The most potent and persuasive harbingers of the Gospel are benevolent deeds, and the best commentary on Christianity is a consistent life. How is that man prepared to exemplify holiness or teach it, who has a false measure, an unequal balance, an intentional error in his cash account, or a malignant purpose in his heart? Let us ever bear in mind that all religious worth consists in doing God's will, and not merely in professing it. Be ye warmed, be ye clothed, be ye fed, be ye kindly treated, are words, not Christian graces;— cold things of indifferent lips, not the holy faith that emanates from the cross. They who are most like heaven, and appear to be travelling thither with firmest step, with a pure conscience and sincere prayer seek for holy light upon their narrow path; so that, as said old bishop Hall, "we are not scrupulous and nice in small matters, negligent in the main; we are still curious in substantial points, and not careless in things of an inferior nature; accounting no duty so small as to be neglected, and no care great enough for principal duties; not so tithing mint and cummin, that we should forget justice and judgment; nor yet regarding judgment and justice, that we should contemn mint and cummin." Our adorable Saviour, in asserting for our guidance the relative value of fundamental doctrines and decorative graces, rendered the matter clear and the duties of all imperative, in the remarkable words to the scribes and pharisees: "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." CHAPTER II. CAPTIOUSNESS; OR, THE CENSORIOUS MAN. "GRIEVOUS words stir up anger," Prov. 15: 1. We infer from this language, and from general observation, that the acrimonious words of censorious persons kindle no light in the world except that which gleams from angry flames powerful only to destroy. Of this truth there are but too many sad instances recorded in the word of God, and illustrated within the scope of every observant mind. But in order to render the subject plain and practical to all, we will proceed to show that the censorious man is always ready to find fault; that he complains without sufficient cause; criticises without just discrimination; and, since he is never impelled by generosity, his bickerings can do no permanent good. In the first place, the censorious man is prompt to complain. It has been said that an Irishman is at peace, only when he is in a quarrel; a Scotchman is at home, only when he is abroad; an Englishman is contented, only while finding fault with something or somebody; and, let us add, that a captious, busy, blustering, impetuous American is at the height of felicity, only while he is in all these tumultuous conditions at the same time. Place of birth and peculiarity of dialect matters not; wherever the graceless cynic throws around him "the rhinoceros skin of impudence," the identity of his character is fixed, and is very likely to remain unchanged. His misanthropic heart is a fountain of bitterness, whose incessant flow indicates a disposition perpetually perverse. By a few masterly outlines, the great bard has presented a vivid portraiture of the censorious man. "Thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard, than thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes: What eye, but such an eye, would spy out such a quarrel? is as full of quarrels, as an egg is full of meat." Thy head Says Solomon, "An ungodly man diggeth up evil; and in his lips there is a burning fire. A froward man soweth strife; and a whisperer separateth chief friends." Instead of "covering all" in the spirit of the gospel, the captious are most busy in digging up evil; they "search for hid treasure," black and foul as their own loathsome spirit, and take the greatest delight in reviving what had been long buried, only to invest it with aggravating circumstances and a more envenomed life. Such a perturbed and wretched anarchist goes forth with diligent hand to sow the seed of strife in every furrow of society,-seed that spring up only in tempests, and generate the worst pestilence from the rotten fruits they produce. It is not uncommon for this class of persons to assign good motives for their bad deeds. A divine proverb says, "An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor." Haman, under a pretence of loyalty, attempted to destroy a whole nation. Ziba, under the same false garb, would have destroyed his neighbor. Ahab, the lying prophet, from mere wilfulness, ruined his brother. The hypocrite's mouth is "a world of iniquity;" it contains "a little member" always armed and active against true greatness, a weapon fearfully destructive since, as the apostle James declares, it is "set on fire of hell.” To conciliate the censorious is almost impossible. They are usually the most obdurate, because most prejudiced; therefore they are the last to appreciate kindness, and least susceptible to conviction. "All scems infected that the infected spy, And all seems yellow to the jaundiced cye." The influence of such individuals is well stated in the following Scripture: "The north wind bringeth forth rain: so doth a backbiting tongue an angry countenance." To suppress rage is undoubtedly a duty, but it is a task the hardest to perform in the presence of those who are constantly finding fault. The evil is aggravated by the fact that those who are most tantalizing are always the most unworthy of regard. The most contemptible foes are the most annoying; as Southey has said, "Quick am I to feel Light ills, perhaps o'erhasty; summer gnats, Grievous words are the oil which augments the flame of passion and intensifies its heat; for this reason they should be studiously repelled and repressed. Says an old and wise counsellor, "When men are provoked, speak gently to them, and they will be pacified; as the Ephraimites were by Gideon's mildness: whereas, on a like occasion, by Jeptha's roughness they were exasperated, and the consequences were bad. Reason will be better spoken, and a righteous cause better pleaded, with meekness, than with passion; hard arguments do best with soft words." In the second place, the censorious man usually complains without sufficient cause. In all waters there are some fish that love to swim against the stream; and in every community persons are to be found who delight in being opposed to everybody else. Demand a reason for their obstinate dissent, and you will probably obtain a reply about as intelligent and magnanimous as the one recorded in the following lines: "I do not like you Doctor Fell, It is painful to see persons thus "fretting in their own grease,” as anger without reason is like fire under an empty kettle, it burns the vessel to no purpose. Such a frantic member of society is a furious beast in his demeanor towards more worthy associates, because the native impulse is grovelling and bestial which sways himself. It was with a vain hope of correcting this fatal eccentricity, that Burke wrote as follows to his captious friend Barry, while studying his art at Rome, "That you have just subjects of indignation always, and of anger often, I do noways doubt; who can live in the world without some trial of his patience? But believe me, my dear Barry, that the arms with which the ill-dispositions of the world are to be combated, and the qualities by which it is to be reconciled to us, and we reconciled to it, are moderation, gentleness, a little indulgence to others, and a great deal of distrust of ourselves; which are not qualities of a mean spirit, as some may possibly think them, but virtues of a great and noble kind, and such as dignify our nature, as much as they contribute to our repose and fortune; for nothing can be so unworthy of a well-composed soul as to pass away life in bickerings and litigations; in snarling and scuffling with every one about us. Again and again, my dear Barry, we must be at peace with our species, if not for their sakes, yet very much for our own.' Stiff necks are always diseased ones, and trees that are hollow are the most unbending; but their inflexibility is the product and proof of unsoundness rather than of strength. A delicate and flexile demeanor is a prominent trait in polished life. The hostility of the truly great is always marked by courteous generosity; while mediocrity is perpetually envious towards original minds and magnanimous thoughts. The undisciplined harshness and furious invective of such is the exponent of their native meanness and the badge of predestined contempt. Says Schiller, "How should they, who know no other measure of worth than the toil of acquisition and its pal |