Christian charity explained Author:John Angell James Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. CHRISTIAN LOVE IS NOT TO BE CONFOUNDED WITH THAT SPURIOUS CANDOUR WHICH CONSISTS IN INDIFFERENCE TO RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT, OR IN CONNIVANCE AT SINF... more »UL PRACTICES. A Separate and entire section is devoted to this distinction of love from a counterfeit resemblance ot it, because of the importance of the subject, and the frequency with which the mistake is made of confounding things which are so different from each other. No terms have been more misunderstood or abused than candour and charity. Some have found in them an act of toleration for all religious opinions, however opposed to one another or to the word of God, and a bull of indulgences for all sinful practices which do not transgress the laws of our country: so that, by the aid of these two words, all truth and holiness may be driven out of the world; for if error be innocent, truth must be unimportant; and if we are to be indulgent towards the sins of others, under the sanction and by the command of Scripture, holiness can be of no consequence either to them or ourselves. If we were to hearken to some, we should conceive of Charity, not as she really is—a spirit of ineffable beauty, descending from heaven upon our distracted earth, holding in her hand the torch of truth, which she had lighted at the fountain of celestial radiance, and clad in a vest of unsullied purity; and who, as she entered upon the scene of discord, proclaimed " glory to God in the highest," as well as "peace on earth, good-will to men:" and having with these magic words healed the troubled waters of strife, proceeding to draw men closer to each other, by drawing them closer to Christ, the common centre of believers; and then hushing the clamours of contention, by removing the pride, the ignorance, and the depravity, which produced the...« less