I came across a website that includes, among other things, the letters of John Newton (the pastor who wrote the lyrics for "Amazing Grace"). Newton's letters are filled with Biblical wisdom applied with pastoral care and precision to real-life situations.
Here is just a brief excerpt from one of the letters:
"It is not only plain, from the general tenor of Scripture, that a covetous, a proud, or a censorious spirit, is no more consistent with the spirit of the Gospel, than drunkenness or whoredom; but there are many express texts directly pointed against the evils which too often are found among professors.
"Thus the Apostle James assures us, 'That if any man seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, his religion is vain;' and the Apostle John, 'That if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him;' and he seems to apply this character to any man, whatever his profession or pretenses may be, 'who having this world's goods, and seeing his brother have need, shuts up his compassion from him.'
"Surely these texts more than intimate, that that faith which justifies the soul, does likewise receive grace from Jesus, whereby the heart is purified, and the life regulated as befits the Gospel of Christ."
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