it in a mass of meal, and leave it there to work unchecked, it will in
time leaven the whole lump. And as it is with things natural, so it is
with things spiritual. If you allow a little leaven of bad feeling to
get into your minds towards your fellow Christians or your brother
ministers, and permit it to remain there, it will in time infect your
whole soul, impair the action of all its faculties, and after alienating
you from individuals, separate you first from the Church, and then from
Christ and Christianity.

There is a passage in the Bible which says that judges are not to take
gifts; and the reason assigned is, not that if a judge accepts a present
he will, with his eyes open, wilfully condemn the innocent or acquit the
guilty; but that "a gift _blindeth the eyes_," even "of the wise," so
that he is no longer able to see clearly which is the guilty and which
the guiltless party. And there is another passage in the Bible which
says that "oppression driveth a wise man mad." The feeling a man has
that he has been wickedly, cruelly treated, excites his mind so
painfully and violently, that it is impossible for him to think well of
the character or views of his oppressor, or of any party, institution,
or system with which he may be connected.

As some friends of mine were canvassing for votes one day, previous to
an election, they came upon a man who could not, for a time, say for
which candidate he would vote. At length a thought struck him, and he
said, "Who is John Myers going to vote for?" "Oh," said my friends,
"he's going to vote for _our_ man." "Then I'll vote for the other man,"
said he, "for I'm sure Myers will vote wrong." Myers had swindled him in
a business transaction; and his feelings towards him were so strong, and
of so unpleasant a kind, that he could not think anything right that
Myers did, nor could he think anything wrong that he himself did, so