discern the expediency or inexpediency of their conduct. It is right to declare the Gospel without fear : but it is not right to " cast pearls before swine." In every thing, therefore, of a practical nature, we should so attend to every minute circum- stance of time and place, as to keep clear of offence to any, and to " prevent our good from being evil spoken of'."]
4. Love —
[Without this, all knowledge is vain. Of what value was the knowledge of those Corinthians, who would display it at the expense of the souls of their own brethren, whom they led into sin ! Many who preach the Gospel are particularly faulty in this respect. They mind only what they are able to declare, without ever considering what their hearers are able to receive. A man, coming into a sick chamber, would not at once cast a flood of light upon the eyes of the patient, when he was scarcely able to endure the glimmering of a taper : love would keep him from so injurious an act: and the same heavenly principle should operate universally in the exercise of our knowledge: we should put a veil over our faces, if men be unable to behold the splendour of our communications ; or, in other words, we should give " milk to babes, and strong meat to those only who are capable of digesting it." In reference to the point before us, St. Paul shews us the proper office of love in these things : " If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend'^.'"]
In order to a due improvement of this subject, let us cultivate,
1. Docility of mind —
[In this especially are we to resemble little children'. Divine truth is manifestly beyond our comprehension ; and we must receive it simply on the authority of God. It is in this way that we attain even human knowledge. What does a child know of grammar? but, from acquiescing in the instruc- tions given him, he comes to find that all those things which once appeared to him so dark and unintelligible have a real foundation in language itself, and that we could not communi- cate ideas upon any abstract subject without them. Much more, therefore, must Divine knowledge be so received. We do not comprehend any thing fully at the first: but from receiving implicitly God's declarations, respecting our fall in Adam, our recovery by Christ, and all the other wonders of redeeming love, we shall at last attain an internal evidence that things both are so, and must be so. The proper frame of
i Horn. xiv. 16. ^ ver. 13. ' Matt, xviii. 3.