Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/81

beneficial effects, they may in a qualified sense, be denominated good. The point however to which we would arrive, is this:—If unregenerate men may have some commendable traits in their character, how much more ground is there to regard those in a favorable light, who are in some good degree, renewed by the Spirit? So, for Christians to pronounce unfavorably upon the general character of their brethren, simply on the ground of some fault they may discover, or think they discover, is to injure them seriously. It is to withhold from them that affectionate regard which their other good qualities justly demand. Persons who are given to this uncharitable turn, require but little evidence; indeed, what they require, is undeserving the name of evidence; all they require, in order to bring their minds to a decision upon the general character of their neighbor, is only to see, or think they see, in him some slight deviation from their