Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

pervert the true meaning of the word of God. This is my opinion of them:
the ministers who preach from them fill the heads of their hearers with
systematic knowledge.
In dead languages it is well to select the best authors, and establish
them as standards of pure and elegant composition; for, in such languages
no farther excellence can be expected. But in those languages which
continue to be vernacular, the case is widely different; they may still be
improved and polished, therefore no writer should be set up as a standard
of unsurpassable excellence. Why may not the English, for instance,
expect writers who shall as far excel Addison, Steele, Johnson, Spenser,
Shakspeare, Milton, and Pope, as they have surpassed their predecessors?
Certainly the English language and the British genius, notwithstanding
their almost unrivalled excellence, are still capable of greater perfection.
A good pastor will not, like a miser, keep what he has to himself, to
please his fancy; nor, like a merchant, traffic with it to enrich himself,
but, like a bountiful father or householder, distribute it with a liberal,
though judicious hand, for the comfort and support of the whole heavenly
family.
A late morning student is a lazy one, and will rarely make a true
scholar; and he who sits up late at night, not only burns his life's candle
at both ends, but puts a red-hot poker to the middle.
PEOPLE—Be very cautious of receiving evil reports against those
whose business it is to preach to others, and correct their vices. Do not
consider an elder as guilty of any alleged crime, unless it be proved by
two or three witnesses. This the law of Moses required in respect to all.
Among the Romans, a plebeian might be condemned on the deposition
of one credible witness; but it required two to convict a senator. The
reason of this difference is evident: those whose business it is to correct
others will usually have many enemies; great caution, therefore, should
be used in admitting accusations against such persons.