Let us ask for his
Spirit, the Spirit of Charity, which sees God in all, and all in
God, and therefore sees good in all, and sees all in love.
Then we shall see how much more there is in our neighbours to like,
than to dislike. Then all these little differences will seem to us
trifles not to be thought of, before the broad fact of a man's
being, after all, a man, an Englishman, a Christian, and a good
Christian, doing good work where God has put him. Then we shall be
ashamed of our old narrowness of heart; ashamed of having looked so
much at the little evil in our neighbours, and not at the great good
in them. Then we shall go about the world cheerfully; and our
neighbour's faces will seem to us full of light: instead of seeming
full of darkness, because our own eyes and minds are dark for want
of charity. Then we shall come to the Communion, not with hearts
narrowed and shut up, perhaps, from the very person who kneels next
to us: but truly open-hearted; with hearts as wide--ah God, that it
were possible!--as the sacred heart of Christ, in which is room for
all mankind. And so receiving his body, which is the blessed
company of all faithful people, we shall receive Christ, who
dwelleth in them, and they in him.
SERMON XVI. ST. PAUL
(Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.
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