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  OUR FAILURE
  by Mary Wilder Tileston
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Summary: The sermon emphasizes the importance of love, forgiveness, and
charity in living as children of God.

Topics: "Loving God", "True Wisdom"
Scripture References: Proverbs 19:8, Matthew 6:14, Ephesians 4:32, 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 1 John 4:7

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DESCRIPTION
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Mary Wilder Tileston, preaching on the theme of love and wisdom,
emphasizes that loving God is essential to understanding the true worth
of love, as it is a gift from Him. She highlights the interconnectedness
of loving God and loving others, stating that failing to be loving also
means failing to be wise. Tileston urges the congregation to seek
forgiveness for acts of malice and uncharitableness, and to pray for the
spirit of true charity, which is true wisdom. She encourages a mindset
of empathy, understanding, and forgiveness towards others, reflecting
the love and forgiveness God extends to us as His children.

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CONTENT
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The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and
toward all men, even as we do toward you.

1 THESSALONIANS 3:12

IF we love God, we know what loving is,

For love is God's, He sent it to the earth,

Half-human, half-divine, all glorious!--

Half-human, half-divine, but wholly His;

Not loving God, we know not love's true worth,

We taste not the great gift He gave to us.

MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN

LET us see that whenever we have failed to be loving, we have also
failed to be wise; that whenever we have been blind to our neighbors'
interests, we have also been blind to our own; whenever we have hurt
others, we have hurt ourselves still more. Let us, at this blessed
Whitsuntide, ask forgiveness of God for all acts of malice and
uncharitableness, blindness and hardness of heart; and pray for the
spirit of true charity, which alone is true wisdom. And let us come to
Holy Communion in charity with each other and with all; determined
henceforth to feel for each other, and with each other; to put ourselves
in our neighbors' places; to see with their eyes, and to feel with their
hearts, so far as God shall give us that great grace; determined to make
allowances for their mistakes and failings; to give and forgive, even as
God gives and forgives, for ever; that so we may be indeed the children
of our Father in heaven, whose name is Love.

CHARLES KINGSLEY

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/mary-wilder-tileston/our-failure/
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