{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_44411/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_44411","id":"gutenberg_44411","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44411","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Sermons"],"text":"Transcriber's note:\n\nText enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).\n\nSmall capital text has been replaced with all capitals.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[Illustration: Cover]\n\n[Illustration: titlepage]\n\n\n\n\n_The World's Great Sermons_\n\nVOLUME IV\n\nL. BEECHER TO BUSHNELL\n\n\n\n\n  THE\n  WORLD'S\n  GREAT\n  SERMONS\n\n  COMPILED BY\n  GRENVILLE KLEISER\n  Formerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty;\n  Author of \"How to Speak\n  in Public,\" Etc.\n\n  With Assistance from Many of the Foremost\n  Living Preachers and Other Theologians\n\n  INTRODUCTION BY\n  LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D.\n  Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology\n  in Yale University\n\n  IN TEN VOLUMES\n\n  VOLUME IV L. BEECHER TO BUSHNELL\n\n  FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY\n  NEW YORK and LONDON\n\n\n\n\n  COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY\n  FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY\n  _Printed in the United States of America_\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  VOLUME IV\n\n  LYMAN BEECHER (1775-1863).             _Page_\n    The Government of God Desirable           1\n\n  CHANNING (1780-1842).\n    The Character of Christ                  27\n\n  CHALMERS (1780-1847).\n    The Expulsive Power of a New Affection   53\n\n  ALEXANDER CAMPBELL (1788-1866).\n    The Missionary Cause                     79\n\n  IRVING (1792-1834).\n    Preparation for Consulting the Oracles\n    of God                                  101\n\n  ARNOLD (1795-1842).\n    Alive in God                            131\n\n  WAYLAND (1796-1865).\n    A Day in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth  145\n\n  VINET (1797-1847).\n    The Mysteries of Christianity           171\n\n  SUMMERFIELD (1798-1825).\n    The Heavenly Inheritance                189\n\n  NEWMAN (1801-1890).\n    God's Will the End of Life              207\n\n  BUSHNELL (1802-1876).\n    Unconscious Influence                   233\n\n\n\n\nLYMAN BEECHER\n\nTHE GOVERNMENT OF GOD DESIRABLE\n\n\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nLYMAN BEECHER was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1775. He graduated\nfrom Yale in 1797, and in 1798 took charge of the Presbyterian\nChurch at Easthampton, Long Island. He first attracted attention\nby his sermon on the death of Alexander Hamilton, and in 1810\nbecame pastor of the Congregational Church at Litchfield, Conn. In\nthe course of a pastorate of 16 years, he preached a remarkable\nseries of sermons on temperance and became recognized as one of\nthe foremost pulpit orators of the country. In 1826 he went to\nBoston as pastor of the Hanover Street Congregational Church. Six\nyears later he became president of the Lane Theological Seminary in\nOhio, an office he retained for twenty years. In 1852 he returned\nto Boston and subsequently retired to the house of his son, Henry\nWard Beecher, where he died in 1863. His public utterances, whether\nplatform or pulpit, were carefully elaborated. They were delivered\nextemporaneously and sparkled with wit, were convincing by their\nlogic, and conciliating by their shrewd common sense.\n\n\n\n\nLYMAN BEECHER\n\n1775-1863\n\nTHE GOVERNMENT OF GOD DESIRABLE\n\n_Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven_.--Matthew vi., 10.\n\n\nIn this passage we are instructed to pray that the world may be\ngoverned, and not abandoned to the miseries of unrestrained sin;\nthat God Himself would govern, and not another; and that God would\nadminister the government of the world, in all respects, according\nto His own pleasure. The passage is a formal surrender to God of\npower and dominion over the earth, as entire as His dominion is in\nHis heaven. The petition, therefore, \"Thy will be done,\" contains\nthe doctrine:\n\nThat it is greatly to be desired that God should govern the world,\nand dispose of men, in all respects, entirely according to His own\npleasure.\n\nThe truth of this doctrine is so manifest, that it would seem to\nrank itself in the number of self-evident propositions, incapable of\nproof clearer than its own light, had not experience taught that, of\nall truths, it is the most universally and bitterly controverted.\nPlain as it is, it has occasioned more argument than any other\ndoctrine, and, by argument merely, has gained fewer proselytes; for\nit is one of those controversies in which the heart decides wholly,\nand argument, strong or feeble, is alike ineffectual.\n\nThis consideration would present, on the threshold, a hopeless\nimpediment to further progress, did we not know, also, that\narguments a thousand times repeated, and as often resisted, may\nat length become mighty through God, to the casting down of\nimaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against\nthe knowledge of God. I shall, therefore, suggest several\nconsiderations, to confirm this most obvious truth, that it is\ndesirable that God should govern the world entirely according to His\nown good pleasure.\n\n1. It is desirable that God should govern the world, and dispose of\nall events, according to His pleasure, because He knows perfectly in\nwhat manner it is best that the world should be governed.\n\nThe best way of disposing of men and their concerns is that which\nwill effectually illustrate the glory of God. The glory of God is\nHis benevolence, and His natural attributes for the manifestation\nof it, and sun of the moral universe, the light and life of His\nkingdom. All the blessedness of the intelligent creation arises,\nand ever will arise, from the manifestation and apprehension of the\nglory of God. It was to manifest this glory that the worlds were\ncreated. It was that there might be creatures to behold and enjoy\nGod, that His dominions were peopled with intelligent beings. And\nit is that His holy subjects may see and enjoy Him, that He upholds\nand governs the universe. The entire importance of our world,\ntherefore, and of men and their concerns, is relative, and is great\nor small only as we are made to illustrate the glory of God. How\nthis important end shall be most effectually accomplished none but\nHimself is able to determine. He, only, knows how so to order things\nas that the existence of every being, and every event, shall answer\nthe purpose of its creation, and from the rolling of a world to the\nfall of a sparrow shall conspire to increase the exhibitions of the\ndivine character, and expand the joy of the holy universe.\n\nAn inferior intelligence at the helm of government might conceive\nvery desirable purposes of benevolence, and still be at a loss\nas to the means most fit and effectual to accomplish them. But,\nwith God, there is no such deficiency. In Him, the knowledge which\ndiscovered the end discovers also, with unerring wisdom, the most\nappropriate means to bring it to pass. He is wise in heart; He hath\nestablished the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by\nHis discretion. And is He not wise enough to be intrusted with the\ngovernment of the world? Who, then, shall be His counsellor? Who\nshall supply the deficiencies of His skill? Oh, the presumption of\nvain man! and, oh! the depths both of the wisdom and knowledge of\nGod!\n\n2. It is desirable that God should govern the world according to His\nown pleasure, because He is entirely able to execute His purposes.\n\nA wise politician perceives, often, both the end and the means; and\nis still unable to bring to pass his counsels, because the means,\nthough wise, are beyond his control. But God is as able to execute\nas He is to plan. Having chosen the end, and selected the means, his\ncounsels stand. He is the Lord God omnipotent. The whole universe\nis a storehouse of means; and when He speaks every intelligence\nand every atom flies to execute His pleasure. The omnipotence of\nGod, in giving efficacy to His government, inspires and perpetuates\nthe ecstasy of heaven. \"And a voice came out from the throne,\nsaying, Praise our God. And I heard as it were the voice of a great\nmultitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of many\nthunderings, saying Alleluia, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.\"\nWhat will that man do in heaven, who is afraid and reluctant to\ncommit to God the government of the earth? And what will become\nof those who, unable to frustrate His counsels, murmur and rebel\nagainst His providence?\n\n3. It is desirable that God should govern the world according to His\npleasure, because the pleasure of God is always good.\n\nThe angels who kept not their first estate, and many wicked men,\nhave great knowledge, and skill, and power: and yet, on these\naccounts, are only the more terrible; because they employ these\nmighty faculties to do evil. And the government of God, were He a\nbeing of malevolence, armed as He is with skill and power, would\njustly fill the universe with dismay. But, as it is, brethren, \"let\nnot your hearts be troubled.\" With God there is no perversion of\nattributes. He is as good as He is wise and powerful. God is love!\nLove is that glory of God which He has undertaken to express to His\nintelligent creation in His works. The sole object of the government\nof God, from beginning to end, is, to express His benevolence.\nHis eternal decrees, of which so many are afraid, are nothing\nbut the plan which God has devised to express His benevolence,\nand to make His kingdom as vast and as blest as His own infinite\ngoodness desires. It was to show His glory--to express, in action,\nHis benevolence--that He created all the worlds that roll, and\nrejoice, and speak His name, through the regions of space. It is to\naccomplish the same blest design, that He upholds, and places under\nlaw, every intelligent being, and directs every event, causing every\nmovement, in every world, to fall in, in its appointed time and\nplace, and to unite in promoting the grand result--the glory of God,\nand the highest good of His kingdom. And is there a mortal, who,\nfrom this great system of blest government, would wish this earth to\nbe an exception? What sort of beings must those be who are afraid of\na government administered by infinite benevolence, to express, so\nfar as it can be expressed, the infinite goodness of God? I repeat\nthe question,--What kind of characters must those be who feel as if\nthey had good reason to fear a government the sole object of which\nis to express the immeasurable goodness of God?\n\n4. It is greatly to be desired that God should govern the world\naccording to His pleasure, because it is His pleasure to rule as a\nmoral governor.\n\nA moral government is a government exercised over free agents,\naccountable beings; a government of laws, administered by motives.\n\nThe importance of such a government below is manifest from the\nconsideration, that it is in His moral government, chiefly, that the\nglory of God is displayed.\n\nThe superintendence of an empty world, or a world of mere animals,\nwould not exhibit, at all, the moral character of God. The glory\nof God, shining in His law, could never be made manifest, and the\nbrighter glory of God, as displayed in the gospel, must remain\nforever hid; and all that happiness of which we are capable, as\nmoral beings, the joys of religion below, and the boundless joys of\nheaven above, would be extinguished, in a moment, by the suspension\nof the divine moral government.\n\nWill any pretend that the Almighty cannot maintain a moral\ngovernment on earth, if He governs according to His own pleasure?\nCan He wield the elements, and control, at His pleasure, every work\nof His hands, but just the mind of man? Is the most noble work of\nGod--that which is the most worthy of attention, and in reference to\nwhich all beside is upheld and governed--itself wholly unmanageable?\nHas Omnipotence formed minds, which, the moment they are made,\nescape from His hands, and defy the control of their Maker? Has the\nAlmighty erected a moral kingdom which He cannot govern without\ndestroying its moral nature? Can He only watch, and mend, and\nrectify, the lawless wanderings of mind? Has He filled the earth\nwith untamed and untamable spirits, whose wickedness and rebellion\nHe can merely mitigate, but cannot control? Does He superintend a\nworld of madmen, full of darkness and disorder, cheered and blest by\nno internal pervading government of His own? Are we bound to submit\nto all events, as parts of the holy providence of God; and yet, is\nthere actually no hand of God controlling the movements of the moral\nworld? But if the Almighty can, and if he does, govern the earth as\na part of His moral kingdom, is there any method of government more\nsafe and wise than that which pleases God? Can there be a better\ngovernment? We may safely pray, then, \"Thy will be done in earth as\nit is in heaven,\" without fearing at all the loss of moral agency;\nfor all the glory of God, in His Law and Gospel, and all the eternal\nmanifestations of glory to principalities and powers in heavenly\nplaces, depend wholly upon the fact, that men, though living under\nthe government of God, and controlled according to His pleasure, are\nstill entirely free, and accountable for all the deeds done in the\nbody. There could be no justice in punishment and no condescension,\nno wisdom, no mercy, in the glorious gospel, did not the government\nof God, though administered according to His pleasure, include and\ninsure the accountable agency of man.\n\nSeeing, therefore, that all the glory of God, which He ever proposes\nto manifest to the intelligent creation, is to be made known by\nthe Church, and is to shine in the face of Jesus Christ, and is to\ndepend upon the perfect consistency of the moral government of God\nwith human freedom, we have boundless assurance that, among His\nabsolute, immutable, eternal purposes, one, and a leading one, is,\nso to govern the world according to His counsels, that, if men sin,\nthere shall be complete desert of punishment, and boundless mercy\nin their redemption.\n\n5. It is greatly to be desired that God should rule in the earth\naccording to His pleasure, because it is His pleasure to govern the\nworld in mercy, by Jesus Christ.\n\nThe government is in the hand of a Mediator, by whom God is\nreconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses\nto them that believe. Mercy is the bestowment of pardon upon the\nsinful and undeserving. Now, mankind are so eminently sinful, that\nno government but one administered in infinite mercy, could afford\nthe least consolation. Had any being but the God of mercy sat upon\nthe throne, or any will but His will prevailed, there would have\nbeen no plan of redemption, and no purposes of election, to perplex\nand alarm the wicked. There would have been but one decree, and\nthat would have been, destruction to the whole race of man. Are\nany reluctant to be entirely in the hands of God? Are they afraid\nto trust Him to dispose of soul and body, for time and eternity?\nLet them surrender their mercies, then, and go out naked from that\ngovernment which feeds, protects and comforts them. Let them give\nup their Bibles, and relinquish the means of grace, and the hopes\nof glory, and descend and make their bed in hell, where they have\nlong since deserved to be, and where they long since would have\nbeen, if God had not governed the world according to His own good\npleasure. If they would escape the evils which they fear from the\nhand of God, let them abandon the blessings they receive from it,\nand they will soon discover whether the absolute dominion of God,\nand their dependence upon Him, be, in reality, a ground of murmuring\nand alarm. Our only hope of heaven arises from being entirely in\nthe hands of God. Our destruction could not be made more certain\nthan it would be were we to be given up to our own disposal, or\nto the disposal of any being but God. Would sinful mortals change\ntheir own hearts? Could the combined universe, without God, change\nthe depraved affections of men? Surely, then, we have cause for\nunceasing joy, that we are in the hands of God; seeing He is a\nGod of mercy, and has decreed to rule in mercy, and actually is\nadministering the government of the world in mercy, by Jesus Christ.\n\nWe have nothing to fear, from the entire dominion of God, which we\nshould not have cause equally to fear, as outcasts from the divine\ngovernment; but we have everything to hope, while He rules the earth\naccording to His most merciful pleasure. The Lord reigneth; let the\nearth rejoice, let the multitude of the isles be glad. It is of the\nLord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions\nfail not.\n\n6. It is greatly to be desired that God should dispose of mankind\naccording to His pleasure, because, if He does so, it is certain\nthat there will be no injustice done to anyone.\n\nHe will do no injustice to His holy kingdom by any whom He saves.\nHe will bring none to heaven who are not holy, and prepared for\nheaven. He will bring none there in any way not consistent with His\nperfections, and the best good of His kingdom; none in any way but\nthat prescribed in the gospel, the way of faith in Jesus Christ, of\nrepentance for sin, and of good works as the constituted fruit and\nevidence of faith.\n\nEarthly monarchs have their favorites, whom, if guilty of a\nviolation of the laws, they will often interpose to save, although\nthe welfare of the kingdom requires their punishment. But God has\nno such favorites--He is no respecter of persons: He spared not the\nangels: and upon the earth distinctions of intellect, or wealth, or\nhonor, will have no effect; he only that believeth shall be saved.\nThe great and the learned shall not be obtruded upon heaven without\nholiness because they are great or learned; and the humble and\ncontrite shall not be excluded because they are poor, or ignorant,\nor obscure. God has provided a way for all men to return to Him.\nHe has opened the door of their prison, and set open before them a\ndoor of admission into the kingdom of His dear Son; and commanded\nand entreated them to abandon their dreary abode, and come into\nthe glorious liberty of the sons of God. But all, with one consent,\nrefuse to comply. Each prefers his own loathsome dwelling to the\nbuilding of God, and chooses, stedfastly, the darkness of his own\ndungeon, to the light of God's kingdom. But, as God has determined\nthat the redemption of His Son shall not be unavailing through human\nobstinacy, so He hath chosen, in Christ, multitudes which no man\ncan number, that they should be holy and without blame before Him\nin love. And in bringing these sons and daughters to glory, through\nsanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, He will\nintroduce not one whom all the inhabitants of heaven will not hail\njoyfully, as the companion of their glory. And if God does in the\nearth just as He pleases, He will make willing, and obedient, and\nbring to heaven, just those persons who it was most desirable should\ncome. And He will bring just as many obstinate rebels to abandon\ntheir prison, and enter cheerfully His kingdom, as infinite wisdom,\ngoodness, and mercy, see fit and desire. He will not mar His glory,\nor the happiness of His kingdom, by bringing in too many, nor by\nomitting to bring in enough. His redeemed kingdom, as to the number\nand the persons who compose it, and the happiness included in it,\nwill be such as shall be wholly satisfactory to God, and to every\nsubject of His kingdom.\n\nAnd if God governs according to His pleasure, He will do no\ninjustice to His impenitent enemies. He will send to misery no\nharmless animals without souls--no mere machines--none who have\ndone, or even attempted to do, as well as they could. He will leave\nto walk in their own way none who do not deserve to be left; and\npunish none for walking in it who did not walk therein knowingly,\ndeliberately and with wilful obstinacy. He will give up to death\nnone who did not choose death, and choose it with as entire freedom\nas Himself chooses holiness; and who did not deserve eternal\npunishment as truly as Himself deserves eternal praise. He will\nsend to hell none who are not opposed to Him, and to holiness,\nand to heaven; none who are not, by voluntary sin and rebellion,\nunfitted for heaven, and fitted for destruction, as eminently as\nsaints are prepared for glory. He will consign to perdition no poor,\nfeeble, inoffensive beings, sacrificing one innocent creature to\nincrease the happiness of another. He will cause the punishment of\nthe wicked to illustrate His glory, and thus indirectly to promote\nthe happiness of heaven. But God will not illumine heaven with His\nglory, and fill it with praise, by sacrificing helpless, unoffending\ncreatures to eternal torment; nor will He doom to hell one whom\nHe will not convince also, that he deserves to go thither. The\njustice of God, in the condemnation of the impenitent, will be as\nunquestionable, as His infinite mercy will be in the salvation of\nthe redeemed.\n\nIf the will of God is done on earth, among men, there will be no\nmore injustice done to the inhabitants of the earth than there is\ndone to the blessed in heaven. Was it ever known--did any ever\ncomplain--was it ever conceived--that God was a tyrant, in heaven?\nWhy, then, should we question the justice of His government on\nearth? Is He not the same God below as above? Are not all His\nattributes equally employed? Does He not govern for the same end,\nand will not His government below conspire to promote the same\njoyful end as His government above?\n\n7. It is greatly to be desired that God should govern the world\naccording to His pleasure, because His own infinite blessedness, as\nwell as the happiness of His kingdom, depends upon His working all\nthings according to the counsel of His own will.\n\nCould the Almighty be prevented from expressing the benevolence\nof His nature, according to His purposes, His present boundless\nblessedness would become the pain of ungratified desire. God is\nlove, and His happiness consists in the exercise and expression\nof it, according to His own eternal purpose, which He purposed in\nChrist Jesus before the world began. It is therefore declared,\n\"The Lord hath made all things for himself;\" that is, to express\nand gratify His infinite benevolence. The moral excellence of God\ndoes not consist in quiescent love, but in love active, bursting\nforth, and abounding. Nor does the divine happiness arise from\nthe contemplation of idle perfections, but from perfections which\ncomprehend boundless capacity, and activity in doing good.\n\nFrom what has been said, we may be led to contemplate with\nsatisfaction the infinite blessedness of God.\n\nGod is love! This is a disposition which, beyond all others, is\nhappy in its own nature. He is perfect in love; there is, therefore,\nin His happiness no alloy. His love is infinite; and, of course,\nHis blessedness is unbounded. If the little holiness existing in\ngood men, though balanced by remaining sin, occasions, at times,\nunutterable joy, how blessed must God be, who is perfectly and\ninfinitely holy! It is to be remembered, also, that the benevolence\nof God is at all times perfectly gratified. The universe which God\nhas created and upholds, including what He has done, and what He\nwill yet do, will be brought into a condition which will satisfy His\ninfinite benevolence. The great plan of government which God has\nchosen, and which His power and wisdom will execute, will embrace as\nmuch good as in the nature of things is possible. He is not, like\nerring man, straitened and perplexed, through lack of knowledge or\npower. There is in His plan no defect, and in His execution no\nfailure. God, therefore, is infinitely happy in His holiness, and in\nthe expression of it which it pleases Him to make.\n\nThe revolt of angels, the fall of man, and the miseries of sin,\ndo not, for a moment, interrupt the blessedness of God. They\nwere not, to Him, unexpected events, starting up suddenly while\nthe watchman of Israel slumbered. They were foreseen by God as\nclearly as any other events of His government, and have occasioned\nneither perplexity nor dismay. With infinite complacency He beholds\nstill His unshaken counsels, and with almighty hand rolls on His\nundisturbed decrees. Surrounded by unnumbered millions, created\nby His hand, and upheld by His power, He shines forth, God over\nall, blest for ever. What an object of joyful contemplation, then,\nis the blessedness of God! It is infinite; His boundless capacity\nis full. It is eternal; He is God blest forever. The happiness of\nthe created universe is but a drop--a drop to the mighty ocean of\ndivine enjoyment. How delightful the thought, that in God there is\nsuch an immensity of joy, beyond the reach of vicissitude! When we\nlook around below, a melancholy sensation pervades the mind. What\nmiserable creatures! What a wretched world! But when, from this\nscene of darkness and misery, we look up to the throne of God, and\nbehold Him, high above the darkness and miseries of sin, dwelling\nin light inaccessible and full of glory, the prospect brightens. If\na few rebels, who refuse to love and participate in His munificence,\nare groping in darkness on His footstool, God is light, and in Him\nthere is no darkness at all.\n\nThose who are opposed to the decrees of God, and to His sovereignty,\nas displayed in the salvation of sinners, are enemies of God.\n\nThey are unwilling that His will should be done in earth as it is\nin heaven; for the decrees of God are nothing but His choice as\nto the manner in which He will govern His own kingdom. He did not\nenter upon His government to learn wisdom by experience. Before\nthey were yet formed, His vast dominion lay open to His view; and\nbefore He took the reins of created empire, He saw in what manner it\nbecame Him to govern. His ways are everlasting. Known unto God are\nall His works from the beginning. To be opposed to the decrees of\nGod, therefore, is to be unwilling that God should have any choice\nconcerning the government of the world. And can those be willing\nthat God should govern the world entirely according to His pleasure\nwho object to His having any pleasure upon the subject? To object\nto the choice of God, with respect to the management of the world,\nbecause it is eternal, is to object to the existence of God. A God\nof eternal knowledge, without an eternal will or choice, would be a\nGod without moral character.\n\nTo suppose that God did not know what events would exist in\nHis kingdom, is to divest Him of omniscience. To suppose that\nHe did know, and did not care,--had no choice, no purpose,--is\nto blot out His benevolence, to nullify His wisdom and convert\nHis power into infinite indolence. To suppose that He did know,\nand choose, and decree, and that events do not accord with His\npurposes, is to suppose that God has made a world which He can\nnot govern; has undertaken a work too vast; has begun to build,\nbut is not able to finish. But to suppose that God did, from the\nbeginning, behold all things open and naked before Him, and that\nHe did choose, with unerring wisdom and infinite goodness, how to\ngovern His empire,--and yet at the same time, to employ heart,\nand head, and tongue, in continual opposition to this great and\nblessed truth,--is, most clearly, to cherish enmity to God and His\ngovernment.\n\nTo object to the choice of God because it is immutable, is to cavil\nagainst that which constitutes its consummating excellence. Caprice\nis a most alarming feature in a bad government; but in a government\nabsolutely perfect, none, surely, can object to its immutability,\nbut those, who, if able, would alter it for the worse.\n\nTo say that, if God always knew how to govern so as to display His\nglory, and bless His kingdom, and always chooses thus to govern,\nthere can be, therefore, no accountable agency in the conduct of\nHis creatures, is to deny the possibility of a moral government,\nto contradict the express testimony of God; and this, too, at the\nexpense of common sense, and the actual experience of every subject\nof His moral government on earth.\n\nFrom the character of God, and the nature of His government, as\nexplained in this discourse, may be inferred, the nature and\nnecessity of unconditional submission to God.\n\nUnconditional submission is an entire surrender of the soul to\nGod, to be disposed of according to His pleasure,--occasioned by\nconfidence in His character as God.\n\nThere are many who would trust the Almighty to regulate the rolling\nof worlds, and to rule in the armies of heaven, just as He pleases;\nand devils they would consign to His disposal, without the least\nhesitation; and their own nation, if they were sure that God would\ndispose of it according to their pleasure; even their own temporal\nconcerns they would risk in the hands of God, could they know that\nall things would work together for their good; their souls, also,\nthey would cheerfully trust to His disposal, for the world to come,\nif God would stipulate, at all events, to make them happy.\n\nAnd to what does all this amount? Truly, that they care much about\ntheir own happiness, and their own will, but nothing at all about\nthe will of God, and the welfare of His kingdom. He may decree,\nand execute His decrees, in heaven, and may turn its inhabitants\ninto machines, or uphold their freedom, as He pleases; and apostate\nspirits are relinquished to their doom, whether just or unjust. It\nis only when the government of God descends to particulars, and\ndraws near and enters their own selfish enclosures, and claims a\nright to dispose of them, and extends its influence to the unseen\nworld, that selfishness and fear take the alarm. Has God determined\nhow to dispose of my soul? Ah! that alters the case. If He can,\nconsistently with freedom, govern angels, and devils, and nations,\nhow can He govern individuals? How can He dispose of me according to\nHis eternal purpose and I be free? Here reason, all-penetrating, and\nall-comprehensive, becomes weak; the clouds begin to collect, and\nthe understanding, veiled by the darkness of the heart, can \"find no\nend, in wandering mazes lost.\"\n\nBut if God has purposes of mercy in reserve for the sinner, he is\nconvinced, at length, of his sin, and finds himself in an evil case.\nHe reforms, prays, weeps, resolves, and re-resolves, regardless\nof the righteousness of Christ, and intent only to establish a\nrighteousness of his own. But, through all his windings, sin cleaves\nto him, and the law, with its fearful curse, pursues him. Whither\nshall he flee? What shall he do? A rebel heart, that will not bow,\nfills him with despair. An angry God, who will not clear the guilty,\nfills him with terror. His strength is gone, his resources fail,\nhis mouth is stopped. With restless anxiety, or wild amazement,\nhe surveys the gloomy prospect. At length, amidst the wanderings\nof despair, the character of God meets his eye. It is new, it is\namiable, and full of glory. Forgetful of danger, he turns aside\nto behold this great sight; and while he gazes, new affections\nawake in his soul, inspiring new confidence in God, and in His\nholy government. Now God appears qualified to govern, and now he\nis willing that He should govern, and willing himself to be in the\nhands of God, to be disposed of according to His pleasure. What is\nthe occasion of this change? Has the divine character changed? There\nis no variableness with God. Did he, then, misapprehend the divine\ncharacter? Was all this glory visible before? Or has a revelation\nof new truth been granted? There has been no new revelation. The\ncharacter now admitted is the same which just before appeared so\ngloomy and terrible. What, then, has produced this alteration? Has\na vision of angels appeared, to announce that God is reconciled?\nHas some sudden light burst upon him, in token of forgiveness? Has\nChrist been seen upon the cross, beckoning the sinner to come\nto Him? Has heaven been thrown open to his admiring eyes? Have\nenrapturing sounds of music stolen upon the ear, to entrance the\nsoul? Has some text of Scripture been sent to whisper that his\nsins are forgiven, tho no repentance, nor faith, nor love, has\ndawned in his soul? And does he now submit, because God has given\nhim assurance of personal safety? None of these. Considerations of\npersonal safety are, at the time, out of the question. It is the\nuncreated, essential excellence of God, shining in upon the heart,\nwhich claims the attention, fixes the adoring eye, and fills the\nsoul with love, and peace, and joy; and the act of submission is\npast, before the subject begins to reflect upon his altered views,\nwith dawning hope of personal redemption.\n\nThe change produced, then, is the effect of benevolence, raising\nthe affections of the soul from the world, and resting them upon\nGod. Holiness is now most ardently loved. This is seen to dwell in\nGod and His kingdom, and to be upheld and perfected by His moral\ngovernment. It is the treasure of the soul, and all the attributes\nof God stand pledged to protect it. The solicitude, therefore, is\nnot merely, What will become of me? but, What, O Lord, will become\nof Thy glory, and the glory of Thy kingdom? And in the character\nof God, these inquiries are satisfactorily answered. If God be\nglorified, and His kingdom upheld and made happy, the soul is\nsatisfied. There is nothing else to be anxious about; for individual\nhappiness is included in the general good, as the drop is included\nin the ocean.\n\n\n\n\nCHANNING\n\nTHE CHARACTER OF CHRIST\n\n\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nWILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING, the famous Unitarian divine, was born\nat Newport, R. I., in 1780. He took his degree at Harvard in\n1798, studied theology and was ordained pastor of the Federal\nStreet Church in Boston, 1803. He has been called the Apostle of\nUnitarianism, because he was first among the orthodox divines of\nNew England to give Unitarianism a clear, dogmatic expression, as\nhe did in a sermon preached at the ordination of Jared Sparks, in\nopposition to the current Calvinism of the day. But he hated the\ncontroversy in which the publication of his views involved him and\nprofessed in 1841, \"I am little of a Unitarian and stand aloof\nfrom all but those who strive and pray for clearer light.\" He had\nmade the acquaintance of Wordsworth and Coleridge on his visit to\nEngland, and the latter justly described him as one who had \"the\nlove of wisdom and the wisdom of love.\" He was a voluminous writer\non theological and literary subjects and what he wrote was vigorous,\nof fastidious taste and fired with moral earnestness. He died in\n1842.\n\n\n\n\nCHANNING\n\n1780-1842\n\nTHE CHARACTER OF CHRIST\n\n_This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased_.--Matthew xvii.,\n5.\n\n\nThe character of Christ may be studied for various purposes. It\nis singularly fitted to call forth the heart, to awaken love,\nadmiration, and moral delight. As an example it has no rival. As\nan evidence of His religion perhaps it yields to no other proof;\nperhaps no other has so often conquered unbelief. It is chiefly to\nthis last view of it that I now ask your attention. The character\nof Christ is a strong confirmation of the truth of His religion.\nAs such I would now place it before you. I shall not, however,\nthink only of confirming your faith; the very illustrations which I\nshall adduce for this purpose will show the claims of Jesus to our\nreverence, obedience, imitation, and fervent love.\n\nThe more we contemplate Christ's character as exhibited in the\ngospel, the more we shall be impressed with its genuineness and\nreality. It was plainly drawn from the life. The narratives of\nthe evangelists bear the marks of truth perhaps beyond all other\nhistories. They set before us the most extraordinary being who ever\nappeared on earth, and yet they are as artless as the stories of\nchildhood. The authors do not think of themselves. They have plainly\nbut one aim, to show us their Master; and they manifest the deep\nveneration which He inspired by leaving Him to reveal Himself, by\ngiving us His actions and sayings without comment, explanation, or\neulogy.\n\nYou see in these narratives no varnishing, no high coloring, no\nattempts to make His actions striking or to bring out the beauties\nof His character. We are never pointed to any circumstance as\nillustrative of His greatness. The evangelists write with a calm\ntrust in His character, with a feeling that it needed no aid from\ntheir hands, and with a deep veneration, as if comment or praise of\ntheir own were not worthy to mingle with the recital of such a life.\n\nIt is the effect of our familiarity with the history of Jesus that\nwe are not struck by it as we ought to be. We read it before we are\ncapable of understanding its excellence. His stupendous works become\nas familiar to us as the events of ordinary life, and His high\noffices seem as much matters of course as the common relations which\nmen bear to each other.\n\nOn this account it is fit for the ministers of religion to do what\nthe evangelists did not attempt, to offer comments on Christ's\ncharacter, to bring out its features, to point men to its higher\nbeauties, to awaken their awe by unfolding its wonderful majesty.\nIndeed, one of our most important functions as teachers is to\ngive freshness and vividness to truths which have become worn, I\nhad almost said tarnished, by long and familiar handling. We have\nto fight with the power of habit. Through habit men look on this\nglorious creation with insensibility, and are less moved by the\nall-enlightening sun than by a show of fireworks. It is the duty of\na moral and religious teacher almost to create a new sense in men,\nthat they may learn in what a world of beauty and magnificence they\nlive. And so in regard to Christ's character; men become used to it\nuntil they imagine that there is something more admirable in a great\nman of their own day, a statesman or a conqueror, than in Him the\nlatchet of whose shoes statesmen and conquerors are not worthy to\nunloose.\n\nIn this discourse I wish to show that the character of Christ, taken\nas a whole, is one which could not have entered the thoughts of man,\ncould not have been imagined or feigned; that it bears every mark of\ngenuineness and truth; that it ought therefore to be acknowledged as\nreal and of divine origin.\n\nIt is all-important, my friends, if we would feel the force of this\nargument, to transport ourselves to the times when Jesus lived. We\nare very apt to think that He was moving about in such a city as\nthis, or among a people agreeing with ourselves in modes of thinking\nand habits of life. But the truth is, he lived in a state of society\nsingularly remote from our own.\n\nOf all the nations the Jewish was the most strongly marked. The Jew\nhardly felt himself to belong to the human family. He was accustomed\nto speak of himself as chosen by God, holy, clean; whilst the\nGentiles were sinners, dogs, polluted, unclean. His common dress,\nthe phylactery on his brow or arm, the hem of his garment, his food,\nthe ordinary circumstances of his life, as well as his temple, his\nsacrifices, his ablutions, all held him up to himself as a peculiar\nfavorite of God, and all separated him from the rest of the world.\nWith other nations he could not eat or marry. They were unworthy\nof his communion. Still, with all these notions of superiority he\nsaw himself conquered by those whom he despised. He was obliged to\nwear the shackles of Rome, to see Roman legions in his territory, a\nRoman guard near his temple, and a Roman tax-gatherer extorting, for\nthe support of an idolatrous government and an idolatrous worship,\nwhat he regarded as due only to God. The hatred which burned in the\nbreast of the Jew toward his foreign oppressor perhaps never glowed\nwith equal intenseness in any other conquered state.\n\nHe had, however, his secret consolation. The time was near, the\nprophetic age was at hand, when Judea was to break her chains and\nrise from the dust. Her long-promised king and deliverer was near,\nand was coming to wear the crown of universal empire. From Jerusalem\nwas to go forth His law, and all nations were to serve the chosen\npeople of God. To this conqueror the Jews indeed ascribed the office\nof promoting religion; but the religion of Moses, corrupted into\nan outward service, was to them the perfection of human nature.\nThey clung to its forms with the whole energy of their souls. To\nthe Mosaic institution they ascribed their distinction from all\nother nations. It lay at the foundation of their hopes of dominion.\nI believe no strength of prejudice ever equalled the intense\nattachment of the Jew to his peculiar national religion. You may\njudge of its power by the fact of its having been transmitted\nthrough so many ages, amidst persecution and sufferings which would\nhave subdued any spirit but that of a Jew. You must bring these\nthings to your mind. You must place yourselves in the midst of this\nsingular people.\n\nAmong this singular people, burning with impatient expectation,\nappeared Jesus of Nazareth. His first words were, \"Repent, for\nthe kingdom of heaven is at hand.\" These words we hear with little\nemotion; but to the Jews, who had been watching for this kingdom for\nages, and who were looking for its immediate manifestation, they\nmust have been awakening as an earthquake. Accordingly we find Jesus\nthronged by multitudes which no building could contain. He repairs\nto a mountain, as affording him advantages for addressing the crowd.\nI see them surrounding Him with eager looks, and ready to drink in\nevery word from His lips. And what do I hear? Not one word of Judea,\nof Rome, of freedom, of conquest, of the glories of God's chosen\npeople, and of the thronging of all nations to the temple on Mount\nZion.\n\nAlmost every word was a death-blow to the hopes and feelings\nwhich glowed through the whole people, and were consecrated under\nthe name of religion. He speaks of the long-expected kingdom of\nheaven; but speaks of it as a felicity promised to, and only to be\npartaken of by, the humble and pure in heart. The righteousness of\nthe Pharisees, that which was deemed the perfection of religion,\nand which the new deliverer was expected to spread far and wide,\nHe pronounces worthless, and declares the kingdom of heaven, or of\nthe Messiah, to be shut against all who do not cultivate a new,\nspiritual, and disinterested virtue.\n\nInstead of war and victory He commands His impatient hearers to\nlove, to forgive, to bless their enemies; and holds forth this\nspirit of benignity, mercy, peace, as the special badge of the\npeople of the true Messiah. Instead of national interests and\nglories, he commands them to seek first a spirit of impartial\ncharity and love, unconfined by the bounds of tribe or nation, and\nproclaims this to be the happiness and honor of the reign for which\nthey hoped. Instead of this world's riches, which they expected\nto flow from all lands into their own, He commands them to lay up\ntreasures in heaven, and directs them to an incorruptible, immortal\nlife, as the true end of their being.\n\nNor is this all. He does not merely offer himself as a spiritual\ndeliverer, as the founder of a new empire of inward piety and\nuniversal charity; He closes with language announcing a more\nmysterious office. \"Many will say unto Me in that day, Lord,\nLord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name done\nmany wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never\nknew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.\" Here I meet\nthe annunciation of a character as august as it must have been\nstartling. I hear Him foretelling a dominion to be exercised in the\nfuture world. He begins to announce, what entered largely into His\nfuture teaching, that His power was not bounded to this earth. These\nwords I better understand when I hear Him subsequently declaring\nthat, after a painful death, He was to rise again and ascend to\nheaven, and there, in a state of preeminent power and glory, was to\nbe the advocate and judge of the human race.\n\nSuch are some of the views given by Jesus, of His character and\nreign, in the Sermon on the Mount. Immediately afterwards I hear\nanother lesson from Him, bringing out some of these truths still\nmore strongly. A Roman centurion makes application to Him for the\ncure of a servant whom he particularly valued; and on expressing,\nin a strong manner, his conviction of the power of Jesus to heal at\na distance, Jesus, according to the historian, \"marvelled, and said\nto those that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so\ngreat faith in Israel; and I say unto you, that many shall come from\nthe east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and\nJacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom\"\n(that is, the Jews) \"shall be cast out.\"\n\nHere all the hopes which the Jews had cherished of an exclusive or\npeculiar possession of the Messiah's kingdom were crushed; and the\nreception of the despised Gentile world to all His blessings, or, in\nother words, the extension of His pure religion to the ends of the\nearth, began to be proclaimed.\n\nHere I pause for the present, and I ask you whether the character\nof Jesus be not the most extraordinary in history, and wholly\ninexplicable on human principles. Review the ground over which we\nhave gone. Recollect that He was born and grew up a Jew in the midst\nof Jews, a people burning with one passion, and throwing their whole\nsouls into the expectation of a national and earthly deliverer.\nHe grew up among them in poverty, seclusion, and labors fitted to\ncontract His thoughts, purposes, and hopes; and yet we find Him\nescaping every influence of education and society. We find Him as\nuntouched by the feelings which prevailed universally around Him,\nwhich religion and patriotism concurred to consecrate, which the\nmother breathed into the ear of the child, and which the teacher of\nthe synagog strengthened in the adult, as if He had been brought up\nin another world. We find Him conceiving a sublime purpose, such\nas had never dawned on sage or hero, and see Him possessed with a\nconsciousness of sustaining a relation to God and mankind, and of\nbeing invested with powers in this world and the world to come, such\nas had never entered the human mind. Whence now, I ask, came the\nconception of this character?\n\nWill any say it had its origin in imposture; that it was a\nfabrication of a deceiver? I answer, the character claimed by Christ\nexcludes this supposition by its very nature. It was so remote\nfrom all the ideas and anticipations of the times, so unfit to\nawaken sympathy, so unattractive to the heathen, so exasperating\nto the Jew, that it was the last to enter the mind of an impostor.\nA deceiver of the dullest vision must have foreseen that it would\nexpose him to bitter scorn, abhorrence, and persecution, and that he\nwould be left to carry on his work alone, just as Jesus always stood\nalone and could find not an individual to enter into His spirit and\ndesign. What allurements an unprincipled, self-seeking man could\nfind to such an enterprise, no common ingenuity can discover.\n\nI affirm next that the sublimity of the character claimed by\nChrist forbids us to trace it to imposture. That a selfish,\ndesigning, depraved mind could have formed the idea and purpose\nof a work unparalleled in beneficence, in vastness, and in moral\ngrandeur, would certainly be a strange departure from the laws of\nthe human mind. I add, that if an impostor could have lighted on\nthe conception of so sublime and wonderful a work as that claimed\nby Jesus, he could not, I say, he could not have thrown into his\npersonation of it the air of truth and reality. The part would have\nbeen too high for him. He would have overacted it or fallen short\nof it perpetually. His true character would have rebelled against\nhis assumed one. We should have seen something strained, forced,\nartificial, awkward, showing that he was not in his true sphere. To\nact up to a character so singular and grand, and one for which no\nprecedent could be found, seems to me utterly impossible for a man\nwho had not the true spirit of it, or who was only wearing it as a\nmask.\n\nNow, how stands the case with Jesus? Bred a Jewish peasant or\ncarpenter, He issues from obscurity, and claims for Himself a divine\noffice, a superhuman dignity, such as had not been imagined; and in\nno instance does He fall below the character. The peasant, and still\nmore the Jew, wholly disappears.\n\nWe feel that a new being, of a new order of mind, is taking a part\nin human affairs. There is a native tone of grandeur and authority\nin His teaching. He speaks as a being related to the whole human\nrace. His mind never shrinks within the ordinary limits of human\nagency. A narrower sphere than the world never enters His thoughts.\nHe speaks in a natural, spontaneous style, of accomplishing the most\narduous and important change in human affairs. This unlabored manner\nof expressing great thoughts is particularly worthy of attention.\nYou never hear from Jesus that swelling, pompous, ostentatious\nlanguage, which almost necessarily springs from an attempt to\nsustain a character above our powers. He talks of His glories as one\nto whom they were familiar, and of His intimacy and oneness with God\nas simply as a child speaks of his connection with his parents.\nHe speaks of saving and judging the world, of drawing all men to\nHimself, and of giving everlasting life, as we speak of the ordinary\npowers which we exert. He makes no set harangues about the grandeur\nof His office and character. His consciousness of it gives a hue to\nHis whole language, breaks out in indirect, undesigned expressions,\nshowing that it was the deepest and most familiar of His convictions.\n\nThis argument is only to be understood by reading the Gospels with\na wakeful mind and heart. It does not lie on their surface, and it\nis the stronger for lying beneath it. When I read these books with\ncare, when I trace the unaffected majesty which runs through the\nlife of Jesus, and see him never falling below His sublime claims\namidst poverty, and scorn, and in His last agony, I have a feeling\nof the reality of His character which I can not express. I feel that\nthe Jewish carpenter could no more have conceived and sustained this\ncharacter under motives of imposture than an infant's arm could\nrepeat the deeds of Hercules, or his unawakened intellect comprehend\nand rival the matchless works of genius.\n\nAm I told that the claims of Jesus had their origin not in\nimposture, but in enthusiasm; that the imagination, kindled by\nstrong feeling, overpowered the judgment so far as to give Him the\nnotion of being destined to some strange and unparalleled work? I\nknow that enthusiasm, or a kindled imagination, has great power;\nand we are never to lose sight of it, in judging of the claims of\nreligious teachers. But I say first, that, except in cases where it\namounts to insanity, enthusiasm works, in a greater or less degree,\naccording to a man's previous conceptions and modes of thought.\n\nIn Judea, where the minds of men were burning with feverish\nexpectation of a messiah, I can easily conceive of a Jew imagining\nthat in himself this ardent conception, this ideal of glory, was to\nbe realized. I can conceive of his seating himself in fancy on the\nthrone of David, and secretly pondering the means of his appointed\ntriumphs. But that a Jew should fancy himself the Messiah, and at\nthe same time should strip that character of all the attributes\nwhich had fired his youthful imagination and heart--that he should\nstart aside from all the feelings and hopes of his age, and should\nacquire a consciousness of being destined to a wholly new career,\nand one as unbounded as it was now--this is exceedingly improbable;\nand one thing is certain that an imagination so erratic, so\nungoverned, and able to generate the conviction of being destined to\nwork so immeasurably disproportioned to the power of the individual,\nmust have partaken of insanity.\n\nNow, is it conceivable that an individual, mastered by so wild and\nfervid an imagination, should have sustained the dignity claimed by\nChrist, should have acted worthily the highest part ever assumed on\nearth? Would not his enthusiasm have broken out amidst the peculiar\nexcitements of the life of Jesus, and have left a touch of madness\non his teaching and conduct? Is it to such a man that we should look\nfor the inculcation of a new and perfect form of virtue, and for the\nexemplification of humanity in its fairest form?\n\nThe charge of an extravagant, self-deluding enthusiasm is the last\nto be fastened on Jesus. Where can we find the traces of it in His\nhistory? Do we detect them in the calm authority of His precepts; in\nthe mild, practical and beneficial spirit of His religion; in the\nunlabored simplicity of the language with which He unfolds His high\npowers and the sublime truths of religion; or in the good sense, the\nknowledge of human nature, which He always discovers in His estimate\nand treatment of the different classes of men with whom He acted?\nDo we discover this enthusiasm in the singular fact that, whilst He\nclaimed power in the future world, and always turned men's minds to\nHeaven, He never indulged His own imagination or stimulated that of\nHis disciples by giving vivid pictures or any minute description of\nthat unseen state?\n\nThe truth is, that, remarkable as was the character of Jesus, it was\ndistinguished by nothing more than by calmness and self-possession.\nThis trait pervades His other excellences. How calm was His piety!\nPoint me, if you can, to one vehement, passionate expression of\nHis religious feelings. Does the Lord's Prayer breathe a feverish\nenthusiasm? The habitual style of Jesus on the subject of religion,\nif introduced into many churches of His followers at the present\nday, would be charged with coldness. The calm and the rational\ncharacter of His piety is particularly seen in the doctrine which He\nso earnestly inculcates, that disinterested love and self-denying\nservice to our fellow creatures are the most acceptable worship we\ncan offer to our Creator.\n\nHis benevolence, too, tho singularly earnest and deep, was composed\nand serene. He never lost the possession of Himself in His sympathy\nwith others; was never hurried into the impatient and rash\nenterprises of an enthusiastic philanthropy; but did good with the\ntranquility and constancy which mark the providence of God. The\ndepth of this calmness may best be understood by considering the\nopposition made to His claims.\n\nHis labors were everywhere insidiously watched and industriously\nthwarted by vindictive foes who had even conspired to compass,\nthrough His death, the ruin of His cause. Now, a feverish\nenthusiasm which fancies itself to be intrusted with a great work of\nGod is singularly liable to impatient indignation under furious and\nmalignant opposition. Obstacles increase its vehemence; it becomes\nmore eager and hurried in the accomplishment of its purposes, in\nproportion as they are withstood.\n\nBe it therefore remembered that the malignity of Christ's foes,\ntho never surpassed, and for the time triumphant, never robbed\nHim of self-possession, roused no passion, and threw no vehemence\nor precipitation into His exertions. He did not disguise from\nHimself or His followers the impression made on the multitude by\nHis adversaries. He distinctly foresaw the violent death towards\nwhich He was fast approaching. Yet, confiding in God and in the\nsilent progress of His truth, He possest His soul in peace. Not\nonly was He calm, but His calmness rises into sublimity when we\nconsider the storms which raged around Him and the vastness of the\nprospects in which His spirit found repose. I say then that serenity\nand self-possession were peculiarly the attributes of Jesus. I\naffirm that the singular and sublime character claimed by Jesus\ncan be traced neither to imposture nor to an ungoverned, insane\nimagination. It can only be accounted for by its truth, its reality.\n\nI began with observing how our long familiarity with Jesus blunts\nour minds to His singular excellence. We probably have often\nread of the character which He claimed, without a thought of its\nextraordinary nature. But I know nothing so sublime. The plans and\nlabors of statesmen sink into the sports of children when compared\nwith the work which Jesus announced, and to which He devoted Himself\nin life and death with a thorough consciousness of its reality.\n\nThe idea of changing the moral aspect of the whole earth, of\nrecovering all nations to the pure and inward worship of one God\nand to a spirit of divine and fraternal love, was one of which we\nmeet not a trace in philosopher or legislator before Him. The human\nmind had given no promise of this extent of view. The conception of\nthis enterprise, and the calm, unshaken expectation of success in\none who had no station and no wealth, who cast from Him the sword\nwith abhorrence, and who forbade His disciples to use any weapons\nbut those of love, discover a wonderful trust in the power of God\nand the power of love; and when to this we add that Jesus looked not\nonly to the triumph of His pure faith in the present world, but to\na mighty and beneficent power in Heaven, we witness a vastness of\npurpose, a grandeur of thought and feeling so original, so superior\nto the workings of all other minds, that nothing but our familiarity\ncan prevent our contemplation of it with wonder and profound awe. *\n* *\n\nHere is the most striking view of Jesus. This combination of the\nspirit of humanity, in its lowliest, tenderest form, with the\nconsciousness of unrivaled and divine glories, is the most wonderful\ndistinction of this wonderful character. Here we learn the chief\nreason why He chose poverty and refused every peculiarity of manner\nand appearance. He did this because He desired to come near to the\nmultitude of men, to make Himself accessible to all, to pour out\nthe fulness of His sympathy upon all, to know and weep over their\nsorrows and sins, and to manifest His interest in their affections\nand joys.\n\nI can offer but a few instances of this sympathy of Christ with\nhuman nature in all its varieties of character and condition. But\nhow beautiful are they! At the very opening of His ministry we find\nHim present at a marriage to which He and His disciples had been\ncalled. Among the Jews this was an occasion of peculiar exhilaration\nand festivity; but Jesus did not therefore decline it. He knew what\naffections, joys, sorrows, and moral influences are bound up in this\ninstitution, and He went to the celebration, not as an ascetic, to\nfrown on its bright hopes and warm congratulations, but to sanction\nit by His presence and to heighten its enjoyments.\n\nHow little does this comport with the solitary dignity which we\nshould have pronounced most accordant with His character, and what\na spirit of humanity does it breathe! But this event stands almost\nalone in His history. His chief sympathy was not with them that\nrejoice, but with the ignorant, sinful, sorrowful; and with these we\nfind Him cultivating an habitual intimacy. Tho so exalted in thought\nand purpose, He chose uneducated men to be His chief disciples; and\nHe lived with them, not as a superior, giving occasional and formal\ninstruction, but became their companion traveled with them on foot,\nslept in their dwellings, sat at their tables, partook of their\nplain fare, communicated to them His truth in the simplest form; and\ntho they constantly misunderstood Him and never perceived His full\nmeaning, He was never wearied with teaching them.\n\nSo familiar was His intercourse that we find Peter reproving Him\nwith an affectionate zeal for announcing His approaching death, and\nwe find John leaning on His bosom. Of His last discourse to these\ndisciples I need not speak. It stands alone among all writings for\nthe union of tenderness and majesty. His own sorrows are forgotten\nin His solicitude to speak peace and comfort to His humble followers.\n\nThe depth of His human sympathies was beautifully manifested when\nchildren were brought Him. His disciples, judging as all men would\njudge, thought that He was sent to wear the crown of universal\nempire, had too great a work before Him to give His time and\nattention to children, and reproved the parents who brought them;\nbut Jesus, rebuking His disciples, called to Him the children.\nNever, I believe, did childhood awaken such deep love as at that\nmoment. He took them in His arms and blest them, and not only said\nthat \"of such was the kingdom of heaven,\" but added, \"He that\nreceiveth a little child in My name, receiveth Me;\" so entirely did\nHe identify Himself with this primitive, innocent, beautiful form of\nhuman nature.\n\nThere was no class of human beings so low as to be beneath His\nsympathy. He not merely taught the publican and sinner, but, with\nall His consciousness of purity, sat down and dined with them, and,\nwhen reproved by the malignant Pharisee for such companionship,\nanswered by the touching parables of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal\nSon, and said, \"I am come to seek and to save that which was lost.\"\n\nNo personal suffering dried up this fountain of love in His breast.\nOn His way to the cross He heard some women of Jerusalem bewailing\nHim, and at the sound, forgetting His own grief, He turned to\nthem and said, \"Women of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for\nyourselves and your children.\" On the cross, whilst His mind was\ndivided between intense suffering and the contemplation of the\ninfinite blessings in which His sufferings were to issue, His eye\nlighted on His mother and John, and the sensibilities of a son and\na friend mingled with the sublime consciousness of the universal\nLord and Savior. Never before did natural affection find so tender\nand beautiful an utterance. To His mother He said, directing her to\nJohn, \"Behold thy son; I leave My beloved disciple to take My place,\nto perform My filial offices, and to enjoy a share of that affection\nwith which you have followed Me through life;\" and to John He said,\n\"Behold thy mother; I bequeath to you the happiness of ministering\nto My dearest earthly friend.\" Nor is this all. The spirit of\nhumanity had one higher triumph. Whilst His enemies surrounded\nHim with a malignity unsoftened by His last agonies, and, to give\nthe keenest edge to insult, reminded Him scoffingly of the high\ncharacter and office which He had claimed, His only notice of them\nwas the prayer, \"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.\"\n\nThus Jesus lived with men; with the consciousness of unutterable\nmajesty He joined a lowliness, gentleness, humanity, and sympathy,\nwhich have no example in human history. I ask you to contemplate\nthis wonderful union. In proportion to the superiority of Jesus to\nall around Him was the intimacy, the brotherly love, with which He\nbound Himself to them. I maintain that this is a character wholly\nremote from human conception. To imagine it to be the production\nof imposture or enthusiasm shows a strange unsoundness of mind. I\ncontemplate it with a veneration second only to the profound awe\nwith which I look up to God. It bears no mark of human invention. It\nwas real. It belonged to and it manifested the beloved Son of God.\n\nBut I have not done. May I ask your attention a few moments more?\nWe have not yet reached the depth of Christ's character. We have\nnot touched the great principle on which His wonderful sympathy was\nfounded, and which endeared to Him His office of universal Savior.\nDo you ask what this deep principle was? I answer, it was His\nconviction of the greatness of the human soul. He saw in man the\nimpress and image of the Divinity, and therefore thirsted for his\nredemption, and took the tenderest interest in him, whatever might\nbe the rank, character, or condition in which he was found. This\nspiritual view of man pervades and distinguishes the teaching of\nChrist.\n\nJesus looked on men with an eye which pierced beneath the material\nframe. The body vanished before Him. The trappings of the rich, the\nrags of the poor, were nothing to Him. He looked through them, as\ntho they did not exist, to the soul; and there, amidst clouds of\nignorance and plague-spots of sin, He recognized a spiritual and\nimmortal nature, and the germs of power and perfection which might\nbe unfolded forever. In the most fallen and depraved man He saw a\nbeing who might become an angel of light.\n\nStill more, He felt that there was nothing in Himself to which men\nmight not ascend. His own lofty consciousness did not sever Him from\nthe multitude; for He saw in His own greatness the model of what men\nmight become. So deeply was He thus imprest that, again and again,\nin speaking of His future glories, He announced that in these His\ntrue followers were to share. They were to sit on His throne and\npartake of His beneficent power.\n\nHere I pause, and indeed I know not what can be added to heighten\nthe wonder, reverence, and love which are due to Jesus. When I\nconsider Him, not only as possest with the consciousness of an\nunexampled and unbounded majesty, but as recognizing a kindred\nnature in human beings, and living and dying to raise them to a\nparticipation of His divine glories; and when I see Him under these\nviews allying Himself to men by the tenderest ties, embracing them\nwith a spirit of humanity which no insult, injury, or pain could\nfor a moment repel or overpower, I am filled with wonder as well\nas reverence and love. I feel that this character is not of human\ninvention, that it was not assumed through fraud, or struck out\nby enthusiasm; for it is infinitely above their reach. When I add\nthis character of Jesus to the other evidences of His religion, it\ngives to what before seemed so strange a new and a vast accession of\nstrength; I feel as if I could not be deceived.\n\nThe Gospels must be true; they were drawn from a living original;\nthey were founded on reality. The character of Jesus is not a\nfiction; He was what He claimed to be, and what His followers\nattested. Nor is this all. Jesus not only was, He is still the Son\nof God, the Savior of the world. He exists now; He has entered\nthat heaven to which He always looked forward on earth. There He\nlives and reigns. With a clear, calm faith I see Him in that state\nof glory; and I confidently expect, at no distant period, to see\nHim face to face. We have indeed no absent friend whom we shall so\nsurely meet.\n\nLet us then, my hearers, by imitation of His virtues and obedience\nto His word, prepare ourselves to join Him in those pure mansions\nwhere He is surrounding Himself with the good and pure of our race,\nand will communicate to them forever His own spirit, power, and joy.\n\n\n\n\nCHALMERS\n\nTHE EXPULSIVE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\nTHOMAS CHALMERS, theologian, preacher and philanthropist, was\nborn at Anstruther, near St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1780. In his\nthirty-fifth year he experienced a profound religious change and\nbecame a pronounced, tho independent, evangelical preacher. On being\nappointed to the Tron Church in Glasgow, he set about to face what\nhe called \"the home heathenism.\" During the week days he delivered\nhis series of \"Astronomical Discourses,\" in which he endeavored\nto bring science into harmony with Christianity. His \"Commercial\nDiscourses\" were designed to Christianize the principles of trade.\nBut he reduced pauperism chiefly by fighting against intemperance in\nGlasgow. On being transferred to St. John's Parish, the largest, but\npoorest in the city, he made Edward Irving his assistant. In 1828 he\nwas called to the chair of theology in Edinburgh University.\n\nBut it was as a preacher that he exerted most influence by bringing\nthe evangelical message into relations with the science, the\nculture, the thinking of his age. In doing this he carried his\nhearers away by the blazing force of his eloquence. Many times in\nhis preaching he was \"in an agony of earnestness,\" and one of his\nhearers speaks of \"that voice, that face, those great, simple,\nliving thoughts, those floods of resistless eloquence, that\npiercing, shattering voice!\" He died in 1847.\n\n\n\n\nCHALMERS\n\n1780-1847\n\nTHE EXPULSIVE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION\n\n_Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If\nany man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him_.--1\nJohn ii., 15.\n\n\nThere are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to\ndisplace from the human heart its love of the world; either by a\ndemonstration of the world's vanity, so as that the heart shall\nbe prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object\nthat is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object,\neven God, as more worthy of its attachment; so as that the heart\nshall be prevailed upon, not to resign an old affection which\nshall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection\nfor a new one. My purpose is to show, that from the constitution\nof our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and\nineffectual--and that the latter method will alone suffice for the\nrescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that\ndomineers over it. After having accomplished this purpose, I shall\nattempt a few practical observations.\n\nLove may be regarded in two different conditions. The first is when\nits object is at a distance, and when it becomes love in a state of\ndesire. The second is when its object is in possession, and then it\nbecomes love in a state of indulgence. Under the impulse of desire,\nman feels himself urged onward in some path or pursuit of activity\nfor its gratification. The faculties of his mind are put into busy\nexercise. In the steady direction of one great and engrossing\ninterest, his attention is recalled from the many reveries into\nwhich it might otherwise have wandered; and the powers of his body\nare forced away from an indolence in which it else might have\nlanguished; and that time is crowded with occupation, which but for\nsome object of keen and devoted ambition, might have driveled along\nin successive hours of weariness and distaste--and tho hope does\nnot always enliven, and success does not always crown the career\nof exertion, yet in the midst of this very variety, and with the\nalternations of occasional disappointment, is the machinery of the\nwhole man kept in a sort of congenial play, and upholden in that\ntone and temper which are most agreeable to it; insomuch that, if\nthrough the extirpation of that desire which forms the originating\nprinciple of all this movement, the machinery were to stop, and to\nreceive no impulse from another desire substituted in its place, the\nman would be left with all his propensities to action in a state of\nmost painful and unnatural abandonment. A sensitive being suffers,\nand is in violence, if, after having thoroughly rested from his\nfatigue, or been relieved from his pain, he continue in possession\nof powers without any excitement to these powers; if he possess a\ncapacity of desire without having an object of desire; or if he have\na spare energy upon his person, without a counterpart, and without a\nstimulus to call it into operation. The misery of such a condition\nis often realized by him who is retired from business, or who is\nretired from law, or who is even retired from the occupations of the\nchase, and of the gaming-table. Such is the demand of our nature for\nan object in pursuit, that no accumulation of previous success can\nextinguish it--and thus it is, that the most prosperous merchant,\nand the most victorious general, and the most fortunate gamester,\nwhen the labor of their respective vocations has come to a close,\nare often found to languish in the midst of all their acquisitions,\nas if out of their kindred and rejoicing element. It is quite in\nvain, with such a constitutional appetite for employment in man, to\nattempt cutting away from him the spring or the principle of one\nemployment, without providing him with another. The whole heart\nand habit will rise in resistance against such an undertaking. The\nelse unoccupied female, who spends the hours of every evening at\nsome play of hazard, knows as well as you, that the pecuniary gain,\nor the honorable triumph of a successful contest, are altogether\npaltry. It is not such a demonstration of vanity as this that will\nforce her away from her dear and delightful occupation. The habit\ncan not so be displaced as to leave nothing but a negative and\ncheerless vacancy behind it--tho it may be so supplanted as to be\nfollowed up by another habit of employment, to which the power of\nsome new affection has constrained her. It is willingly suspended,\nfor example, on any single evening, should the time that is wont to\nbe allotted to gaming be required to be spent on the preparations of\nan approaching assembly.\n\nThe ascendant power of a second affection will do what no\nexposition, however forcible, of the folly and worthlessness of the\nfirst, ever could effectuate. And it is the same in the great world.\nYou never will be able to arrest any of its leading pursuits by a\nnaked demonstration of their vanity. It is quite in vain to think of\nstopping one of these pursuits in any way else but by stimulating\nto another. In attempting to bring a worthy man, intent and busied\nwith the prosecution of his objects, to a dead stand, you have not\nmerely to encounter the charm which he annexes to these objects,\nbut you have to encounter the pleasure which he feels in the very\nprosecution of them. It is not enough, then, that you dissipate\nthe charm by your moral and eloquent and affecting exposure of\nits illusiveness. You must address to the eye of his mind another\nobject, with a charm powerful enough to dispossess the first of its\ninfluence, and to engage him in some other prosecution as full of\ninterest and hope and congenial activity as the former. It is this\nwhich stamps an impotency on all moral and pathetic declamation\nabout the insignificance of the world. A man will no more consent\nto the misery of being without an object, because that object is\na trifle, or of being without a pursuit, because that pursuit\nterminates in some frivolous or fugitive acquirement, than he will\nvoluntarily submit himself to the torture, because that torture\nis to be of short duration. If to be without desire and without\nexertion altogether is a state of violence and discomfort, then the\npresent desire, with its correspondent train of exertion, is not to\nbe got rid of simply by destroying it. It must be by substituting\nanother desire, and another line or habit of exertion in its place,\nand the most effectual way of withdrawing the mind from one object\nis not by turning it away upon desolate and unpeopled vacancy, but\nby presenting to its regards another object still more alluring.\n\nThese remarks apply not merely to love considered in its state of\ndesire for an object not yet obtained. They apply also to love\nconsidered in its state of indulgence, or placid gratification,\nwith an object already in possession. It is seldom that any of\nour tastes are made to disappear by a mere process of natural\nextinction. At least, it is very seldom that this is done through\nthe instrumentality of reasoning. It may be done by excessive\npampering, but it is almost never done by the mere force of\nmental determination. But what can not be thus destroyed, may be\ndispossest--and one taste may be made to give way to another, and\nto lose its power entirely as the reigning affection of the mind.\nIt is thus that the boy ceases, at length, to be the slave of his\nappetite; but it is because a manlier taste has now brought it into\nsubordination, and that the youth ceases to idolize pleasure; but\nit is because the idol of wealth has become the stronger and gotten\nthe ascendency, and that even the love of money ceases to have\nthe mastery over the heart of many a thriving citizen; but it is\nbecause, drawn into the whirl of city politics, another affection\nhas been wrought into his moral system, and he is now lorded over\nby the love of power. There is not one of these transformations\nin which the heart is left without an object. Its desire for one\nparticular object may be conquered; but as to its desire for having\nsome one object or other, this is unconquerable. Its adhesion to\nthat on which it has fastened the preference of its regards, can not\nwillingly be overcome by the rending away of a simple separation.\nIt can be done only by the application of something else, to which\nit may feel the adhesion of a still stronger and more powerful\npreference. Such is the grasping tendency of the human heart, that\nit must have a something to lay hold of--and which, if wrested away\nwithout the substitution of another something in its place, would\nleave a void and a vacancy as painful to the mind as hunger is to\nthe natural system. It may be dispossest of one object, or of any,\nbut it can not be desolated of all. Let there be a breathing and\na sensitive heart, but without a liking and without affinity to\nany of the things that are around it, and in a state of cheerless\nabandonment, it would be alive to nothing but the burden of its\nown consciousness, and feel it to be intolerable. It would make no\ndifference to its owner, whether he dwelt in the midst of a gay and\na goodly world, or, placed afar beyond the outskirts of creation, he\ndwelt a solitary unit in dark and unpeopled nothingness. The heart\nmust have something to cling to--and never, by its own voluntary\nconsent, will it so denude itself of all its attachments that there\nshall not be one remaining object that can draw or solicit it.\n\nThe misery of a heart thus bereft of all relish for that which is\nwont to minister enjoyment, is strikingly exemplified in those\nwho, satiated with indulgence, have been so belabored, as it were,\nwith the variety and the poignancy of the pleasurable sensations\nthat they have experienced, that they are at length fatigued out\nof all capacity for sensation whatever. The disease of ennui is\nmore frequent in the French metropolis, where amusement is more\nexclusively the occupation of higher classes, than it is in the\nBritish metropolis, where the longings of the heart are more\ndiversified by the resources of business and politics. There are the\nvotaries of fashion, who, in this way, have at length become the\nvictims of fashionable excess; in whom the very multitude of their\nenjoyments has at last extinguished their power of enjoyment; who,\nwith the gratifications of art and nature at command, now look upon\nall that is around them with an eye of tastelessness; who, plied\nwith the delights of sense and of splendor even to weariness, and\nincapable of higher delights, have come to the end of all their\nperfection, and, like Solomon of old, found it to be vanity and\nvexation. The man whose heart has thus been turned into a desert\ncan vouch for the insupportable languor which must ensue, when one\naffection is thus plucked away from the bosom, without another\nto replace it. It is not necessary that a man receive pain from\nanything, in order to become miserable. It is barely enough that he\nlooks with distaste to everything, and in that asylum which is the\nrepository of minds out of joint, and where the organ of feeling\nas well as the organ of intellect has been impaired, it is not in\nthe cell of loud and frantic outcries where you will meet with the\nacme of mental suffering; but that is the individual who outpeers\nin wretchedness all his fellows, who throughout the whole expanse\nof nature and society meets not an object that has at all the power\nto detain or to interest him; who neither in earth beneath, nor in\nheaven above, knows of a single charm to which his heart can send\nforth one desirous or responding movement; to whom the world, in\nhis eye a vast and empty desolation, has left him nothing but his\nown consciousness to feed upon, dead to all that is without him,\nand alive to nothing but to the load of his own torpid and useless\nexistence.\n\nWe know not a more sweeping interdict upon the affections of nature,\nthan that which is delivered by the apostle in the verse before\nus. To bid a man into whom there is not yet entered the great\nand ascendant influence of the principle of regeneration, to bid\nhim withdraw his love from all the things that are in the world,\nis to bid him give up all the affections that are in his heart.\nThe world is the all of a natural man. He has not a taste, nor a\ndesire, that points not to a something placed within the confines\nof its visible horizon. He loves nothing above it, and he cares for\nnothing beyond it; and to bid him love not the world is to pass a\nsentence of expulsion on all the inmates of his bosom. To estimate\nthe magnitude and the difficulty of such a surrender, let us only\nthink that it were just as arduous to prevail on him not to love\nwealth, which is but one of the things in the world, as to prevail\non him to set wilful fire to his own property. This he might do\nwith sore and painful reluctance, if he saw that the salvation of\nhis life hung upon it. But this he would do willingly if he saw\nthat a new property of tenfold value was instantly to emerge from\nthe wreck of the old one. In this case there is something more than\nthe mere displacement of an affection. There is the overbearing of\none affection by another. But to desolate his heart of all love\nfor the things of the world without the substitution of any love\nin its place, were to him a process of as unnatural violence as to\ndestroy all the things he has in the world, and give him nothing in\ntheir room. So if to love not the world be indispensable to one's\nChristianity, then the crucifixion of the old man is not too strong\na term to mark that transition in his history, when all old things\nare done away, and all things are become new.\n\nThe love of the world can not be expunged by a mere demonstration\nof the world's worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by\nthe love of that which is more worthy than itself? The heart can\nnot be prevailed upon to part with the world, by a simple act of\nresignation. But may not the heart be prevailed upon to admit into\nits preference another, who shall subordinate the world, and bring\nit down from its wonted ascendency? If the throne which is placed\nthere must have an occupier, and the tyrant that now reigns has\noccupied it wrongfully, he may not leave a bosom which would rather\ndetain him than be left in desolation. But may he not give way to\nthe lawful Sovereign, appearing with every charm that can secure\nHis willing admittance, and taking unto Himself His great power to\nsubdue the moral nature of man, and to reign over it? In a word, if\nthe way to disengage the heart from the positive love of one great\nand ascendant object is to fasten it in positive love to another,\nthen it is not by exposing the worthlessness of the former, but by\naddressing to the mental eye the worth and excellence of the latter,\nthat all old things are to be done away, and all things are to\nbecome new.\n\nThis, we trust, will explain the operation of that charm which\naccompanies the effectual preaching of the gospel. The love of\nGod, and the love of the world, are two affections, not merely\nin a state of rivalship, but in a state of enmity, and that so\nirreconcilable that they can not dwell together in the same bosom.\nWe have already affirmed how impossible it were for the heart,\nby any innate elasticity of its own, to cast the world away from\nit, and thus reduce itself to a wilderness. The heart is not so\nconstituted, and the only way to dispossess it of an old affection\nis by the expulsive power of a new one. Nothing can exceed the\nmagnitude of the required change in a man's character--when bidden,\nas he is in the New Testament, to love not the world; no, nor any\nof the things that are in the world--for this so comprehends all\nthat is dear to him in existence as to be equivalent to a command\nof self-annihilation. But the same revelation which dictates so\nmighty an obedience places within our reach as mighty an instrument\nof obedience. It brings for admittance, to the very door of our\nheart, an affection which, once seated upon its throne, will either\nsubordinate every previous inmate, or bid it away. Beside the world\nit places before the eye of the mind Him who made the world, and\nwith this peculiarity, which is all its own--that in the gospel do\nwe so behold God as that we may love God. It is there, and there\nonly, where God stands revealed as an object of confidence to\nsinners--and where our desire after Him is not chilled into apathy\nby that barrier of human guilt which intercepts every approach\nthat is not made to Him through the appointed Mediator. It is the\nbringing in of this better hope, whereby we draw nigh unto God--and\nto live without hope is to live without God, and if the heart be\nwithout God the world will then have all the ascendency. It is God\napprehended by the believer as God in Christ who alone can dispost\nit from this ascendency. It is when He stands dismantled of the\nterrors which belong to Him as an offended lawgiver, and when we\nare enabled by faith, which is His own gift, to see His glory in\nthe face of Jesus Christ, and to hear His beseeching voice, as it\nprotests good-will to men, and entreats the return of all who will\nto a full pardon, and a gracious acceptance--it is then that a love\nparamount to the love of the world, and at length expulsive of it,\nfirst arises in the regenerating bosom. It is when released from\nthe spirit of bondage, with which love can not dwell, and when\nadmitted into the number of God's children, through the faith that\nis in Christ Jesus, the spirit of adoption is poured upon us--it\nis then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and\npredominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former\ndesires, and in the only way in which deliverance is possible. And\nthat faith which is revealed to us from heaven, as indispensable to\na sinner's justification in the sight of God, is also the instrument\nof the greatest of all moral and spiritual achievements on a\nnature dead to the influence, and beyond the reach of every other\napplication.\n\nLet us not cease then to ply the only instrument of powerful and\npositive operation, to do away from you the love of the world. Let\nus try every legitimate method of finding access to your hearts for\nthe love of Him who is greater than the world. For this purpose\nlet us, if possible, clear away that shroud of unbelief which so\nhides and darkens the face of Deity. Let us insist on His claims to\nyour affection; and whether in the shape of gratitude, or in the\nshape of esteem, let us never cease to affirm that in the whole of\nthat wondrous economy, the purpose of which is to reclaim a sinful\nworld unto Himself, He, the God of love, so sets Himself forth in\ncharacters of endearment that naught but faith, and naught but\nunderstanding are wanting, on your part, to call forth the love of\nyour hearts back again.\n\nAnd here let me advert to the incredulity of a worldly man when\nhe brings his own sound and secular experience to bear upon the\nhigh doctrines of Christianity, when he looks on regeneration as\na thing impossible, when, feeling, as he does, the obstinacies\nof his own heart on the side of things present, and casting an\nintelligent eye, much exercised perhaps in the observation of\nhuman life, on the equal obstinacies of all who are around him, he\npronounces this whole matter about the crucifixion of the old man,\nand the resurrection of a new man in his place, to be in downright\nopposition to all that is known and witnessed of the real nature of\nhumanity. We think that we have seen such men, who, firmly trenched\nin their own vigorous and home-bred sagacity, and shrewdly regardful\nof all that passes before them through the week, and upon the\nscenes of ordinary business, look on that transition of the heart\nby which it gradually dies unto time, and awakens in all the life\nof a new-felt and ever-growing desire toward God, as a mere Sabbath\nspeculation; and who thus, with all their attention engrossed upon\nthe concerns of earthliness, continue unmoved, to the end of their\ndays, among the feelings, and the appetites, and the pursuits of\nearthliness. If the thought of death, and another state of being\nafter it, comes across them at all, it is not with a change so\nradical as that of being born again that they ever connect the idea\nof preparation. They have some vague conception of its being quite\nenough that they acquit themselves in some decent and tolerable\nway of their relative obligations; and that, upon the strength of\nsome such social and domestic moralities as are often realized by\nhim in whose heart the love of God has never entered, they will be\ntransplanted in safety from this world, where God is the Being with\nwhom, it may almost be said that, they have had nothing to do, to\nthat world where God is the Being with whom they will have mainly\nand immediately to do throughout all eternity. They will admit all\nthat is said of the utter vanity of time, when taken up with as\na resting-place. But they resist every application made upon the\nheart of man, with the view of so shifting its tendencies that it\nshall not henceforth find in the interests of time all its rest\nand all its refreshment. They, in fact, regard such an attempt as\nan enterprise that is altogether aerial--and with a tone of secular\nwisdom, caught from the familiarities of every day of experience,\ndo they see a visionary character in all that is said of setting\nour affections on the things that are above; and of walking by\nfaith; and of keeping our hearts in such a love of God as shall shut\nout from them the love of the world; and of having no confidence\nin the flesh; and of so renouncing earthly things as to have our\nconversation in heaven.\n\nNow, it is altogether worthy of being remarked of those men who\nthus disrelish spiritual Christianity, and, in fact, deem it an\nimpracticable acquirement, how much of a piece their incredulity\nabout the demands of Christianity, and their incredulity about the\ndoctrines of Christianity, are with one another. No wonder that they\nfeel the work of the New Testament to be beyond their strength, so\nlong as they hold the words of the New Testament to be beneath their\nattention. Neither they nor anyone else can dispossess the heart\nof an old affection, but by the impulsive power of a new one--and,\nif that new affection be the love of God, neither they nor anyone\nelse can be made to entertain it, but on such a representation of\nthe Deity as shall draw the heart of the sinner toward Him. Now\nit is just their belief which screens from the discernment of\ntheir minds this representation. They do not see the love of God\nin sending His Son into the world. They do not see the expression\nof His tenderness to men, in sparing Him not, but giving Him up\nunto the death for us all. They do not see the sufficiency of the\natonement, or of the sufferings that were endured by Him who bore\nthe burden that sinners should have borne. They do not see the\nblended holiness and compassion of the Godhead, in that He passed\nby the transgressions of His creatures, yet could not pass them by\nwithout an expiation. It is a mystery to them how a man should pass\nto the state of godliness from a state of nature--but had they only\na believing view of God manifest in the flesh, this would resolve\nfor them the whole mystery of godliness. As it is, they can not get\nquit of their old affections, because they are out of sight from\nall those truths which have influence to raise a new one. They are\nlike the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, when required to\nmake bricks without straw they cannot love God, while they want the\nonly food which can aliment this affection in a sinner's bosom--and\nhowever great their errors may be, both in resisting the demands of\nthe gospel as impracticable, and in rejecting the doctrines of the\ngospel as inadmissible, yet there is not a spiritual man (and it is\nthe prerogative of him who is spiritual to judge all men) who will\nnot perceive that there is a consistency in these errors.\n\nBut if there be a consistency in the errors, in like manner, is\nthere a consistency in the truths which are opposite to them? The\nman who believes in the peculiar doctrines will readily bow to\nthe peculiar demands of Christianity. When he is told to love God\nsupremely, this may startle another, but it will not startle him\nto whom God has been revealed in peace, and in pardon, and in all\nthe freeness of an offered reconciliation. When told to shut out\nthe world from his heart, this may be impossible with him who has\nnothing to replace it--but not impossible with him who has found\nin God a sure and satisfying portion. When told to withdraw his\naffections from the things that are beneath, this were laying\nan order of self-extinction upon the man, who knows not another\nquarter in the whole sphere of his contemplation to which he could\ntransfer them, but it were not grievous to him whose view had been\nopened to the loveliness and glory of the things that are above,\nand can there find, for every feeling of his soul, a most ample and\ndelighted occupation. When told to look not to the things that are\nseen and temporal, this were blotting out the light of all that is\nvisible from the prospect of him in whose eye there is a wall of\npartition between guilty nature and the joys of eternity--but he who\nbelieves that Christ has broken down this wall finds a gathering\nradiance upon his soul, as he looks onward in faith to the things\nthat are unseen and eternal. Tell a man to be holy--and how can he\ncompass such a performance, when his fellowship with holiness is a\nfellowship of despair? It is the atonement of the cross reconciling\nthe holiness of the lawgiver with the safety of the offender, that\nhath opened the way for a sanctifying influence into the sinner's\nheart, and he can take a kindred impression from the character of\nGod now brought nigh, and now at peace with him. Separate the demand\nfrom the doctrine, and you have either a system of righteousness\nthat is impracticable, or a barren orthodoxy. Bring the demand and\nthe doctrine together, and the true disciple of Christ is able to\ndo the one, through the other strengthening him. The motive is\nadequate to the movement; and the bidden obedience to the gospel is\nnot beyond the measure of his strength, just because the doctrine of\nthe gospel is not beyond the measure of his acceptance. The shield\nof faith, and the hope of salvation, and the Word of God, and the\ngirdle of truth, these are the armor that he has put on; and with\nthese the battle is won, and the eminence is reached, and the man\nstands on the vantage ground of a new field and a new prospect. The\neffect is great, but the cause is equal to it, and stupendous as\nthis moral resurrection to the precepts of Christianity undoubtedly\nis, there is an element of strength enough to give it being and\ncontinuance in the principles of Christianity.\n\nThe object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner's conscience\nand to purify his heart; and it is of importance to observe, that\nwhat mars the one of these objects mars the other also. The best\nway of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one; and\nby the love of what is good to expel the love of what is evil. Thus\nit is, that the freer gospel, the more sanctifying is the gospel;\nand the more it is received as a doctrine of grace, the more will\nit be felt as a doctrine according to godliness. This is one of the\nsecrets of the Christian life, that the more a man holds of God as\na pensioner, the greater is the payment of service that He renders\nback again. On the venture of \"Do this and live,\" a spirit of\nfearfulness is sure to enter; and the jealousies of a legal bargain\nchase away all confidence from the intercourse between God and man;\nand the creature striving to be square and even with his creator\nis, in fact, pursuing all the while his own selfishness instead\nof God's glory; and with all the conformities which he labors to\naccomplish, the soul of obedience is not there, the mind is not\nsubject to the law of God, nor indeed under such an economy ever can\nbe. It is only when, as in the gospel, acceptance is bestowed as a\npresent, without money and without price, that the security which\nman feels in God is placed beyond the reach of disturbance, or that\nhe can repose in Him as one friend reposes in another; or that any\nliberal and generous understanding can be established betwixt them,\nthe one party rejoicing over the other to do him good, the other\nfinding that the truest gladness of his heart lies in the impulse\nof a gratitude by which it is awakened to the charms of a new moral\nexistence. Salvation by grace--salvation by free grace--salvation\nnot of works, but according to the mercy of God, salvation on such a\nfooting is not more indispensable to the deliverance of our persons\nfrom the hand of justice than it is to the deliverance of our hearts\nfrom the chill and the weight of ungodliness. Retain a single shred\nor fragment of legality with the gospel, and you raise a topic of\ndistrust between man and God. You take away from the power of the\ngospel to melt and to conciliate. For this purpose the freer it is\nthe better it is. That very peculiarity which so many dread as the\ngerm of Antinomianism, is, in fact, the germ of a new spirit and a\nnew inclination against it. Along with the lights of a free gospel\ndoes there enter the love of the gospel, which, in proportion as you\nimpair the freeness, you are sure to chase away. And never does the\nsinner find within himself so mighty a moral transformation as when,\nunder the belief that he is saved by grace, he feels constrained\nthereby to offer his heart a devoted thing, and to deny ungodliness.\n\nTo do any work in the best manner, you would make use of the fittest\ntools for it. And we trust that what has been said may serve in\nsome degree for the practical guidance of those who would like to\nreach the great moral achievement of our text, but feel that the\ntendencies and desires of nature are too strong for them. We know\nof no other way by which to keep the love of the world out of our\nheart than to keep in our hearts the love of God--and no other way\nby which to keep our hearts in the love of God, than by building\nourselves on our most holy faith. That denial of the world which\nis not possible to him that dissents from the gospel testimony, is\npossible, even as all things are possible, to him that believeth.\nTo try this without faith is to work without the right tool or\nthe right instrument. But faith worketh by love; and the way of\nexpelling from the heart the love that transgresseth the law is to\nadmit into its receptacles the love which fulfilleth the law.\n\nConceive a man to be standing on the margin of this green world, and\nthat, when he looked toward it, he saw abundance smiling upon every\nfield, and all the blessings which earth can afford scattered in\nprofusion throughout every family, and the light of the sun sweetly\nresting upon all the pleasant habitations, and the joys of human\ncompanionship brightening many a happy circle of society; conceive\nthis to be the general character of the scene upon one side of his\ncontemplation, and that on the other, beyond the verge of the goodly\nplanet on which he was situated, he could descry nothing but a dark\nand fathomless unknown. Think you that he would bid a voluntary\nadieu to all the brightness and all the beauty that were before\nhim upon earth, and commit himself to the frightful solitude away\nfrom it? Would he leave its peopled dwelling places, and become a\nsolitary wanderer through the fields of nonentity? If space offered\nhim nothing but a wilderness, would he for it abandon the home-bred\nscenes of life and cheerfulness that lay so near, and exerted such\na power of urgency to detain him? Would not he cling to the regions\nof sense, and of life, and of society? Shrinking away from the\ndesolation that was beyond it, would not he be glad to keep his firm\nfooting on the territory of this world, and to take shelter under\nthe silver canopy that was stretched over it?\n\nBut if, during the time of his contemplation, some happy island of\nthe blest had floated by, and there had burst upon his senses the\nlight of surpassing glories, and its sounds of sweeter melody, and\nhe clearly saw there a purer beauty rested upon every field, and a\nmore heartfelt joy spread itself among all the families, and he\ncould discern there a peace, and a piety, and a benevolence which\nput a moral gladness into every bosom, and united the whole society\nin one rejoicing sympathy with each other, and with the beneficent\nFather of them all. Could he further see that pain and mortality\nwere there unknown, and above all, that signals of welcome were hung\nout, and an avenue of communication was made before him--perceive\nyou not that what was before the wilderness, would become the land\nof invitation, and that now the world would be the wilderness?\nWhat unpeopled space could not do, can be done by space teeming\nwith beatific scenes, and beatific society. And let the existing\ntendencies of the heart be what they may to the scene that is near\nand visible around us, still if another stood revealed to the\nprospect of man, either through the channel of faith or through\nthe channel of his senses--then, without violence done to the\nconstitution of his moral nature, may he die unto the present world,\nand live to the lovelier world that stands in the distance away from\nit.\n\n\n\n\nCAMPBELL\n\nTHE MISSIONARY CAUSE\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\nALEXANDER CAMPBELL, prominent in the body known as Disciples or\nChristians, was born in Ireland in 1788, and received his education\nin Glasgow University. In 1809 he emigrated to the United States\nand took charge of a Presbyterian congregation in Bethany, Va. He\ndid not long remain in this pastorate, but proceeded to institute a\nsociety based upon the abolition of all confessions and formularies\nand the acknowledgment of the text of the Holy Scriptures as the\nsole creed of the Church. In 1841 he founded Bethany College\n(Bethany, Va.), and remained its president until his death in 1866.\nIn 1823 he founded the _Christian Baptist_, changed its name in 1829\nto the _Millennial Harbinger_, but abandoned it three years before\nhis death. He was a prolific controversial writer and published over\nfifty volumes, among which were hymn books and a translation of the\nNew Testament.\n\n\n\n\nCAMPBELL\n\n1788-1866\n\nTHE MISSIONARY CAUSE[1]\n\n  [1] Delivered to the American Christian Missionary Society,\n  Cincinnati, October, 1860.\n\n_He that winneth souls is wise._--Prov. xi., 30.\n\n\nThe missionary cause is older than the material universe. It was\ncelebrated by Job--the oldest poet on the pages of time.\n\nJehovah challenges Job to answer Him a few questions on the\ninstitutions of the universe. \"Gird up now thy loins,\" said He; \"and\nI will demand of thee a few responses. Where wast thou when I laid\nthe foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.\nWho has fixt the measure thereof? Or who has stretched the line upon\nit? What are the foundations thereof? Who has laid the corner-stone\nthereof when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of\nGod shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea with doors when it burst\nforth issuing from the womb of eternity--when I made a cloud its\ngarment, and thick darkness its swaddling band? I appointed its\nlimits, saying, Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther; and here\nshall the pride of thy waves be stayed.\n\n\"Has the rain a father? Who has begotten the drops of the dew? Who\nwas the mother of the ice? And the hoar-frost of heaven, who has\nbegotten it? Can mortal man bind the bands of the Seven Stars, or\nloose the cords of Orion? Can he bring forth and commission the\ntwelve signs of the Zodiac, or bind Arcturus with his seven sons?\n\n\"Knowest thou, oh man, the missionaries of the starry heavens? Canst\nthou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may\ncover thee? Canst thou command the lightnings, so that they may say\nto thee, Here we are? Who can number the clouds in wisdom? Or who\ncan pour out the bottles of heaven upon the thirsty fields?\"\n\nIf such be a single page in the volume of God's physical\nmissionaries, what must be its contents could we, by the telescope\nof an angel, survey one single province of the universe, of\nuniverses, which occupy topless, bottomless, boundless space!\n\nWe have data in the Bible, and, in the phenomena of the material\nuniverse, sufficient to authorize the assumption that the missionary\nidea circumscribes and permeates the entire area of creations.\n\nNeed we inquire into the meaning of a celestial title given to the\ntenantries of the heaven of heavens? But you all, my Christian\nbrethren, know it. You anticipate me. The sweet poet of Israel told\nyou long since, in his sixty-eighth ode, that the chariots of God\nare about twenty thousand of angels.[2]\n\n  [2] This is an exact literal version of _Rebotayim alphey shenan_.\n  The Targum says, \"The chariots of God are two myriads--and two\n  thousand angels draw them.\" A myriad is 10,000--two myriads 20,000.\n  \"To know this,\" Adam Clarke says, \"we must die.\"\n\nAnd what is an angel but a messenger, a missionary? Hence the seven\nangels of the seven churches in Asia were seven missionaries, or\nmessengers, sent to John in his exile; and by these John wrote\nletters to the seven congregations in Asia.\n\nFiguratively, God makes the winds and lightnings his angels, his\nmessengers of wrath or of mercy, as the case may be.\n\nBut we are a missionary society--a society assembled from all points\nof the compass, assembled, too, we hope, in the true missionary\nspirit, which is the spirit of Christianity in its primordial\nconception. God Himself instituted it. Moses is the oldest\nmissionary whose name is inscribed on the rolls of time.\n\nHe was the first divine missionary, and, if we except John the\nBaptist, he was the second in rank and character to the Lord Messiah\nHimself.\n\nAngels and missionaries are rudimentally but two names for the same\nofficers. But of the incarnate Word, God's only begotten Son, He\nsays, \"Thou art my son, the beloved, in whom I delight.\" And He\ncommands the world of humanity to hearken to Him. He was, indeed,\nGod's own special ambassador, invested with all power in heaven\nand on earth--a true, a real, an everlasting plenipotentiary,\nhaving vested in Him all the rights of God and all the rights of\nman. And were not all the angels of heaven placed under Him as His\nmissionaries, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation?\n\nHis commission, given to the twelve apostles, is a splendid and\nglorious commission. Its preamble is wholly unprecedented--\"All\nauthority in heaven and on earth is given to me.\" In pursuance\nthereof, he gave commission to His apostles, saying, \"Go, convert\nall the nations, immersing them into the name of the Father, and\nof the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all\nthings whatever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always,\neven to the end of the world.\" Angels, apostles and evangelists\nwere placed under this command, and by Him commissioned as His\nambassadors to the world.\n\nThe missionary institution, we repeat, is older than Adam--older\nthan our earth. It is coeval with the origin of angels.\n\nSatan had been expelled from heaven before Adam was created. His\nassault upon our mother Eve, by an incarnation in the most subtle\nanimal in Paradise, is positive proof of the intensity of his\nmalignity to God and to man. He, too, has his missionaries in the\nwhole area of humanity. Michael and his angels, or missionaries,\nare, and long have been, in conflict against the devil and his\nmissionaries. The battle, in this our planet, is yet in progress,\nand therefore missionaries are in perpetual demand. Hence the\nnecessity incumbent on us to carry on this warfare as loyal subjects\nof the Hero of our redemption.\n\nThe Christian armory is well supplied with all the weapons essential\nto the conflict. We need them all. \"We wrestle not against flesh\nand blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the\nrulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in the\nregions of the air.\" Hence the need of having our \"loins girded with\nthe truth\"; having on the breastplate of righteousness, our feet\nshod with the preparation to publish the gospel of peace, taking\nthe shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the\nSpirit, the Word of God, always praying and making supplication for\nour fellow-missionaries and for all saints.\n\nThe missionary fields are numerous and various. They are both\ndomestic and foreign. The harvest is great in both. The laborers are\nstill few, comparatively very few, in either of them.\n\nThe supply is not a tithe of the demand. The Macedonians cry, \"Come\nover and help us;\" \"Send us an evangelist;\" \"Send us missionaries;\"\n\"The fields are large, the people are desirous, anxious, to hear\nthe original gospel. What can you do for us?\" Nothing! Nothing! My\nbrethren, ought this so to be?\n\nSchools for the prophets are wanting. But there is a too general\napathy or indifference on the subject. We pray to the Lord of the\nharvest to send our reapers to gather it into His garner. But what\ndo we besides praying for it? Do we work for it? Suppose a farmer\nshould pray to the Lord for an abundant harvest next year, and\nshould never, in seed-time, turn over one furrow or scatter one\nhandful of seed: what would we think of him? Would not his neighbors\nregard him as a monomaniac or a simpleton? And wherein does he excel\nsuch a one in wisdom or in prudence who prays to the Lord to send\nout reapers--missionaries, or evangelists--to gather a harvest of\nsouls, when he himself never gives a dollar to a missionary, or the\nvalue of it, to enable him to go into the field? Can such a person\nbe in earnest, or have one sincere desire in his heart to effect\nsuch an object or purpose? We must confess that we could have no\nfaith either in his head or in his heart.\n\nThe heavenly missionaries require neither gold nor silver, neither\nfood nor raiment. Not so the earthly missionaries. They themselves,\ntheir wives and children, demand both food and clothing, to say\nnothing of houses and furniture. Their present home is not\n\n    \"The gorgeous city, garnish'd like a bride,\n       Where Christ for spouse expected is to pass,\n     The walls of jasper compass'd on each side,\n       And streets all paved with gold, more bright than glass.\"\n\nIf such were the missionary's home on earth, he might, indeed,\nlabor gratuitously all the days of his life. In an humble\ncottage--rather an unsightly cabin--we sometimes see the wife of\nhis youth, in garments quite as unsightly as those of her children,\nimpatiently waiting \"their sire's return, to climb to his knees the\nenvied kiss to share.\" But, when the supper table is spread, what a\nbeggarly account of almost empty plates and dishes! Whose soul would\nnot sicken at such a sight? I have twice, if not thrice, in days\ngone by, when travelling on my early missionary tours--over not the\npoorest lands nor the poorest settlements, either--witnessed some\nsuch cases, and heard of more.\n\nI was then my own missionary, with the consent, however, of one\nchurch. I desired to mingle with all classes of religious society,\nthat I might personally and truthfully know, not the theories, but\nthe facts and the actualities, of the Christian ministry and the\nso-called Christian public. I spent a considerable portion of my\ntime during the years 1812, '13, '14, '15, '16, traveling throughout\nwestern Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.\n\nI then spent seven years in reviewing my past studies, and in\nteaching the languages and the sciences--after which I extended my\nevangelical labors into other States and communities, that I might\nstill more satisfactorily apprehend and appreciate the _status_,\nor the actual condition, of the nominally and profest religious or\nChristian world.\n\nHaving shortly after my baptism connected myself with the Baptist\npeople, and attending their associations as often as I could, I\nbecame more and more penetrated with the conviction that theory\nhad usurped the place of faith, and that consequently, human\ninstitutions had been, more or less, substituted for the apostolic\nand the divine.\n\nDuring this period of investigation I had the pleasure of forming an\nintimate acquaintance with sundry Baptist ministers, East and West,\nas well as with the ministry of other denominations. Flattering\nprospects of usefulness on all sides began to expand before me\nand to inspire me with the hope of achieving a long-cherished\nobject--doing some good in the advocacy of the primitive and\napostolic gospel--having in the year 1820 a discussion on the\nsubject of the first positive institution enacted by the Lord\nMessiah, and in A. D. 1823 another on the same subject--the former\nmore especially on the subject and action of Christian baptism,\nthe latter more emphatically on the design of that institution tho\nincluding the former two.\n\nThese discussions, more or less, embraced the rudimental elements\nof the Christian institution, and gave to the public a bold relief\noutline of the whole genius, spirit, letter and doctrine of the\ngospel.\n\nIts missionary spirit, tho not formally propounded, was yet\nindicated, in these discussions; because this institution was the\nterminus of the missionary work. It was a component element of\nthe gospel, as clearly seen in the commission of the enthroned\nMessiah. Its preamble is the superlative fact of the whole Bible.\nWe regret, indeed, that this most sublime preamble has been so much\nlost sight of even by the present living generation. If we ask when\nthe Church of Jesus Christ began or when the reign of the Heavens\ncommenced, the answer, in what is usually called Christendom, will\nmake it either to be contemporaneous with the ministry of John the\nHarbinger, or with the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will\nfind one of these two opinions almost universally entertained.\nThe Baptists are generally much attached to John the Baptist; the\nPedobaptists, to the commencement of Christ's public ministry.\nJohn the Baptist was the first Christian missionary with a very\nconsiderable class of living Baptists; the birth of Christ is the\nmost popular and orthodox theory at the respective meridians of\nLutheranism, Calvinism, and Arminianism.\n\nBut, by the more intelligent, the resurrection, or the ascension\nof the Lord Jesus Christ, is generally regarded as the definite\ncommencement of the Christian age or institution.\n\nGive us Paul's or Peter's testimony, against that of all\ntheologians, living or dead. Let us look at the facts.\n\nDid not the Savior teach His personal pupils, or disciples, to\npray, \"Thy kingdom\"--more truthfully, \"Thy reign--come\"? Does any\nking's reign or kingdom commence with his birth? Still less with his\ndeath? Did not our Savior Himself, in person, decline the honors of\na worldly or temporal prince? Did He not declare that His kingdom\n\"is not of this world\"? Did He not say that He was going hence, or\nleaving this world, to receive or obtain a kingdom? And were not the\nkeys of the kingdom first given to Peter to open, to announce it?\nAnd did he not, when in Jerusalem, on the first Pentecost, after the\nascension of the Lord Jesus, make a public proclamation, saying,\n\"Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made (or\nconstituted) the identical Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, both\nthe Lord and the Christ, or the anointed Lord\"?\n\nDo kings reign before they are crowned? Before they are anointed?\nThere was not a Christian Church on earth, or any man called a\nChristian, until after the consecration and coronation of Jesus of\nNazareth as the Christ of God.\n\nThe era of a son's birth was never, since the world began, the era\nof his reign or of the commencement of it. It is a strange fact,\nto me a wonderful fact, and, considering the age in which we live,\nan overwhelming fact, that we, as a community, are the only people\non the checkered map of all Christendom, Greek, Roman, Anglican or\nAmerican, that preach and teach that the commonly called Christian\nera is not the era or the commencement of the Christian Church or\nkingdom of the Lord Jesus the Christ.\n\nThe kingdom of the Christ could not antedate His coronation.\nHence Peter, in announcing His coronation, after His ascension,\nproclaimed, saying, \"Let all the house of Israel know assuredly\nthat God has made--_touton ton Ieesoun_--the same, the identical\nJesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ\"; or, in other\nwords, has crowned Him the legitimate Lord of all. Then indeed His\nreign began. Then was verified the oracle uttered by the royal\nbard of Israel, \"Jehovah said to my Jehovah\"--or, \"the Lord said\nto my Lord,\"--\"Sit thou on my right hand till I make thy foes thy\nfootstool.\"\n\nHence He could say, and did say, to His apostles, \"All authority in\nthe heavens and on the earth is given to me.\" In pursuance thereof,\n\"Go you into all the world, proclaim the gospel to the whole\ncreation; assuring them that everyone who believes this proclamation\nand is immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of\nthe Holy Spirit, shall be saved.\"\n\nHere, then, the missionary field is declared to be the whole\nworld--the broad earth. They were, as we are afterwards informed,\nto begin at the first capital in the land of Judea, then to proceed\nto Samaria, the capital of the ten tribes, and thence to the last\ndomicile of man on earth.\n\nThere was, and there is still, in all this arrangement, a gracious\nand a glorious propriety.\n\nThe Jews had murdered the Messiah under the false charge of an\nimpostor. Was it not, then, divinely grand and supremely glorious to\nmake this awfully bloodstained capital the beginning, the fountain,\nof the gospel age and mission? Hence it was decreed that all the\nearth should be the parish, and all the nations and languages\nof earth the objects, and millions of them the subjects, of the\nredeeming grace and tender mercies of our Savior and our God.\n\nWhat an extended and still extending area is the missionary field!\nThere are the four mighty realms of Pagandom, of Papaldom, of\nMohammedandom and of ecclesiastic Sectariandom. These are, one and\nall, essentially and constitutionally, more or less, not of the\napostolic Christendom.\n\nThe divinely inspired constitution of the Church contains only\nseven articles. These are the seven hills, not of Rome, but of the\ntrue Zion of Israel's God. Paul's summary of them is found in the\nfollowing words: \"One body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one\nfaith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all.\"\n\nThe clear perception, the grateful reception, the cordial\nentertainment of these seven divinely constructed and instituted\npillars, are the alone sufficient, and the all-sufficient,\nfoundation--the indestructible basis--of Christ's kingdom on this\nearth, and of man's spiritual and eternal salvation in the full\nenjoyment of himself, his Creator, his Redeemer, and the whole\nuniverse of spiritual intelligence through all the circles and\nthe cycles of an infinite, an everlasting future of being and of\nblessedness.\n\nThe missionary spirit is, indeed, an emanation of the whole Godhead.\nGod the Father sent His Son, His only begotten Son, into our world.\nThe Son sent the Holy Spirit to bear witness through His twelve\nmissionaries, the consecrated and Heaven-inspired apostles. They\nproclaimed the glad tidings of great joy to all people--to the\nJews, to the Samaritans, to the Gentiles, of all nations, kindreds\nand tongues. They gave in solemn charge to others to sound out and\nproclaim the glad tidings of great joy to all people. And need we\nask, is not the Christian Church itself, in its own institution and\nconstitution, virtually and essentially a missionary institution?\nDoes not Paul formally state to the Thessalonians in his first\nepistle that from them sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in\nMacedonia and in Achaia, but in every place?\n\nNo man can really or truthfully enjoy the spiritual, the\nsoul-stirring, the heart-reviving honors and felicities of the\nChristian institution and kingdom, who does not intelligently,\ncordially and efficiently espouse the missionary cause.\n\nIn other words, he must feel, he must have compassion for his\nfellow man; and, still further, he must practically sympathize\nwith him in communicating to his spiritual necessities as well\nas to his physical wants and infirmities. The true ideal of all\nperfection--our blest and blissful Redeemer--went about continually\ndoing good--to both the souls and the bodies of his fellow men;\nhealing all that were, in body, soul or spirit, opprest by Satan,\nthe enemy of God and of man.\n\nTo follow his example is the grand climax of humanity. It is not\nnecessary to this end that he should occupy the pulpit. There are,\nas we conceive, myriads of Christian men in the private walks\nof life, who never aspired to the \"sacred desk,\" that will far\noutshine, in eternal glory and blessedness, hosts of the reverend,\nthe boasted and the boastful right reverend occupants of the sacred\ndesks of this our day and generation.\n\nBut Solomon has furnished our motto:--\"He that winneth\" or taketh\n\"souls is wise\" (Prov. xi. 30). Was he not the wisest of men, the\nmost potent and the richest of kings, that ever lived? He had,\ntherefore, all the means and facilities of acquiring what we call\nknowledge--the knowledge of men and things; and, consequently, the\nvalue of men and things was legitimately within the area of his\nunderstanding; or, in this case, we might prefer to say, with all\npropriety, within the area of his comprehension.\n\nNeed I say that comprehension incomparably transcends apprehension?\nSimpletons may apprehend, but only wise men can comprehend\nanything. Solomon's rare gift was, that both his apprehension and\nhis comprehension transcended those of all other men, and gave him\na perspicacity and promptitude of decision never before or since\npossest by any man. His oracles, indeed, were the oracles of God.\nBut God especially gave to him a power and opportunity of making\none grand experiment and development for the benefit of his living\ncontemporaries, and of all posterity, to whom God presents his\nbiography, his Proverbs and his Ecclesiastes.\n\n\"The winning of souls\" is, therefore, the richest and best\nbusiness, trade or calling, according to Solomon, ever undertaken\nor prosecuted by mortal man. Paul was fully aware of this, and\ntherefore had always in his eye a \"triple crown\"--\"a crown of\nrighteousness,\" a \"crown of life,\" a \"crown of glory.\" And even in\nthis life he had \"a crown of rejoicing,\" in prospect of an exceeding\nand eternal weight of glory, imperishable in the heavens.\n\nThere is, too, a present reward, a present pleasure, a present joy\nand peace which the wisdom, and the riches, and the dignity, and\nthe glory, and the honors of this world never did, never can, and\nconsequently never will, confer on its most devoted and persevering\nvotaries.\n\nThere is, indeed, a lawful and an honorable covetousness, which any\nand every Christian, man and woman, may cultivate and cherish.\n\nPaul himself justifies the poetic license, when he says, \"Covet\nearnestly the best gifts.\"\n\nThe best gifts in his horizon, however, were those which, when\nduly cultivated and employed, confer the greatest amount of profit\nand felicity upon others. We should, indeed, desire, even covet,\nthe means and the opportunities of beatifying and aggrandizing one\nanother with the true riches, the honors and the dignities that\nappertain to the spiritual, the heavenly and the eternal inheritance.\n\nBut we need not propound to your consideration or inquiry the\nclaims--the paramount, the transcendent claims--which our\nenjoyment of the gospel and its soul-cheering, soul-animating,\nsoul-enrapturing influences present to us as arguments and motives\nto extend and to animate its proclamation by every instrumentality\nand means which we can legitimately employ, to present it in all its\nattractions and claims upon the understanding, the conscience and\nthe affections of our contemporaries, in our own country and in all\nothers, as far as our most gracious and bountiful Benefactor affords\nthe means and the opportunities of co-operating with Him, in the\nrescue and recovery of our fellow men, who, without such means and\nefforts, must forever perish, as aliens and enemies, in heart and\nin life, to God and to His divinely-commissioned ambassador, the\nglorious Messiah.\n\nWe plead for the original apostolic gospel and its positive\ninstitutions. If the great apostles Peter and Paul--the former to\nthe Jews and the latter to the Gentiles--announced the true gospel\nof the grace of God, shall we hesitate a moment on the propriety\nand the necessity, divinely imposed upon us, of preaching the same\ngospel which they preached, and in advocating the same institutions\nwhich they established, under the plenary inspiration and direction\nof the Holy Spirit? Can we improve upon their institutions and\nenactments? What means that singular imperative enunciated by the\nevangelical prophet Isaiah (Isa. viii.), \"Bind up the testimony,\nseal the law among my disciples?\" What were its antecedents?\nHearken! The prophet had just foretold. He, the subject of this\noracle, viz: \"The desire of all nations,\" was coming to be a\nsanctuary; but not a sanctuary alone, but for a stone of stumbling\nand a rock of offense (as at this day) to both the houses of\nIsrael--for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.\n\nThe Church, therefore, of right is, and ought to be, a great\nmissionary society. Her parish is the whole earth, from sea to sea,\nand from the Euphrates to the last domicile of man.\n\nBut the crowning and consummating argument of the missionary\ncause has not been fully presented. There is but one word, in the\nlanguages of earth, that fully indicates it. And that word indicates\nneither less nor more than what is represented--literally, exactly,\nperspicuously represented--by the word philanthropy. But this being\na Greek word needs, perhaps in some cases, an exact definition.\nAnd to make it memorable we will preface it with the statement of\nthe fact that this word is found but twice in the Greek original\nNew Testament (Acts xxviii., 2, and Titus iii., 4.). In the first\npassage this word is, in the common version, translated \"kindness,\"\nand in the second, \"love toward man.\" Literally and exactly, it\nsignifies the love of man, objectively; but, more fully exprest, the\nlove of one to another.\n\nThe love of God to man is one form of philanthropy; the love of\nangels to one man is another form of philanthropy; and the love of\nman to man, as such, is the true philanthropy of the law. It is\nnot the love of one man to another man, because of favors received\nfrom him; this is only gratitude. It is not the love of one man to\nanother man, because of a common country: this is mere patriotism.\nIt is not the love of man to man, because of a common ancestry:\nthis is mere natural affection. But it is the love of man to man,\nmerely because he is a man. This is pure philanthropy. Such was the\nlove of God to man as exhibited in the gift of His dearly beloved\nSon as a sin-offering for him. This is the name which the inspired\nwriters of the New Testament give it. So Paul uses it, Titus iii.\nand iv. It should have been translated, \"After that the kindness and\nphilanthropy of God our Savior appeared.\" Again, Acts xxviii., 2,\n\"The barbarous people of the Island of Melita showed us no little\nphilanthropy.[3] They kindled a fire for us on their island,\nbecause of the impending rain and the cold.\"\n\n  [3] So we have always translated this term, in this passage.\n\nThere are, indeed, many forms and demonstrations of philanthropy.\nFor one good man another good man might presume to die. But the\nphilanthropy of God to man incomparably transcends all other forms\nof philanthropy known on earth or reported from heaven.\n\nWhile we were sinners, in positive and actual rebellion against our\nFather and our God, He freely gave up His only begotten and dearly\nbeloved Son, as a sin-offering for us, and laid upon Him, or placed\nin His account, the sin, the aggregate sin, of the world. He became\nin the hand of His Father and our Father a sin-offering for us. He\ntook upon Himself, and His Father \"laid upon him, the iniquity of us\nall.\" Was ever love like this? Angels of all ranks, spirits of all\ncapacities, still contemplate it with increasing wonder and delight.\n\nThis gospel message is to be announced to all the world, to men of\nevery nation under heaven. And this, too, with the promise of the\nforgiveness of sins and of a life everlasting in the heavens, to\neveryone who will cordially accept and obey it.\n\n\n\n\nIRVING\n\nPREPARATION FOR CONSULTING THE ORACLES OF GOD\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\nEDWARD IRVING was born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1792.\nHe was an early friend and lover of Jane Welsh, who afterwards\nmarried Thomas Carlyle. He showed ability at school, but had also a\ntaste for the preaching of extreme Presbyterian seceders from the\nChurch of Scotland. After graduating at the University of Edinburgh,\nin 1809, he began life by teaching school, but obtained a license\nto preach in 1815. He became assistant to Chalmers at Glasgow in\n1819, where, great preacher as he was, he felt himself eclipsed by\nChalmers, and in 1822 accepted the pulpit at a chapel in Hatton\nGarden, London. Here he leapt into fame. His melodious and resonant\nvoice, his noble presence and the beauty of his features, enhanced\nthe eloquence of his language. Eventually he became unbalanced\nby the adulation of the aristocratic and intellectual crowd that\nlistened to him. They, however, grew tired of his prophecies and\ndenunciations, and his eccentricities of judgment finally led\nto disruption, and \"after a few years of futile but splendid\nevangelization, he died a broken-hearted man, tender and true to the\nlast, altho the victim of unsubstantial religious vagaries.\" Carlyle\nwrote a touching memoir of his life. He died in 1834.\n\n\n\n\nIRVING\n\n1792-1834\n\nPREPARATION FOR CONSULTING THE ORACLES OF GOD\n\n_Search the scriptures._--John v., 39.\n\n\nThere was a time when each revelation of the word of God had an\nintroduction into this earth, which neither permitted men to doubt\nwhence it came, nor wherefore it was sent. If at the giving of each\nseveral truth a star was not lighted up in heaven, as at the birth\nof the Prince of Truth, there was done upon the earth a wonder, to\nmake her children listen to the message of their Maker. The Almighty\nmade bare His arm; and, through mighty acts shown by His holy\nservants, gave demonstration of His truth, and found for it a sure\nplace among the other matters of human knowledge and belief.\n\nBut now the miracles of God have ceased, and nature, secure and\nunmolested, is no longer called on for testimonies to her Creator's\nvoice. No burning bush draws the footsteps to His presence chamber;\nno invisible voice holds the ear awake; no hand cometh forth from\nthe obscurity to write His purposes in letters of flame. The vision\nis shut up, and the testimony is sealed, and the Word of the Lord is\nended, and this solitary volume, with its chapters and verses, is\nthe sum total of all for which the chariot of heaven made so many\nvisits to the earth, and the Son of God Himself tabernacled and\ndwelt among us.\n\nThe truth which it contains once dwelt undivulged in the bosom of\nGod; and, on coming forth to take its place among things revealed,\nthe heavens and the earth, and nature, through all her chambers,\ngave reverent welcome. Beyond what it contains, the mysteries of the\nfuture are unknown. To gain it acceptation and currency, the noble\ncompany of martyrs testified unto the death. The general assembly of\nthe first-born in heaven made it the day-star of their hopes, and\nthe pavilion of their peace. Its every sentence is charmed with the\npower of God, and powerful to the everlasting salvation of souls.\n\nHaving our minds filled with these thoughts of the primeval divinity\nof revealed wisdom when she dwelt in the bosom of God, and was of\nHis eternal Self a part, long before He prepared the heavens, or\nset a compass upon the face of the deep; revolving also how, by\nthe space of four thousand years, every faculty of mute nature did\nsolemn obeisance to this daughter of the Divine mind, whenever He\npleased to commission her forth to the help of mortals; and further\nmeditating upon the delights which she had of old with the sons of\nmen, the height of heavenly temper to which she raised them, and the\noffspring of magnanimous deeds which these two--the wisdom of God,\nand the soul of man--did engender between themselves--meditating, I\nsay, upon these mighty topics, our soul is smitten with grief and\nshame to remark how in this latter day she hath fallen from her high\nestate; and fallen along with her the great and noble character of\nmen. Or, if there be still a few names, as of the missionary martyr,\nto emulate the saints of old--how to the commonalty of Christians\nher oracles have fallen into a household commonness, and her visits\ninto a cheap familiarity; while by the multitude she is mistaken\nfor a minister of terror sent to oppress poor mortals with moping\nmelancholy, and inflict a wound upon the happiness of human kind.\n\nFor there is now no express stirring up the faculties to meditate\nher high and heavenly strains--there is no formal sequestration\nof the mind from all other concerns, on purpose for her special\nentertainment--there is no house of solemn seeking and solemn\nwaiting for a spiritual frame, before entering and listening to\nthe voice of the Almighty's wisdom. Who feels the sublime dignity\nthere is in a saying, fresh descended from the porch of heaven? Who\nfeels the awful weight there is in the least iota that hath dropped\nfrom the lips of God? Who feels the thrilling fear or trembling\nhope there is in words whereon the destinies of himself do hang?\nWho feels the swelling tide of gratitude within his breast, for\nredemption and salvation, instead of flat despair and everlasting\nretribution? Yea, that which is the guide and spur of all duty,\nthe necessary aliment of Christian life, the first and the last\nof Christian knowledge and Christian feeling, hath, to speak the\nbest, degenerated in these days to stand, rank and file, among\nthose duties whereof it is parent, preserver, and commander. And,\nto speak not the best, but the fair and common truth, this book,\nthe offspring of the Divine mind, and the perfection of heavenly\nwisdom, is permitted to lie from day to day, perhaps from week to\nweek, unheeded and unperused, never welcome to our happy, healthy,\nand energetic moods; admitted, if admitted at all, in seasons of\nsickness, feeble-mindedness, and disabling sorrow. Yes, that which\nwas sent to be a spirit of ceaseless joy and hope within the heart\nof man, is treated as the enemy of happiness, and the murderer of\nenjoyment; and eyed askance, as the remembrancer of death, and the\nvery messenger of hell.\n\nOh! if books had but tongues to speak their wrongs, then might this\nbook well exclaim: Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! I came\nfrom the love and embrace of God, and mute nature, to whom I brought\nno boon, did me rightful homage. To men I come, and my words were\nto the children of men. I disclosed to you the mysteries hereafter,\nand the secrets of the throne of God. I set open to you the gates\nof salvation, and the way of eternal life, hitherto unknown.\nNothing in heaven did I withhold from your hope and ambition; and\nupon your earthly lot I poured the full horn of Divine providence\nand consolation. But ye requited me with no welcome, ye held no\nfestivity on my arrival; ye sequester me from happiness and heroism,\ncloseting me with sickness and infirmity: ye make not of me, nor use\nme for, your guide to wisdom and prudence, but put me into a place\nin your last of duties, and withdraw me to a mere corner of your\ntime; and most of ye set me at naught and utterly disregard me. I\ncome, the fulness of the knowledge of God; angels delighted in my\ncompany, and desired to dive into my secrets. But ye, mortals, place\nmasters over me, subjecting me to the discipline and dogmatism of\nmen, and tutoring me in your schools of learning. I came, not to be\nsilent in your dwellings, but to speak welfare to you and to your\nchildren. I came to rule, and my throne to set up in the hearts of\nmen. Mine ancient residence was the bosom of God; no residence will\nI have but the soul of an immortal; and if you had entertained me,\nI should have possest you of the peace which I had with God, \"when\nI was with Him and was daily His delight, rejoicing always before\nHim. Because I have called you and ye have refused, I have stretched\nout my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my\ncounsel and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your\ncalamity, and mock when your fear cometh as desolation, and your\ndestruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh\nupon you. Then shall they cry upon me, but I will not answer; they\nshall seek me early, but they shall not find me.\"\n\nFrom this cheap estimation and wanton neglect of God's counsel,\nand from the terror of the curse consequent thereon, we have\nresolved, in the strength of God, to do our endeavor to deliver this\ncongregation of His intelligent and worshiping people--an endeavor\nwhich we make with a full perception of the difficulties to be\novercome on every side, within no less than without the sacred pale;\nand upon which we enter with the utmost diffidence of our powers,\nyet with the full purpose of straining them to the utmost, according\nto the measure with which it hath pleased God to endow our mind. And\ndo Thou, O Lord, from whom cometh the perception of truth, vouchsafe\nto Thy servant an unction from Thine own Spirit, who searcheth all\nthings, yes, the deep things of God; and vouchsafe to Thy people\n\"the hearing ear and the understanding heart, that they may hear\nand understand, and their souls may live!\"\n\nBefore the Almighty made His appearance upon Sinai, there were\nawful precursors sent to prepare His way; while He abode in sight,\nthere were solemn ceremonies and a strict ritual of attendance;\nwhen He departed, the whole camp set itself to conform unto His\nrevealed will. Likewise, before the Savior appeared, with His\nbetter law, there was a noble procession of seers and prophets, who\ndecried and warned the world of His coming; when He came there were\nsolemn announcements in the heavens and on the earth; He did not\ndepart without due honors; and then followed, on His departure, a\nsuccession of changes and alterations which are still in progress,\nand shall continue in progress till the world's end. This may serve\nto teach us, that a revelation of the Almighty's will makes demand\nfor these three things, on the part of those to whom it is revealed:\nA due preparation for receiving it; a diligent attention to it while\nit is disclosing; a strict observance of it when it is delivered.\n\nIn the whole book of the Lord's revelations you shall search in\nvain for one which is devoid of these necessary parts. Witness the\nawestruck Isaiah, while the Lord displayed before him the sublime\npomp of His presence; and, not content with overpowering the frail\nsense of the prophet, dispatched a seraph to do the ceremonial of\ntouching his lip with hallowed fire, all before He uttered one word\ninto his astonished ear. Witness the majestic apparition to Saint\nJohn, in the Apocalypse, of all the emblematical glory of the Son of\nMan, allowed to take silent effect upon the apostle's spirit, and\nprepare it for the revelation of things to come. These heard with\nall their absorbed faculties, and with all their powers addrest them\nto the bidding of the Lord. But, if this was in aught flinched from,\nwitness, in the persecution of the prophet Jonah, the fearful issues\nwhich ensued. From the presence of the Lord he could not flee. Fain\nwould he have escaped to the uttermost parts of the earth; but in\nthe mighty waters the terrors of the Lord fell upon him; and when\nengulfed in the deep, and entombed in the monster of the deep, still\nthe Lord's word was upon the obdurate prophet, who had no rest,\nnot the rest of the grave, till he had fulfilled it to the very\nuttermost.\n\nNow, judging that every time we open the pages of this holy book, we\nare to be favored with no less than a communication from on high,\nin substance the same as those whereof we have detailed the three\ndistinct and several parts, we conceive it due to the majesty of Him\nwho speaks, that we, in like manner, discipline our spirits with a\ndue preparation, and have them in proper frame, before we listen\nto the voice; that, while it is disclosing to us the important\nmessage, we be wrapt in full attention; and that, when it hath\ndisburdened itself into our opened and enlarged spirits, we proceed\nforthwith to the business of its fulfilment, whithersoever and to\nwhatsoever it summon us forth. Upon each of these three duties,\nincumbent upon one who would not forego the benefit of a heavenly\nmessage, we will discourse apart, addressing ourselves in this\ndiscourse to the first-mentioned of the three.\n\nThe preparation for the announcement.--\"When God uttereth His\nvoice,\" says the Psalmist, \"coals of fire are kindled; the hills\nmelt down like wax; the earth quakes; and deep proclaims itself\nunto hollow deep.\" These sensible images of the Creator have now\nvanished, and we are left alone, in the deep recesses of the\nmeditative mind, to discern His coming forth. No trump of heaven\nnow speaketh in the world's ear. No angelic conveyance of Heaven's\nwill taketh shape from the vacant air; and having done his errand,\nretireth into his airy habitation. No human messenger putteth forth\nhis miraculous hand to heal nature's unmedicable wounds, winning\nfor his words a silent and astonished audience. Majesty and might\nno longer precede the oracles of Heaven. They lie silent and\nunobtrusive, wrapt up in their little compass, one volume among\nmany, innocently handed to and fro, having no distinction but that\nin which our mustered thoughts are enabled to invest them. The want\nof solemn preparation and circumstantial pomp, the imagination\nof the mind hath now to supply. The presence of the Deity, and\nthe authority of His voice, our thoughtful spirits must discern.\nConscience must supply the terrors that were wont to go before Him;\nand the brightness of His coming, which the sense can no longer\nbehold, the heart, ravished with His word, must feel.\n\nFor the solemn vocation of all her powers, to do her Maker honor and\ngive Him welcome, it is, at the very least, necessary that the soul\nstand absolved from every call. Every foreign influence or authority\narising out of the world, or the things of the world, should be\nburst when about to stand before the fountain of all authority;\nevery argument, every invention, every opinion of man forgot, when\nabout to approach to the Father and oracle of all intelligence.\nAnd as subjects, when their honors, with invitations, are held\ndisengaged, tho preoccupied with a thousand appointments, so, upon\nan audience, fixt and about to be holden with the King of Kings, it\nwill become the honored mortal to break loose from all thraldom of\nmen and things, and be arrayed in liberty of thought and action to\ndrink in the rivers of His pleasure, and to perform the mission of\nHis lips.\n\nNow far otherwise it hath appeared to us, that Christians as well\nas worldly men come to this most august occupation of listening\nto the word of God; preoccupied and prepossest, inclining to it a\npartial ear, and straitened understanding, and a disaffected will.\n\nThe Christian public are prone to preoccupy themselves with the\nadmiration of those opinions by which they stand distinguished as\na Church or sect from other Christians, and instead of being quite\nunfettered to receive the whole counsel of the Divinity, they are\nprepared to welcome it no further than it bears upon, and stands\nwith opinions which they already favor. To this pre-judgment\nthe early use of catechisms mainly contributes, which, however\nserviceable in their place, have the disadvantage of presenting\nthe truth in a form altogether different from what it occupies\nin the world itself. In the one it is presented to the intellect\nchiefly (and in our catechisms to an intellect of a very subtle\norder), in the other it is presented more frequently to the heart,\nto the affections, to the emotions, to the fancy, and to all the\nfaculties of the soul. In early youth, which is so applied to\nthose compilations, an association takes place between religion\nand intellect, and a divorcement of religion from the other powers\nof the inner man. This derangement, judging from observation\nand experience, it is exceedingly difficult to put to rights in\nafterlife; and so it comes to pass, that in listening to the\noracles of religion, the intellect is chiefly awake, and the\nbetter parts of the message--those which address the heart and its\naffections, those which dilate and enlarge our admiration of the\nGodhead, and those which speak to the various sympathies of our\nnature--we are, by the injudicious use of these narrow epitomes,\ndisqualified to receive.\n\nIn the train of these comes controversy with its rough voice and\nunmeek aspect, to disqualify the soul for a full and fair audience\nof its Maker's word. The points of the faith we have been called\non to defend, or which are reputable with our party, assume, in\nour esteem, an importance disproportionate to their importance\nin the Word, which we come to relish chiefly when it goes to\nsustain them, and the Bible is hunted for arguments and texts\nof controversy, which are treasured up for future service. The\nsolemn stillness which the soul should hold before his Maker, so\nfavorable to meditation and rapt communion with the throne of God,\nis destroyed at every turn by suggestions of what is orthodox and\nevangelical--where all is orthodox and evangelical; the spirit of\nsuch readers becomes lean, being fed with abstract truths and formal\npropositions; their temper uncongenial, being ever disturbed with\ncontroversial suggestions; their prayers undevout recitals of their\nopinions; their discourse technical announcements of their faith.\nIntellect, old intellect, hath the sway over heavenward devotion\nand holy fervor. Man, contentious man, hath the attention which the\nunsearchable God should undivided have; and the fine, full harmony\nof heaven's melodious voice, which, heard apart, were sufficient\nto lap the soul in ecstasies unspeakable, is jarred and interfered\nwith, and the heavenly spell is broken by the recurring conceits,\nsophisms, and passions of men. Now truly an utter degradation it is\nof the Godhead to have His word in league with that of man, or any\ncouncil of men. What matter to me whether the Pope, or any work of\nany mind, be exalted to the quality of God? If any helps are to be\nimposed for the understanding, or safeguarding, or sustaining of\nthe word, why not the help of statues and pictures of my devotions?\nTherefore, while the warm fancies of the Southerns have given their\nidolatry to the ideal forms of noble art, let us Northerns beware we\ngive not our idolatry to the cold and coarse abstractions of human\nintellect.\n\nFor the preoccupations of worldly minds, they are not to be reckoned\nup, being manifold as their favorite passions and pursuits. One\nthing only can be said, that before coming to the oracles of God\nthey are not preoccupied with the expectation and fear of Him. No\nchord in their heart is in unison with things unseen; no moments are\nset apart for religious thought and meditation; no anticipations\nof the honored interview; no prayer of preparation like that of\nDaniel before Gabriel was sent to teach him; no devoutness like\nthat of Cornelius before the celestial visitation; no fastings like\nthat of Peter before the revelation of the glory of the Gentiles!\nNow to minds which are not attuned to holiness, the words of God\nfind no entrance, striking heavy on the ear, seldom making way\nto the understanding, almost never to the heart. To spirits hot\nwith conversation, perhaps heady with argument, uncomposed by\nsolemn thought, but ruffled and in uproar from the concourse of\nworldly interests, the sacred page may be spread out, but its\naccents are drowned in the noise which hath not yet subsided in\nthe breast. All the awe, and pathos, and awakened consciousness\nof a Divine approach, imprest upon the ancients by the procession\nof solemnities, is to worldly men without a substitute. They have\nnot yet solicited themselves to be in readiness. In a usual mood\nand vulgar frame they come to God's word as to other compositions,\nreading it without any active imaginations about Him who speaks;\nfeeling no awe of a sovereign Lord, nor care of a tender Father,\nnor devotion to a merciful Savior. Nowise deprest themselves out\nof their wonted dependence, nor humiliated before the King of\nKings--no prostrations of the soul, nor falling at His feet as\ndead--no exclamation, as of Isaiah, \"Wo is me, for I am of unclean\nlips!\"--no request \"Send me\"--nor fervent ejaculation of welcome, as\nof Samuel, \"Lord, speak, for Thy servant heareth!\" Truly they feel\ntoward His word much as to the word of an equal. No wonder it shall\nfail of happy influence upon the spirits which have, as it were, on\npurpose, disqualified themselves for its benefits by removing from\nthe regions of thought and feeling which it accords with, into other\nregions, which it is of too severe dignity to affect, otherwise\nthan with stern menace and direful foreboding! If they would have\nit bless them and do them good, they must change their manner of\napproaching it, and endeavor to bring themselves into that prepared,\nand collected, and reverential frame which becomes an interview with\nthe High and Holy One who inhabiteth the praises of eternity.\n\nHaving thus spoken without equivocation, and we hope without\noffense, to the contradictoriness and preoccupation with which\nChristians and worldly men are apt to come to the perusal of the\nWord of God, we shall now set forth the two master-feelings under\nwhich we shall address ourselves to the sacred occupation.\n\nIt is a good custom, inherited from the hallowed days of Scottish\npiety, and in our cottages still preserved, tho in our cities\ngenerally given up, to preface the morning and evening worship of\nthe family with a short invocation of blessing from the Lord. This\nis in unison with the practise and recommendation of pious men,\nnever to open the Divine Word without a silent invocation of the\nDivine Spirit. But no address to heaven is of any virtue, save as\nit is the expression of certain pious sentiments with which the\nmind is full and overflowing. Of those sentiments which befit the\nmind that comes into conference with its Maker, the first and most\nprominent should be gratitude for His ever having condescended to\nhold commerce with such wretched and fallen creatures. Gratitude\nnot only expressing itself in proper terms, but possessing the mind\nwith one abiding and over-mastering mood, under which it shall sit\nimprest the whole duration of the interview. Such an emotion as\ncan not utter itself in language--tho by language it indicates its\npresence--but keeps us in a devout and adoring frame, while the Lord\nis uttering His voice.\n\nGo visit a desolate widow with consolation, and help, and fatherhood\nof her orphan children--do it again and again--and your presence,\nthe sound of your approaching footstep, the soft utterance of\nyour voice, the very mention of your name, shall come to dilate\nher heart with a fulness which defies her tongue to utter, but\nspeaking by the tokens of a swimming eye, and clasped hands, and\nfervent ejaculations to heaven upon your head! No less copious\nacknowledgment of God, the author of our well-being, and the Father\nof our better hopes, ought we to feel when His Word discloseth to\nus the excess of His love. Tho a veil be now cast over the Majesty\nwhich speaks, it is the voice of the Eternal which we hear, coming\nin soft cadences to win our favor, yet omnipotent as the voice of\nthe thunder, and overpowering as the rushing of many waters. And tho\nthe evil of the future intervene between our hand and the promised\ngoods, still are they from His lips who speaks, and it is done,\nwho commands, and all things stand fast. With no less emotion,\ntherefore, should this book be opened, than if, like him in the\nApocalypse, you saw the voice which spake; or, like him in the\ntrance, you were into the third heaven translated, companying and\ncommuning with the realities of glory which the eye hath not seen,\nnor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived.\n\nFar and foreign from such an opened and awakened bosom is that cold\nand formal hand which is generally laid upon the sacred volume;\nthat unfeeling and unimpressive tone with which its accents are\npronounced; and that listless and incurious ear into which its\nblessed sounds are received. How can you, thus unimpassioned,\nhold communion with themes in which everything awful, vital, and\nendearing meet together? Why is not curiosity, curiosity ever\nhungry, on edge to know the doings and intentions of Jehovah, King\nof Kings? Why is not interest, interest ever awake, on tip-toe\nto hear the future destiny of itself? Why is not the heart, that\npanteth over the world after love and friendship, overpowered with\nthe full tide of the divine acts and expressions of love? Where is\nnature gone when she is not moved with the tender mercy of Christ?\nMethinks the affections of men are fallen into the yellow leaf. Of\nthe poets which charm the world's ear, who is he that inditeth a\nsong unto his God? Some will tune their harps to sensual pleasure,\nand by the enchantment of their genius well-nigh commend their\nunholy themes to the imagination of saints. Others, to the high\nand noble sentiments of the heart, will sing of domestic joys and\nhappy unions, casting around sorrow the radiancy of virtue, and\nbodying forth, in undying forms, the short-lived visions of joy!\nOthers have enrolled themselves the high-priests of mute nature's\ncharms, enchanting her echoes with their minstrelsy, and peopling\nher solitudes with the bright creatures of their fancy. But when,\nsince the days of the blind master of English song, hath any poured\nforth a lay worthy of the Christian theme? Nor in philosophy, \"the\npalace of the soul,\" have men been more mindful of their Maker.\nThe flowers of the garden and the herbs of the field have their\nunwearied devotees, crossing the ocean, wayfaring in the desert, and\nmaking devout pilgrimages to every region of nature for offerings\nto their patron muse. The rocks, from their residences among the\nclouds to their deep rests in the dark bowels of the earth, have\na bold and most venturous priesthood, who see in their rough and\nflinty faces a more delectable image to adore than in the revealed\ncountenance of God. And the political warfare of the world is a very\nMoloch, who can at any time command his hecatomb of human victims.\nBut the revealed suspense of God, to which the harp of David, and\nthe prophetic lyre of Isaiah were strung, the prudence of God, which\nthe wisest of men coveted after, preferring it to every gift which\nheaven could confer, and the eternal intelligence Himself in human\nform, and the unction of the Holy One which abideth--these the\ncommon heart of man hath forsaken, and refused to be charmed withal.\n\nI testify, that there ascendeth not from earth a hosanna of her\nchildren to bear witness in the ear of the upper regions to the\nwonderful manifestations of her God! From a few scattered hamlets\nin a small portion of her territory a small voice ascendeth, like\nthe voice of one crying in the wilderness. But to the service of our\ngeneral Preserver there is no concourse, from Dan unto Beersheba,\nof our people, the greater part of whom, after two thousand years\nof apostolic commission, have not the testimonials of our God; and\nthe multitude of those who disrespect or despise them!\n\nBut, to return from this lamentation, which may God hear, who\ndoth not disregard the cries of His afflicted people! With the\nfull sense of obligation to the giver, combine a humble sense of\nyour own incapacity to value and to use the gift of His oracles.\nHaving no taste whatever for the mean estimates which are made,\nand the coarse invectives that are vented, against human nature,\nwhich, tho true in the main, are often in the manner so unfeeling\nand triumphant, as to reveal hot zeal rather than tender and deep\nsorrow, we will not give in to this popular strain. And yet it is a\ntruth by experience, revealed, that tho there be in man most noble\nfaculties, and a nature restless after the knowledge and truth of\nthings, there are toward God and His revealed will an indisposition\nand a regardlessness, which the most tender and enlightened\nconsciences are the most ready to acknowledge. Of our emancipated\nyouth, who, bound after the knowledge of the visible works of God,\nand the gratification of the various instincts of nature, how few\nbetake themselves at all, how few absorb themselves with the study\nand obedience of the Word of God! And when, by God's visitation, we\naddress ourselves to the task, how slow is our progress and how\nimperfect our performance! It is most true that nature is unwilling\nto the subject of the Scriptures. The soul is previously possest\nwith adverse interests; the world hath laid an embargo on her\nfaculties, and monopolized them to herself; old habit hath perhaps\nadded to his almost incurable callousness; and the enemy of God and\nman is skilful to defend what he hath already won. So circumstanced,\nand every man is so circumstanced, we come to the audience of\nthe Word of God, and listen in the worse tune than a wanton to a\nsermon, or a hardened knave to a judicial address. Our understanding\nis prepossest with a thousand idols of the world--religious or\nirreligious--which corrupt the reading of the Word into a straining\nof the text to their service, and when it will not strain, cause it\nto be skimmed, and perhaps despised or hated. Such a thing as a free\nand unlimited reception of all parts of the Scripture into the mind,\nis a thing most rare to be met with, and when met with will be found\nthe result of many a sore submission of nature's opinions as well as\nof nature's likings.\n\nBut the Word, as hath been said, is not for the intellect alone,\nbut for the heart, and for the will. Now if any one be so wedded\nto his own candor as to think he doth accept the divine truth\nunabated, surely no one will flatter himself into the belief that\nhis heart is attuned and enlarged for all divine commandments.\nThe man who thus misdeems of himself must, if his opinions were\njust, be like a sheet of fair paper, unblotted and unwritten on;\nwhereas all men are already occupied, to the very fulness, with\nother opinions and attachments and desires than the Word reveals.\nWe do not grow Christians by the same culture by which we grow men,\notherwise what need of divine revelation, and divine assistance?\nBut being unacquainted from the womb with God, and attached to what\nis seen and felt, through early and close acquaintance, we are\nignorant and detached from what is unseen and unfelt. The Word is\na novelty to our nature, its truths fresh truths, its affections\nfresh affections, its obedience gathered from the apprehension\nof nature and the commerce of the worldly life. Therefore there\nneedeth, in one that would be served from this storehouse opened\nby heaven, a disrelish of his old acquisitions, and a preference\nof the new, a simple, child-like teachableness, an allowance of\nignorance and error, with whatever else beseems an anxious learner.\nComing to the Word of God, we are like children brought into the\nconversations of experienced men; and we should humbly listen and\nreverently inquire; or we are like raw rustics introduced into high\nand polished life, and we should unlearn our coarseness, and copy\nthe habits of the station; nay we are like offenders caught, and\nfor the moment committed to the bosom of honorable society, with\nthe power of regaining our lost condition and inheriting honor and\ntrust--therefore we should walk softly and tenderly, covering our\nformer reproach with modesty and humbleness, hasting to redeem our\nreputation by distinguished performances, against offense doubly\nguarded, doubly watchful for dangerous and extreme positions to\ndemonstrate our recovered goodness.\n\nThese two sentiments--devout veneration of God for His unspeakable\ngift, and deep distrust of our capacity to estimate and use it\naright--will generate in the mind a constant aspiration after the\nguidance and instruction of a higher power; the first sentiment of\ngoodness remembered, emboldening us to draw near to Him who first\ndrew near to us, and who with Christ will not refuse us any gift;\nthe second sentiment, of weakness remembered, teaching us our need,\nand prompting us by every interest of religion and every feeling of\nhelplessness to seek of Him who hath said, \"If any one lack wisdom\nlet him ask God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not.\" The soul\nwhich under these two master-feelings cometh to read, shall not\nread without profit. Every new revelation, feeding his gratitude\nand nourishing his former ignorance, will confirm the emotions he\nis under, and carry them onward to an unlimited dimension. Such\na one will prosper in the way; enlargement of the inner man will\nbe his portion and the establishment in the truth his exceeding\ngreat reward. \"In the strength of the Lord shall his right hand get\nvictory--even in the name of the Lord of Hosts. His soul shall also\nflourish with the fruits of righteousness from the seed of the word,\nwhich liveth and abideth forever.\"\n\nThus delivered from prepossessions of all other masters, and arrayed\nin the raiment of humility and love, the soul should advance to the\nmeeting of her God; and she should call a muster of her faculties\nand have all her poor grace in attendance, and anything she knows\nof His excellent works and exalted ways she should summon up to\nher remembrance; her understanding she should quicken, her memory\nrefresh, her imagination stimulate, her affections cherish, and her\nconscience arouse. All that is within her should be stirred up, her\nwhole glory should awake and her whole beauty display itself for the\nmeeting of her King. As His hand-maiden she should meet Him; His own\nhandiwork, tho sore defaced, yet seeking restoration; His humble,\nbecause offending, servant--yet nothing slavish, tho humble--nothing\nsuperstitious, tho devout--nothing tame, tho modest in her demeanor;\nbut quick and ready, all addrest and wound up for her Maker's will.\n\nHow different the ordinary proceeding of Christians, who, with\ntimorous, mistrustful spirits, with an abeyance of intellect, and a\ndwarfish reduction of their natural powers, enter to the conference\nof the Word of God! The natural powers of man are to be mistrusted,\ndoubtless, as the willing instruments of the evil one; but they\nmust be honored also as the necessary instruments of the Spirit of\nGod, whose operation is a dream, if it be not through knowledge,\nintellect, conscience, and action. Now Christians, heedless of the\ngrand resurrection of the mighty instruments of thought and action,\nat the same time coveting hard after holy attainment, do often\nresign the mastery of themselves, and are taken into the counsel\nof the religious world--whirling around the eddy of some popular\nleader--and so drifted, I will not say from godliness, but drifted\ncertainly from that noble, manly and independent course, which,\nunder steerage of the Word of God, they might safely have pursued\nfor the precious interests of their immortal souls. Meanwhile these\npopular leaders, finding no necessity for strenuous endeavors\nand high science in the ways of God, but having a gathering host\nto follow them, deviate from the ways of deep and penetrating\nthought--refuse the contest with the literary and accomplished\nenemies of the faith--bring a contempt upon the cause in which\nmighty men did formerly gird themselves to the combat--and so cast\nthe stumbling-block of a mistaken paltryness between enlightened\nmen and the cross of Christ! So far from this simple-mindedness (but\nits proper name is feeble-mindedness), Christians should be--as\naforetime in this island they were wont to be--the princes of human\nintellect, the lights of the world, the salt of the political and\nsocial state. Till they come forth from the swaddling-bands, in\nwhich foreign schools have girt them, and walk boldly upon the\nhigh places of human understanding, they shall never obtain that\ninfluence in the upper regions of knowledge and power, of which,\nunfortunately, they have not the apostolic unction to be in quest.\nThey will never be the master and commanding spirit of the time,\nuntil they cast off the wrinkled and withered skin of an obsolete\nold age, and clothe themselves with intelligence as with a garment,\nand bring forth the fruits of power and love and of a sound mind.\n\nMistake us not, for we steer in a narrow, very narrow channel, with\nrocks of popular prejudice on every side. While we thus invocate\nto the reading of the Word, the highest strains of the human soul,\nmistake us not as derogating from the office of the Spirit of God.\nFar be it from any Christian, much further from any Christian\npastor, to withdraw from God the honor which is everywhere His due;\nbut there most of all His due where the human mind labored alone\nfor thousands of years, and labored with no success--viz., the\nregeneration of itself, and its restoration to the last semblance\nof the divinity! Oh! let him be reverently inquired after,\ndevoutly meditated on, and most thankfully acknowledged in every\nstep of progress from the soul's fresh awakening out of her dark,\noblivious sleep--even to her ultimate attainment upon earth and\nfull accomplishment for heaven. And there may be a fuller choir\nof awakened men to advance His honor and glory here on earth, and\nhereafter in heaven above; let the saints bestir themselves like\nangels and the ministers of religion like archangels strong! And\nnow at length let us have a demonstration made of all that is\nnoble in thought, and generous in action, and devoted in piety,\nfor bestirring this lethargy, and breaking the bonds of hell, and\nredeeming the whole world to the service of its God and King!\n\n\n\n\nARNOLD\n\nALIVE IN GOD\n\n\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nThomas Arnold, schoolmaster and preacher, was born at West Cowes,\nIsle of Wight, in 1795. He was educated at Oxford, and after his\ngraduation taught as fellow of Oriel College, until in 1820 he\nremoved to Laleham near Haines and took pupils to prepare for the\nuniversities. In 1827 he was elected to the head mastership of\nRugby, and took priest's orders before entering upon his duties.\nAt Rugby he remained till his death in 1842. His great work as an\neducator consisted in teaching boys the duty of self-government,\nself-control and freedom of intellectual judgement. His sermons in\nthe school chapel were distinguished by simplicity and profound\nmoral and religious earnestness.\n\n\n\n\nARNOLD\n\n1795-1842\n\nALIVE IN GOD\n\n_God is not the God of the dead, but of the living._--Matt. xxii.,\n32.\n\n\nWe hear these words as a part of our Lord's answer to the Sadducees;\nand as their question was put in evident profaneness, and the answer\nto it is one which to our minds is quite obvious and natural, so we\nare apt to think that in this particular story there is less than\nusual that particularly concerns us. But it so happens that our Lord\nin answering the Sadducees has brought in one of the most universal\nand most solemn of all truths,--which is indeed implied in many\nparts of the Old Testament, but which the Gospel has revealed to us\nin all its fulness,--the truth contained in the words of the text,\nthat \"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.\"\n\nI would wish to unfold a little what is contained in these words\nwhich we often hear, even, perhaps, without quite understanding\nthem, and many times oftener without fully entering into them. And\nwe may take them, without fully entering into them. And we may take\nthem, first, in their first part, where they say that \"God is not\nthe God of the dead.\"\n\nThe word \"dead,\" we know, is constantly used in Scripture in a\ndouble sense, as meaning those who are dead spiritually as well as\nthose who are dead naturally. And in either sense the words are\nalike applicable: \"God is not the God of the dead.\"\n\nGod's not being the God of the dead signifies two things: that they\nwho are without Him are dead, as well as that they who are dead are\nalso without Him. So far as our knowledge goes respecting inferior\nanimals they appear to be examples of this truth. They appear to\nus to have no knowledge of God; and we are not told that they have\nany other life than the short one of which our senses inform us.\nI am well aware that our ignorance of their condition is so great\nthat we may not dare to say anything of them positively; there may\nbe a hundred things true respecting them which we neither know nor\nimagine. I would only say that according to that most imperfect\nlight in which we see them the two points of which I have been\nspeaking appear to meet in them: we believe that they have no\nconsciousness of God, and we believe that they will die. And so far,\ntherefore, they afford an example of the agreement, if I may so\nspeak, between these two points; and were intended, perhaps, to be\nto our view a continual image of it. But we had far better speak of\nourselves. And here, too, it is the case that \"God is not the God of\nthe dead.\" If we are without Him we are dead, and if we are dead we\nare without Him; in other words, the two ideas of death and absence\nfrom God are in fact synonymous.\n\nThus, in the account given of the fall of man, the sentence of death\nand of being cast out of Eden go together; and if any one compares\nthe description of the second Eden in the Revelation, and recollects\nhow especially it is there said that God dwells in the midst of it,\nand is its light by day and night, he will see that the banishment\nfrom the first Eden means a banishment from the presence of God.\nAnd thus, in the day that Adam sinned he died; for he was cast out\nof Eden immediately, however long he may have moved about afterward\nupon the earth where God was not. And how very strong to the same\npoint are the words of Hezekiah's prayer, \"The grave cannot praise\nThee, Death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit\ncannot hope for Thy truth\"; words which express completely the\nfeeling that God is not the God of the dead. This, too, appears to\nbe the sense generally of the expression used in various parts of\nthe Old Testament, \"Thou shalt surely die.\"\n\nIt is, no doubt, left purposely obscure; nor are we ever told in\nso many words all that is meant by death; but, surely, it always\nimplies a separation from God, and the being--whatever the notion\nmay extend to--the being dead to Him.\n\nThus, when David had committed his great sin and had expressed his\nrepentance for it, Nathan tells him, \"The Lord also hath put away\nthy sin; thou shalt not die\"; which means most expressively, thou\nshalt not die to God.\n\nIn one sense David died, as all men die; nor was he by any means\nfreed from the punishment of his sin; he was not, in that sense,\nforgiven, but he was allowed still to regard God as his God; and\ntherefore his punishments were but fatherly chastisements from God's\nhand, designed for his profit that he might be partaker of God's\nholiness.\n\nAnd thus altho Saul was sentenced to lose his kingdom, and altho he\nwas killed with his sons on Mount Gilboa, yet I do not think that\nwe find the sentence passed upon him, \"Thou shalt surely die\"; and\ntherefore we have no right to say that God had ceased to be his God\naltho He visited him with severe chastisements and would not allow\nhim to hand down to his sons the crown of Israel. Observe also the\nlanguage of the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, where the expressions\noccur so often, \"He shall surely live,\" and \"He shall surely die.\"\n\nWe have no right to refer these to a mere extension on the one\nhand, or a cutting short on the other, of the term of earthly\nexistence. The promise of living long in the land or, as in\nHezekiah's case, of adding to his days fifteen years, is very\ndifferent from the full and unreserved blessing, \"Thou shalt surely\nlive.\" And we know, undoubtedly, that both the good and the bad to\nwhom Ezekiel spoke died alike the natural death of the body. But\nthe peculiar force of the promise and of the threat was, in the\none case, Thou shalt belong to God; in the other, Thou shalt cease\nto belong to Him; although the veil was not yet drawn up which\nconcealed the full import of those terms, \"belonging to God,\" and\n\"ceasing to belong to Him\": nay, can we venture to affirm that it is\nfully drawn aside even now?\n\nI have dwelt on this at some length, because it really seems to\nplace the common state of the minds of too many amongst us in a\nlight which is exceedingly awful; for if it be true, as I think\nthe Scripture implies, that to be dead and to be without God are\nprecisely the same thing, then can it be denied that the symptoms of\ndeath are strongly marked upon many of us? Are there not many who\nnever think of God or care about His service? Are there not many\nwho live, to all appearance, as unconscious of His existence, as we\nfancy the inferior animals to be?\n\nAnd is it not quite clear that to such persons God cannot be said\nto be their God? He may be the God of heaven and earth, the God of\nthe universe, the God of Christ's Church; but He is not their God,\nfor they feel to have nothing at all to do with Him; and therefore,\nas He is not their God, they are, and must be according to the\nScripture, reckoned among the dead.\n\nBut God is the God \"of the living.\" That is, as before, all who are\nalive live unto Him; all who live unto Him are alive. \"God said, I\nam the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob\";\nand therefore, says our Lord, \"Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob are not\nand cannot be dead.\" They cannot be dead, because God owns them: He\nis not ashamed to be called their God; therefore they are not cast\nout from Him; therefore, by necessity, they live.\n\nWonderful, indeed, is the truth here implied, in exact agreement, as\nwe have seen, with the general language of Scripture; that, as she\nwho but touched the hem of Christ's garment was in a moment relieved\nfrom her infirmity, so great was the virtue which went out from Him;\nso they who are not cast out from God, but have anything whatever to\ndo with Him, feel the virtue of His gracious presence penetrating\ntheir whole nature; because He lives, they must live also.\n\nBehold, then, life and death set before us; not remote (if a few\nyears be, indeed, to be called remote), but even now present before\nus; even now suffered or enjoyed. Even now, we are alive unto God,\nor dead unto God; and, as we are either the one or the other, so we\nare, in the highest possible sense of the terms, alive or dead. In\nthe highest possible sense of the terms; but who can tell what that\nhighest possible sense of the terms is? So much has, indeed, been\nrevealed to us, that we know now that death means a conscious and\nperpetual death, as life means a conscious and perpetual life.\n\nBut greatly, indeed, do we deceive ourselves, if we fancy that,\nby having thus much told us, we have also risen to the infinite\nheights, or descended to the infinite depths, contained in those\nlittle words, life and death. They are far higher, and far deeper,\nthan ever thought or fancy of man has reached to. But, even on the\nfirst edge of either, at the visible beginnings of that infinite\nascent or descent, there is surely something which may give us a\nforetaste of what is beyond. Even to us in this mortal state, even\nto you, advanced but so short a way on your very earthly journey,\nlife and death have a meaning: to be dead unto God, or to be alive\nto Him, are things perceptibly different.\n\nFor, let me ask of those who think least of God, who are most\nseparate from Him, and most without Him, whether there is not now\nactually, perceptibly, in their state, something of the coldness,\nthe loneliness, the fearfulness of death? I do not ask them whether\nthey are made unhappy by the fear of God's anger; of course they are\nnot: for they who fear God are not dead to Him, nor He to them.\n\nThe thought of Him gives them no disquiet at all; this is the very\npoint we start from. But I would ask them whether they know what\nit is to feel God's blessing. For instance: we all of us have our\ntroubles of some sort or other, our disappointments, if not our\nsorrows. In these troubles, in these disappointments,--I care not\nhow small they may be,--have they known what it is to feel that\nGod's hand is over them; that these little annoyances are but\nHis fatherly correction; that He is all the time loving us, and\nsupporting us? In seasons of joy, such as they taste very often,\nhave they known what it is to feel that they are tasting the\nkindness of their heavenly Father, that their good things come from\nHis hand and are but an infinitely slight foretaste of His love?\nSickness, danger; I know that they come to many of us but rarely;\nbut if we have known them, or at least sickness, even in its lighter\nform, if not in its graver,--have we felt what it is to know that we\nare in our Father's hands, that He is with us, and will be with us\nto the end; that nothing can hurt those whom He loves?\n\nSurely, then, if we have never tasted anything of this: if in\ntrouble, or in joy, or in sickness, we are left wholly to ourselves\nto bear as we can and enjoy as we can; if there is no voice that\never speaks out of the heights and the depths around us to give any\nanswer to our own; if we are thus left to ourselves in this vast\nworld,--there is in this a coldness and a loneliness; and whenever\nwe come to be, of necessity, driven to be with our own hearts alone,\nthe coldness and the loneliness must be felt. But consider that the\nthings which we see around us cannot remain with us nor we with\nthem. The coldness and loneliness of the world, without God, must\nbe felt more and more as life wears on; in every change of our own\nstate, in every separation from or loss of a friend, in every more\nsensible weakness of our own bodies, in every additional experience\nof the uncertainty of our own counsels,--the deathlike feeling will\ncome upon us more and more strongly: we shall gain more of that\nfearful knowledge which tells us that \"God is not the God of the\ndead.\"\n\nAnd so, also, the blessed knowledge that He is the God \"of the\nliving\" grows upon those who are truly alive. Surely He \"is not far\nfrom every one of us.\" No occasion of life fails to remind those who\nlive unto Him that He is their God and that they are His children.\nOn light occasions or on grave ones, in sorrow and in joy, still the\nwarmth of His love is spread, as it were, all through the atmosphere\nof their lives; they forever feel His blessing. And if it fills\nthem with joy unspeakable even now, when they so often feel how\nlittle they deserve it; if they delight still in being with God, and\nin living to Him, let them be sure that they have in themselves the\nunerring witness of life eternal: God is the God of the living, and\nall who are with Him must live.\n\nHard it is, I well know, to bring this home in any degree to the\nminds of those who are dead; for it is of the very nature of the\ndead that they can hear no words of life. But it has happened that,\neven whilst writing what I have just been uttering to you, the news\nreached me that one who two months ago was one of your number, who\nthis very half-year has shared in all the business and amusements of\nthis place, is passed already into that state where the meanings of\nthe terms life and death are become fully revealed. He knows what it\nis to live unto God and what it is to die to Him. Those things which\nare to us unfathomable mysteries are to him all plain: and yet but\ntwo months ago he might have thought himself as far from attaining\nthis knowledge as any of us can do. Wherefore it is clear that these\nthings, life and death, may hurry their lesson upon us sooner than\nwe deem of, sooner than we are prepared to receive it. And that\nwere indeed awful, if, being dead to God, and yet little feeling it\nbecause of the enjoyments of our worldly life, those enjoyments\nwere on a sudden to be struck away from us, and we should find then\nthat to be dead to God was death indeed, a death from which there is\nno waking, and in which there is no sleeping forever.\n\n\n\n\nWAYLAND\n\nA DAY IN THE LIFE OF JESUS OF NAZARETH\n\n\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nFrancis Wayland, preacher and philosopher, was born in New York,\nin 1796. He graduated at Union College in 1813 and in 1816 entered\nHudson Theological Seminary. His first charge was the First\nBaptist Church in Boston. Here he established his reputation as an\nable and vigorous pulpit orator. Five years later he accepted a\nchair in Union College, but in 1827 entered upon an incumbency of\ntwenty-eight years as President of Brown University, Providence.\nThis institution he built up on a broad and liberal basis, quite\nemancipating it from narrow sectarianism. In 1855 he became pastor\nof the First Baptist Church in Providence and died in 1865.\n\n\n\n\nWAYLAND\n\n1796-1865\n\nA DAY IN THE LIFE OF JESUS OF NAZARETH\n\n_And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they\nhad done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert\nplace, belonging to the city called Bethsaida. And the people\nwhen they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake\nunto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of\nhealing. And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve,\nand said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into\nthe towns and country round about, and lodge and get victuals: for\nwe are here in a desert place. But he said unto them, Give ye them\nto eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two\nfishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people. For\nthey were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples,\nMake them sit down by fifties in a company. And they did so, and\nmade them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two\nfishes and looking up to heaven, he blessed them and brake, and gave\nto the disciples to set before the multitude. And they did eat, and\nwere all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained\nto them twelve baskets._--Luke ix., 10-17.\n\n\nIt was the sagacious opinion of, I think, the late Professor\nPorson, that he would rather see a single copy of a daily newspaper\nof ancient Athens, than read all the commentaries upon the\nGrecian tragedies that have ever been written. The reason for\nthis preference is obvious. A single sheet, similar to our daily\nnewspapers, published in the time of Pericles, would admit us at\nonce to a knowledge of the habits, manners, modes of opinion,\npolitical relations, social condition, and moral attainments of\nthe people, such as we never could gain from the study of all the\nwriters that have ever attempted to illustrate the nature of Grecian\ncivilization.\n\nThe same remark is true in respect to our knowledge of the character\nof individuals who have lived in a former age. What would we not,\nat the present day, give for a few pages of the private diary of\nJulius Cesar, or Cicero, or Brutus, or Augustus; or for the minute\nreminiscences of any one who had spent a few days in the company of\neither of these distinguished men? What a flood of life would the\ndiscovery of such a manuscript throw upon Roman life, but especially\nupon the private opinions, the motives, the aspirations, the moral\nestimates of the men whose names have become household words\nthroughout the world! A few such pages might, perchance, dissipate\nthe authority of many a bulky folio on which we now rely with\nimplicit confidence. Not only would the characters of these heroes\nof antiquity stand out in bolder relief than they have ever done\nbefore, but the individuals themselves would be brought within the\nrange of our personal sympathy; and we should seem to commune with\nthem as we do with an intimate acquaintance.\n\nIt is worthy of remark, that we are favored with a larger portion\nof this kind of information, respecting Jesus of Nazareth, than\nalmost any other distinguished person that has ever lived. He left\nno writings Himself; hence all that we know of Him has been written\nby others. The narrators, however, were the personal attendants, and\nnot the mere auditors or pupils of their master. The apostles were\nmembers of the family of Jesus; they traveled with Him, on foot,\nthroughout the length and breadth of Palestine; they partook with\nHim of his frugal meals, and bore with Him the trial of hunger,\nweariness, and want of shelter; they followed Him through the lonely\nwilderness and the crowded street; they saw His miracles in every\nvariety of form, and listened to His discourses in public as well\nas to His explanations in private. Hence their whole narrative is\ninstinct with life; a vivid picture of Jewish manners and customs,\nrendered more definite and characteristic by the moral light which\nthen, for the first time, shone upon it. Hence it is that these few\npages are replete with moral lessons that never weary us in the\nperusal, and which have been the source of unfailing illumination to\nall succeeding ages.\n\nThe verses which I have read, as the text of this discourse, may\nwell be taken as an illustration of all that I have here said. They\nmay, without impropriety, be styled a day in the life of Jesus of\nNazareth. By observing the manner in which our blessed Lord spent a\nsingle day, we may form some conception of the kind of life which\nHe ordinarily led; and we may, perchance, treasure up some lessons\nwhich it were well if we should exemplify in our daily practice.\n\nThe place at which these events occurred was near the head of the\nSea of Galilee, where it receives the waters of the upper Jordan.\nThis was one of the Savior's favorite places of resort. Capernaum,\nChorazin, and Bethsaida, all in this immediate vicinity, are always\nspoken of in the gospels as towns which enjoyed the largest share of\nHis ministerial labors, and were distinguished most frequently with\nthe honor of His personal presence. The scenery of the neighborhood\nis wild and romantic. To the north and west, the eye rests on the\nlofty summits of Lebanon and Hermon. To the south, there opens upon\nthe view the blue expanse of the lake, enclosed by frowning rocks,\nwhich here and there jut over far into the waters, and then again\nretire towards the land, leaving a level beach to invite the labors\nof the fishermen. The people, removed at a considerable distance\nfrom the metropolis of Judea, cultivated those rural habits with\nwhich the simple tastes of the Savior would most readily harmonize.\nNear this spot was also one of the most frequented fords of the\nJordan, on the road from Damascus to Jerusalem; and thus, while\nresiding here, He enjoyed unusual facilities for disseminating\nthroughout this whole region a knowledge of those truths which He\ncame on earth to promulgate.\n\nSome weeks previous to the time in which the events spoken of in\nthe text occurred, our Lord had sent His disciples to announce the\napproach of the kingdom of heaven, in all the cities and villages\nwhich He Himself proposed to visit. He conferred on them the power\nto work miracles, in attestation of their authority, and of the\ndivine character of Him by whom they were sent. He imposed upon them\nstrict rules of conduct, and directed them to make known to every\none who would hear them the good news of the coming dispensation.\nAs soon as He sent them forth, He Himself went immediately abroad\nto teach and to preach in their cities. As their Master and Lord,\nHe might reasonably have claimed exemption from the personal\ntoil and the rigid self-denials to which they were by necessity\nsubjected. But He had laid no claim to such exemption. He commenced\nwithout delay the performance of the very same duties which He\nhad imposed upon them. He felt himself under obligation to set an\nexample of obedience to His own rules. \"The Son of Man,\" said He,\n\"came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His\nlife a ransom for many.\" \"Which,\" said He, \"is greater, he that\nsitteth at meat, or he that serveth? but I am among you as He that\nserveth.\" Would it not be well, if, in this respect, we copied more\nminutely the example of our Lord, and held ourselves responsible\nfor the performance of the very same duties which we so willingly\nimpose upon our brethren? We best prove that we believe an act\nobligatory, when we commence the performance of it ourselves. Many\nzealous Christians employ themselves in no other labor than that\nof urging their brethren to effort. Our Savior acted otherwise.\nIn this respect, His example is specially to be imitated by His\nministers. When they urge upon others a moral duty, they must be\nthe first to perform it. When they inculcate an act of self-denial,\nthey themselves must make the noblest sacrifice. Can we conceive\nof anything which could so much increase the moral power of the\nministry, and rouse to a flame the dormant energy of the churches,\nas obedience to this teaching of Christ by the preachers of His\ngospel?\n\nIt seems that the Savior had selected a well-known spot, at the\nhead of the lake, for the place of meeting for his apostles, after\nthis their first missionary tour had been completed. \"The apostles\ngathered themselves unto Jesus, and told Him all things, both\nwhat they had done, and what they had taught.\" There is something\ndelightful in this filial confidence which these simple-hearted\nmen reposed in their almighty Redeemer. They told Him of their\nsuccess and their failure, of their wisdom and their folly, of\ntheir reliance and their unbelief. We can almost imagine ourselves\nspectators of this meeting between Christ and them, after this\ntheir first separation from each other. The place appointed was\nmost probably some well-known locality on the shore of the lake,\nunder the shadow of its overhanging rocks, where the cool air from\nthe bosom of the water refreshed each returning laborer, as he came\nback beaten out with the fatigues of travel, under the burning sun\nof Syria. You can imagine the joy with which each drew near to the\nMaster, after this temporary absence; and the honest greetings with\nwhich every newcomer was welcomed by those who had chanced to arrive\nbefore him. We can seem to perceive the Savior of men listening with\naffectionate earnestness to the recital of their various adventures;\nand interposing, from time to time, a word either of encouragement\nor of caution, as the character and circumstances of each narrator\nrequired it. The bosom of each was unveiled before the Searcher of\nHearts, and the consolation which each one needed was bestowed upon\nhim abundantly. The toilsomeness of their journey was no longer\nremembered, as each one received from the Son of God the smile\nof His approbation. That was truly a joyful meeting. Of all that\ncompany there is not one who has forgotten that day; nor will he\nforget it ever. With unreserved frankness they told Jesus of all\nthat they had done, and what they had taught; of all their acts,\nand all their conversations. Would it not be better for us, if we\ncultivated more assiduously this habit of intimate intercourse with\nthe Savior? Were we every day to tell Jesus of all that we have\ndone and said; did we spread before Him our joys and our sorrows,\nour faults and our infirmities, our successes and our failures, we\nshould be saved from many an error and many a sin. Setting the Lord\nalways before us, He would be on our right hand, and we should not\nbe moved. \"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High\nshall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.\"\n\nThe Savior perceived that the apostles needed much instruction which\ncould not be communicated in a place where both He and they were so\nwell known. They had committed many errors, which He preferred to\ncorrect in private. By doing His will, they had learned to repose\ngreater confidence in His wisdom, and were prepared to receive from\nHim more important instruction. But these lessons could not be\ndelivered in the hearing of a promiscuous audience. Nor was this\nall. He perceived that the apostles were worn out with their labors,\nand needed repose. Surrounded as they were by the multitude, which\nhad already begun to collect about them, rest and retirement were\nequally impossible. \"There were many coming and going, and they had\nno leisure, even so much as to eat.\" He therefore said to them,\n\"Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while.\"\nFor this purpose, He \"took ship, and crossed over with his disciples\nalone, and went into a desert place belonging to Bethsaida.\"\n\nThe religion of Christ imposes upon us duties of retirement, as\nwell as duties of publicity. The apostles had been for some time\npast before the eyes of all men, preaching and working miracles.\nTheir souls needed retirement. \"Solitude,\" said Cecil, \"is my great\nordinance.\" They would be greatly improved by private communion both\nwith Him and with each other. It was for the purpose of affording\nthem such a season of moral recreation, that our Lord withdrew them\nfrom the public gaze into a desert place. Nor was this all. Their\nlabor for some weeks past had been severe. They had traveled on foot\nunder a tropical sun, reasoning with unbelievers, instructing the\nignorant, and comforting the cast-down. Called upon, at all hours,\nboth of the day and night, to work cures on those that were opprest\nwith diseases, their bodies, no less than their spirits, needed\nrest. Our Lord saw this, and He made provision for it. He withdrew\nthem from labor, that they might find, tho it were but for a day,\nthe repose which their exhausted natures demanded. The religion of\nChrist is ever merciful, and ever consistent in its benevolence.\nIt is thoughtful of the benefactor as well as the recipient. It\nrequires of us all labor and self-sacrifice, but to these it affixes\na limit. It never commands us to ruin our health and enfeeble our\nminds by unnatural exhaustion. It teaches us to obey the laws of\nour physical organization, and to prepare ourselves for the labors\nof to-morrow by the judiciously conducted labors of to-day. It was\non this principle that our Lord conducted His intercourse with His\ndisciples. \"He knew their frame, and remembered that they were dust.\"\n\nMay we not from this incident derive a lesson of practical\ninstruction? I well know that there are persons who are always\nsparing themselves, who, while it is difficult to tell what they do,\nare always complaining of the crushing weight of their labors, and\nwho are rather exhausted with the dread of what they shall do, than\nwith the experience of what they have actually done. It is not of\nthose that we speak. Those who do not labor have no need of rest. It\nis to the honest, the painstaking, the laborious, that we address\nthe example in the text. We sometimes meet with the industrious,\nself-denying servant of Christ, in feeble health, and with an\nexhausted nature, bemoaning his condition, and condemning himself\nbecause he can accomplish no more, while so much yet remains to be\ndone. To such a one we may safely present the example of the blessed\nSavior. When His apostles had done to the utmost of their strength,\naltho the harvest was great, and the laborers few, He did not urge\nupon them additional labor, nor tell them that because there was so\nmuch to be done they must never cease from doing. No; He tells them\nto turn aside and rest for a while. It is as tho He had said, \"Your\nstrength is exhausted; you cannot be qualified for subsequent duty\nuntil you be refreshed. Economize, then, your power, that you may\naccomplish the more.\" The Savior addresses the same language to us\nnow. When we are worn down in His service, as in any other, He would\nhave us rest, not for the sake of self-indulgence, but that we may\nbe the better prepared for future effort. We do nothing at variance\nwith His will, when we, with a good conscience, use the liberty\nwhich he has thus conceded to us.\n\nJesus, with His disciples, crossed the water, and entered the\ndesert; that is, the sparsely inhabited country of Bethsaida.\nDesert, or wilderness, in the New Testament, does not mean an arid\nwaste, but pasture land, forest, or any district to which one could\nretire for seclusion. Here, in the cool and tranquil neighborhood\nof the lake, he began to instruct His disciples, and, without\ninterruption, make known to them the mysteries of the kingdom. It\nwas one of those seasons that the Savior Himself rarely enjoyed.\nEverything tended to repose: the rustling leaves, the rippling\nwaves, the song of the birds, heard more distinctly in this rural\nsolitude, all served to calm the spirit ruffled by the agitations of\nthe world, and prepared it to listen to the truths which unveil to\nus eternity. Here our Lord could unbosom Himself, without reserve,\nto His chosen few, and hold with them that communion which He was\nrarely permitted to enjoy during His ministry on earth.\n\nSoon, however, the whole scene is changed. The multitude, whom he\nhad so recently left, having observed the direction in which He had\ngone, have discovered the place of His retreat. An immense crowd\napproaches, and the little company is surrounded by a dense mass of\nhuman beings pressing upon them on every side. These are, however,\nonly the pioneers. At last, five thousand men, besides women and\nchildren, are beheld thronging around them.\n\nSome of these suitors present most importunate claims. They are in\nsearch of cure for diseases which have baffled the skill of the\nmedical profession, and, as a last resort, they have come to the\nMessiah for aid. Here was a parent bringing a consumptive child.\nThere were children bearing on a couch a paralytic parent. Here\nwas a sister leading a brother blind from his birth, while her\nsupplications were drowned by the shout of a frenzied lunatic who\nwas standing by her side. Every one, believing his own claim to be\nthe most urgent, prest forward with selfish importunity. Each one,\ncaring for no other than himself, was striving to attain the front\nrank, while those behind, disappointed, and fearing to lose this\nimportant opportunity, were eager to occupy the places of those more\nfortunate than themselves. The necessary tumult and disorder of such\na scene you can better imagine than I can describe.\n\nThis was, doubtless, by no means a welcome interruption. The\napostles needed the time for rest; for they were worn out in\nthe public service. They wanted it for instruction; for such\nopportunities of intercourse with Christ were rare. But what did\nthey do? Did our Lord inform the multitude that this day was set\napart for their own refreshment and improvement, and that they could\nnot be interrupted? As He beheld them approaching, did He quietly\ntake to His boat, and leave them to go home disappointed? Did He\nplead His own convenience, or His need of repose, as any reason for\nnot attending to the pressing necessities of His fellow men?\n\nNo, my brethren, very far from it. That providence of God had\nbrought these multitudes before Him, and that same providence\nforbade Him to send them away unblest. He at once broke up the\nconference with His disciples and addrest Himself to the work\nbefore Him. His instructions were of inestimable importance; but\nI doubt if even they were as important as the example of deep\nhumility, exhaustless kindness, and affecting compassion which He\nhere exhibited. When the Master places work before us which can be\ndone at no other time, our convenience must yield to other men's\nnecessities. \"The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but\nto minister.\" You can imagine to yourself the Savior rising from\nHis seat, in the midst of His disciples, and presenting Himself\nto the approaching multitudes. His calm dignity awes into silence\nthis tumultuous gathering of the people. Those who came out to\nwitness the tricks of an empiric, or listen to the ravings of a\nfanatic, find themselves, unexpectedly, in a presence that repels\nevery emotion but that of profound veneration. The light-hearted\nand frivolous are awestruck by the unearthly majesty that seems\nto clothe the Messiah as with a garment. And yet it was a majesty\nthat shone forth conspicuous, most of all, by the manifestation of\nunparalleled goodness. Every eye that met the eye of the Savior\nquailed before Him; for it looked into a soul that had never\nsinned; and the spirit of the sinner felt, for the first time, the\nfull power of immaculate virtue.\n\nThus the Savior passed among the crowd, and \"healed all that had\nneed of healing.\" The lame walked, the lepers were cleansed,\nthe blind received their sight, the paralytic were restored to\nsoundness, and the bloom of health revisited the cheeks of those\nthat but just now were sick unto death.\n\nThe work to be done for the bodies of men was accomplished, and\nthere yet remained some hours of the summer's day unconsumed. The\npower and goodness displayed in this miraculous healing would\nnaturally predispose the people to listen to the instructions of\nthe Savior. This was too valuable an opportunity to be lost. Our\nLord therefore proceeded to speak to them of the things concerning\nthe kingdom of God. We can seem to perceive the Savior seeking\nan eminence from whence He could the more conveniently address\nthis vast assembly. You hear Him unfold the laws of God's moral\ngovernment. He unmasks the hypocrisy of the Pharisees; He rebukes\nthe infidelity of the Sadducees; He exposes the folly of the\nfrivolous, as well as of the selfish worldling; He speaks peaceably\nto the humble penitent; He encourages the meek, and comforts those\nthat be cast down. The intellect and the conscience of this vast\nassembly are swayed at His will. The soul of man bows down in\nreverence in the presence of its Creator. \"He stilleth the noise of\nthe seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.\"\nAs He closes His address, every eye is moistened with compunction\nfor sin. Every soul cherishes the hope of amendment. Every one is\nconscious that a new moral light has dawned upon his soul, and that\na new moral universe has been unveiled to his spiritual vision. As\nthe closing words of the Savior fell upon their ears, the whole\nmultitude stood for a while unmoved, as tho transfixt to the earth\nby some mighty spell; until, at last, the murmur is heard from\nthousands of voices, \"Never man spake like this man.\"\n\nBut the shades of evening are gathering around them. The multitude\nhave nothing to eat. To send them away fasting would be inhuman,\nfor divers of them came from far, and many were women and children,\nwho could not perform their journey homeward without previous\nrefreshment. To purchase food in the surrounding towns and villages\nwould be difficult; but even were this possible, whence could\nthe necessary funds be provided? A famishing multitude was thus\nunexpectedly cast upon the bounty of our Lord. He had not tempted\nGod by leading them into the wilderness. They came to Him of\nthemselves, to hear His words and to be healed of their infirmities.\nHe could not \"send them away fasting, lest they should faint by the\nway.\" In this dilemma, what was to be done? He puts this question to\nHis disciples, and they can suggest no means of relief. The little\nstock of provisions which they had brought with them was barely\nsufficient for themselves. They can perceive no means whatever by\nwhich the multitude can be fed, and they at once confess it.\n\nThe Savior, however, commands the twelve to give them to eat. They\nproduce their slender store of provisions, amounting to five loaves\nand two small fishes. He commands the multitude to sit down by\ncompanies on the grass. As soon as silence is obtained, He lifts\nup His eyes to heaven, and supplicates the blessing of God upon\ntheir scanty meal. He begins to break the loaves and fishes, and\ndistribute them to His disciples, and His disciples distribute them\nto the multitude. He continues to break and distribute. Basket after\nbasket is filled and emptied, yet the supply is undiminished. Food\nis carried in abundance to the famishing thousands. Company after\ncompany is supplied with food, but the five loaves and two fishes\nremain unexhausted. At last, the baskets are returned full, and\nit is announced that the wants of the multitude are supplied. The\nmiracle then ceases, and the multiplication of food is at an end.\n\nBut even here the provident care of the Savior is manifested. Altho\nthis food has been so easily provided, it is not right that it be\nlightly suffered to perish. Christ wrought no miracles for the\nsake of teaching men wastefulness. That food, by what means soever\nprovided, was a creature of God, and it were sin to allow it to\ndecay without accomplishing the purposes for which it was created.\n\"Gather up the fragments,\" said the Master of the feast, \"that\nnothing be lost.\" \"And they gathered up the fragments that remained,\ntwelve baskets full.\"\n\nDissimilar as are our circumstances to those of our Lord, we may\nlearn from this latter incident a lesson of instruction.\n\nIn the first place, as I have remarked, the Savior did not lead\nthe multitude into the wilderness without making provision for\ntheir sustenance. This would have been presumption. They followed\nHim without His command, and He found Himself with them in this\nnecessity. He had provided for His own wants, but they had not\nprovided for theirs. The providence of God had, however, placed\nHim in His present circumstances, and He might therefore properly\nlook to providence for deliverance. This event, then, furnishes\nthe rule by which we are to be governed. When we plunge ourselves\ninto difficulty, by a neglect of the means or by a misuse of the\nfaculties which God has bestowed upon us, it is to be expected\nthat He will leave us to our own devices. But when, in the honest\ndischarge of our duties, we find ourselves in circumstances beyond\nthe reach of human aid, we may then confidently look up to God for\ndeliverance. He will always take care of us while we are in the\nspot where He has placed us. When He appoints for us trials, He\nalso appoints for us the means of escape. The path of duty, tho it\nmay seem arduous, is ever the path of safety. We can more easily\nmaintain ourselves in the most difficult position, God being our\nhelper, than in apparent security relying on our own strength.\n\nThe Savior, in full reliance upon God, with only five loaves and\ntwo fishes, commenced the distribution of food amongst the vast\nmultitude. Tho His whole store was barely sufficient to supply\nthe wants of His immediate family, He began to share it with the\nthousands who surrounded Him. Small as was His provision at the\ncommencement, it remained unconsumed until the deed of mercy was\ndone, and the wants of the famished host supplied. Nor were the\ndisciples losers by this act of charity. After the multitude had\neaten and were satisfied, twelve baskets full of fragments remained,\na reward for their deed of benevolence.\n\nFrom this portion of the narrative, we may, I think, learn that\nif we act in faith, and in the spirit of Christian love, we may\nfrequently be justified in commencing the most important good\nwork, even when in possession of apparently inadequate means. If\nthe work be of God, He will furnish us with helpers as fast as they\nare needed. In all ages, God has rewarded abundantly simple trust\nin Him, and has bestowed upon it in the highest honor. We must,\nhowever, remember the conditions upon which alone we may expect His\naid, lest we be led into fanaticism. The service which we undertake\nmust be such as God has commanded, and His providence must either\ndesignate us for the work, or, at least, open the door by which we\nshall enter upon it. It must be God's work, and not our own; for the\ngood of others, and not for the gratification of our own passions;\nand, in the doing of it, we must, first of all, make sacrifice of\nourselves, and not of others. Under such circumstances, there is\nhardly a good design which we may not undertake with cheerful hopes\nof success, for God has promised us His assistance. \"If God be for\nus, who can be against us?\" The calculations of the men of this\nworld are of small account in such a matter. It would have provoked\nthe smile of an infidel to behold the Savior commencing the work\nof feeding five thousand men with a handful of provisions. But the\nsupply increased as fast as it was needed, and it ceased not until\nall that He had prayed for was accomplished.\n\nPerhaps, also, we may learn from this incident another lesson. If\nI mistake not, it suggests to us that in works of benevolence we\nare accustomed to rely too much on human, and too little on divine,\naid. When we attempt to do good, we commence by forming large\nassociations, and suppose that our success depends upon the number\nof men whom we can unite in the promotion of our undertaking. Every\none is apt thus to forget his own personal duty, and rely upon the\nlabor of others, and it is well if he does not put his organization\nin the place of God Himself. Would it not be better if we made\nbenevolence much more a matter between God and our own souls, each\none doing with his own hands, in firm reliance on divine aid, the\nwork which Providence has placed directly before him? Our Lord did\nnot send to the villages round to organize a general effort to\nrelieve the famishing. In reliance upon God, He set about to work\nHimself, with just such means as God had afforded Him. All the\nmiracles of benevolence have, if I mistake not, been wrought in the\nsame manner. The little band of disciples in Jerusalem accomplished\nmore for the conversion of the world than all the Christians of the\npresent day united. And why? Because every individual Christian felt\nthat the conversion of the world was a work for which he himself,\nand not an abstraction that he called the Church, was responsible.\nInstead of relying on man for aid, every one looked up directly to\nGod, and went forth to the work. God was thus exalted, the power\nwas confest to be His own, and, in a few years, the standard of the\nCross was carried to the remotest extremities of the then known\nworld.\n\nSuch has, I think, been the case ever since. Every great moral\nreformation has proceeded upon principles analogous of these. It\nwas Luther, standing up alone in simple reliance upon God, that\nsmote the Papal hierarchy; and the effects of that blow are now\nagitating the nations of Europe. Roger Williams, amid persecution\nand banishment, held forth that doctrine of soul-liberty which,\nin its onward march, is disenthralling a world. Howard, alone,\nundertook the work of showing mercy to the prisoner, and his example\nis now enlisting the choicest minds in Christendom in this labor of\nbenevolence. Clarkson, unaided, a young man, and without influences,\nconsecrated himself to the work of abolishing the slave trade; and,\nbefore he rested from his labor, his country had repented of and\nforsaken this atrocious sin. Raikes saw the children of Gloucester\nprofaning the Sabbath day; he set on foot a Sabbath school on his\nown account, and now millions of children are reaping the benefit of\nhis labors, and his example has turned the attention of the whole\nworld to the religious instruction of the young. With such facts\nbefore us, we surely should be encouraged to attempt individually\nthe accomplishment of some good design, relying in humility and\nfaith upon Him who is able to grant prosperity to the feeblest\neffort put forth in earnest reliance on His almightiness.\n\nSuch were the occupations that filled up a day in the life of Jesus\nof Nazareth. There was not an act done for Himself; all was done\nfor others. Every hour was employed in the labor which that hour\nset before Him. Private kindness, the relief of distress, public\nteaching, and ministration to the wants of the famishing, filled\nup the entire day. Let His disciples learn to follow His example.\nLet us, like Him, forget ourselves, our own wants, and our own\nweariness, that we may, as he did, scatter blessings on every side,\nas we move onward in the pathway of our daily life. If such were the\noccupations of the Son of God, can we do more wisely than to imitate\nHis example? Every disciple would then be as a city set upon a hill,\nand men, seeing our good works, would glorify our Father who is in\nheaven. \"Then would our righteousness go forth as brightness, and\nour salvation as a lamp that burneth.\"\n\n\n\n\nVINET\n\nTHE MYSTERIES OF CHRISTIANITY\n\n\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nALEXANDER VINET, the eminent Swiss divine and author, was born at\nOuchy, Canton, in 1797. He was professor of theology at Lausanne\n(1837-45), where he gained reputation as a preacher, a philosopher,\nand a writer. He was tolerant tho critical, and many of his\nutterances are marked by rare brilliancy. His supreme and intense\nfaith led him to say: \"The gospel is believed when it has ceased\nto be to us an external and has become an internal truth, when it\nhas become a fact in our consciousness. Christianity is conscience\nraised to its highest exercise.\" He died in 1847.\n\n\n\n\nVINET\n\n1797-1847\n\nTHE MYSTERIES OF CHRISTIANITY\n\n_Things which have not entered into the heart of man._--1 Cor. ii.,\n9.\n\n\n\"I do not comprehend, therefore I do not believe.\" \"The gospel is\nfull of mysteries, therefore I do not receive the gospel:\"--such is\none of the favorite arguments of infidelity. To see how much is made\nof this, and what confidence it inspires, we might believe it solid,\nor, at least, specious; but it is neither the one nor the other;\nit will not bear the slightest attention, the most superficial\nexamination of reason; and if it still enjoys some favor in the\nworld, this is but a proof of the lightness of our judgments upon\nthings worthy of our most serious attention.\n\nUpon what, in fact, does this argument rest? Upon the claim of\ncomprehending every thing in the religion which God has offered or\ncould offer us--a claim equally unjust, unreasonable, useless. This\nwe proceed to develop.\n\n1. In the first place, it is an unjust claim. It is to demand of God\nwhat He does not owe us. To prove this, let us suppose that God has\ngiven a religion to man, and let us further suppose that religion to\nbe the gospel: for this absolutely changes nothing to the argument.\nWe may believe that God was free, at least, with reference to us,\nto give us or not to give us a religion; but it must be admitted\nthat in granting it He contracts engagements to us, and that the\nfirst favor lays Him under a necessity of conferring other favors.\nFor this is merely to say that God must be consistent, and that He\nfinishes what He has begun. Since it is by a written revelation\nHe manifests His designs respecting us, it is necessary He should\nfortify that revelation by all the authority which would at least\ndetermine us to receive it; it is necessary He should give us the\nmeans of judging whether the men who speak to us in His name are\nreally sent by Him; in a word, it is necessary we should be assured\nthat the Bible is truly the Word of God.\n\nIt would not indeed be necessary that the conviction of each of\nus should be gained by the same kind of evidence. Some shall be\nled to Christianity by the historical or external arguments; they\nshall prove to themselves the truth of the Bible as the truth of\nall history is proved; they shall satisfy themselves that the\nbooks of which it is composed are certainly those of the times and\nof the authors to which they are ascribed. This settled, they\nshall compare the prophecies contained in these ancient documents\nwith the events that have happened in subsequent ages; they shall\nassure themselves of the reality of the miraculous facts related in\nthese books, and shall thence infer the necessary intervention of\ndivine power, which alone disposes the forces of nature, and can\nalone interrupt or modify their action. Others, less fitted for\nsuch investigations, shall be struck with the internal evidence\nof the Holy Scriptures. Finding there the state of their souls\nperfectly described, their wants fully exprest, and the true\nremedies for their maladies completely indicated; struck with a\ncharacter of truth and candor which nothing can imitate; in fine,\nfeeling themselves in their inner nature moved, changed, renovated,\nby the mysterious influence of these holy writings, they shall\nacquire, by such means, a conviction of which they can not always\ngive an account to others, but which is not the less legitimate,\nirresistible, and immovable. Such is the double road by which an\nentrance is gained into the asylum of faith. But it was due from the\nwisdom of God, from His justice, and, we venture to say it, from\nthe honor of His government, that He should open to man this double\nroad; for, if He desired man to be saved by knowledge, on the same\nprinciple He engaged Himself to furnish him the means of knowledge.\n\nBehold, whence come the obligations of the Deity with reference\nto us, which obligations He has fulfilled. Enter on this double\nmethod of proof. Interrogate history, time and places, respecting\nthe authenticity of the Scriptures; grasp all the difficulties,\nsound all the objections; do not permit yourselves to be too easily\nconvinced; be the more severe upon that book, as it professes to\ncontain the sovereign rule of your life, and the disposal of your\ndestiny; you are permitted to do this, nay, you are encouraged\nto do it, provided you proceed to the investigation with the\nrequisite capacities and with pure intentions. Or, if you prefer\nanother method, examine, with an honest heart, the contents of the\nScriptures; inquire, while you run over the words of Jesus, if ever\nman spake like this Man; inquire if the wants of your soul, long\ndeceived, and the anxieties of your spirit, long cherished in vain,\ndo not, in the teaching and work of Christ, find that satisfaction\nand repose which no wisdom was ever able to procure you; breathe,\nif I may thus express myself, that perfume of truth, of candor and\npurity, which exhales from every page of the gospel; see, if, in all\nthese respects, it does not bear the undeniable seal of inspiration\nand divinity. Finally, test it, and if the gospel produces upon you\na contrary effect, return to the books and the wisdom of men, and\nask of them what Christ has not been able to give you.\n\nBut if, neglecting these two ways, made accessible to you,\nand trodden by the feet of ages, you desire, before all, that\nthe Christian religion should, in every point, render itself\ncomprehensible to your mind, and complacently strip itself of all\nmysteries; if you wish to penetrate beyond the veil, to find there,\nnot the aliment which gives life to the soul, but that which would\ngratify your restless curiosity, I maintain that you raise against\nGod a claim the most indiscreet, the most rash and unjust; for He\nhas never engaged, either tacitly or expressly, to discover to you\nthe secret which your eye craves; and such audacious importunity is\nfit to excite His indignation. He has given you what He owed you,\nmore indeed than He owed you; the rest is with Himself.\n\nIf a claim so unjust could be admitted, where, I ask you, would be\nthe limit of your demands? Already you require more from God than He\nhas accorded to angels; for these eternal mysteries which trouble\nyou, the harmony of the divine prescience with human freedom, the\norigin of evil and its ineffable remedy, the incarnation of the\neternal Word--the relations of the God-man with His Father--the\natoning virtue of His sacrifice, the regenerating efficacy of the\nSpirit-comforter, all these things are secrets, the knowledge of\nwhich is hidden from angels themselves, who, according to the word\nof the Apostle, stoop to explore their depths, and can not.\n\nIf you reproach the Eternal for having kept the knowledge of\nthese divine mysteries to Himself, why do you not reproach Him\nfor the thousand other limits He has prescribed for you? Why not\nreproach Him for not having given you wings like a bird, to visit\nthe regions, which, till now, have been scanned only by your eyes?\nWhy not reproach Him for not giving you, besides the five senses\nwith which you are provided, ten other senses which He has perhaps\ngranted to other creatures, and which procure for them perceptions\nof which you have no idea? Why not, in fine, reproach Him for having\ncaused the darkness of night to succeed the brightness of day\ninvariably on the earth? Ah! you do not reproach Him for that. You\nlove that night which brings rest to so many fatigued bodies and\nweary spirits; which suspends in so many wretches, the feeling of\ngrief; that night, during which orphans, slaves, and criminals cease\nto be, because over all their misfortunes and sufferings it spreads,\nwith the opiate of sleep, the thick veil of oblivion; you love that\nnight which, peopling the deserts of the heavens with ten thousand\nstars, not known to the day, reveals the infinite to our ravished\nimagination.\n\nWell, then, why do you not, for a similar reason, love the night\nof divine mysteries, night, gracious and salutary, in which reason\nhumbles itself, and finds refreshment and repose; where the darkness\neven is a revelation; where one of the principal attributes of God,\nimmensity, discovers itself much more fully to our mind; where, in\nfine, the tender relations He has permitted us to form with Himself,\nare guarded from all admixture of familiarity by the thought that\nthe Being who has humbled Himself to us, is, at the same time,\nthe inconceivable God who reigns before all time, who includes in\nHimself all existences and all conditions of existence, the center\nof all thought, the law of all law, the supreme and final reason\nof every thing! So that, if you are just, instead of reproaching\nHim for the secrets of religion, you will bless Him that He has\nenveloped you in mysteries.\n\n2. But this claim is not only unjust toward God; it is also in\nitself exceedingly unreasonable.\n\nWhat is religion? It is God putting Himself in communication with\nman; the Creator with the creature, the infinite with the finite.\nThere already, without going further, is a mystery; a mystery\ncommon to all religions, impenetrable in all religions. If, then,\nevery thing which is a mystery offends you, you are arrested on the\nthreshold, I will not say of Christianity, but of every religion;\nI say, even of that religion which is called natural, because it\nrejects revelation and miracles; for it necessarily implies, at\nthe very least, a connection, a communication of some sort between\nGod and man--the contrary being equivalent to atheism. Your claim\nprevents you from having any belief; and because you have not been\nwilling to be Christians, it will not allow you to be deists.\n\n\"It is of no consequence,\" you say, \"we pass over that difficulty;\nwe suppose between God and us connections we can not conceive; we\nadmit them because they are necessary to us. But this is the only\nstep we are willing to take: we have already yielded too much to\nyield more.\" Say more, say you have granted too much not to grant\nmuch more, not to grant all! You have consented to admit, without\ncomprehending it, that there may be communications from God to you,\nand from you to God. But consider well what is implied in such a\nsupposition. It implies that you are dependent, and yet free: this\nyou do not comprehend; it implies that the Spirit of God can make\nitself understood by your spirit: this you do not comprehend; it\nimplies that your prayers may exert an influence on the will of\nGod: this you do not comprehend. It is necessary you should receive\nall these mysteries, in order to establish with God connections the\nmost vague and superficial, and by the very side of which atheism\nis placed. And when, by a powerful effort with yourselves you have\ndone so much as to admit these mysteries, you recoil from those\nof Christianity! You have accepted the foundation, and refuse the\nsuperstructure! You have accepted the principle and refuse the\ndetails! You are right, no doubt, so soon as it is proved to you,\nthat the religion which contains these mysteries does not come from\nGod; or rather, that these mysteries contain contradictory ideas.\nBut you are not justified in denying them, for the sole reason that\nyou do not understand them; and the reception you have given to the\nfirst kind of mysteries compels you, by the same rule, to receive\nthe others.\n\nThis is not all. Not only are mysteries an inseparable part, nay,\nthe very substance of all religion, but it is absolutely impossible\nthat a true religion should not present a great number of mysteries.\nIf it is true, it ought to teach more truths respecting God and\ndivine things than any other, than all others together; but each\nof these truths has a relation to the infinite, and by consequence\nborders on a mystery. How should it be otherwise in religion, when\nit is thus in nature itself? Behold God in nature! The more He\ngives us to contemplate, the more He gives to astonish us. To each\ncreature is attached some mystery. A grain of sand is an abyss!\nNow, if the manifestations which God has made of Himself in nature\nsuggest to the observer a thousand questions which can not be\nanswered, how will it be, when to that first revelation, another\nis added; when God the Creator and Preserver reveals Himself under\nnew aspects as God the Reconciler and Savior? Shall not mysteries\nmultiply with discoveries? With each new day shall we not see\nassociated a new night? And shall we not purchase each increase of\nknowledge with an increase of ignorance? Has not the doctrine of\ngrace, so necessary, so consoling, alone opened a profound abyss,\ninto which, for eighteen centuries, rash and restless spirits have\nbeen constantly plunging?\n\nIt is, then, clearly necessary that Christianity should, more\nthan any other religion, be mysterious, simply because it is\ntrue. Like mountains, which, the higher they are, cast the larger\nshadows, the gospel is the more obscure and mysterious on account\nof its sublimity. After this, will you be indignant that you do\nnot comprehend every thing in the gospel? It would, forsooth, be\na truly surprising thing if the ocean could not be held in the\nhollow of your hand, or uncreated wisdom within the limits of your\nintelligence! It would be truly unfortunate if a finite being could\nnot embrace the infinite, and that, in the vast assemblage of things\nthere should be some idea beyond its grasp! In other words, it would\nbe truly unfortunate if God Himself should know something which man\ndoes not know!\n\nLet us acknowledge, then, how insensate is such a claim when it is\nmade with reference to religion.\n\nBut let us also recollect how much, in making such a claim, we\nshall be in opposition to ourselves; for the submission we dislike\nin religion, we cherish in a thousand other things. It happens to us\nevery day to admit things we do not understand, and to do so without\nthe least repugnance. The things, the knowledge of which is refused\nus, are much more numerous than we perhaps think. Few diamonds are\nperfectly pure; still fewer truths are perfectly clear. The union\nof our soul with our body is a mystery--our most familiar emotions\nand affections are a mystery--the action of thought and of will is\na mystery--our very existence is a mystery. Why do we admit these\nvarious facts? Is it because we understand them? No, certainly, but\nbecause they are self-evident, and because they are truths by which\nwe live. In religion we have no other course to take. We ought to\nknow whether it is true and necessary; and once convinced of these\ntwo points, we ought, like the angels, to submit to the necessity of\nbeing ignorant of some things. And why do we not submit cheerfully\nto a privation which, after all, is not one?\n\n3. To desire the knowledge of mysteries is to desire what is utterly\nuseless; it is to raise, as I have said before, a claim the most\nvain and idle. What in reference to us is the object of the gospel?\nEvidently to regenerate and save us. But it attains this end wholly\nby the things it reveals. Of what use would it be to know those it\nconceals from us? We possess the knowledge which can enlighten our\nconsciences, rectify our inclinations, renew our hearts; what should\nwe gain if we possest other knowledge? It infinitely concerns us to\nknow that the Bible is the Word of God; does it equally concern us\nto know in what way the holy men that wrote it were moved by the\nHoly Ghost? It is of infinite moment to us to know that Jesus Christ\nis the Son of God; need we know precisely in what way the divine and\nhuman natures are united in His adorable person? It is of infinite\nimportance for us to know that unless we are born again we can not\nenter the kingdom of God, and that the Holy Spirit is the author of\nthe new birth; shall we be further advanced if we know the divine\nprocess by which that wonder is performed? Is it not enough for us\nto know the truths that save? Of what use, then, would it be to know\nthose which have not the slightest bearing on our salvation? \"Tho\nI know all mysteries,\" says St. Paul, \"and have not charity, I am\nnothing.\" St. Paul was content not to know, provided he had charity;\nshall not we, following his example, be content also without\nknowledge, provided that, like him, we have charity, that is to say,\nlife?\n\nBut some one will say \"If the knowledge of mysteries is really\nwithout influence on our salvation, why have they been indicated to\nus at all?\" What if it should be to teach us not to be too prodigal\nof our \"wherefores!\" if it should be to serve as an exercise of our\nfaith, a test of our submission! But we will not stop with such a\nreply.\n\nObserve, I pray you, in what manner the mysteries of which you\ncomplain have taken their part in religion. You readily perceive\nthey are not by themselves, but associated with truths which have\na direct bearing on your salvation. They contain them, they serve\nto develop them; but they are not themselves the truths that save.\nIt is with these mysteries as it is with the vessel that contains\na medicinal draft--it is not the vessel that cures, but the draft;\nyet the draft could not be presented without the vessel. Thus each\ntruth that saves is contained in a mystery, which, in itself, has\nno power to save. So the great work of expiation is necessarily\nattached to the incarnation of the Son of God, which is a mystery;\nso the sanctifying graces of the new covenant are necessarily\nconnected with the effluence of the Holy Spirit, which is a mystery;\nso, too, the divinity of religion finds a seal and an attestation\nin the miracles, which are mysteries. Everywhere the light is born\nfrom darkness, and darkness accompanies the light. These two orders\nof truths are so united, so interlinked, that you can not remove\nthe one without the other, and each of the mysteries you attempt to\ntear from religion would carry with it one of the truths which bear\ndirectly on your regeneration and salvation. Accept the mysteries,\nthen, not as truths that can save you, but as the necessary\nconditions of the merciful work of the Lord in your behalf.\n\nThe true point at issue in reference to religion is this:--Does\nthe religion which is proposed to us change the heart, unite to\nGod, prepare for heaven? If Christianity produces these effects,\nwe will leave the enemies of the cross free to revolt against its\nmysteries, and tax them with absurdity. The gospel, we will say to\nthem, is then an absurdity; you have discovered it. But behold what\na new species of absurdity that certainly is which attaches man to\nall his duties, regulates human life better than all the doctrines\nof sages, plants in his bosom harmony, order, and peace, causes\nhim joyfully to fulfil all the offices of civil life, renders him\nbetter fitted to live, better fitted to die, and which, were it\ngenerally received, would be the support and safeguard of society!\nCite to us, among all human absurdities, a single one which produces\nsuch effects. If that \"foolishness\" we preach produces effects like\nthese, is it not natural to conclude that it is truth itself? And if\nthese things have not entered the heart of man, it is not because\nthey are absurd, but because they are divine.\n\nMake but a single reflection. You are obliged to confess that none\nof the religions which man may invent can satisfy his wants, or\nsave his soul. Thereupon you have a choice to make. You will either\nreject them all as insufficient and false, and seek for nothing\nbetter, since man can not invent better, and then you will abandon\nto chance, to caprice of temperament or of opinion, your moral life\nand future destiny; or you will adopt that other religion which some\ntreat as folly, and it will render you holy and pure, blameless in\nthe midst of a perverse generation, united to God by love, and to\nyour brethren by charity, indefatigable in doing good, happy in\nlife, happy in death. Suppose, after all this, you shall be told\nthat this religion is false; but meanwhile, it has restored in you\nthe image of God, reestablished your primitive connections with\nthat great Being, and put you in a condition to enjoy life and the\nhappiness of heaven. By means of it you have become such that at the\nlast day, it is impossible that God should not receive you as His\nchildren and make you partakers of His glory. You are made fit for\nparadise, nay, paradise has commenced for you even here, because you\nlove. This religion has done for you what all religions propose, and\nwhat no other has realized. Nevertheless, by the supposition, it is\nfalse! And what more could it do, were it true? Rather do you not\nsee that this is a splendid proof of its truth? Do you not see that\nit is impossible that a religion which leads to God should not come\nfrom God, and that the absurdity is precisely that of supposing that\nyou can be regenerated by a falsehood?\n\nSuppose that afterward, as at the first, you do not comprehend. It\nseems necessary, then, you should be saved by the things you do not\ncomprehend. Is that a misfortune? Are you the less saved? Does it\nbecome you to demand from God an explanation of an obscurity which\ndoes not injure you, when, with reference to every thing essential,\nHe has been prodigal of light? The first disciples of Jesus, men\nwithout culture and learning, received truths which they did not\ncomprehend, and spread them through the world. A crowd of sages and\nmen of genius have received, from the hands of these poor people,\ntruths which they comprehended no more than they. The ignorance of\nthe one, and the science of the other, have been equally docile.\nDo, then, as the ignorant and the wise have done. Embrace with\naffection those truths which have never entered into your heart,\nand which will save you. Do not lose, in vain discussions, the time\nwhich is gliding away, and which is bearing you into the cheering\nor appalling light of eternity. Hasten to be saved. Love now; one\nday you will know. May the Lord Jesus prepare you for that period of\nlight, of repose, and of happiness!\n\n\n\n\nSUMMERFIELD\n\nTHE HEAVENLY INHERITANCE\n\n\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nJOHN SUMMERFIELD was born in England in 1798, and came to New York\nin 1821, where he soon became one of the most popular and eloquent\npreachers of that day. He belonged to the Methodist Communion\nand his name is still perpetuated in the names of many Methodist\nchurches. He was unusually simple and modest in his tastes and\nhabits, but when he spoke from the pulpit he produced a great\nimpression by the force and daring of his style. He gave promise\nof equaling Whitefield as a pulpit orator, but he was subject to\ndelicate health and prematurely died in 1825, twenty-seven years of\nage.\n\n\n\n\nSUMMERFIELD\n\n1798-1825\n\nTHE HEAVENLY INHERITANCE\n\n_For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the\neverlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ._--2 Peter\ni., 11.\n\n\nOf all the causes which may be adduced to account for the\nindifference which is so generally manifested toward those great\nconcerns of eternity, in which men are so awfully interested, none\nappears to me so likely to resolve the mystery, as that unbelief\nwhich lies at the core of every heart, hindering repentance, and\nso making faith impossible. Men hear that there is a hell to shun,\na heaven to win; and, though they give their assent to both these\ntruths, they never impress them on their mind. It is plain that,\nwhatever their lips may confess, they never believed with the\nheart, otherwise some effect would have been produced in the life.\nThe germ of unbelief lies within, and discovers itself in all that\nindifference which is displayed, in the majority of that class of\nbeings whose existence is to be perpetuated throughout eternity.\nIf these thoughts do sometimes obtrude themselves on their serious\nattention, they are immediately banished from their minds; and the\ndying exclamation of Moses may be taken up with tears by every lover\nof perishing sinners: \"O! that they were wise, that they understood\nthis, that they would consider their latter end!\" When God, by His\nprophet Isaiah, called the Israelites to a sense of their awful\ndeparture from Him, His language was, \"My people do not know: My\npeople do not consider.\" How few are there like Mary, who \"ponder\nthose things in their heart,\" who are willing to look at themselves,\nto pry into eternity, to put the question home,\n\n    \"Shall I be with the damn'd cast out,\n     Or numbered with the bless'd?\"\n\nThis question must sooner or later have a place in your minds, or\nawful will be your state indeed; let it reach your hearts to-day;\nand if you pray to the Father of light, you will soon be enabled in\nHis light to discern so much of yourselves as will cause you to cry,\n\"What shall I do to be saved?\" While we shall this morning attempt\nto point out some of the privileges of the sons of God, oh! may your\nhearts catch the strong desire to be conformed to the living Head,\nthat so an abundant entrance may be administered unto you also, into\nthe everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.\n\nThe privilege to which our text leads us, is exclusively applicable\nto those to whom that question has been solved by the Spirit of\nGod; those who have believed to the saving of their souls; who have\nexperienced redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of\nsins; and who are walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort\nof the Holy Ghost.\n\nI. The state to which we look forward: the \"everlasting kingdom of\nour Lord and Savior.\"\n\n1. It is a kingdom. By this figurative expression our Lord has\ndescribed the state of grace here and of glory hereafter; our\nhappiness in time and our happiness in eternity. They were wisely so\ncalled: Jesus has said, as well as done, all things well; for these\ntwo states differ not in kind, but in degree; the one is merely a\npreparative for the other, and he who has been a subject of the\nformer kingdom will be a subject of the latter. Grace is but the\nseed of glory, glory is the maturity of grace; grace is but the bud\nof glory, glory is grace full blown; grace is but the blossom of\nglory, glory is the ripe fruit of grace; grace is but the infant of\nglory, glory is the perfection of grace. Hence our hymn beautifully\nsays, \"The men of grace have found glory begun below,\" agreeing with\nour Lord's own words, \"He that believeth hath everlasting life\"; he\nfeels even here its glories beginning--a foretaste of its bliss.\n\nNow the propriety with which these two states are called kingdoms\nis manifest from the analogy which might be traced between them and\nthe model of a human sovereignty. Two or three of the outlines of\nthis model will be sufficient.\n\nIn the idea of a kingdom it is implied that in some part of its\nextent there is the residence of a sovereign; for this is essential\nto constitute it. Now in the kingdom of grace the heart of the\nbeliever is made the residence of the King invisible! \"Know ye not\nthat your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?\"\nSuch know what that promise means, \"I will dwell in them, and they\nshall be my people.\" St. Paul exultingly cries, \"Christ liveth in\nme.\"\n\nAgain, it is essential that the inhabitants of a kingdom be under\nthe government of its laws. An empire without laws is no sovereignty\nat all; it ceases to be such, for every inhabitant has an equal\nright to do that which seems good in his own eyes. Now the subjects\nof Christ's kingdom of grace are \"not without law, but are under a\nlaw to Christ\"; they do His righteous will!\n\nLastly, it is essential that the subjects of a kingdom be under the\nprotection of the presiding monarch, and that they repose their\nconfidence in him. To the subjects of the kingdom of grace, Christ\nimparts His kingly protection; this is their heritage: \"No weapon\nformed against them shall prosper\"; nay, He imparts to them of His\nroyal bounty, and they enjoy all the blessings of an inward heaven.\n\nBut how great the perfection of the kingdom of glory mentioned in\nour text! Does He make these vile bodies His residence here? How\nmuch more glorious is His temple above! how splendid the court of\nheaven! There, indeed, he fixes His throne, and they see Him as He\nis. Does He exercise His authority here and rule His happy subjects\nby the law, the perfect law of love? How much more in heaven! He\nreigns there forever over them; His government is there wholly by\nHimself; He knows nothing of a rival there; His rule is sole and\nperfect: there they serve Him day and night. Are His subjects here\npartakers of His kingly bounty? Much more in heaven! He calls them\nto a participation of all the joys, the spiritual joys which are at\nHis right hand, and the pleasures which are there forevermore. Yet,\nafter all our descriptions of that glory, it is not yet revealed,\nand, therefore, inconceivable. But who would not hail such a Son of\nDavid? who would not desire to be swayed by such a Prince of Peace?\nWhose heart would not ascend with the affections of our poet, \"O!\nthat with yonder sacred throng, we at His feet may fall\"?\n\n2. But it is an everlasting kingdom! Here it rises in the scale of\ncomparison. Weigh the kingdoms of this world in this balance, and\nthey are found wanting; for on many we read their fatal history,\nand ere long we shall see them all branded with the writing of the\ninvisible Agent, \"The kingdom is taken from thee, and given to a\nnation bringing forth the fruits thereof\"; \"For the kingdoms of\nthis world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ\";\nthey will be absorbed and swallowed up in the fulness of eternity,\nand leave not a wrack behind! Every thing here is perishable! The\ntowering diadem of Caesar has fallen from his head and crumbled\ninto dust; and that kingdom whose scepter once swayed the world,\nbetwixt whose colossal stride all nations were glad to creep to\nfind themselves dishonored graves, is now forgotten, or, if its\nrecollection be preserved, its history is emphatically called \"The\nDecline and Fall.\"\n\nBut bring the matter nearer home; apply it not to multitudes of\nsubjects, but to your individual experience, and has not that good\nteacher instructed you in this sad lesson? We tremble to look at\nour earthly possessions and employments, lest we should see them\nin motion, spreading their wings to fly away! How many are there\nalready who, in talking of their comforts, are obliged to go back\nin their reckoning! Would not this be the language of some of you:\n\"I had--I had a husband, the sharer of my joys, the soother of my\nsorrows; but he is not! I had a wife, a helpmeet for me; but where\nis she? I had children to whom I looked up as my support and\nstaff in the decline of life, while passing down the hill; but I\nam bereaved of my children! I had health, and I highly prized its\nwealth; but now my emaciated frame, my shriveled system, and the\npains of nature bespeak that comfort fled! I had, or fondly thought\nI had, happiness in possession! Then I said with Job, 'I shall die\nin my nest!' but ah! an unexpected blast passed over me, and now my\njoys are blighted! 'They have fled as a shadow, and continued not.'\"\nYes! time promised you much! perhaps it performed a little; but it\ncan not do any thing for you on which it can grave \"eternal.\" Its\nname is mortal, its nature is decay; it was born with man, and when\nthe generations of men shall cease to exist, it will cease also:\n\"Time shall be no longer!\" We know concerning these that, \"All flesh\nis as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The\ngrass withereth, and the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord\nendureth forever.\" Yes! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; glory\ncan not corrupt! the crown of glory can not fade! Why? Death will\nbe destroyed; Christ will put this last enemy under His feet, and\nall will then be eternal life! Oh, happy, happy kingdom; nay, thrice\nhappy he who shall be privileged to be its subject!\n\n3. It is the everlasting kingdom of our own Lord and Savior Jesus\nChrist. It is His by claim: \"Him hath God the Father highly\nexalted\"; yea, Him hath He appointed to be \"the judge of quick and\ndead\"; for tho by the sufferings of death He was made a little\nlower than the angels, yet immediately after His resurrection He\ndeclares that now \"All power is given unto him in heaven and in\nearth\"! The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son, and He\nhas now the disposal of the offices and privileges of the empire\namong His faithful followers. This is the idea that the penitent\ndying thief had on the subject: \"Lord, remember me when thou comest\ninto thy kingdom\"; and St. Paul expresses the same when he says to\nTimothy in the confidence of faith, \"The Lord shall deliver me and\npreserve me unto his heavenly kingdom.\" Oh! how pleasing the thought\nto the child of God, that his ruler to all eternity will be his\nelder Brother; for He who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified\nare all of one; and though He is heir of all things, yet we, as\nyounger branches of the same heavenly family, shall be joint heirs,\nfellow-heirs of the same glorious inheritance. How great will be\nour joy to behold Him who humbled Himself for us to death, even the\ndeath of the cross, now exalted God over all, blest for evermore;\nand while contemplating Him under the character of our Lord and\nSavior Jesus Christ, how great the relish which will be given to\nthat feeling of the redeemed which will constrain them to cry,\n\"Thou alone art worthy to receive glory, and honor, and power.\"\n\nII. But the apostle reminds us of the entrance into this kingdom!\n\n1. The entrance into this kingdom is death: \"By one man sin entered\ninto the world, and death by sin:\"\n\n    \"Death, like a narrow sea, divides\n     That heavenly land from ours!\"\n\n\"A messenger is sent to bring us to God, but it is the King of\nTerrors. We enter the land flowing with milk and honey, but it is\nthrough the valley of the shadow of death.\" Yet fear not, O thou\nchild of God! there is no need that thou, through the fear of death,\nshouldst be all thy lifetime subject to bondage.\n\n2. No; hear the apostle: the entrance is ministered unto thee!\nDeath is but His minister; he can not lock his ice-cold hand in\nthine till He permit. Our Jesus has the keys of hell and death; and\ntill He liberates the vassal to bring thee home, not a hair of thy\nhead can fall to the ground! Fear not, thou worm! He who minds the\nsparrows appoints the time for thy removal: fear not; only be thou\nalways ready, that, whenever the messenger comes to take down the\ntabernacle in which thy spirit has long made her abode, thou mayest\nbe able to exclaim, \"Amen! even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.\"\nDeath need have no terrors for thee; he is the vassal of thy Lord,\nand, however unwilling to do Him reverence, yet to Him that sits\nat God's right hand shall even death pay, if not a joyful, yet a\ntrembling homage; nay, more:\n\n    \"To Him shall earth and hell submit,\n       And every foe shall fall,\n     Till death expires beneath His feet,\n       And God is all in all.\"\n\nChrist has already had one triumph over death; His iron pangs could\nnot detain the Prince who has \"life in himself\"; and in His strength\nthou shalt triumph, for the power of Christ is promised to rest upon\nthee! He has had the same entrance; His footsteps marked the way,\nand His cry to thee is, \"Follow thou me.\" \"My sheep,\" says He, \"hear\nmy voice, and they do follow me\"; they follow Me gladly, even into\nthis gloomy vale; and what is the consequence? \"They shall never\nperish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.\"\n\n3. It is ministered unto you abundantly. Perhaps the apostle means\nthat the death of some is distinguished by indulgences and honors\nnot vouchsafed to all. In the experience of some, the passage\nappears difficult; in others it is comparatively easy; they gently\nfall asleep in Jesus. But we not only see diversities in the mortal\nagony--this would be a small thing.... Some get in with sails full\nspread and carrying a rich cargo indeed, while others arrive barely\non a single plank. Some, who have long had their conversation in\nheaven, are anxious to be wafted into the celestial haven; while\nothers, who never sought God till alarmed at the speedy approach of\ndeath, have little confidence,\n\n    \"And linger shivering on the brink,\n     And fear to launch away.\"\n\nThis doctrine must have been peculiarly encouraging to the early\nconverts to whom St. Peter wrote. From the tenor of both of his\nepistles it is clear that they were in a state of severe suffering,\nand in great danger of apostatizing through fear of persecution. He\nreminds them that if they hold fast their professions, an abundant\nentrance will be administered unto them. The death of the martyr\nis far more glorious than that of the Christian who concealed his\nprofession through fear of man. Witness the case of Stephen: he\nwas not ashamed of being a witness for Jesus in the face of the\nviolent death which awaited him, and which crushed the tabernacle\nof his devoted spirit; his Lord reserved the highest display of His\nlove and of His glory for that awful hour! \"Behold!\" says he to his\nenemies, while gnashing on him with their teeth, \"Behold! I see\nheaven opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of\nGod\"; then, in the full triumph of faith, he cries out, \"Lord Jesus!\nreceive my spirit!\"\n\nBut did these things apply merely to the believers to whom St.\nPeter originally wrote? No; you are the men to whom they equally\napply; according to your walk and profession of that gospel will be\nthe entrance which will be ministered unto you. Some of you have\nheard, in another of our houses, during the past week, the dangerous\ntendency of the spirit of fear, the fear of man. I would you had\nall heard that discourse: alas! many who have a name and a place\namong us are becoming mere Sabbath-day worshipers in the courts of\nthe Lord, and lightly esteem the daily means of grace. I believe\nthis is one cause at least why many are weak and sickly among us in\ndivine things. The inner man does not make due increase; the world\nis stealing a march unawares upon us. May God revive among us the\nspirit of our fathers!\n\nThese things, then, I say, equally apply to you. Behold the strait,\nthe royal, the king's highway! Are you afraid of the reproach of\nChrist?\n\n    \"Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend,\n     On whom our hopes of heaven depend?\"\n\nHow soon would the world be overcome if all who profess that faith\nwere faithful to it! Wo to the rebellious children who compromise\ntruth with the world, and in effect deny their Lord and Master! Who\nhath required this at their hands? Do they not follow with the crowd\nwho cry, \"Lord, Lord! and yet do not the things which He says\"?\nWill they have the adoption and the glory? Will they aim at the\nhonor implied in these words, \"Ye are my witnesses?\" Will ye indeed\nbe sons? Then see the path wherein His footsteps shine! The way is\nopen! see that ye walk therein! The false apostles, the deceitful\nworkers shall have their reward; the same that those of old had,\nthe praise and esteem of men; while the faith of those who truly\ncall Him Father and Lord, and who walk in the light as He is in the\nlight, who submit, like Him and His true followers, to be counted as\n\"the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things\", shall\nbe found unto praise, and honor, and glory!\n\nThe true Christian does not seek to hide himself in a corner; he\nlets his light shine before men, whether they will receive it or\nnot; and thereby is his Father glorified. Having thus served, by\nthe will of God, the hour of his departure at length arrives. The\nangels beckon him away; Jesus bids him come; and as he departs this\nlife he looks back with a heavenly smile on surviving friends, and\nis enabled to say, \"Whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know.\" An\nentrance is ministered unto him abundantly into the everlasting\nkingdom of his Lord and Savior.\n\nIII. Having considered the state to which we look, and the mode of\nour admission, let us consider the condition of it. This is implied\nin the word \"so.\" \"For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you.\"\nIn the preceding part of this chapter, the apostle has pointed out\nthe meaning of this expression, and in the text merely sums it all\nup in that short mode of expression.\n\nThe first condition he shows to be, the obtaining like precious\nfaith with him, through the righteousness of God and our Savior\nJesus Christ. Not a faith which merely assents to the truths of the\ngospel record, but a faith which applies the merits of the death\nof Christ to expiate my individual guilt; which lays hold on Him\nas my sacrifice, and produces, in its exercises, peace with God, a\nknowledge of the divine favor, a sense of sin forgiven, and a full\ncertainty, arising from a divine impression on the heart, made by\nthe Spirit of God, that I am accepted in the Beloved and made a\nchild of God.\n\nIf those who profess the Gospel of Christ were but half as zealous\nin seeking after this enjoyment as they are in discovering\ncreaturely objections to its attainment, it would be enjoyed by\nthousands who at present know nothing of its happy reality. Such\npersons, unfortunately for themselves, employ much more assiduity\nin searching a vocabulary to find out epithets of reproach to attach\nto those who maintain the doctrine than in searching that volume\nwhich declares that \"if you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit\nof his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father\"; and that \"he that\nbelieveth hath the witness in himself.\" In whatever light a scorner\nmay view this doctrine now, the time will come when, being found\nwithout the wedding garment, he will be cast into outer darkness.\n\nO sinner! cry to God this day to convince thee of thy need of this\nsalvation, and then thou wilt be in a condition to receive it:\n\n    \"Shalt know, shalt feel thy sins forgiven,\n     Bless'd with this antepast of heaven.\"\n\nBut, besides this, the apostle requires that we then henceforth\npreserve consciences void of offense toward God and toward man.\nThis faith which obtains the forgiveness of sin unites to Christ,\nand by this union we are made, as St. Peter declares, \"partakers\nof the divine nature\": and as He who has called you is holy, so\nyou are to be holy in all manner of conversation. For yours is a\nfaith which not only casts out sin, but purifies the heart--the\nconscience having been once purged by the sprinkling of the blood\nof Christ, you are not to suffer guilt to be again contracted; for\nthe salvation of Christ is not only from the penalty, but from the\nvery stain of sin; not only from its guilt, but from its pollution;\nnot only from its condemnation, but from its very \"in-being\"; \"The\nblood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin\"; and \"For this purpose\nwas the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of\nthe devil.\" You are therefore required by St. Peter, \"to escape the\ncorruption that is in the world through lust,\" and thus to perfect\nholiness in the fear of the Lord!\n\nFinally, live in progressive and practical godliness. Not only\npossess, but practise, the virtues of religion; not only practise,\nbut increase therein, abounding in the work of the Lord! Lead up,\nhand in hand, in the same delightful chorus, all the graces which\nadorn the Christian character. Having the divine nature, possessing\na new and living principle, let diligent exercise reduce it to\npractical holiness; and you will be easily discerned from those\nformal hypocrites, whose faith and religion are but a barren and\nunfruitful speculation.\n\nTo conclude: live to God--live for God--live in God; and let your\nmoderation be known unto all men--the Lord is at hand: \"Therefore\ngiving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue,\nknowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance,\npatience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly\nkindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.\"\n\n\n\n\nNEWMAN\n\nGOD'S WILL THE END OF LIFE\n\n\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nJOHN HENRY NEWMAN was born in London in 1801. He won high honors at\nOxford, and in 1828 was appointed vicar of the University Church,\nSt. Mary's, and with Keble and Pusey headed the Oxford Movement.\nIn the pulpit of St. Mary's he soon showed himself to be a power.\nHis sermons, exquisite, tho simple in style, chiefly deal with\nvarious phases of personal religion which he illustrated with a\nkeen spiritual insight, a sympathetic glow, an exalted earnestness\nand a breadth of range, unparalleled in English pulpit utterances\nbefore his time. His extreme views on questions of catholicity,\nsacerdotalism and the sacraments, as well as his craving for an\ninfallible authority in matters of faith, shook his confidence in\nthe Church of England and he went over to Rome in 1845. He was made\nCardinal in 1879 and died in 1890.\n\n\n\n\nNEWMAN\n\n1801-1890\n\nGOD'S WILL THE END OF LIFE\n\n_I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him\nthat sent me._--John vi., 38.\n\n\nI am going to ask you a question, my dear brethren, so trite, and\ntherefore so uninteresting at first sight, that you may wonder why\nI put it, and may object that it will be difficult to fix the mind\non it, and may anticipate that nothing profitable can be made of it.\nIt is this: \"Why were you sent into the world?\" Yet, after all, it\nis perhaps a thought more obvious than it is common, more easy than\nit is familiar; I mean it ought to come into your minds, but it does\nnot, and you never had more than a distant acquaintance with it,\ntho that sort of acquaintance with it you have had for many years.\nNay, once or twice, perhaps you have been thrown across the thought\nsomewhat intimately, for a short season, but this was an accident\nwhich did not last. There are those who recollect the first time,\nas it would seem, when it came home to them. They were but little\nchildren, and they were by themselves, and they spontaneously asked\nthemselves, or rather God spake in them, \"Why am I here? how came\nI here? who brought me here? What am I to do here?\" Perhaps it was\nthe first act of reason, the beginning of their real responsibility,\nthe commencement of their trial; perhaps from that day they may date\ntheir capacity, their awful power, of choosing between good and\nevil, and of committing mortal sin. And so, as life goes on, the\nthought comes vividly, from time to time, for a short season across\ntheir conscience; whether in illness, or in some anxiety, or at some\nseason of solitude, or on hearing some preacher, or reading some\nreligious work. A vivid feeling comes over them of the vanity and\nunprofitableness of the world, and then the question recurs, \"Why\nthen am I sent into it?\"\n\nAnd a great contrast indeed does this vain, unprofitable, yet\noverbearing world present with such a question as that. It seems\nout of place to ask such a question in so magnificent, so imposing\na presence, as that of the great Babylon. The world professes to\nsupply all that we need, as if we were sent into it for the sake\nof being sent here, and for nothing beyond the sending. It is a\ngreat favor to have an introduction to this august world. This is\nto be our exposition, forsooth, of the mystery of life. Every man\nis doing his own will here, seeking his own pleasure, pursuing his\nown ends; that is why he was brought into existence. Go abroad\ninto the streets of the populous city, contemplate the continuous\noutpouring there of human energy, and the countless varieties\nof human character, and be satisfied! The ways are thronged,\ncarriage-way and pavement; multitudes are hurrying to and fro, each\non his own errand, or are loitering about from listlessness, or from\nwant of work, or have come forth into the public concourse, to see\nand to be seen, for amusement or for display, or on the excuse of\nbusiness. The carriages of the wealthy mingle with the slow wains\nladen with provisions or merchandise, the productions of art or the\ndemands of luxury. The streets are lined with shops, open and gay,\ninviting customers, and widen now and then into some spacious square\nor place, with lofty masses of brickwork or of stone, gleaming in\nthe fitful sunbeam, and surrounded or fronted with what simulates\na garden's foliage. Follow them in another direction, and you\nfind the whole groundstead covered with large buildings, planted\nthickly up and down, the homes of the mechanical arts. The air is\nfilled, below, with a ceaseless, importunate, monotonous din, which\npenetrates even to your innermost chamber, and rings in your ears\neven when you are not conscious of it; and overhead, with a canopy\nof smoke, shrouding God's day from the realms of obstinate, sullen\ntoil. This is the end of man!\n\nOr stay at home, and take up one of those daily prints, which\nare so true a picture of the world; look down the columns of\nadvertisements, and you will see the catalog of pursuits, projects,\naims, anxieties, amusements, indulgences which occupy the mind of\nman. He plays many parts: here he has goods to sell, there he wants\nemployment; there again he seeks to borrow money, here he offers you\nhouses, great seats or small tenements; he has food for the million,\nand luxuries for the wealthy, and sovereign medicines for the\ncredulous, and books, new and cheap, for the inquisitive. Pass on\nto the news of the day, and you will learn what great men are doing\nat home and abroad: you will read of wars and rumors of wars; of\ndebates in the legislature; of rising men, and old statesmen going\noff the scene; of political contests in this city or that country;\nof the collision of rival interests. You will read of the money\nmarket, and the provision market, and the market for metals; of the\nstate of trade, the call for manufactures, news of ships arrived\nin port, of accidents at sea, of exports and imports, of gains and\nlosses, of frauds and their detection. Go forward, and you arrive at\ndiscoveries in art and science, discoveries (so-called) in religion,\nthe court and royalty, the entertainments of the great, places of\namusement, strange trials, offenses, accidents, escapes, exploits,\nexperiments, contests, ventures. Oh, this curious restless,\nclamorous, panting being, which we call life!--and is there to be\nno end to all this? Is there no object in it? It never has an end,\nit is forsooth its own object!\n\nAnd now, once more, my brethren, put aside what you see and what\nyou read of the world, and try to penetrate into the hearts, and to\nreach the ideas and the feelings of those who constitute it; look\ninto them as closely as you can; enter into their houses and private\nrooms; strike at random through the streets and lanes: take as they\ncome, palace and hovel, office or factory, and what will you find?\nListen to their words, witness, alas! their works; you will find in\nthe main the same lawless thoughts, the same unrestrained desires,\nthe same ungoverned passions, the same earthly opinions, the same\nwilful deeds, in high and low, learned and unlearned; you will find\nthem all to be living for the sake of living; they one and all seem\nto tell you, \"We are our own center, our own end.\" Why are they\ntoiling? why are they scheming? for what are they living? \"We live\nto please ourselves; life is worthless except we have our own way;\nwe are not sent here at all, but we find ourselves here, and we are\nbut slaves unless we can think what we will, believe what we will,\nlove what we will, hate what we will, do what we will. We detest\ninterference on the part of God or man. We do not bargain to be rich\nor to be great; but we do bargain, whether rich or poor, high or\nlow, to live for ourselves, to live for the lust of the moment, or,\naccording to the doctrine of the hour, thinking of the future and\nthe unseen just as much or as little as we please.\"\n\nOh, my brethren, is it not a shocking thought, but who can deny its\ntruth? The multitude of men are living without any aim beyond this\nvisible scene; they may from time to time use religious words, or\nthey may profess a communion or a worship, as a matter of course,\nor of expedience, or of duty, but, if there was sincerity in such\nprofession, the course of the world could not run as it does. What\na contrast is all this to the end of life, as it is set before us\nin our most holy faith! If there was one among the sons of men, who\nmight allowably have taken his pleasure, and have done his own will\nhere below, surely it was He who came down on earth from the bosom\nof the Father, and who was so pure and spotless in that human nature\nwhich He put on Him, that He could have no human purpose or aim\ninconsistent with the will of His Father. Yet He, the Son of God,\nthe Eternal Word, came, not to do His own will, but His who sent\nHim, as you know very well is told us again and again in Scripture.\nThus the Prophet in the Psalter, speaking in His person, says, \"Lo,\nI come to do thy will, O God.\" And He says in the Prophet Isaiah,\n\"The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I do not resist; I have\nnot gone back.\" And in the gospel, when He hath come on earth,\n\"My food is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his\nwork.\" Hence, too, in His agony, He cried out, \"Not my will, but\nthine, be done;\" and St. Paul, in like manner, says, that \"Christ\npleased not himself;\" and elsewhere, that, \"tho he was God's Son,\nyet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.\" Surely\nso it was; as being indeed the eternal coequal Son, His will was\none and the same with the Father's will, and He had no submission\nof will to make; but He chose to take on Him man's nature and the\nwill of that nature; he chose to take on Him affections, feelings,\nand inclinations proper to man, a will innocent indeed and good,\nbut still a man's will, distinct from God's will; a will, which,\nhad it acted simply according to what was pleasing to its nature,\nwould, when pain and toil were to be endured, have held back from an\nactive cooperation with the will of God. But, tho He took on Himself\nthe nature of man, He took not on Him that selfishness, with which\nfallen man wraps himself round, but in all things He devoted Himself\nas a ready sacrifice to His Father. He came on earth, not to take\nHis pleasure, not to follow His taste, not for the mere exercise\nof human affection, but simply to glorify His Father and to do His\nwill. He came charged with a mission, deputed for a work; He looked\nnot to the right nor to the left, He thought not of Himself, He\noffered Himself up to God.\n\nHence it is that He was carried in the womb of a poor woman,\nwho, before His birth, had two journeys to make, of love and of\nobedience, to the mountains and to Bethlehem. He was born in a\nstable, and laid in a manger. He was hurried off to Egypt to sojourn\nthere; then He lived till He was thirty years of age in a poor way,\nby a rough trade, in a small house, in a despised town. Then, when\nHe went out to preach, He had not where to lay His head; He wandered\nup and down the country, as a stranger upon earth. He was driven out\ninto the wilderness, and dwelt among the wild beasts. He endured\nheat and cold, hunger and weariness, reproach and calumny. His\nfood was coarse bread, and fish from the lake, or depended on the\nhospitality of strangers. And as He had already left His Father's\ngreatness on high, and had chosen an earthly home; so again, at\nthat Father's bidding, He gave up the sole solace given Him in this\nworld, and denied Himself His mother's presence. He parted with her\nwho bore Him; He endured to be strange to her; He endured to call\nher coldly \"woman,\" who was His own undefiled one, all beautiful,\nall gracious, the best creature of His hands, and the sweet nurse of\nHis infancy. He put her aside, as Levi, His type, merited the sacred\nministry, by saying to His parents and kinsmen, \"I know you not.\"\nHe exemplified in His own person the severe maxim, which He gave to\nHis disciples, \"He that loveth more than me is not worthy of me.\"\nIn all these many ways He sacrificed every wish of His own; that we\nmight understand, that, if He, the Creator, came into His world, not\nfor His own pleasure, but to do His Father's will, we too have most\nsurely some work to do, and have seriously to bethink ourselves what\nthat work is.\n\nYes, so it is; realize it, my brethren;--every one who breathes,\nhigh and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman,\nhas a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for\nnothing; we are not born at random; we are not here, that we may go\nto bed at night, and get up in the morning, toil for our bread, eat\nand drink, laugh and joke, sin when we have a mind, and reform when\nwe are tired of sinning, rear a family and die. God sees every one\nof us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in the body, one by one,\nfor a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has\nan end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are\nplaced in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can\nout of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ\nhad His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we\nmust rejoice in ours also.\n\nSt. Paul on one occasion speaks of the world as a scene in a\ntheater. Consider what is meant by this. You know, actors on a stage\nare on an equality with each other really, but for the occasion they\nassume a difference of character; some are high, some are low, some\nare merry, and some sad. Well, would it not be simple absurdity\nin any actor to pride himself on his mock diadem, or his edgeless\nsword, instead of attending to his part? What, if he did but gaze at\nhimself and his dress? what, if he secreted, or turned to his own\nuse, what was valuable in it? Is it not his business, and nothing\nelse, to act his part well? Common sense tells us so. Now we are\nall but actors in this world; we are one and all equal, we shall be\njudged as equals as soon as life is over; yet, equal and similar in\nourselves, each has his special part at present, each has his work,\neach has his mission,--not to indulge his passions, not to make\nmoney, not to get a name in the world, not to save himself trouble,\nnot to follow his bent, not to be selfish and self-willed, but to do\nwhat God puts on him to do.\n\nLook at the poor profligate in the gospel, look at Dives; do you\nthink he understood that his wealth was to be spent, not on himself,\nbut for the glory of God?--yet forgetting this, he was lost for\never and ever. I will tell you what he thought, and how he viewed\nthings: he was a young man, and had succeeded to a good estate,\nand he determined to enjoy himself. It did not strike him that his\nwealth had any other use than that of enabling him to take his\npleasure. Lazarus lay at his gate; he might have relieved Lazarus;\nthat was God's will; but he managed to put conscience aside, and\nhe persuaded himself he should be a fool, if he did not make the\nmost of this world, while he had the means. So he resolved to have\nhis fill of pleasure; and feasting was to his mind a principal part\nof it. \"He fared sumptuously every day\"; everything belonging to\nhim was in the best style, as men speak; his house, his furniture,\nhis plate of silver and gold, his attendants, his establishments.\nEverything was for enjoyment, and for show, too; to attract the\neyes of the world, and to gain the applause and admiration of his\nequals, who were the companions of his sins. These companions were\ndoubtless such as became a person of such pretensions; they were\nfashionable men; a collection of refined, high-bred, haughty men,\neating, not gluttonously, but what was rare and costly; delicate,\nexact, fastidious in their taste, from their very habits of\nindulgence; not eating for the mere sake of eating, or drinking for\nthe mere sake of drinking, but making a sort of science of their\nsensuality; sensual, carnal, as flesh and blood can be, with eyes,\nears, tongue steeped in impurity, every thought, look, and sense,\nwitnessing or ministering to the evil one who ruled them; yet, with\nexquisite correctness of idea and judgment, laying down rules for\nsinning;--heartless and selfish, high, punctilious, and disdainful\nin their outward deportment, and shrinking from Lazarus, who lay at\nthe gate, as an eye-sore, who ought for the sake of decency to be\nput out of the way. Dives was one of such, and so he lived his short\nspan, thinking of nothing but himself, till one day he got into a\nfatal quarrel with one of his godless associates, or he caught some\nbad illness; and then he lay helpless on his bed of pain, cursing\nfortune and his physician that he was no better, and impatient that\nhe was thus kept from enjoying his youth, trying to fancy himself\nmending when he was getting worse, and disgusted at those who would\nnot throw him some word of comfort in his suspense, and turning more\nresolutely from his Creator in proportion to his suffering;--and\nthen at last his day came, and he died, and (oh! miserable!) \"was\nburied in hell.\" And so ended he and his mission.\n\nThis was the fate of your pattern and idol, oh, ye, if any of you\nbe present, young men, who, tho not possest of wealth and rank, yet\naffect the fashions of those who have them. You, my brethren, have\nnot been born splendidly, or nobly; you have not been brought up\nin the seats of liberal education; you have no high connections;\nyou have not learned the manners nor caught the tone of good\nsociety; you have no share of the largeness of mind, the candor, the\nromantic sense of honor, the correctness of taste, the consideration\nfor others, and the gentleness which the world puts forth as its\nhighest type of excellence; you have not come near the courts of the\nmansions of the great; yet you ape the sin of Dives, while you are\nstrangers to his refinement. You think it the sign of a gentleman\nto set yourselves above religion; to criticize the religious and\nprofessors of religion; to look at Catholic and Methodist with\nimpartial contempt; to gain a smattering of knowledge on a number of\nsubjects; to dip into a number of frivolous publications, if they\nare popular; to have read the latest novel; to have heard the singer\nand seen the actor of the day; to be well up with the news; to know\nthe names and, if so be, the persons of public men, to be able to\nbow to them; to walk up and down the street with your heads on high,\nand to stare at whatever meets you; and to say and do worse things,\nof which these outward extravagances are but the symbol. And this\nis what you conceive you have come upon the earth for! The Creator\nmade you, it seems, oh, my children, for this work and office, to\nbe a bad imitation of polished ungodliness, to be a piece of tawdry\nand faded finery, or a scent which has lost its freshness, and does\nnot but offend the sense! O! that you could see how absurd and base\nare such pretenses in the eyes of any but yourselves! No calling of\nlife but is honorable; no one is ridiculous who acts suitably to\nhis calling and estate; no one, who has good sense and humility,\nbut may, in any state of life, be truly well-bred and refined;\nbut ostentation, affectation, and ambitious efforts are, in every\nstation of life, high or low, nothing but vulgarities. Put them\naside, despise them yourselves. Oh, my very dear sons, whom I love,\nand whom I would fain serve;--oh, that you could feel that you have\nsouls! oh, that you would have mercy on your souls! oh, that, before\nit is too late, you would betake yourselves to Him who is the source\nof all that is truly high and magnificent and beautiful, all that is\nbright and pleasant and secure what you ignorantly seek, in Him whom\nyou so wilfully, so awfully despise!\n\nHe, alone, the Son of God, \"the brightness of the Eternal Light, and\nthe spotless mirror of His Majesty,\" is the source of all good and\nall happiness to rich and poor, high and low. If you were ever so\nhigh, you would need Him; if you were ever so low, you could offend\nHim. The poor can offend Him; the poor man can neglect his divinely\nappointed mission as well as the rich. Do not suppose, my brethren,\nthat what I have said against the upper or the middle class will\nnot, if you happen to be poor, also lie against you. Though a man\nwere as poor as Lazarus, he could be as guilty as Dives. If you\nwere resolved to degrade yourselves to the brutes of the field,\nwho have no reason and no conscience, you need not wealth or rank\nto enable you to do so. Brutes have no wealth; they have no pride\nof life; they have no purple and fine linen, no splendid table, no\nretinue of servants, and yet they are brutes. They are brutes by the\nlaw of their nature; they are the poorest among the poor; there is\nnot a vagrant and outcast who is so poor as they; they differ from\nhim, not in their possessions, but in their want of a soul, in that\nhe has a mission and they have not, he can sin and they can not. Oh,\nmy brethren, it stands to reason, a man may intoxicate himself with\na cheap draft, as well as with a costly one; he may steal another's\nmoney for his appetites, though he does not waste his own upon them;\nhe may break through the natural and social laws which encircle him,\nand profane the sanctity of family duties, tho he be not a child of\nnobles, but a peasant or artisan,--nay, and perhaps he does so more\nfrequently than they. This is not the poor's blessedness, that he\nhas less temptations to self-indulgence, for he has as many, but\nthat from his circumstances he receives the penances and corrections\nof self-indulgence. Poverty is the mother of many pains and sorrows\nin their season, and these are God's messengers to lead the soul\nto repentance; but, alas! if the poor man indulges his passions,\nthinks little of religion, puts off repentance, refuses to make an\neffort, and dies without conversion, it matters nothing that he\nwas poor in this world, it matters nothing that he was less daring\nthan the rich, it matters not that he promised himself God's favor,\nthat he sent for the priest when death came, and received the last\nsacraments; Lazarus too, in that case, shall be buried with Dives in\nhell, and shall have had his consolation neither in this world nor\nin the world to come.\n\nMy brethren, the simple question is, whatever a man's rank in life\nmay be, does he in that rank perform the work which God has given\nhim to do? Now then, let me turn to others, of a very different\ndescription, and let me hear what they will say, when the question\nis asked them. Why, they will parry it thus: \"You give us no\nalternative,\" they will say to me, \"except that of being sinners or\nsaints. You put before us our Lord's pattern, and you spread before\nus the guilt and ruin of the deliberate transgressor; whereas we\nhave no intention of going so far one way or the other; we do not\naim at being saints, but we have no desire at all to be sinners. We\nneither intend to disobey God's will, nor to give up our own. Surely\nthere is a middle way, and a safe one, in which God's will and our\nwill may both be satisfied. We mean to enjoy both this world and the\nnext. We will guard against mortal sin; we are not obliged to guard\nagainst venial; indeed it would be endless to attempt it. None but\nsaints do so; it is the work of a life; we need have nothing else\nto do. We are not monks, we are in the world, we are in business,\nwe are parents, we have families; we must live for the day. It is a\nconsolation to keep from mortal sin; that we do, and it is enough\nfor salvation. It is a great thing to keep in God's favor; what\nindeed can we desire more? We come at due time to the sacraments;\nthis is our comfort and our stay; did we die, we should die in\ngrace, and escape the doom of the wicked. But if we once attempted\nto go further, where should we stop? how will you draw the line\nfor us? The line between mortal and venial sin is very distinct;\nwe understand that; but do you not see that, if we attended to our\nvenial sins, there would be just as much reason to attend to one as\nto another? If we began to repress our anger, why not also repress\nvainglory? Why not also guard against niggardliness? Why not also\nkeep from falsehood, from gossiping, from idling, from excess in\neating? And, after all, without venial sin we never can be, unless\nindeed we have the prerogative of the Mother of God, which it would\nbe almost heresy to ascribe to any one but her. You are not asking\nus to be converted; that we understand; we are converted, we were\nconverted a long time ago. You bid us aim at an indefinite vague\nsomething, which is less than perfection, yet more than obedience,\nand which, without resulting in any tangible advantage, debars us\nfrom the pleasures and embarrasses us in the duties of this world.\"\n\nThis is what you will say; but your premises, my brethren, are\nbetter than your reasoning, and your conclusions will not stand.\nYou have a right view why God has sent you into the world; viz., in\norder that you may get to heaven; it is quite true also that you\nwould fare well indeed if you found yourselves there, you could\ndesire nothing better; nor, it is true, can you live any time\nwithout venial sin. It is true also that you are not obliged to aim\nat being saints; it is no sin not to aim at perfection. So much\nis true and to the purpose; but it does not follow from it that\nyou, with such views and feelings as you have exprest, are using\nsufficient exertions even for attaining purgatory. Has your religion\nany difficulty in it, or is it in all respects easy to you? Are you\nsimply taking your own pleasure in your mode of living, or do you\nfind your pleasure in submitting yourself to God's pleasure? In a\nword, is your religion a work? For if it be not, it is not religion\nat all. Here at once, before going into your argument, is a proof\nthat it is an unsound one, because it brings you to the conclusion\nthat, whereas Christ came to do a work, and all saints, nay, nay,\nand sinners to do a work too, you, on the contrary, have no work to\ndo, because, forsooth, you are neither sinners nor saints; or, if\nyou once had a work, at least that you have despatched it already,\nand you have nothing upon your hands. You have attained your\nsalvation, it seems, before your time, and have nothing to occupy\nyou, and are detained on earth too long. The work days are over,\nand your perpetual holiday is begun. Did then God send you, above\nall other men, into the world to be idle in spiritual matters? Is\nit your mission only to find pleasure in this world, in which you\nare but as pilgrims and sojourners? Are you more than sons of Adam,\nwho, by the sweat of their brow, are to eat bread till they return\nto the earth out of which they are taken? Unless you have some\nwork in hand, unless you are struggling, unless you are fighting\nwith yourselves, you are no followers of those who \"through many\ntribulations entered into the kingdom of God.\" A fight is the very\ntoken of a Christian. He is a soldier of Christ; high or low, he is\nthis and nothing else. If you have triumphed over all mortal sin,\nas you seem to think, then you must attack your venial sins; there\nis no help for it; there is nothing else to do, if you would be\nsoldiers of Jesus Christ. But, oh, simple souls! to think you have\ngained any triumph at all! No; you cannot safely be at peace with\nany, even the least malignant, of the foes of God; if you are at\npeace with venial sins, be certain that in their company and under\ntheir shadow mortal sins are lurking. Mortal sins are the children\nof venial, which, tho they be not deadly themselves, yet are\nprolific of death. You may think that you have killed the giants who\nhad possession of your hearts, and that you have nothing to fear,\nbut may sit at rest under your vine and under your fig-tree; but the\ngiants will live again, they will rise from the dust, and, before\nyou know where you are, you will be taken captive and slaughtered by\nthe fierce, powerful, and eternal enemies of God.\n\nThe end of a thing is the test. It was our Lord's rejoicing in His\nlast solemn hour, that He had done the work for which He was sent.\n\"I have glorified thee on earth.\" He says in His prayer, \"I have\nfinished the work which thou gavest me to do; I have manifested\nthy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world.\" It\nwas St. Paul's consolation also, \"I have fought the good fight, I\nhave finished the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there\nis laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord shall render\nto me in that day, the just judge.\" Alas! alas! how different will\nbe our view of things when we come to die, or when we have passed\ninto eternity, from the dreams and pretenses with which we beguile\nourselves now! What will Babel do for us then? Will it rescue our\nsouls from the purgatory or the hell to which it sends them? If we\nwere created, it was that we might serve God; if we have His gifts,\nit is that we may glorify Him; if we have a conscience, it is that\nwe may obey it; if we have the prospect of heaven, it is that we\nmay keep it before us; if we have light, that we may follow it, if\nwe have grace, that we may save ourselves by means of it. Alas!\nalas! for those who die without fulfilling their mission; who were\ncalled to be holy, and lived in sin; who were called to worship\nChrist, and who plunged into this giddy and unbelieving world; who\nwere called to fight, and who remained idle; who were called to be\nCatholics, and who did but remain in the religion of their birth!\nAlas for those who have had gifts and talent, and have not used, or\nhave misused, or abused them; who have had wealth, and have spent\nit on themselves; who have had abilities, and have advocated what\nwas sinful, or ridiculed what was true, or scattered doubts against\nwhat was sacred; who have had leisure, and have wasted it on wicked\ncompanions, or evil books, or foolish amusements! Alas! for those of\nwhom the best can be said is, that they are harmless and naturally\nblameless, while they never have attempted to cleanse their hearts\nor to live in God's sight!\n\nThe world goes on from age to age, but the Holy Angels and Blessed\nSaints are always crying Alas, alas! and Wo, wo! over the loss of\nvocations, and the disappointment of hopes, and the scorn of God's\nlove, and the ruin of souls. One generation succeeds another, and\nwhenever they look down upon earth from their golden thrones, they\nsee scarcely anything but a multitude of guardian spirits, downcast\nand sad, each following his own charge, in anxiety, or in terror,\nor in despair, vainly endeavoring to shield him from the enemy,\nand failing because he will not be shielded. Times come and go,\nand man will not believe, that that is to be which is not yet, or\nthat what now is only continues for a season, and is not eternity.\nThe end is the trial; the world passes; it is but a pageant and a\nscene; the lofty palace crumbles, the busy city is mute, the ships\nof Tarshish have sped away. On heart and flesh death is coming; the\nveil is breaking. Departing soul, how hast thou used thy talents,\nthy opportunities, the light poured around thee, the warnings given\nthee, the grace inspired into thee? Oh, my Lord and Savior, support\nme in that hour in the strong arms of Thy sacraments, and by the\nfresh fragrance of Thy consolations. Let the absolving words be said\nover me, and the holy oil sign and seal me, and Thy own body be my\nfood, and Thy blood my sprinkling; and let my sweet mother Mary\nbreathe on me, and my angel whisper peace to me, and my glorious\nsaints, and my own dear father, Philip, smile on me; that in them\nall, and through them all, I may receive the gift of perseverance,\nand die, as I desire to live, in Thy faith, in Thy Church, in Thy\nservice, and in Thy love.\n\n\n\n\nBUSHNELL\n\nUNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE\n\n\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nHORACE BUSHNELL was born at Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1802.\nGraduated at Yale 1827. In 1833 he became pastor of the North\nCongregational Church, Hartford, Conn., resigned in 1859 and died\nin 1876. He wrote many theological works. Among them \"Christian\nNurture\" (1847), a book now looked upon as of classical authority.\nConsiderable discussion among Calvinists was aroused by his \"Nature\nand the Supernatural,\" and his \"The Vicarious Sacrifice\" (1865) as\nbeing out of accord with the accepted creeds of the Congregational\nchurches. He lacked the sympathy and dramatic instinct necessary\nto great oratorical achievement, but his sermons prove by their\nprofound suggestiveness that he was a man of keen spiritual insight,\nand preached with force and impressiveness. His influence upon the\nministers of America in modifying theology and remolding the general\ntype of preaching is fairly comparable with that of Robertson.\n\n\n\n\nBUSHNELL\n\n1802-1876\n\nUNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE[4]\n\n  [4] From \"Sermons for the New Life,\" published by Charles Scribner's\n  Sons.\n\n_Then went in also that other disciple._--John xx., 8.\n\n\nIn this slight touch or turn of history, is opened to us, if we scan\nclosely, one of the most serious and fruitful chapters of Christian\ndoctrine. Thus it is that men are ever touching unconsciously the\nsprings of motion in each other; thus it is that one man, without\nthought or intention, or even a consciousness of the fact, is ever\nleading some other after him. Little does Peter think, as he comes\nup where his doubting brother is looking into the sepulcher, and\ngoes straight in, after his peculiar manner, that he is drawing in\nhis brother apostle after him. As little does John think, when he\nloses his misgivings, and goes into the sepulcher after Peter, that\nhe is following his brother. And just so, unaware to himself, is\nevery man, the whole race through, laying hold of his fellow-man, to\nlead him where otherwise he would not go. We overrun the boundaries\nof our personality--we flow together. A Peter leads a John, a John\ngoes after Peter, both of them unconscious of any influence exerted\nor received. And thus our life and conduct are ever propagating\nthemselves, by a law of social contagion, throughout the circles and\ntimes in which we live.\n\nThere are, then, you will perceive, two sorts of influence belonging\nto man; that which is active or voluntary, and that which is\nunconscious--that which we exert purposely or in the endeavor\nto sway another, as by teaching, by argument, by persuasion, by\nthreatenings, by offers and promises, and that which flows out from\nus, unaware to ourselves, the same which Peter had over John when\nhe led him into the sepulcher. The importance of our efforts to do\ngood, that is of our voluntary influence, and the sacred obligation\nwe are under to exert ourselves in this way, are often and seriously\ninsisted on. It is thus that Christianity has become, in the present\nage, a principle of so much greater activity than it has been for\nmany centuries before; and we fervently hope that it will yet become\nfar more active than it now is, nor cease to multiply its industry,\ntill it is seen by all mankind to embody the beneficence and the\nliving energy of Christ Himself.\n\nBut there needs to be reproduced, at the same time, and partly for\nthis object, a more thorough appreciation of the relative importance\nof that kind of influence or beneficence which is insensibly\nexerted. The tremendous weight and efficacy of this, compared with\nthe other, and the sacred responsibility laid upon us in regard to\nthis, are felt in no such degree or proportion as they should be;\nand the consequent loss we suffer in character, as well as that\nwhich the Church suffers in beauty and strength, is incalculable.\nThe more stress, too, needs to be laid on this subject of insensible\ninfluence, because it is insensible; because it is out of mind, and,\nwhen we seek to trace it, beyond a full discovery.\n\nIf the doubt occur to any of you, in the announcement of this\nsubject, whether we are properly responsible for an influence which\nwe exert insensibly; we are not, I reply, except so far as this\ninfluence flows directly from our character and conduct. And this\nit does, even much more uniformly than our active influence. In\nthe latter we may fail of our end by a want of wisdom or skill, in\nwhich case we are still as meritorious, in God's sight, as if we\nsucceeded. So, again, we may really succeed, and do great good by\nour active endeavors, from motives altogether base and hypocritical,\nin which case we are as evil, in God's sight, as if we had failed.\nBut the influences we exert unconsciously will almost never disagree\nwith our real character. They are honest influences, following our\ncharacter, as the shadow follows the sun. And, therefore, we are\nmuch more certainly responsible for them, and their effects on the\nworld. They go streaming from us in all directions, tho in channels\nthat we do not see, poisoning or healing around the roots of\nsociety, and among the hidden wells of character. If good ourselves,\nthey are good; if bad, they are bad. And, since they reflect so\nexactly our character, it is impossible to doubt our responsibility\nfor their effects on the world. We must answer not only for what\nwe do with a purpose, but for the influence we exert insensibly.\nTo give you any just impressions of the breadth and seriousness of\nsuch a reckoning I know to be impossible. No mind can trace it. But\nit will be something gained if I am able to awaken only a suspicion\nof the vast extent and power of those influences, which are ever\nflowing out unbidden upon society, from your life and character.\n\nIn the prosecution of my design, let me ask of you, first of all, to\nexpel the common prejudice that there can be nothing of consequence\nin unconscious influences, because they make no report, and fall on\nthe world unobserved. Histories and biographies make little account\nof the power men exert insensibly over each other. They tell how\nmen have led armies, established empires, enacted laws, gained\ncauses, sung, reasoned, and taught--always occupied in setting forth\nwhat they do with a purpose. But what they do without purpose, the\nstreams of influence that flow out from their persons unbidden on\nthe world, they can not trace or compute, and seldom even mention.\nSo also the public laws make men responsible only for what they\ndo with a positive purpose, and take no account of the mischiefs\nor benefits that are communicated by their noxious or healthful\nexample. The same is true in the discipline of families, churches,\nand schools; they make no account of the things we do, except we\nwill them. What we do insensibly passes for nothing, because no\nhuman government can trace such influences with sufficient certainty\nto make their authors responsible.\n\nBut you must not conclude that influences of this kind are\ninsignificant, because they are unnoticed and noiseless. How is it\nin the natural world? Behind the mere show, the outward noise and\nstir of the world, nature always conceals her hand of control, and\nthe laws by which she rules. Who ever saw with the eye, for example,\nor heard with the ear, the exertions of that tremendous astronomic\nforce, which every moment holds the compact of the physical universe\ntogether? The lightning is, in fact, but a mere firefly spark in\ncomparison; but, because it glares on the clouds, and thunders so\nterribly in the ear, and rives the tree or the rock where it falls,\nmany will be ready to think that it is a vastly more potent agent\nthan gravity.\n\nThe Bible calls the good man's life a light, and it is the nature\nof light to flow out spontaneously in all directions, and fill the\nworld unconsciously with its beams. So the Christian shines, it\nwould say, not so much because he will, as because he is a luminous\nobject. Not that the active influence of Christians is made of no\naccount in the figure, but only that this symbol of light has its\npropriety in the fact that their unconscious influence is the chief\ninfluence, and has the precedence in its power over the world. And\nyet, there are many who will be ready to think that light is a very\ntame and feeble instrument, because it is noiseless. An earthquake,\nfor example, is to them a much more vigorous and effective agency.\nHear how it comes thundering through solid foundations of nature.\nIt rocks a whole continent. The noblest works of man--cities,\nmonuments, and temples--are in a moment leveled to the ground, or\nswallowed down the opening gulfs of fire. Little do they think\nthat the light of every morning, the soft, and genial, and silent\nlight, is an agent many times more powerful. But let the light of\nthe morning cease and return no more, let the hour of morning come,\nand bring with it no dawn; the outcries of a horror-stricken world\nfill the air, and make, as it were, the darkness audible. The beasts\ngo wild and frantic at the loss of the sun. The vegetable growths\nturn pale and die. A chill creeps on, and frosty winds begin to howl\nacross the freezing earth. Colder, and yet colder, is the night.\nThe vital blood, at length, of all creatures, stops congealed.\nDown goes the frost toward the earth's center. The heart of the sea\nis frozen; nay, the earthquakes are themselves frozen in, under\ntheir fiery caverns. The very globe itself, too, and all the fellow\nplanets that have lost their sun, are become mere balls of ice,\nswinging silent in the darkness. Such is the light, which revisits\nus in the silence of the morning. It makes no shock or scar. It\nwould not wake an infant in his cradle. And yet it perpetually new\ncreates the world, rescuing it each morning, as a prey, from night\nand chaos. So the Christian is a light, even \"the light of the\nworld,\" and we must not think that, because he shines insensibly or\nsilently, as a mere luminous object, he is therefore powerless. The\ngreatest powers are ever those which lie back of the little stirs\nand commotion of nature; and I verily believe that the insensible\ninfluences of good men are much more potent than what I have called\ntheir voluntary, or active, as the great silent powers of nature are\nof greater consequence than her little disturbances and tumults. The\nlaw of human influences is deeper than many suspect, and they lose\nsight of it altogether. The outward endeavors made by good men or\nbad to sway others, they call their influence; whereas, it is, in\nfact, but a fraction, and, in most cases, but a very small fraction,\nof the good or evil that flows out of their lives. Nay, I will even\ngo further. How many persons do you meet, the insensible influence\nof whose manners and character is so decided as often to thwart\ntheir voluntary influence; so that, whatever they attempt to do,\nin the way of controlling others, they are sure to carry the exact\nopposite of what they intend! And it will generally be found that,\nwhere men undertake by argument or persuasion to exert a power, in\nthe face of qualities that make them odious or detestable, or only\nnot entitled to respect, their insensible influence will be too\nstrong for them. The total effect of the life is then of a kind\ndirectly opposite to the voluntary endeavor, which, of course, does\nnot add so much as a fraction to it.\n\nI call your attention, next, to the twofold powers of effect\nand expression by which man connects with his fellow man. If we\ndistinguish man as a creature of language, and thus qualified to\ncommunicate himself to others, there are in him two sets or kinds\nof language, one which is voluntary in the use, and one that\nis involuntary; that of speech in the literal sense, and that\nexpression of the eye, the face, the look, the gait, the motion, the\ntone of cadence, which is sometimes called the natural language of\nthe sentiments. This natural language, too, is greatly enlarged by\nthe conduct of life, that which, in business and society, reveals\nthe principles and spirit of men. Speech, or voluntary language, is\na door to the soul, that we may open or shut at will; the other is\na door that stands open evermore, and reveals to others constantly,\nand often very clearly, the tempers, tastes, and motives of their\nhearts. Within, as we may represent, is character, charging the\ncommon reservoir of influence, and through these twofold gates\nof the soul pouring itself out on the world. Out of one it flows\nat choice, and whensoever we purpose to do good or evil to men.\nOut of the other it flows each moment, as light from the sun, and\npropagates itself in all beholders.\n\nThen if we go to others, that is, to the subjects of influence, we\nfind every man endowed with two inlets of impression; the ear and\nthe understanding for the reception of speech, and the sympathetic\npowers, the sensibilities or affections, for tinder to those sparks\nof emotion revealed by looks, tones, manners and general conduct.\nAnd these sympathetic powers, tho not immediately rational, are yet\ninlets, open on all sides, to the understanding and character. They\nhave a certain wonderful capacity to receive impressions, and catch\nthe meaning of signs, and propagate in us whatsoever falls into\ntheir passive molds from others. The impressions they receive do not\ncome through verbal propositions, and are never received into verbal\npropositions, it may be, in the mind, and therefore many think\nnothing of them. But precisely on this account are they the more\npowerful, because it is as if one heart were thus going directly\ninto another, and carrying in its feelings with it. Beholding, as in\na glass, the feelings of our neighbor, we are changed into the same\nimage, by the assimilating power of sensibility and fellow-feeling.\nMany have gone so far, and not without show, at least, of reason, as\nto maintain that the look or expression, and even the very features\nof children, are often changed by exclusive intercourse with nurses\nand attendants. Furthermore, if we carefully consider, we shall\nfind it scarcely possible to doubt, that simply to look on bad and\nmalignant faces, or those whose expressions have become infected by\nvice, to be with them and become familiarized to them, is enough\npermanently to affect the character of persons of mature age. I do\nnot say that it must of necessity subvert their character, for the\nevil looked upon may never be loved or welcomed in practise; but it\nis something to have these bad images in the soul, giving out their\nexpressions there, and diffusing their odor among the thoughts, as\nlong as we live. How dangerous a thing is it, for example, for a\nman to become accustomed to sights of cruelty? What man, valuing\nthe honor of his soul, would not shrink from yielding himself to\nsuch an influence? No more is it a thing of indifference to become\naccustomed to look on the manners, and receive the bad expression of\nany kind of sin.\n\nThe door of involuntary communication, I have said, is always open.\nOf course we are communicating ourselves in this way to others at\nevery moment of our intercourse or presence with them. But how\nvery seldom, in comparison, do we undertake by means of speech to\ninfluence others! Even the best Christian, one who most improves\nhis opportunities to do good, attempts but seldom to sway another\nby voluntary influence, whereas he is all the while shining as a\nluminous object unawares, and communicating of his heart to the\nworld.\n\nBut there is yet another view of this double line of communication\nwhich man has with his fellow-men, which is more general, and\ndisplays the import of the truth yet more convincingly. It is\nby one of these modes of communication that we are constituted\nmembers of voluntary society, and by the other, parts of a general\nmass, or members of involuntary society. You are all, in a certain\nview, individuals, and separate as persons from each other; you\nare also, in a certain other view, parts of a common body, as\ntruly as the parts of a stone. Thus if you ask how it is that you\nand all men came without your consent to exist in society, to be\nwithin its power, to be under its laws, the answer is, that while\nyou are a man, you are also a fractional element of a larger and\nmore comprehensive being, called society--be it the family, the\nchurch, the state. In a certain department of your nature, it is\nopen; its sympathies and feelings are open. On this open side\nyou will adhere together, as parts of a larger nature, in which\nthere is a common circulation of want, impulse, and law. Being\nthus made common to each other voluntarily, you become one mass,\none consolidated social body, animated by one life. And observe\nhow far this involuntary communication and sympathy between the\nmembers of a state or a family is sovereign over their character. It\nalways results in what we call the national or family spirit; for\nthere is a spirit peculiar to every state and family in the world.\nSometimes, too, this national or family spirit takes a religious or\nan irreligious character, and appears almost to absorb the religious\nself-government of individuals. What was the national spirit of\nFrance, for example, at a certain time, but a spirit of infidelity?\nWhat is the religious spirit of Spain at this moment, but a spirit\nof bigotry, quite as wide of Christianity and destructive of\ncharacter as the spirit of falsehood? What is the family spirit in\nmany a house, but the spirit of gain, or pleasure, or appetite,\nin which everything that is warm, dignified, genial, and good in\nreligion, is visibly absent? Sometimes you will almost fancy that\nyou see the shapes of money in the eyes of children. So it is that\nwe are led on by nations, as it were, to good or bad immortality.\nFar down in the secret foundations of life and society there lie\nconcealed great laws and channels of influence, which make the race\ncommon to each other in all the main departments or divisions of\nthe social mass, laws which often escape our notice altogether, but\nwhich are to society as gravity to the general system of God's works.\n\nBut these are general considerations, and more fit, perhaps, to\ngive you a rational conception of the modes of influence and their\nrelative power, than to verify that conception, or establish its\ntruth. I now proceed to add, therefore, some miscellaneous proofs of\na more particular nature.\n\nAnd I mention, first of all, the instinct of imitation in children.\nWe begin our mortal experience, not with acts grounded in judgment\nor reason, or with ideas received through language, but by simple\nimitation, and, under the guidance of this, we lay our foundations.\nThe child looks and listens, and whatsoever tone of feeling or\nmanner of conduct is displayed around him, sinks into his plastic,\npassive soul, and becomes a mold of his being ever after. The very\nhandling of the nursery is significant, and the petulance, the\npassion, the gentleness, the tranquillity indicated by it, are all\nreproduced in the child. His soul is a purely receptive nature,\nand that for a considerable period, without choice or selection.\nA little further on he begins voluntarily to copy everything he\nsees. Voice, manner, gait, everything which the eye sees, the mimic\ninstinct delights to act over. And thus we have a whole generation\nof future men, receiving from us their beginnings, and the deepest\nimpulses of their life and immortality. They watch us every moment,\nin the family, before the hearth, and at the table; and when we are\nmeaning them no good or evil, when we are conscious of exerting no\ninfluence over them, they are drawing from us impressions and molds\nof habit, which, if wrong, no heavenly discipline can wholly remove;\nor, if right, no bad associations utterly dissipate. Now it may be\ndoubted, I think, whether, in all the active influence of our lives,\nwe do as much to shape the destiny of our fellow-men as we do in\nthis single article of unconscious influence over children.\n\nStill further on, respect for others takes the place of imitation.\nWe naturally desire the approbation or good opinion of others. You\nsee the strength of this feeling in the article of fashion. How few\npersons have the nerve to resist a fashion! We have fashions, too,\nin literature, and in worship, and in moral and religious doctrine,\nalmost equally powerful. How many will violate the best rules of\nsociety, because it is the practise of the circle! How many reject\nChrist because of friends or acquaintance, who have no suspicion of\nthe influence they exert, and will not have, till the last days\nshow them what they have done! Every good man has thus a power in\nhis person, more mighty than his words and arguments, and which\nothers feel when he little suspects it. Every bad man, too, has a\nfund of poison in his character, which is tainting those around him,\nwhen it is not in his thoughts to do them injury. He is read and\nunderstood. His sensual tastes and habits, his unbelieving spirit,\nhis suppressed leer at religions, have all a power, and take hold of\nthe heart of others, whether he will have it so or not.\n\nAgain, how well understood is it that the most active feelings and\nimpulses of mankind are contagious. How quick enthusiasm of any sort\nis to kindle, and how rapidly it catches from one to another, till a\nnation blazes in the flame! In the case of the Crusades you have an\nexample where the personal enthusiasm of one man put all the states\nof Europe in motion. Fanaticism is almost equally contagious. Fear\nand superstition always infect the mind of the circle in which they\nare manifested. The spirit of war generally becomes an epidemic of\nmadness, when once it has got possession of a few minds. The spirit\nof party is propagated in a similar manner. How any slight operation\nin the market may spread, like a fire, if successful, till trade\nruns wild in a general infatuation, is well known. Now, in all these\nexamples, the effect is produced, not by active endeavor to carry\ninfluence, but mostly by that insensible propagation which follows,\nwhen a flame of any kind is once more kindled.\n\nIt is also true, you may ask, that the religious spirit propagates\nitself or tends to propagate itself in the same way? I see no\nreason to question that it does. Nor does anything in the doctrine\nof spiritual influences, when rightly understood, forbid the\nsupposition. For spiritual influences are never separated from the\nlaws of thought in the individual, and the laws of feeling and\ninfluence in society. If, too, every disciple is to be an \"epistle\nknown and read of all men,\" what shall we expect, but that all men\nwill be somehow affected by the reading? Or if he is to be a light\nin the world, what shall we look for, but that others, seeing his\ngood works, shall glorify God on his account? How often is it seen,\ntoo, as a fact of observation, that one or a few good men kindle at\nlength a holy fire in the community in which they live, and become\nthe leaven of general reformation! Such men give a more vivid proof\nin their persons of the reality of religious faith than any words or\narguments could yield. They are active; they endeavor, of course,\nto exert a good voluntary influence; but still their chief power\nlies in their holiness and the sense they produce in others of their\nclose relation to God.\n\nIt now remains to exhibit the very important fact, that where the\ndirect or active influence of men is supposed to be great, even\nthis is due, in a principal degree, to that insensible influence\nby which their arguments, reproofs, and persuasions are secretly\ninvigorating. It is not mere words which turn men; it is the heart\nmounting, uncalled, into the expression of the features; it is the\neye illuminated by reason, the look beaming with goodness; it is\nthe tone of the voice, that instrument of the soul, which changes\nquality with such amazing facility, and gives out in the soft,\nthe tender, the tremulous, the firm, every shade of emotion and\ncharacter. And so much is there in this, that the moral stature and\ncharacter of the man that speaks are likely to be well represented\nin his manner. If he is a stranger, his way will inspire confidence\nand attract good will. His virtues will be seen, as it were,\ngathering round him to minister words and forms of thought, and\ntheir voices will be heard in the fall of his cadences. And the\nsame is true of bad men, or men who have nothing in their character\ncorresponding to what they attempt to do. If without heart or\ninterest you attempt to move another, the involuntary man tells what\nyou are doing in a hundred ways at once. A hypocrite, endeavoring to\nexert a good influence, only tries to convey by words what the lying\nlook, and the faithless affectation, or dry exaggeration of his\nmanner perpetually resists. We have it for a fashion to attribute\ngreat or even prodigious results to the voluntary efforts and labors\nof men. Whatever they effect is commonly referred to nothing but\nthe immediate power of what they do. Let us take an example, like\nthat of Paul, and analyze it. Paul was a man of great fervor and\nenthusiasm. He combined, withal, more of what is lofty and morally\ncommanding in his character, than most of the very distinguished men\nof the world. Having this for his natural character, and his natural\ncharacter exalted and made luminous by Christian faith, and the\nmanifest indwelling of God, he had of course an almost superhuman\nsway over others. Doubtless he was intelligent, strong in argument,\neloquent, active, to the utmost of his powers, but still he moved\nthe world more by what he was than by what he did. The grandeur and\nspiritual splendor of his character were ever adding to his active\nefforts an element of silent power, which was the real and chief\ncause of their efficacy. He convinced, subdued, inspired, and led,\nbecause of the half-divine authority which appeared in his conduct,\nand his glowing spirit. He fought the good fight, because he kept\nthe faith, and filled his powerful nature with influences drawn from\nhigher worlds.\n\nAnd here I must conduct you to a yet higher example, even that\nof the Son of God, the light of the world. Men dislike to be\nswayed by direct, voluntary influence. They are jealous of such\ncontrol, and are therefore best approached by conduct and feeling,\nand the authority of simple worth, which seem to make no purposed\nonset. If goodness appears, they welcome its celestial smile; if\nheaven descends to encircle them, they yield to its sweetness; if\ntruth appears in the life, they honor it with a secret homage; if\npersonal majesty and glory appear, they bow with reverence, and\nacknowledge with shame their own vileness. Now it is on this side\nof human nature that Christ visits us, preparing just that kind\nof influence which the spirit of truth may wield with the most\npersuasive and subduing effect. It is the grandeur of His character\nwhich constitutes the chief power of His ministry, not His miracles\nor teachings apart from His character. Miracles were useful, at\nthe time, to arrest attention, and His doctrine is useful at all\ntimes as the highest revelation of truth possible in speech; but\nthe greatest truth of the gospel, notwithstanding, is Christ\nHimself--a human body becomes the organ of the divine nature, and\nreveals, under the conditions of an earthly life, the glory of\nGod! The Scripture writers have much to say, in this connection,\nof the image of God; and an image, you know, is that which simply\nrepresents, not that which acts, or reasons, or persuades. Now it\nis this image of God which makes the center, the sun itself, of the\ngospel. The journeyings, teachings, miracles, and sufferings of\nChrist, all had their use in bringing out this image, or what is the\nsame, in making conspicuous the character and feelings of God, both\ntoward sinners and toward sin. And here is the power of Christ--it\nis that God's beauty, love, truth, and justice shines through Him.\nIt is the influence which flows unconsciously and spontaneously\nout of Christ, as the friend of man, the light of the world, the\nglory of the Father, made visible. And some have gone so far as to\nconjecture that God made the human person, originally, with a view\nto its becoming the organ or vehicle by which He might reveal His\ncommunicable attributes to other worlds. Christ, they believe, came\nto inhabit this organ, that He might execute a purpose so sublime.\nThe human person is constituted, they say, to be a mirror of God;\nand God, being imaged in that mirror, as in Christ, is held up to\nthe view of this and other worlds. It certainly is to the view of\nthis; and if the Divine nature can use the organ so effectively to\nexpress itself unto us, if it can bring itself, through the looks,\ntones, motions, and conduct of a human person, more close to our\nsympathies than by any other means, how can we think that an organ\nso communicative, inhabited by us, is not always breathing our\nspirit and transferring our image insensibly to others?\n\nI have protracted the argument on this subject beyond what I could\nhave wished, but I can not dismiss it without suggesting a few\nthoughts necessary to its complete practical effect.\n\nOne very obvious and serious inference from it, and the first which\nI will name, is, that it is impossible to live in this world and\nescape responsibility. It is not that they alone, as you have seen,\nwho are trying purposely to convert or corrupt others, who exert an\ninfluence; you can not live without exerting influence. The doors\nof your soul are open on others, and theirs on you. You inhabit\na house which is well-nigh transparent; and what you are within,\nyou are ever showing yourself to be without, by signs that have no\nambiguous expression. If you had the seeds of a pestilence in your\nbody, you would not have a more active contagion than you have in\nyour tempers, tastes, and principles. Simply to be in this world,\nwhatever you are, is to exert an influence--an influence, too,\ncompared with which mere language and persuasion are feeble. You\nsay that you mean well; at least, you think you mean to injure no\none. Do you injure no one? Is your example harmless? Is it ever on\nthe side of God and duty? You can not reasonably doubt that others\nare continually receiving impressions from your character. As\nlittle you can doubt that you must answer for these impressions. If\nthe influence you exert is unconsciously exerted, then it is only\nthe most sincere, the truest expression of your character. And for\nwhat can you be held responsible, if not for this? Do not deceive\nyourselves in the thought that you are at least doing no injury, and\nare, therefore, living without responsibility; first, make it sure\nthat you are not every hour infusing moral death insensibly into\nyour children, wives, husbands, friends, and acquaintances. By a\nmere look or glance, not unlikely, you are conveying the influence\nthat shall turn the scale of some one's immortality. Dismiss,\ntherefore, the thought that you are living without responsibility;\nthat is impossible. Better is it frankly to admit the truth; and if\nyou will risk the influence of a character unsanctified by duty and\nreligion, prepare to meet your reckoning manfully, and receive the\njust recompense of reward.\n\nThe true philosophy or method of doing good is also here explained.\nIt is, first of all and principally, to be good--to have a character\nthat will of itself communicate good. There must and will be active\neffort where there is goodness of principle; but the latter we\nshould hold to be the principal thing, the root and life of all.\nWhether it is a mistake more sad or more ridiculous, to make mere\nstir synonymous with doing good, we need not inquire; enough, to\nbe sure that one who has taken up such a notion of doing good, is\nfor that reason a nuisance to the Church. The Christian is called\na light, not lightning. In order to act with effect on others, he\nmust walk in the Spirit, and thus become the image of goodness; he\nmust be so akin to God, and so filled with His dispositions, that\nhe shall seem to surround himself with a hallowed atmosphere. It is\nfolly to endeavor to make ourselves shine before we are luminous.\nIf the sun without his beams should talk to the planets, and argue\nwith them till the final day, it would not make them shine; there\nmust be light in the sun itself; and then they will shine, of\ncourse. And this, my brethren, is what God intends for you all.\nIt is the great idea of His gospel, and the work of His spirit,\nto make you lights in the world. His greatest joy is to give you\ncharacter, to beautify your example, to exalt your principles, and\nmake you each the depository of His own almighty grace. But in order\nto do this, something is necessary on your part--a full surrender\nof your mind to duty and to God, and a perpetual desire of this\nspiritual intimacy; having this, having a participation thus of the\ngoodness of God, you will as naturally communicate good as the sun\ncommunicates his beams.\n\nOur doctrine of unconscious and undesigning influence shows how\nit is, also, that the preaching of Christ is often unfruitful,\nand especially in times of spiritual coldness. It is not because\ntruth ceases to be truth, nor, of necessity, because it is preached\nin a less vivid manner, but because there are so many influences\npreaching against the preacher. He is one, the people are many;\nhis attempt to convince and persuade is a voluntary influence;\ntheir lives, on the other hand, and especially the lives of those\nwho profess what is better, are so many unconscious influences\never streaming forth upon the people, and back and forth between\neach other. He preaches the truth, and they, with one consent, are\npreaching the truth down; and how can he prevail against so many,\nand by a kind of influence so unequal? When the people of God are\nglowing with spiritual devotion to Him, and love to men, the case\nis different; then they are all preaching with the preacher, and\nmaking an atmosphere of warmth for his words to fall in; great is\nthe company of them that publish the truth, and proportionally great\nits power. Shall I say more? Have you not already felt, my brethren,\nthe application to which I would bring you? We do not exonerate\nourselves; we do not claim to be nearer to God or holier than you;\nbut, ah! you know how easy it is to make a winter about us, or\nhow cold it feels! Our endeavor is to preach the truth of Christ\nand His cross as clearly and as forcefully as we can. Sometimes\nit has a visible effect, and we are filled with joy; sometimes\nit has no effect, and then we struggle on, as we must, but under\ngreat oppression. Have we none among you that preach against us\nin your lives? If we show you the light of God's truth, does it\nnever fall on banks of ice; which if the light shows through, the\ncrystal masses are yet as cold as before? We do not accuse you; that\nwe leave to God, and to those who may rise up in the last day to\ntestify against you. If they shall come out of your own families;\nif they are the children that wear your names, the husband or wife\nof your affections; if they declare that you, by your example, kept\nthem away from Christ's truth and mercy, we may have accusations to\nmeet of our own, and we leave you to acquit yourselves as best you\nmay. I only warn you, here, of the guilt which our Lord Jesus Christ\nwill impute to them that hinder His gospel.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\nMinor typographical errors have been corrected without note.\n\nPage 203: \"the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all\nthings\", shall be found unto praise, and honor, and glory!--The\ntranscriber has supplied the missing closing quoteation mark.\n\nPage 206: not only from its condemnation, but from its very\n\"in-being\";--The transcriber has supplied the opening quotation mark.","title":"The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04: L. Beecher to Bushnell","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":57676}