Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/78

74 our neighbor, without depriving him of either his life, liberty or property We may injure him by rash and precipitate judging, by indulging uncharitable thoughts, and by evil speaking. 1. Rash and precipitate judging.

Perhaps nothing is more common than for men to form an unfavorable opinion of their neighbor upon the slightest acquaintance; yet, this is equally injurious as it is unjust. To pronounce unfavorably upon the general character of a person from some single fault we may discover, or think we discover, is certainly injuring him, inasmuch as it is withholding from him that esteem, which his other good qualities justly demand, even suppose him to be faulty in other respects. For who is there without fault? Perhaps there are few men so bad, but that may possess some good traits of character. Lest we should be misunderstood here, it may be necessary to