evil of him ; and nobody shall dare to defend him. All he says, and all he does, shall be an occasion of offence. John Baptist, because he was of secluded and morti- fied habits, was said " to have a devil :" and our blessed Lord, because he was of more " easy and social habits," was called " a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber." And so, if we be truly religious, it will be done to us : whether we " pipe or mourn," we shall find no sympathy, but be alike objects of condemna- tion ; every thing being viewed through the medium of prejudice, and therefore deemed extravagant and absurd. Every one who will follow the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity shall surely find that he has this cross to bear : he shall be despised, and hated, and " have all manner of evil spoken against him falsely, for Christ's sake. In truth, the real Christian does not live under the same laws as others ; nor must he expect that measure of protection that is accorded to other men. He may be traduced, insulted, injured by all : and no one will take his part : whilst, if he were to act, in one single instance, towards others, as every one feels at liberty to act towards him, the mouths of all would be opened against him, and a fire would be kindled which would not readily be extinguished : so true is that saying of the prophet Isaiah, " He that departeth from evil, maketh himself a prey."]
2. To those who indulge it—
[Prejudice blinds the mind to truth, and utterly indisposes
160e3.] EVIL, AND CURE) OF PREJUDICE. 225
us for the reception of it. A person under its influence can see no good in him whom it condemns, and will listen to nothing that shall tend to the vindication of his character. We have a remarkable illustration of this, in the conduct of the people of Ephesus. When they perceived that the preaching of the Apostle Paul was likely to lessen the veneration of many for the goddess whom they worshipped, they set the whole city in an uproar : and when a person, named Alexander, stood forth to vindicate him, the people, as soon as they saw that he was a Jew, instead of listening to a single word that he had to say, all, for the space of about two hours, cried out, " Great is Diana of the Ephesiansg!" Thus they shut out all means of conviction, and kindled in their own breasts the keenest resentments against those who sought only to make known unto them the way of life and salvation. In the common affairs of life, men act not thus. Our blessed Lord placed this matter in its true light, in answer to those who in the same perverse way rejected him : " When ye see a cloud rising in the west, ye say there will be rain, and it comes to pass. And when the south wind blows, ye say there will be heat : and it is so. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the earth, and of the heavens ; and how is it that ye discern not this timeh?" The truth is, that if prejudice once blind the eyes, nothing what- ever will suffice to remove it : and men will rather ascribe the miracles of our Lord to Satanic influence, than acknowledge the plain and obvious inference that should be deduced from them. Thus, whilst this hateful disposition vents itself against the most deserving objects, it inflicts the deadliest wound on him who indulges it ; inasmuch as it calls forth into activity all his basest passions, and shuts up his soul in impenetrable darkness.