SERMON III.

CHARITY.

1 COR. xiii. 2.

And though I have all faith (7) so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

THE question of non-conformity to the

world as it affects the conduct of a Christian in the present times is closely connected with a right apprehension of that evangelical charity which is described by the apostle in the beautiful chapter now to be considered. He seems to express himself with the utmost excitement of feeling, and to have every sentiment of his own heart in unison with the doctrine he inculcates on others. He commences with

Comparing this heavenly quality with the several gifts about which the Corinthians were contending, and pronouncing it far

more important than them all. He con

cludes with a yet further topic of praise, declaring that whilst there abide in this state of trial three great Christian virtues, 'whilst faith is the foundation of all, and hope the support of most of our efforts, yet the greatest of these is charity, or that genuine love of our fellow-creatures and fellow-christians which is founded on the love of Almighty God and of his Son Jesus Christ. In examining then how far our own hearts are modified after the picWture here drawn by St. Paul, it must be allowed on all hands that a great portion * of the worldly-minded part of society are totally destitute of this Christian grace. There are many, very many, whose notions of charity extend no farther than occasional almsgiving, and who have used the word in

that confined sense till they have come to be ignorant that it has any further meaning. 1st Leaving however for the present, the case of these inconsiderate persons who for the most part are in great ignorance, often unacquainted with the Bible, and not unfrequently themselves sorry for their own neglect and indulging in feeble

purposes of reform I pass on to consider the case of another description of persons, those namely who continually study the Bible, who profess a peculiar degree of respect for its precepts, and who in that profession go near to censure all who do not come up to their own standard of excellence; and I am prepared to shew that the spirit and the very letter of St. Paul's description of charity, and (what is the same thing) the spirit and the letter of Christ's Gospel, are most directly violated is in the professions and practices of this deluded class of persons. I say deluded

rather than hypocritical because I would fain avoid a breach of that charity which I am now recommending; and because I believe that the whole class of persons. taken separately will be found like any other class of persons to contain individuals of very distinct characters, some perhaps seeking in the outward form of godliness a cloak for inward depravity, some misled by a false enthusiasm or the phantoms of spiritual pride, and others deluded by the sophistry of false arguments, or drawn aside by that unhappy tendency of the human mind to run from one extreme into the other, from the barren coldness of a lukewarm faith into the equally barren fervour of fanaticism. How far soever you may have adopted the view of religion here objected to, and from whatever cause you may have adopted it, of this you may be well assured that if it be found incompatible with charity it is proved incon