patient with the sinner. To form the habit of
finding fault constantly, is very damaging to spiritual life; it is
about the lowest and meanest position that a man can take. I never saw
a man who was aiming to do the best work, but there could have been
some improvement; I never did anything in my life, I never addressed
an audience, that I didn't think I could have done better, and I have
often upbraided myself that I had not done better; but to sit down and
find fault with other people when we are doing nothing ourselves, not
lifting our hands to save some one, is all wrong, and is the opposite
of holy, patient, divine love.

Love is forbearance; and what we want is to get this spirit of
criticism and fault finding out of the Church and out of our hearts
and let each one of us live as if we had to answer for ourselves, and
not for the community, at the last day. If we are living according to
the 13th chapter of Corinthians, we will not be all the time finding
fault with other people. "Love suffereth long, and is kind." Love
forgets itself, and don't dwell upon itself. The woman who came to
Christ with that alabaster box, I venture to say, never thought of
herself. Little did she know what an act she was performing. It was
just her love for the Master. She forgot the surroundings, she forgot
everything else that was there; she broke that box and poured the
ointment upon Him, and filled the house with its odor. The act, as a
memorial, has come down these 1800 years. It is right here--the
perfume of that box is in the world today. That ointment was worth $40
or $50; no small sum of those days for a poor woman. Judas sold the
Son of God for about $15 or $20. But what this woman gave to Christ
was everything that she had, and she became so occupied with Jesus
Christ that she didn't think what people were going to say. So when we
act with a single eye for the glory of our Lord, not finding fault
with everything about us, but doing what we can in the power of this
love, then will our deeds for God speak, and the world will
acknowledge that we have been with Jesus, and that this glorious love
has been shed abroad in our hearts.

If we don't love the Church of God, I am afraid it won't do us much
good; if we don't love the blessed Bible, it will not do us much good.
What we want, then, is to have love for Christ, to have love for His
word, and to have love for the Church of God, and when we have love,
and are living in that