Books and other items printed in Gaelic from 1801 to 1840 > Sacred lessons and exercises, English and Gaelic

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Let the consideration of the extensive knowledge of the
English language which is spoken and understood, in so wide a
proportion of the whole globe, encourage our countrymen, in
all the vastly extended and increasing bounds of the British do¬
minions, and on the continent of America, to make it the means
of conveying religious reformation and instruction, and moral
improvement and discipline; and communicating to the nations,
the knowledge of Christ, the most unspeakable gift of God to
men. Above all, let Christians exemplify the pure and holy
spirit of the religion they profess ; and commend it to others—
by their own lives and character, in purity, innocence, and in¬
tegrity :—in that sober and devout, upright and beneficent con¬
duct, which divine grace teaches to all who are under its influ¬
ence. Let Christians beware, that impiety and impurity, ini*
quity and perfidy; profaneness and levity ; rapacity and extra¬
vagance ; oppression and luxury ; sensuality and vice; conju¬
gal infidelity, and domestic confusion; disorder and disobedi¬
ence ; anarchy, and contempt of superiors, and lawful authori¬
ty ; which so much debase and disgrace human nature, and
dishonour the profession of religion ; be not the occasion of
blaspheming the holy name of Jesus, and confirming strangers
in well-grounded prejudice, and hostile opposition to his cause.
With the discerning indeed, the * infidelity, hypocrisy, immo¬
rality, and debauchery of professors, is not to be ascribed to the
gospel, which convinces and condemns them. But to their own
ignorance, folly, inconsistence, fickleness, and corruption. For
as the Apostle argues, Gal. li. 17. Christ is not the minister of
*in, but of righteousness. Every good gift and every perfect f
* See Sermon on Infidelity, by the eloquent and learned Robert Hall,
Whether it pass for an Hexameter or not, the advice may deserve con¬
sideration contained in the following verse.
endowmerit
Jsf sapiens fieri vis, sex serva qux tibi mando
Quid dicis, de quo, cui, ubi, quomodo, quando.
V