resolve you will have it now. Begin to cry mightily to God, for the
Holy Spirit to shed it abroad in your heart; give up your quibblings
and reasonings, and go down at the foot of the cross and ask Him,--
"Come, Lord, and break up this poor, wicked heart of mine, and shed
this beautiful, pure, Divine Charity abroad in it," and then you will
not, henceforth, seek your own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's.




CHAPTER IV.

CHARITY AND REBUKE.


And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest
of these is charity.--1 COR. xiii. 13.

The second main point of difference between a true and a false
Charity, we want to remark, is, _Divine Charity is not only
consistent with, but it very often necessitates, reproof and rebuke
by its possessor_. It renders it incumbent on those who possess it
to reprove and rebuke whatever is evil--whatever does not tend to
the highest interests of its object.

This Charity conforms in this, as in everything else, to its Divine
model--"As many as I love I rebuke and chasten"--when necessary for
the good of its object, for He doth not _willingly_ afflict or
grieve the children of men, any more than a father willingly
chastises a disobedient child; but, if he be a wise father, he will