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SERBI.
XXIX.]
A GOOD
REPORT',
°SM.
4747
thee? Is that
thy
business,
Peter,
to know
what
shall
befal
John?
Mind
thy own
duty, and
follow
thou
me.
A
wise
and
divine
rebuke
from
our
-
risen Saviour
!
After
this,
St.
Peter
well knew how
to
_censure
such
imperti-
nence,
and
to
reprove
busy-bodies.
Of
the
same
mind
is
the apostle
Paul. He
advisee
women
how
to behave themselves,
that
they may
not
fall
under
this
charge.
Let
them guide the house,
says
he;
and
employ themselves
in
domestic affairs:
for
if
they
neglect this
work,
they
learn
.
to
be
idle,
wandering
about
from
house to house
;
and not
only
idle,
but
tat
lers
also,
and
busy- bodies,
speaking'
things which they
ought not
;
gathering
.up,
matter
for slander
of
their
neighbours
at their next
visit,
where every one
is
ashamed
to
be
silent,
and therefore each
is
ready to furnish
the
bompany with
their share. But
this practice
in
the
opi
nion
of
the sacred
.writer,
furnishes the adversary
with
daily
occasion to
slander
christianity, and to speak
re-
proachfully
of
the
gospel,
and it.
is
a
thing
of
very
ill
fame,
1
Tim.
v.
13,
14.
II.
A public
spirit
is
another
thing
of
good
report:
Though
christians must
be
diligent
in
their
business,
yet
they should
not
confine all
their
cares within
the narrow
circle
of
self,
but
have
a
heartysolicitude
for
the welfare
of
the nation
in
which they
dwell,
for the neighbours among
whom they
inhabit,
for the
church of Christ
in
the
world,
and extend their concern
to
the happiness
of mankind.
Ttee
apostle
directs Timothy to make supplications,
prayers,
,
and
intercessions
.for
all men,
and
to
take
such
a
satisfaction
in
the mercies they
receive, as
to
give
thanks to
God
upon
their
account,
I
Tim. ii.
1.
He ex-
horts
the
Ephesians
to
prayer and supplication
for all
the saints,
-Eph.
vi.
18.
And what
he taught, he
also
practised
in
an
eminent and
glorious
manner;.
the card
of
all
the churches
-came
daily
upon
him:
And
you
find
him in
the beginning
of
his
epistles lifting up
his
peti-
tions
and
his
praisestoheaven
continually
for the churches
to whom
he
writes.
"
We should
rejoice with them
that
rejoice,
and weep
with
them
that
weep,
and share with our fellow-christians
In
.
their
-joys
and their sorrows
-,
that
we
may
thereby
double
their
joys,
;and.
lighten
the.
weight
of
their
sorrows
by.
a
2