by John Newton
Jesus, full of compassion and tenderness, wept over His enemies, and prayed for His actual murderers! A feeling of this kind seems essential to that new nature which characterizes the children of God; and where itis not in habitual exercise, it is a sufficient evidence that the soul, if truly alive to God at all—is at least in a lean and distempered state.
When we look at the ungodly, we are not to hate them—but to pity them, mourn over them, and pray for them. Nor have we any right to boast over them; for, by nature, and of ourselves, we
are no better than they.
"For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" 1 Corinthians 4:7
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From The Letters of John Newton (eBook)