am puzzled. I
have no doubt that their reasons seem to them very sound; but what
they are I cannot conceive. I cannot conceive why I should not hold
out the right hand of fellowship and brotherhood to every man who
fears God and works righteousness, of whatsoever denomination he may
be. We believe the Apostles' Creed, surely? Then think of the
meaning of that one word, The Holy Spirit. To whom are we to
attribute any man's good deeds, except to the Holy Spirit? We dare
not say that he does them by an innate and natural virtue of his
own, for that would be to fall at once into the Pelagian heresy;
neither dare we attribute his good deeds to an evil spirit, and say,
'However good they may look, they must be bad, for he belongs to a
denomination who cannot have God's Spirit.' We dare not; for that
would be to approach fearfully near to the unpardonable sin itself,
the sin against the Holy Ghost, the bigotry which says, 'He casteth
out devils by the Prince of the devils.' Surely if we be
Christians, and Churchmen, we confess (for the Bible and the Prayer-
book declare) that every good deed of man comes down from the One
Fountain of Good, from God, the Father of Lights, by the inspiration
of His Holy Spirit.

Then think, my friends, think what words we have said. We confess
that the great, absolute, almighty, eternal God, in whose hand suns
and stars, ages and generations, hell and heaven, and all which is
and has been, and ever will be, are but as a grain of sand; who has
but to take away His breath, and the whole universe would become
nothing and nowhere; the utterly holy and righteous God, who is of
purer eyes than to behold iniquity, who charges His angels with
folly, and the heavens are not clean in His sight--we confess, I
say, that this great God has condescended to visit that man's soul,
and cherish it, and teach it, and shape it (be it ever so little)
into His own likeness: and shall we dare to stand aloof from him
from whom God does not stand aloof? Shall we refuse to walk with
one who walks with God? Shall we refuse to work with one who is a
fellow-worker with God, to love one whom God loves, to take by the
hand one whose guest God has become? Shall we be more dainty than
God? more fastidious than God? more righteous than God? more
separate from sinners than God? Oh, my friends, let us pray that we
may love God better, and know His likeness more clearly; that we may
be more ready to recognise, and