Meditation on a Charitable Outlook toward Others by Reverend M.L. Hall

Rev. Hall's book of sermons, 1937-1938

Given in a sermon in Sabraton, West Virginia, on October 31, 1937, Reverend M. L. Hall reflected on the Christian need for a charitable approach to the varying views of others. Using the analogy of the Christian mariner, he wrote:

The Christian's conscience, like the mariner's compass, is more or less influenced by early associations. We can never permanently settle ourselves from the effects of the moral direction in which our prow was set, or the spiritual atmosphere that surrounded the laying and shaping of our keel. Because of these great channels and laws of influence no two Christians look out upon the sphere of duty from exactly the same standpoint; and we need nothing so much as charity to enable us to patiently meet and rightly construe the opinions and conduct of others, who, though perhaps equally conscious, may not be able to see eye to eye with us in many things pertaining to Christian character and conduct.