Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/108

104 themselves like an ox unaccustomed to the yoke. They consider it too much to be borne: and very often they dwell upon these little matters until the poison of the adder is found under their lips. Then the very name of their supposed adversary cannot be mentioned without eliciting the serpent hiss. And by indulging this revengeful spirit for a time, it finally settles down in malice, a rooted enmity, which makes a man more like Lucifer than any other sin this side of perdition. And can the Holy Spirit dwell in a bosom that is indulging affections like these? No, never. He can look with delight only upon his own  'fruit,' which "is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Sinful tempers and affections are the works of the devil. These works, the Spirit of God in all his merciful and gracious visits to man, aims to destroy Resolve then, my Christian friends, in