The World's Great Sermons, Volume 05: Guthrie to Mozley
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 05: Guthrie to Mozley
Sermons
By conversion the temper and disposition are changed and sanctified.
Christians are occasionally to be found with a tone of mind and a
temper as little calculated to recommend their faith as to promote
their happiness. I believe that there are cases in which this is
due to a deranged condition of the nervous system, or the presence
of disease in some other vital organ. These unhappy persons are
more deserving of our pity than our censure. This is not only the
judgment of Christian charity, but of sound philosophy, and is a
conclusion to which we are conducted in studying the union between
mind and body, and the manner in which they act and re-act upon each
other. So long as grace dwells in a "vile body," which is the seat
of frequent disorder and many diseases--these infirmities of temper
admit no more, perhaps, of being entirely removed, than a defect of
speech, or any physical deformity. The good temper for which some
take credit may be the result of good health and a well-developed
frame--a physical more than a moral virtue; and an ill temper,
springing from bad health, or an imperfect organization, may be a
physical rather than a moral defect--giving its victim a claim on
our charity and forbearance. But, admitting this apology for the
unhappy tone and temper of some pious men, the true Christian will
bitterly bewail his defect, and, regretting his infirmity more than
others do a deformity, he will carefully guard and earnestly pray
against it. Considering it as a thorn in his flesh, a messenger
of Satan sent to buffet him, it will often send him to his knees
in prayer to God, that the grace which conquers nature may be made
"sufficient for him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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