Our own hearts respond to the truth of this--to call evil, good, and
good, evil--to see the Divinest good, and call it Satanic evil--below
this lowest deep there is _not_ a lower still. There is no cure for
mortification of the flesh--there is no remedy for ossification of the
heart. Oh! that miserable state, when to the jaundiced eye all good
transforms itself into evil, and the very instruments of health
become the poison of disease. Beware of every approach of
this!--Beware of that spirit which controversy fosters, of watching
only for the evil in the character of an antagonist!--Beware of that
habit which becomes the slanderer's life, of magnifying every speck of
evil and closing the eye to goodness!--till at last men arrive at the
state in which generous, universal love (which is heaven) becomes
impossible, and a suspicious, universal hate takes possession of the
heart, and _that_ is hell!

There is one peculiar manifestation of this spirit to which I desire
specially to direct your attention.

The politics of the community are guided by the political press. The
religious views of a vast number are formed by that portion of the
press which is called religious; it becomes, therefore, a matter of
deepest interest to inquire what is the spirit of that "religious
press." I am not asking you what are the views maintained--whether
Evangelical, Anglican, or Romish--but what is the _spirit_ of that
fountain from which the religious life of so many is nourished?

Let any man cast his eye over the pages of this portion of the
press--it matters little to which party the newspaper or the journal
may belong--he will be startled to find the characters of those whom