Reader! see that you act not the spiritual coward. When tempted to sit silent when the name of God is slighted or dishonored, think, _would Jesus have done so_?--would _He_ have allowed the oath to go unrebuked--the lie to be uttered unchallenged--the Sabbath with impunity to be profaned? Where there is a natural diffidence which makes you shrink from a more bold and open reproof, remember much may be done to discountenance sin, by the silent holiness of demeanor which refuses to smile at the unholy allusion or ribald jest. "A word spoken in due season, how good is it!" "Speak gently," yet speak faithfully: "be pitiful--be courteous:" yet "quit you like men; be strong!" "ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND." Thirteenth Day. GENTLENESS IN REBUKE. "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?"--John, xxi. 15. No word here of the erring disciple's past faithlessness;--his guilty cowardice--_unmentioned_;--his base denial--his oaths--and curses, and treacherous desertion--all _unmentioned_! The memory of a threefold denial is _suggested_, and no more, by the threefold question of unutterable tenderness, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" When Jesus finds His disciples sleeping at the gate of Gethsemane, He rebukes them; but how is the rebuke disarmed of its poignancy by the merciful apology which is added--"The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak!" How different from _their_ unkind insinuation regarding _Him_, when, in the vessel on Tiberias, "He was asleep"--"Master carest thou not that we perish!" The woman of Samaria is full of earthliness, carnality, sectarianism, guilt. Yet how gently the Saviour speaks to her--how forbearingly, yet faithfully. He directs the arrow of conviction to that seared and hardened conscience, till He lays it bleeding at His feet! Truly, "He will not break the bruised reed--He will not quench the smoking flax." By "the _goodness_ of God," He would lead to repentance. When others are speaking of merciless violence, He can dismiss the most guilty of profligates with the words, "Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more."