But if
he did not agree with them; if he would not say the words which they
said, and did not belong to their party, and side with them in
despising every one who differed from them, it was no matter to them,
as they proved by their opinion of Jesus Himself, how good he might
be, or how much good he might do; how loving, gentle, patient,
benevolent, helping, and caring for poor people; in short, how like
God he was; all that went for nothing if he was not of their party.
For they had forgotten what God was like. They forgot that God was
love and mercy itself, and that all love and mercy must come from
God; and, that, therefore, no one, let his creed or his doctrine be
what it might, could possibly do a loving or merciful thing, but by
the grace and inspiration of God, the Father of mercies. And yet
their own prophets of the Old Testament had told them so, when they
ascribed the good deeds of heathens to the inspiration of God, just
as much as the good deeds of Jews, and agreed, as they do in many a
text, with what St. James, himself a Jew, said afterwards: "Be not
deceived; every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and
cometh down from the Father of lights." But the Pharisees, like too
many nowadays, did not think so.
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