Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/107

Rh and to bless you with light, life and vigor. On the contrary, if other matters of a vain, foolish and reprehensible character, are permitted to be themes to expatiate upon in your social intercourse; depend upon it a leanness will come over your souls; you will become like Samson shorn of his strength, weak as other men: your enemies will put out your eyes, leaving you to grope your way in the darkness of spiritual death. Again, the Spirit of God is grieved—

3. By sinful tempers and affections. In the verse that immediately follows the text, St. Paul thus exhorts his brethren: "Let all bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamor, and evil-speaking, be put away from, you with all malice." It is much to be lamented that these evil affections prevail too much among professing Christians in the present day. From the slightest provocation received from human frailty, some will rave and toss