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diff --git a/old/44411.txt b/old/44411.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06d2676 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44411.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6115 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04 + L. Beecher to Bushnell + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 12, 2013 [EBook #44411] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS, VOL 4 *** + + + + +Produced by Júlio Reis, Moisés S. Gomes, Julia Neufeld and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + +Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: Cover] + +[Illustration: titlepage] + + + + +_The World's Great Sermons_ + +VOLUME IV + +L. BEECHER TO BUSHNELL + + + + + THE + WORLD'S + GREAT + SERMONS + + COMPILED BY + GRENVILLE KLEISER + Formerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty; + Author of "How to Speak + in Public," Etc. + + With Assistance from Many of the Foremost + Living Preachers and Other Theologians + + INTRODUCTION BY + LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D. + Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology + in Yale University + + IN TEN VOLUMES + + VOLUME IV L. BEECHER TO BUSHNELL + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + NEW YORK and LONDON + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + _Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + VOLUME IV + + LYMAN BEECHER (1775-1863). _Page_ + The Government of God Desirable 1 + + CHANNING (1780-1842). + The Character of Christ 27 + + CHALMERS (1780-1847). + The Expulsive Power of a New Affection 53 + + ALEXANDER CAMPBELL (1788-1866). + The Missionary Cause 79 + + IRVING (1792-1834). + Preparation for Consulting the Oracles + of God 101 + + ARNOLD (1795-1842). + Alive in God 131 + + WAYLAND (1796-1865). + A Day in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth 145 + + VINET (1797-1847). + The Mysteries of Christianity 171 + + SUMMERFIELD (1798-1825). + The Heavenly Inheritance 189 + + NEWMAN (1801-1890). + God's Will the End of Life 207 + + BUSHNELL (1802-1876). + Unconscious Influence 233 + + + + +LYMAN BEECHER + +THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD DESIRABLE + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +LYMAN BEECHER was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1775. He graduated +from Yale in 1797, and in 1798 took charge of the Presbyterian +Church at Easthampton, Long Island. He first attracted attention +by his sermon on the death of Alexander Hamilton, and in 1810 +became pastor of the Congregational Church at Litchfield, Conn. In +the course of a pastorate of 16 years, he preached a remarkable +series of sermons on temperance and became recognized as one of +the foremost pulpit orators of the country. In 1826 he went to +Boston as pastor of the Hanover Street Congregational Church. Six +years later he became president of the Lane Theological Seminary in +Ohio, an office he retained for twenty years. In 1852 he returned +to Boston and subsequently retired to the house of his son, Henry +Ward Beecher, where he died in 1863. His public utterances, whether +platform or pulpit, were carefully elaborated. They were delivered +extemporaneously and sparkled with wit, were convincing by their +logic, and conciliating by their shrewd common sense. + + + + +LYMAN BEECHER + +1775-1863 + +THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD DESIRABLE + +_Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven_.--Matthew vi., 10. + + +In this passage we are instructed to pray that the world may be +governed, and not abandoned to the miseries of unrestrained sin; +that God Himself would govern, and not another; and that God would +administer the government of the world, in all respects, according +to His own pleasure. The passage is a formal surrender to God of +power and dominion over the earth, as entire as His dominion is in +His heaven. The petition, therefore, "Thy will be done," contains +the doctrine: + +That it is greatly to be desired that God should govern the world, +and dispose of men, in all respects, entirely according to His own +pleasure. + +The truth of this doctrine is so manifest, that it would seem to +rank itself in the number of self-evident propositions, incapable of +proof clearer than its own light, had not experience taught that, of +all truths, it is the most universally and bitterly controverted. +Plain as it is, it has occasioned more argument than any other +doctrine, and, by argument merely, has gained fewer proselytes; for +it is one of those controversies in which the heart decides wholly, +and argument, strong or feeble, is alike ineffectual. + +This consideration would present, on the threshold, a hopeless +impediment to further progress, did we not know, also, that +arguments a thousand times repeated, and as often resisted, may +at length become mighty through God, to the casting down of +imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against +the knowledge of God. I shall, therefore, suggest several +considerations, to confirm this most obvious truth, that it is +desirable that God should govern the world entirely according to His +own good pleasure. + +1. It is desirable that God should govern the world, and dispose of +all events, according to His pleasure, because He knows perfectly in +what manner it is best that the world should be governed. + +The best way of disposing of men and their concerns is that which +will effectually illustrate the glory of God. The glory of God is +His benevolence, and His natural attributes for the manifestation +of it, and sun of the moral universe, the light and life of His +kingdom. All the blessedness of the intelligent creation arises, +and ever will arise, from the manifestation and apprehension of the +glory of God. It was to manifest this glory that the worlds were +created. It was that there might be creatures to behold and enjoy +God, that His dominions were peopled with intelligent beings. And +it is that His holy subjects may see and enjoy Him, that He upholds +and governs the universe. The entire importance of our world, +therefore, and of men and their concerns, is relative, and is great +or small only as we are made to illustrate the glory of God. How +this important end shall be most effectually accomplished none but +Himself is able to determine. He, only, knows how so to order things +as that the existence of every being, and every event, shall answer +the purpose of its creation, and from the rolling of a world to the +fall of a sparrow shall conspire to increase the exhibitions of the +divine character, and expand the joy of the holy universe. + +An inferior intelligence at the helm of government might conceive +very desirable purposes of benevolence, and still be at a loss +as to the means most fit and effectual to accomplish them. But, +with God, there is no such deficiency. In Him, the knowledge which +discovered the end discovers also, with unerring wisdom, the most +appropriate means to bring it to pass. He is wise in heart; He hath +established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by +His discretion. And is He not wise enough to be intrusted with the +government of the world? Who, then, shall be His counsellor? Who +shall supply the deficiencies of His skill? Oh, the presumption of +vain man! and, oh! the depths both of the wisdom and knowledge of +God! + +2. It is desirable that God should govern the world according to His +own pleasure, because He is entirely able to execute His purposes. + +A wise politician perceives, often, both the end and the means; and +is still unable to bring to pass his counsels, because the means, +though wise, are beyond his control. But God is as able to execute +as He is to plan. Having chosen the end, and selected the means, his +counsels stand. He is the Lord God omnipotent. The whole universe +is a storehouse of means; and when He speaks every intelligence +and every atom flies to execute His pleasure. The omnipotence of +God, in giving efficacy to His government, inspires and perpetuates +the ecstasy of heaven. "And a voice came out from the throne, +saying, Praise our God. And I heard as it were the voice of a great +multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of many +thunderings, saying Alleluia, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." +What will that man do in heaven, who is afraid and reluctant to +commit to God the government of the earth? And what will become +of those who, unable to frustrate His counsels, murmur and rebel +against His providence? + +3. It is desirable that God should govern the world according to His +pleasure, because the pleasure of God is always good. + +The angels who kept not their first estate, and many wicked men, +have great knowledge, and skill, and power: and yet, on these +accounts, are only the more terrible; because they employ these +mighty faculties to do evil. And the government of God, were He a +being of malevolence, armed as He is with skill and power, would +justly fill the universe with dismay. But, as it is, brethren, "let +not your hearts be troubled." With God there is no perversion of +attributes. He is as good as He is wise and powerful. God is love! +Love is that glory of God which He has undertaken to express to His +intelligent creation in His works. The sole object of the government +of God, from beginning to end, is, to express His benevolence. +His eternal decrees, of which so many are afraid, are nothing +but the plan which God has devised to express His benevolence, +and to make His kingdom as vast and as blest as His own infinite +goodness desires. It was to show His glory--to express, in action, +His benevolence--that He created all the worlds that roll, and +rejoice, and speak His name, through the regions of space. It is to +accomplish the same blest design, that He upholds, and places under +law, every intelligent being, and directs every event, causing every +movement, in every world, to fall in, in its appointed time and +place, and to unite in promoting the grand result--the glory of God, +and the highest good of His kingdom. And is there a mortal, who, +from this great system of blest government, would wish this earth to +be an exception? What sort of beings must those be who are afraid of +a government administered by infinite benevolence, to express, so +far as it can be expressed, the infinite goodness of God? I repeat +the question,--What kind of characters must those be who feel as if +they had good reason to fear a government the sole object of which +is to express the immeasurable goodness of God? + +4. It is greatly to be desired that God should govern the world +according to His pleasure, because it is His pleasure to rule as a +moral governor. + +A moral government is a government exercised over free agents, +accountable beings; a government of laws, administered by motives. + +The importance of such a government below is manifest from the +consideration, that it is in His moral government, chiefly, that the +glory of God is displayed. + +The superintendence of an empty world, or a world of mere animals, +would not exhibit, at all, the moral character of God. The glory +of God, shining in His law, could never be made manifest, and the +brighter glory of God, as displayed in the gospel, must remain +forever hid; and all that happiness of which we are capable, as +moral beings, the joys of religion below, and the boundless joys of +heaven above, would be extinguished, in a moment, by the suspension +of the divine moral government. + +Will any pretend that the Almighty cannot maintain a moral +government on earth, if He governs according to His own pleasure? +Can He wield the elements, and control, at His pleasure, every work +of His hands, but just the mind of man? Is the most noble work of +God--that which is the most worthy of attention, and in reference to +which all beside is upheld and governed--itself wholly unmanageable? +Has Omnipotence formed minds, which, the moment they are made, +escape from His hands, and defy the control of their Maker? Has the +Almighty erected a moral kingdom which He cannot govern without +destroying its moral nature? Can He only watch, and mend, and +rectify, the lawless wanderings of mind? Has He filled the earth +with untamed and untamable spirits, whose wickedness and rebellion +He can merely mitigate, but cannot control? Does He superintend a +world of madmen, full of darkness and disorder, cheered and blest by +no internal pervading government of His own? Are we bound to submit +to all events, as parts of the holy providence of God; and yet, is +there actually no hand of God controlling the movements of the moral +world? But if the Almighty can, and if he does, govern the earth as +a part of His moral kingdom, is there any method of government more +safe and wise than that which pleases God? Can there be a better +government? We may safely pray, then, "Thy will be done in earth as +it is in heaven," without fearing at all the loss of moral agency; +for all the glory of God, in His Law and Gospel, and all the eternal +manifestations of glory to principalities and powers in heavenly +places, depend wholly upon the fact, that men, though living under +the government of God, and controlled according to His pleasure, are +still entirely free, and accountable for all the deeds done in the +body. There could be no justice in punishment and no condescension, +no wisdom, no mercy, in the glorious gospel, did not the government +of God, though administered according to His pleasure, include and +insure the accountable agency of man. + +Seeing, therefore, that all the glory of God, which He ever proposes +to manifest to the intelligent creation, is to be made known by +the Church, and is to shine in the face of Jesus Christ, and is to +depend upon the perfect consistency of the moral government of God +with human freedom, we have boundless assurance that, among His +absolute, immutable, eternal purposes, one, and a leading one, is, +so to govern the world according to His counsels, that, if men sin, +there shall be complete desert of punishment, and boundless mercy +in their redemption. + +5. It is greatly to be desired that God should rule in the earth +according to His pleasure, because it is His pleasure to govern the +world in mercy, by Jesus Christ. + +The government is in the hand of a Mediator, by whom God is +reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses +to them that believe. Mercy is the bestowment of pardon upon the +sinful and undeserving. Now, mankind are so eminently sinful, that +no government but one administered in infinite mercy, could afford +the least consolation. Had any being but the God of mercy sat upon +the throne, or any will but His will prevailed, there would have +been no plan of redemption, and no purposes of election, to perplex +and alarm the wicked. There would have been but one decree, and +that would have been, destruction to the whole race of man. Are +any reluctant to be entirely in the hands of God? Are they afraid +to trust Him to dispose of soul and body, for time and eternity? +Let them surrender their mercies, then, and go out naked from that +government which feeds, protects and comforts them. Let them give +up their Bibles, and relinquish the means of grace, and the hopes +of glory, and descend and make their bed in hell, where they have +long since deserved to be, and where they long since would have +been, if God had not governed the world according to His own good +pleasure. If they would escape the evils which they fear from the +hand of God, let them abandon the blessings they receive from it, +and they will soon discover whether the absolute dominion of God, +and their dependence upon Him, be, in reality, a ground of murmuring +and alarm. Our only hope of heaven arises from being entirely in +the hands of God. Our destruction could not be made more certain +than it would be were we to be given up to our own disposal, or +to the disposal of any being but God. Would sinful mortals change +their own hearts? Could the combined universe, without God, change +the depraved affections of men? Surely, then, we have cause for +unceasing joy, that we are in the hands of God; seeing He is a +God of mercy, and has decreed to rule in mercy, and actually is +administering the government of the world in mercy, by Jesus Christ. + +We have nothing to fear, from the entire dominion of God, which we +should not have cause equally to fear, as outcasts from the divine +government; but we have everything to hope, while He rules the earth +according to His most merciful pleasure. The Lord reigneth; let the +earth rejoice, let the multitude of the isles be glad. It is of the +Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions +fail not. + +6. It is greatly to be desired that God should dispose of mankind +according to His pleasure, because, if He does so, it is certain +that there will be no injustice done to anyone. + +He will do no injustice to His holy kingdom by any whom He saves. +He will bring none to heaven who are not holy, and prepared for +heaven. He will bring none there in any way not consistent with His +perfections, and the best good of His kingdom; none in any way but +that prescribed in the gospel, the way of faith in Jesus Christ, of +repentance for sin, and of good works as the constituted fruit and +evidence of faith. + +Earthly monarchs have their favorites, whom, if guilty of a +violation of the laws, they will often interpose to save, although +the welfare of the kingdom requires their punishment. But God has +no such favorites--He is no respecter of persons: He spared not the +angels: and upon the earth distinctions of intellect, or wealth, or +honor, will have no effect; he only that believeth shall be saved. +The great and the learned shall not be obtruded upon heaven without +holiness because they are great or learned; and the humble and +contrite shall not be excluded because they are poor, or ignorant, +or obscure. God has provided a way for all men to return to Him. +He has opened the door of their prison, and set open before them a +door of admission into the kingdom of His dear Son; and commanded +and entreated them to abandon their dreary abode, and come into +the glorious liberty of the sons of God. But all, with one consent, +refuse to comply. Each prefers his own loathsome dwelling to the +building of God, and chooses, stedfastly, the darkness of his own +dungeon, to the light of God's kingdom. But, as God has determined +that the redemption of His Son shall not be unavailing through human +obstinacy, so He hath chosen, in Christ, multitudes which no man +can number, that they should be holy and without blame before Him +in love. And in bringing these sons and daughters to glory, through +sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, He will +introduce not one whom all the inhabitants of heaven will not hail +joyfully, as the companion of their glory. And if God does in the +earth just as He pleases, He will make willing, and obedient, and +bring to heaven, just those persons who it was most desirable should +come. And He will bring just as many obstinate rebels to abandon +their prison, and enter cheerfully His kingdom, as infinite wisdom, +goodness, and mercy, see fit and desire. He will not mar His glory, +or the happiness of His kingdom, by bringing in too many, nor by +omitting to bring in enough. His redeemed kingdom, as to the number +and the persons who compose it, and the happiness included in it, +will be such as shall be wholly satisfactory to God, and to every +subject of His kingdom. + +And if God governs according to His pleasure, He will do no +injustice to His impenitent enemies. He will send to misery no +harmless animals without souls--no mere machines--none who have +done, or even attempted to do, as well as they could. He will leave +to walk in their own way none who do not deserve to be left; and +punish none for walking in it who did not walk therein knowingly, +deliberately and with wilful obstinacy. He will give up to death +none who did not choose death, and choose it with as entire freedom +as Himself chooses holiness; and who did not deserve eternal +punishment as truly as Himself deserves eternal praise. He will +send to hell none who are not opposed to Him, and to holiness, +and to heaven; none who are not, by voluntary sin and rebellion, +unfitted for heaven, and fitted for destruction, as eminently as +saints are prepared for glory. He will consign to perdition no poor, +feeble, inoffensive beings, sacrificing one innocent creature to +increase the happiness of another. He will cause the punishment of +the wicked to illustrate His glory, and thus indirectly to promote +the happiness of heaven. But God will not illumine heaven with His +glory, and fill it with praise, by sacrificing helpless, unoffending +creatures to eternal torment; nor will He doom to hell one whom +He will not convince also, that he deserves to go thither. The +justice of God, in the condemnation of the impenitent, will be as +unquestionable, as His infinite mercy will be in the salvation of +the redeemed. + +If the will of God is done on earth, among men, there will be no +more injustice done to the inhabitants of the earth than there is +done to the blessed in heaven. Was it ever known--did any ever +complain--was it ever conceived--that God was a tyrant, in heaven? +Why, then, should we question the justice of His government on +earth? Is He not the same God below as above? Are not all His +attributes equally employed? Does He not govern for the same end, +and will not His government below conspire to promote the same +joyful end as His government above? + +7. It is greatly to be desired that God should govern the world +according to His pleasure, because His own infinite blessedness, as +well as the happiness of His kingdom, depends upon His working all +things according to the counsel of His own will. + +Could the Almighty be prevented from expressing the benevolence +of His nature, according to His purposes, His present boundless +blessedness would become the pain of ungratified desire. God is +love, and His happiness consists in the exercise and expression +of it, according to His own eternal purpose, which He purposed in +Christ Jesus before the world began. It is therefore declared, +"The Lord hath made all things for himself;" that is, to express +and gratify His infinite benevolence. The moral excellence of God +does not consist in quiescent love, but in love active, bursting +forth, and abounding. Nor does the divine happiness arise from +the contemplation of idle perfections, but from perfections which +comprehend boundless capacity, and activity in doing good. + +From what has been said, we may be led to contemplate with +satisfaction the infinite blessedness of God. + +God is love! This is a disposition which, beyond all others, is +happy in its own nature. He is perfect in love; there is, therefore, +in His happiness no alloy. His love is infinite; and, of course, +His blessedness is unbounded. If the little holiness existing in +good men, though balanced by remaining sin, occasions, at times, +unutterable joy, how blessed must God be, who is perfectly and +infinitely holy! It is to be remembered, also, that the benevolence +of God is at all times perfectly gratified. The universe which God +has created and upholds, including what He has done, and what He +will yet do, will be brought into a condition which will satisfy His +infinite benevolence. The great plan of government which God has +chosen, and which His power and wisdom will execute, will embrace as +much good as in the nature of things is possible. He is not, like +erring man, straitened and perplexed, through lack of knowledge or +power. There is in His plan no defect, and in His execution no +failure. God, therefore, is infinitely happy in His holiness, and in +the expression of it which it pleases Him to make. + +The revolt of angels, the fall of man, and the miseries of sin, +do not, for a moment, interrupt the blessedness of God. They +were not, to Him, unexpected events, starting up suddenly while +the watchman of Israel slumbered. They were foreseen by God as +clearly as any other events of His government, and have occasioned +neither perplexity nor dismay. With infinite complacency He beholds +still His unshaken counsels, and with almighty hand rolls on His +undisturbed decrees. Surrounded by unnumbered millions, created +by His hand, and upheld by His power, He shines forth, God over +all, blest for ever. What an object of joyful contemplation, then, +is the blessedness of God! It is infinite; His boundless capacity +is full. It is eternal; He is God blest forever. The happiness of +the created universe is but a drop--a drop to the mighty ocean of +divine enjoyment. How delightful the thought, that in God there is +such an immensity of joy, beyond the reach of vicissitude! When we +look around below, a melancholy sensation pervades the mind. What +miserable creatures! What a wretched world! But when, from this +scene of darkness and misery, we look up to the throne of God, and +behold Him, high above the darkness and miseries of sin, dwelling +in light inaccessible and full of glory, the prospect brightens. If +a few rebels, who refuse to love and participate in His munificence, +are groping in darkness on His footstool, God is light, and in Him +there is no darkness at all. + +Those who are opposed to the decrees of God, and to His sovereignty, +as displayed in the salvation of sinners, are enemies of God. + +They are unwilling that His will should be done in earth as it is +in heaven; for the decrees of God are nothing but His choice as +to the manner in which He will govern His own kingdom. He did not +enter upon His government to learn wisdom by experience. Before +they were yet formed, His vast dominion lay open to His view; and +before He took the reins of created empire, He saw in what manner it +became Him to govern. His ways are everlasting. Known unto God are +all His works from the beginning. To be opposed to the decrees of +God, therefore, is to be unwilling that God should have any choice +concerning the government of the world. And can those be willing +that God should govern the world entirely according to His pleasure +who object to His having any pleasure upon the subject? To object +to the choice of God, with respect to the management of the world, +because it is eternal, is to object to the existence of God. A God +of eternal knowledge, without an eternal will or choice, would be a +God without moral character. + +To suppose that God did not know what events would exist in +His kingdom, is to divest Him of omniscience. To suppose that +He did know, and did not care,--had no choice, no purpose,--is +to blot out His benevolence, to nullify His wisdom and convert +His power into infinite indolence. To suppose that He did know, +and choose, and decree, and that events do not accord with His +purposes, is to suppose that God has made a world which He can +not govern; has undertaken a work too vast; has begun to build, +but is not able to finish. But to suppose that God did, from the +beginning, behold all things open and naked before Him, and that +He did choose, with unerring wisdom and infinite goodness, how to +govern His empire,--and yet at the same time, to employ heart, +and head, and tongue, in continual opposition to this great and +blessed truth,--is, most clearly, to cherish enmity to God and His +government. + +To object to the choice of God because it is immutable, is to cavil +against that which constitutes its consummating excellence. Caprice +is a most alarming feature in a bad government; but in a government +absolutely perfect, none, surely, can object to its immutability, +but those, who, if able, would alter it for the worse. + +To say that, if God always knew how to govern so as to display His +glory, and bless His kingdom, and always chooses thus to govern, +there can be, therefore, no accountable agency in the conduct of +His creatures, is to deny the possibility of a moral government, +to contradict the express testimony of God; and this, too, at the +expense of common sense, and the actual experience of every subject +of His moral government on earth. + +From the character of God, and the nature of His government, as +explained in this discourse, may be inferred, the nature and +necessity of unconditional submission to God. + +Unconditional submission is an entire surrender of the soul to +God, to be disposed of according to His pleasure,--occasioned by +confidence in His character as God. + +There are many who would trust the Almighty to regulate the rolling +of worlds, and to rule in the armies of heaven, just as He pleases; +and devils they would consign to His disposal, without the least +hesitation; and their own nation, if they were sure that God would +dispose of it according to their pleasure; even their own temporal +concerns they would risk in the hands of God, could they know that +all things would work together for their good; their souls, also, +they would cheerfully trust to His disposal, for the world to come, +if God would stipulate, at all events, to make them happy. + +And to what does all this amount? Truly, that they care much about +their own happiness, and their own will, but nothing at all about +the will of God, and the welfare of His kingdom. He may decree, +and execute His decrees, in heaven, and may turn its inhabitants +into machines, or uphold their freedom, as He pleases; and apostate +spirits are relinquished to their doom, whether just or unjust. It +is only when the government of God descends to particulars, and +draws near and enters their own selfish enclosures, and claims a +right to dispose of them, and extends its influence to the unseen +world, that selfishness and fear take the alarm. Has God determined +how to dispose of my soul? Ah! that alters the case. If He can, +consistently with freedom, govern angels, and devils, and nations, +how can He govern individuals? How can He dispose of me according to +His eternal purpose and I be free? Here reason, all-penetrating, and +all-comprehensive, becomes weak; the clouds begin to collect, and +the understanding, veiled by the darkness of the heart, can "find no +end, in wandering mazes lost." + +But if God has purposes of mercy in reserve for the sinner, he is +convinced, at length, of his sin, and finds himself in an evil case. +He reforms, prays, weeps, resolves, and re-resolves, regardless +of the righteousness of Christ, and intent only to establish a +righteousness of his own. But, through all his windings, sin cleaves +to him, and the law, with its fearful curse, pursues him. Whither +shall he flee? What shall he do? A rebel heart, that will not bow, +fills him with despair. An angry God, who will not clear the guilty, +fills him with terror. His strength is gone, his resources fail, +his mouth is stopped. With restless anxiety, or wild amazement, +he surveys the gloomy prospect. At length, amidst the wanderings +of despair, the character of God meets his eye. It is new, it is +amiable, and full of glory. Forgetful of danger, he turns aside +to behold this great sight; and while he gazes, new affections +awake in his soul, inspiring new confidence in God, and in His +holy government. Now God appears qualified to govern, and now he +is willing that He should govern, and willing himself to be in the +hands of God, to be disposed of according to His pleasure. What is +the occasion of this change? Has the divine character changed? There +is no variableness with God. Did he, then, misapprehend the divine +character? Was all this glory visible before? Or has a revelation +of new truth been granted? There has been no new revelation. The +character now admitted is the same which just before appeared so +gloomy and terrible. What, then, has produced this alteration? Has +a vision of angels appeared, to announce that God is reconciled? +Has some sudden light burst upon him, in token of forgiveness? Has +Christ been seen upon the cross, beckoning the sinner to come +to Him? Has heaven been thrown open to his admiring eyes? Have +enrapturing sounds of music stolen upon the ear, to entrance the +soul? Has some text of Scripture been sent to whisper that his +sins are forgiven, tho no repentance, nor faith, nor love, has +dawned in his soul? And does he now submit, because God has given +him assurance of personal safety? None of these. Considerations of +personal safety are, at the time, out of the question. It is the +uncreated, essential excellence of God, shining in upon the heart, +which claims the attention, fixes the adoring eye, and fills the +soul with love, and peace, and joy; and the act of submission is +past, before the subject begins to reflect upon his altered views, +with dawning hope of personal redemption. + +The change produced, then, is the effect of benevolence, raising +the affections of the soul from the world, and resting them upon +God. Holiness is now most ardently loved. This is seen to dwell in +God and His kingdom, and to be upheld and perfected by His moral +government. It is the treasure of the soul, and all the attributes +of God stand pledged to protect it. The solicitude, therefore, is +not merely, What will become of me? but, What, O Lord, will become +of Thy glory, and the glory of Thy kingdom? And in the character +of God, these inquiries are satisfactorily answered. If God be +glorified, and His kingdom upheld and made happy, the soul is +satisfied. There is nothing else to be anxious about; for individual +happiness is included in the general good, as the drop is included +in the ocean. + + + + +CHANNING + +THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING, the famous Unitarian divine, was born +at Newport, R. I., in 1780. He took his degree at Harvard in +1798, studied theology and was ordained pastor of the Federal +Street Church in Boston, 1803. He has been called the Apostle of +Unitarianism, because he was first among the orthodox divines of +New England to give Unitarianism a clear, dogmatic expression, as +he did in a sermon preached at the ordination of Jared Sparks, in +opposition to the current Calvinism of the day. But he hated the +controversy in which the publication of his views involved him and +professed in 1841, "I am little of a Unitarian and stand aloof +from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light." He had +made the acquaintance of Wordsworth and Coleridge on his visit to +England, and the latter justly described him as one who had "the +love of wisdom and the wisdom of love." He was a voluminous writer +on theological and literary subjects and what he wrote was vigorous, +of fastidious taste and fired with moral earnestness. He died in +1842. + + + + +CHANNING + +1780-1842 + +THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST + +_This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased_.--Matthew xvii., +5. + + +The character of Christ may be studied for various purposes. It +is singularly fitted to call forth the heart, to awaken love, +admiration, and moral delight. As an example it has no rival. As +an evidence of His religion perhaps it yields to no other proof; +perhaps no other has so often conquered unbelief. It is chiefly to +this last view of it that I now ask your attention. The character +of Christ is a strong confirmation of the truth of His religion. +As such I would now place it before you. I shall not, however, +think only of confirming your faith; the very illustrations which I +shall adduce for this purpose will show the claims of Jesus to our +reverence, obedience, imitation, and fervent love. + +The more we contemplate Christ's character as exhibited in the +gospel, the more we shall be impressed with its genuineness and +reality. It was plainly drawn from the life. The narratives of +the evangelists bear the marks of truth perhaps beyond all other +histories. They set before us the most extraordinary being who ever +appeared on earth, and yet they are as artless as the stories of +childhood. The authors do not think of themselves. They have plainly +but one aim, to show us their Master; and they manifest the deep +veneration which He inspired by leaving Him to reveal Himself, by +giving us His actions and sayings without comment, explanation, or +eulogy. + +You see in these narratives no varnishing, no high coloring, no +attempts to make His actions striking or to bring out the beauties +of His character. We are never pointed to any circumstance as +illustrative of His greatness. The evangelists write with a calm +trust in His character, with a feeling that it needed no aid from +their hands, and with a deep veneration, as if comment or praise of +their own were not worthy to mingle with the recital of such a life. + +It is the effect of our familiarity with the history of Jesus that +we are not struck by it as we ought to be. We read it before we are +capable of understanding its excellence. His stupendous works become +as familiar to us as the events of ordinary life, and His high +offices seem as much matters of course as the common relations which +men bear to each other. + +On this account it is fit for the ministers of religion to do what +the evangelists did not attempt, to offer comments on Christ's +character, to bring out its features, to point men to its higher +beauties, to awaken their awe by unfolding its wonderful majesty. +Indeed, one of our most important functions as teachers is to +give freshness and vividness to truths which have become worn, I +had almost said tarnished, by long and familiar handling. We have +to fight with the power of habit. Through habit men look on this +glorious creation with insensibility, and are less moved by the +all-enlightening sun than by a show of fireworks. It is the duty of +a moral and religious teacher almost to create a new sense in men, +that they may learn in what a world of beauty and magnificence they +live. And so in regard to Christ's character; men become used to it +until they imagine that there is something more admirable in a great +man of their own day, a statesman or a conqueror, than in Him the +latchet of whose shoes statesmen and conquerors are not worthy to +unloose. + +In this discourse I wish to show that the character of Christ, taken +as a whole, is one which could not have entered the thoughts of man, +could not have been imagined or feigned; that it bears every mark of +genuineness and truth; that it ought therefore to be acknowledged as +real and of divine origin. + +It is all-important, my friends, if we would feel the force of this +argument, to transport ourselves to the times when Jesus lived. We +are very apt to think that He was moving about in such a city as +this, or among a people agreeing with ourselves in modes of thinking +and habits of life. But the truth is, he lived in a state of society +singularly remote from our own. + +Of all the nations the Jewish was the most strongly marked. The Jew +hardly felt himself to belong to the human family. He was accustomed +to speak of himself as chosen by God, holy, clean; whilst the +Gentiles were sinners, dogs, polluted, unclean. His common dress, +the phylactery on his brow or arm, the hem of his garment, his food, +the ordinary circumstances of his life, as well as his temple, his +sacrifices, his ablutions, all held him up to himself as a peculiar +favorite of God, and all separated him from the rest of the world. +With other nations he could not eat or marry. They were unworthy +of his communion. Still, with all these notions of superiority he +saw himself conquered by those whom he despised. He was obliged to +wear the shackles of Rome, to see Roman legions in his territory, a +Roman guard near his temple, and a Roman tax-gatherer extorting, for +the support of an idolatrous government and an idolatrous worship, +what he regarded as due only to God. The hatred which burned in the +breast of the Jew toward his foreign oppressor perhaps never glowed +with equal intenseness in any other conquered state. + +He had, however, his secret consolation. The time was near, the +prophetic age was at hand, when Judea was to break her chains and +rise from the dust. Her long-promised king and deliverer was near, +and was coming to wear the crown of universal empire. From Jerusalem +was to go forth His law, and all nations were to serve the chosen +people of God. To this conqueror the Jews indeed ascribed the office +of promoting religion; but the religion of Moses, corrupted into +an outward service, was to them the perfection of human nature. +They clung to its forms with the whole energy of their souls. To +the Mosaic institution they ascribed their distinction from all +other nations. It lay at the foundation of their hopes of dominion. +I believe no strength of prejudice ever equalled the intense +attachment of the Jew to his peculiar national religion. You may +judge of its power by the fact of its having been transmitted +through so many ages, amidst persecution and sufferings which would +have subdued any spirit but that of a Jew. You must bring these +things to your mind. You must place yourselves in the midst of this +singular people. + +Among this singular people, burning with impatient expectation, +appeared Jesus of Nazareth. His first words were, "Repent, for +the kingdom of heaven is at hand." These words we hear with little +emotion; but to the Jews, who had been watching for this kingdom for +ages, and who were looking for its immediate manifestation, they +must have been awakening as an earthquake. Accordingly we find Jesus +thronged by multitudes which no building could contain. He repairs +to a mountain, as affording him advantages for addressing the crowd. +I see them surrounding Him with eager looks, and ready to drink in +every word from His lips. And what do I hear? Not one word of Judea, +of Rome, of freedom, of conquest, of the glories of God's chosen +people, and of the thronging of all nations to the temple on Mount +Zion. + +Almost every word was a death-blow to the hopes and feelings +which glowed through the whole people, and were consecrated under +the name of religion. He speaks of the long-expected kingdom of +heaven; but speaks of it as a felicity promised to, and only to be +partaken of by, the humble and pure in heart. The righteousness of +the Pharisees, that which was deemed the perfection of religion, +and which the new deliverer was expected to spread far and wide, +He pronounces worthless, and declares the kingdom of heaven, or of +the Messiah, to be shut against all who do not cultivate a new, +spiritual, and disinterested virtue. + +Instead of war and victory He commands His impatient hearers to +love, to forgive, to bless their enemies; and holds forth this +spirit of benignity, mercy, peace, as the special badge of the +people of the true Messiah. Instead of national interests and +glories, he commands them to seek first a spirit of impartial +charity and love, unconfined by the bounds of tribe or nation, and +proclaims this to be the happiness and honor of the reign for which +they hoped. Instead of this world's riches, which they expected +to flow from all lands into their own, He commands them to lay up +treasures in heaven, and directs them to an incorruptible, immortal +life, as the true end of their being. + +Nor is this all. He does not merely offer himself as a spiritual +deliverer, as the founder of a new empire of inward piety and +universal charity; He closes with language announcing a more +mysterious office. "Many will say unto Me in that day, Lord, +Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name done +many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never +knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." Here I meet +the annunciation of a character as august as it must have been +startling. I hear Him foretelling a dominion to be exercised in the +future world. He begins to announce, what entered largely into His +future teaching, that His power was not bounded to this earth. These +words I better understand when I hear Him subsequently declaring +that, after a painful death, He was to rise again and ascend to +heaven, and there, in a state of preeminent power and glory, was to +be the advocate and judge of the human race. + +Such are some of the views given by Jesus, of His character and +reign, in the Sermon on the Mount. Immediately afterwards I hear +another lesson from Him, bringing out some of these truths still +more strongly. A Roman centurion makes application to Him for the +cure of a servant whom he particularly valued; and on expressing, +in a strong manner, his conviction of the power of Jesus to heal at +a distance, Jesus, according to the historian, "marvelled, and said +to those that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so +great faith in Israel; and I say unto you, that many shall come from +the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and +Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom" +(that is, the Jews) "shall be cast out." + +Here all the hopes which the Jews had cherished of an exclusive or +peculiar possession of the Messiah's kingdom were crushed; and the +reception of the despised Gentile world to all His blessings, or, in +other words, the extension of His pure religion to the ends of the +earth, began to be proclaimed. + +Here I pause for the present, and I ask you whether the character +of Jesus be not the most extraordinary in history, and wholly +inexplicable on human principles. Review the ground over which we +have gone. Recollect that He was born and grew up a Jew in the midst +of Jews, a people burning with one passion, and throwing their whole +souls into the expectation of a national and earthly deliverer. +He grew up among them in poverty, seclusion, and labors fitted to +contract His thoughts, purposes, and hopes; and yet we find Him +escaping every influence of education and society. We find Him as +untouched by the feelings which prevailed universally around Him, +which religion and patriotism concurred to consecrate, which the +mother breathed into the ear of the child, and which the teacher of +the synagog strengthened in the adult, as if He had been brought up +in another world. We find Him conceiving a sublime purpose, such +as had never dawned on sage or hero, and see Him possessed with a +consciousness of sustaining a relation to God and mankind, and of +being invested with powers in this world and the world to come, such +as had never entered the human mind. Whence now, I ask, came the +conception of this character? + +Will any say it had its origin in imposture; that it was a +fabrication of a deceiver? I answer, the character claimed by Christ +excludes this supposition by its very nature. It was so remote +from all the ideas and anticipations of the times, so unfit to +awaken sympathy, so unattractive to the heathen, so exasperating +to the Jew, that it was the last to enter the mind of an impostor. +A deceiver of the dullest vision must have foreseen that it would +expose him to bitter scorn, abhorrence, and persecution, and that he +would be left to carry on his work alone, just as Jesus always stood +alone and could find not an individual to enter into His spirit and +design. What allurements an unprincipled, self-seeking man could +find to such an enterprise, no common ingenuity can discover. + +I affirm next that the sublimity of the character claimed by +Christ forbids us to trace it to imposture. That a selfish, +designing, depraved mind could have formed the idea and purpose +of a work unparalleled in beneficence, in vastness, and in moral +grandeur, would certainly be a strange departure from the laws of +the human mind. I add, that if an impostor could have lighted on +the conception of so sublime and wonderful a work as that claimed +by Jesus, he could not, I say, he could not have thrown into his +personation of it the air of truth and reality. The part would have +been too high for him. He would have overacted it or fallen short +of it perpetually. His true character would have rebelled against +his assumed one. We should have seen something strained, forced, +artificial, awkward, showing that he was not in his true sphere. To +act up to a character so singular and grand, and one for which no +precedent could be found, seems to me utterly impossible for a man +who had not the true spirit of it, or who was only wearing it as a +mask. + +Now, how stands the case with Jesus? Bred a Jewish peasant or +carpenter, He issues from obscurity, and claims for Himself a divine +office, a superhuman dignity, such as had not been imagined; and in +no instance does He fall below the character. The peasant, and still +more the Jew, wholly disappears. + +We feel that a new being, of a new order of mind, is taking a part +in human affairs. There is a native tone of grandeur and authority +in His teaching. He speaks as a being related to the whole human +race. His mind never shrinks within the ordinary limits of human +agency. A narrower sphere than the world never enters His thoughts. +He speaks in a natural, spontaneous style, of accomplishing the most +arduous and important change in human affairs. This unlabored manner +of expressing great thoughts is particularly worthy of attention. +You never hear from Jesus that swelling, pompous, ostentatious +language, which almost necessarily springs from an attempt to +sustain a character above our powers. He talks of His glories as one +to whom they were familiar, and of His intimacy and oneness with God +as simply as a child speaks of his connection with his parents. +He speaks of saving and judging the world, of drawing all men to +Himself, and of giving everlasting life, as we speak of the ordinary +powers which we exert. He makes no set harangues about the grandeur +of His office and character. His consciousness of it gives a hue to +His whole language, breaks out in indirect, undesigned expressions, +showing that it was the deepest and most familiar of His convictions. + +This argument is only to be understood by reading the Gospels with +a wakeful mind and heart. It does not lie on their surface, and it +is the stronger for lying beneath it. When I read these books with +care, when I trace the unaffected majesty which runs through the +life of Jesus, and see him never falling below His sublime claims +amidst poverty, and scorn, and in His last agony, I have a feeling +of the reality of His character which I can not express. I feel that +the Jewish carpenter could no more have conceived and sustained this +character under motives of imposture than an infant's arm could +repeat the deeds of Hercules, or his unawakened intellect comprehend +and rival the matchless works of genius. + +Am I told that the claims of Jesus had their origin not in +imposture, but in enthusiasm; that the imagination, kindled by +strong feeling, overpowered the judgment so far as to give Him the +notion of being destined to some strange and unparalleled work? I +know that enthusiasm, or a kindled imagination, has great power; +and we are never to lose sight of it, in judging of the claims of +religious teachers. But I say first, that, except in cases where it +amounts to insanity, enthusiasm works, in a greater or less degree, +according to a man's previous conceptions and modes of thought. + +In Judea, where the minds of men were burning with feverish +expectation of a messiah, I can easily conceive of a Jew imagining +that in himself this ardent conception, this ideal of glory, was to +be realized. I can conceive of his seating himself in fancy on the +throne of David, and secretly pondering the means of his appointed +triumphs. But that a Jew should fancy himself the Messiah, and at +the same time should strip that character of all the attributes +which had fired his youthful imagination and heart--that he should +start aside from all the feelings and hopes of his age, and should +acquire a consciousness of being destined to a wholly new career, +and one as unbounded as it was now--this is exceedingly improbable; +and one thing is certain that an imagination so erratic, so +ungoverned, and able to generate the conviction of being destined to +work so immeasurably disproportioned to the power of the individual, +must have partaken of insanity. + +Now, is it conceivable that an individual, mastered by so wild and +fervid an imagination, should have sustained the dignity claimed by +Christ, should have acted worthily the highest part ever assumed on +earth? Would not his enthusiasm have broken out amidst the peculiar +excitements of the life of Jesus, and have left a touch of madness +on his teaching and conduct? Is it to such a man that we should look +for the inculcation of a new and perfect form of virtue, and for the +exemplification of humanity in its fairest form? + +The charge of an extravagant, self-deluding enthusiasm is the last +to be fastened on Jesus. Where can we find the traces of it in His +history? Do we detect them in the calm authority of His precepts; in +the mild, practical and beneficial spirit of His religion; in the +unlabored simplicity of the language with which He unfolds His high +powers and the sublime truths of religion; or in the good sense, the +knowledge of human nature, which He always discovers in His estimate +and treatment of the different classes of men with whom He acted? +Do we discover this enthusiasm in the singular fact that, whilst He +claimed power in the future world, and always turned men's minds to +Heaven, He never indulged His own imagination or stimulated that of +His disciples by giving vivid pictures or any minute description of +that unseen state? + +The truth is, that, remarkable as was the character of Jesus, it was +distinguished by nothing more than by calmness and self-possession. +This trait pervades His other excellences. How calm was His piety! +Point me, if you can, to one vehement, passionate expression of +His religious feelings. Does the Lord's Prayer breathe a feverish +enthusiasm? The habitual style of Jesus on the subject of religion, +if introduced into many churches of His followers at the present +day, would be charged with coldness. The calm and the rational +character of His piety is particularly seen in the doctrine which He +so earnestly inculcates, that disinterested love and self-denying +service to our fellow creatures are the most acceptable worship we +can offer to our Creator. + +His benevolence, too, tho singularly earnest and deep, was composed +and serene. He never lost the possession of Himself in His sympathy +with others; was never hurried into the impatient and rash +enterprises of an enthusiastic philanthropy; but did good with the +tranquility and constancy which mark the providence of God. The +depth of this calmness may best be understood by considering the +opposition made to His claims. + +His labors were everywhere insidiously watched and industriously +thwarted by vindictive foes who had even conspired to compass, +through His death, the ruin of His cause. Now, a feverish +enthusiasm which fancies itself to be intrusted with a great work of +God is singularly liable to impatient indignation under furious and +malignant opposition. Obstacles increase its vehemence; it becomes +more eager and hurried in the accomplishment of its purposes, in +proportion as they are withstood. + +Be it therefore remembered that the malignity of Christ's foes, +tho never surpassed, and for the time triumphant, never robbed +Him of self-possession, roused no passion, and threw no vehemence +or precipitation into His exertions. He did not disguise from +Himself or His followers the impression made on the multitude by +His adversaries. He distinctly foresaw the violent death towards +which He was fast approaching. Yet, confiding in God and in the +silent progress of His truth, He possest His soul in peace. Not +only was He calm, but His calmness rises into sublimity when we +consider the storms which raged around Him and the vastness of the +prospects in which His spirit found repose. I say then that serenity +and self-possession were peculiarly the attributes of Jesus. I +affirm that the singular and sublime character claimed by Jesus +can be traced neither to imposture nor to an ungoverned, insane +imagination. It can only be accounted for by its truth, its reality. + +I began with observing how our long familiarity with Jesus blunts +our minds to His singular excellence. We probably have often +read of the character which He claimed, without a thought of its +extraordinary nature. But I know nothing so sublime. The plans and +labors of statesmen sink into the sports of children when compared +with the work which Jesus announced, and to which He devoted Himself +in life and death with a thorough consciousness of its reality. + +The idea of changing the moral aspect of the whole earth, of +recovering all nations to the pure and inward worship of one God +and to a spirit of divine and fraternal love, was one of which we +meet not a trace in philosopher or legislator before Him. The human +mind had given no promise of this extent of view. The conception of +this enterprise, and the calm, unshaken expectation of success in +one who had no station and no wealth, who cast from Him the sword +with abhorrence, and who forbade His disciples to use any weapons +but those of love, discover a wonderful trust in the power of God +and the power of love; and when to this we add that Jesus looked not +only to the triumph of His pure faith in the present world, but to +a mighty and beneficent power in Heaven, we witness a vastness of +purpose, a grandeur of thought and feeling so original, so superior +to the workings of all other minds, that nothing but our familiarity +can prevent our contemplation of it with wonder and profound awe. * +* * + +Here is the most striking view of Jesus. This combination of the +spirit of humanity, in its lowliest, tenderest form, with the +consciousness of unrivaled and divine glories, is the most wonderful +distinction of this wonderful character. Here we learn the chief +reason why He chose poverty and refused every peculiarity of manner +and appearance. He did this because He desired to come near to the +multitude of men, to make Himself accessible to all, to pour out +the fulness of His sympathy upon all, to know and weep over their +sorrows and sins, and to manifest His interest in their affections +and joys. + +I can offer but a few instances of this sympathy of Christ with +human nature in all its varieties of character and condition. But +how beautiful are they! At the very opening of His ministry we find +Him present at a marriage to which He and His disciples had been +called. Among the Jews this was an occasion of peculiar exhilaration +and festivity; but Jesus did not therefore decline it. He knew what +affections, joys, sorrows, and moral influences are bound up in this +institution, and He went to the celebration, not as an ascetic, to +frown on its bright hopes and warm congratulations, but to sanction +it by His presence and to heighten its enjoyments. + +How little does this comport with the solitary dignity which we +should have pronounced most accordant with His character, and what +a spirit of humanity does it breathe! But this event stands almost +alone in His history. His chief sympathy was not with them that +rejoice, but with the ignorant, sinful, sorrowful; and with these we +find Him cultivating an habitual intimacy. Tho so exalted in thought +and purpose, He chose uneducated men to be His chief disciples; and +He lived with them, not as a superior, giving occasional and formal +instruction, but became their companion traveled with them on foot, +slept in their dwellings, sat at their tables, partook of their +plain fare, communicated to them His truth in the simplest form; and +tho they constantly misunderstood Him and never perceived His full +meaning, He was never wearied with teaching them. + +So familiar was His intercourse that we find Peter reproving Him +with an affectionate zeal for announcing His approaching death, and +we find John leaning on His bosom. Of His last discourse to these +disciples I need not speak. It stands alone among all writings for +the union of tenderness and majesty. His own sorrows are forgotten +in His solicitude to speak peace and comfort to His humble followers. + +The depth of His human sympathies was beautifully manifested when +children were brought Him. His disciples, judging as all men would +judge, thought that He was sent to wear the crown of universal +empire, had too great a work before Him to give His time and +attention to children, and reproved the parents who brought them; +but Jesus, rebuking His disciples, called to Him the children. +Never, I believe, did childhood awaken such deep love as at that +moment. He took them in His arms and blest them, and not only said +that "of such was the kingdom of heaven," but added, "He that +receiveth a little child in My name, receiveth Me;" so entirely did +He identify Himself with this primitive, innocent, beautiful form of +human nature. + +There was no class of human beings so low as to be beneath His +sympathy. He not merely taught the publican and sinner, but, with +all His consciousness of purity, sat down and dined with them, and, +when reproved by the malignant Pharisee for such companionship, +answered by the touching parables of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal +Son, and said, "I am come to seek and to save that which was lost." + +No personal suffering dried up this fountain of love in His breast. +On His way to the cross He heard some women of Jerusalem bewailing +Him, and at the sound, forgetting His own grief, He turned to +them and said, "Women of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for +yourselves and your children." On the cross, whilst His mind was +divided between intense suffering and the contemplation of the +infinite blessings in which His sufferings were to issue, His eye +lighted on His mother and John, and the sensibilities of a son and +a friend mingled with the sublime consciousness of the universal +Lord and Savior. Never before did natural affection find so tender +and beautiful an utterance. To His mother He said, directing her to +John, "Behold thy son; I leave My beloved disciple to take My place, +to perform My filial offices, and to enjoy a share of that affection +with which you have followed Me through life;" and to John He said, +"Behold thy mother; I bequeath to you the happiness of ministering +to My dearest earthly friend." Nor is this all. The spirit of +humanity had one higher triumph. Whilst His enemies surrounded +Him with a malignity unsoftened by His last agonies, and, to give +the keenest edge to insult, reminded Him scoffingly of the high +character and office which He had claimed, His only notice of them +was the prayer, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." + +Thus Jesus lived with men; with the consciousness of unutterable +majesty He joined a lowliness, gentleness, humanity, and sympathy, +which have no example in human history. I ask you to contemplate +this wonderful union. In proportion to the superiority of Jesus to +all around Him was the intimacy, the brotherly love, with which He +bound Himself to them. I maintain that this is a character wholly +remote from human conception. To imagine it to be the production +of imposture or enthusiasm shows a strange unsoundness of mind. I +contemplate it with a veneration second only to the profound awe +with which I look up to God. It bears no mark of human invention. It +was real. It belonged to and it manifested the beloved Son of God. + +But I have not done. May I ask your attention a few moments more? +We have not yet reached the depth of Christ's character. We have +not touched the great principle on which His wonderful sympathy was +founded, and which endeared to Him His office of universal Savior. +Do you ask what this deep principle was? I answer, it was His +conviction of the greatness of the human soul. He saw in man the +impress and image of the Divinity, and therefore thirsted for his +redemption, and took the tenderest interest in him, whatever might +be the rank, character, or condition in which he was found. This +spiritual view of man pervades and distinguishes the teaching of +Christ. + +Jesus looked on men with an eye which pierced beneath the material +frame. The body vanished before Him. The trappings of the rich, the +rags of the poor, were nothing to Him. He looked through them, as +tho they did not exist, to the soul; and there, amidst clouds of +ignorance and plague-spots of sin, He recognized a spiritual and +immortal nature, and the germs of power and perfection which might +be unfolded forever. In the most fallen and depraved man He saw a +being who might become an angel of light. + +Still more, He felt that there was nothing in Himself to which men +might not ascend. His own lofty consciousness did not sever Him from +the multitude; for He saw in His own greatness the model of what men +might become. So deeply was He thus imprest that, again and again, +in speaking of His future glories, He announced that in these His +true followers were to share. They were to sit on His throne and +partake of His beneficent power. + +Here I pause, and indeed I know not what can be added to heighten +the wonder, reverence, and love which are due to Jesus. When I +consider Him, not only as possest with the consciousness of an +unexampled and unbounded majesty, but as recognizing a kindred +nature in human beings, and living and dying to raise them to a +participation of His divine glories; and when I see Him under these +views allying Himself to men by the tenderest ties, embracing them +with a spirit of humanity which no insult, injury, or pain could +for a moment repel or overpower, I am filled with wonder as well +as reverence and love. I feel that this character is not of human +invention, that it was not assumed through fraud, or struck out +by enthusiasm; for it is infinitely above their reach. When I add +this character of Jesus to the other evidences of His religion, it +gives to what before seemed so strange a new and a vast accession of +strength; I feel as if I could not be deceived. + +The Gospels must be true; they were drawn from a living original; +they were founded on reality. The character of Jesus is not a +fiction; He was what He claimed to be, and what His followers +attested. Nor is this all. Jesus not only was, He is still the Son +of God, the Savior of the world. He exists now; He has entered +that heaven to which He always looked forward on earth. There He +lives and reigns. With a clear, calm faith I see Him in that state +of glory; and I confidently expect, at no distant period, to see +Him face to face. We have indeed no absent friend whom we shall so +surely meet. + +Let us then, my hearers, by imitation of His virtues and obedience +to His word, prepare ourselves to join Him in those pure mansions +where He is surrounding Himself with the good and pure of our race, +and will communicate to them forever His own spirit, power, and joy. + + + + +CHALMERS + +THE EXPULSIVE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +THOMAS CHALMERS, theologian, preacher and philanthropist, was +born at Anstruther, near St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1780. In his +thirty-fifth year he experienced a profound religious change and +became a pronounced, tho independent, evangelical preacher. On being +appointed to the Tron Church in Glasgow, he set about to face what +he called "the home heathenism." During the week days he delivered +his series of "Astronomical Discourses," in which he endeavored +to bring science into harmony with Christianity. His "Commercial +Discourses" were designed to Christianize the principles of trade. +But he reduced pauperism chiefly by fighting against intemperance in +Glasgow. On being transferred to St. John's Parish, the largest, but +poorest in the city, he made Edward Irving his assistant. In 1828 he +was called to the chair of theology in Edinburgh University. + +But it was as a preacher that he exerted most influence by bringing +the evangelical message into relations with the science, the +culture, the thinking of his age. In doing this he carried his +hearers away by the blazing force of his eloquence. Many times in +his preaching he was "in an agony of earnestness," and one of his +hearers speaks of "that voice, that face, those great, simple, +living thoughts, those floods of resistless eloquence, that +piercing, shattering voice!" He died in 1847. + + + + +CHALMERS + +1780-1847 + +THE EXPULSIVE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION + +_Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If +any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him_.--1 +John ii., 15. + + +There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to +displace from the human heart its love of the world; either by a +demonstration of the world's vanity, so as that the heart shall +be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object +that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, +even God, as more worthy of its attachment; so as that the heart +shall be prevailed upon, not to resign an old affection which +shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection +for a new one. My purpose is to show, that from the constitution +of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and +ineffectual--and that the latter method will alone suffice for the +rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that +domineers over it. After having accomplished this purpose, I shall +attempt a few practical observations. + +Love may be regarded in two different conditions. The first is when +its object is at a distance, and when it becomes love in a state of +desire. The second is when its object is in possession, and then it +becomes love in a state of indulgence. Under the impulse of desire, +man feels himself urged onward in some path or pursuit of activity +for its gratification. The faculties of his mind are put into busy +exercise. In the steady direction of one great and engrossing +interest, his attention is recalled from the many reveries into +which it might otherwise have wandered; and the powers of his body +are forced away from an indolence in which it else might have +languished; and that time is crowded with occupation, which but for +some object of keen and devoted ambition, might have driveled along +in successive hours of weariness and distaste--and tho hope does +not always enliven, and success does not always crown the career +of exertion, yet in the midst of this very variety, and with the +alternations of occasional disappointment, is the machinery of the +whole man kept in a sort of congenial play, and upholden in that +tone and temper which are most agreeable to it; insomuch that, if +through the extirpation of that desire which forms the originating +principle of all this movement, the machinery were to stop, and to +receive no impulse from another desire substituted in its place, the +man would be left with all his propensities to action in a state of +most painful and unnatural abandonment. A sensitive being suffers, +and is in violence, if, after having thoroughly rested from his +fatigue, or been relieved from his pain, he continue in possession +of powers without any excitement to these powers; if he possess a +capacity of desire without having an object of desire; or if he have +a spare energy upon his person, without a counterpart, and without a +stimulus to call it into operation. The misery of such a condition +is often realized by him who is retired from business, or who is +retired from law, or who is even retired from the occupations of the +chase, and of the gaming-table. Such is the demand of our nature for +an object in pursuit, that no accumulation of previous success can +extinguish it--and thus it is, that the most prosperous merchant, +and the most victorious general, and the most fortunate gamester, +when the labor of their respective vocations has come to a close, +are often found to languish in the midst of all their acquisitions, +as if out of their kindred and rejoicing element. It is quite in +vain, with such a constitutional appetite for employment in man, to +attempt cutting away from him the spring or the principle of one +employment, without providing him with another. The whole heart +and habit will rise in resistance against such an undertaking. The +else unoccupied female, who spends the hours of every evening at +some play of hazard, knows as well as you, that the pecuniary gain, +or the honorable triumph of a successful contest, are altogether +paltry. It is not such a demonstration of vanity as this that will +force her away from her dear and delightful occupation. The habit +can not so be displaced as to leave nothing but a negative and +cheerless vacancy behind it--tho it may be so supplanted as to be +followed up by another habit of employment, to which the power of +some new affection has constrained her. It is willingly suspended, +for example, on any single evening, should the time that is wont to +be allotted to gaming be required to be spent on the preparations of +an approaching assembly. + +The ascendant power of a second affection will do what no +exposition, however forcible, of the folly and worthlessness of the +first, ever could effectuate. And it is the same in the great world. +You never will be able to arrest any of its leading pursuits by a +naked demonstration of their vanity. It is quite in vain to think of +stopping one of these pursuits in any way else but by stimulating +to another. In attempting to bring a worthy man, intent and busied +with the prosecution of his objects, to a dead stand, you have not +merely to encounter the charm which he annexes to these objects, +but you have to encounter the pleasure which he feels in the very +prosecution of them. It is not enough, then, that you dissipate +the charm by your moral and eloquent and affecting exposure of +its illusiveness. You must address to the eye of his mind another +object, with a charm powerful enough to dispossess the first of its +influence, and to engage him in some other prosecution as full of +interest and hope and congenial activity as the former. It is this +which stamps an impotency on all moral and pathetic declamation +about the insignificance of the world. A man will no more consent +to the misery of being without an object, because that object is +a trifle, or of being without a pursuit, because that pursuit +terminates in some frivolous or fugitive acquirement, than he will +voluntarily submit himself to the torture, because that torture +is to be of short duration. If to be without desire and without +exertion altogether is a state of violence and discomfort, then the +present desire, with its correspondent train of exertion, is not to +be got rid of simply by destroying it. It must be by substituting +another desire, and another line or habit of exertion in its place, +and the most effectual way of withdrawing the mind from one object +is not by turning it away upon desolate and unpeopled vacancy, but +by presenting to its regards another object still more alluring. + +These remarks apply not merely to love considered in its state of +desire for an object not yet obtained. They apply also to love +considered in its state of indulgence, or placid gratification, +with an object already in possession. It is seldom that any of +our tastes are made to disappear by a mere process of natural +extinction. At least, it is very seldom that this is done through +the instrumentality of reasoning. It may be done by excessive +pampering, but it is almost never done by the mere force of +mental determination. But what can not be thus destroyed, may be +dispossest--and one taste may be made to give way to another, and +to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection of the mind. +It is thus that the boy ceases, at length, to be the slave of his +appetite; but it is because a manlier taste has now brought it into +subordination, and that the youth ceases to idolize pleasure; but +it is because the idol of wealth has become the stronger and gotten +the ascendency, and that even the love of money ceases to have +the mastery over the heart of many a thriving citizen; but it is +because, drawn into the whirl of city politics, another affection +has been wrought into his moral system, and he is now lorded over +by the love of power. There is not one of these transformations +in which the heart is left without an object. Its desire for one +particular object may be conquered; but as to its desire for having +some one object or other, this is unconquerable. Its adhesion to +that on which it has fastened the preference of its regards, can not +willingly be overcome by the rending away of a simple separation. +It can be done only by the application of something else, to which +it may feel the adhesion of a still stronger and more powerful +preference. Such is the grasping tendency of the human heart, that +it must have a something to lay hold of--and which, if wrested away +without the substitution of another something in its place, would +leave a void and a vacancy as painful to the mind as hunger is to +the natural system. It may be dispossest of one object, or of any, +but it can not be desolated of all. Let there be a breathing and +a sensitive heart, but without a liking and without affinity to +any of the things that are around it, and in a state of cheerless +abandonment, it would be alive to nothing but the burden of its +own consciousness, and feel it to be intolerable. It would make no +difference to its owner, whether he dwelt in the midst of a gay and +a goodly world, or, placed afar beyond the outskirts of creation, he +dwelt a solitary unit in dark and unpeopled nothingness. The heart +must have something to cling to--and never, by its own voluntary +consent, will it so denude itself of all its attachments that there +shall not be one remaining object that can draw or solicit it. + +The misery of a heart thus bereft of all relish for that which is +wont to minister enjoyment, is strikingly exemplified in those +who, satiated with indulgence, have been so belabored, as it were, +with the variety and the poignancy of the pleasurable sensations +that they have experienced, that they are at length fatigued out +of all capacity for sensation whatever. The disease of ennui is +more frequent in the French metropolis, where amusement is more +exclusively the occupation of higher classes, than it is in the +British metropolis, where the longings of the heart are more +diversified by the resources of business and politics. There are the +votaries of fashion, who, in this way, have at length become the +victims of fashionable excess; in whom the very multitude of their +enjoyments has at last extinguished their power of enjoyment; who, +with the gratifications of art and nature at command, now look upon +all that is around them with an eye of tastelessness; who, plied +with the delights of sense and of splendor even to weariness, and +incapable of higher delights, have come to the end of all their +perfection, and, like Solomon of old, found it to be vanity and +vexation. The man whose heart has thus been turned into a desert +can vouch for the insupportable languor which must ensue, when one +affection is thus plucked away from the bosom, without another +to replace it. It is not necessary that a man receive pain from +anything, in order to become miserable. It is barely enough that he +looks with distaste to everything, and in that asylum which is the +repository of minds out of joint, and where the organ of feeling +as well as the organ of intellect has been impaired, it is not in +the cell of loud and frantic outcries where you will meet with the +acme of mental suffering; but that is the individual who outpeers +in wretchedness all his fellows, who throughout the whole expanse +of nature and society meets not an object that has at all the power +to detain or to interest him; who neither in earth beneath, nor in +heaven above, knows of a single charm to which his heart can send +forth one desirous or responding movement; to whom the world, in +his eye a vast and empty desolation, has left him nothing but his +own consciousness to feed upon, dead to all that is without him, +and alive to nothing but to the load of his own torpid and useless +existence. + +We know not a more sweeping interdict upon the affections of nature, +than that which is delivered by the apostle in the verse before +us. To bid a man into whom there is not yet entered the great +and ascendant influence of the principle of regeneration, to bid +him withdraw his love from all the things that are in the world, +is to bid him give up all the affections that are in his heart. +The world is the all of a natural man. He has not a taste, nor a +desire, that points not to a something placed within the confines +of its visible horizon. He loves nothing above it, and he cares for +nothing beyond it; and to bid him love not the world is to pass a +sentence of expulsion on all the inmates of his bosom. To estimate +the magnitude and the difficulty of such a surrender, let us only +think that it were just as arduous to prevail on him not to love +wealth, which is but one of the things in the world, as to prevail +on him to set wilful fire to his own property. This he might do +with sore and painful reluctance, if he saw that the salvation of +his life hung upon it. But this he would do willingly if he saw +that a new property of tenfold value was instantly to emerge from +the wreck of the old one. In this case there is something more than +the mere displacement of an affection. There is the overbearing of +one affection by another. But to desolate his heart of all love +for the things of the world without the substitution of any love +in its place, were to him a process of as unnatural violence as to +destroy all the things he has in the world, and give him nothing in +their room. So if to love not the world be indispensable to one's +Christianity, then the crucifixion of the old man is not too strong +a term to mark that transition in his history, when all old things +are done away, and all things are become new. + +The love of the world can not be expunged by a mere demonstration +of the world's worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by +the love of that which is more worthy than itself? The heart can +not be prevailed upon to part with the world, by a simple act of +resignation. But may not the heart be prevailed upon to admit into +its preference another, who shall subordinate the world, and bring +it down from its wonted ascendency? If the throne which is placed +there must have an occupier, and the tyrant that now reigns has +occupied it wrongfully, he may not leave a bosom which would rather +detain him than be left in desolation. But may he not give way to +the lawful Sovereign, appearing with every charm that can secure +His willing admittance, and taking unto Himself His great power to +subdue the moral nature of man, and to reign over it? In a word, if +the way to disengage the heart from the positive love of one great +and ascendant object is to fasten it in positive love to another, +then it is not by exposing the worthlessness of the former, but by +addressing to the mental eye the worth and excellence of the latter, +that all old things are to be done away, and all things are to +become new. + +This, we trust, will explain the operation of that charm which +accompanies the effectual preaching of the gospel. The love of +God, and the love of the world, are two affections, not merely +in a state of rivalship, but in a state of enmity, and that so +irreconcilable that they can not dwell together in the same bosom. +We have already affirmed how impossible it were for the heart, +by any innate elasticity of its own, to cast the world away from +it, and thus reduce itself to a wilderness. The heart is not so +constituted, and the only way to dispossess it of an old affection +is by the expulsive power of a new one. Nothing can exceed the +magnitude of the required change in a man's character--when bidden, +as he is in the New Testament, to love not the world; no, nor any +of the things that are in the world--for this so comprehends all +that is dear to him in existence as to be equivalent to a command +of self-annihilation. But the same revelation which dictates so +mighty an obedience places within our reach as mighty an instrument +of obedience. It brings for admittance, to the very door of our +heart, an affection which, once seated upon its throne, will either +subordinate every previous inmate, or bid it away. Beside the world +it places before the eye of the mind Him who made the world, and +with this peculiarity, which is all its own--that in the gospel do +we so behold God as that we may love God. It is there, and there +only, where God stands revealed as an object of confidence to +sinners--and where our desire after Him is not chilled into apathy +by that barrier of human guilt which intercepts every approach +that is not made to Him through the appointed Mediator. It is the +bringing in of this better hope, whereby we draw nigh unto God--and +to live without hope is to live without God, and if the heart be +without God the world will then have all the ascendency. It is God +apprehended by the believer as God in Christ who alone can dispost +it from this ascendency. It is when He stands dismantled of the +terrors which belong to Him as an offended lawgiver, and when we +are enabled by faith, which is His own gift, to see His glory in +the face of Jesus Christ, and to hear His beseeching voice, as it +protests good-will to men, and entreats the return of all who will +to a full pardon, and a gracious acceptance--it is then that a love +paramount to the love of the world, and at length expulsive of it, +first arises in the regenerating bosom. It is when released from +the spirit of bondage, with which love can not dwell, and when +admitted into the number of God's children, through the faith that +is in Christ Jesus, the spirit of adoption is poured upon us--it +is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and +predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former +desires, and in the only way in which deliverance is possible. And +that faith which is revealed to us from heaven, as indispensable to +a sinner's justification in the sight of God, is also the instrument +of the greatest of all moral and spiritual achievements on a +nature dead to the influence, and beyond the reach of every other +application. + +Let us not cease then to ply the only instrument of powerful and +positive operation, to do away from you the love of the world. Let +us try every legitimate method of finding access to your hearts for +the love of Him who is greater than the world. For this purpose +let us, if possible, clear away that shroud of unbelief which so +hides and darkens the face of Deity. Let us insist on His claims to +your affection; and whether in the shape of gratitude, or in the +shape of esteem, let us never cease to affirm that in the whole of +that wondrous economy, the purpose of which is to reclaim a sinful +world unto Himself, He, the God of love, so sets Himself forth in +characters of endearment that naught but faith, and naught but +understanding are wanting, on your part, to call forth the love of +your hearts back again. + +And here let me advert to the incredulity of a worldly man when +he brings his own sound and secular experience to bear upon the +high doctrines of Christianity, when he looks on regeneration as +a thing impossible, when, feeling, as he does, the obstinacies +of his own heart on the side of things present, and casting an +intelligent eye, much exercised perhaps in the observation of +human life, on the equal obstinacies of all who are around him, he +pronounces this whole matter about the crucifixion of the old man, +and the resurrection of a new man in his place, to be in downright +opposition to all that is known and witnessed of the real nature of +humanity. We think that we have seen such men, who, firmly trenched +in their own vigorous and home-bred sagacity, and shrewdly regardful +of all that passes before them through the week, and upon the +scenes of ordinary business, look on that transition of the heart +by which it gradually dies unto time, and awakens in all the life +of a new-felt and ever-growing desire toward God, as a mere Sabbath +speculation; and who thus, with all their attention engrossed upon +the concerns of earthliness, continue unmoved, to the end of their +days, among the feelings, and the appetites, and the pursuits of +earthliness. If the thought of death, and another state of being +after it, comes across them at all, it is not with a change so +radical as that of being born again that they ever connect the idea +of preparation. They have some vague conception of its being quite +enough that they acquit themselves in some decent and tolerable +way of their relative obligations; and that, upon the strength of +some such social and domestic moralities as are often realized by +him in whose heart the love of God has never entered, they will be +transplanted in safety from this world, where God is the Being with +whom, it may almost be said that, they have had nothing to do, to +that world where God is the Being with whom they will have mainly +and immediately to do throughout all eternity. They will admit all +that is said of the utter vanity of time, when taken up with as +a resting-place. But they resist every application made upon the +heart of man, with the view of so shifting its tendencies that it +shall not henceforth find in the interests of time all its rest +and all its refreshment. They, in fact, regard such an attempt as +an enterprise that is altogether aerial--and with a tone of secular +wisdom, caught from the familiarities of every day of experience, +do they see a visionary character in all that is said of setting +our affections on the things that are above; and of walking by +faith; and of keeping our hearts in such a love of God as shall shut +out from them the love of the world; and of having no confidence +in the flesh; and of so renouncing earthly things as to have our +conversation in heaven. + +Now, it is altogether worthy of being remarked of those men who +thus disrelish spiritual Christianity, and, in fact, deem it an +impracticable acquirement, how much of a piece their incredulity +about the demands of Christianity, and their incredulity about the +doctrines of Christianity, are with one another. No wonder that they +feel the work of the New Testament to be beyond their strength, so +long as they hold the words of the New Testament to be beneath their +attention. Neither they nor anyone else can dispossess the heart +of an old affection, but by the impulsive power of a new one--and, +if that new affection be the love of God, neither they nor anyone +else can be made to entertain it, but on such a representation of +the Deity as shall draw the heart of the sinner toward Him. Now +it is just their belief which screens from the discernment of +their minds this representation. They do not see the love of God +in sending His Son into the world. They do not see the expression +of His tenderness to men, in sparing Him not, but giving Him up +unto the death for us all. They do not see the sufficiency of the +atonement, or of the sufferings that were endured by Him who bore +the burden that sinners should have borne. They do not see the +blended holiness and compassion of the Godhead, in that He passed +by the transgressions of His creatures, yet could not pass them by +without an expiation. It is a mystery to them how a man should pass +to the state of godliness from a state of nature--but had they only +a believing view of God manifest in the flesh, this would resolve +for them the whole mystery of godliness. As it is, they can not get +quit of their old affections, because they are out of sight from +all those truths which have influence to raise a new one. They are +like the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, when required to +make bricks without straw they cannot love God, while they want the +only food which can aliment this affection in a sinner's bosom--and +however great their errors may be, both in resisting the demands of +the gospel as impracticable, and in rejecting the doctrines of the +gospel as inadmissible, yet there is not a spiritual man (and it is +the prerogative of him who is spiritual to judge all men) who will +not perceive that there is a consistency in these errors. + +But if there be a consistency in the errors, in like manner, is +there a consistency in the truths which are opposite to them? The +man who believes in the peculiar doctrines will readily bow to +the peculiar demands of Christianity. When he is told to love God +supremely, this may startle another, but it will not startle him +to whom God has been revealed in peace, and in pardon, and in all +the freeness of an offered reconciliation. When told to shut out +the world from his heart, this may be impossible with him who has +nothing to replace it--but not impossible with him who has found +in God a sure and satisfying portion. When told to withdraw his +affections from the things that are beneath, this were laying +an order of self-extinction upon the man, who knows not another +quarter in the whole sphere of his contemplation to which he could +transfer them, but it were not grievous to him whose view had been +opened to the loveliness and glory of the things that are above, +and can there find, for every feeling of his soul, a most ample and +delighted occupation. When told to look not to the things that are +seen and temporal, this were blotting out the light of all that is +visible from the prospect of him in whose eye there is a wall of +partition between guilty nature and the joys of eternity--but he who +believes that Christ has broken down this wall finds a gathering +radiance upon his soul, as he looks onward in faith to the things +that are unseen and eternal. Tell a man to be holy--and how can he +compass such a performance, when his fellowship with holiness is a +fellowship of despair? It is the atonement of the cross reconciling +the holiness of the lawgiver with the safety of the offender, that +hath opened the way for a sanctifying influence into the sinner's +heart, and he can take a kindred impression from the character of +God now brought nigh, and now at peace with him. Separate the demand +from the doctrine, and you have either a system of righteousness +that is impracticable, or a barren orthodoxy. Bring the demand and +the doctrine together, and the true disciple of Christ is able to +do the one, through the other strengthening him. The motive is +adequate to the movement; and the bidden obedience to the gospel is +not beyond the measure of his strength, just because the doctrine of +the gospel is not beyond the measure of his acceptance. The shield +of faith, and the hope of salvation, and the Word of God, and the +girdle of truth, these are the armor that he has put on; and with +these the battle is won, and the eminence is reached, and the man +stands on the vantage ground of a new field and a new prospect. The +effect is great, but the cause is equal to it, and stupendous as +this moral resurrection to the precepts of Christianity undoubtedly +is, there is an element of strength enough to give it being and +continuance in the principles of Christianity. + +The object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner's conscience +and to purify his heart; and it is of importance to observe, that +what mars the one of these objects mars the other also. The best +way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one; and +by the love of what is good to expel the love of what is evil. Thus +it is, that the freer gospel, the more sanctifying is the gospel; +and the more it is received as a doctrine of grace, the more will +it be felt as a doctrine according to godliness. This is one of the +secrets of the Christian life, that the more a man holds of God as +a pensioner, the greater is the payment of service that He renders +back again. On the venture of "Do this and live," a spirit of +fearfulness is sure to enter; and the jealousies of a legal bargain +chase away all confidence from the intercourse between God and man; +and the creature striving to be square and even with his creator +is, in fact, pursuing all the while his own selfishness instead +of God's glory; and with all the conformities which he labors to +accomplish, the soul of obedience is not there, the mind is not +subject to the law of God, nor indeed under such an economy ever can +be. It is only when, as in the gospel, acceptance is bestowed as a +present, without money and without price, that the security which +man feels in God is placed beyond the reach of disturbance, or that +he can repose in Him as one friend reposes in another; or that any +liberal and generous understanding can be established betwixt them, +the one party rejoicing over the other to do him good, the other +finding that the truest gladness of his heart lies in the impulse +of a gratitude by which it is awakened to the charms of a new moral +existence. Salvation by grace--salvation by free grace--salvation +not of works, but according to the mercy of God, salvation on such a +footing is not more indispensable to the deliverance of our persons +from the hand of justice than it is to the deliverance of our hearts +from the chill and the weight of ungodliness. Retain a single shred +or fragment of legality with the gospel, and you raise a topic of +distrust between man and God. You take away from the power of the +gospel to melt and to conciliate. For this purpose the freer it is +the better it is. That very peculiarity which so many dread as the +germ of Antinomianism, is, in fact, the germ of a new spirit and a +new inclination against it. Along with the lights of a free gospel +does there enter the love of the gospel, which, in proportion as you +impair the freeness, you are sure to chase away. And never does the +sinner find within himself so mighty a moral transformation as when, +under the belief that he is saved by grace, he feels constrained +thereby to offer his heart a devoted thing, and to deny ungodliness. + +To do any work in the best manner, you would make use of the fittest +tools for it. And we trust that what has been said may serve in +some degree for the practical guidance of those who would like to +reach the great moral achievement of our text, but feel that the +tendencies and desires of nature are too strong for them. We know +of no other way by which to keep the love of the world out of our +heart than to keep in our hearts the love of God--and no other way +by which to keep our hearts in the love of God, than by building +ourselves on our most holy faith. That denial of the world which +is not possible to him that dissents from the gospel testimony, is +possible, even as all things are possible, to him that believeth. +To try this without faith is to work without the right tool or +the right instrument. But faith worketh by love; and the way of +expelling from the heart the love that transgresseth the law is to +admit into its receptacles the love which fulfilleth the law. + +Conceive a man to be standing on the margin of this green world, and +that, when he looked toward it, he saw abundance smiling upon every +field, and all the blessings which earth can afford scattered in +profusion throughout every family, and the light of the sun sweetly +resting upon all the pleasant habitations, and the joys of human +companionship brightening many a happy circle of society; conceive +this to be the general character of the scene upon one side of his +contemplation, and that on the other, beyond the verge of the goodly +planet on which he was situated, he could descry nothing but a dark +and fathomless unknown. Think you that he would bid a voluntary +adieu to all the brightness and all the beauty that were before +him upon earth, and commit himself to the frightful solitude away +from it? Would he leave its peopled dwelling places, and become a +solitary wanderer through the fields of nonentity? If space offered +him nothing but a wilderness, would he for it abandon the home-bred +scenes of life and cheerfulness that lay so near, and exerted such +a power of urgency to detain him? Would not he cling to the regions +of sense, and of life, and of society? Shrinking away from the +desolation that was beyond it, would not he be glad to keep his firm +footing on the territory of this world, and to take shelter under +the silver canopy that was stretched over it? + +But if, during the time of his contemplation, some happy island of +the blest had floated by, and there had burst upon his senses the +light of surpassing glories, and its sounds of sweeter melody, and +he clearly saw there a purer beauty rested upon every field, and a +more heartfelt joy spread itself among all the families, and he +could discern there a peace, and a piety, and a benevolence which +put a moral gladness into every bosom, and united the whole society +in one rejoicing sympathy with each other, and with the beneficent +Father of them all. Could he further see that pain and mortality +were there unknown, and above all, that signals of welcome were hung +out, and an avenue of communication was made before him--perceive +you not that what was before the wilderness, would become the land +of invitation, and that now the world would be the wilderness? +What unpeopled space could not do, can be done by space teeming +with beatific scenes, and beatific society. And let the existing +tendencies of the heart be what they may to the scene that is near +and visible around us, still if another stood revealed to the +prospect of man, either through the channel of faith or through +the channel of his senses--then, without violence done to the +constitution of his moral nature, may he die unto the present world, +and live to the lovelier world that stands in the distance away from +it. + + + + +CAMPBELL + +THE MISSIONARY CAUSE + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, prominent in the body known as Disciples or +Christians, was born in Ireland in 1788, and received his education +in Glasgow University. In 1809 he emigrated to the United States +and took charge of a Presbyterian congregation in Bethany, Va. He +did not long remain in this pastorate, but proceeded to institute a +society based upon the abolition of all confessions and formularies +and the acknowledgment of the text of the Holy Scriptures as the +sole creed of the Church. In 1841 he founded Bethany College +(Bethany, Va.), and remained its president until his death in 1866. +In 1823 he founded the _Christian Baptist_, changed its name in 1829 +to the _Millennial Harbinger_, but abandoned it three years before +his death. He was a prolific controversial writer and published over +fifty volumes, among which were hymn books and a translation of the +New Testament. + + + + +CAMPBELL + +1788-1866 + +THE MISSIONARY CAUSE[1] + + [1] Delivered to the American Christian Missionary Society, + Cincinnati, October, 1860. + +_He that winneth souls is wise._--Prov. xi., 30. + + +The missionary cause is older than the material universe. It was +celebrated by Job--the oldest poet on the pages of time. + +Jehovah challenges Job to answer Him a few questions on the +institutions of the universe. "Gird up now thy loins," said He; "and +I will demand of thee a few responses. Where wast thou when I laid +the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. +Who has fixt the measure thereof? Or who has stretched the line upon +it? What are the foundations thereof? Who has laid the corner-stone +thereof when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of +God shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst +forth issuing from the womb of eternity--when I made a cloud its +garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band? I appointed its +limits, saying, Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther; and here +shall the pride of thy waves be stayed. + +"Has the rain a father? Who has begotten the drops of the dew? Who +was the mother of the ice? And the hoar-frost of heaven, who has +begotten it? Can mortal man bind the bands of the Seven Stars, or +loose the cords of Orion? Can he bring forth and commission the +twelve signs of the Zodiac, or bind Arcturus with his seven sons? + +"Knowest thou, oh man, the missionaries of the starry heavens? Canst +thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may +cover thee? Canst thou command the lightnings, so that they may say +to thee, Here we are? Who can number the clouds in wisdom? Or who +can pour out the bottles of heaven upon the thirsty fields?" + +If such be a single page in the volume of God's physical +missionaries, what must be its contents could we, by the telescope +of an angel, survey one single province of the universe, of +universes, which occupy topless, bottomless, boundless space! + +We have data in the Bible, and, in the phenomena of the material +universe, sufficient to authorize the assumption that the missionary +idea circumscribes and permeates the entire area of creations. + +Need we inquire into the meaning of a celestial title given to the +tenantries of the heaven of heavens? But you all, my Christian +brethren, know it. You anticipate me. The sweet poet of Israel told +you long since, in his sixty-eighth ode, that the chariots of God +are about twenty thousand of angels.[2] + + [2] This is an exact literal version of _Rebotayim alphey shenan_. + The Targum says, "The chariots of God are two myriads--and two + thousand angels draw them." A myriad is 10,000--two myriads 20,000. + "To know this," Adam Clarke says, "we must die." + +And what is an angel but a messenger, a missionary? Hence the seven +angels of the seven churches in Asia were seven missionaries, or +messengers, sent to John in his exile; and by these John wrote +letters to the seven congregations in Asia. + +Figuratively, God makes the winds and lightnings his angels, his +messengers of wrath or of mercy, as the case may be. + +But we are a missionary society--a society assembled from all points +of the compass, assembled, too, we hope, in the true missionary +spirit, which is the spirit of Christianity in its primordial +conception. God Himself instituted it. Moses is the oldest +missionary whose name is inscribed on the rolls of time. + +He was the first divine missionary, and, if we except John the +Baptist, he was the second in rank and character to the Lord Messiah +Himself. + +Angels and missionaries are rudimentally but two names for the same +officers. But of the incarnate Word, God's only begotten Son, He +says, "Thou art my son, the beloved, in whom I delight." And He +commands the world of humanity to hearken to Him. He was, indeed, +God's own special ambassador, invested with all power in heaven +and on earth--a true, a real, an everlasting plenipotentiary, +having vested in Him all the rights of God and all the rights of +man. And were not all the angels of heaven placed under Him as His +missionaries, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation? + +His commission, given to the twelve apostles, is a splendid and +glorious commission. Its preamble is wholly unprecedented--"All +authority in heaven and on earth is given to me." In pursuance +thereof, he gave commission to His apostles, saying, "Go, convert +all the nations, immersing them into the name of the Father, and +of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all +things whatever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, +even to the end of the world." Angels, apostles and evangelists +were placed under this command, and by Him commissioned as His +ambassadors to the world. + +The missionary institution, we repeat, is older than Adam--older +than our earth. It is coeval with the origin of angels. + +Satan had been expelled from heaven before Adam was created. His +assault upon our mother Eve, by an incarnation in the most subtle +animal in Paradise, is positive proof of the intensity of his +malignity to God and to man. He, too, has his missionaries in the +whole area of humanity. Michael and his angels, or missionaries, +are, and long have been, in conflict against the devil and his +missionaries. The battle, in this our planet, is yet in progress, +and therefore missionaries are in perpetual demand. Hence the +necessity incumbent on us to carry on this warfare as loyal subjects +of the Hero of our redemption. + +The Christian armory is well supplied with all the weapons essential +to the conflict. We need them all. "We wrestle not against flesh +and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the +rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in the +regions of the air." Hence the need of having our "loins girded with +the truth"; having on the breastplate of righteousness, our feet +shod with the preparation to publish the gospel of peace, taking +the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the +Spirit, the Word of God, always praying and making supplication for +our fellow-missionaries and for all saints. + +The missionary fields are numerous and various. They are both +domestic and foreign. The harvest is great in both. The laborers are +still few, comparatively very few, in either of them. + +The supply is not a tithe of the demand. The Macedonians cry, "Come +over and help us;" "Send us an evangelist;" "Send us missionaries;" +"The fields are large, the people are desirous, anxious, to hear +the original gospel. What can you do for us?" Nothing! Nothing! My +brethren, ought this so to be? + +Schools for the prophets are wanting. But there is a too general +apathy or indifference on the subject. We pray to the Lord of the +harvest to send our reapers to gather it into His garner. But what +do we besides praying for it? Do we work for it? Suppose a farmer +should pray to the Lord for an abundant harvest next year, and +should never, in seed-time, turn over one furrow or scatter one +handful of seed: what would we think of him? Would not his neighbors +regard him as a monomaniac or a simpleton? And wherein does he excel +such a one in wisdom or in prudence who prays to the Lord to send +out reapers--missionaries, or evangelists--to gather a harvest of +souls, when he himself never gives a dollar to a missionary, or the +value of it, to enable him to go into the field? Can such a person +be in earnest, or have one sincere desire in his heart to effect +such an object or purpose? We must confess that we could have no +faith either in his head or in his heart. + +The heavenly missionaries require neither gold nor silver, neither +food nor raiment. Not so the earthly missionaries. They themselves, +their wives and children, demand both food and clothing, to say +nothing of houses and furniture. Their present home is not + + "The gorgeous city, garnish'd like a bride, + Where Christ for spouse expected is to pass, + The walls of jasper compass'd on each side, + And streets all paved with gold, more bright than glass." + +If such were the missionary's home on earth, he might, indeed, +labor gratuitously all the days of his life. In an humble +cottage--rather an unsightly cabin--we sometimes see the wife of +his youth, in garments quite as unsightly as those of her children, +impatiently waiting "their sire's return, to climb to his knees the +envied kiss to share." But, when the supper table is spread, what a +beggarly account of almost empty plates and dishes! Whose soul would +not sicken at such a sight? I have twice, if not thrice, in days +gone by, when travelling on my early missionary tours--over not the +poorest lands nor the poorest settlements, either--witnessed some +such cases, and heard of more. + +I was then my own missionary, with the consent, however, of one +church. I desired to mingle with all classes of religious society, +that I might personally and truthfully know, not the theories, but +the facts and the actualities, of the Christian ministry and the +so-called Christian public. I spent a considerable portion of my +time during the years 1812, '13, '14, '15, '16, traveling throughout +western Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. + +I then spent seven years in reviewing my past studies, and in +teaching the languages and the sciences--after which I extended my +evangelical labors into other States and communities, that I might +still more satisfactorily apprehend and appreciate the _status_, +or the actual condition, of the nominally and profest religious or +Christian world. + +Having shortly after my baptism connected myself with the Baptist +people, and attending their associations as often as I could, I +became more and more penetrated with the conviction that theory +had usurped the place of faith, and that consequently, human +institutions had been, more or less, substituted for the apostolic +and the divine. + +During this period of investigation I had the pleasure of forming an +intimate acquaintance with sundry Baptist ministers, East and West, +as well as with the ministry of other denominations. Flattering +prospects of usefulness on all sides began to expand before me +and to inspire me with the hope of achieving a long-cherished +object--doing some good in the advocacy of the primitive and +apostolic gospel--having in the year 1820 a discussion on the +subject of the first positive institution enacted by the Lord +Messiah, and in A. D. 1823 another on the same subject--the former +more especially on the subject and action of Christian baptism, +the latter more emphatically on the design of that institution tho +including the former two. + +These discussions, more or less, embraced the rudimental elements +of the Christian institution, and gave to the public a bold relief +outline of the whole genius, spirit, letter and doctrine of the +gospel. + +Its missionary spirit, tho not formally propounded, was yet +indicated, in these discussions; because this institution was the +terminus of the missionary work. It was a component element of +the gospel, as clearly seen in the commission of the enthroned +Messiah. Its preamble is the superlative fact of the whole Bible. +We regret, indeed, that this most sublime preamble has been so much +lost sight of even by the present living generation. If we ask when +the Church of Jesus Christ began or when the reign of the Heavens +commenced, the answer, in what is usually called Christendom, will +make it either to be contemporaneous with the ministry of John the +Harbinger, or with the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will +find one of these two opinions almost universally entertained. +The Baptists are generally much attached to John the Baptist; the +Pedobaptists, to the commencement of Christ's public ministry. +John the Baptist was the first Christian missionary with a very +considerable class of living Baptists; the birth of Christ is the +most popular and orthodox theory at the respective meridians of +Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Arminianism. + +But, by the more intelligent, the resurrection, or the ascension +of the Lord Jesus Christ, is generally regarded as the definite +commencement of the Christian age or institution. + +Give us Paul's or Peter's testimony, against that of all +theologians, living or dead. Let us look at the facts. + +Did not the Savior teach His personal pupils, or disciples, to +pray, "Thy kingdom"--more truthfully, "Thy reign--come"? Does any +king's reign or kingdom commence with his birth? Still less with his +death? Did not our Savior Himself, in person, decline the honors of +a worldly or temporal prince? Did He not declare that His kingdom +"is not of this world"? Did He not say that He was going hence, or +leaving this world, to receive or obtain a kingdom? And were not the +keys of the kingdom first given to Peter to open, to announce it? +And did he not, when in Jerusalem, on the first Pentecost, after the +ascension of the Lord Jesus, make a public proclamation, saying, +"Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made (or +constituted) the identical Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, both +the Lord and the Christ, or the anointed Lord"? + +Do kings reign before they are crowned? Before they are anointed? +There was not a Christian Church on earth, or any man called a +Christian, until after the consecration and coronation of Jesus of +Nazareth as the Christ of God. + +The era of a son's birth was never, since the world began, the era +of his reign or of the commencement of it. It is a strange fact, +to me a wonderful fact, and, considering the age in which we live, +an overwhelming fact, that we, as a community, are the only people +on the checkered map of all Christendom, Greek, Roman, Anglican or +American, that preach and teach that the commonly called Christian +era is not the era or the commencement of the Christian Church or +kingdom of the Lord Jesus the Christ. + +The kingdom of the Christ could not antedate His coronation. +Hence Peter, in announcing His coronation, after His ascension, +proclaimed, saying, "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly +that God has made--_touton ton Ieesoun_--the same, the identical +Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ"; or, in other +words, has crowned Him the legitimate Lord of all. Then indeed His +reign began. Then was verified the oracle uttered by the royal +bard of Israel, "Jehovah said to my Jehovah"--or, "the Lord said +to my Lord,"--"Sit thou on my right hand till I make thy foes thy +footstool." + +Hence He could say, and did say, to His apostles, "All authority in +the heavens and on the earth is given to me." In pursuance thereof, +"Go you into all the world, proclaim the gospel to the whole +creation; assuring them that everyone who believes this proclamation +and is immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of +the Holy Spirit, shall be saved." + +Here, then, the missionary field is declared to be the whole +world--the broad earth. They were, as we are afterwards informed, +to begin at the first capital in the land of Judea, then to proceed +to Samaria, the capital of the ten tribes, and thence to the last +domicile of man on earth. + +There was, and there is still, in all this arrangement, a gracious +and a glorious propriety. + +The Jews had murdered the Messiah under the false charge of an +impostor. Was it not, then, divinely grand and supremely glorious to +make this awfully bloodstained capital the beginning, the fountain, +of the gospel age and mission? Hence it was decreed that all the +earth should be the parish, and all the nations and languages +of earth the objects, and millions of them the subjects, of the +redeeming grace and tender mercies of our Savior and our God. + +What an extended and still extending area is the missionary field! +There are the four mighty realms of Pagandom, of Papaldom, of +Mohammedandom and of ecclesiastic Sectariandom. These are, one and +all, essentially and constitutionally, more or less, not of the +apostolic Christendom. + +The divinely inspired constitution of the Church contains only +seven articles. These are the seven hills, not of Rome, but of the +true Zion of Israel's God. Paul's summary of them is found in the +following words: "One body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one +faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all." + +The clear perception, the grateful reception, the cordial +entertainment of these seven divinely constructed and instituted +pillars, are the alone sufficient, and the all-sufficient, +foundation--the indestructible basis--of Christ's kingdom on this +earth, and of man's spiritual and eternal salvation in the full +enjoyment of himself, his Creator, his Redeemer, and the whole +universe of spiritual intelligence through all the circles and +the cycles of an infinite, an everlasting future of being and of +blessedness. + +The missionary spirit is, indeed, an emanation of the whole Godhead. +God the Father sent His Son, His only begotten Son, into our world. +The Son sent the Holy Spirit to bear witness through His twelve +missionaries, the consecrated and Heaven-inspired apostles. They +proclaimed the glad tidings of great joy to all people--to the +Jews, to the Samaritans, to the Gentiles, of all nations, kindreds +and tongues. They gave in solemn charge to others to sound out and +proclaim the glad tidings of great joy to all people. And need we +ask, is not the Christian Church itself, in its own institution and +constitution, virtually and essentially a missionary institution? +Does not Paul formally state to the Thessalonians in his first +epistle that from them sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in +Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place? + +No man can really or truthfully enjoy the spiritual, the +soul-stirring, the heart-reviving honors and felicities of the +Christian institution and kingdom, who does not intelligently, +cordially and efficiently espouse the missionary cause. + +In other words, he must feel, he must have compassion for his +fellow man; and, still further, he must practically sympathize +with him in communicating to his spiritual necessities as well +as to his physical wants and infirmities. The true ideal of all +perfection--our blest and blissful Redeemer--went about continually +doing good--to both the souls and the bodies of his fellow men; +healing all that were, in body, soul or spirit, opprest by Satan, +the enemy of God and of man. + +To follow his example is the grand climax of humanity. It is not +necessary to this end that he should occupy the pulpit. There are, +as we conceive, myriads of Christian men in the private walks +of life, who never aspired to the "sacred desk," that will far +outshine, in eternal glory and blessedness, hosts of the reverend, +the boasted and the boastful right reverend occupants of the sacred +desks of this our day and generation. + +But Solomon has furnished our motto:--"He that winneth" or taketh +"souls is wise" (Prov. xi. 30). Was he not the wisest of men, the +most potent and the richest of kings, that ever lived? He had, +therefore, all the means and facilities of acquiring what we call +knowledge--the knowledge of men and things; and, consequently, the +value of men and things was legitimately within the area of his +understanding; or, in this case, we might prefer to say, with all +propriety, within the area of his comprehension. + +Need I say that comprehension incomparably transcends apprehension? +Simpletons may apprehend, but only wise men can comprehend +anything. Solomon's rare gift was, that both his apprehension and +his comprehension transcended those of all other men, and gave him +a perspicacity and promptitude of decision never before or since +possest by any man. His oracles, indeed, were the oracles of God. +But God especially gave to him a power and opportunity of making +one grand experiment and development for the benefit of his living +contemporaries, and of all posterity, to whom God presents his +biography, his Proverbs and his Ecclesiastes. + +"The winning of souls" is, therefore, the richest and best +business, trade or calling, according to Solomon, ever undertaken +or prosecuted by mortal man. Paul was fully aware of this, and +therefore had always in his eye a "triple crown"--"a crown of +righteousness," a "crown of life," a "crown of glory." And even in +this life he had "a crown of rejoicing," in prospect of an exceeding +and eternal weight of glory, imperishable in the heavens. + +There is, too, a present reward, a present pleasure, a present joy +and peace which the wisdom, and the riches, and the dignity, and +the glory, and the honors of this world never did, never can, and +consequently never will, confer on its most devoted and persevering +votaries. + +There is, indeed, a lawful and an honorable covetousness, which any +and every Christian, man and woman, may cultivate and cherish. + +Paul himself justifies the poetic license, when he says, "Covet +earnestly the best gifts." + +The best gifts in his horizon, however, were those which, when +duly cultivated and employed, confer the greatest amount of profit +and felicity upon others. We should, indeed, desire, even covet, +the means and the opportunities of beatifying and aggrandizing one +another with the true riches, the honors and the dignities that +appertain to the spiritual, the heavenly and the eternal inheritance. + +But we need not propound to your consideration or inquiry the +claims--the paramount, the transcendent claims--which our +enjoyment of the gospel and its soul-cheering, soul-animating, +soul-enrapturing influences present to us as arguments and motives +to extend and to animate its proclamation by every instrumentality +and means which we can legitimately employ, to present it in all its +attractions and claims upon the understanding, the conscience and +the affections of our contemporaries, in our own country and in all +others, as far as our most gracious and bountiful Benefactor affords +the means and the opportunities of co-operating with Him, in the +rescue and recovery of our fellow men, who, without such means and +efforts, must forever perish, as aliens and enemies, in heart and +in life, to God and to His divinely-commissioned ambassador, the +glorious Messiah. + +We plead for the original apostolic gospel and its positive +institutions. If the great apostles Peter and Paul--the former to +the Jews and the latter to the Gentiles--announced the true gospel +of the grace of God, shall we hesitate a moment on the propriety +and the necessity, divinely imposed upon us, of preaching the same +gospel which they preached, and in advocating the same institutions +which they established, under the plenary inspiration and direction +of the Holy Spirit? Can we improve upon their institutions and +enactments? What means that singular imperative enunciated by the +evangelical prophet Isaiah (Isa. viii.), "Bind up the testimony, +seal the law among my disciples?" What were its antecedents? +Hearken! The prophet had just foretold. He, the subject of this +oracle, viz: "The desire of all nations," was coming to be a +sanctuary; but not a sanctuary alone, but for a stone of stumbling +and a rock of offense (as at this day) to both the houses of +Israel--for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. + +The Church, therefore, of right is, and ought to be, a great +missionary society. Her parish is the whole earth, from sea to sea, +and from the Euphrates to the last domicile of man. + +But the crowning and consummating argument of the missionary +cause has not been fully presented. There is but one word, in the +languages of earth, that fully indicates it. And that word indicates +neither less nor more than what is represented--literally, exactly, +perspicuously represented--by the word philanthropy. But this being +a Greek word needs, perhaps in some cases, an exact definition. +And to make it memorable we will preface it with the statement of +the fact that this word is found but twice in the Greek original +New Testament (Acts xxviii., 2, and Titus iii., 4.). In the first +passage this word is, in the common version, translated "kindness," +and in the second, "love toward man." Literally and exactly, it +signifies the love of man, objectively; but, more fully exprest, the +love of one to another. + +The love of God to man is one form of philanthropy; the love of +angels to one man is another form of philanthropy; and the love of +man to man, as such, is the true philanthropy of the law. It is +not the love of one man to another man, because of favors received +from him; this is only gratitude. It is not the love of one man to +another man, because of a common country: this is mere patriotism. +It is not the love of man to man, because of a common ancestry: +this is mere natural affection. But it is the love of man to man, +merely because he is a man. This is pure philanthropy. Such was the +love of God to man as exhibited in the gift of His dearly beloved +Son as a sin-offering for him. This is the name which the inspired +writers of the New Testament give it. So Paul uses it, Titus iii. +and iv. It should have been translated, "After that the kindness and +philanthropy of God our Savior appeared." Again, Acts xxviii., 2, +"The barbarous people of the Island of Melita showed us no little +philanthropy.[3] They kindled a fire for us on their island, +because of the impending rain and the cold." + + [3] So we have always translated this term, in this passage. + +There are, indeed, many forms and demonstrations of philanthropy. +For one good man another good man might presume to die. But the +philanthropy of God to man incomparably transcends all other forms +of philanthropy known on earth or reported from heaven. + +While we were sinners, in positive and actual rebellion against our +Father and our God, He freely gave up His only begotten and dearly +beloved Son, as a sin-offering for us, and laid upon Him, or placed +in His account, the sin, the aggregate sin, of the world. He became +in the hand of His Father and our Father a sin-offering for us. He +took upon Himself, and His Father "laid upon him, the iniquity of us +all." Was ever love like this? Angels of all ranks, spirits of all +capacities, still contemplate it with increasing wonder and delight. + +This gospel message is to be announced to all the world, to men of +every nation under heaven. And this, too, with the promise of the +forgiveness of sins and of a life everlasting in the heavens, to +everyone who will cordially accept and obey it. + + + + +IRVING + +PREPARATION FOR CONSULTING THE ORACLES OF GOD + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +EDWARD IRVING was born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1792. +He was an early friend and lover of Jane Welsh, who afterwards +married Thomas Carlyle. He showed ability at school, but had also a +taste for the preaching of extreme Presbyterian seceders from the +Church of Scotland. After graduating at the University of Edinburgh, +in 1809, he began life by teaching school, but obtained a license +to preach in 1815. He became assistant to Chalmers at Glasgow in +1819, where, great preacher as he was, he felt himself eclipsed by +Chalmers, and in 1822 accepted the pulpit at a chapel in Hatton +Garden, London. Here he leapt into fame. His melodious and resonant +voice, his noble presence and the beauty of his features, enhanced +the eloquence of his language. Eventually he became unbalanced +by the adulation of the aristocratic and intellectual crowd that +listened to him. They, however, grew tired of his prophecies and +denunciations, and his eccentricities of judgment finally led +to disruption, and "after a few years of futile but splendid +evangelization, he died a broken-hearted man, tender and true to the +last, altho the victim of unsubstantial religious vagaries." Carlyle +wrote a touching memoir of his life. He died in 1834. + + + + +IRVING + +1792-1834 + +PREPARATION FOR CONSULTING THE ORACLES OF GOD + +_Search the scriptures._--John v., 39. + + +There was a time when each revelation of the word of God had an +introduction into this earth, which neither permitted men to doubt +whence it came, nor wherefore it was sent. If at the giving of each +several truth a star was not lighted up in heaven, as at the birth +of the Prince of Truth, there was done upon the earth a wonder, to +make her children listen to the message of their Maker. The Almighty +made bare His arm; and, through mighty acts shown by His holy +servants, gave demonstration of His truth, and found for it a sure +place among the other matters of human knowledge and belief. + +But now the miracles of God have ceased, and nature, secure and +unmolested, is no longer called on for testimonies to her Creator's +voice. No burning bush draws the footsteps to His presence chamber; +no invisible voice holds the ear awake; no hand cometh forth from +the obscurity to write His purposes in letters of flame. The vision +is shut up, and the testimony is sealed, and the Word of the Lord is +ended, and this solitary volume, with its chapters and verses, is +the sum total of all for which the chariot of heaven made so many +visits to the earth, and the Son of God Himself tabernacled and +dwelt among us. + +The truth which it contains once dwelt undivulged in the bosom of +God; and, on coming forth to take its place among things revealed, +the heavens and the earth, and nature, through all her chambers, +gave reverent welcome. Beyond what it contains, the mysteries of the +future are unknown. To gain it acceptation and currency, the noble +company of martyrs testified unto the death. The general assembly of +the first-born in heaven made it the day-star of their hopes, and +the pavilion of their peace. Its every sentence is charmed with the +power of God, and powerful to the everlasting salvation of souls. + +Having our minds filled with these thoughts of the primeval divinity +of revealed wisdom when she dwelt in the bosom of God, and was of +His eternal Self a part, long before He prepared the heavens, or +set a compass upon the face of the deep; revolving also how, by +the space of four thousand years, every faculty of mute nature did +solemn obeisance to this daughter of the Divine mind, whenever He +pleased to commission her forth to the help of mortals; and further +meditating upon the delights which she had of old with the sons of +men, the height of heavenly temper to which she raised them, and the +offspring of magnanimous deeds which these two--the wisdom of God, +and the soul of man--did engender between themselves--meditating, I +say, upon these mighty topics, our soul is smitten with grief and +shame to remark how in this latter day she hath fallen from her high +estate; and fallen along with her the great and noble character of +men. Or, if there be still a few names, as of the missionary martyr, +to emulate the saints of old--how to the commonalty of Christians +her oracles have fallen into a household commonness, and her visits +into a cheap familiarity; while by the multitude she is mistaken +for a minister of terror sent to oppress poor mortals with moping +melancholy, and inflict a wound upon the happiness of human kind. + +For there is now no express stirring up the faculties to meditate +her high and heavenly strains--there is no formal sequestration +of the mind from all other concerns, on purpose for her special +entertainment--there is no house of solemn seeking and solemn +waiting for a spiritual frame, before entering and listening to +the voice of the Almighty's wisdom. Who feels the sublime dignity +there is in a saying, fresh descended from the porch of heaven? Who +feels the awful weight there is in the least iota that hath dropped +from the lips of God? Who feels the thrilling fear or trembling +hope there is in words whereon the destinies of himself do hang? +Who feels the swelling tide of gratitude within his breast, for +redemption and salvation, instead of flat despair and everlasting +retribution? Yea, that which is the guide and spur of all duty, +the necessary aliment of Christian life, the first and the last +of Christian knowledge and Christian feeling, hath, to speak the +best, degenerated in these days to stand, rank and file, among +those duties whereof it is parent, preserver, and commander. And, +to speak not the best, but the fair and common truth, this book, +the offspring of the Divine mind, and the perfection of heavenly +wisdom, is permitted to lie from day to day, perhaps from week to +week, unheeded and unperused, never welcome to our happy, healthy, +and energetic moods; admitted, if admitted at all, in seasons of +sickness, feeble-mindedness, and disabling sorrow. Yes, that which +was sent to be a spirit of ceaseless joy and hope within the heart +of man, is treated as the enemy of happiness, and the murderer of +enjoyment; and eyed askance, as the remembrancer of death, and the +very messenger of hell. + +Oh! if books had but tongues to speak their wrongs, then might this +book well exclaim: Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! I came +from the love and embrace of God, and mute nature, to whom I brought +no boon, did me rightful homage. To men I come, and my words were +to the children of men. I disclosed to you the mysteries hereafter, +and the secrets of the throne of God. I set open to you the gates +of salvation, and the way of eternal life, hitherto unknown. +Nothing in heaven did I withhold from your hope and ambition; and +upon your earthly lot I poured the full horn of Divine providence +and consolation. But ye requited me with no welcome, ye held no +festivity on my arrival; ye sequester me from happiness and heroism, +closeting me with sickness and infirmity: ye make not of me, nor use +me for, your guide to wisdom and prudence, but put me into a place +in your last of duties, and withdraw me to a mere corner of your +time; and most of ye set me at naught and utterly disregard me. I +come, the fulness of the knowledge of God; angels delighted in my +company, and desired to dive into my secrets. But ye, mortals, place +masters over me, subjecting me to the discipline and dogmatism of +men, and tutoring me in your schools of learning. I came, not to be +silent in your dwellings, but to speak welfare to you and to your +children. I came to rule, and my throne to set up in the hearts of +men. Mine ancient residence was the bosom of God; no residence will +I have but the soul of an immortal; and if you had entertained me, +I should have possest you of the peace which I had with God, "when +I was with Him and was daily His delight, rejoicing always before +Him. Because I have called you and ye have refused, I have stretched +out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my +counsel and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your +calamity, and mock when your fear cometh as desolation, and your +destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh +upon you. Then shall they cry upon me, but I will not answer; they +shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." + +From this cheap estimation and wanton neglect of God's counsel, +and from the terror of the curse consequent thereon, we have +resolved, in the strength of God, to do our endeavor to deliver this +congregation of His intelligent and worshiping people--an endeavor +which we make with a full perception of the difficulties to be +overcome on every side, within no less than without the sacred pale; +and upon which we enter with the utmost diffidence of our powers, +yet with the full purpose of straining them to the utmost, according +to the measure with which it hath pleased God to endow our mind. And +do Thou, O Lord, from whom cometh the perception of truth, vouchsafe +to Thy servant an unction from Thine own Spirit, who searcheth all +things, yes, the deep things of God; and vouchsafe to Thy people +"the hearing ear and the understanding heart, that they may hear +and understand, and their souls may live!" + +Before the Almighty made His appearance upon Sinai, there were +awful precursors sent to prepare His way; while He abode in sight, +there were solemn ceremonies and a strict ritual of attendance; +when He departed, the whole camp set itself to conform unto His +revealed will. Likewise, before the Savior appeared, with His +better law, there was a noble procession of seers and prophets, who +decried and warned the world of His coming; when He came there were +solemn announcements in the heavens and on the earth; He did not +depart without due honors; and then followed, on His departure, a +succession of changes and alterations which are still in progress, +and shall continue in progress till the world's end. This may serve +to teach us, that a revelation of the Almighty's will makes demand +for these three things, on the part of those to whom it is revealed: +A due preparation for receiving it; a diligent attention to it while +it is disclosing; a strict observance of it when it is delivered. + +In the whole book of the Lord's revelations you shall search in +vain for one which is devoid of these necessary parts. Witness the +awestruck Isaiah, while the Lord displayed before him the sublime +pomp of His presence; and, not content with overpowering the frail +sense of the prophet, dispatched a seraph to do the ceremonial of +touching his lip with hallowed fire, all before He uttered one word +into his astonished ear. Witness the majestic apparition to Saint +John, in the Apocalypse, of all the emblematical glory of the Son of +Man, allowed to take silent effect upon the apostle's spirit, and +prepare it for the revelation of things to come. These heard with +all their absorbed faculties, and with all their powers addrest them +to the bidding of the Lord. But, if this was in aught flinched from, +witness, in the persecution of the prophet Jonah, the fearful issues +which ensued. From the presence of the Lord he could not flee. Fain +would he have escaped to the uttermost parts of the earth; but in +the mighty waters the terrors of the Lord fell upon him; and when +engulfed in the deep, and entombed in the monster of the deep, still +the Lord's word was upon the obdurate prophet, who had no rest, +not the rest of the grave, till he had fulfilled it to the very +uttermost. + +Now, judging that every time we open the pages of this holy book, we +are to be favored with no less than a communication from on high, +in substance the same as those whereof we have detailed the three +distinct and several parts, we conceive it due to the majesty of Him +who speaks, that we, in like manner, discipline our spirits with a +due preparation, and have them in proper frame, before we listen +to the voice; that, while it is disclosing to us the important +message, we be wrapt in full attention; and that, when it hath +disburdened itself into our opened and enlarged spirits, we proceed +forthwith to the business of its fulfilment, whithersoever and to +whatsoever it summon us forth. Upon each of these three duties, +incumbent upon one who would not forego the benefit of a heavenly +message, we will discourse apart, addressing ourselves in this +discourse to the first-mentioned of the three. + +The preparation for the announcement.--"When God uttereth His +voice," says the Psalmist, "coals of fire are kindled; the hills +melt down like wax; the earth quakes; and deep proclaims itself +unto hollow deep." These sensible images of the Creator have now +vanished, and we are left alone, in the deep recesses of the +meditative mind, to discern His coming forth. No trump of heaven +now speaketh in the world's ear. No angelic conveyance of Heaven's +will taketh shape from the vacant air; and having done his errand, +retireth into his airy habitation. No human messenger putteth forth +his miraculous hand to heal nature's unmedicable wounds, winning +for his words a silent and astonished audience. Majesty and might +no longer precede the oracles of Heaven. They lie silent and +unobtrusive, wrapt up in their little compass, one volume among +many, innocently handed to and fro, having no distinction but that +in which our mustered thoughts are enabled to invest them. The want +of solemn preparation and circumstantial pomp, the imagination +of the mind hath now to supply. The presence of the Deity, and +the authority of His voice, our thoughtful spirits must discern. +Conscience must supply the terrors that were wont to go before Him; +and the brightness of His coming, which the sense can no longer +behold, the heart, ravished with His word, must feel. + +For the solemn vocation of all her powers, to do her Maker honor and +give Him welcome, it is, at the very least, necessary that the soul +stand absolved from every call. Every foreign influence or authority +arising out of the world, or the things of the world, should be +burst when about to stand before the fountain of all authority; +every argument, every invention, every opinion of man forgot, when +about to approach to the Father and oracle of all intelligence. +And as subjects, when their honors, with invitations, are held +disengaged, tho preoccupied with a thousand appointments, so, upon +an audience, fixt and about to be holden with the King of Kings, it +will become the honored mortal to break loose from all thraldom of +men and things, and be arrayed in liberty of thought and action to +drink in the rivers of His pleasure, and to perform the mission of +His lips. + +Now far otherwise it hath appeared to us, that Christians as well +as worldly men come to this most august occupation of listening +to the word of God; preoccupied and prepossest, inclining to it a +partial ear, and straitened understanding, and a disaffected will. + +The Christian public are prone to preoccupy themselves with the +admiration of those opinions by which they stand distinguished as +a Church or sect from other Christians, and instead of being quite +unfettered to receive the whole counsel of the Divinity, they are +prepared to welcome it no further than it bears upon, and stands +with opinions which they already favor. To this pre-judgment +the early use of catechisms mainly contributes, which, however +serviceable in their place, have the disadvantage of presenting +the truth in a form altogether different from what it occupies +in the world itself. In the one it is presented to the intellect +chiefly (and in our catechisms to an intellect of a very subtle +order), in the other it is presented more frequently to the heart, +to the affections, to the emotions, to the fancy, and to all the +faculties of the soul. In early youth, which is so applied to +those compilations, an association takes place between religion +and intellect, and a divorcement of religion from the other powers +of the inner man. This derangement, judging from observation +and experience, it is exceedingly difficult to put to rights in +afterlife; and so it comes to pass, that in listening to the +oracles of religion, the intellect is chiefly awake, and the +better parts of the message--those which address the heart and its +affections, those which dilate and enlarge our admiration of the +Godhead, and those which speak to the various sympathies of our +nature--we are, by the injudicious use of these narrow epitomes, +disqualified to receive. + +In the train of these comes controversy with its rough voice and +unmeek aspect, to disqualify the soul for a full and fair audience +of its Maker's word. The points of the faith we have been called +on to defend, or which are reputable with our party, assume, in +our esteem, an importance disproportionate to their importance +in the Word, which we come to relish chiefly when it goes to +sustain them, and the Bible is hunted for arguments and texts +of controversy, which are treasured up for future service. The +solemn stillness which the soul should hold before his Maker, so +favorable to meditation and rapt communion with the throne of God, +is destroyed at every turn by suggestions of what is orthodox and +evangelical--where all is orthodox and evangelical; the spirit of +such readers becomes lean, being fed with abstract truths and formal +propositions; their temper uncongenial, being ever disturbed with +controversial suggestions; their prayers undevout recitals of their +opinions; their discourse technical announcements of their faith. +Intellect, old intellect, hath the sway over heavenward devotion +and holy fervor. Man, contentious man, hath the attention which the +unsearchable God should undivided have; and the fine, full harmony +of heaven's melodious voice, which, heard apart, were sufficient +to lap the soul in ecstasies unspeakable, is jarred and interfered +with, and the heavenly spell is broken by the recurring conceits, +sophisms, and passions of men. Now truly an utter degradation it is +of the Godhead to have His word in league with that of man, or any +council of men. What matter to me whether the Pope, or any work of +any mind, be exalted to the quality of God? If any helps are to be +imposed for the understanding, or safeguarding, or sustaining of +the word, why not the help of statues and pictures of my devotions? +Therefore, while the warm fancies of the Southerns have given their +idolatry to the ideal forms of noble art, let us Northerns beware we +give not our idolatry to the cold and coarse abstractions of human +intellect. + +For the preoccupations of worldly minds, they are not to be reckoned +up, being manifold as their favorite passions and pursuits. One +thing only can be said, that before coming to the oracles of God +they are not preoccupied with the expectation and fear of Him. No +chord in their heart is in unison with things unseen; no moments are +set apart for religious thought and meditation; no anticipations +of the honored interview; no prayer of preparation like that of +Daniel before Gabriel was sent to teach him; no devoutness like +that of Cornelius before the celestial visitation; no fastings like +that of Peter before the revelation of the glory of the Gentiles! +Now to minds which are not attuned to holiness, the words of God +find no entrance, striking heavy on the ear, seldom making way +to the understanding, almost never to the heart. To spirits hot +with conversation, perhaps heady with argument, uncomposed by +solemn thought, but ruffled and in uproar from the concourse of +worldly interests, the sacred page may be spread out, but its +accents are drowned in the noise which hath not yet subsided in +the breast. All the awe, and pathos, and awakened consciousness +of a Divine approach, imprest upon the ancients by the procession +of solemnities, is to worldly men without a substitute. They have +not yet solicited themselves to be in readiness. In a usual mood +and vulgar frame they come to God's word as to other compositions, +reading it without any active imaginations about Him who speaks; +feeling no awe of a sovereign Lord, nor care of a tender Father, +nor devotion to a merciful Savior. Nowise deprest themselves out +of their wonted dependence, nor humiliated before the King of +Kings--no prostrations of the soul, nor falling at His feet as +dead--no exclamation, as of Isaiah, "Wo is me, for I am of unclean +lips!"--no request "Send me"--nor fervent ejaculation of welcome, as +of Samuel, "Lord, speak, for Thy servant heareth!" Truly they feel +toward His word much as to the word of an equal. No wonder it shall +fail of happy influence upon the spirits which have, as it were, on +purpose, disqualified themselves for its benefits by removing from +the regions of thought and feeling which it accords with, into other +regions, which it is of too severe dignity to affect, otherwise +than with stern menace and direful foreboding! If they would have +it bless them and do them good, they must change their manner of +approaching it, and endeavor to bring themselves into that prepared, +and collected, and reverential frame which becomes an interview with +the High and Holy One who inhabiteth the praises of eternity. + +Having thus spoken without equivocation, and we hope without +offense, to the contradictoriness and preoccupation with which +Christians and worldly men are apt to come to the perusal of the +Word of God, we shall now set forth the two master-feelings under +which we shall address ourselves to the sacred occupation. + +It is a good custom, inherited from the hallowed days of Scottish +piety, and in our cottages still preserved, tho in our cities +generally given up, to preface the morning and evening worship of +the family with a short invocation of blessing from the Lord. This +is in unison with the practise and recommendation of pious men, +never to open the Divine Word without a silent invocation of the +Divine Spirit. But no address to heaven is of any virtue, save as +it is the expression of certain pious sentiments with which the +mind is full and overflowing. Of those sentiments which befit the +mind that comes into conference with its Maker, the first and most +prominent should be gratitude for His ever having condescended to +hold commerce with such wretched and fallen creatures. Gratitude +not only expressing itself in proper terms, but possessing the mind +with one abiding and over-mastering mood, under which it shall sit +imprest the whole duration of the interview. Such an emotion as +can not utter itself in language--tho by language it indicates its +presence--but keeps us in a devout and adoring frame, while the Lord +is uttering His voice. + +Go visit a desolate widow with consolation, and help, and fatherhood +of her orphan children--do it again and again--and your presence, +the sound of your approaching footstep, the soft utterance of +your voice, the very mention of your name, shall come to dilate +her heart with a fulness which defies her tongue to utter, but +speaking by the tokens of a swimming eye, and clasped hands, and +fervent ejaculations to heaven upon your head! No less copious +acknowledgment of God, the author of our well-being, and the Father +of our better hopes, ought we to feel when His Word discloseth to +us the excess of His love. Tho a veil be now cast over the Majesty +which speaks, it is the voice of the Eternal which we hear, coming +in soft cadences to win our favor, yet omnipotent as the voice of +the thunder, and overpowering as the rushing of many waters. And tho +the evil of the future intervene between our hand and the promised +goods, still are they from His lips who speaks, and it is done, +who commands, and all things stand fast. With no less emotion, +therefore, should this book be opened, than if, like him in the +Apocalypse, you saw the voice which spake; or, like him in the +trance, you were into the third heaven translated, companying and +communing with the realities of glory which the eye hath not seen, +nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. + +Far and foreign from such an opened and awakened bosom is that cold +and formal hand which is generally laid upon the sacred volume; +that unfeeling and unimpressive tone with which its accents are +pronounced; and that listless and incurious ear into which its +blessed sounds are received. How can you, thus unimpassioned, +hold communion with themes in which everything awful, vital, and +endearing meet together? Why is not curiosity, curiosity ever +hungry, on edge to know the doings and intentions of Jehovah, King +of Kings? Why is not interest, interest ever awake, on tip-toe +to hear the future destiny of itself? Why is not the heart, that +panteth over the world after love and friendship, overpowered with +the full tide of the divine acts and expressions of love? Where is +nature gone when she is not moved with the tender mercy of Christ? +Methinks the affections of men are fallen into the yellow leaf. Of +the poets which charm the world's ear, who is he that inditeth a +song unto his God? Some will tune their harps to sensual pleasure, +and by the enchantment of their genius well-nigh commend their +unholy themes to the imagination of saints. Others, to the high +and noble sentiments of the heart, will sing of domestic joys and +happy unions, casting around sorrow the radiancy of virtue, and +bodying forth, in undying forms, the short-lived visions of joy! +Others have enrolled themselves the high-priests of mute nature's +charms, enchanting her echoes with their minstrelsy, and peopling +her solitudes with the bright creatures of their fancy. But when, +since the days of the blind master of English song, hath any poured +forth a lay worthy of the Christian theme? Nor in philosophy, "the +palace of the soul," have men been more mindful of their Maker. +The flowers of the garden and the herbs of the field have their +unwearied devotees, crossing the ocean, wayfaring in the desert, and +making devout pilgrimages to every region of nature for offerings +to their patron muse. The rocks, from their residences among the +clouds to their deep rests in the dark bowels of the earth, have +a bold and most venturous priesthood, who see in their rough and +flinty faces a more delectable image to adore than in the revealed +countenance of God. And the political warfare of the world is a very +Moloch, who can at any time command his hecatomb of human victims. +But the revealed suspense of God, to which the harp of David, and +the prophetic lyre of Isaiah were strung, the prudence of God, which +the wisest of men coveted after, preferring it to every gift which +heaven could confer, and the eternal intelligence Himself in human +form, and the unction of the Holy One which abideth--these the +common heart of man hath forsaken, and refused to be charmed withal. + +I testify, that there ascendeth not from earth a hosanna of her +children to bear witness in the ear of the upper regions to the +wonderful manifestations of her God! From a few scattered hamlets +in a small portion of her territory a small voice ascendeth, like +the voice of one crying in the wilderness. But to the service of our +general Preserver there is no concourse, from Dan unto Beersheba, +of our people, the greater part of whom, after two thousand years +of apostolic commission, have not the testimonials of our God; and +the multitude of those who disrespect or despise them! + +But, to return from this lamentation, which may God hear, who +doth not disregard the cries of His afflicted people! With the +full sense of obligation to the giver, combine a humble sense of +your own incapacity to value and to use the gift of His oracles. +Having no taste whatever for the mean estimates which are made, +and the coarse invectives that are vented, against human nature, +which, tho true in the main, are often in the manner so unfeeling +and triumphant, as to reveal hot zeal rather than tender and deep +sorrow, we will not give in to this popular strain. And yet it is a +truth by experience, revealed, that tho there be in man most noble +faculties, and a nature restless after the knowledge and truth of +things, there are toward God and His revealed will an indisposition +and a regardlessness, which the most tender and enlightened +consciences are the most ready to acknowledge. Of our emancipated +youth, who, bound after the knowledge of the visible works of God, +and the gratification of the various instincts of nature, how few +betake themselves at all, how few absorb themselves with the study +and obedience of the Word of God! And when, by God's visitation, we +address ourselves to the task, how slow is our progress and how +imperfect our performance! It is most true that nature is unwilling +to the subject of the Scriptures. The soul is previously possest +with adverse interests; the world hath laid an embargo on her +faculties, and monopolized them to herself; old habit hath perhaps +added to his almost incurable callousness; and the enemy of God and +man is skilful to defend what he hath already won. So circumstanced, +and every man is so circumstanced, we come to the audience of +the Word of God, and listen in the worse tune than a wanton to a +sermon, or a hardened knave to a judicial address. Our understanding +is prepossest with a thousand idols of the world--religious or +irreligious--which corrupt the reading of the Word into a straining +of the text to their service, and when it will not strain, cause it +to be skimmed, and perhaps despised or hated. Such a thing as a free +and unlimited reception of all parts of the Scripture into the mind, +is a thing most rare to be met with, and when met with will be found +the result of many a sore submission of nature's opinions as well as +of nature's likings. + +But the Word, as hath been said, is not for the intellect alone, +but for the heart, and for the will. Now if any one be so wedded +to his own candor as to think he doth accept the divine truth +unabated, surely no one will flatter himself into the belief that +his heart is attuned and enlarged for all divine commandments. +The man who thus misdeems of himself must, if his opinions were +just, be like a sheet of fair paper, unblotted and unwritten on; +whereas all men are already occupied, to the very fulness, with +other opinions and attachments and desires than the Word reveals. +We do not grow Christians by the same culture by which we grow men, +otherwise what need of divine revelation, and divine assistance? +But being unacquainted from the womb with God, and attached to what +is seen and felt, through early and close acquaintance, we are +ignorant and detached from what is unseen and unfelt. The Word is +a novelty to our nature, its truths fresh truths, its affections +fresh affections, its obedience gathered from the apprehension +of nature and the commerce of the worldly life. Therefore there +needeth, in one that would be served from this storehouse opened +by heaven, a disrelish of his old acquisitions, and a preference +of the new, a simple, child-like teachableness, an allowance of +ignorance and error, with whatever else beseems an anxious learner. +Coming to the Word of God, we are like children brought into the +conversations of experienced men; and we should humbly listen and +reverently inquire; or we are like raw rustics introduced into high +and polished life, and we should unlearn our coarseness, and copy +the habits of the station; nay we are like offenders caught, and +for the moment committed to the bosom of honorable society, with +the power of regaining our lost condition and inheriting honor and +trust--therefore we should walk softly and tenderly, covering our +former reproach with modesty and humbleness, hasting to redeem our +reputation by distinguished performances, against offense doubly +guarded, doubly watchful for dangerous and extreme positions to +demonstrate our recovered goodness. + +These two sentiments--devout veneration of God for His unspeakable +gift, and deep distrust of our capacity to estimate and use it +aright--will generate in the mind a constant aspiration after the +guidance and instruction of a higher power; the first sentiment of +goodness remembered, emboldening us to draw near to Him who first +drew near to us, and who with Christ will not refuse us any gift; +the second sentiment, of weakness remembered, teaching us our need, +and prompting us by every interest of religion and every feeling of +helplessness to seek of Him who hath said, "If any one lack wisdom +let him ask God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not." The soul +which under these two master-feelings cometh to read, shall not +read without profit. Every new revelation, feeding his gratitude +and nourishing his former ignorance, will confirm the emotions he +is under, and carry them onward to an unlimited dimension. Such +a one will prosper in the way; enlargement of the inner man will +be his portion and the establishment in the truth his exceeding +great reward. "In the strength of the Lord shall his right hand get +victory--even in the name of the Lord of Hosts. His soul shall also +flourish with the fruits of righteousness from the seed of the word, +which liveth and abideth forever." + +Thus delivered from prepossessions of all other masters, and arrayed +in the raiment of humility and love, the soul should advance to the +meeting of her God; and she should call a muster of her faculties +and have all her poor grace in attendance, and anything she knows +of His excellent works and exalted ways she should summon up to +her remembrance; her understanding she should quicken, her memory +refresh, her imagination stimulate, her affections cherish, and her +conscience arouse. All that is within her should be stirred up, her +whole glory should awake and her whole beauty display itself for the +meeting of her King. As His hand-maiden she should meet Him; His own +handiwork, tho sore defaced, yet seeking restoration; His humble, +because offending, servant--yet nothing slavish, tho humble--nothing +superstitious, tho devout--nothing tame, tho modest in her demeanor; +but quick and ready, all addrest and wound up for her Maker's will. + +How different the ordinary proceeding of Christians, who, with +timorous, mistrustful spirits, with an abeyance of intellect, and a +dwarfish reduction of their natural powers, enter to the conference +of the Word of God! The natural powers of man are to be mistrusted, +doubtless, as the willing instruments of the evil one; but they +must be honored also as the necessary instruments of the Spirit of +God, whose operation is a dream, if it be not through knowledge, +intellect, conscience, and action. Now Christians, heedless of the +grand resurrection of the mighty instruments of thought and action, +at the same time coveting hard after holy attainment, do often +resign the mastery of themselves, and are taken into the counsel +of the religious world--whirling around the eddy of some popular +leader--and so drifted, I will not say from godliness, but drifted +certainly from that noble, manly and independent course, which, +under steerage of the Word of God, they might safely have pursued +for the precious interests of their immortal souls. Meanwhile these +popular leaders, finding no necessity for strenuous endeavors +and high science in the ways of God, but having a gathering host +to follow them, deviate from the ways of deep and penetrating +thought--refuse the contest with the literary and accomplished +enemies of the faith--bring a contempt upon the cause in which +mighty men did formerly gird themselves to the combat--and so cast +the stumbling-block of a mistaken paltryness between enlightened +men and the cross of Christ! So far from this simple-mindedness (but +its proper name is feeble-mindedness), Christians should be--as +aforetime in this island they were wont to be--the princes of human +intellect, the lights of the world, the salt of the political and +social state. Till they come forth from the swaddling-bands, in +which foreign schools have girt them, and walk boldly upon the +high places of human understanding, they shall never obtain that +influence in the upper regions of knowledge and power, of which, +unfortunately, they have not the apostolic unction to be in quest. +They will never be the master and commanding spirit of the time, +until they cast off the wrinkled and withered skin of an obsolete +old age, and clothe themselves with intelligence as with a garment, +and bring forth the fruits of power and love and of a sound mind. + +Mistake us not, for we steer in a narrow, very narrow channel, with +rocks of popular prejudice on every side. While we thus invocate +to the reading of the Word, the highest strains of the human soul, +mistake us not as derogating from the office of the Spirit of God. +Far be it from any Christian, much further from any Christian +pastor, to withdraw from God the honor which is everywhere His due; +but there most of all His due where the human mind labored alone +for thousands of years, and labored with no success--viz., the +regeneration of itself, and its restoration to the last semblance +of the divinity! Oh! let him be reverently inquired after, +devoutly meditated on, and most thankfully acknowledged in every +step of progress from the soul's fresh awakening out of her dark, +oblivious sleep--even to her ultimate attainment upon earth and +full accomplishment for heaven. And there may be a fuller choir +of awakened men to advance His honor and glory here on earth, and +hereafter in heaven above; let the saints bestir themselves like +angels and the ministers of religion like archangels strong! And +now at length let us have a demonstration made of all that is +noble in thought, and generous in action, and devoted in piety, +for bestirring this lethargy, and breaking the bonds of hell, and +redeeming the whole world to the service of its God and King! + + + + +ARNOLD + +ALIVE IN GOD + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Thomas Arnold, schoolmaster and preacher, was born at West Cowes, +Isle of Wight, in 1795. He was educated at Oxford, and after his +graduation taught as fellow of Oriel College, until in 1820 he +removed to Laleham near Haines and took pupils to prepare for the +universities. In 1827 he was elected to the head mastership of +Rugby, and took priest's orders before entering upon his duties. +At Rugby he remained till his death in 1842. His great work as an +educator consisted in teaching boys the duty of self-government, +self-control and freedom of intellectual judgement. His sermons in +the school chapel were distinguished by simplicity and profound +moral and religious earnestness. + + + + +ARNOLD + +1795-1842 + +ALIVE IN GOD + +_God is not the God of the dead, but of the living._--Matt. xxii., +32. + + +We hear these words as a part of our Lord's answer to the Sadducees; +and as their question was put in evident profaneness, and the answer +to it is one which to our minds is quite obvious and natural, so we +are apt to think that in this particular story there is less than +usual that particularly concerns us. But it so happens that our Lord +in answering the Sadducees has brought in one of the most universal +and most solemn of all truths,--which is indeed implied in many +parts of the Old Testament, but which the Gospel has revealed to us +in all its fulness,--the truth contained in the words of the text, +that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." + +I would wish to unfold a little what is contained in these words +which we often hear, even, perhaps, without quite understanding +them, and many times oftener without fully entering into them. And +we may take them, without fully entering into them. And we may take +them, first, in their first part, where they say that "God is not +the God of the dead." + +The word "dead," we know, is constantly used in Scripture in a +double sense, as meaning those who are dead spiritually as well as +those who are dead naturally. And in either sense the words are +alike applicable: "God is not the God of the dead." + +God's not being the God of the dead signifies two things: that they +who are without Him are dead, as well as that they who are dead are +also without Him. So far as our knowledge goes respecting inferior +animals they appear to be examples of this truth. They appear to +us to have no knowledge of God; and we are not told that they have +any other life than the short one of which our senses inform us. +I am well aware that our ignorance of their condition is so great +that we may not dare to say anything of them positively; there may +be a hundred things true respecting them which we neither know nor +imagine. I would only say that according to that most imperfect +light in which we see them the two points of which I have been +speaking appear to meet in them: we believe that they have no +consciousness of God, and we believe that they will die. And so far, +therefore, they afford an example of the agreement, if I may so +speak, between these two points; and were intended, perhaps, to be +to our view a continual image of it. But we had far better speak of +ourselves. And here, too, it is the case that "God is not the God of +the dead." If we are without Him we are dead, and if we are dead we +are without Him; in other words, the two ideas of death and absence +from God are in fact synonymous. + +Thus, in the account given of the fall of man, the sentence of death +and of being cast out of Eden go together; and if any one compares +the description of the second Eden in the Revelation, and recollects +how especially it is there said that God dwells in the midst of it, +and is its light by day and night, he will see that the banishment +from the first Eden means a banishment from the presence of God. +And thus, in the day that Adam sinned he died; for he was cast out +of Eden immediately, however long he may have moved about afterward +upon the earth where God was not. And how very strong to the same +point are the words of Hezekiah's prayer, "The grave cannot praise +Thee, Death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit +cannot hope for Thy truth"; words which express completely the +feeling that God is not the God of the dead. This, too, appears to +be the sense generally of the expression used in various parts of +the Old Testament, "Thou shalt surely die." + +It is, no doubt, left purposely obscure; nor are we ever told in +so many words all that is meant by death; but, surely, it always +implies a separation from God, and the being--whatever the notion +may extend to--the being dead to Him. + +Thus, when David had committed his great sin and had expressed his +repentance for it, Nathan tells him, "The Lord also hath put away +thy sin; thou shalt not die"; which means most expressively, thou +shalt not die to God. + +In one sense David died, as all men die; nor was he by any means +freed from the punishment of his sin; he was not, in that sense, +forgiven, but he was allowed still to regard God as his God; and +therefore his punishments were but fatherly chastisements from God's +hand, designed for his profit that he might be partaker of God's +holiness. + +And thus altho Saul was sentenced to lose his kingdom, and altho he +was killed with his sons on Mount Gilboa, yet I do not think that +we find the sentence passed upon him, "Thou shalt surely die"; and +therefore we have no right to say that God had ceased to be his God +altho He visited him with severe chastisements and would not allow +him to hand down to his sons the crown of Israel. Observe also the +language of the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, where the expressions +occur so often, "He shall surely live," and "He shall surely die." + +We have no right to refer these to a mere extension on the one +hand, or a cutting short on the other, of the term of earthly +existence. The promise of living long in the land or, as in +Hezekiah's case, of adding to his days fifteen years, is very +different from the full and unreserved blessing, "Thou shalt surely +live." And we know, undoubtedly, that both the good and the bad to +whom Ezekiel spoke died alike the natural death of the body. But +the peculiar force of the promise and of the threat was, in the +one case, Thou shalt belong to God; in the other, Thou shalt cease +to belong to Him; although the veil was not yet drawn up which +concealed the full import of those terms, "belonging to God," and +"ceasing to belong to Him": nay, can we venture to affirm that it is +fully drawn aside even now? + +I have dwelt on this at some length, because it really seems to +place the common state of the minds of too many amongst us in a +light which is exceedingly awful; for if it be true, as I think +the Scripture implies, that to be dead and to be without God are +precisely the same thing, then can it be denied that the symptoms of +death are strongly marked upon many of us? Are there not many who +never think of God or care about His service? Are there not many +who live, to all appearance, as unconscious of His existence, as we +fancy the inferior animals to be? + +And is it not quite clear that to such persons God cannot be said +to be their God? He may be the God of heaven and earth, the God of +the universe, the God of Christ's Church; but He is not their God, +for they feel to have nothing at all to do with Him; and therefore, +as He is not their God, they are, and must be according to the +Scripture, reckoned among the dead. + +But God is the God "of the living." That is, as before, all who are +alive live unto Him; all who live unto Him are alive. "God said, I +am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob"; +and therefore, says our Lord, "Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob are not +and cannot be dead." They cannot be dead, because God owns them: He +is not ashamed to be called their God; therefore they are not cast +out from Him; therefore, by necessity, they live. + +Wonderful, indeed, is the truth here implied, in exact agreement, as +we have seen, with the general language of Scripture; that, as she +who but touched the hem of Christ's garment was in a moment relieved +from her infirmity, so great was the virtue which went out from Him; +so they who are not cast out from God, but have anything whatever to +do with Him, feel the virtue of His gracious presence penetrating +their whole nature; because He lives, they must live also. + +Behold, then, life and death set before us; not remote (if a few +years be, indeed, to be called remote), but even now present before +us; even now suffered or enjoyed. Even now, we are alive unto God, +or dead unto God; and, as we are either the one or the other, so we +are, in the highest possible sense of the terms, alive or dead. In +the highest possible sense of the terms; but who can tell what that +highest possible sense of the terms is? So much has, indeed, been +revealed to us, that we know now that death means a conscious and +perpetual death, as life means a conscious and perpetual life. + +But greatly, indeed, do we deceive ourselves, if we fancy that, +by having thus much told us, we have also risen to the infinite +heights, or descended to the infinite depths, contained in those +little words, life and death. They are far higher, and far deeper, +than ever thought or fancy of man has reached to. But, even on the +first edge of either, at the visible beginnings of that infinite +ascent or descent, there is surely something which may give us a +foretaste of what is beyond. Even to us in this mortal state, even +to you, advanced but so short a way on your very earthly journey, +life and death have a meaning: to be dead unto God, or to be alive +to Him, are things perceptibly different. + +For, let me ask of those who think least of God, who are most +separate from Him, and most without Him, whether there is not now +actually, perceptibly, in their state, something of the coldness, +the loneliness, the fearfulness of death? I do not ask them whether +they are made unhappy by the fear of God's anger; of course they are +not: for they who fear God are not dead to Him, nor He to them. + +The thought of Him gives them no disquiet at all; this is the very +point we start from. But I would ask them whether they know what +it is to feel God's blessing. For instance: we all of us have our +troubles of some sort or other, our disappointments, if not our +sorrows. In these troubles, in these disappointments,--I care not +how small they may be,--have they known what it is to feel that +God's hand is over them; that these little annoyances are but +His fatherly correction; that He is all the time loving us, and +supporting us? In seasons of joy, such as they taste very often, +have they known what it is to feel that they are tasting the +kindness of their heavenly Father, that their good things come from +His hand and are but an infinitely slight foretaste of His love? +Sickness, danger; I know that they come to many of us but rarely; +but if we have known them, or at least sickness, even in its lighter +form, if not in its graver,--have we felt what it is to know that we +are in our Father's hands, that He is with us, and will be with us +to the end; that nothing can hurt those whom He loves? + +Surely, then, if we have never tasted anything of this: if in +trouble, or in joy, or in sickness, we are left wholly to ourselves +to bear as we can and enjoy as we can; if there is no voice that +ever speaks out of the heights and the depths around us to give any +answer to our own; if we are thus left to ourselves in this vast +world,--there is in this a coldness and a loneliness; and whenever +we come to be, of necessity, driven to be with our own hearts alone, +the coldness and the loneliness must be felt. But consider that the +things which we see around us cannot remain with us nor we with +them. The coldness and loneliness of the world, without God, must +be felt more and more as life wears on; in every change of our own +state, in every separation from or loss of a friend, in every more +sensible weakness of our own bodies, in every additional experience +of the uncertainty of our own counsels,--the deathlike feeling will +come upon us more and more strongly: we shall gain more of that +fearful knowledge which tells us that "God is not the God of the +dead." + +And so, also, the blessed knowledge that He is the God "of the +living" grows upon those who are truly alive. Surely He "is not far +from every one of us." No occasion of life fails to remind those who +live unto Him that He is their God and that they are His children. +On light occasions or on grave ones, in sorrow and in joy, still the +warmth of His love is spread, as it were, all through the atmosphere +of their lives; they forever feel His blessing. And if it fills +them with joy unspeakable even now, when they so often feel how +little they deserve it; if they delight still in being with God, and +in living to Him, let them be sure that they have in themselves the +unerring witness of life eternal: God is the God of the living, and +all who are with Him must live. + +Hard it is, I well know, to bring this home in any degree to the +minds of those who are dead; for it is of the very nature of the +dead that they can hear no words of life. But it has happened that, +even whilst writing what I have just been uttering to you, the news +reached me that one who two months ago was one of your number, who +this very half-year has shared in all the business and amusements of +this place, is passed already into that state where the meanings of +the terms life and death are become fully revealed. He knows what it +is to live unto God and what it is to die to Him. Those things which +are to us unfathomable mysteries are to him all plain: and yet but +two months ago he might have thought himself as far from attaining +this knowledge as any of us can do. Wherefore it is clear that these +things, life and death, may hurry their lesson upon us sooner than +we deem of, sooner than we are prepared to receive it. And that +were indeed awful, if, being dead to God, and yet little feeling it +because of the enjoyments of our worldly life, those enjoyments +were on a sudden to be struck away from us, and we should find then +that to be dead to God was death indeed, a death from which there is +no waking, and in which there is no sleeping forever. + + + + +WAYLAND + +A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JESUS OF NAZARETH + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Francis Wayland, preacher and philosopher, was born in New York, +in 1796. He graduated at Union College in 1813 and in 1816 entered +Hudson Theological Seminary. His first charge was the First +Baptist Church in Boston. Here he established his reputation as an +able and vigorous pulpit orator. Five years later he accepted a +chair in Union College, but in 1827 entered upon an incumbency of +twenty-eight years as President of Brown University, Providence. +This institution he built up on a broad and liberal basis, quite +emancipating it from narrow sectarianism. In 1855 he became pastor +of the First Baptist Church in Providence and died in 1865. + + + + +WAYLAND + +1796-1865 + +A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JESUS OF NAZARETH + +_And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they +had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert +place, belonging to the city called Bethsaida. And the people +when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake +unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of +healing. And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, +and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into +the towns and country round about, and lodge and get victuals: for +we are here in a desert place. But he said unto them, Give ye them +to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two +fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people. For +they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, +Make them sit down by fifties in a company. And they did so, and +made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two +fishes and looking up to heaven, he blessed them and brake, and gave +to the disciples to set before the multitude. And they did eat, and +were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained +to them twelve baskets._--Luke ix., 10-17. + + +It was the sagacious opinion of, I think, the late Professor +Porson, that he would rather see a single copy of a daily newspaper +of ancient Athens, than read all the commentaries upon the +Grecian tragedies that have ever been written. The reason for +this preference is obvious. A single sheet, similar to our daily +newspapers, published in the time of Pericles, would admit us at +once to a knowledge of the habits, manners, modes of opinion, +political relations, social condition, and moral attainments of +the people, such as we never could gain from the study of all the +writers that have ever attempted to illustrate the nature of Grecian +civilization. + +The same remark is true in respect to our knowledge of the character +of individuals who have lived in a former age. What would we not, +at the present day, give for a few pages of the private diary of +Julius Cesar, or Cicero, or Brutus, or Augustus; or for the minute +reminiscences of any one who had spent a few days in the company of +either of these distinguished men? What a flood of life would the +discovery of such a manuscript throw upon Roman life, but especially +upon the private opinions, the motives, the aspirations, the moral +estimates of the men whose names have become household words +throughout the world! A few such pages might, perchance, dissipate +the authority of many a bulky folio on which we now rely with +implicit confidence. Not only would the characters of these heroes +of antiquity stand out in bolder relief than they have ever done +before, but the individuals themselves would be brought within the +range of our personal sympathy; and we should seem to commune with +them as we do with an intimate acquaintance. + +It is worthy of remark, that we are favored with a larger portion +of this kind of information, respecting Jesus of Nazareth, than +almost any other distinguished person that has ever lived. He left +no writings Himself; hence all that we know of Him has been written +by others. The narrators, however, were the personal attendants, and +not the mere auditors or pupils of their master. The apostles were +members of the family of Jesus; they traveled with Him, on foot, +throughout the length and breadth of Palestine; they partook with +Him of his frugal meals, and bore with Him the trial of hunger, +weariness, and want of shelter; they followed Him through the lonely +wilderness and the crowded street; they saw His miracles in every +variety of form, and listened to His discourses in public as well +as to His explanations in private. Hence their whole narrative is +instinct with life; a vivid picture of Jewish manners and customs, +rendered more definite and characteristic by the moral light which +then, for the first time, shone upon it. Hence it is that these few +pages are replete with moral lessons that never weary us in the +perusal, and which have been the source of unfailing illumination to +all succeeding ages. + +The verses which I have read, as the text of this discourse, may +well be taken as an illustration of all that I have here said. They +may, without impropriety, be styled a day in the life of Jesus of +Nazareth. By observing the manner in which our blessed Lord spent a +single day, we may form some conception of the kind of life which +He ordinarily led; and we may, perchance, treasure up some lessons +which it were well if we should exemplify in our daily practice. + +The place at which these events occurred was near the head of the +Sea of Galilee, where it receives the waters of the upper Jordan. +This was one of the Savior's favorite places of resort. Capernaum, +Chorazin, and Bethsaida, all in this immediate vicinity, are always +spoken of in the gospels as towns which enjoyed the largest share of +His ministerial labors, and were distinguished most frequently with +the honor of His personal presence. The scenery of the neighborhood +is wild and romantic. To the north and west, the eye rests on the +lofty summits of Lebanon and Hermon. To the south, there opens upon +the view the blue expanse of the lake, enclosed by frowning rocks, +which here and there jut over far into the waters, and then again +retire towards the land, leaving a level beach to invite the labors +of the fishermen. The people, removed at a considerable distance +from the metropolis of Judea, cultivated those rural habits with +which the simple tastes of the Savior would most readily harmonize. +Near this spot was also one of the most frequented fords of the +Jordan, on the road from Damascus to Jerusalem; and thus, while +residing here, He enjoyed unusual facilities for disseminating +throughout this whole region a knowledge of those truths which He +came on earth to promulgate. + +Some weeks previous to the time in which the events spoken of in +the text occurred, our Lord had sent His disciples to announce the +approach of the kingdom of heaven, in all the cities and villages +which He Himself proposed to visit. He conferred on them the power +to work miracles, in attestation of their authority, and of the +divine character of Him by whom they were sent. He imposed upon them +strict rules of conduct, and directed them to make known to every +one who would hear them the good news of the coming dispensation. +As soon as He sent them forth, He Himself went immediately abroad +to teach and to preach in their cities. As their Master and Lord, +He might reasonably have claimed exemption from the personal +toil and the rigid self-denials to which they were by necessity +subjected. But He had laid no claim to such exemption. He commenced +without delay the performance of the very same duties which He +had imposed upon them. He felt himself under obligation to set an +example of obedience to His own rules. "The Son of Man," said He, +"came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His +life a ransom for many." "Which," said He, "is greater, he that +sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? but I am among you as He that +serveth." Would it not be well, if, in this respect, we copied more +minutely the example of our Lord, and held ourselves responsible +for the performance of the very same duties which we so willingly +impose upon our brethren? We best prove that we believe an act +obligatory, when we commence the performance of it ourselves. Many +zealous Christians employ themselves in no other labor than that +of urging their brethren to effort. Our Savior acted otherwise. +In this respect, His example is specially to be imitated by His +ministers. When they urge upon others a moral duty, they must be +the first to perform it. When they inculcate an act of self-denial, +they themselves must make the noblest sacrifice. Can we conceive +of anything which could so much increase the moral power of the +ministry, and rouse to a flame the dormant energy of the churches, +as obedience to this teaching of Christ by the preachers of His +gospel? + +It seems that the Savior had selected a well-known spot, at the +head of the lake, for the place of meeting for his apostles, after +this their first missionary tour had been completed. "The apostles +gathered themselves unto Jesus, and told Him all things, both +what they had done, and what they had taught." There is something +delightful in this filial confidence which these simple-hearted +men reposed in their almighty Redeemer. They told Him of their +success and their failure, of their wisdom and their folly, of +their reliance and their unbelief. We can almost imagine ourselves +spectators of this meeting between Christ and them, after this +their first separation from each other. The place appointed was +most probably some well-known locality on the shore of the lake, +under the shadow of its overhanging rocks, where the cool air from +the bosom of the water refreshed each returning laborer, as he came +back beaten out with the fatigues of travel, under the burning sun +of Syria. You can imagine the joy with which each drew near to the +Master, after this temporary absence; and the honest greetings with +which every newcomer was welcomed by those who had chanced to arrive +before him. We can seem to perceive the Savior of men listening with +affectionate earnestness to the recital of their various adventures; +and interposing, from time to time, a word either of encouragement +or of caution, as the character and circumstances of each narrator +required it. The bosom of each was unveiled before the Searcher of +Hearts, and the consolation which each one needed was bestowed upon +him abundantly. The toilsomeness of their journey was no longer +remembered, as each one received from the Son of God the smile +of His approbation. That was truly a joyful meeting. Of all that +company there is not one who has forgotten that day; nor will he +forget it ever. With unreserved frankness they told Jesus of all +that they had done, and what they had taught; of all their acts, +and all their conversations. Would it not be better for us, if we +cultivated more assiduously this habit of intimate intercourse with +the Savior? Were we every day to tell Jesus of all that we have +done and said; did we spread before Him our joys and our sorrows, +our faults and our infirmities, our successes and our failures, we +should be saved from many an error and many a sin. Setting the Lord +always before us, He would be on our right hand, and we should not +be moved. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High +shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." + +The Savior perceived that the apostles needed much instruction which +could not be communicated in a place where both He and they were so +well known. They had committed many errors, which He preferred to +correct in private. By doing His will, they had learned to repose +greater confidence in His wisdom, and were prepared to receive from +Him more important instruction. But these lessons could not be +delivered in the hearing of a promiscuous audience. Nor was this +all. He perceived that the apostles were worn out with their labors, +and needed repose. Surrounded as they were by the multitude, which +had already begun to collect about them, rest and retirement were +equally impossible. "There were many coming and going, and they had +no leisure, even so much as to eat." He therefore said to them, +"Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while." +For this purpose, He "took ship, and crossed over with his disciples +alone, and went into a desert place belonging to Bethsaida." + +The religion of Christ imposes upon us duties of retirement, as +well as duties of publicity. The apostles had been for some time +past before the eyes of all men, preaching and working miracles. +Their souls needed retirement. "Solitude," said Cecil, "is my great +ordinance." They would be greatly improved by private communion both +with Him and with each other. It was for the purpose of affording +them such a season of moral recreation, that our Lord withdrew them +from the public gaze into a desert place. Nor was this all. Their +labor for some weeks past had been severe. They had traveled on foot +under a tropical sun, reasoning with unbelievers, instructing the +ignorant, and comforting the cast-down. Called upon, at all hours, +both of the day and night, to work cures on those that were opprest +with diseases, their bodies, no less than their spirits, needed +rest. Our Lord saw this, and He made provision for it. He withdrew +them from labor, that they might find, tho it were but for a day, +the repose which their exhausted natures demanded. The religion of +Christ is ever merciful, and ever consistent in its benevolence. +It is thoughtful of the benefactor as well as the recipient. It +requires of us all labor and self-sacrifice, but to these it affixes +a limit. It never commands us to ruin our health and enfeeble our +minds by unnatural exhaustion. It teaches us to obey the laws of +our physical organization, and to prepare ourselves for the labors +of to-morrow by the judiciously conducted labors of to-day. It was +on this principle that our Lord conducted His intercourse with His +disciples. "He knew their frame, and remembered that they were dust." + +May we not from this incident derive a lesson of practical +instruction? I well know that there are persons who are always +sparing themselves, who, while it is difficult to tell what they do, +are always complaining of the crushing weight of their labors, and +who are rather exhausted with the dread of what they shall do, than +with the experience of what they have actually done. It is not of +those that we speak. Those who do not labor have no need of rest. It +is to the honest, the painstaking, the laborious, that we address +the example in the text. We sometimes meet with the industrious, +self-denying servant of Christ, in feeble health, and with an +exhausted nature, bemoaning his condition, and condemning himself +because he can accomplish no more, while so much yet remains to be +done. To such a one we may safely present the example of the blessed +Savior. When His apostles had done to the utmost of their strength, +altho the harvest was great, and the laborers few, He did not urge +upon them additional labor, nor tell them that because there was so +much to be done they must never cease from doing. No; He tells them +to turn aside and rest for a while. It is as tho He had said, "Your +strength is exhausted; you cannot be qualified for subsequent duty +until you be refreshed. Economize, then, your power, that you may +accomplish the more." The Savior addresses the same language to us +now. When we are worn down in His service, as in any other, He would +have us rest, not for the sake of self-indulgence, but that we may +be the better prepared for future effort. We do nothing at variance +with His will, when we, with a good conscience, use the liberty +which he has thus conceded to us. + +Jesus, with His disciples, crossed the water, and entered the +desert; that is, the sparsely inhabited country of Bethsaida. +Desert, or wilderness, in the New Testament, does not mean an arid +waste, but pasture land, forest, or any district to which one could +retire for seclusion. Here, in the cool and tranquil neighborhood +of the lake, he began to instruct His disciples, and, without +interruption, make known to them the mysteries of the kingdom. It +was one of those seasons that the Savior Himself rarely enjoyed. +Everything tended to repose: the rustling leaves, the rippling +waves, the song of the birds, heard more distinctly in this rural +solitude, all served to calm the spirit ruffled by the agitations of +the world, and prepared it to listen to the truths which unveil to +us eternity. Here our Lord could unbosom Himself, without reserve, +to His chosen few, and hold with them that communion which He was +rarely permitted to enjoy during His ministry on earth. + +Soon, however, the whole scene is changed. The multitude, whom he +had so recently left, having observed the direction in which He had +gone, have discovered the place of His retreat. An immense crowd +approaches, and the little company is surrounded by a dense mass of +human beings pressing upon them on every side. These are, however, +only the pioneers. At last, five thousand men, besides women and +children, are beheld thronging around them. + +Some of these suitors present most importunate claims. They are in +search of cure for diseases which have baffled the skill of the +medical profession, and, as a last resort, they have come to the +Messiah for aid. Here was a parent bringing a consumptive child. +There were children bearing on a couch a paralytic parent. Here +was a sister leading a brother blind from his birth, while her +supplications were drowned by the shout of a frenzied lunatic who +was standing by her side. Every one, believing his own claim to be +the most urgent, prest forward with selfish importunity. Each one, +caring for no other than himself, was striving to attain the front +rank, while those behind, disappointed, and fearing to lose this +important opportunity, were eager to occupy the places of those more +fortunate than themselves. The necessary tumult and disorder of such +a scene you can better imagine than I can describe. + +This was, doubtless, by no means a welcome interruption. The +apostles needed the time for rest; for they were worn out in +the public service. They wanted it for instruction; for such +opportunities of intercourse with Christ were rare. But what did +they do? Did our Lord inform the multitude that this day was set +apart for their own refreshment and improvement, and that they could +not be interrupted? As He beheld them approaching, did He quietly +take to His boat, and leave them to go home disappointed? Did He +plead His own convenience, or His need of repose, as any reason for +not attending to the pressing necessities of His fellow men? + +No, my brethren, very far from it. That providence of God had +brought these multitudes before Him, and that same providence +forbade Him to send them away unblest. He at once broke up the +conference with His disciples and addrest Himself to the work +before Him. His instructions were of inestimable importance; but +I doubt if even they were as important as the example of deep +humility, exhaustless kindness, and affecting compassion which He +here exhibited. When the Master places work before us which can be +done at no other time, our convenience must yield to other men's +necessities. "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but +to minister." You can imagine to yourself the Savior rising from +His seat, in the midst of His disciples, and presenting Himself +to the approaching multitudes. His calm dignity awes into silence +this tumultuous gathering of the people. Those who came out to +witness the tricks of an empiric, or listen to the ravings of a +fanatic, find themselves, unexpectedly, in a presence that repels +every emotion but that of profound veneration. The light-hearted +and frivolous are awestruck by the unearthly majesty that seems +to clothe the Messiah as with a garment. And yet it was a majesty +that shone forth conspicuous, most of all, by the manifestation of +unparalleled goodness. Every eye that met the eye of the Savior +quailed before Him; for it looked into a soul that had never +sinned; and the spirit of the sinner felt, for the first time, the +full power of immaculate virtue. + +Thus the Savior passed among the crowd, and "healed all that had +need of healing." The lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, +the blind received their sight, the paralytic were restored to +soundness, and the bloom of health revisited the cheeks of those +that but just now were sick unto death. + +The work to be done for the bodies of men was accomplished, and +there yet remained some hours of the summer's day unconsumed. The +power and goodness displayed in this miraculous healing would +naturally predispose the people to listen to the instructions of +the Savior. This was too valuable an opportunity to be lost. Our +Lord therefore proceeded to speak to them of the things concerning +the kingdom of God. We can seem to perceive the Savior seeking +an eminence from whence He could the more conveniently address +this vast assembly. You hear Him unfold the laws of God's moral +government. He unmasks the hypocrisy of the Pharisees; He rebukes +the infidelity of the Sadducees; He exposes the folly of the +frivolous, as well as of the selfish worldling; He speaks peaceably +to the humble penitent; He encourages the meek, and comforts those +that be cast down. The intellect and the conscience of this vast +assembly are swayed at His will. The soul of man bows down in +reverence in the presence of its Creator. "He stilleth the noise of +the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people." +As He closes His address, every eye is moistened with compunction +for sin. Every soul cherishes the hope of amendment. Every one is +conscious that a new moral light has dawned upon his soul, and that +a new moral universe has been unveiled to his spiritual vision. As +the closing words of the Savior fell upon their ears, the whole +multitude stood for a while unmoved, as tho transfixt to the earth +by some mighty spell; until, at last, the murmur is heard from +thousands of voices, "Never man spake like this man." + +But the shades of evening are gathering around them. The multitude +have nothing to eat. To send them away fasting would be inhuman, +for divers of them came from far, and many were women and children, +who could not perform their journey homeward without previous +refreshment. To purchase food in the surrounding towns and villages +would be difficult; but even were this possible, whence could +the necessary funds be provided? A famishing multitude was thus +unexpectedly cast upon the bounty of our Lord. He had not tempted +God by leading them into the wilderness. They came to Him of +themselves, to hear His words and to be healed of their infirmities. +He could not "send them away fasting, lest they should faint by the +way." In this dilemma, what was to be done? He puts this question to +His disciples, and they can suggest no means of relief. The little +stock of provisions which they had brought with them was barely +sufficient for themselves. They can perceive no means whatever by +which the multitude can be fed, and they at once confess it. + +The Savior, however, commands the twelve to give them to eat. They +produce their slender store of provisions, amounting to five loaves +and two small fishes. He commands the multitude to sit down by +companies on the grass. As soon as silence is obtained, He lifts +up His eyes to heaven, and supplicates the blessing of God upon +their scanty meal. He begins to break the loaves and fishes, and +distribute them to His disciples, and His disciples distribute them +to the multitude. He continues to break and distribute. Basket after +basket is filled and emptied, yet the supply is undiminished. Food +is carried in abundance to the famishing thousands. Company after +company is supplied with food, but the five loaves and two fishes +remain unexhausted. At last, the baskets are returned full, and +it is announced that the wants of the multitude are supplied. The +miracle then ceases, and the multiplication of food is at an end. + +But even here the provident care of the Savior is manifested. Altho +this food has been so easily provided, it is not right that it be +lightly suffered to perish. Christ wrought no miracles for the +sake of teaching men wastefulness. That food, by what means soever +provided, was a creature of God, and it were sin to allow it to +decay without accomplishing the purposes for which it was created. +"Gather up the fragments," said the Master of the feast, "that +nothing be lost." "And they gathered up the fragments that remained, +twelve baskets full." + +Dissimilar as are our circumstances to those of our Lord, we may +learn from this latter incident a lesson of instruction. + +In the first place, as I have remarked, the Savior did not lead +the multitude into the wilderness without making provision for +their sustenance. This would have been presumption. They followed +Him without His command, and He found Himself with them in this +necessity. He had provided for His own wants, but they had not +provided for theirs. The providence of God had, however, placed +Him in His present circumstances, and He might therefore properly +look to providence for deliverance. This event, then, furnishes +the rule by which we are to be governed. When we plunge ourselves +into difficulty, by a neglect of the means or by a misuse of the +faculties which God has bestowed upon us, it is to be expected +that He will leave us to our own devices. But when, in the honest +discharge of our duties, we find ourselves in circumstances beyond +the reach of human aid, we may then confidently look up to God for +deliverance. He will always take care of us while we are in the +spot where He has placed us. When He appoints for us trials, He +also appoints for us the means of escape. The path of duty, tho it +may seem arduous, is ever the path of safety. We can more easily +maintain ourselves in the most difficult position, God being our +helper, than in apparent security relying on our own strength. + +The Savior, in full reliance upon God, with only five loaves and +two fishes, commenced the distribution of food amongst the vast +multitude. Tho His whole store was barely sufficient to supply +the wants of His immediate family, He began to share it with the +thousands who surrounded Him. Small as was His provision at the +commencement, it remained unconsumed until the deed of mercy was +done, and the wants of the famished host supplied. Nor were the +disciples losers by this act of charity. After the multitude had +eaten and were satisfied, twelve baskets full of fragments remained, +a reward for their deed of benevolence. + +From this portion of the narrative, we may, I think, learn that +if we act in faith, and in the spirit of Christian love, we may +frequently be justified in commencing the most important good +work, even when in possession of apparently inadequate means. If +the work be of God, He will furnish us with helpers as fast as they +are needed. In all ages, God has rewarded abundantly simple trust +in Him, and has bestowed upon it in the highest honor. We must, +however, remember the conditions upon which alone we may expect His +aid, lest we be led into fanaticism. The service which we undertake +must be such as God has commanded, and His providence must either +designate us for the work, or, at least, open the door by which we +shall enter upon it. It must be God's work, and not our own; for the +good of others, and not for the gratification of our own passions; +and, in the doing of it, we must, first of all, make sacrifice of +ourselves, and not of others. Under such circumstances, there is +hardly a good design which we may not undertake with cheerful hopes +of success, for God has promised us His assistance. "If God be for +us, who can be against us?" The calculations of the men of this +world are of small account in such a matter. It would have provoked +the smile of an infidel to behold the Savior commencing the work +of feeding five thousand men with a handful of provisions. But the +supply increased as fast as it was needed, and it ceased not until +all that He had prayed for was accomplished. + +Perhaps, also, we may learn from this incident another lesson. If +I mistake not, it suggests to us that in works of benevolence we +are accustomed to rely too much on human, and too little on divine, +aid. When we attempt to do good, we commence by forming large +associations, and suppose that our success depends upon the number +of men whom we can unite in the promotion of our undertaking. Every +one is apt thus to forget his own personal duty, and rely upon the +labor of others, and it is well if he does not put his organization +in the place of God Himself. Would it not be better if we made +benevolence much more a matter between God and our own souls, each +one doing with his own hands, in firm reliance on divine aid, the +work which Providence has placed directly before him? Our Lord did +not send to the villages round to organize a general effort to +relieve the famishing. In reliance upon God, He set about to work +Himself, with just such means as God had afforded Him. All the +miracles of benevolence have, if I mistake not, been wrought in the +same manner. The little band of disciples in Jerusalem accomplished +more for the conversion of the world than all the Christians of the +present day united. And why? Because every individual Christian felt +that the conversion of the world was a work for which he himself, +and not an abstraction that he called the Church, was responsible. +Instead of relying on man for aid, every one looked up directly to +God, and went forth to the work. God was thus exalted, the power +was confest to be His own, and, in a few years, the standard of the +Cross was carried to the remotest extremities of the then known +world. + +Such has, I think, been the case ever since. Every great moral +reformation has proceeded upon principles analogous of these. It +was Luther, standing up alone in simple reliance upon God, that +smote the Papal hierarchy; and the effects of that blow are now +agitating the nations of Europe. Roger Williams, amid persecution +and banishment, held forth that doctrine of soul-liberty which, +in its onward march, is disenthralling a world. Howard, alone, +undertook the work of showing mercy to the prisoner, and his example +is now enlisting the choicest minds in Christendom in this labor of +benevolence. Clarkson, unaided, a young man, and without influences, +consecrated himself to the work of abolishing the slave trade; and, +before he rested from his labor, his country had repented of and +forsaken this atrocious sin. Raikes saw the children of Gloucester +profaning the Sabbath day; he set on foot a Sabbath school on his +own account, and now millions of children are reaping the benefit of +his labors, and his example has turned the attention of the whole +world to the religious instruction of the young. With such facts +before us, we surely should be encouraged to attempt individually +the accomplishment of some good design, relying in humility and +faith upon Him who is able to grant prosperity to the feeblest +effort put forth in earnest reliance on His almightiness. + +Such were the occupations that filled up a day in the life of Jesus +of Nazareth. There was not an act done for Himself; all was done +for others. Every hour was employed in the labor which that hour +set before Him. Private kindness, the relief of distress, public +teaching, and ministration to the wants of the famishing, filled +up the entire day. Let His disciples learn to follow His example. +Let us, like Him, forget ourselves, our own wants, and our own +weariness, that we may, as he did, scatter blessings on every side, +as we move onward in the pathway of our daily life. If such were the +occupations of the Son of God, can we do more wisely than to imitate +His example? Every disciple would then be as a city set upon a hill, +and men, seeing our good works, would glorify our Father who is in +heaven. "Then would our righteousness go forth as brightness, and +our salvation as a lamp that burneth." + + + + +VINET + +THE MYSTERIES OF CHRISTIANITY + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +ALEXANDER VINET, the eminent Swiss divine and author, was born at +Ouchy, Canton, in 1797. He was professor of theology at Lausanne +(1837-45), where he gained reputation as a preacher, a philosopher, +and a writer. He was tolerant tho critical, and many of his +utterances are marked by rare brilliancy. His supreme and intense +faith led him to say: "The gospel is believed when it has ceased +to be to us an external and has become an internal truth, when it +has become a fact in our consciousness. Christianity is conscience +raised to its highest exercise." He died in 1847. + + + + +VINET + +1797-1847 + +THE MYSTERIES OF CHRISTIANITY + +_Things which have not entered into the heart of man._--1 Cor. ii., +9. + + +"I do not comprehend, therefore I do not believe." "The gospel is +full of mysteries, therefore I do not receive the gospel:"--such is +one of the favorite arguments of infidelity. To see how much is made +of this, and what confidence it inspires, we might believe it solid, +or, at least, specious; but it is neither the one nor the other; +it will not bear the slightest attention, the most superficial +examination of reason; and if it still enjoys some favor in the +world, this is but a proof of the lightness of our judgments upon +things worthy of our most serious attention. + +Upon what, in fact, does this argument rest? Upon the claim of +comprehending every thing in the religion which God has offered or +could offer us--a claim equally unjust, unreasonable, useless. This +we proceed to develop. + +1. In the first place, it is an unjust claim. It is to demand of God +what He does not owe us. To prove this, let us suppose that God has +given a religion to man, and let us further suppose that religion to +be the gospel: for this absolutely changes nothing to the argument. +We may believe that God was free, at least, with reference to us, +to give us or not to give us a religion; but it must be admitted +that in granting it He contracts engagements to us, and that the +first favor lays Him under a necessity of conferring other favors. +For this is merely to say that God must be consistent, and that He +finishes what He has begun. Since it is by a written revelation +He manifests His designs respecting us, it is necessary He should +fortify that revelation by all the authority which would at least +determine us to receive it; it is necessary He should give us the +means of judging whether the men who speak to us in His name are +really sent by Him; in a word, it is necessary we should be assured +that the Bible is truly the Word of God. + +It would not indeed be necessary that the conviction of each of +us should be gained by the same kind of evidence. Some shall be +led to Christianity by the historical or external arguments; they +shall prove to themselves the truth of the Bible as the truth of +all history is proved; they shall satisfy themselves that the +books of which it is composed are certainly those of the times and +of the authors to which they are ascribed. This settled, they +shall compare the prophecies contained in these ancient documents +with the events that have happened in subsequent ages; they shall +assure themselves of the reality of the miraculous facts related in +these books, and shall thence infer the necessary intervention of +divine power, which alone disposes the forces of nature, and can +alone interrupt or modify their action. Others, less fitted for +such investigations, shall be struck with the internal evidence +of the Holy Scriptures. Finding there the state of their souls +perfectly described, their wants fully exprest, and the true +remedies for their maladies completely indicated; struck with a +character of truth and candor which nothing can imitate; in fine, +feeling themselves in their inner nature moved, changed, renovated, +by the mysterious influence of these holy writings, they shall +acquire, by such means, a conviction of which they can not always +give an account to others, but which is not the less legitimate, +irresistible, and immovable. Such is the double road by which an +entrance is gained into the asylum of faith. But it was due from the +wisdom of God, from His justice, and, we venture to say it, from +the honor of His government, that He should open to man this double +road; for, if He desired man to be saved by knowledge, on the same +principle He engaged Himself to furnish him the means of knowledge. + +Behold, whence come the obligations of the Deity with reference +to us, which obligations He has fulfilled. Enter on this double +method of proof. Interrogate history, time and places, respecting +the authenticity of the Scriptures; grasp all the difficulties, +sound all the objections; do not permit yourselves to be too easily +convinced; be the more severe upon that book, as it professes to +contain the sovereign rule of your life, and the disposal of your +destiny; you are permitted to do this, nay, you are encouraged +to do it, provided you proceed to the investigation with the +requisite capacities and with pure intentions. Or, if you prefer +another method, examine, with an honest heart, the contents of the +Scriptures; inquire, while you run over the words of Jesus, if ever +man spake like this Man; inquire if the wants of your soul, long +deceived, and the anxieties of your spirit, long cherished in vain, +do not, in the teaching and work of Christ, find that satisfaction +and repose which no wisdom was ever able to procure you; breathe, +if I may thus express myself, that perfume of truth, of candor and +purity, which exhales from every page of the gospel; see, if, in all +these respects, it does not bear the undeniable seal of inspiration +and divinity. Finally, test it, and if the gospel produces upon you +a contrary effect, return to the books and the wisdom of men, and +ask of them what Christ has not been able to give you. + +But if, neglecting these two ways, made accessible to you, +and trodden by the feet of ages, you desire, before all, that +the Christian religion should, in every point, render itself +comprehensible to your mind, and complacently strip itself of all +mysteries; if you wish to penetrate beyond the veil, to find there, +not the aliment which gives life to the soul, but that which would +gratify your restless curiosity, I maintain that you raise against +God a claim the most indiscreet, the most rash and unjust; for He +has never engaged, either tacitly or expressly, to discover to you +the secret which your eye craves; and such audacious importunity is +fit to excite His indignation. He has given you what He owed you, +more indeed than He owed you; the rest is with Himself. + +If a claim so unjust could be admitted, where, I ask you, would be +the limit of your demands? Already you require more from God than He +has accorded to angels; for these eternal mysteries which trouble +you, the harmony of the divine prescience with human freedom, the +origin of evil and its ineffable remedy, the incarnation of the +eternal Word--the relations of the God-man with His Father--the +atoning virtue of His sacrifice, the regenerating efficacy of the +Spirit-comforter, all these things are secrets, the knowledge of +which is hidden from angels themselves, who, according to the word +of the Apostle, stoop to explore their depths, and can not. + +If you reproach the Eternal for having kept the knowledge of +these divine mysteries to Himself, why do you not reproach Him +for the thousand other limits He has prescribed for you? Why not +reproach Him for not having given you wings like a bird, to visit +the regions, which, till now, have been scanned only by your eyes? +Why not reproach Him for not giving you, besides the five senses +with which you are provided, ten other senses which He has perhaps +granted to other creatures, and which procure for them perceptions +of which you have no idea? Why not, in fine, reproach Him for having +caused the darkness of night to succeed the brightness of day +invariably on the earth? Ah! you do not reproach Him for that. You +love that night which brings rest to so many fatigued bodies and +weary spirits; which suspends in so many wretches, the feeling of +grief; that night, during which orphans, slaves, and criminals cease +to be, because over all their misfortunes and sufferings it spreads, +with the opiate of sleep, the thick veil of oblivion; you love that +night which, peopling the deserts of the heavens with ten thousand +stars, not known to the day, reveals the infinite to our ravished +imagination. + +Well, then, why do you not, for a similar reason, love the night +of divine mysteries, night, gracious and salutary, in which reason +humbles itself, and finds refreshment and repose; where the darkness +even is a revelation; where one of the principal attributes of God, +immensity, discovers itself much more fully to our mind; where, in +fine, the tender relations He has permitted us to form with Himself, +are guarded from all admixture of familiarity by the thought that +the Being who has humbled Himself to us, is, at the same time, +the inconceivable God who reigns before all time, who includes in +Himself all existences and all conditions of existence, the center +of all thought, the law of all law, the supreme and final reason +of every thing! So that, if you are just, instead of reproaching +Him for the secrets of religion, you will bless Him that He has +enveloped you in mysteries. + +2. But this claim is not only unjust toward God; it is also in +itself exceedingly unreasonable. + +What is religion? It is God putting Himself in communication with +man; the Creator with the creature, the infinite with the finite. +There already, without going further, is a mystery; a mystery +common to all religions, impenetrable in all religions. If, then, +every thing which is a mystery offends you, you are arrested on the +threshold, I will not say of Christianity, but of every religion; +I say, even of that religion which is called natural, because it +rejects revelation and miracles; for it necessarily implies, at +the very least, a connection, a communication of some sort between +God and man--the contrary being equivalent to atheism. Your claim +prevents you from having any belief; and because you have not been +willing to be Christians, it will not allow you to be deists. + +"It is of no consequence," you say, "we pass over that difficulty; +we suppose between God and us connections we can not conceive; we +admit them because they are necessary to us. But this is the only +step we are willing to take: we have already yielded too much to +yield more." Say more, say you have granted too much not to grant +much more, not to grant all! You have consented to admit, without +comprehending it, that there may be communications from God to you, +and from you to God. But consider well what is implied in such a +supposition. It implies that you are dependent, and yet free: this +you do not comprehend; it implies that the Spirit of God can make +itself understood by your spirit: this you do not comprehend; it +implies that your prayers may exert an influence on the will of +God: this you do not comprehend. It is necessary you should receive +all these mysteries, in order to establish with God connections the +most vague and superficial, and by the very side of which atheism +is placed. And when, by a powerful effort with yourselves you have +done so much as to admit these mysteries, you recoil from those +of Christianity! You have accepted the foundation, and refuse the +superstructure! You have accepted the principle and refuse the +details! You are right, no doubt, so soon as it is proved to you, +that the religion which contains these mysteries does not come from +God; or rather, that these mysteries contain contradictory ideas. +But you are not justified in denying them, for the sole reason that +you do not understand them; and the reception you have given to the +first kind of mysteries compels you, by the same rule, to receive +the others. + +This is not all. Not only are mysteries an inseparable part, nay, +the very substance of all religion, but it is absolutely impossible +that a true religion should not present a great number of mysteries. +If it is true, it ought to teach more truths respecting God and +divine things than any other, than all others together; but each +of these truths has a relation to the infinite, and by consequence +borders on a mystery. How should it be otherwise in religion, when +it is thus in nature itself? Behold God in nature! The more He +gives us to contemplate, the more He gives to astonish us. To each +creature is attached some mystery. A grain of sand is an abyss! +Now, if the manifestations which God has made of Himself in nature +suggest to the observer a thousand questions which can not be +answered, how will it be, when to that first revelation, another +is added; when God the Creator and Preserver reveals Himself under +new aspects as God the Reconciler and Savior? Shall not mysteries +multiply with discoveries? With each new day shall we not see +associated a new night? And shall we not purchase each increase of +knowledge with an increase of ignorance? Has not the doctrine of +grace, so necessary, so consoling, alone opened a profound abyss, +into which, for eighteen centuries, rash and restless spirits have +been constantly plunging? + +It is, then, clearly necessary that Christianity should, more +than any other religion, be mysterious, simply because it is +true. Like mountains, which, the higher they are, cast the larger +shadows, the gospel is the more obscure and mysterious on account +of its sublimity. After this, will you be indignant that you do +not comprehend every thing in the gospel? It would, forsooth, be +a truly surprising thing if the ocean could not be held in the +hollow of your hand, or uncreated wisdom within the limits of your +intelligence! It would be truly unfortunate if a finite being could +not embrace the infinite, and that, in the vast assemblage of things +there should be some idea beyond its grasp! In other words, it would +be truly unfortunate if God Himself should know something which man +does not know! + +Let us acknowledge, then, how insensate is such a claim when it is +made with reference to religion. + +But let us also recollect how much, in making such a claim, we +shall be in opposition to ourselves; for the submission we dislike +in religion, we cherish in a thousand other things. It happens to us +every day to admit things we do not understand, and to do so without +the least repugnance. The things, the knowledge of which is refused +us, are much more numerous than we perhaps think. Few diamonds are +perfectly pure; still fewer truths are perfectly clear. The union +of our soul with our body is a mystery--our most familiar emotions +and affections are a mystery--the action of thought and of will is +a mystery--our very existence is a mystery. Why do we admit these +various facts? Is it because we understand them? No, certainly, but +because they are self-evident, and because they are truths by which +we live. In religion we have no other course to take. We ought to +know whether it is true and necessary; and once convinced of these +two points, we ought, like the angels, to submit to the necessity of +being ignorant of some things. And why do we not submit cheerfully +to a privation which, after all, is not one? + +3. To desire the knowledge of mysteries is to desire what is utterly +useless; it is to raise, as I have said before, a claim the most +vain and idle. What in reference to us is the object of the gospel? +Evidently to regenerate and save us. But it attains this end wholly +by the things it reveals. Of what use would it be to know those it +conceals from us? We possess the knowledge which can enlighten our +consciences, rectify our inclinations, renew our hearts; what should +we gain if we possest other knowledge? It infinitely concerns us to +know that the Bible is the Word of God; does it equally concern us +to know in what way the holy men that wrote it were moved by the +Holy Ghost? It is of infinite moment to us to know that Jesus Christ +is the Son of God; need we know precisely in what way the divine and +human natures are united in His adorable person? It is of infinite +importance for us to know that unless we are born again we can not +enter the kingdom of God, and that the Holy Spirit is the author of +the new birth; shall we be further advanced if we know the divine +process by which that wonder is performed? Is it not enough for us +to know the truths that save? Of what use, then, would it be to know +those which have not the slightest bearing on our salvation? "Tho +I know all mysteries," says St. Paul, "and have not charity, I am +nothing." St. Paul was content not to know, provided he had charity; +shall not we, following his example, be content also without +knowledge, provided that, like him, we have charity, that is to say, +life? + +But some one will say "If the knowledge of mysteries is really +without influence on our salvation, why have they been indicated to +us at all?" What if it should be to teach us not to be too prodigal +of our "wherefores!" if it should be to serve as an exercise of our +faith, a test of our submission! But we will not stop with such a +reply. + +Observe, I pray you, in what manner the mysteries of which you +complain have taken their part in religion. You readily perceive +they are not by themselves, but associated with truths which have +a direct bearing on your salvation. They contain them, they serve +to develop them; but they are not themselves the truths that save. +It is with these mysteries as it is with the vessel that contains +a medicinal draft--it is not the vessel that cures, but the draft; +yet the draft could not be presented without the vessel. Thus each +truth that saves is contained in a mystery, which, in itself, has +no power to save. So the great work of expiation is necessarily +attached to the incarnation of the Son of God, which is a mystery; +so the sanctifying graces of the new covenant are necessarily +connected with the effluence of the Holy Spirit, which is a mystery; +so, too, the divinity of religion finds a seal and an attestation +in the miracles, which are mysteries. Everywhere the light is born +from darkness, and darkness accompanies the light. These two orders +of truths are so united, so interlinked, that you can not remove +the one without the other, and each of the mysteries you attempt to +tear from religion would carry with it one of the truths which bear +directly on your regeneration and salvation. Accept the mysteries, +then, not as truths that can save you, but as the necessary +conditions of the merciful work of the Lord in your behalf. + +The true point at issue in reference to religion is this:--Does +the religion which is proposed to us change the heart, unite to +God, prepare for heaven? If Christianity produces these effects, +we will leave the enemies of the cross free to revolt against its +mysteries, and tax them with absurdity. The gospel, we will say to +them, is then an absurdity; you have discovered it. But behold what +a new species of absurdity that certainly is which attaches man to +all his duties, regulates human life better than all the doctrines +of sages, plants in his bosom harmony, order, and peace, causes +him joyfully to fulfil all the offices of civil life, renders him +better fitted to live, better fitted to die, and which, were it +generally received, would be the support and safeguard of society! +Cite to us, among all human absurdities, a single one which produces +such effects. If that "foolishness" we preach produces effects like +these, is it not natural to conclude that it is truth itself? And if +these things have not entered the heart of man, it is not because +they are absurd, but because they are divine. + +Make but a single reflection. You are obliged to confess that none +of the religions which man may invent can satisfy his wants, or +save his soul. Thereupon you have a choice to make. You will either +reject them all as insufficient and false, and seek for nothing +better, since man can not invent better, and then you will abandon +to chance, to caprice of temperament or of opinion, your moral life +and future destiny; or you will adopt that other religion which some +treat as folly, and it will render you holy and pure, blameless in +the midst of a perverse generation, united to God by love, and to +your brethren by charity, indefatigable in doing good, happy in +life, happy in death. Suppose, after all this, you shall be told +that this religion is false; but meanwhile, it has restored in you +the image of God, reestablished your primitive connections with +that great Being, and put you in a condition to enjoy life and the +happiness of heaven. By means of it you have become such that at the +last day, it is impossible that God should not receive you as His +children and make you partakers of His glory. You are made fit for +paradise, nay, paradise has commenced for you even here, because you +love. This religion has done for you what all religions propose, and +what no other has realized. Nevertheless, by the supposition, it is +false! And what more could it do, were it true? Rather do you not +see that this is a splendid proof of its truth? Do you not see that +it is impossible that a religion which leads to God should not come +from God, and that the absurdity is precisely that of supposing that +you can be regenerated by a falsehood? + +Suppose that afterward, as at the first, you do not comprehend. It +seems necessary, then, you should be saved by the things you do not +comprehend. Is that a misfortune? Are you the less saved? Does it +become you to demand from God an explanation of an obscurity which +does not injure you, when, with reference to every thing essential, +He has been prodigal of light? The first disciples of Jesus, men +without culture and learning, received truths which they did not +comprehend, and spread them through the world. A crowd of sages and +men of genius have received, from the hands of these poor people, +truths which they comprehended no more than they. The ignorance of +the one, and the science of the other, have been equally docile. +Do, then, as the ignorant and the wise have done. Embrace with +affection those truths which have never entered into your heart, +and which will save you. Do not lose, in vain discussions, the time +which is gliding away, and which is bearing you into the cheering +or appalling light of eternity. Hasten to be saved. Love now; one +day you will know. May the Lord Jesus prepare you for that period of +light, of repose, and of happiness! + + + + +SUMMERFIELD + +THE HEAVENLY INHERITANCE + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +JOHN SUMMERFIELD was born in England in 1798, and came to New York +in 1821, where he soon became one of the most popular and eloquent +preachers of that day. He belonged to the Methodist Communion +and his name is still perpetuated in the names of many Methodist +churches. He was unusually simple and modest in his tastes and +habits, but when he spoke from the pulpit he produced a great +impression by the force and daring of his style. He gave promise +of equaling Whitefield as a pulpit orator, but he was subject to +delicate health and prematurely died in 1825, twenty-seven years of +age. + + + + +SUMMERFIELD + +1798-1825 + +THE HEAVENLY INHERITANCE + +_For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the +everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ._--2 Peter +i., 11. + + +Of all the causes which may be adduced to account for the +indifference which is so generally manifested toward those great +concerns of eternity, in which men are so awfully interested, none +appears to me so likely to resolve the mystery, as that unbelief +which lies at the core of every heart, hindering repentance, and +so making faith impossible. Men hear that there is a hell to shun, +a heaven to win; and, though they give their assent to both these +truths, they never impress them on their mind. It is plain that, +whatever their lips may confess, they never believed with the +heart, otherwise some effect would have been produced in the life. +The germ of unbelief lies within, and discovers itself in all that +indifference which is displayed, in the majority of that class of +beings whose existence is to be perpetuated throughout eternity. +If these thoughts do sometimes obtrude themselves on their serious +attention, they are immediately banished from their minds; and the +dying exclamation of Moses may be taken up with tears by every lover +of perishing sinners: "O! that they were wise, that they understood +this, that they would consider their latter end!" When God, by His +prophet Isaiah, called the Israelites to a sense of their awful +departure from Him, His language was, "My people do not know: My +people do not consider." How few are there like Mary, who "ponder +those things in their heart," who are willing to look at themselves, +to pry into eternity, to put the question home, + + "Shall I be with the damn'd cast out, + Or numbered with the bless'd?" + +This question must sooner or later have a place in your minds, or +awful will be your state indeed; let it reach your hearts to-day; +and if you pray to the Father of light, you will soon be enabled in +His light to discern so much of yourselves as will cause you to cry, +"What shall I do to be saved?" While we shall this morning attempt +to point out some of the privileges of the sons of God, oh! may your +hearts catch the strong desire to be conformed to the living Head, +that so an abundant entrance may be administered unto you also, into +the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. + +The privilege to which our text leads us, is exclusively applicable +to those to whom that question has been solved by the Spirit of +God; those who have believed to the saving of their souls; who have +experienced redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of +sins; and who are walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort +of the Holy Ghost. + +I. The state to which we look forward: the "everlasting kingdom of +our Lord and Savior." + +1. It is a kingdom. By this figurative expression our Lord has +described the state of grace here and of glory hereafter; our +happiness in time and our happiness in eternity. They were wisely so +called: Jesus has said, as well as done, all things well; for these +two states differ not in kind, but in degree; the one is merely a +preparative for the other, and he who has been a subject of the +former kingdom will be a subject of the latter. Grace is but the +seed of glory, glory is the maturity of grace; grace is but the bud +of glory, glory is grace full blown; grace is but the blossom of +glory, glory is the ripe fruit of grace; grace is but the infant of +glory, glory is the perfection of grace. Hence our hymn beautifully +says, "The men of grace have found glory begun below," agreeing with +our Lord's own words, "He that believeth hath everlasting life"; he +feels even here its glories beginning--a foretaste of its bliss. + +Now the propriety with which these two states are called kingdoms +is manifest from the analogy which might be traced between them and +the model of a human sovereignty. Two or three of the outlines of +this model will be sufficient. + +In the idea of a kingdom it is implied that in some part of its +extent there is the residence of a sovereign; for this is essential +to constitute it. Now in the kingdom of grace the heart of the +believer is made the residence of the King invisible! "Know ye not +that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?" +Such know what that promise means, "I will dwell in them, and they +shall be my people." St. Paul exultingly cries, "Christ liveth in +me." + +Again, it is essential that the inhabitants of a kingdom be under +the government of its laws. An empire without laws is no sovereignty +at all; it ceases to be such, for every inhabitant has an equal +right to do that which seems good in his own eyes. Now the subjects +of Christ's kingdom of grace are "not without law, but are under a +law to Christ"; they do His righteous will! + +Lastly, it is essential that the subjects of a kingdom be under the +protection of the presiding monarch, and that they repose their +confidence in him. To the subjects of the kingdom of grace, Christ +imparts His kingly protection; this is their heritage: "No weapon +formed against them shall prosper"; nay, He imparts to them of His +royal bounty, and they enjoy all the blessings of an inward heaven. + +But how great the perfection of the kingdom of glory mentioned in +our text! Does He make these vile bodies His residence here? How +much more glorious is His temple above! how splendid the court of +heaven! There, indeed, he fixes His throne, and they see Him as He +is. Does He exercise His authority here and rule His happy subjects +by the law, the perfect law of love? How much more in heaven! He +reigns there forever over them; His government is there wholly by +Himself; He knows nothing of a rival there; His rule is sole and +perfect: there they serve Him day and night. Are His subjects here +partakers of His kingly bounty? Much more in heaven! He calls them +to a participation of all the joys, the spiritual joys which are at +His right hand, and the pleasures which are there forevermore. Yet, +after all our descriptions of that glory, it is not yet revealed, +and, therefore, inconceivable. But who would not hail such a Son of +David? who would not desire to be swayed by such a Prince of Peace? +Whose heart would not ascend with the affections of our poet, "O! +that with yonder sacred throng, we at His feet may fall"? + +2. But it is an everlasting kingdom! Here it rises in the scale of +comparison. Weigh the kingdoms of this world in this balance, and +they are found wanting; for on many we read their fatal history, +and ere long we shall see them all branded with the writing of the +invisible Agent, "The kingdom is taken from thee, and given to a +nation bringing forth the fruits thereof"; "For the kingdoms of +this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ"; +they will be absorbed and swallowed up in the fulness of eternity, +and leave not a wrack behind! Every thing here is perishable! The +towering diadem of Caesar has fallen from his head and crumbled +into dust; and that kingdom whose scepter once swayed the world, +betwixt whose colossal stride all nations were glad to creep to +find themselves dishonored graves, is now forgotten, or, if its +recollection be preserved, its history is emphatically called "The +Decline and Fall." + +But bring the matter nearer home; apply it not to multitudes of +subjects, but to your individual experience, and has not that good +teacher instructed you in this sad lesson? We tremble to look at +our earthly possessions and employments, lest we should see them +in motion, spreading their wings to fly away! How many are there +already who, in talking of their comforts, are obliged to go back +in their reckoning! Would not this be the language of some of you: +"I had--I had a husband, the sharer of my joys, the soother of my +sorrows; but he is not! I had a wife, a helpmeet for me; but where +is she? I had children to whom I looked up as my support and +staff in the decline of life, while passing down the hill; but I +am bereaved of my children! I had health, and I highly prized its +wealth; but now my emaciated frame, my shriveled system, and the +pains of nature bespeak that comfort fled! I had, or fondly thought +I had, happiness in possession! Then I said with Job, 'I shall die +in my nest!' but ah! an unexpected blast passed over me, and now my +joys are blighted! 'They have fled as a shadow, and continued not.'" +Yes! time promised you much! perhaps it performed a little; but it +can not do any thing for you on which it can grave "eternal." Its +name is mortal, its nature is decay; it was born with man, and when +the generations of men shall cease to exist, it will cease also: +"Time shall be no longer!" We know concerning these that, "All flesh +is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The +grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord +endureth forever." Yes! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; glory +can not corrupt! the crown of glory can not fade! Why? Death will +be destroyed; Christ will put this last enemy under His feet, and +all will then be eternal life! Oh, happy, happy kingdom; nay, thrice +happy he who shall be privileged to be its subject! + +3. It is the everlasting kingdom of our own Lord and Savior Jesus +Christ. It is His by claim: "Him hath God the Father highly +exalted"; yea, Him hath He appointed to be "the judge of quick and +dead"; for tho by the sufferings of death He was made a little +lower than the angels, yet immediately after His resurrection He +declares that now "All power is given unto him in heaven and in +earth"! The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son, and He +has now the disposal of the offices and privileges of the empire +among His faithful followers. This is the idea that the penitent +dying thief had on the subject: "Lord, remember me when thou comest +into thy kingdom"; and St. Paul expresses the same when he says to +Timothy in the confidence of faith, "The Lord shall deliver me and +preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom." Oh! how pleasing the thought +to the child of God, that his ruler to all eternity will be his +elder Brother; for He who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified +are all of one; and though He is heir of all things, yet we, as +younger branches of the same heavenly family, shall be joint heirs, +fellow-heirs of the same glorious inheritance. How great will be +our joy to behold Him who humbled Himself for us to death, even the +death of the cross, now exalted God over all, blest for evermore; +and while contemplating Him under the character of our Lord and +Savior Jesus Christ, how great the relish which will be given to +that feeling of the redeemed which will constrain them to cry, +"Thou alone art worthy to receive glory, and honor, and power." + +II. But the apostle reminds us of the entrance into this kingdom! + +1. The entrance into this kingdom is death: "By one man sin entered +into the world, and death by sin:" + + "Death, like a narrow sea, divides + That heavenly land from ours!" + +"A messenger is sent to bring us to God, but it is the King of +Terrors. We enter the land flowing with milk and honey, but it is +through the valley of the shadow of death." Yet fear not, O thou +child of God! there is no need that thou, through the fear of death, +shouldst be all thy lifetime subject to bondage. + +2. No; hear the apostle: the entrance is ministered unto thee! +Death is but His minister; he can not lock his ice-cold hand in +thine till He permit. Our Jesus has the keys of hell and death; and +till He liberates the vassal to bring thee home, not a hair of thy +head can fall to the ground! Fear not, thou worm! He who minds the +sparrows appoints the time for thy removal: fear not; only be thou +always ready, that, whenever the messenger comes to take down the +tabernacle in which thy spirit has long made her abode, thou mayest +be able to exclaim, "Amen! even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly." +Death need have no terrors for thee; he is the vassal of thy Lord, +and, however unwilling to do Him reverence, yet to Him that sits +at God's right hand shall even death pay, if not a joyful, yet a +trembling homage; nay, more: + + "To Him shall earth and hell submit, + And every foe shall fall, + Till death expires beneath His feet, + And God is all in all." + +Christ has already had one triumph over death; His iron pangs could +not detain the Prince who has "life in himself"; and in His strength +thou shalt triumph, for the power of Christ is promised to rest upon +thee! He has had the same entrance; His footsteps marked the way, +and His cry to thee is, "Follow thou me." "My sheep," says He, "hear +my voice, and they do follow me"; they follow Me gladly, even into +this gloomy vale; and what is the consequence? "They shall never +perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." + +3. It is ministered unto you abundantly. Perhaps the apostle means +that the death of some is distinguished by indulgences and honors +not vouchsafed to all. In the experience of some, the passage +appears difficult; in others it is comparatively easy; they gently +fall asleep in Jesus. But we not only see diversities in the mortal +agony--this would be a small thing.... Some get in with sails full +spread and carrying a rich cargo indeed, while others arrive barely +on a single plank. Some, who have long had their conversation in +heaven, are anxious to be wafted into the celestial haven; while +others, who never sought God till alarmed at the speedy approach of +death, have little confidence, + + "And linger shivering on the brink, + And fear to launch away." + +This doctrine must have been peculiarly encouraging to the early +converts to whom St. Peter wrote. From the tenor of both of his +epistles it is clear that they were in a state of severe suffering, +and in great danger of apostatizing through fear of persecution. He +reminds them that if they hold fast their professions, an abundant +entrance will be administered unto them. The death of the martyr +is far more glorious than that of the Christian who concealed his +profession through fear of man. Witness the case of Stephen: he +was not ashamed of being a witness for Jesus in the face of the +violent death which awaited him, and which crushed the tabernacle +of his devoted spirit; his Lord reserved the highest display of His +love and of His glory for that awful hour! "Behold!" says he to his +enemies, while gnashing on him with their teeth, "Behold! I see +heaven opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of +God"; then, in the full triumph of faith, he cries out, "Lord Jesus! +receive my spirit!" + +But did these things apply merely to the believers to whom St. +Peter originally wrote? No; you are the men to whom they equally +apply; according to your walk and profession of that gospel will be +the entrance which will be ministered unto you. Some of you have +heard, in another of our houses, during the past week, the dangerous +tendency of the spirit of fear, the fear of man. I would you had +all heard that discourse: alas! many who have a name and a place +among us are becoming mere Sabbath-day worshipers in the courts of +the Lord, and lightly esteem the daily means of grace. I believe +this is one cause at least why many are weak and sickly among us in +divine things. The inner man does not make due increase; the world +is stealing a march unawares upon us. May God revive among us the +spirit of our fathers! + +These things, then, I say, equally apply to you. Behold the strait, +the royal, the king's highway! Are you afraid of the reproach of +Christ? + + "Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend, + On whom our hopes of heaven depend?" + +How soon would the world be overcome if all who profess that faith +were faithful to it! Wo to the rebellious children who compromise +truth with the world, and in effect deny their Lord and Master! Who +hath required this at their hands? Do they not follow with the crowd +who cry, "Lord, Lord! and yet do not the things which He says"? +Will they have the adoption and the glory? Will they aim at the +honor implied in these words, "Ye are my witnesses?" Will ye indeed +be sons? Then see the path wherein His footsteps shine! The way is +open! see that ye walk therein! The false apostles, the deceitful +workers shall have their reward; the same that those of old had, +the praise and esteem of men; while the faith of those who truly +call Him Father and Lord, and who walk in the light as He is in the +light, who submit, like Him and His true followers, to be counted as +"the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things", shall +be found unto praise, and honor, and glory! + +The true Christian does not seek to hide himself in a corner; he +lets his light shine before men, whether they will receive it or +not; and thereby is his Father glorified. Having thus served, by +the will of God, the hour of his departure at length arrives. The +angels beckon him away; Jesus bids him come; and as he departs this +life he looks back with a heavenly smile on surviving friends, and +is enabled to say, "Whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know." An +entrance is ministered unto him abundantly into the everlasting +kingdom of his Lord and Savior. + +III. Having considered the state to which we look, and the mode of +our admission, let us consider the condition of it. This is implied +in the word "so." "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you." +In the preceding part of this chapter, the apostle has pointed out +the meaning of this expression, and in the text merely sums it all +up in that short mode of expression. + +The first condition he shows to be, the obtaining like precious +faith with him, through the righteousness of God and our Savior +Jesus Christ. Not a faith which merely assents to the truths of the +gospel record, but a faith which applies the merits of the death +of Christ to expiate my individual guilt; which lays hold on Him +as my sacrifice, and produces, in its exercises, peace with God, a +knowledge of the divine favor, a sense of sin forgiven, and a full +certainty, arising from a divine impression on the heart, made by +the Spirit of God, that I am accepted in the Beloved and made a +child of God. + +If those who profess the Gospel of Christ were but half as zealous +in seeking after this enjoyment as they are in discovering +creaturely objections to its attainment, it would be enjoyed by +thousands who at present know nothing of its happy reality. Such +persons, unfortunately for themselves, employ much more assiduity +in searching a vocabulary to find out epithets of reproach to attach +to those who maintain the doctrine than in searching that volume +which declares that "if you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit +of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father"; and that "he that +believeth hath the witness in himself." In whatever light a scorner +may view this doctrine now, the time will come when, being found +without the wedding garment, he will be cast into outer darkness. + +O sinner! cry to God this day to convince thee of thy need of this +salvation, and then thou wilt be in a condition to receive it: + + "Shalt know, shalt feel thy sins forgiven, + Bless'd with this antepast of heaven." + +But, besides this, the apostle requires that we then henceforth +preserve consciences void of offense toward God and toward man. +This faith which obtains the forgiveness of sin unites to Christ, +and by this union we are made, as St. Peter declares, "partakers +of the divine nature": and as He who has called you is holy, so +you are to be holy in all manner of conversation. For yours is a +faith which not only casts out sin, but purifies the heart--the +conscience having been once purged by the sprinkling of the blood +of Christ, you are not to suffer guilt to be again contracted; for +the salvation of Christ is not only from the penalty, but from the +very stain of sin; not only from its guilt, but from its pollution; +not only from its condemnation, but from its very "in-being"; "The +blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin"; and "For this purpose +was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of +the devil." You are therefore required by St. Peter, "to escape the +corruption that is in the world through lust," and thus to perfect +holiness in the fear of the Lord! + +Finally, live in progressive and practical godliness. Not only +possess, but practise, the virtues of religion; not only practise, +but increase therein, abounding in the work of the Lord! Lead up, +hand in hand, in the same delightful chorus, all the graces which +adorn the Christian character. Having the divine nature, possessing +a new and living principle, let diligent exercise reduce it to +practical holiness; and you will be easily discerned from those +formal hypocrites, whose faith and religion are but a barren and +unfruitful speculation. + +To conclude: live to God--live for God--live in God; and let your +moderation be known unto all men--the Lord is at hand: "Therefore +giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, +knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, +patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly +kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." + + + + +NEWMAN + +GOD'S WILL THE END OF LIFE + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +JOHN HENRY NEWMAN was born in London in 1801. He won high honors at +Oxford, and in 1828 was appointed vicar of the University Church, +St. Mary's, and with Keble and Pusey headed the Oxford Movement. +In the pulpit of St. Mary's he soon showed himself to be a power. +His sermons, exquisite, tho simple in style, chiefly deal with +various phases of personal religion which he illustrated with a +keen spiritual insight, a sympathetic glow, an exalted earnestness +and a breadth of range, unparalleled in English pulpit utterances +before his time. His extreme views on questions of catholicity, +sacerdotalism and the sacraments, as well as his craving for an +infallible authority in matters of faith, shook his confidence in +the Church of England and he went over to Rome in 1845. He was made +Cardinal in 1879 and died in 1890. + + + + +NEWMAN + +1801-1890 + +GOD'S WILL THE END OF LIFE + +_I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him +that sent me._--John vi., 38. + + +I am going to ask you a question, my dear brethren, so trite, and +therefore so uninteresting at first sight, that you may wonder why +I put it, and may object that it will be difficult to fix the mind +on it, and may anticipate that nothing profitable can be made of it. +It is this: "Why were you sent into the world?" Yet, after all, it +is perhaps a thought more obvious than it is common, more easy than +it is familiar; I mean it ought to come into your minds, but it does +not, and you never had more than a distant acquaintance with it, +tho that sort of acquaintance with it you have had for many years. +Nay, once or twice, perhaps you have been thrown across the thought +somewhat intimately, for a short season, but this was an accident +which did not last. There are those who recollect the first time, +as it would seem, when it came home to them. They were but little +children, and they were by themselves, and they spontaneously asked +themselves, or rather God spake in them, "Why am I here? how came +I here? who brought me here? What am I to do here?" Perhaps it was +the first act of reason, the beginning of their real responsibility, +the commencement of their trial; perhaps from that day they may date +their capacity, their awful power, of choosing between good and +evil, and of committing mortal sin. And so, as life goes on, the +thought comes vividly, from time to time, for a short season across +their conscience; whether in illness, or in some anxiety, or at some +season of solitude, or on hearing some preacher, or reading some +religious work. A vivid feeling comes over them of the vanity and +unprofitableness of the world, and then the question recurs, "Why +then am I sent into it?" + +And a great contrast indeed does this vain, unprofitable, yet +overbearing world present with such a question as that. It seems +out of place to ask such a question in so magnificent, so imposing +a presence, as that of the great Babylon. The world professes to +supply all that we need, as if we were sent into it for the sake +of being sent here, and for nothing beyond the sending. It is a +great favor to have an introduction to this august world. This is +to be our exposition, forsooth, of the mystery of life. Every man +is doing his own will here, seeking his own pleasure, pursuing his +own ends; that is why he was brought into existence. Go abroad +into the streets of the populous city, contemplate the continuous +outpouring there of human energy, and the countless varieties +of human character, and be satisfied! The ways are thronged, +carriage-way and pavement; multitudes are hurrying to and fro, each +on his own errand, or are loitering about from listlessness, or from +want of work, or have come forth into the public concourse, to see +and to be seen, for amusement or for display, or on the excuse of +business. The carriages of the wealthy mingle with the slow wains +laden with provisions or merchandise, the productions of art or the +demands of luxury. The streets are lined with shops, open and gay, +inviting customers, and widen now and then into some spacious square +or place, with lofty masses of brickwork or of stone, gleaming in +the fitful sunbeam, and surrounded or fronted with what simulates +a garden's foliage. Follow them in another direction, and you +find the whole groundstead covered with large buildings, planted +thickly up and down, the homes of the mechanical arts. The air is +filled, below, with a ceaseless, importunate, monotonous din, which +penetrates even to your innermost chamber, and rings in your ears +even when you are not conscious of it; and overhead, with a canopy +of smoke, shrouding God's day from the realms of obstinate, sullen +toil. This is the end of man! + +Or stay at home, and take up one of those daily prints, which +are so true a picture of the world; look down the columns of +advertisements, and you will see the catalog of pursuits, projects, +aims, anxieties, amusements, indulgences which occupy the mind of +man. He plays many parts: here he has goods to sell, there he wants +employment; there again he seeks to borrow money, here he offers you +houses, great seats or small tenements; he has food for the million, +and luxuries for the wealthy, and sovereign medicines for the +credulous, and books, new and cheap, for the inquisitive. Pass on +to the news of the day, and you will learn what great men are doing +at home and abroad: you will read of wars and rumors of wars; of +debates in the legislature; of rising men, and old statesmen going +off the scene; of political contests in this city or that country; +of the collision of rival interests. You will read of the money +market, and the provision market, and the market for metals; of the +state of trade, the call for manufactures, news of ships arrived +in port, of accidents at sea, of exports and imports, of gains and +losses, of frauds and their detection. Go forward, and you arrive at +discoveries in art and science, discoveries (so-called) in religion, +the court and royalty, the entertainments of the great, places of +amusement, strange trials, offenses, accidents, escapes, exploits, +experiments, contests, ventures. Oh, this curious restless, +clamorous, panting being, which we call life!--and is there to be +no end to all this? Is there no object in it? It never has an end, +it is forsooth its own object! + +And now, once more, my brethren, put aside what you see and what +you read of the world, and try to penetrate into the hearts, and to +reach the ideas and the feelings of those who constitute it; look +into them as closely as you can; enter into their houses and private +rooms; strike at random through the streets and lanes: take as they +come, palace and hovel, office or factory, and what will you find? +Listen to their words, witness, alas! their works; you will find in +the main the same lawless thoughts, the same unrestrained desires, +the same ungoverned passions, the same earthly opinions, the same +wilful deeds, in high and low, learned and unlearned; you will find +them all to be living for the sake of living; they one and all seem +to tell you, "We are our own center, our own end." Why are they +toiling? why are they scheming? for what are they living? "We live +to please ourselves; life is worthless except we have our own way; +we are not sent here at all, but we find ourselves here, and we are +but slaves unless we can think what we will, believe what we will, +love what we will, hate what we will, do what we will. We detest +interference on the part of God or man. We do not bargain to be rich +or to be great; but we do bargain, whether rich or poor, high or +low, to live for ourselves, to live for the lust of the moment, or, +according to the doctrine of the hour, thinking of the future and +the unseen just as much or as little as we please." + +Oh, my brethren, is it not a shocking thought, but who can deny its +truth? The multitude of men are living without any aim beyond this +visible scene; they may from time to time use religious words, or +they may profess a communion or a worship, as a matter of course, +or of expedience, or of duty, but, if there was sincerity in such +profession, the course of the world could not run as it does. What +a contrast is all this to the end of life, as it is set before us +in our most holy faith! If there was one among the sons of men, who +might allowably have taken his pleasure, and have done his own will +here below, surely it was He who came down on earth from the bosom +of the Father, and who was so pure and spotless in that human nature +which He put on Him, that He could have no human purpose or aim +inconsistent with the will of His Father. Yet He, the Son of God, +the Eternal Word, came, not to do His own will, but His who sent +Him, as you know very well is told us again and again in Scripture. +Thus the Prophet in the Psalter, speaking in His person, says, "Lo, +I come to do thy will, O God." And He says in the Prophet Isaiah, +"The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I do not resist; I have +not gone back." And in the gospel, when He hath come on earth, +"My food is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his +work." Hence, too, in His agony, He cried out, "Not my will, but +thine, be done;" and St. Paul, in like manner, says, that "Christ +pleased not himself;" and elsewhere, that, "tho he was God's Son, +yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." Surely +so it was; as being indeed the eternal coequal Son, His will was +one and the same with the Father's will, and He had no submission +of will to make; but He chose to take on Him man's nature and the +will of that nature; he chose to take on Him affections, feelings, +and inclinations proper to man, a will innocent indeed and good, +but still a man's will, distinct from God's will; a will, which, +had it acted simply according to what was pleasing to its nature, +would, when pain and toil were to be endured, have held back from an +active cooperation with the will of God. But, tho He took on Himself +the nature of man, He took not on Him that selfishness, with which +fallen man wraps himself round, but in all things He devoted Himself +as a ready sacrifice to His Father. He came on earth, not to take +His pleasure, not to follow His taste, not for the mere exercise +of human affection, but simply to glorify His Father and to do His +will. He came charged with a mission, deputed for a work; He looked +not to the right nor to the left, He thought not of Himself, He +offered Himself up to God. + +Hence it is that He was carried in the womb of a poor woman, +who, before His birth, had two journeys to make, of love and of +obedience, to the mountains and to Bethlehem. He was born in a +stable, and laid in a manger. He was hurried off to Egypt to sojourn +there; then He lived till He was thirty years of age in a poor way, +by a rough trade, in a small house, in a despised town. Then, when +He went out to preach, He had not where to lay His head; He wandered +up and down the country, as a stranger upon earth. He was driven out +into the wilderness, and dwelt among the wild beasts. He endured +heat and cold, hunger and weariness, reproach and calumny. His +food was coarse bread, and fish from the lake, or depended on the +hospitality of strangers. And as He had already left His Father's +greatness on high, and had chosen an earthly home; so again, at +that Father's bidding, He gave up the sole solace given Him in this +world, and denied Himself His mother's presence. He parted with her +who bore Him; He endured to be strange to her; He endured to call +her coldly "woman," who was His own undefiled one, all beautiful, +all gracious, the best creature of His hands, and the sweet nurse of +His infancy. He put her aside, as Levi, His type, merited the sacred +ministry, by saying to His parents and kinsmen, "I know you not." +He exemplified in His own person the severe maxim, which He gave to +His disciples, "He that loveth more than me is not worthy of me." +In all these many ways He sacrificed every wish of His own; that we +might understand, that, if He, the Creator, came into His world, not +for His own pleasure, but to do His Father's will, we too have most +surely some work to do, and have seriously to bethink ourselves what +that work is. + +Yes, so it is; realize it, my brethren;--every one who breathes, +high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, +has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for +nothing; we are not born at random; we are not here, that we may go +to bed at night, and get up in the morning, toil for our bread, eat +and drink, laugh and joke, sin when we have a mind, and reform when +we are tired of sinning, rear a family and die. God sees every one +of us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in the body, one by one, +for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has +an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are +placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can +out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ +had His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we +must rejoice in ours also. + +St. Paul on one occasion speaks of the world as a scene in a +theater. Consider what is meant by this. You know, actors on a stage +are on an equality with each other really, but for the occasion they +assume a difference of character; some are high, some are low, some +are merry, and some sad. Well, would it not be simple absurdity +in any actor to pride himself on his mock diadem, or his edgeless +sword, instead of attending to his part? What, if he did but gaze at +himself and his dress? what, if he secreted, or turned to his own +use, what was valuable in it? Is it not his business, and nothing +else, to act his part well? Common sense tells us so. Now we are +all but actors in this world; we are one and all equal, we shall be +judged as equals as soon as life is over; yet, equal and similar in +ourselves, each has his special part at present, each has his work, +each has his mission,--not to indulge his passions, not to make +money, not to get a name in the world, not to save himself trouble, +not to follow his bent, not to be selfish and self-willed, but to do +what God puts on him to do. + +Look at the poor profligate in the gospel, look at Dives; do you +think he understood that his wealth was to be spent, not on himself, +but for the glory of God?--yet forgetting this, he was lost for +ever and ever. I will tell you what he thought, and how he viewed +things: he was a young man, and had succeeded to a good estate, +and he determined to enjoy himself. It did not strike him that his +wealth had any other use than that of enabling him to take his +pleasure. Lazarus lay at his gate; he might have relieved Lazarus; +that was God's will; but he managed to put conscience aside, and +he persuaded himself he should be a fool, if he did not make the +most of this world, while he had the means. So he resolved to have +his fill of pleasure; and feasting was to his mind a principal part +of it. "He fared sumptuously every day"; everything belonging to +him was in the best style, as men speak; his house, his furniture, +his plate of silver and gold, his attendants, his establishments. +Everything was for enjoyment, and for show, too; to attract the +eyes of the world, and to gain the applause and admiration of his +equals, who were the companions of his sins. These companions were +doubtless such as became a person of such pretensions; they were +fashionable men; a collection of refined, high-bred, haughty men, +eating, not gluttonously, but what was rare and costly; delicate, +exact, fastidious in their taste, from their very habits of +indulgence; not eating for the mere sake of eating, or drinking for +the mere sake of drinking, but making a sort of science of their +sensuality; sensual, carnal, as flesh and blood can be, with eyes, +ears, tongue steeped in impurity, every thought, look, and sense, +witnessing or ministering to the evil one who ruled them; yet, with +exquisite correctness of idea and judgment, laying down rules for +sinning;--heartless and selfish, high, punctilious, and disdainful +in their outward deportment, and shrinking from Lazarus, who lay at +the gate, as an eye-sore, who ought for the sake of decency to be +put out of the way. Dives was one of such, and so he lived his short +span, thinking of nothing but himself, till one day he got into a +fatal quarrel with one of his godless associates, or he caught some +bad illness; and then he lay helpless on his bed of pain, cursing +fortune and his physician that he was no better, and impatient that +he was thus kept from enjoying his youth, trying to fancy himself +mending when he was getting worse, and disgusted at those who would +not throw him some word of comfort in his suspense, and turning more +resolutely from his Creator in proportion to his suffering;--and +then at last his day came, and he died, and (oh! miserable!) "was +buried in hell." And so ended he and his mission. + +This was the fate of your pattern and idol, oh, ye, if any of you +be present, young men, who, tho not possest of wealth and rank, yet +affect the fashions of those who have them. You, my brethren, have +not been born splendidly, or nobly; you have not been brought up +in the seats of liberal education; you have no high connections; +you have not learned the manners nor caught the tone of good +society; you have no share of the largeness of mind, the candor, the +romantic sense of honor, the correctness of taste, the consideration +for others, and the gentleness which the world puts forth as its +highest type of excellence; you have not come near the courts of the +mansions of the great; yet you ape the sin of Dives, while you are +strangers to his refinement. You think it the sign of a gentleman +to set yourselves above religion; to criticize the religious and +professors of religion; to look at Catholic and Methodist with +impartial contempt; to gain a smattering of knowledge on a number of +subjects; to dip into a number of frivolous publications, if they +are popular; to have read the latest novel; to have heard the singer +and seen the actor of the day; to be well up with the news; to know +the names and, if so be, the persons of public men, to be able to +bow to them; to walk up and down the street with your heads on high, +and to stare at whatever meets you; and to say and do worse things, +of which these outward extravagances are but the symbol. And this +is what you conceive you have come upon the earth for! The Creator +made you, it seems, oh, my children, for this work and office, to +be a bad imitation of polished ungodliness, to be a piece of tawdry +and faded finery, or a scent which has lost its freshness, and does +not but offend the sense! O! that you could see how absurd and base +are such pretenses in the eyes of any but yourselves! No calling of +life but is honorable; no one is ridiculous who acts suitably to +his calling and estate; no one, who has good sense and humility, +but may, in any state of life, be truly well-bred and refined; +but ostentation, affectation, and ambitious efforts are, in every +station of life, high or low, nothing but vulgarities. Put them +aside, despise them yourselves. Oh, my very dear sons, whom I love, +and whom I would fain serve;--oh, that you could feel that you have +souls! oh, that you would have mercy on your souls! oh, that, before +it is too late, you would betake yourselves to Him who is the source +of all that is truly high and magnificent and beautiful, all that is +bright and pleasant and secure what you ignorantly seek, in Him whom +you so wilfully, so awfully despise! + +He, alone, the Son of God, "the brightness of the Eternal Light, and +the spotless mirror of His Majesty," is the source of all good and +all happiness to rich and poor, high and low. If you were ever so +high, you would need Him; if you were ever so low, you could offend +Him. The poor can offend Him; the poor man can neglect his divinely +appointed mission as well as the rich. Do not suppose, my brethren, +that what I have said against the upper or the middle class will +not, if you happen to be poor, also lie against you. Though a man +were as poor as Lazarus, he could be as guilty as Dives. If you +were resolved to degrade yourselves to the brutes of the field, +who have no reason and no conscience, you need not wealth or rank +to enable you to do so. Brutes have no wealth; they have no pride +of life; they have no purple and fine linen, no splendid table, no +retinue of servants, and yet they are brutes. They are brutes by the +law of their nature; they are the poorest among the poor; there is +not a vagrant and outcast who is so poor as they; they differ from +him, not in their possessions, but in their want of a soul, in that +he has a mission and they have not, he can sin and they can not. Oh, +my brethren, it stands to reason, a man may intoxicate himself with +a cheap draft, as well as with a costly one; he may steal another's +money for his appetites, though he does not waste his own upon them; +he may break through the natural and social laws which encircle him, +and profane the sanctity of family duties, tho he be not a child of +nobles, but a peasant or artisan,--nay, and perhaps he does so more +frequently than they. This is not the poor's blessedness, that he +has less temptations to self-indulgence, for he has as many, but +that from his circumstances he receives the penances and corrections +of self-indulgence. Poverty is the mother of many pains and sorrows +in their season, and these are God's messengers to lead the soul +to repentance; but, alas! if the poor man indulges his passions, +thinks little of religion, puts off repentance, refuses to make an +effort, and dies without conversion, it matters nothing that he +was poor in this world, it matters nothing that he was less daring +than the rich, it matters not that he promised himself God's favor, +that he sent for the priest when death came, and received the last +sacraments; Lazarus too, in that case, shall be buried with Dives in +hell, and shall have had his consolation neither in this world nor +in the world to come. + +My brethren, the simple question is, whatever a man's rank in life +may be, does he in that rank perform the work which God has given +him to do? Now then, let me turn to others, of a very different +description, and let me hear what they will say, when the question +is asked them. Why, they will parry it thus: "You give us no +alternative," they will say to me, "except that of being sinners or +saints. You put before us our Lord's pattern, and you spread before +us the guilt and ruin of the deliberate transgressor; whereas we +have no intention of going so far one way or the other; we do not +aim at being saints, but we have no desire at all to be sinners. We +neither intend to disobey God's will, nor to give up our own. Surely +there is a middle way, and a safe one, in which God's will and our +will may both be satisfied. We mean to enjoy both this world and the +next. We will guard against mortal sin; we are not obliged to guard +against venial; indeed it would be endless to attempt it. None but +saints do so; it is the work of a life; we need have nothing else +to do. We are not monks, we are in the world, we are in business, +we are parents, we have families; we must live for the day. It is a +consolation to keep from mortal sin; that we do, and it is enough +for salvation. It is a great thing to keep in God's favor; what +indeed can we desire more? We come at due time to the sacraments; +this is our comfort and our stay; did we die, we should die in +grace, and escape the doom of the wicked. But if we once attempted +to go further, where should we stop? how will you draw the line +for us? The line between mortal and venial sin is very distinct; +we understand that; but do you not see that, if we attended to our +venial sins, there would be just as much reason to attend to one as +to another? If we began to repress our anger, why not also repress +vainglory? Why not also guard against niggardliness? Why not also +keep from falsehood, from gossiping, from idling, from excess in +eating? And, after all, without venial sin we never can be, unless +indeed we have the prerogative of the Mother of God, which it would +be almost heresy to ascribe to any one but her. You are not asking +us to be converted; that we understand; we are converted, we were +converted a long time ago. You bid us aim at an indefinite vague +something, which is less than perfection, yet more than obedience, +and which, without resulting in any tangible advantage, debars us +from the pleasures and embarrasses us in the duties of this world." + +This is what you will say; but your premises, my brethren, are +better than your reasoning, and your conclusions will not stand. +You have a right view why God has sent you into the world; viz., in +order that you may get to heaven; it is quite true also that you +would fare well indeed if you found yourselves there, you could +desire nothing better; nor, it is true, can you live any time +without venial sin. It is true also that you are not obliged to aim +at being saints; it is no sin not to aim at perfection. So much +is true and to the purpose; but it does not follow from it that +you, with such views and feelings as you have exprest, are using +sufficient exertions even for attaining purgatory. Has your religion +any difficulty in it, or is it in all respects easy to you? Are you +simply taking your own pleasure in your mode of living, or do you +find your pleasure in submitting yourself to God's pleasure? In a +word, is your religion a work? For if it be not, it is not religion +at all. Here at once, before going into your argument, is a proof +that it is an unsound one, because it brings you to the conclusion +that, whereas Christ came to do a work, and all saints, nay, nay, +and sinners to do a work too, you, on the contrary, have no work to +do, because, forsooth, you are neither sinners nor saints; or, if +you once had a work, at least that you have despatched it already, +and you have nothing upon your hands. You have attained your +salvation, it seems, before your time, and have nothing to occupy +you, and are detained on earth too long. The work days are over, +and your perpetual holiday is begun. Did then God send you, above +all other men, into the world to be idle in spiritual matters? Is +it your mission only to find pleasure in this world, in which you +are but as pilgrims and sojourners? Are you more than sons of Adam, +who, by the sweat of their brow, are to eat bread till they return +to the earth out of which they are taken? Unless you have some +work in hand, unless you are struggling, unless you are fighting +with yourselves, you are no followers of those who "through many +tribulations entered into the kingdom of God." A fight is the very +token of a Christian. He is a soldier of Christ; high or low, he is +this and nothing else. If you have triumphed over all mortal sin, +as you seem to think, then you must attack your venial sins; there +is no help for it; there is nothing else to do, if you would be +soldiers of Jesus Christ. But, oh, simple souls! to think you have +gained any triumph at all! No; you cannot safely be at peace with +any, even the least malignant, of the foes of God; if you are at +peace with venial sins, be certain that in their company and under +their shadow mortal sins are lurking. Mortal sins are the children +of venial, which, tho they be not deadly themselves, yet are +prolific of death. You may think that you have killed the giants who +had possession of your hearts, and that you have nothing to fear, +but may sit at rest under your vine and under your fig-tree; but the +giants will live again, they will rise from the dust, and, before +you know where you are, you will be taken captive and slaughtered by +the fierce, powerful, and eternal enemies of God. + +The end of a thing is the test. It was our Lord's rejoicing in His +last solemn hour, that He had done the work for which He was sent. +"I have glorified thee on earth." He says in His prayer, "I have +finished the work which thou gavest me to do; I have manifested +thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world." It +was St. Paul's consolation also, "I have fought the good fight, I +have finished the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there +is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord shall render +to me in that day, the just judge." Alas! alas! how different will +be our view of things when we come to die, or when we have passed +into eternity, from the dreams and pretenses with which we beguile +ourselves now! What will Babel do for us then? Will it rescue our +souls from the purgatory or the hell to which it sends them? If we +were created, it was that we might serve God; if we have His gifts, +it is that we may glorify Him; if we have a conscience, it is that +we may obey it; if we have the prospect of heaven, it is that we +may keep it before us; if we have light, that we may follow it, if +we have grace, that we may save ourselves by means of it. Alas! +alas! for those who die without fulfilling their mission; who were +called to be holy, and lived in sin; who were called to worship +Christ, and who plunged into this giddy and unbelieving world; who +were called to fight, and who remained idle; who were called to be +Catholics, and who did but remain in the religion of their birth! +Alas for those who have had gifts and talent, and have not used, or +have misused, or abused them; who have had wealth, and have spent +it on themselves; who have had abilities, and have advocated what +was sinful, or ridiculed what was true, or scattered doubts against +what was sacred; who have had leisure, and have wasted it on wicked +companions, or evil books, or foolish amusements! Alas! for those of +whom the best can be said is, that they are harmless and naturally +blameless, while they never have attempted to cleanse their hearts +or to live in God's sight! + +The world goes on from age to age, but the Holy Angels and Blessed +Saints are always crying Alas, alas! and Wo, wo! over the loss of +vocations, and the disappointment of hopes, and the scorn of God's +love, and the ruin of souls. One generation succeeds another, and +whenever they look down upon earth from their golden thrones, they +see scarcely anything but a multitude of guardian spirits, downcast +and sad, each following his own charge, in anxiety, or in terror, +or in despair, vainly endeavoring to shield him from the enemy, +and failing because he will not be shielded. Times come and go, +and man will not believe, that that is to be which is not yet, or +that what now is only continues for a season, and is not eternity. +The end is the trial; the world passes; it is but a pageant and a +scene; the lofty palace crumbles, the busy city is mute, the ships +of Tarshish have sped away. On heart and flesh death is coming; the +veil is breaking. Departing soul, how hast thou used thy talents, +thy opportunities, the light poured around thee, the warnings given +thee, the grace inspired into thee? Oh, my Lord and Savior, support +me in that hour in the strong arms of Thy sacraments, and by the +fresh fragrance of Thy consolations. Let the absolving words be said +over me, and the holy oil sign and seal me, and Thy own body be my +food, and Thy blood my sprinkling; and let my sweet mother Mary +breathe on me, and my angel whisper peace to me, and my glorious +saints, and my own dear father, Philip, smile on me; that in them +all, and through them all, I may receive the gift of perseverance, +and die, as I desire to live, in Thy faith, in Thy Church, in Thy +service, and in Thy love. + + + + +BUSHNELL + +UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +HORACE BUSHNELL was born at Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1802. +Graduated at Yale 1827. In 1833 he became pastor of the North +Congregational Church, Hartford, Conn., resigned in 1859 and died +in 1876. He wrote many theological works. Among them "Christian +Nurture" (1847), a book now looked upon as of classical authority. +Considerable discussion among Calvinists was aroused by his "Nature +and the Supernatural," and his "The Vicarious Sacrifice" (1865) as +being out of accord with the accepted creeds of the Congregational +churches. He lacked the sympathy and dramatic instinct necessary +to great oratorical achievement, but his sermons prove by their +profound suggestiveness that he was a man of keen spiritual insight, +and preached with force and impressiveness. His influence upon the +ministers of America in modifying theology and remolding the general +type of preaching is fairly comparable with that of Robertson. + + + + +BUSHNELL + +1802-1876 + +UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE[4] + + [4] From "Sermons for the New Life," published by Charles Scribner's + Sons. + +_Then went in also that other disciple._--John xx., 8. + + +In this slight touch or turn of history, is opened to us, if we scan +closely, one of the most serious and fruitful chapters of Christian +doctrine. Thus it is that men are ever touching unconsciously the +springs of motion in each other; thus it is that one man, without +thought or intention, or even a consciousness of the fact, is ever +leading some other after him. Little does Peter think, as he comes +up where his doubting brother is looking into the sepulcher, and +goes straight in, after his peculiar manner, that he is drawing in +his brother apostle after him. As little does John think, when he +loses his misgivings, and goes into the sepulcher after Peter, that +he is following his brother. And just so, unaware to himself, is +every man, the whole race through, laying hold of his fellow-man, to +lead him where otherwise he would not go. We overrun the boundaries +of our personality--we flow together. A Peter leads a John, a John +goes after Peter, both of them unconscious of any influence exerted +or received. And thus our life and conduct are ever propagating +themselves, by a law of social contagion, throughout the circles and +times in which we live. + +There are, then, you will perceive, two sorts of influence belonging +to man; that which is active or voluntary, and that which is +unconscious--that which we exert purposely or in the endeavor +to sway another, as by teaching, by argument, by persuasion, by +threatenings, by offers and promises, and that which flows out from +us, unaware to ourselves, the same which Peter had over John when +he led him into the sepulcher. The importance of our efforts to do +good, that is of our voluntary influence, and the sacred obligation +we are under to exert ourselves in this way, are often and seriously +insisted on. It is thus that Christianity has become, in the present +age, a principle of so much greater activity than it has been for +many centuries before; and we fervently hope that it will yet become +far more active than it now is, nor cease to multiply its industry, +till it is seen by all mankind to embody the beneficence and the +living energy of Christ Himself. + +But there needs to be reproduced, at the same time, and partly for +this object, a more thorough appreciation of the relative importance +of that kind of influence or beneficence which is insensibly +exerted. The tremendous weight and efficacy of this, compared with +the other, and the sacred responsibility laid upon us in regard to +this, are felt in no such degree or proportion as they should be; +and the consequent loss we suffer in character, as well as that +which the Church suffers in beauty and strength, is incalculable. +The more stress, too, needs to be laid on this subject of insensible +influence, because it is insensible; because it is out of mind, and, +when we seek to trace it, beyond a full discovery. + +If the doubt occur to any of you, in the announcement of this +subject, whether we are properly responsible for an influence which +we exert insensibly; we are not, I reply, except so far as this +influence flows directly from our character and conduct. And this +it does, even much more uniformly than our active influence. In +the latter we may fail of our end by a want of wisdom or skill, in +which case we are still as meritorious, in God's sight, as if we +succeeded. So, again, we may really succeed, and do great good by +our active endeavors, from motives altogether base and hypocritical, +in which case we are as evil, in God's sight, as if we had failed. +But the influences we exert unconsciously will almost never disagree +with our real character. They are honest influences, following our +character, as the shadow follows the sun. And, therefore, we are +much more certainly responsible for them, and their effects on the +world. They go streaming from us in all directions, tho in channels +that we do not see, poisoning or healing around the roots of +society, and among the hidden wells of character. If good ourselves, +they are good; if bad, they are bad. And, since they reflect so +exactly our character, it is impossible to doubt our responsibility +for their effects on the world. We must answer not only for what +we do with a purpose, but for the influence we exert insensibly. +To give you any just impressions of the breadth and seriousness of +such a reckoning I know to be impossible. No mind can trace it. But +it will be something gained if I am able to awaken only a suspicion +of the vast extent and power of those influences, which are ever +flowing out unbidden upon society, from your life and character. + +In the prosecution of my design, let me ask of you, first of all, to +expel the common prejudice that there can be nothing of consequence +in unconscious influences, because they make no report, and fall on +the world unobserved. Histories and biographies make little account +of the power men exert insensibly over each other. They tell how +men have led armies, established empires, enacted laws, gained +causes, sung, reasoned, and taught--always occupied in setting forth +what they do with a purpose. But what they do without purpose, the +streams of influence that flow out from their persons unbidden on +the world, they can not trace or compute, and seldom even mention. +So also the public laws make men responsible only for what they +do with a positive purpose, and take no account of the mischiefs +or benefits that are communicated by their noxious or healthful +example. The same is true in the discipline of families, churches, +and schools; they make no account of the things we do, except we +will them. What we do insensibly passes for nothing, because no +human government can trace such influences with sufficient certainty +to make their authors responsible. + +But you must not conclude that influences of this kind are +insignificant, because they are unnoticed and noiseless. How is it +in the natural world? Behind the mere show, the outward noise and +stir of the world, nature always conceals her hand of control, and +the laws by which she rules. Who ever saw with the eye, for example, +or heard with the ear, the exertions of that tremendous astronomic +force, which every moment holds the compact of the physical universe +together? The lightning is, in fact, but a mere firefly spark in +comparison; but, because it glares on the clouds, and thunders so +terribly in the ear, and rives the tree or the rock where it falls, +many will be ready to think that it is a vastly more potent agent +than gravity. + +The Bible calls the good man's life a light, and it is the nature +of light to flow out spontaneously in all directions, and fill the +world unconsciously with its beams. So the Christian shines, it +would say, not so much because he will, as because he is a luminous +object. Not that the active influence of Christians is made of no +account in the figure, but only that this symbol of light has its +propriety in the fact that their unconscious influence is the chief +influence, and has the precedence in its power over the world. And +yet, there are many who will be ready to think that light is a very +tame and feeble instrument, because it is noiseless. An earthquake, +for example, is to them a much more vigorous and effective agency. +Hear how it comes thundering through solid foundations of nature. +It rocks a whole continent. The noblest works of man--cities, +monuments, and temples--are in a moment leveled to the ground, or +swallowed down the opening gulfs of fire. Little do they think +that the light of every morning, the soft, and genial, and silent +light, is an agent many times more powerful. But let the light of +the morning cease and return no more, let the hour of morning come, +and bring with it no dawn; the outcries of a horror-stricken world +fill the air, and make, as it were, the darkness audible. The beasts +go wild and frantic at the loss of the sun. The vegetable growths +turn pale and die. A chill creeps on, and frosty winds begin to howl +across the freezing earth. Colder, and yet colder, is the night. +The vital blood, at length, of all creatures, stops congealed. +Down goes the frost toward the earth's center. The heart of the sea +is frozen; nay, the earthquakes are themselves frozen in, under +their fiery caverns. The very globe itself, too, and all the fellow +planets that have lost their sun, are become mere balls of ice, +swinging silent in the darkness. Such is the light, which revisits +us in the silence of the morning. It makes no shock or scar. It +would not wake an infant in his cradle. And yet it perpetually new +creates the world, rescuing it each morning, as a prey, from night +and chaos. So the Christian is a light, even "the light of the +world," and we must not think that, because he shines insensibly or +silently, as a mere luminous object, he is therefore powerless. The +greatest powers are ever those which lie back of the little stirs +and commotion of nature; and I verily believe that the insensible +influences of good men are much more potent than what I have called +their voluntary, or active, as the great silent powers of nature are +of greater consequence than her little disturbances and tumults. The +law of human influences is deeper than many suspect, and they lose +sight of it altogether. The outward endeavors made by good men or +bad to sway others, they call their influence; whereas, it is, in +fact, but a fraction, and, in most cases, but a very small fraction, +of the good or evil that flows out of their lives. Nay, I will even +go further. How many persons do you meet, the insensible influence +of whose manners and character is so decided as often to thwart +their voluntary influence; so that, whatever they attempt to do, +in the way of controlling others, they are sure to carry the exact +opposite of what they intend! And it will generally be found that, +where men undertake by argument or persuasion to exert a power, in +the face of qualities that make them odious or detestable, or only +not entitled to respect, their insensible influence will be too +strong for them. The total effect of the life is then of a kind +directly opposite to the voluntary endeavor, which, of course, does +not add so much as a fraction to it. + +I call your attention, next, to the twofold powers of effect +and expression by which man connects with his fellow man. If we +distinguish man as a creature of language, and thus qualified to +communicate himself to others, there are in him two sets or kinds +of language, one which is voluntary in the use, and one that +is involuntary; that of speech in the literal sense, and that +expression of the eye, the face, the look, the gait, the motion, the +tone of cadence, which is sometimes called the natural language of +the sentiments. This natural language, too, is greatly enlarged by +the conduct of life, that which, in business and society, reveals +the principles and spirit of men. Speech, or voluntary language, is +a door to the soul, that we may open or shut at will; the other is +a door that stands open evermore, and reveals to others constantly, +and often very clearly, the tempers, tastes, and motives of their +hearts. Within, as we may represent, is character, charging the +common reservoir of influence, and through these twofold gates +of the soul pouring itself out on the world. Out of one it flows +at choice, and whensoever we purpose to do good or evil to men. +Out of the other it flows each moment, as light from the sun, and +propagates itself in all beholders. + +Then if we go to others, that is, to the subjects of influence, we +find every man endowed with two inlets of impression; the ear and +the understanding for the reception of speech, and the sympathetic +powers, the sensibilities or affections, for tinder to those sparks +of emotion revealed by looks, tones, manners and general conduct. +And these sympathetic powers, tho not immediately rational, are yet +inlets, open on all sides, to the understanding and character. They +have a certain wonderful capacity to receive impressions, and catch +the meaning of signs, and propagate in us whatsoever falls into +their passive molds from others. The impressions they receive do not +come through verbal propositions, and are never received into verbal +propositions, it may be, in the mind, and therefore many think +nothing of them. But precisely on this account are they the more +powerful, because it is as if one heart were thus going directly +into another, and carrying in its feelings with it. Beholding, as in +a glass, the feelings of our neighbor, we are changed into the same +image, by the assimilating power of sensibility and fellow-feeling. +Many have gone so far, and not without show, at least, of reason, as +to maintain that the look or expression, and even the very features +of children, are often changed by exclusive intercourse with nurses +and attendants. Furthermore, if we carefully consider, we shall +find it scarcely possible to doubt, that simply to look on bad and +malignant faces, or those whose expressions have become infected by +vice, to be with them and become familiarized to them, is enough +permanently to affect the character of persons of mature age. I do +not say that it must of necessity subvert their character, for the +evil looked upon may never be loved or welcomed in practise; but it +is something to have these bad images in the soul, giving out their +expressions there, and diffusing their odor among the thoughts, as +long as we live. How dangerous a thing is it, for example, for a +man to become accustomed to sights of cruelty? What man, valuing +the honor of his soul, would not shrink from yielding himself to +such an influence? No more is it a thing of indifference to become +accustomed to look on the manners, and receive the bad expression of +any kind of sin. + +The door of involuntary communication, I have said, is always open. +Of course we are communicating ourselves in this way to others at +every moment of our intercourse or presence with them. But how +very seldom, in comparison, do we undertake by means of speech to +influence others! Even the best Christian, one who most improves +his opportunities to do good, attempts but seldom to sway another +by voluntary influence, whereas he is all the while shining as a +luminous object unawares, and communicating of his heart to the +world. + +But there is yet another view of this double line of communication +which man has with his fellow-men, which is more general, and +displays the import of the truth yet more convincingly. It is +by one of these modes of communication that we are constituted +members of voluntary society, and by the other, parts of a general +mass, or members of involuntary society. You are all, in a certain +view, individuals, and separate as persons from each other; you +are also, in a certain other view, parts of a common body, as +truly as the parts of a stone. Thus if you ask how it is that you +and all men came without your consent to exist in society, to be +within its power, to be under its laws, the answer is, that while +you are a man, you are also a fractional element of a larger and +more comprehensive being, called society--be it the family, the +church, the state. In a certain department of your nature, it is +open; its sympathies and feelings are open. On this open side +you will adhere together, as parts of a larger nature, in which +there is a common circulation of want, impulse, and law. Being +thus made common to each other voluntarily, you become one mass, +one consolidated social body, animated by one life. And observe +how far this involuntary communication and sympathy between the +members of a state or a family is sovereign over their character. It +always results in what we call the national or family spirit; for +there is a spirit peculiar to every state and family in the world. +Sometimes, too, this national or family spirit takes a religious or +an irreligious character, and appears almost to absorb the religious +self-government of individuals. What was the national spirit of +France, for example, at a certain time, but a spirit of infidelity? +What is the religious spirit of Spain at this moment, but a spirit +of bigotry, quite as wide of Christianity and destructive of +character as the spirit of falsehood? What is the family spirit in +many a house, but the spirit of gain, or pleasure, or appetite, +in which everything that is warm, dignified, genial, and good in +religion, is visibly absent? Sometimes you will almost fancy that +you see the shapes of money in the eyes of children. So it is that +we are led on by nations, as it were, to good or bad immortality. +Far down in the secret foundations of life and society there lie +concealed great laws and channels of influence, which make the race +common to each other in all the main departments or divisions of +the social mass, laws which often escape our notice altogether, but +which are to society as gravity to the general system of God's works. + +But these are general considerations, and more fit, perhaps, to +give you a rational conception of the modes of influence and their +relative power, than to verify that conception, or establish its +truth. I now proceed to add, therefore, some miscellaneous proofs of +a more particular nature. + +And I mention, first of all, the instinct of imitation in children. +We begin our mortal experience, not with acts grounded in judgment +or reason, or with ideas received through language, but by simple +imitation, and, under the guidance of this, we lay our foundations. +The child looks and listens, and whatsoever tone of feeling or +manner of conduct is displayed around him, sinks into his plastic, +passive soul, and becomes a mold of his being ever after. The very +handling of the nursery is significant, and the petulance, the +passion, the gentleness, the tranquillity indicated by it, are all +reproduced in the child. His soul is a purely receptive nature, +and that for a considerable period, without choice or selection. +A little further on he begins voluntarily to copy everything he +sees. Voice, manner, gait, everything which the eye sees, the mimic +instinct delights to act over. And thus we have a whole generation +of future men, receiving from us their beginnings, and the deepest +impulses of their life and immortality. They watch us every moment, +in the family, before the hearth, and at the table; and when we are +meaning them no good or evil, when we are conscious of exerting no +influence over them, they are drawing from us impressions and molds +of habit, which, if wrong, no heavenly discipline can wholly remove; +or, if right, no bad associations utterly dissipate. Now it may be +doubted, I think, whether, in all the active influence of our lives, +we do as much to shape the destiny of our fellow-men as we do in +this single article of unconscious influence over children. + +Still further on, respect for others takes the place of imitation. +We naturally desire the approbation or good opinion of others. You +see the strength of this feeling in the article of fashion. How few +persons have the nerve to resist a fashion! We have fashions, too, +in literature, and in worship, and in moral and religious doctrine, +almost equally powerful. How many will violate the best rules of +society, because it is the practise of the circle! How many reject +Christ because of friends or acquaintance, who have no suspicion of +the influence they exert, and will not have, till the last days +show them what they have done! Every good man has thus a power in +his person, more mighty than his words and arguments, and which +others feel when he little suspects it. Every bad man, too, has a +fund of poison in his character, which is tainting those around him, +when it is not in his thoughts to do them injury. He is read and +understood. His sensual tastes and habits, his unbelieving spirit, +his suppressed leer at religions, have all a power, and take hold of +the heart of others, whether he will have it so or not. + +Again, how well understood is it that the most active feelings and +impulses of mankind are contagious. How quick enthusiasm of any sort +is to kindle, and how rapidly it catches from one to another, till a +nation blazes in the flame! In the case of the Crusades you have an +example where the personal enthusiasm of one man put all the states +of Europe in motion. Fanaticism is almost equally contagious. Fear +and superstition always infect the mind of the circle in which they +are manifested. The spirit of war generally becomes an epidemic of +madness, when once it has got possession of a few minds. The spirit +of party is propagated in a similar manner. How any slight operation +in the market may spread, like a fire, if successful, till trade +runs wild in a general infatuation, is well known. Now, in all these +examples, the effect is produced, not by active endeavor to carry +influence, but mostly by that insensible propagation which follows, +when a flame of any kind is once more kindled. + +It is also true, you may ask, that the religious spirit propagates +itself or tends to propagate itself in the same way? I see no +reason to question that it does. Nor does anything in the doctrine +of spiritual influences, when rightly understood, forbid the +supposition. For spiritual influences are never separated from the +laws of thought in the individual, and the laws of feeling and +influence in society. If, too, every disciple is to be an "epistle +known and read of all men," what shall we expect, but that all men +will be somehow affected by the reading? Or if he is to be a light +in the world, what shall we look for, but that others, seeing his +good works, shall glorify God on his account? How often is it seen, +too, as a fact of observation, that one or a few good men kindle at +length a holy fire in the community in which they live, and become +the leaven of general reformation! Such men give a more vivid proof +in their persons of the reality of religious faith than any words or +arguments could yield. They are active; they endeavor, of course, +to exert a good voluntary influence; but still their chief power +lies in their holiness and the sense they produce in others of their +close relation to God. + +It now remains to exhibit the very important fact, that where the +direct or active influence of men is supposed to be great, even +this is due, in a principal degree, to that insensible influence +by which their arguments, reproofs, and persuasions are secretly +invigorating. It is not mere words which turn men; it is the heart +mounting, uncalled, into the expression of the features; it is the +eye illuminated by reason, the look beaming with goodness; it is +the tone of the voice, that instrument of the soul, which changes +quality with such amazing facility, and gives out in the soft, +the tender, the tremulous, the firm, every shade of emotion and +character. And so much is there in this, that the moral stature and +character of the man that speaks are likely to be well represented +in his manner. If he is a stranger, his way will inspire confidence +and attract good will. His virtues will be seen, as it were, +gathering round him to minister words and forms of thought, and +their voices will be heard in the fall of his cadences. And the +same is true of bad men, or men who have nothing in their character +corresponding to what they attempt to do. If without heart or +interest you attempt to move another, the involuntary man tells what +you are doing in a hundred ways at once. A hypocrite, endeavoring to +exert a good influence, only tries to convey by words what the lying +look, and the faithless affectation, or dry exaggeration of his +manner perpetually resists. We have it for a fashion to attribute +great or even prodigious results to the voluntary efforts and labors +of men. Whatever they effect is commonly referred to nothing but +the immediate power of what they do. Let us take an example, like +that of Paul, and analyze it. Paul was a man of great fervor and +enthusiasm. He combined, withal, more of what is lofty and morally +commanding in his character, than most of the very distinguished men +of the world. Having this for his natural character, and his natural +character exalted and made luminous by Christian faith, and the +manifest indwelling of God, he had of course an almost superhuman +sway over others. Doubtless he was intelligent, strong in argument, +eloquent, active, to the utmost of his powers, but still he moved +the world more by what he was than by what he did. The grandeur and +spiritual splendor of his character were ever adding to his active +efforts an element of silent power, which was the real and chief +cause of their efficacy. He convinced, subdued, inspired, and led, +because of the half-divine authority which appeared in his conduct, +and his glowing spirit. He fought the good fight, because he kept +the faith, and filled his powerful nature with influences drawn from +higher worlds. + +And here I must conduct you to a yet higher example, even that +of the Son of God, the light of the world. Men dislike to be +swayed by direct, voluntary influence. They are jealous of such +control, and are therefore best approached by conduct and feeling, +and the authority of simple worth, which seem to make no purposed +onset. If goodness appears, they welcome its celestial smile; if +heaven descends to encircle them, they yield to its sweetness; if +truth appears in the life, they honor it with a secret homage; if +personal majesty and glory appear, they bow with reverence, and +acknowledge with shame their own vileness. Now it is on this side +of human nature that Christ visits us, preparing just that kind +of influence which the spirit of truth may wield with the most +persuasive and subduing effect. It is the grandeur of His character +which constitutes the chief power of His ministry, not His miracles +or teachings apart from His character. Miracles were useful, at +the time, to arrest attention, and His doctrine is useful at all +times as the highest revelation of truth possible in speech; but +the greatest truth of the gospel, notwithstanding, is Christ +Himself--a human body becomes the organ of the divine nature, and +reveals, under the conditions of an earthly life, the glory of +God! The Scripture writers have much to say, in this connection, +of the image of God; and an image, you know, is that which simply +represents, not that which acts, or reasons, or persuades. Now it +is this image of God which makes the center, the sun itself, of the +gospel. The journeyings, teachings, miracles, and sufferings of +Christ, all had their use in bringing out this image, or what is the +same, in making conspicuous the character and feelings of God, both +toward sinners and toward sin. And here is the power of Christ--it +is that God's beauty, love, truth, and justice shines through Him. +It is the influence which flows unconsciously and spontaneously +out of Christ, as the friend of man, the light of the world, the +glory of the Father, made visible. And some have gone so far as to +conjecture that God made the human person, originally, with a view +to its becoming the organ or vehicle by which He might reveal His +communicable attributes to other worlds. Christ, they believe, came +to inhabit this organ, that He might execute a purpose so sublime. +The human person is constituted, they say, to be a mirror of God; +and God, being imaged in that mirror, as in Christ, is held up to +the view of this and other worlds. It certainly is to the view of +this; and if the Divine nature can use the organ so effectively to +express itself unto us, if it can bring itself, through the looks, +tones, motions, and conduct of a human person, more close to our +sympathies than by any other means, how can we think that an organ +so communicative, inhabited by us, is not always breathing our +spirit and transferring our image insensibly to others? + +I have protracted the argument on this subject beyond what I could +have wished, but I can not dismiss it without suggesting a few +thoughts necessary to its complete practical effect. + +One very obvious and serious inference from it, and the first which +I will name, is, that it is impossible to live in this world and +escape responsibility. It is not that they alone, as you have seen, +who are trying purposely to convert or corrupt others, who exert an +influence; you can not live without exerting influence. The doors +of your soul are open on others, and theirs on you. You inhabit +a house which is well-nigh transparent; and what you are within, +you are ever showing yourself to be without, by signs that have no +ambiguous expression. If you had the seeds of a pestilence in your +body, you would not have a more active contagion than you have in +your tempers, tastes, and principles. Simply to be in this world, +whatever you are, is to exert an influence--an influence, too, +compared with which mere language and persuasion are feeble. You +say that you mean well; at least, you think you mean to injure no +one. Do you injure no one? Is your example harmless? Is it ever on +the side of God and duty? You can not reasonably doubt that others +are continually receiving impressions from your character. As +little you can doubt that you must answer for these impressions. If +the influence you exert is unconsciously exerted, then it is only +the most sincere, the truest expression of your character. And for +what can you be held responsible, if not for this? Do not deceive +yourselves in the thought that you are at least doing no injury, and +are, therefore, living without responsibility; first, make it sure +that you are not every hour infusing moral death insensibly into +your children, wives, husbands, friends, and acquaintances. By a +mere look or glance, not unlikely, you are conveying the influence +that shall turn the scale of some one's immortality. Dismiss, +therefore, the thought that you are living without responsibility; +that is impossible. Better is it frankly to admit the truth; and if +you will risk the influence of a character unsanctified by duty and +religion, prepare to meet your reckoning manfully, and receive the +just recompense of reward. + +The true philosophy or method of doing good is also here explained. +It is, first of all and principally, to be good--to have a character +that will of itself communicate good. There must and will be active +effort where there is goodness of principle; but the latter we +should hold to be the principal thing, the root and life of all. +Whether it is a mistake more sad or more ridiculous, to make mere +stir synonymous with doing good, we need not inquire; enough, to +be sure that one who has taken up such a notion of doing good, is +for that reason a nuisance to the Church. The Christian is called +a light, not lightning. In order to act with effect on others, he +must walk in the Spirit, and thus become the image of goodness; he +must be so akin to God, and so filled with His dispositions, that +he shall seem to surround himself with a hallowed atmosphere. It is +folly to endeavor to make ourselves shine before we are luminous. +If the sun without his beams should talk to the planets, and argue +with them till the final day, it would not make them shine; there +must be light in the sun itself; and then they will shine, of +course. And this, my brethren, is what God intends for you all. +It is the great idea of His gospel, and the work of His spirit, +to make you lights in the world. His greatest joy is to give you +character, to beautify your example, to exalt your principles, and +make you each the depository of His own almighty grace. But in order +to do this, something is necessary on your part--a full surrender +of your mind to duty and to God, and a perpetual desire of this +spiritual intimacy; having this, having a participation thus of the +goodness of God, you will as naturally communicate good as the sun +communicates his beams. + +Our doctrine of unconscious and undesigning influence shows how +it is, also, that the preaching of Christ is often unfruitful, +and especially in times of spiritual coldness. It is not because +truth ceases to be truth, nor, of necessity, because it is preached +in a less vivid manner, but because there are so many influences +preaching against the preacher. He is one, the people are many; +his attempt to convince and persuade is a voluntary influence; +their lives, on the other hand, and especially the lives of those +who profess what is better, are so many unconscious influences +ever streaming forth upon the people, and back and forth between +each other. He preaches the truth, and they, with one consent, are +preaching the truth down; and how can he prevail against so many, +and by a kind of influence so unequal? When the people of God are +glowing with spiritual devotion to Him, and love to men, the case +is different; then they are all preaching with the preacher, and +making an atmosphere of warmth for his words to fall in; great is +the company of them that publish the truth, and proportionally great +its power. Shall I say more? Have you not already felt, my brethren, +the application to which I would bring you? We do not exonerate +ourselves; we do not claim to be nearer to God or holier than you; +but, ah! you know how easy it is to make a winter about us, or +how cold it feels! Our endeavor is to preach the truth of Christ +and His cross as clearly and as forcefully as we can. Sometimes +it has a visible effect, and we are filled with joy; sometimes +it has no effect, and then we struggle on, as we must, but under +great oppression. Have we none among you that preach against us +in your lives? If we show you the light of God's truth, does it +never fall on banks of ice; which if the light shows through, the +crystal masses are yet as cold as before? We do not accuse you; that +we leave to God, and to those who may rise up in the last day to +testify against you. If they shall come out of your own families; +if they are the children that wear your names, the husband or wife +of your affections; if they declare that you, by your example, kept +them away from Christ's truth and mercy, we may have accusations to +meet of our own, and we leave you to acquit yourselves as best you +may. I only warn you, here, of the guilt which our Lord Jesus Christ +will impute to them that hinder His gospel. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note: + +Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. + +Page 203: "the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all +things", shall be found unto praise, and honor, and glory!--The +transcriber has supplied the missing closing quoteation mark. + +Page 206: not only from its condemnation, but from its very +"in-being";--The transcriber has supplied the opening quotation mark. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS, VOL 4 *** + +***** This file should be named 44411.txt or 44411.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/4/1/44411/ + +Produced by Júlio Reis, Moisés S. 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