" speak the truth m love," and " instruct in meekness them that oppose themselves, if God peradventure may give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that so they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, by whom they have been taken captive at his will'1." A Christian on such occasions must bear in mind how much the honour of God is involved in his conduct ; and how much, humanly speaking, the salvation of others may depend on him. By an indiscreet mode of vindicating the truth, he may shut the ears, and harden the hearts of many; and so embitter their minds, as to make them determined haters and despisers of vital godliness : but by a meek, modest, affectionate, and prudent statement, he may remove their prejudices, and lead them to a candid examination of their own state before God. Hence then he should speak " with fear," even as the Apostle Paul himself did at Corinth, where, as he himself tells us, " he was among them in weakness and fear and much trembling e." By thus combining meekness with fidelity, and fear with zeal, he may hope that he shall be the means of silencing opposers, and of winning many who would never have attended to the written or preached word1.]
I would yet further enforce the exhortation in our text, with such advice as naturally arises out of it- Let it be the daily labour of your lives to be such
as our text requires :
1. Be intelligent Christians —
[You ought to be able to " give to every inquirer a reason of the hope that is in you." It is a disgrace to a Christian not to possess such a measure of divine knowledge, as shall qualify him for this. It is not necessary that every Christian should be a disputant, and be able to enter into theological contro- versies: but every man should be able to answer this question, " Why are you a Christian ?" Alas ! the generality of Chris- tians, so called, can assign no better reason for being Chris- tians, than a Turk can for being a Mahometan. But to all such I must say, You have yet to learn what a scriptural hope is ; and have only " the hope of an hypocrite, which will be swept away like a spider's web." I beseech you all then to study the Scriptures with all diligence ; and to pray unto God, that vou may by them be made wise unto everlasting salvation.]
2. Be steadfast Christians —
11 2 Tim. h\ 25, 26. e 1 Cor. ii. 3. f 1 Pet. iii. 1, 2.