Page:Some Reflections on the Importance of a Religious Life.djvu/37

 rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God.” “We beseech you to know them who labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.”

Love and kindness, charity and forbearance, are virtues essential to a Christian. How often are they exhibited and enforced in the Bible! They sweeten the toils and trials of life; they are the very element in which the servant of Christ delights to dwell. May you be qualified to say so from your own experience. In judging of the actions of others, be candid, and put a kind and favourable construction upon them. Dwell upon their good qualities, be not blind to their faults; but do not make them a topic of common conversation. You may have seen failings, and even sins, which may have grieved you, and shaken your faith; but let not such things greatly move you. If others have fallen, you may fall also: let their harms be your warning; let these lessons teach compassion, and lead to greater watchfulness and humility. But let them not be any plea for you to deviate from the straight-forward path of rectitude, which you have seen and known it to be your duty to pursue; if you do, great will be your loss.

In our daily walk in life, we have to act as the