And how ready should we be to go forth, wherever our God may call us ; accounting nothing of the trials that may await us, even though life itself were the sacrifice that we were called to make. Dear brethren, let it not be said of you, "All men seek their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ0;" but beg of God that you may rise to your proper character ; and be enabled to " follow the Apostle, as he followed Christ."]
0 ver. 21.
Phil. ii. 21. All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus
Christ's.
CANDOUR is a virtue that should be held in the highest estimation : but, if pressed beyond its proper limits, it will degenerate into indifference, and be productive of incalculable evil. It ought not to con- found ail distinctions between good and evil ; or to betray the interests of religion, through a tenderness for the character of those who violate its dictates. Its office relates rather to the motives, than to the actions, of men. Their actions are to be tried by the standard of God's law : their principles are known to God alone : and it is the part of candour to make due allowance for the frailties of men ; and to ascribe every thing to good motives, as far as the actions themselves, and the circumstances attending them, will admit of it. As for that latitudinarian principle which is falsely called candour, the Scriptures know nothing of it ; nor do they countenance it in any degree. They uniformly assign to good and to evil their true and proper characters, without any respect to those who commit them : and oftentimes they speak in broad, unqualified terms, where they might, if God had seen fit, have made limitations and ex- ceptions. In applying such passages, however, to existing circumstances, there is undoubtedly just scope for the exercise of candour. And this we shall