are us in other ways. Of course
he turns all things to evil, as far as he can; all our crosses may
become temptations: illness, affliction, bereavement, pain, loss of
worldly prospects, anxiety, all may be instruments of evil; so likewise
may all methods of self-chastisement, but they ought not to be, and
need not. And their legitimate effect, through the grace of the Holy
Spirit, is to make us like Him who suffered all pain, physical and
moral, sin excepted, in its fulness. We know what His character was;
how grave and subdued His speech, His manner, His acts; what calmness,
self-possession, tenderness, and endurance; how He resisted evil; how
He turned His cheek to the smiter; how He blessed when persecuted; how
He resigned Himself to His God and Father, how He suffered silently,
and opened not His mouth, when accused maliciously.

Alas! so it is; not only does the world not imitate such a temper of
mind as this; but, if the truth must be spoken, it despises it. As
regards, indeed, our Lord's instance itself, the force of education,
habit, custom, fear of each other, and some remaining awe, keep the
world from reflecting upon the notes of character which the Gospels
ascribe to Him, but in His followers, it does discern them, it
understands and it condemns them. We are bidden lend and give, asking
for nothing again; revenge not ourselves; give our cloak when our coat
is taken; offer the left cheek when the right is smitten; suffer
without complaint; account persons better than they are; keep from
bitter words; pray only when others would be impatient to act; deny
ourselves for the sake of others; live contented with what we are;
preserve an ignorance of sin and of the world: what is all this, but a
character of mind which the world scorns and ridicules even more than
it hates? a character which seems to court insult, because it endures
it? Is not this what men of the world would say of such a one? "Such
a man is unfit for life; he has no eye for any thing; he does not know
the difference between good and evil; he is tame and spiritless, he is
simple and dull, and a fit prey for the spoiler or defrauder; he is
cowardly and narrow-minded, unmanly, feeble, superstitious, and a
dreamer," with many other words more contemptuous and more familiar
than would be becoming to use in Church. Yet such is the character of
which Christ gave us the pattern; such was the character of Apostles;
such the character which has ever