The life of those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High may be called a Hidden Life, because the animating principle, the vital or operative element, is not so much in itself as in another. It is a life grafted into another life. It is the life of the soul, incorporated into the life of Christ; and in such a way, that, while it has a distinct vitality, it has so very much in the sense, in which the branch of a tree may be said to have a distinct vitality from the root.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The Faults of Christians

To the holy mind the faults and backslidings of the followers of Christ furnish occasions of humiliation and prayer; but never of secret complacency and of ungenerous triumph. While, therefore, the errors of Christians are deeply to be lamented, they are never, except when truth and holiness clearly require it, to be published abroad. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." 

— Religious Maxims (1846) CLXXX.

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