He must not be insolent to the
insolent, or proud to the proud. He must not be puffed up, and fancy
that because he sees the evil of sin, and the certain ruin which is
the fruit of it, that he is therefore to keep apart from his fellow-
countrymen, and despise them in Pharisaic pride. No. The truly
Christian man, the man who, like Jeremiah, has the Spirit of God in
him, will feel the most intense pity and tenderness of sinners. He
will not only rebuke the sins of his people, but mourn for them; he
will be afflicted in all their affliction. However harshly he may
have to speak, he will never forget that they are his countrymen, his
brothers, children of the same Father, to be judged by the same Lord.
He will feel with shame and fear that he has in himself the root of
the very same sins which he sees working death around him--that if
others are covetous, he might be so too--if they be profligate, and
deceitful, and hypocritical, without God in the world, he might be so
too. And he must feel not only that he might be as bad as his
neighbours, but that he actually would be, if God withdrew His Spirit
from him for a moment, and allowed him to forget the only faith which
saves him from sin, loyalty to his unseen Saviour, the righteous King
of kings.
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