[Booi:  ML


W'q  are  careful  not  to  oppose  fair  arguments
even  if  they  proceed  from  those  who  are  not  of
our  faith ;  we  strive  not  to  be  captious,
seek  to  overthrow  any  sound  reasonings. But
here  we  have  to  reply  to  those  who  slander  the
character  of  persons  wishing  to  do  iheir  best  in
the  service  of  God,  who  accepts  the  faith  which
the  meanest  place  in  Him,  as  well  as  the
refined  and  intelligent  piety  of  the  learned
ing  that  both  alike  address  to  the  Creator  of  the
world  their  prayers  and  thanksgivings  through
the  High  Priest  who  has  set  before  men  the
nature  of  pure  religion. We  say,  then,  that
those  who  are  stigmatized  as  "  lamed  and  muti-
lated in  spirit,"  as  "  living  only  for  the  sake  of
the  body  which  13  dead,"  are  persons  whose  en-
deavour it  is  to  say  with  sincerity  :  "  For  though
we  live  *  in  the  flesh,  we  do  not  war  according
to  the  flesh  ;  for  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are
not  fleshly,  but  mighty  through  God."  It  is  for
those  who  throw  out  such  vite  accusations  against
men  who  desire  to  be  God's  servants,  to  beware
lest,  by  the  calumnies  which  they  cast  upon
others  who  strive  to  live  well,  they  '•  lame  "  their
own  souis,  and  "  mutilate  "  the  inner  man,  by
severing  from  it  that  justice  and  moderation  of
mind  which  the  Creator  has  planted  in  the  nature
of  all  His  rational  creatures. As  for  those,  how-
ever, who,  along  with  other  lessons  given  by  the
Divine  Word,  have  learned  and  practised  this,
"  when  reviled  to  bless,  when  persecuted  to
endure,  when  defamed  to  entreat," '  they  may
be  said  to  be  walking  in  spirit  in  the  ways  of
uprightness,  to  be  purifying  and  setting  in  order
the  whole  soul. 