Their longing after holiness only made
them loathe the more their past unholiness. They carried that
feeling too far: but they were noble people, men and women of God;
and we may say of them, that, 'Wisdom is justified of all her
children.'
But I wish you to run into neither extreme. I only ask you to look
at your past lives, if you have ever been open sinners, as St. Paul
looked at his. There is no sentimental melancholy in him; no
pretending to be miserable; no trying to make himself miserable. He
is saved, and he knows it. He is an apostle, and he stands boldly
on his dignity. He is cheerful, hopeful, joyful: but whenever he
speaks of his past life (and he speaks of it often), it is with
noble shame and sorrow. Then he looks to himself the chief of
sinners, not worthy to be called an apostle, because he persecuted
the Church of Christ. What he is, he will not deny. What he was,
he will not forget, he dare not forget, lest he should forget that
the good which he does, _he_ does not--for in him (that is, in his
flesh, his own natural character), dwelleth no good thing--but
Christ, who dwells in him; lest he should grow puffed up, careless,
self-indulgent; lest he should neglect to subdue his evil passions;
and so, after having preached to others, himself become a castaway.
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