We are too apt to hold each other accountable for all the consequences which can be logically deduced from an opinion, however extreme they may be: and then having persuaded ourselves that those abstract tenets which, by straining them to an extreme point, _may_ have an evil effect, _must_ have an evil effect on all who profess them,—we avoid those who differ from us on religious subjects, because we have assumed that they are actually immoral by virtue of their opinions; and thus we miss the opportunity of convincing ourselves of our mistake by a more intimate knowledge of their lives. “By their fruits ye shall know them,” says our Lord; but we seldom approach them closely enough to see the fruits. If we would be content to sink minor differences, and be satisfied that “in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him,” we should soon meet on better terms; for we do not hold at a distance from those on earth whom we expect to meet in heaven; and thanks be to God, there is no religious persuasion that cannot boast of many such as Cornelius. St. Paul recommends to the churches that they be “kindly affectioned one towards another, in honour preferring one another:” {5a} “by this shall men know that ye are my disciples,” says our Great Exemplar, “if ye have love one to another;” but alas! if we contemplate what is called the Christian world, where shall we find Christ’s _true_ disciples? Grievous indeed it is, as has been well observed, that that religion, which “should most correct and sweeten men’s spirits, sours and sharpens them the most.” But surely “_we_ have not so learned Christ.” Let us for a moment contemplate His conduct towards those who differed from him in religious opinions; his compassion towards them; his meek reproofs not only to the Sadducees and the Samaritans, but even to the more hardened; {5b} and then let us turn to our own hearts and confess with shame that we have fallen miserably short of that charity without which “whosoever liveth is counted dead before God.” So clear is the command to exercise universal benevolence, that whatever obscurity there may be in other parts of Scripture, however men, even wise ones, may differ as to the real signification of certain passages in the Bible, _here_ at least there can be no cavilling. It is intelligible to the most ignorant as well as the most learned, so that “the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.”