{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_47538/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_47538","id":"gutenberg_47538","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47538","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life"],"text":"A\n\n                         LAMP TO THE PATH:\n\n                                OR,\n\n                          THE WORD OF GOD\n\n                                 IN\n\n                 THE HEART, THE HOME, THE WORKSHOP\n                       AND THE MARKET-PLACE.\n\n\n\n                       BY W. K. TWEEDIE, D.D.\n\n                           WITH A PREFACE\n\n                         BY H. L. HASTINGS.\n\n\n                    [Illustration: company seal]\n\n\n                              BOSTON:\n                          COPYRIGHT 1884.\n                          H. L. HASTINGS,\n                    SCRIPTURAL TRACT REPOSITORY,\n                            47 CORNHILL.\n\n\n\n\n    -------------------------------------------------------------\n    |                                                           |\n    |                   TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES                     |\n    |                                                           |\n    |                                                           |\n    | This book was written in a period when many words had not |\n    | become standardized in their spelling. The author's       |\n    | spelling has been maintained unless indicated with a      |\n    | Transcriber's Note due to:                                |\n    |   Obvious spelling errors                                 |\n    |   Words with multiple spelling variations standardized    |\n    |     with the most common form.                            |\n    |                                                           |\n    | Punctuation and hyphenation has been standardized.        |\n    |                                                           |\n    | Footnotes are identified in the text with a number in     |\n    | brackets [2] and have been accumulated in a single        |\n    | section at the end of the text.                           |\n    |                                                           |\n    | Transcriber Notes are identified in the text with an      |\n    | asterisk and number in brackets [*2] and grouped at the   |\n    | end of the book following the Footnotes.                  |\n    |                                                           |\n    | Italic text has been denoted by /forward slashes/.        |\n    |                                                           |\n    | Characters in small caps have been replaced by all caps.  |\n    |                                                           |\n    | Non-printable symbols have been presented in square       |\n    | brackets with a description [astrological sign].          |\n    |                                                           |\n    | Non-Latin characters have been given an English           |\n    | transliteration:                                          |\n    |     'oe' ligature --> oe                                  |\n    |                                                           |\n    -------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n    -------------------------------------------------------------\n    |                                                           |\n    |               WORKS BY W. K. TWEEDIE, D.D.                |\n    |                                                           |\n    |   /Of the Free Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh[*1]. 3 vols.    |\n    |          Uniform in size and style of binding./           |\n    |                                                           |\n    | GLAD TIDINGS; or the Gospel of Peace. A series of         |\n    |   meditations for Christian Disciples. With a preface by  |\n    |   H. L. Hastings.                                 75 cts. |\n    |                                                           |\n    | A LAMP TO THE PATH: or the Word of God in the Heart,      |\n    |   the Home, the Workshop and the Market-place. With an    |\n    |   introduction by H. L. Hastings.                 75 cts. |\n    |                                                           |\n    | SEED-TIME AND HARVEST: or Sow Well and Reap Well. A Book  |\n    |   for the Young. With a preface by H. L. Hastings.        |\n    |                                                   75 cts. |\n    |                                                           |\n    |    [asterism] /Address all orders to H. L. HASTINGS,      |\n    |                  47 Cornhill, Boston./                    |\n    |                                                           |\n    -------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                              CONTENTS.\n\n                                                              Page\n\n  PREFACE                                                        v\n\n\n                              CHAPTER I.\n\n                        RELIGION IN THE HEART.\n\n  The Heathen--The Jew--Jonathan Edwards--John Albert Bengel\n    --Thomas Halyburton--Pascal.                                 9\n\n\n                            CHAPTER II.\n\n                       RELIGION IN OUR HOMES.\n\n  The Father of the Faithful--Parents and Children--Eli--A\n    Mother's Power--Alfred the Great--Master and Servant.       36\n\n\n                            CHAPTER III.\n\n                     RELIGION IN THE WORKSHOP.\n\n  The Christian Workman--A Workshop--Its Occupants--The\n    Sabbath--Counsels--Infidelity--Its Root--Secularism\n    --Harlan Page--John Pounds.                                 68\n\n\n                            CHAPTER IV.\n\n                   RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE.\n\n  The Merchant Princes--Mammon--Counsels--The Perils of\n    Business--True Enterprise--Its Limits--The Prevalence\n    of the False--Financial Crises--Joseph Hardcastle.          99\n\n\n                              CHAPTER V.\n\n               RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE--CONTINUED.\n\n  Mercantile Mania--The Tulip Marts of Holland--The\n    Mississippi Scheme of France--The South Sea Bubble.        136\n\n\n                            CHAPTER VI.\n\n                    RELIGION IN THE PROFESSIONS.\n\n  I. THE PHYSICIAN:--Boerhaave[*2]--Harvey--Hey--Jenner\n    --Dr. John Cheyne. II. THE LAWYER:--Lord Bacon--Sir\n    Matthew Hale--Sir William Temple. III. MINISTERS OF\n    RELIGION:--Dr. Dodd--Other Illustrations.                  156\n\n\n                            CHAPTER VII.\n\n                RELIGION IN OUR SOCIAL INTERCOURSE.\n\n  The Scriptural Rule--Marriage--The Heroes of Truth\n    --Luther--Calvin--Knox--Chalmers.                          199\n\n\n                            CHAPTER VIII.\n\n             RELIGION THE CROWN AND GLORY OF MAN'S LIFE.\n\n  Its Director--Its Ornament--The Prelude to Life Eternal\n    --Voltaire--Sir Walter Scott--Conclusion.                  216\n\n\n\n\n                              PREFACE.\n\n\nAn intelligent and skillful physician, vigorous, athletic, and\ncourageous, used to pursue his professional duties by day or night\nwithout anxiety or apprehension. Often he was desired to use a\nlantern in his nightly journeyings, but he laughed at the idea of\ndanger, and went his way. One night, walking in some slippery path,\nhe fell; an injury resulted, followed by long months of weariness and\npain, and finally ending in his death. It was a sad fall, and all for\nwant of a lamp. Bitterly did he regret his self-confidence when it\nwas too late to remedy the mischief which it had occasioned.\n\nThere are multitudes to-day who are wandering in darkness and\nwalking in unknown ways. They are full of strength, and hope, and\ncourage; they do not think that /they/ are in danger; though caution\nis commendable in others. This world is full of darkness; clouds\nand shadows curtain it on every hand; the glooms of the present, the\nuncertainties of the future, and the shadowy mysteries of the great\nBeyond, teach us with emphasis that we have need of light, and light\nwhich men can never give us. We may draw wisdom from the experience\nof the past, but what we /need/ is a knowledge of the future. This\nknowledge is not attainable through any human intelligence; it must\ncome from Him who dwelleth in light, who is himself the light and\nlife of men, and who sends out his light and his truth to lead and\nguide the sons of Adam. Of old it was written, \"The commandment is\na lamp, and the law is a light.\" The work of the servants of God\nhas been to turn the Gentiles \"from darkness to light, and from the\npower of Satan unto God.\" It is \"the light of the glorious gospel of\nChrist\" which illuminates the darkness of this world; and those who\nembrace that gospel become the \"children of the light,\" and are\n\"not of the night nor of darkness.\" Christ was \"the true light which\nlighteth every man that cometh into the world;\" and \"this is the\ncondemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved\ndarkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.\" Being\nthus illuminated, and made \"light in the Lord,\" we are to \"walk as\nchildren of the light;\" and walking in the light as Christ is in the\nlight, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus\nChrist cleanseth us from all sin.\n\nWhatever course we may take in this life, whatever occupation we\nmay follow, whatever profession we may choose, this divine light is\nneedful to us all. We need God's word, as a lamp to our feet and a\nlight to our path, to show us how to walk. We need it in the daily\naffairs of life; we need it in the field, in the workshop, and in\nthe marts of business. We need the heavenly light to guide us in\nchildhood, in youth, in manhood, in old age. We need it whether\nin poverty or in riches, in prosperity or adversity. We need it to\nshow us what we ought to do to-day, and to guide us in our hopes and\nexpectations of the morrow.\n\nOf old it was written, \"the entrance of thy word giveth light.\" If\nwe follow its guidance we shall not walk in darkness, but shall have\nthe light of life. Infidelity may threaten to break our lantern and\nto extinguish our light, but this is not what we want. It is not\nenough to extinguish the light we have; we need something better.\nLet the skeptic then tell us what is our duty here; let him unfold\nto us our destiny hereafter. Let him unravel the mysteries of human\nexistence. Let him give us present peace and an assurance of future\nblessing, and we will give attention to his words. But we wish no\none to extinguish the light we have, and leave us in the darkness\nof a midnight without sun or star, to be bewildered by the phantom\nlights of a false philosophy, and beguiled into the quagmires of\ndoubt and unbelief.\n\nAs we trace the history of ages past, we find that the destiny of\nindividuals and of nations has been foreknown and foretold. We find\nthat men of God have looked out upon the great empires and cities\nof antiquity and foreseen their overthrow and announced their doom.\nFollowing in the track of history, we find these predictions have\nbeen fulfilled and are fulfilling to-day. Babylon is in heaps; Tyre\nis a place where fishermen spread their nets; Egypt is the basest\nof kingdoms; Nineveh is empty, void and waste; Jerusalem is trodden\nunder-foot of the Gentiles; Capernaum is cast down to the depths of\noblivion; Israel have been led away captive into all nations, and\nare scattered through every land; and abundant evidences before\nour eyes show beyond the possibility of doubt or question, that an\nOmniscient One has read the future, and that His Spirit has inspired\nthe holy men of old who spake as they were moved of the Holy Ghost,\nand revealed to mankind in advance the great events of human history.\n\nWe each need such a revelation as that; one which will tell us our\npresent duties and our future prospects; one which will show us what\nis the will of God in this life, and what we may expect at His hand\nhereafter.\n\nAnd such a revelation is given us, to inspire our hearts with hope,\nand to guide our feet in paths of safety. We have, in the written\nword of God, promises to cheer us, counsels to direct us, reproofs\nto admonish us; and a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do\nwell that we take heed, as \"unto a light that shineth in a dark\nplace, until the day-dawn, and the day-star arise.\"\n\nIt is this /Lamp to the Path/ which a friendly hand extends to the\nwanderers and toilers in a benighted and sinful world; in the hope\nthat many may turn their feet into God's testimonies, and their\nfaces towards that city where the Lamb is the light, and where gloom\nand darkness are unknown; and prove in their own glad experience the\ntruth of the word of Him who said, \"He that followeth Me shall not\nwalk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.\"\n\n                                                          H. L. H.\n    Boston, July, 1884.\n\n\n\n\n                        A LAMP TO THE PATH.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER I.\n\n                       RELIGION IN THE HEART.\n\n\nAs years roll over us, and as our delusive expectations from earth\nand time slowly melt away, the complaint is very often heard that\nthe world is growing worse. The truth is, that we are only then\nbeginning to see the world in its true light. The visionary\nhopes which we once entertained have vanished, and the mirage is\ndiscovered to be neither a lake nor a stream. Perhaps we have had\nto eat the fruit of bitter disappointment or of blighted hope; and\nbecause our baseless anticipations have not been realized, we hasten\nto the conclusion that the world is fast sinking into hopeless\ncorruption; that is, because the accounts which the Scriptures give\nhave been found to be true, we are ready to suppose that the world\nis every year more and more distempered. Hence the peevishness of\nsome--hence activities cramped--hence querulous complaints--hence,\nin a few cases, the very spirit of Ishmael, whose hand was against\nevery man, while every man's hand was against him.\n\n    SORROW AND ITS ORIGIN.\n\nAgainst this, however, as against every form of error, we are\ncarefully warned in the Word of God. \"Say not thou, What is the\ncause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost\nnot inquire wisely concerning this.\" The truth is, they were /not/\nbetter--it is we that look at them from a different point, or try\nthem by a different standard; in other words, /we/ change. Our\ndreams have ended in the nothing whence they rose. We looked for\nonly smiles and sunshine, and have had to grapple with very stern\nrealities. We persisted in regarding this world as something very\ndifferent from what the Word of God describes--a place where man's\nonly sure portion is grief; but have at length discovered that the\nWord of God is true. Hence our sorrow and disappointment; hence the\nmorbid complaints, and the cheerless repinings of age not seldom\nsucceed to the visions, the dreams, and the delusions of youth.\n\n    EXPLANATIONS.\n\nBut far from \"saying that the former times were better than these,\"\nwe feel that never was there an age in which so much was done as in\nours, to help forward the great cause of truth and the reclaiming\nof the world to God. We know that vice has been unmasked in most\nappalling forms; but that is because philanthropy has grappled with\ncrime in its own dens, and dragged it into daylight, till thousands\nare revolted and appalled. We know that superstition is still\ntrampling men in myriads into the dust, while the Word of God,\nand all that would elevate man from his deep degradation, is hated\nand put down wherever superstition has the power; but that is only\nbecause the systems which are antagonistic to the truth have been\nroused to more resolute efforts by the earnestness of the friends\nof man. And we know that oppression in many lands, is still goading\nmultitudes to madness, immuring them in dungeons, or hurrying them\nto death; but that is only because the oppressor instinctively feels\nthat the tide is rising which must eventually sweep him from his\nplace.\n\n    PROOFS OF PROGRESS.\n\nThe struggles now made, then, to perpetuate the reign of bondage,\nand doom men to mental and spiritual vassalage for some centuries\nmore, are symptomatic of a waning, not a waxing cause; and the\nphilanthropist may accordingly rejoice. Progression is the law of\nthe universe; and all the powers of darkness cannot always, or long\nsupersede it. If the bad be growing worse, the good are growing\nbetter, more strong, and more aggressive. They now realize their\nmission more than they did half a century ago. They are also more\nclosely banded to promote it; so that, instead of joining in the\ncry that the former times were better than these, we are prompted\nto regard our day as signalized above most by its schemes of earnest\nphilanthropy, its plans of mighty scope, and its luminous designs\nfor gathering in the nations to the sway of the Prince of Peace.\n/Now/ abideth faith, hope, and love, beyond most of the ages which\nare past: faith, which takes hold of Omnipotence, and therefore\ncannot be baffled; hope, which turns the future triumphs of the\ngood and the true into present joy; and love, which exults in the\nprospect of man's ultimate emancipation, according to the mind of\nGod.\n\nMeanwhile, all the crime beneath which our blighted earth is\ngroaning, does not retard by a day the final completion of\nthe eternal plan. Truth is spreading. Providence, hand in hand\nwith grace, is slowly sapping the hoary systems which have long\nenthralled our race. Those who support the truth of God are more\nand more clearly ranged upon one side, and standing heart to heart\nin defence of the holy and the pure. Those who support error by\noppression are more and more clearly ranged upon the other; and we\nneed not feel more assured that the sun will rise in the firmament\nto-morrow, or that rivers will continue to hasten to the ocean, than\nthat truth is slowly triumphing, and error gradually erecting its\nown funeral pile. Symptoms of these results appear equally manifest\nin the Church and in the world.\n\n    DOUBTS.\n\nBut in every department, men must labour for these ends. As God\nhas given to every one his measure of power, he is to put it forth\n--or of light, he is to let it shine. The Christian indeed is\npre-eminently a patriot. \"Not one of us lives to himself;\" and,\nin contemplating this subject, it has sometimes occurred to us to\ninquire whether the ministers of religion be sufficiently explicit,\nminute, and detailed in their lessons on the Sabbath. Over thousands\nof congregations each recurring week, there are diffused from the\npulpit, doctrines the most ennobling, allied, in many cases, to\nlessons the most cogent and pure. Line upon line is employed, if,\nby any means, some may be saved, and the truth of God carried, by\nthe Spirit's power, through the heart and the conscience to the hand\nand the life.\n\nWithal, however, is there not reason to believe that there is still\nroom for more precise and definite instructions than are sometimes\nconveyed? It is obviously one thing for a soul passively to\nacquiesce in a doctrine, and another thing to apply the truth\nto practice; to give it the control of the life, that man may be\nlike-minded with God, and \"pure as He is pure.\"--There have been\nmen in all ages who held a faultless creed, yet led a godless life;\nwho would tithe their mint, their anise, and cummin, and yet forget\nthe weightier matters of the law. There have been not a few who\ntook rank in the Christian Church, who could not be trusted in\nthe market-place. Some who had fallen into the hands of the public\nprosecutor, have, with all the indignation of injured innocence,\nresented it as an offence, when those who watch for the spiritual\ngood of men ventured to prevent them from polluting the holy place.\nIn /one/ point of view, the world thus seems to be more careful\nor more high-toned than the Church; and that irresistibly suggests\nthe question, /Can/ a remedy be found for this sore evil? Without\ninterfering for a day with the preaching of those doctrines which\ncome from God as a light to guide us to Him, can aught be added\nto our present appliances, to rescue self-deluded men from their\nself-delusions, and at least render their number fewer in the\ndifferent branches of the Holy Catholic Church?\n\n    THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.\n\nThe times appear to be specially favourable for promoting such an\nobject. It is a characteristic of our age, for which we have high\nreason to be thankful to God, that the spiritual welfare of man is\nlargely regarded. It is now clearly seen that the true interests of\none class are the true interests of all. It is no longer antagonism,\nit is co-operation; to a large extent, it is brotherhood and harmony;\nit is liberal things devised on the one hand, and rejoiced in upon\nthe other, at least in the land in which it is our blessedness to\nlive. Grave men in the Church, and powerful men in the State, are\nbusy here; nay, royalty itself, does not disown the employment. The\nprince co-operates with the peer, and both together hold out the\nhand, not of lordly patronage--that is cold and repulsive--but of\nbrotherly-kindness and love.\n\n    ENCOURAGEMENTS.\n\nWe thus see at least the dawning of a state of things which has\nno doubt been too long retarded, to our shame; but which may be\nblessed by God, not to introduce an Utopia, or a golden age; not\nto roll away the need of labour, or the lot of suffering--these are\ncomponent parts of man's existence upon earth; but to soothe the\nsorrows, to dry the tears, and elevate the pursuits of those who\nmight otherwise be woeworn and unfriended for life. In a word,\n\n        \"The purple pride that scowls at wretchedness,\"\n\nis now scowled at in its turn, wherever the Word of God is free, and\nunder its hallowing power, the brotherhood of man are becoming more\nmanifestly brothers.\n\nTo help on these results, then, we would now try to bring sound\ndoctrine into actual contact with men's souls, that it may produce\nsound practice. \"The form of sound words\" is to be prized above\nevery earthly thing, but unless these words lead to right actions,\nthey leave us still in the condition of Chorazin and Bethsaida of\nold. We would therefore try to take the truth of God in our hand; we\nwould go under its escort, to the places of daily business or daily\ntoil, there to apply the simple but often searching maxims which\ncame from heaven to guide men through life on earth to glory.--We\nneed expect no permanent amelioration for man except through the\npower and the prevalence of truth, and every attempt to elevate his\nnature to its true dignity by any other means, is either the effort\nof an empiric or the deception of an impostor. The simple theory of\nhuman progression, the only and exclusive means of purifying man, is\nto make him like-minded with God again.\n\n    THE LABOURS OF SISYPHUS.\n\nNow, as the mind of God can be learned only from his Word, everything\nbut that will prove as unavailing as the labours of Sisyphus--\n\n        \"Up the high hill he heaves the huge round stone;\"\n\nbut it recoils in spite of all his toil, and so will every effort to\nelevate fallen man apart from the truth of God. We decline no fair\nally. Nay, we would invoke the aid of all that is salutary either\nfor mind or body. But unless the truth sit at the helm, and preside\nover all; unless the mind of God become the mind of man, man is\nstill a degraded being; he is ignorant alike of his chief end and\nhis chief good. In short, permanently to benefit man either for time\nor eternity without the knowledge of God, is a task as hopeless as\nthat of Adam when he tried to hide among the trees of the garden.\n--Along the mountain-sides of some districts in this land we see\ntraces of the culture of former generations at much higher levels\nthan cultivation now reaches; but, deserted now as unproductive,\nthese patches are re-claimed by the heath or the furze: they furnish\nno food at least for the use of man; and are not these significant\nemblems of the attempts to cultivate man without the knowledge of\nhis God? The sepulchre may be white-washed, or sin covered over and\nconcealed; but all is impurity, all is moral deformity still, in the\neye of Him who judges righteous judgment.\n\n    THE SOVEREIGN PANACEA.\n\nWe therefore take the Word of God as the grand rule, the sovereign\npanacea in our hand. We try to apply the system of mingled holiness,\nand mercy, and truth, and love, which is there disclosed, to guide\nthe lives of mortals; and in prosecuting this design, the following\nis our plan. We try to show--\n\n     I. Christianity in the /Heart/; for, unless it is found\n        there, we need not expect to find it anywhere besides.\n\n    II. Christianity in the /Home/. It must next appear there.\n        Parents and children, masters and servants, or the\n        employers and the employed, must all feel the genial\n        or the curbing power of truth in their several places\n        and relations.\n\n   III. Christianity in the /Workshop/--from which its\n        influence has too long been banished.\n\n    IV. Christianity in the /Market-place/, the place of\n        bargains and of busy trade.\n\n     V. Christianity in /the Professions/: 1. The physician;\n        2. The lawyer; 3. The divine.\n\n    VI. Christianity in our /ordinary social intercourse/; and,\n\n    Finally, Christianity, as the crown and glory of man's\n        existence upon earth.\n\n    THE WILLING WORKMAN.\n\nNow, it is too manifest to require any discussion, that unless\nChristianity be planted in the heart, it cannot control the life.\nA religion merely for the hand has never done much for man. A creed\nwhich teaches us only to cleanse the outside of the cup, has never\nsucceeded in elevating us far, or making us kindred either with the\npure or the lofty. A mere collection of doctrines, though each be\nscriptural and sound, has never availed to restore man to happiness\nand God. Merely to do as our fathers did, or hold, however\ntenaciously, a mere ancestral faith, is not the process by which\nthe evil that is in man can be corrected. The soldier who is dragged\nto the battle-field is not likely to become a hero. The man who\nis carried to a foreign land in chains, seldom becomes one of its\nbenefactors. He who needs compulsion and the rod ere he will acquire\neven the rudiments of learning, is not likely soon to become a ripe\nscholar. In every department, it is the willing mind, the earnest\nspirit, the hearty, zealous labourer, who achieves great results.\nThe heart must be thrown into the pursuit, even though it were only\nsome menial employment; and if that be not the case, then, however\nhe may be engaged, man will either be disgusted and repelled, or\ndoomed to drag a heavy chain amid his toil.\n\n    THE HEART UNMASKED.\n\nAnd this is pre-eminently the case in religion. It is with Him who\nlooks on the heart that we have there to do--as is the heart, so\nis our religion. A new heart is accordingly the first and the grand\ndesideratum. All the heart is to be given to God, and till that\nbe conceded, we have not done obeisance to the first and great\ncommandment. The law of God is to be written on the heart, or\nin truth we never obey it. We may as well suppose that the ten\ncommandments could guide the Hebrews, while these precepts were\nmerely written on the tables of stone, far up amid the clouds of\nSinai, as that the truth of God can profit, or illumine the soul,\nwhile it only floats in the understanding or the memory, without\nsinking into the heart. Nay, the thunders of Sinai, amid which the\ncommandments were given, had scarcely died away, when the people who\nhad heard them ceased to fear and quake--they set up a golden calf,\nand worshipped it as their God; and that forms one of the most\ninstructive facts of history. It seems incredible to the man who\ndoes not know the guile which lurks in the heart, but it sheds a\nfull though a lurid light upon the soul, in the eyes of him who has\nbeen guided by the truth through the intricate mazes of iniquity\nwhich exist within us.\n\n    TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD.\n\nOr, far more than this. Ten thousand times ten thousand may\npossess the gospel as well as the law. Not merely the authority,\nthe power, or the terrors of the Lord may be brought to bear\nupon their minds--His love, his pity, and compassion, may also\nbe revealed, and entreaties the most touching, or invitations the\nmost free, may be mingled with promises the most cheering, and all\nmay be employed to induce us to profit by them, while the heart may\ncontinue proof against them all. The truth of God may be no truth to\nus; His love in the Saviour may exercise no constraining power--and\nwhat is the reason? How are we to explain the fact that the mind\nof God has no control over the minds of myriads of men, so that\ncountless favours are received without awakening one grateful\nresponse? The reason is, truth was never stamped upon the heart.\nIt is not understood that with the heart man believes unto\nrighteousness. The first and great commandment, \"Thou shalt love\nthe Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all\nthy strength and mind,\" is not felt, and not obeyed; and men, in\nconsequence, often drink up iniquity with the very Word of God open\nbefore them, soliciting their hearts and their affections for their\nLord. They have his Word, but it is perverted to light them on the\nway to a more certain ruin.\n\nThis is all abundantly plain. If we have ever given so much as one\nsolemn hour to God, to eternity, and the soul, it must be manifest\nthat until the affections be set on things above, all else is vain.\nThe heart is the citadel of the whole man, and until that be on\nthe Lord's side, the enemy will find a stronghold there, from which\nno power on earth can dislodge him. Is a man living in a state of\nestrangement from God? Does the Heart-searcher know that that man is\nperpetrating sin and regardless of his soul? The explanation of all\nthat is, that the heart has never been given to God. Christianity\nis not there. Truth is not there--its place is occupied by lies.\nThe love of the Saviour is not there. The Word of God is a dead and\na despised letter. The foundation of the spiritual fabric has never\nbeen laid. The first impulse heavenward has not been given. The\nSpirit of God is not honoured in the heart as the temple where he\ndelights to dwell. Religion at the best is a cold and formal thing.\nIt only decorates the exterior, like trappings on a hearse. God is\nnot in such a man's thoughts--Christ is not in his soul the hope\nof glory. The gulf between God and him is still a yawning void, and\nthe eternal life which is placed within his reach is practically\ndespised.\n\nThe illustrations of religion in the heart crowd upon us on every\nside. Let us contemplate a few, and place them in the way of\ncontrast.\n\n    ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\nThere is a man whose heart the Lord has touched with great love to\nsouls. He learns that myriads are perishing in distant lands. That\noppresses him with the weight of a personal woe; he takes his life\nin his hand and hastens away to tell the perishing of a Saviour.\nNow, in his work of faith, and labour of love, that man is dealing,\nlet us suppose, with two of the youth of a dark-souled land. He is\npressing on the conscience the claims of God, on the understanding\nhis truth, and on the heart his love; but against all these\nappliances one of the two is stout-hearted, and steeled. There is\nno room in his soul either for the Spirit of God or his truth. Some\nidol has erected his temple there, and that idol, however hideous,\nis worshipped with the devotedness which is due only to God over all.\nHence the heart is shut and fortified against the truth; hence the\nGod of truth is rejected and disowned. The whole man is pre-occupied.\nThe affections are engrossed by a worthless or revolting thing; and\nas there was no room in the dwellings of men for the Saviour when he\ncame to earth, there is no room in the soul of that man for truth,\nthough it brings salvation and the fulness of joy in its train. The\nsecret of the whole is, that the heart is not impressed; it is never\ntouched, and it therefore repels the approaches of Him who is love,\nas the granite rock repels the spray of the ocean.\n\n    CONSCIENCE ASCENDANT.\n\nBut the case is different in regard to the other of the two:\nconscience in him feels the power of the truth; it cannot deny the\ncharges which are brought against it; nay, it repeats and enforces\nthem every one, and then begins the struggle for the control of\nthe heart. Though the conscience be convinced, the heart may not\nbe surrendered, and in consequence of that, a pain, an absolute\ndistraction is sometimes produced--it has been described as the\nplucking out of a right eye.\n\n    THE CHANGE.\n\nNow, when does that struggle cease? When is that soul really\nsurrendered to the supremacy of God? It is when the truth finds its\nway to the heart, and is planted there by the Spirit who revealed\nit. As long as it remained only in the conscience, it stimulated,\nit roused, it agitated, it produced only commotion or woe; or, in\nthe understanding, it instructed or delighted; but when the truth of\nGod passed through the conscience into the heathen heart, the whole\nman was speedily captured. There was now the willing mind, there\nwas now the pliant disposition. Idols were now abandoned. The Son of\nGod was rejoiced in, and he who before had carried the badge of his\nidol on his very brow, as if to glory in his shame, now felt all the\ndegradation of bowing down to an idol at all. The strongest earthly\naffection--that of a mother to a cherished son--might obstruct the\npath which led from idols to God, and other woes might come on the\nbeliever; but his heart had owned the majesty of truth, whatever it\nmight entail. Truth, the truth of God, had taught him that there is\nsomething stronger, deeper, and more constraining than even the love\nof a mother to a son--namely, the love of the Saviour to the saved,\nand their love to Him in return--and thus, that soul, amid sorrows\nwhich are agonizing to flesh and blood, chooses the better portion.\nLike one who is truly wise, that man, lately so dark and idolatrous,\nnow prefers the love of God to the love of a creature--and that\nis Christianity in the heart. That is religion taking the helm of\nlife. That is truth occupying the citadel of the soul. That is God\nenthroned. That is conscience obeyed. That is reason re-occupying\nthe sphere from which it was banished at the fall. That is the\npromise fulfilled, \"A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit\nwill I put within you.\"\n\nOr contemplate another example of Christianity in the heart, as the\nroot and fountain of all that is lovely and of good report in the\nlife.\n\n    INQUIRY.\n\nAnother man has gone with no less love to souls than the former,\nto win some of the far-fallen Jews to the Saviour. In that work he\nencounters insult upon insult, and everything but Christian faith,\nand Christian hope and love, would there faint and fail. He also\nis surrounded by crowds of inquirers or objectors--let us select\ntwo for their contrast. One of them is full of hereditary hatred\nto the truth as it is in Jesus; and that very name which is to the\nChristian a strong tower, is to that dark-souled man a provocative\nto wrath and spiteful passion--And why? Because that heart is\npre-occupied. That man has never once seen the presented truth, so\nthick is the veil which blinds him; he has never once felt its power,\nso hard is the incrustation which envelopes his heart. The love and\npity, as well as the holiness and truth of God, are shut out from\nhis soul, for the repugnance and the recoil of the heart drive them\nutterly away. He thus furnishes another example of the fact, that\nthere does not exist in all the world, a more intense antagonism\nthan that of man's polluted heart to the pure truth of God.\n\nBut the other of the two inquires--he is willing at least to\nascertain what a Christian is. He listens, and the great truth\nwhich is the basis of all personal religion--conviction of sin in\nthe sight of God--begins to be felt. Whether Christianity be true\nor not, that man discovers, from his own Hebrew Bible, that he is\na sinner. He perceives that Judaism, even in all its glory could\nnot take away sin, and much less now when it is worn out, or not the\nshadow or the echo of its former self. In that state of soul, that\nman comes nearer to Jesus of Nazareth than he had ever done before.\nHe reads; he marks; he inwardly digests; he begins to pray. The\nRedeemer's history now becomes full of meaning. \"He was despised,\nand we esteemed him not\"--\"He was wounded for our transgressions,\nand bruised for our iniquities\"--\"The Lord has laid on him the\niniquities of us all\"--\"They shall look on him whom they have\npierced\"--These, or texts like these, now begin to be seen in\nthe light which the Spirit of God sheds on them, or felt in the\npower which that Spirit imparts to truth, and they flash upon the\nearnest man's mind with a meaning which he never saw before.\n\n    THE JEW, A CHRISTIAN.\n\nThat man now begins, then, to feel that the truth is just what\nhe as a sinner needs; and in the train of that, it begins to take\npossession of the heart. It gives a new tone or a new colour to his\nlife. By securing the command of the heart, it converts a Jew into\na new creature in Christ. He begins to glory in what was once a\nstumbling-block, the Cross; or to be ashamed of what was once his\nglory, his self-righteousness; and as the aspect of the earth when\nthe sun is shining in the radiance of day is different from its\naspect when midnight reigns, that man's soul is different now from\nwhat it lately was. Christianity is in the heart; and as the blood\nis propelled from the heart to the extremities, spreading life and\nactivity as it flows, truth, the truth which the Spirit teaches now\ncirculates through the whole inner man, reducing everything there\nto the obedience that is in Christ. The waste places are cultivated.\nThe spiritual fabric is founded, and the great Master-builder will\nin due time perfect the whole.\n\n    THE HOME HEATHEN.\n\nOr, without referring either to Heathen or to Jew, we might select\nsome two in our own favoured land for a contrast. We might picture\nan assembly of men met in the house of God to worship the King\nEternal, Immortal, and Invisible, and single out two of the\nworshippers to illustrate religion in the heart; and let us thus\nsingle out two. They worship side by side. They hear the same\nvoice--they listen to the same gospel, the same appeals to the\nconscience, the same lessons for the understanding, the same glad\ntidings for the heart. They are pointed to the same Saviour, and are\nequally told of his power and his willingness to save. Redemption\nnow, and not to-morrow--redemption perfect and complete, without\nwaiting for any supplement from man--redemption for \"the ungodly,\"[1]\nand not for those who have already repented; in a word, salvation\n/freely/, salvation /immediately/, and salvation /completely/, is\noffered or pressed on the notice of each of the two, according to\nthe Word of the Eternal.\n\n    THE WAYWARD HEART.\n\nBut amid this affluence of mercy, this plenitude of love, one of\nthem continues indifferent, hardened, and without God. Every new\nappeal is resisted, and so thickens the incrustation which has\ngathered round the heart. All within is dead and cold. Religion\nbrings no joy. It seems a system to fetter, and not to emancipate;\nand as that man cannot both sin and be a Christian, his heart\ncontinues shut against the influence which would separate him\nfrom his sins. The secret of all this is, that that heart is still\nthe victim or the dupe of lies. There is no Christianity admitted\ninto it. The truth of God is kept far away from the centre of man's\nbeing. Lest that truth should enter the heart, it is kept carefully\nguarded; it is crowded with worldly cares, or plunged into worldly\nfollies, but left dreary and desolate as to all that is divine; the\nwaters of Marah are never sweetened there; the soul is perishing\nwith redemption in its offer; it is self-doomed to woe and to\nbitterness, while the Spirit of God through his Word is beckoning\nit to glory and to honour.\n\nThe other of the two worshippers, however, has found out that\n\"one thing is needful.\" He has listened to conscience. He has taken\ncounsel with right reason. He has surrendered the heart to God, and\nthat is the decisive moment when man's name is written in the book\nof life. It is then that the kingdom of God begins to be within us,\nthen that we learn both how wayward is the heart, and how mighty is\nthe grace of God to subdue it. Light now radiates where all was dark\nbefore; joy is now felt where all was cheerless; and the new-born\nsensation of spiritual freedom brings a presage of the glorious\nliberty of the children of God.\n\n    CONTRASTS AND COLLISIONS.\n\nAnd what renders it more needful to urge on this ascendancy of\ntruth in the heart is, the opposition which it is sure to encounter\nin the world. While we sail down the world's stream, we may glide\npleasantly along, and need neither the canvass nor the oar; but the\nmoment we attempt to stem it, the struggle and the conflict begin:\nwe must either earnestly contend, or be carried down to ruin. What\nis it that produces thunder? It is the meeting of contraries, or\nfire and water. What is it that produces the earthquake? It is a\nsimilar cause--the meeting of contraries, or substances which cannot\nquietly co-exist. What is it that occasions war, and massacre, and\ndevastation? It is still a similar cause. It is passion in collision\nwith passion. It is the tyrant seeking to oppress the free. It\nis ambition grasping at more and more, and trampling upon all who\noppose its pleasure--and the same law obtains in religion. Why\nare God's people often of all men the most miserable? Whence come\npersecutions? They come because holiness in the godly and sin in\nthe world have come into collision. The will of God is opposing or\nprotesting against the passions of men, and on that account there\nis war on the one hand, produced by inflamed passion on the other.\n\nA church, a flock, for farther example, has long been afflicted\nwith an unconverted ministry, and all is peaceful there, for all\nis spiritual death. But there comes a change. A converted ministry\nis raised up, and now begins the collision between spiritual life\nand spiritual death. Ere the truth get access to the heart, it must\nfight every inch of the way.\n\nOr there is a family where, up to a certain period, all is\nunmitigated worldliness; not one soul is there alive to God.--But\nin His sovereign time one member is converted, and then perhaps\nbegin the collision and the strife. The world resents the intrusion\nor the rebuke implied in spiritual decision; and if that heart will\nlove God's pure truth, it must zealously contend.\n\n    THE VICTORY.\n\nOr there is an individual soul. It has long slumbered, as the world\ndoes, without God and without hope. No compunction has roused it,\nand no alarm been felt. But something at last occurs to disturb\nthat false peace. Truth enters the conscience. It operates there\nlike a visit from the living to the catacombs of Egypt, when\nthe night-birds are disturbed in crowds, and threaten, by their\nmultitudinous flutterings, to blind or to destroy the intruder. Thus,\nif truth will take possession of a heart for God, it must encounter\nand vanquish a thousand enemies. In that conflict man needs the\nwhole armour of God, for he has to fight the good fight of faith.\nHis enemies may be those of his own household, or even his own heart;\nand nothing but the free Spirit of the living God can make man sure\nof victory in that contest.\n\n    THE NEW HEART.\n\nPerhaps it is superfluous to occupy so much time in illustrating\nwhat is, in truth, so plain. Yet, as many overlook this plainness,\nit should be urged in line upon line, that if we would begin\naright, we must begin at the heart, out of which flow the issues\nof life. One of the most earnest prayers in the Bible is, \"Create\nin me a clean heart, O God,\"[2] and one of its most emphatic or\ncomprehensive promises is, \"A new heart will I give you.\"[3] And\nwould men learn that simple lesson, did they in their several places\nand relations as superiors, inferiors, or equals, seek to begin\nat the beginning, and have the heart right with God through the\nnew-creating power of His Spirit, O how sweetly would the whole\nframework of society soon be adjusted! how surely would \"all the\nbuilding, fitly framed together, grow into an holy temple in the\nLord!\" The Church would be more pure. The world would not be so\noften cheered in its ungodly ways, by the example of men professing\nthe truth, but holding it in unrighteousness, because they are\ndestitute of Christianity in the heart, where it should ever reign\nas the unchallenged and unrivalled queen.--There are some ruins of\nancient cities now buried deep under water. When the waves above\nthem are calm, these ruins can still be seen, though centuries have\nrolled away since they were first submerged. Yet who would regard\nthese waste places as the abodes of living men? Who would speak of\nthem as the haunts of the happy? Nay, life has vanished from them;\nall that ever lived there have been for centuries destroyed. And,\nin the same way, the heart that is sunk in worldliness or saturated\nwith what is earthly and sensual, is cut off from all communion with\nthe living God; it is dead to holiness and Him.\n\n    THE RELIGION OF THE HEART.\n\nWe cannot glance at the lives of godly men without noticing the\nprominence which belongs to this subject of religion in the heart.\nTheir first aspiration is for the friendship of God, and their next,\ntheir perpetual longing is to have the heart right with Him; \"to\nkeep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of\nlife.\" We open the life of one man of God at random. He says, \"An\ninward sweet sense of divine things at times came into my heart, and\nmy soul was led away in pleasant views and contemplations of them.\"\n\"The sense I had of divine things would often of a sudden kindle up,\nas it were, a sweet burning in my heart, an ardour of soul that I\nknow not how to express.\" \"I was almost constantly in ejaculatory\nprayer wherever I was. Prayer seemed as the breath by which the\ninward burning of my heart had vent.\" \"My former delights never\nreached the heart, and did not arise from any sight of the divine\nexcellence of the things of God.\" \"My heart panted after this, to\nlie low before God as in the dust, that I might be nothing, and God\nmight be /all/; that I might become as a little child.\" \"Oftentimes\nin reading the Holy Scriptures, every word seemed to touch my heart;\nI felt a harmony between something in my heart and those sweet and\npowerful words.\"[4]\n\n    WITNESSES.\n\nAnother says, \"O God, impress more deeply on my heart thine\nexceeding great and precious promises, that I may perfect holiness\nin thy fear.\" \"Though God's pure Word is presented to worldly men\nin ever such a variety of ways; though the provision be ever so\ndaintily served up, none of them relish it at heart. As well might\nthe preacher have the restless and ungovernable waves of the sea\nbefore him, and think to control them with the rod of Moses, or the\nwords of Christ, 'Peace, be still.'\" \"In his earliest years he had\nmany pure, tender feelings, and stirrings of his heart concerning\nGod, and the texts inscribed on the church walls of his native town,\nfrom the Epistle to the Romans, concerning death, sin, righteousness,\nand the crucifixion, produced in him, as a mere child, emotions of\ngreat joy and peace, and left upon him very profitable and lasting\nimpressions.\" \"How may I know that I am become an heir of heaven?\nHow may I know that God is in me of a truth? When I have the earnest\nof the inheritance, that is, when I am habitually led by the Spirit\nof God, so as to walk in love, with my heart crying to him, Abba,\nFather! and listening to every whisper of his Holy Spirit.\"[5]\n\n    WITNESSES.\n\nAnother says, \"My heart was utterly averse from spirituality.\nSometimes, through the force of convictions, I was indeed brought\nfor some time to aim at getting my mind fixed upon heavenly\nthings, and kept on the thoughts of them; but my heart being still\ncarnal, I weaned of this bent and of this forcible religion; it was\nintolerable to think of being always spiritual.\" \"I abominated the\nmore gross breaches of all the commands, and disliked open sins. But,\nmeanwhile, my heart was set upon the less discernible violations of\nthe same holy law.\" \"Under a searching ministry, the Lord began to\ngive me some discoveries of the more secret and spiritual evils of\nmy heart. He carried me 'into the secret chamber of imagery,' to let\nme see what my heart did in the dark.\" \"Though sin might prevail, my\nheart was not with it as before; I found another sort of opposition\nmade to it.\" \"I have looked on death as stripped of all things\npleasant to nature. I have considered the spade and the grave, and\neverything that is in it terrible to nature; and under the view of\nall these, I found that in the way of God they gave satisfaction\n--not only a rational satisfaction, but a heart-engaging power\nattending it, that makes me rejoice.\"[6]\n\nOne of the profoundest thinkers that ever lived has said, \"There\nare only two kinds of persons who can properly be styled reasonable:\nthose who serve God with all their heart, because they know Him;\nand those who seek Him with all their heart, because they know him\nnot.\"[7]\n\n    WITNESSES.\n\n--But it is needless to prolong such illustrations. Human nature,\nrevelation, and daily experience, agree in testifying to the\nnecessity of planting the truth in the heart of man, if it is to\ncontrol his life. For that purpose the Spirit of God is sent to\ntake the truth from the sacred page, where He himself has placed it,\nand stamp it on the soul. And O, what man consents to sacrifice, by\nkeeping truth in the outer court as the Gentiles were kept in the\nouter court of the Jewish Temple! What holy joy! What hopes and\nconsolations! What communion with God he forfeits! Or, how blind\nthe world to its own best interests, when the truth is kept cold\nand shivering, apart from the soul and the heart! How would the woes\nof a groaning world be soothed--how would our biting and devouring\nof each other cease--how would swords be beat into ploughshares,\nand spears into pruning-hooks, were truth enthroned in the heart,\nand suffered to control the life! A single sentence of that truth,\nhonestly believed and obeyed, would soon revolutionize a world; and\nshould not every Christian therefore be busy, earnest, and solemn,\nin spreading the truth; in seeking to have it planted deep in his\nown soul first, and then in the souls of all?\n\n    THE NEED OF ZEAL.\n\nMoreover, the world is very solemn now, it is earnest and devoted;\nit is perfectly convinced, however baseless the conviction, that\ntime is all in all. For example, mark that atheist. They who do not\nknow the dark depths of man's heart will not believe that a soul\nso monstrous can exist; but as if to prove the truth of the Word of\nGod, a bold blasphemer has stood forth to deny God's existence, and\nchallenged Him to prove that the impious one was wrong, by striking\nhim dead upon the spot. Or mark that knot of infidels. They are\nassembled to devise the means of spreading their poison, and import\nadditional supplies from other lands, because the home growth is not\nsufficient. Or mark that group of papists. They are daily plotting\nthe suppression of God's truth, the enslaving of man's soul,\nand deepening the darkness which already envelopes him. All, all\nare earnest, zealous, sanguine in the pursuit of evil--and shall\nthey who hold the truth be alone lethargic, listless, apathetic?\nThe infidel has been heard to declare, that if he believed what\nChristians profess to believe, he would be far more zealous than\nthey. In truth, that infidel sees that the man whom the world\nstigmatizes as a religious enthusiast is the only consistent\nChristian. If I believe that every sin tends to eternal perdition,\ncan I be consistent in my belief, if I do not repress sin by every\nproper means within my power? If I believe that none but Christ can\nsave so much as one single soul, can I be consistent in my belief,\nif I am not ready to spend and be spent in winning souls to Christ?\nOn that maxim the Christian indeed will act; and when that spirit\nis ascendant, we shall see far more done than has yet been attempted\nto soothe men's sorrows, to dry men's tears, and ease their aching\nhearts.\n\n\n\n\n                            CHAPTER II.\n\n                       RELIGION IN OUR HOMES.\n\n\nIt is a fatal and a paralysing mistake to suppose that the religion\nof Jesus is to be kept for certain days, or occasions, or places,\nand laid aside or neglected at other times. It is not meant to give\nsolemnity merely to a few hours of the Sabbath, or a few deeds of\nthe hand; and while we can be satisfied with that view of religion,\nwe have not begun to feel its power, to partake of its joy, or enter\ninto its spirit. It would not be more unreasonable to suppose that\nthe body needs the vital air to breathe only on certain occasions,\nor that the eye needs the light of heaven to see only at peculiar\nseasons, than that man can dispense at times with the truth of God\nas his guide, and monitor, and friend. If there be a moment at which\nman is not prone to go astray, then for that moment he may dispense\nwith truth. If there be a single breath during which man is not\ndependent upon God, for that breath he may lay aside God's pure\nand holy word.\n\nBut it is the dictate of reason, the moment it is illumined from on\nhigh, that the truth should take the control of the conscience, the\nunderstanding, and the heart, in all we find to do. It is to preside\nover thought, word, and deed. It is to direct us not merely in\nactions which are strictly and properly religious, like praise,\nand prayer, and public worship. It is to give a religious character\nto all that we attempt; and one great reason why religion is often\ndespised is, that not a few of those who profess to hold the truth\nforget its righteous claims in their dealings with their fellow-men.\n\nThere is a parent sitting by the couch where his first-born\nis stretched--a corpse. As he gazes on the pale features, more\nbeautiful, he thinks, than ever now, because death has turned them\ninto marble, what consolation can the truth yield to him, if it has\nbeen his habit to confine its influence to a corner, a fragment of\nlife, instead of regarding it as the sunshine or the vital air of\nthe soul?\n\nThere is a sister weeping by the grave of one who has just become a\nprey to corruption. Her heart is lonely, and stricken, and sore--she\nfeels it would be a relief could it break. And what blessing can\nthe truth, the very truth as it is in Jesus, yield to that wounded\nspirit, if it has been its habit to seclude and sequester religion,\nto keep it apart from the business of life, like some portion of our\ndress, meant only for solemn seasons or for holidays?\n\n    OUR HOMES.\n\nThere is another. The hand of death is on him. He cannot be blind\nto its approach. He /must/ take home the warning, \"Set thy house in\norder, for thou shalt die and not live.\" And of what avail to that\nman is the very truth which came from heaven, if it has been kept at\na distance from the heart, like something which we dislike or dread?\nCan a name, an echo, a phantom, a shadow, really avail that dying\nman's soul?\n\n    THE PROVINCE OF TRUTH.\n\nOr there is another still. The Spirit of God has fastened conviction\nupon his conscience, and he feels now what it is to be a sinner.\n\"What must I do to be saved?\"--\"O wretched man that I am, who shall\ndeliver me?\" now embody the fears of his awakened spirit; and to\nsoothe that spirit, or hush these fears, what avails the solemn\nceremonial or the decent form, while that is all? Can a form atone\nfor guilt? Can a pageant cleanse the conscience? Can some occasional\nobservance of a religious rite operate like a charm, and either\nsilence the demands or uphold the purity of the law of God? Nay,\n\"miserable comforters are they all.\" It is truth in the heart\nguiding to Him who is the truth itself, which alone can yield\nthe troubled conscience peace.\n\nAnd, to name no more: There is a youth removed from the watchful\nguardianship of his father's home. The crowded city has become his\nbusy abode, and its endless temptations must now be encountered.\nHe must hear the grossness of the licentious, and endure the scoff\nof the godless. He must brave the assaults of those who have grown\nhardened in guilt. He must resist those who have trampled upon\nconscience, and forgotten that there is either a death before them,\nor a God to meet. And what will give that tempted youth the victory?\nAn occasional glance at the Word of God? An occasional petition to\nhis throne? An occasional visit to his house? To ask these questions\nis to answer them: That man consents to be deceived and undone who\nis willing to be only occasionally devout, occasionally seeking God,\noccasionally a Christian.\n\n    A SOUNDING BRASS.\n\nWe have tried, then, in the spirit of these remarks, to show that if\nthe truth of God is to regulate the life of man, it must be planted\nin his heart. Afraid lest the services of the sanctuary and the\nlessons of the Sabbath be not sufficiently practical and precise,\nwe are following men into the different spheres in which they move,\nthere to apply the truth at once as a touchstone and a guide--a\ntest to man's soul, and a light to man's path. A creed which only\ndecorates the exterior cannot be that of the people of God. If\nit produce no beauty in the soul, no benefit in the life, it is\na sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.\n\nAnd our next topic is--Religion in our Homes. If it be planted in\nthe heart by the Spirit of holiness, it will soon spread outward and\ncover the life with its beauty. Like the widening circles on a pool\nwhose smoothness a pebble has disturbed, the wave of truth flowing\nfrom the heart, first touches those among whom we constantly move;\nand in no sphere can the genuine power of godliness on the one\nhand, or spurious pretences on the other, be more easily or promptly\ndiscovered. A man is in God's eye just what he is in the bosom of\nhis family.\n\n    THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL.\n\nPerhaps we can best and most simply introduce this topic by\nreferring to an example. To find it, we go straightway to the\nfountain-head, and fix attention on \"the father of the faithful.\"\nAmong the things which signalized that remarkable man, was his\nstrict regard to the fear of God in his home. \"I know him,\" it is\nsaid by the Searcher of hearts; \"I know him that he will command his\nchildren and his household after him, and they shall keep the way\nof the Lord to do justice and judgment.\"--Abraham was selected to\nintroduce a new epoch in the mighty movements of Providence, a new\nstage in that grand procession which is carrying the generations of\nmen forward to their eternal lot; and one reason assigned for that\nselection is, that he would cultivate home-religion, or cause the\nfear of the Lord to circulate through his tents. Now every word\nthat is employed to describe this epoch-making man deserves to be\nstudied--it appears a very picture of the patriarch or the priest\nof home. He who blesses the habitations of the righteous, says,\n\"/I know/ him.\" It is the Omniscient that speaks, and there can be\nneither hypocrisy on the one hand, nor deception on the other. \"I\nknow him that he will /command/.\" There will be no betraying of the\ntruth on his part, no yielding to any guide but one. There is a law,\nand Abraham will keep it. He is answerable to the Lawgiver, and he\nwill act on that conviction.\n\n    PERFECT LAW, AND LIBERTY.\n\nAnd \"I know him that he will command /his children/.\" Not blind\naffection; not that kind of indulgence which is the veriest cruelty;\nnot that disorder which renders the young the masters of the old:\nAbraham will /command/ his children. He and they are the subjects\nof a common Lord. His functions are purely executive. The /Lord/\nis our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; and\nparents and children alike are to be ruled by Him. This should\nequally prevent parental oppression on the one hand, and filial\ndisobedience on the other, and when the laws which we obey are\nenacted by our Father who is in heaven, when they flow from Him\nwhose heart is love, what but blessings can be the lot at once of\nhim who administers and of those who obey them? By the combined\ninfluence of authority and affection, Abraham was thus to rule his\nhome. Like David, he was to walk within his house with a perfect\nheart, and that is the method by which parents\n\n          \"May sun them in the light of happy faces.\"\n\nIf the Holy One has given us rules for the guidance of all, these\nrules form the standard from which there can be no sinless swerving,\nand the first principles of holiness have yet to be learned where\nGod's will is not thus paramount.\n\n    THE ONE WILL SUPREME.\n\nAnd, moreover, his /household/ as well as his children, were to be\ncontrolled by the patriarch. He is not one of those who forget that\ntheir dependants[*3] or domestics have souls, and therefore take no\ninterest in them as immortal beings. He did not act as if there were\none God for the master and another for the servant; one rule for\nthe superior, another for the inferior; one way for the lordly, and\nanother for the lowly. Nay, the father of the faithful, combining\nfaith and works in their proper places, \"will command his household;\"\nwill take the control of it, and see that everything there is done\ndecently and in order. There will be no tampering with a servant's\nconscience, and as little conniving at his transgressions. The ten\ncommandments were not yet given; but the spirit of them was a part\nof Abraham's believing nature, and he sought to have duty done\nwherever he had influence, alike by superiors, inferiors, and equals.\nIn a word, like Cornelius after him, he feared the Lord, with all\nhis house.\n\nAnd farther: the rule, the standard at once for master and servant,\nis given, \"They shall keep /the way of the Lord/.\" Every other path\nis that of the destroyer; it tends to death, for \"the curse of the\nLord is in the house of the wicked.\" The question which we should\nask in regard to our home religion is not, What is done by others?\nWhat do men think? What will the world tolerate? What will be\nmost conducive to present ease or peace? but, What has God said?\nWhen that has been ascertained, every departure from it is just a\nwandering into the way of sorrow. Neither parent nor child, nor any\nmember of a household, need expect to prosper in any path except the\nway of the Lord; and to anticipate prosperity or peace in any other,\njust shows that reason is still eclipsed, that conscience is still\nseared or dormant, that the mind of God is not our mind, that we are\nstill doing as Adam did when he sought happiness in wandering from\nhis Maker.\n\n    THE EASTERN PRINCE.\n\nSuch, then, are the principles which lie at the foundation of all\nfamily rule; these would make our homes a Bethel, and our hearts a\nshrine. Wherever such fear of God reigns in the soul, accompanied\nwith the love of Christ, there will be peace and holy joy; but every\nother principle will leave our hearts and homes unblest. Tacitus\ntells us that \"many find it a harder task to govern a family than\nto rule a province;\" and it may be so where God's law is not known\nor not regarded. But that law itself is abundantly clear, and the\nwayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. Every family\nthat calls on the name of the Lord should spread out his Word before\nthem, and ask, What has God said? for that is the rule from which\nneither waywardness on the part of children, nor engrossment on the\npart of parents, can warrant our departure.--It is computed that the\nhousehold of Abraham could not contain less than a thousand souls.\nLiving as he did in the rank of an Eastern prince, his retinue was\nsuch as we can scarcely understand; and yet, concerning him and\nhis household, Omniscience says: \"Commanded by Abraham, they will\nkeep the way of the Lord.\" Like Joshua while placed at the head\nof a migrating nation, and burdened with the care of millions, his\nresolution was, \"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.\"\nReligion was to be planted in the heart of society, that is, in\nthe sacred circle of home; and thence, like the banyan tree, was\nto spread, and spread, till it had covered or encircled the whole.\n\n    EDUCATIONAL INFIDELITY.\n\nAnd here, as we pass along, it may serve as a warning to some, if\nwe glance at that infidelity which characterizes the schemes of some\npretended friends of education and the young. They would divorce\nreligion from education. They would let children grow up without any\ntraining in the fear of God. They would develope mind. They would\nimpart secular knowledge; but the knowledge of salvation, of sin,\nand of redemption from its woe, its bondage, and defilement, they\nwould not name. Passion may grow rampant; the world may be ascendant\nin the heart, the mind, and all the powers of man, yet youth is to\nbe left unchecked by any heavenly warning, untaught by any heavenly\nlesson! Now, waiving every other objection to this scheme, we say\nthat it is unequivocally and utterly infidel; it should on that\naccount be branded with the reprobation of all who love the rising\nrace, on the one hand, who know their perils on the other, and who,\nmoreover, feel assured that nothing but the truth of God can either\nmake man savingly wise or keep him so. If God's favour be a dream,\nand man's soul only organized matter, destined to pass away as other\nmatter does, it is needless to be very zealous for one scheme of\ntraining in preference to another. But if man be immortal, and if\nhis immortality /can/ be blessed, only by having his mind in harmony\nwith God's, then the training of the young in the good way of the\nLord is a matter of solemn obligation. Man has no choice here.\nTo neglect that way in training, is to arrogate a wisdom superior\nto God's, and the man who does that is perhaps blindly and\nunconsciously, but not the less certainly, evading God's truth\nand perpetuating the misery of man's soul.\n\nBut we are too general. Ere we can plant and foster religion in our\nhomes, we must descend into more minute details.\n\n    THE SACRED CIRCLE.\n\nParents here demand the first place, and as the basis of all that\ncan be addressed to them, we observe that the supreme, we might say\nthe single maxim which should guide them in all they do, in regard\nto the religion of home, is suggested by the question, \"What is the\nway of the Lord?\" Parents who do not walk in that way themselves,\nwho find no pleasure there, and feel under no constraint either to\nseek to enter upon it, or advance after they have entered, will feel\nno obligation to lead their children or their household there. That\nis the secret of our godless families, our prayerless homes, our\nnurseries of folly and of woe. The fountain which should send forth\nsweet water is poisoned. The tree which should bear grapes produces\nonly wild berries, and society is at once crowded and corrupted by\nthe ungodly children of ungodly parents.\n\n    THE ONLY RULE.\n\nBut wherever a parent has felt the value of a soul, and loves it\n--wherever he has found out the good way of the Lord, and tried\nto walk in it--his guiding inquiry at every step will be, How does\nthe God of all our families instruct us to act? What is his mind\nat any given point? That once ascertained, it becomes our only rule;\nand where it is not our only rule, religion in that home is not\nsupreme--all besides is sin. \"The nurture and admonition of /the\nLord/\"--\"The fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom\"\n--\"The way in which they ought to go\"--These, and similar portions\nof God's revealed mind, point at once to the sovereign rule. True,\ndifficulties innumerable meet us in that way. The iniquity that\nis bound up in the heart of the young--the love of folly, and the\nhatred of wisdom--devotedness to baubles--indifference to things\neternal and divine, with all the array of evil influences which\nassail or ensnare the young in a world where God is unknown,\ndishonoured, or forgotten, may augment the godly parent's\ndifficulties. But difficulties are not the rule of duty. They are\nonly a call to prayer, to dependence on the heavenly Teacher, and,\nin his strength, to steadfast opposition to all that is wrong, and\naffectionate encouragement of all that is right and true. The Word\nof God is thus our only rule; to consult another is to listen to\nthe evil heart of unbelief.\n\n    THE PRAYERLESS HOME.\n\nIt has no doubt come to pass in our day, that that standard is set\naside by many parents who dislike the holiness of the Bible, and\nwould prefer some freer scope to sin than it will tolerate. They\noverlook the holy requirements of God, and there are many homes\nwhere He is never worshipped. There are children who never heard\ntheir parents pray. There are domestics whose souls never drew forth\none anxious thought from their employers. The religion of home is,\nin short, a discarded thing, and souls are trained in ungodliness\nby those who should watch over them as over their most precious\npossession. Now, it is needless to add that Christianity is exiled\nfrom such homes; the truth, the Spirit, the love of God, are not\npresiding there. There may be individual Christians under these\nroofs, who sigh and cry for the reigning ungodliness; or who, in\nsome retired place, have set up an altar where God in Christ is\nworshipped, as has been done in a miserable cellar, in a home where\nno other place of prayer was allowed. Such homes, however, are not\nChristian homes. The practice of Abraham is there reversed: \"The way\nof the Lord\" is not observed; and when men wander from it, what can\nthe end be but labour and sorrow?\n\n    THE WAY OF THE LORD.\n\nBut to a parent who really loves his children, and who would do\nas the great patriarch did, it would be an important boon, could\na brief directory be suggested for Christianizing our homes, or\nrendering them places where prayer is wont to be made. How shall we\nsubdue the spirit of the world, which is ever seeking to insinuate\nits deadening influence? How shall we be prepared to do all in the\nname of the Lord Jesus, in our homes? These are questions which\nenter deeply into the well-being of society; and yet no brief answer\ncan be given applicable to every case. Every parent, impressed with\na solemn sense of his own responsibility to God, must here seek\ndaily grace for daily guidance, and make each difficulty, as it\nrises, a new errand to the throne. Thus only will the religion of\nthe Redeemer preside in our homes, and fit us for \"the house of the\nLord for ever.\" Perhaps the only universal rule that could be given\nis this: In regard to any action, any pleasure, any practice in our\nhomes, let the question be asked, with the Bible open before us, \"Is\nthis the way of the Lord? Is it thus that I can train my children\nin the way in which they ought to go?\" The answer to that, honestly\nsought and honestly found in prayer to God for light and guidance,\nwould detect many an unholy practice, or repress many an unholy\nplan. It would make the religion of our homes the religion of Jesus,\nof purity and peace--the guide who came from heaven to lead us\nto its glory and its God. It would infuse a right spirit into\nour catechisings and all our details, and end in raising up godly\nhouseholds in the land.\n\n    INORDINATE AFFECTION.\n\nBlind parental affection ranks among the greatest obstructions to\nthe religion of home. It prompts indulgences which should be at once\nput away, and prevents correction where correction is an ordinance\nof God. It seems to turn the hearts of parents to their children\naccording to the promise, but it is, in truth, like the tender\nmercies of the wicked, only cruelty in disguise.\n\nAnd to correct this, let us glance at an incident in the life of Him\nwhom no one will suspect of the want of affection the most profound,\nfor \"He loved us, and gave himself for us.\"--The hour of the power\nof darkness was drawing on. His enemies were gradually narrowing the\ncircle around him, and preparing to spring on him at last, as the\nvictim of their hatred unto death. He had intimated to those around\nhim what was about to happen; and Peter, ever resolute, impulsive,\nand loving, could ill brook the tidings. \"Be it far from thee,\nLord: this shall not be unto thee,\" were the apostle's ardent and\naffectionate words; and how did the Saviour regard them? Did he\nwelcome them as a solace to his troubles? Nay, his instant rejoinder\nwas, \"Get thee behind me, Satan.\" In other words, all-affectionate\nas the apostle's remonstrance seems to our minds, it was opposed\nto the mind and will of God, and whatever bore that character, was\noffensive to the Redeemer's holy soul--offensive as Satan himself.\nWithout regarding Peter's love, then--without treating that as love\nat all which opposed the appointments of Jehovah, Jesus addressed\nthe apostle just as he had once before addressed the tempter himself.\n\"Get thee hence, Satan,\" were his words when asked to fall down and\nworship Satan; \"Get thee behind me, Satan,\" was his equally emphatic\nlanguage to his own apostle, when he pointed to a path which was\ndifferent from \"the way of the Lord.\"\n\nAnd that is written for our instruction. Human affection is only an\nangel of darkness in the garb of an angel of light, when it would\ncounsel us to walk in any path but God's. Parents may indulge their\nnatural affection at the expense of His holy law. They may concede\nwhat He has forbidden, or withhold what He appoints, but that was\nnever yet done without danger of the second death; and parents not\na few have helped to bring their own gray hairs in sorrow to the\ngrave, by such concessions to their offspring. The father or the\nmother who represses the young soul, and lays burdens upon it which\nthe Word of God does not warrant, ranks among the worst of tyrants\nor oppressors. The father or the mother who yields where God's Word\nopposes, or cheers the young in ways which our Father who is in\nheaven has forbidden, is cruel to their soul.\n\n    ELI.\n\nBut we are not left merely to infer the results of a blindfold\naffection on the part of parents; these results have been made the\nsubject of an affecting revelation; and to show how much depends\nupon the right discharge of parental duty, we have line upon line\nand precept upon precept. The case of Eli, for example, a man who\nwas at once a priest and a ruler in Israel, is recorded for our\nwarning. His sons did wickedly, and he restrained them not. From\nindolence of nature, or that phase of affection which leads to\nconnivance at sin or pampering the inborn evil of the heart, Eli\ndid not repress iniquity; he suffered it to grow, even in the house\nof God, without any effectual restraint; and what was the result? It\nranks among the most terrific of all that is contained in the Word\nof God. \"Behold I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears\nof the hearer shall tingle\"--\"When I begin I will also make an end,\nfor I have told Eli that I will judge his house for ever, for the\niniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile,\nand he restrained them not.\" Here is both the sin and the result.\nThe /sin/--parental neglect, from blindfold affection, or whatsoever\ncause. The /result/--an amount of iniquity which was not to be\nforgiven for ever. Parent and child were to suffer, and neither\nsacrifice nor offering was found for that transgression \"for ever.\"\nEli /was/ a believer, though compassed about with infirmities; but\nthere is only one other case in all the Word of God where we learn\nso plainly the eternal portion of any individual soul, as we are\ntold the doom of the godless sons of Eli.\n\n    WOE.\n\nIn contrast, then, with the conduct of Abraham, that of Eli brings\nto parents a lesson as distinct as if it were spoken in thunder,\nor written in light on the face of the heavens. \"The way of the\nLord\" was the path chosen by the one. He walked there, and led his\nchildren with him; and like the palm-tree in its fertility, that\nman was blessed and made a blessing. But evil without effectual\nrestraint was what Eli tolerated. \"The way of the Lord\" was forsaken\npartially by himself, and wholly by his sons; and woe, beyond what\ntongue can tell, was therefore Eli's lot while he sojourned here\nbelow.\n\n    THE MODEL.\n\nAgain, in the very constitution of our being the Almighty Maker\nof heaven and earth has inserted a provision for securing parental\nascendency and aiding parental duty. Without dwelling at present or\nat large on the power of parental affection, responded to by filial\nlove, let us call to mind the fact that the Saviour made a little\nchild his /model disciple/: \"He called a little child unto him, and\nset him in the midst\" of his attendants, and made that child the\ntext of one of his marvellous discourses. Now, consider how it is\nwith the minds of children, that parents may be encouraged amid what\nis often irksome, namely, making our homes so many nurseries for\nheaven.\n\nA little child, then, was the Saviour's model disciple; and what are\nthe characteristics of childhood? It is ready to associate with any\nwho are friendly to it. Regardless of external distinctions, it will\ncondescend to men even of the lowest estate.--And is it not thus\nthat they who are born of God should at all times act? Instead of\noverbearing arrogance, or selfish endeavours to outstrip or supplant,\ndoes not the truth as it is in Jesus teach us to do as a little\nchild instinctively does, to condescend to men of low estate? Are\nwe not taught to esteem others better than ourselves, to love as\nbrethren, to be pitiful and courteous?\n\n    SIMPLE FAITH.\n\nFarther, we commonly find a little child transparently guileless.\nInfancy is proverbially artless; it is reserved for advancing years\nto develope deceit, or mature the power to be false.--And is it\nnot ever so with those who are taught[*4] of God? They should be\npre-eminently men in whom there is no guile, whose word is truth,\nand whose ways are uprightness. Who has not seen the flushed\ncheek, the quivering lip, and the downcast eye of youth, when first\nbeginning to deceive? A similar confusion would be produced in the\nconscience of him who is born from above, were he to yield himself\nup to the guidance of lies. The little child is here again a model.\n\nOr farther: Mark how devoid of care the infantine are. They repose\nwithout forethought or fear upon those whom they love--literally and\nabsolutely, they take no thought for to-morrow. Borne up by the arms\nof affection, and neither doing nor dreading evil, they are kept\nin perfect tranquillity: every want is attended to, nay, every want\nis anticipated. A wisdom beyond what the young can fancy, and a\nlove beyond what they can fathom, are engaged on their behalf, and\nresting upon these, the helpless and the feeble are safe amid a\nthousand dangers.\n\nNow, is not that a model to be copied by all who know God's name,\nand put their trust in Him? Are we not told that only the Gentiles\nare anxious and fretful? Is it not announced as a general maxim,\nto which there can be no exceptive case, \"Sufficient unto the day\nis the evil thereof?\" And is not one of the most exquisite proofs\nof a particular providence that ever gladdened the heart of man,\nfurnished by the Saviour with the flowers of the field and the\nbirds of the air for his text, just meant to produce a child-like\nconfidence in our heavenly Father?[8]\n\nAnd once again: Are not children proverbial for their dependence on\na parent's word? Do they not place the most unquestioning confidence\nin the information of those whom they love? Unless the parent be\ndetected as a deceiver, or unless the child be perverted by the\nvicious example of those who should train it in the truth, not\na doubt is felt regarding the word of those with whom infancy\nassociates. And is not that a perfect model of the trust we should\nrepose in the word of our Father who is in heaven? Are we not both\nreproved and instructed by such little children, as to implicitly\nconfiding in the promises of the unchanging One?[9]\n\nNow, these things may well encourage parents in the training of the\nyoung. There is already a groundwork prepared. They have materials\nupon which to operate; and though all is vain without the teaching\nof the Spirit of God, yet with that and the use of means, the hope\nmay be cherished that a race will be trained to serve the Lord when\ntheir fathers are no more.\n\n    ALFRED THE GREAT.\n\n    A ROYAL CHRISTIAN.\n\nNor is history devoid of examples tending to enforce the duty of\ngodly training. Of all the names which embellish the history of\nour island, that of Alfred the Great stands among the foremost.\nEqually remarkable for his genius, his wisdom, his godliness, and\nhis trials, we might find in his single case enough to encourage\nparental painstaking or rebuke parental neglect. Hear how this\nmonarch speaks: \"To thee, O God, I call and speak. Hear, O hear me,\nLord! for thou art my God and my Lord, my Father and my Creator, my\nruler and my hope, my wealth and my honour, my house, my country, my\nsalvation, and my life! Hear, hear me, O Lord! Few of thy servants\ncomprehend thee. But thee alone I love indeed, above all other\nthings: Thee I seek: Thee I will follow: Thee I am ready to serve.\nUnder thy power I desire to abide, for thou alone art the Sovereign\nof all. I pray thee to command me as thou wilt.\"\n\n    A MOTHER'S POWER.\n\nNow, by what process was this youth enabled to make such acquirements\nin godliness as that prayer betokens? It was by a device of his\nmother, who allured him into paths where he learned that truth which\nhe has so beautifully embodied. Her wise and loving heart struck\nupon a plan which proved the turning-point in Alfred's history.\nIt gave or it confirmed that bent of his mind which made him what\nhe was--which led to the enacting of some of the laws which still\nsignalize England among the nations, as well as prompted this\nmemorable address to his son and successor Edward, on Alfred's dying\nbed: \"We must now part,\" the sinking monarch said; \"I go to another\nworld, and thou shalt be left alone in all my wealth. I pray thee\n(for thou art my dear child) strive to be a father and a lord to\nthy people. Be thou the children's father and the widow's friend.\nComfort thou the poor, and shelter the weak; and with all thy might,\nright what is wrong. And, son, govern thyself by law. Then shall the\nLord love thee, and God, above all things, shall be thy reward. Call\nthou upon him to advise thee in all thy need, and so shall he help\nthee the better to compass what thou wouldest.\" Now that, we repeat,\nand similar examples may well stimulate parental diligence and\nanimate parental hope. In a barbarous age, amid rude and martial\nmen, with superstition seeking to efface all that was divine, and\nignorance combining its power to help superstition to accomplish\nthat object, Alfred rose above every obstacle, and stamped\nimpressions upon his country which all time cannot efface.--What\ncan Christian principle in the hands of a godly mother not achieve?\nWhat forms may not be impressed upon the molten lead?\n\n    A DIFFICULTY:\n\nOn this subject, however, there is a difficulty which sometimes\nmeets us, at which it may be instructive to glance. On the one hand,\nwe read, \"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is\nold he will not depart from it,\" but on the other, it is too well\nknown that even children who have been trained by godly parents\noften go astray. They make haste to abandon the narrow path as soon\nas they dare, and plunge into sin as if they were determined to show\nhow boldly they can trample upon all that is sacred or constraining.\nHow many a parent's heart is at this moment aching, or how many have\ngone down in sorrow to the grave, lamenting the iniquity of those\nwhom they had tried to train, or for whom they had watched and\nprayed! Ten thousand mothers have had Monica's trials, without\nliving to share her joy, and the homes which should have been\nlike temples of religion, have become the abodes of woe.\n\nNow, how is this apparent contradiction to be explained? The\nScriptures say, \"Train up a child in the way that he should go,\"\nand add the assurance, \"When he is old, he will not depart from\nit;\" but, in opposition to that, we see some of the children of\ngodly parents plunging into sin; and how do we explain the seeming\ncontradiction?\n\n    --ITS EXPLANATION.\n\nWe explain it just by stating the truth. The child who has gone\nastray never was in the right way: he refused so much as to enter it.\nHis training was a burden and an offence. Fear might compel him to\ncomply with a form for a season. The parent took pains; he corrected\nthe child, perhaps through tears; he warned; he prayed; but the\nheart was never won to God. The iniquity which was bound up in the\nheart of that child resisted every appliance. Sin was still loved.\nIt was turned like a sweet morsel under the tongue. Holiness\ncontinued to be disliked. The constraints of a Christian home were\nlike fetters to that child; and, when his pent-up iniquity broke\nout at last, it was only the open display of what had always been\nlatently ruling. In a word, he had not been trained, nay, he had\nresisted every attempt to train him, in the way in which he ought to\ngo. He might be the inmate of a Christian home; but he never had a\nChristian heart; the truth of God was repelled; the Spirit of God\nwas quenched; and the explanation is:--\"They went out from us, but\nthey were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt\nhave continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made\nmanifest that they were not all of us.\"\n\nOn the other hand, however, does some child receive the truth into\nthe heart? Does sin become an offence? Is the Word of God loved?\nIs the salvation of God sought? Then that child /is/ trained in the\nway in which he ought to go. There may yet come an eclipse of faith.\nTemptation may for a season prevail, and the world may appear to\nhave regained the mastery. But if the nurture and admonition of the\nLord has been welcomed into the heart, as the Spirit imparts his\nblessing, the effect produced will never fade utterly away. Out\nof the mouth of such a one God will perfect praise; and while some\ncompanion beside him is growing up in wickedness, or casting the\nWord of God behind his back--searing the conscience, hardening the\nheart, and ruining the soul--the other is growing up to the stature\nof a perfect man in Christ. Like a tree planted by the rivers of\nwater, he bears his fruit in his season, and all he does shall\nprosper.\n\n    THE WORLD--ITS ANTIDOTE.\n\nBut further, the subject of parental training suggests a question\nwhich occasions not a little perplexity to some Christian minds. We\nrefer to the line which separates the unquestionably worldly from\nthe decidedly Christian, in the training of the young. There are\npractices on which every Christian parent must frown, and from which\nhe must recoil, if he would not promote the ruin, by fostering the\nworldly-mindedness, of his children; but there are intermediate\npractices, regarding which he may find it more difficult to decide,\nand upon this point we quote the authority of one whose weighty\nwords all who would not conspire with the world against their own\nchildren, should very gravely ponder. Dr. Chalmers says: \"In the\nface of every hazard to the worldly interests of his offspring,\nwill a Christian parent bring them up in the strict nurture and\nadmonition of the Lord; and he will loudly protest against iniquity,\nin all its degrees and in all its modifications; and while the power\nof discipline remains with him, will it ever be exerted on the side\nof pure, faultless, undeviating obedience; and he will tolerate\nno exception whatever; and he will brave all that looks formidable\nin singularity, and all that looks menacing in separation from\nthe custom and countenance of the world; and feeling that his main\nconcern is to secure for himself and for his family a place in the\ncity which hath foundations, will he spurn all the maxims and all\nthe plausibilities of a contagious neighbourhood away from him.\"[10]\n\n    FAMILY WORSHIP.\n\nBut it is more than time that we should proceed to refer to the\nduties of Children. Had it been our object to submit detailed\ndirections for a Christian home, we must have spoken at length\nof the cardinal duty of family worship, without which, it should\nnever be disguised for a moment, our homes cannot be Christian.\nThe household in which God is not worshipped is like a ship at\nsea without a pilot or a helm, while the tempest is rising and\nthreatening to rage. However majestic the vessel or costly the\ncargo, she is at the mercy of the first rock--it may be, the very\nfirst wave. \"Him that honoureth God, God will honour; but he that\ndespiseth God shall be lightly esteemed;\" and the neglect of this\nhonour is, beyond all controversy, one cause of the degeneracy which\nis now so apparent in many spheres.\n\nOr we must have told that parents, and very specially that mothers,\nshould deal with their children from time to time, as only Christian\nmothers can do, regarding the state of the soul, according to the\nmeasure of the young capacity. To stimulate them to that duty, we\nmight quote or enforce the words of a man much honoured of God:\n\"Ah, could you see your children standing at the bar of Christ,\nunconverted, through an affectionate mother's neglect of their\nsouls, how would the scene rend your hearts with anguish!\"[11]\n\n    SABBATH SCHOOLS--THEIR USE AND ABUSE.\n\nOr we must have dwelt on the fact that no parent is at liberty\nto devolve the Christian training of his child upon another. It\nis the primary law of God over all, that the parent should see\nto the child's religious training; and the home in which that\nis neglected, is one where a large portion of the law of God is\nignored. Sabbath-schools have been blessed beyond what can be told,\nto remedy existing evils--to roll back, or at least repress, the\nrising tide of iniquity; and multitudes will rejoice for ever over\nsuch institutions. In the state of degradation into which multitudes\nhave sunk, they have long been our only hope--but they belong to a\ndiseased state of society. They are for those who would otherwise be\nneglected or outcast, and can never supersede the obligation imposed\nupon all parents, without exception, to bring up their children in\nthe nurture of the Lord.\n\nOr, in providing for the Christianizing of men's homes, we might\nhave spoken on the subject of correction, and told that, in spite\nof modern theories to the contrary, that is an ordinance of God\n--though never to be employed till all else has failed, and to be\nadministered, when administered at all, through tears, as giving\nmore pain to the parent who corrects, than to the child who is\ncorrected.\n\n    CHILDREN--THEIR ONLY RULE.\n\nOr, in adverting to the ascendency of Christian principle in our\nhomes, we might mention the need of care on the part of parents,\nlest they commit their children to paths, in regard to this world's\nbusiness, where a very miracle of grace is needed to save them from\ndestruction. Who can doubt, that in selecting the school where their\noffspring shall be trained, or the master whom they shall serve, or\nthe profession which they shall follow, many a parent has sacrificed\nhis child to the god of this world? This is a sore evil; and in\nan age like ours, when even the souls of men are made a matter\nof merchandise, a Christian parent will beware lest he expose\ninexperienced youth amid scenes where everlasting destruction\nmay await the soul.\n\nBut these we only name, and now offer one suggestion to the young\nthemselves: \"Children, obey your parents in the Lord;\" or, \"Children,\nobey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto\nthe Lord.\"--These are the Scriptural injunctions, from which there\ncan be no swerving without committing sin. Did parents issue some\ncommand contrary to the Word of God, then a Christian child must\ndecline obeying it, for that child is bound by a higher allegiance\nto God; but in all common cases, the parent is in God's place to\nthe child. The parent's will is law--a law which cannot be broken\nwithout guilt. That law, indeed, is to be administered with the\nsceptre of love, and not with a rod of iron; and while children are\nto obey their parents, \"parents are not to provoke their children\nto wrath.\" But still, the unvarying rule is--the parent's will is\nsupreme; and wherever filial affection reigns, that law will be\nsacredly observed, because it is founded on the authority of the\nGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is guarded on the one\nhand by the promise of blessings to the obedient, and on the other\nby such words as these: \"He that troubleth his own house shall\ninherit the wind.\" Insubordination here is the root of wrath and woe.\n\n    MASTER AND SERVANT.\n\nNext to the relation of husband and wife, and parent and child,\nstands that of master and servant; and here also our homes should\nbe presided over by Christian principle. On the one hand, there\nis obedience due even to the forward; and on the other, there is\ncare and kindness--kindness to the souls of our domestics, as well\nas in other respects. In our mercenary and utilitarian age, when\nhuman beings are often regarded by hard-minded men, only as so much\nliving machinery, and when the chief question concerning them is too\noften the same as that which is employed concerning the beasts that\nperish--How can their flesh and blood be turned to most profitable\naccount?--this relation is often formed or conducted upon principles\nthe reverse of Christian. The employed are too ready to prey upon\nthe employer, while he treats them with lordly indifference or with\nheartless disregard. They are thus often arrayed against each other,\nlike natural enemies, instead of being united, as mutually dependent.\n\nBut a better day has dawned, in which the bonds which unite master\nand servant are better understood. If servants are to act like those\nwho serve the Lord Christ, and to do their duty heartily as unto\nthe Lord, masters are to beware lest their dependants be hindered\nin that service by selfish exaction or inconsiderate unkindness.\nThis relation is not a merely mercenary one--it is degraded when\nviewed only in that light. It has moral elements mixed up with it\nnow, as in the days of old, when Abraham commanded his household,\nas well as his children, to \"keep the way of the Lord.\" The soul as\nwell as the body, eternity as well as time, are to be kept in view\nin this as in every relation; and never was that principle outraged\nwithout eventual injury to all. It is much to oppress the hireling,\nor rob him of his wages; but it is more to defraud the soul of its\ndue. It is much to occasion pain by haughtiness or harshness; but\nit is more to coerce or to sully the conscience; and the Bible is\nnot the lamp of that home where souls are thus defrauded.\n\n    \"NOT AT HOME\"--A LIE.\n\nAnd who can ever compute the guilt of those who tamper with a\nservant's truthfulness, and train her to falsehood, to screen them\nfrom intruders? That form of sin is perhaps now well-nigh banished\nto the highest ranks, and to those who mimic their example; but we\ncan picture no more certain process for defacing all that is pure\nand lovely in a soul, than the practice to which we advert. And\nwhen such a habit as the utterance of a falsehood, for any purpose,\nis imposed upon a servant, that servant should resolutely reject\nit. There may come the storm of the cruel seducer's anger; but\nbetter that than the tempest of the Judge's wrath. There may come\nhomelessness or poverty; but better that than a polluted conscience\nand a shipwrecked faith. Stanch Christian principle never yet\ninflicted a lasting injury upon any one, and he need not be afraid\nfor what man can do, who has learned humbly, but firmly, to say,\n\"It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of\nman's judgment.... He that judgeth me is the Lord.\"[12]\n\n    CHRISTIAN HOMES.\n\nNor let us fail to remark, that it was for the guidance of servants\nthat these memorable words were inspired: \"Exhort servants to be\nobedient to their masters, and to please them well in all things;\nnot answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity;\"\nand mark the lofty motive, \"that they may adorn the doctrine of God\nour Saviour in all things.\" That is surely truest dignity, and again\nwe say, How would domestic life be sweetened; how would many of our\nsins be compelled to hide their head ashamed; how would the lowly\nbe exalted; how would the general aspect of society be changed--were\nour homes Christian homes in this respect! Were masters in their\nspheres, and servants in theirs, alike setting the Lord before them,\nalike serving him, alike \"walking in the way of the Lord\"--that one\nmaxim steadfastly obeyed, would revolutionize many a home for good.\nNo petty invasion then of another's rights on the one hand; no\nhaughty neglect upon the other;--all would be well-ordered, for\nall would be according to the mind of God.[13]\n\n    THE TYPE OF HEAVEN.\n\nAnd with this all before us, let fathers, mothers, and children--let\nmasters and servants, or the employer and the employed, decide--Are\nthey realizing their responsibility? Are they seeking the eternal\ngood of those with whom they are connected? Are they enduring\nno wicked thing before their eyes, according to the Word of the\nEternal? We know that a parent, for example, cannot impart grace to\nhis child; nay, some of those whom parents most fondly cherish, may\nturn at last and rend them. But may not the hope be cherished that\nthe blessing of God upon the use of means will turn the hearts of\nthe children to the parents; or better still, to the God and Father\nof our Lord Jesus Christ? May not parents hope, that in answer to\ntheir prayers and their pains, God will guide the young to Him whom\nthese parents fear, to the Saviour whom they love, and the heavenly\nabode of which a Christian home on earth is the vestibule or type?\nLet parents pray for that result; let them labour for it; let them\nhope for it; and the Spirit of God may thus honour them to win the\nyoung to Christ. But how terrific the portion of the parent who\nshall meet his child in the presence of God, when that child\nhas perished through the parent's sin! How blessed, how double\nthe heaven, which is the home at once of parent and of child!\n\n    THE HAPPY HOME.\n\nWould men then be happy? Let the love of Christ reign in their\nhomes. Let them yield to that heavenly power which alone can quell\ntumultuous passion, or charm away the unhallowed effects of sin from\nscenes which should ever be sacred to holiness and peace. That love\n/should/ well up in the Christian soul like a stream in the desert,\nrefreshing all, and turning sterility into greenness. Now, is that\nthe case? Has the truth been lodged in the heart? Is the mind of God,\nthe law of the Lord, our guide? Then the cheerfulness of heavenly\npeace will glance through our abodes. They may be only a straw-built\nshed, or they may be the halls of the princely; but wherever the\nlove of Jesus reigns, there is peace with God, joy in God, and\npreparation to be for ever with Him.\n\n\n\n\n                            CHAPTER III.\n\n                     RELIGION IN THE WORKSHOP.\n\nThere is no error in religion more common or more deadly, than to\nput the means for the end. So rarely does man regard aright the\ngreat object of the soul's pursuit, that he is ready to repose\nsupinely upon something done, without ever solemnly inquiring\nwhether he has reached the right result by doing it, or only been\ndeceived by a semblance and a form.--We read the Word of God, and\nthink that it can accomplish what only He of whom it tells can\nachieve. We hold certain doctrines, and because we hold them firmly,\nwe hasten to the conclusion that we actually possess the blessings\nwhich these doctrines reveal or imply. Or finally, the intellect of\nsome is filled with truth in its loftiest forms; but there it lies,\nexercising no influence upon the life. It quiets the conscience,\nbut it does not sanctify the soul; and the anomaly of a spiritual\ncreed side by side with a carnal life is thus frequently found among\nmen--the worst of all heresies, the most deadly of all deceptions, a\nrepetition of Chorazin and Bethsaida.\n\n    THE CHIEF END OF REVELATION.\n\nNow, it can never be made too plain that revelation, with all that\nis glorious in it, is only a means to an end. Even the death of\nChrist, solitary as it stands in its moral grandeur, among the\nevents of the universe, was only a means--the end was /God's glory\nin man's holiness/. To bring a clean thing out of an unclean; to\ntransmute enmity against God into love to him, or wounds and bruises\nand noisome sores into the beauty of holiness--behold the grand\nresult aimed at alike in the life and the death of the Son of God.\nBy dying he did accomplish other results, and the influence of that\ndeath is felt to the utmost verge of creation, as we know it is\nfelt among the angels on high. But still it is the /grand result/\nwe should ever aim at, and that is, deliverance from sin in its\ncondemnation, its pollution, and its power: \"This is the will of\nGod, even our holiness.\"\n\n    THE CHRISTIAN WORKMAN.\n\nNow, this simple truth may serve as a guide or an ally in every\nsphere of life, but specially so in that sphere which we are now to\ncontemplate, or the Bible in the Workshop. And an incident recorded\nin the Christian Scriptures will at once shed light upon the subject.\nOn more than one occasion the apostle Paul had to work with his\nhands to earn his daily bread.[14] Though the care of all the\nchurches was upon him; though the enmity of the prejudiced, and\nthe persecution of those who had the power, tried to bear him down,\nhe was yet amid it all, a man of handicraft and hard labour--he\ncould sit down with Aquila in his workshop, and there engage in\nmanual labour for his livelihood, with all the zeal of his noble\nand indomitable nature. He at least was not one of those who think\nthat idleness and indolence can dignify man's position. He was not\none of those who would deem themselves degraded by being useful. He\nknew that man is born under a decree to work. He therefore wrought;\nand just as this man of God, when it was his duty, put forth all\nthe powers of his intellect and soul in reasoning before Festus, or\nFelix, or King Agrippa, did he put forth the powers of his body in\nmaking tents in the workshop of his friend at Corinth. Enough for\nPaul, if he was where the Lord wished him to be, or engaged in\nwhat the Lord gave him to do; and without one feeling either of\ndegradation or of discontent, he bore the toils of the body as well\nas exerted the activities of the mind; he both taught and practised\nthe lesson, \"If any man will not work, neither shall he eat.\" He\nfelt that every man must be a worker, either with mind, or body, or\nboth. The last was his alternative; and we know that in some cases\nthe night was added to the day, ere he could complete his allotted\ntask. Sinew, and muscle, and bone, in Paul's case, were dedicated\nto the service of God, as well as a mental power which could not\nbe gainsaid, except by the bigot's ever ready argument--the dungeon,\nthe chain, or death.\n\n    A WORKSHOP--\n\nWith this high model in view, then, let us now enter a workshop,\nand accost some of those who are there. Our object is to show how\nthe Bible should preside among them, to protect the character from\npollution--the soul from peril. Remembering that Christian worth\ndoes not depend on lofty birth or brilliant powers, but on a heart\nright with God, and his long-lost image restored to the soul,\nconsider how that image may become more and more vivid, if it be\nindeed stamped on us by the Spirit.\n\n    ITS OCCUPANTS.\n\nAnd, first, not a few of those with whom we associate in the\nworkshop, are snares to the soul of the very direst kind. We\nfind that infidelity which is often the result of utter ignorance,\nthere rampant and rife. We often see vice rioting in the life, and\nshutting the heart against the truth. A soul in which religion is\nfelt and loved, will hear what it deems sacred blasphemed, and in\nself-defence, it may be constrained to contend for the faith once\ndelivered to the saints. Some of those who are thus tried can tell\nof the mental anguish to which they are exposed--of the snares which\nare laid for them on the right hand and on the left--the heroism\nwhich is needed to contend, perhaps single-handed, against a crowd\nof gainsayers, who know of no pleasure but the pleasures of sin,\nor care for no truth but such as relates to gross and material\nthings. As the body is oppressed and dies amid mephitic vapours,\nthe soul grows sick and like to die amid scenes like these. It\nhas to maintain a constant struggle for existence, as the natives\nof some portions of India maintain a constant warfare with the\ninhabitants of the jungle--the boa, the lion, or the tiger. Men\nlong neglected by those who should have consulted for their better\ninterests; men long viewed as only so much animal machinery, to be\nused as long as it can drudge, and then heartlessly cast aside; men\nlong treated as if they had neither souls to save, nor an eternity\nto provide for, have too often sunk so far that they threaten to\ntake revenge upon society, by trampling out every vestige of truth\nthat can be found in the places of their exhaustion and toil.\n\nNow, amid perils like these, surely the man who cares for his soul\nhas just the more need to cleave close to the only power which\ncan give him the victory--and that power is Christ. Every ungodly\ngainsayer should be to that man an object of pity, like that of\nthe Redeemer to our fallen world. Every blasphemer, every infidel,\nevery man who has given himself up to the slavery of passion, and\ndethroned at once his reason and his God, should be an object of\ntender compassion to the soul of the Christian beside him. While\nsporting with their own ruin, such men should be like another, and\nanother, and another call to all who know the truth, to show by\ntheir life at least, what a Christian, or what Christianity is--how\ntrue it is that\n\n                  \"We can make our lives sublime,\n                And departing, leave behind us\n                  Footprints on the sands of time;\"\n\nand the following counsels may help some earnest spirit in that\narduous work.\n\n\n    THE SABBATH-DAY.\n\nI.[*5] The most godly occupant of a workshop will be the least\nsurprised to hear us say, Next to the Bible, prize the Sabbath-day,\nand let no man rob you of its sacred rest. You will thus find it a\ntower of strength to the soul.\n\nWhile we look around us, we everywhere see the blessed results of\nthe Sabbath rest when properly employed, the woeful consequences\nof its sacred hours encroached on, whether by the drudgery of toil\nor the debasement of licentiousness. See that home where domestic\ncomfort dwells, where well-ordered decorum reigns, and where the\nparent and the child have alike their part assigned to them from day\nto day. Be sure that the Sabbath is there observed; the very peace\nwhich prevails around you in that abode, is a portion of the Sabbath\nitself spread over the week.[15]\n\nBut see that other home where squalid wretchedness, perhaps unholy\nriot, reigns. See children neglected, see character lost, see\npoverty bringing woe in its train--a woe which is gradually rising\nlike an ingulfing[*6] tide upon the inmates, till at last they are\nsteeped to the lip in misery. See a wife worse than widowed amid the\nbrutalities of that home; or, more degrading still, see her uniting\nwith her guilty partner in godless revelry, till, like the meeting\nof fires, the two together waste and consume every vestige of\nwhat is pure, and lovely, and of good report. Now, while you gaze\nupon that scene, be sure that the sacred hours of the Sabbath are\ndisallowed[*7] there; they are squandered in licentiousness, and\nperverted into the means of ruin. In brief, the Sabbath is there\ntrodden under foot. The ungodliness of the week grows deeper and\ndarker on the Lord's own day, because the abuse of the best things\nturns them into the worst; and accumulated crime, like a swollen\nriver, sweeps the inmates at last, some to prison, some to an\nhospital, some to exile, some to death.\n\n    GALILEO'S FIRMNESS.\n\nAnd these, and a thousand similar cases, warn us in the workshop to\nprize the day of rest. It frees the sons and daughters of toil for\na little from the burdens of earth. It braces their mind for the\nstruggle with sin throughout the week. It enables them to clothe\nthemselves with the armour of righteousness on the right hand and\non the left. It affords an opportunity for anchoring the soul to the\nRock of Ages. If employed as it ought to be, that day, which is not\nours, but the Lord's, who claims a seventh portion of our time as\npeculiarly his own, will arm the mind for meekly but resolutely\nputting away at once the wiles and the assaults of the godless. \"I\nknow in whom I have believed,\" may be the reply of the godly artizan\nto all the gainsayers; and he may thus proceed upon his way as\na believer, as unmoved either by the scorn or the assault of the\ninfidel or the licentious, as Galileo was unshaken amid all the\npersecutions of popery, when he told the world the true theory of\nthe skies. In a word, with the Bible open before us, and the mind\nof God for our standard there, he is at once the strongest and the\nhappiest Christian who has best learned to practise what John taught\nby his example, \"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.\"\n\n    THE CHURCH OF THE OUTCAST.\n\nNow, we put that counsel first, because unless it be religiously\nacted on, all else will be vain. At the same time, we are now in\ncircumstances for putting this matter to a practical proof upon a\nlarge scale. In various cities of the empire, there are churches\nformed well-nigh exclusively of those who, a few years ago, had no\nman who cared for their souls, and who had not learned to care for\nthemselves. They were therefore, familiar with sin. It was their\nsport, or rather their daily work, to do mischief. Some of them\nwere at once corrupt and corrupting. But out of these very souls\nthere have been formed the goodly spectacle of earnest worshippers,\ncounted by hundreds, and characterized by all the aspects of\ndevoutness.\n\nAnd, what is it that has achieved these results? How does it happen\nthat instead of the thorn the fir-tree has come up; instead of the\nbrier, the myrtle? and how does the desert blossom as the rose? Who\nwill hesitate to reply, that had it not been for the Sabbath, with\nall that is blessed and all that is hallowing in its exercises, such\neffects could never have been produced? From day to day, nay, from\nhour to hour, pains and prayer were needed. From hour to hour, the\nmen of faith who put their hands to that work, had to depend on the\nblessing which comes from God only. But these blessings came in rich\nabundance on the Lord's own day; and now it can be said of this man\nand that man, formerly an outcast from the decencies of life, that\nhe is born of the Spirit, clothed and in his right mind, by the\nSpirit's blessing on his truth proclaimed. In the light of eternity,\nsuch men are ennobled.\n\n    TRUE NOBILITY.\n\nNow, what raised them from their degradation, is yet more able to\nkeep us from falling; and sure we are, that were there but one man\nin a workshop who knew how to prize and profit by the Lord's day,\nhe could, single-handed, keep his ground at once against taunts,\nagainst malice, and against all persecution. On that day our God\nleads us, if we will let him, into his pavilion; He teaches us\nwhere to hide from \"the strife of tongues,\" and it is thus that\ntrue nobility is imparted even to him\n\n              \"Who ploughs with pain his native lea,\n               And reaps the labour of his hands.\"\n\n\nII. Where it is our daily business to earn our bread by the\nsweat of our brows in the workshop, it should be one of our first\nand most resolute endeavours, to make sure that the truth which\nJesus brought from heaven to earth is deeply planted in our hearts\nand souls.--There are tender plants which thrive and bloom, or bear\nluxuriant fruit, if sheltered well, but which wither and die if\nexposed to the biting blast for a night; and there is a parallel\nto that in religion. In kindly or in genial exposures it may thrive,\nand put forth its blossoms or bear fruit; but in many a workshop it\nis exposed to the rudest blasts that blow.\n\n    INFIDELITY--\n\nOne would try to crush it; he hates it because it will not let him\nsin. Like that profligate man who wished Keith's Evidences from\nProphecy destroyed, \"because they were so convincing;\" many cry,\nAway with the Word of God, for the same reason that the Jews cried,\nAway, away with the Son of God--because it rebukes their iniquity.\n\n    ITS ROOT.\n\nAnd another wishes the Word of God put down, because he remembers\nits effects upon his soul in earlier years, when a godly parent\ntried to impress it on the conscience and the heart. He has now\ncast these instructions behind his back. He has learned to sin with\na high hand; and as the sight or the sounds of the truth re-awaken\nhis old concern, he is eager to drive it from his presence. The very\nsight is a sting to his conscience. A single clause may be like a\ndeath-knell, and that man hates it with a perfect hatred. That is\nthe root of much of the infidelity which is now so rife--not the\nwant of proof, but the evil heart of unbelief; not mere ignorance,\nbut the preference of sin to holiness.\n\nOr a third among our fellow-workmen may be one who has known\nsome signal hypocrite. That pretender sought, perhaps, to promote\nsome sinister object by a religious profession. Perhaps he prayed;\nperhaps he was a reprover of other men's sins; perhaps he was an\neager advocate for sound doctrine, and would endure no departure\nfrom it--yet, after all, he may be unmasked as a mere pretender. It\nmay be discovered at length that he was all the while living in sin,\nconcealed, but long continued, such as to indicate that his religion\nwas a pretence, and his strictness that of a Pharisee. Now, having\ndiscovered the hollowness of that man's pretensions, some gladly\nrush to the conclusion that all religion is a pretence; they\ngreedily grasp at the conviction, because it favours their own\nlicentiousness, that \"there is none righteous, no, not one.\"\nReligion in every form is therefore regarded as an offence, or\ndiscarded as an imposture.\n\nOr, in the workshop beside us, we may find some other man who\naffects to be scientific. He knows a little of Geology, and is able\nto overthrow Moses and the Bible. He is acquainted with the secrets\nof Chronology, and thinks that there are far older histories--older\nby many thousands of years--than the records of Scripture pretend\nto be. Or that man has heard a little of Ethnography, and because\nhe is ignorant, he thinks it can be proved that all the dwellers on\nthe earth did not spring from Adam and Eve. Or perhaps his learning\ntakes the direction of tracing the Vestiges of Creation, and he\nconcludes that man can create--generally, that creatures can make\neach other, and that God is therefore unnecessary. These, and\nsimilar pretensions of science, falsely so called, may have taken\nhold of some minds around us, and amid the multitude of such\nassailants, who are bold, as streams are brawling, in proportion\nto their shallowness, it may not be always easy to be steadfast\nand unmoveable.\n\nBut to render us unmoveable--to arm us against such assailants\n--nothing will suffice, till Christ dwell in our hearts by faith;\ntill his truth be /our property/; till the Saviour be a Saviour, and\npardon a pardon, /to us/. A religion which has merely been handed\ndown to us by our fathers, will not stand the rude shock of such\nassaults as have been named. We need to be rooted and grounded in\nthe truth. We require a better and a deeper teaching than man's.\nIt must be a fixed conviction in our soul, that religion does not\nconsist in observing mere forms or seasons, however devoutly. Christ\nmust dwell in the heart, just as the blood must be in the body, and\ncirculate there as a vitalizing power.\n\n    THE PANOPLY.\n\nOn this subject we cannot be too urgent. While there is absolutely\nno panoply but truth, our convictions need to be reinforced by\nthe feeling, that it is not toil that degrades man; it is not hard\nlabour that ranks him among the lower orders; it is sin. Adam, in\ninnocence, had to work, and that did not degrade him. But he sinned,\nand that laid him in the miry clay. Paul the apostle had to work,\nand felt no dishonour in it. The only dishonour which he knew, was\nrebellion against God; and if we would resist the temptations which\nassail us from without or from within, we need to make sure that\nwe are on the Lord's side; that his truth is in our hearts; that\nit keeps watch in our souls, ready to sound an alarm, and summon\nus to action against every enemy. Without that, surrounded as we are\nin the workshop with clouds of enemies, we shall be like the willow\nwand before the blast, and driven of the wind and tossed; but with\nthe grace of God in the soul, we may be strong in the Lord and the\npower of his might; we may beat back our assailants--some have won\nthem to their cause. No power but truth, we repeat, will ever make\nus steadfast. Some invest our \"cottage homes\" with the attractions\nof poetry, and tell that\n\n                 \"Fearless there the lowly sleep,\n                  As the bird beneath their eaves.\"\n\nBut it is not poetic embellishments--it is nothing factitious in\nman's lot--it is the simple truth of God uniting to Christ, that\nelevates or ennobles the soul.\n\n    BAPTISMAL SUPERSTITION.\n\nThere are some dark-souled tribes in Africa, whose whole religion\nconsists in charms and incantations. By means which we need not\ntarry to describe, they try to ward off what they reckon evil, or\nto obtain what they reckon good. Now, strange as it may appear,\nthat folly is native to the mind of man. The very same tendency\nwhich makes a degraded savage trust to a charm, makes some who\nare not savages trust to rites, and ceremonies, and forms. One\nman concludes that he and his children are born again, or made the\nchildren of God, by the mere fact that they were baptized--that\nis, by a ceremony. Another thinks that his soul is right, because\nhe worships among Christians. A third concludes that all is well,\nbecause the sacrament of the Supper has been administered to him;\nthat rite is to many a soul what the extreme unction of popery is--a\ncharm, an incantation, and nothing more. Now, while that is the only\nform of religion in man's soul, he will prove the ready victim of\nthe snares and entanglements of the workshop. If the truth of God be\nnot rooted in the heart, no man can stand. We repeat it, and repeat\nit--there is only one power that can either make us steadfast or\nkeep us so--the grace of God in truth; and the man who confides\nin aught else for conquest, is already tottering to his fall.\n\n    OUR ALLIES.\n\nObserve, however, we disown no right ally in this holy warfare.\nAll knowledge that deserves the name--science as far as it can be\nacquired--should be acquired by every occupant of the workshop, and\nsome memorable examples of success in its culture could be named.\nThese, and all that can either strengthen or expand the mind, should\nbe cultivated to the uttermost of our power; but with all these,\nthe mind may become an easy prey to baseless delusions, unless\nthe wisdom which comes from above be our guide. While we hold\nour convictions firmly, we must hold them as God's truth, and in\nGod's strength, or they will soon be wrung from our grasp. To be\nself-reliant is in some respects a duty which we owe to ourselves;\nbut yet to trust to our own resources, our own wisdom or strength,\nis the high way to shame and confusion at the last. We are prepared\nto resist and to triumph only when we have on the whole armour of\nGod. If we try to realize a Saviour's love, we have a sure defence;\nbut whatever would withdraw us from that holy influence, whether\nit be the deceitful heart within, or an ensnaring world without,\nis just like the smoke from the abyss--it is loaded with darkness\nand death to the soul.\n\n    HUMAN DEVICES.\n\nThere is a canoe floating lazily on the waters of the St. Lawrence.\nAll is bright on either side; and forests which nothing but the\nwild beast or the tempest has disturbed for centuries, wave in\nthe plenitude of summer richness. In that canoe there is a boatman\nasleep, and the gentle gliding of his little craft is fitted rather\nto rock than to rouse him. Gradually, however, the river flows\nmore rapidly. The boat, with its sleeping cargo, feels the suction,\nand now rushes with increasing velocity along. Its agitation at\nlength rouses the sleeper, but it is too late. His skiff feels\nthe resistless power of the current; and, amid wild gesticulations,\nhe plunges into an abyss where his very fragments are destroyed.\nAnd similar results are seen in the moral world, when men permit\nthemselves to be drawn within the suction of that current which is\nsweeping so many down to ruin for ever.\n\n    SECULARISM.\n\nWere it needful further to enforce this subject, we might refer to\nthe ever-varying forms of delusion which heady and selfish men often\nobtrude on the notice of their fellow-workmen. Even in the course\nof a single generation we may count scheme after scheme--Utopian\nreforms--charters--new distributions of property or power--all\ndesigned to enlist men's sympathies in favour of some dream-like\nproject, only to plunge its abettors into a deeper abyss than\nbefore. The most recent of these assumes the name of /Secularism/.\nIt has for its object the abolition of Christianity, and all that\nrelates to the soul. One of its leading maxims is, \"The precedence\nof the duties of this life over those pertaining to another world;\"\nand, by the advocacy of such opinions, the system and its supporters\nadapt themselves to all that is low and grovelling in the fallen\nsoul. They beguile the unwary, and make an easy conquest of those\nwho have no religion but that of their country or their fathers. Or\nanother dogma of the system is, that \"the atonement of Christ is\nunsatisfactory as a scheme, and immoral as an example;\" and by\nsuch tenets men would tear up the foundation on which the hopes\nof mortality repose: they proudly but blindly sport with their own\nruin, and glory in lowering themselves to the level of the beasts\nwhich perish.\n\n    THE HEAVENLY ANTIDOTE.\n\nNow, against such satanic schemes, there is no safeguard but\none--the truth as it is in Jesus, planted in the heart by his\nSpirit, and tended there by his grace. Our religion, or what we\ncall religion, will perish like flax before the flame, when such\ndeceivers assail, unless we have felt the truth in its power, and\nknow, in spite of all opposition, that it /can/ guide, /can/ purify,\n/can/ bless the soul. What more congenial to man than to be told\nthat he need not care much about his soul? What can throw open the\ndoor for indulgence so widely as to be assured that we need not\nprepare for hereafter--that earth is all? What can more perfectly\npamper the selfishness of man than to be told that \"spiritual\ndependence may lead to material destruction?\" Hence the danger of\nsuch bold blasphemies. They find an ally, and often a ready welcome,\nin the heart of man; and hence also the necessity of getting hold\nand keeping hold of the heavenly antidote to all such delusions.\nThat antidote is the truth--the truth of God felt in the heart, and\nguiding the life; and with that in our possession, we repeat /in our\npossession/, we may humbly take up the great Reformer's eulogy, and\nsay, \"I will not fear the face of man.\" God and man, this world and\nthe next, are alike provided for in the Word; and when we learn to\nwelcome all God's revelation, we shall be guided into every good and\nholy way.\n\n\n    THE COWARDICE OF SIN.\n\nIII. A third counsel for our guidance in the workshop is, briefly\n--Be consistent. Never forget that the man who tries to be a\nChristian to-day, and complies with the enticements of sinners\nto-morrow, is one who is easily despised. The ungodly are lynx-eyed\nto mark his inconsistency, and prompt enough to pour contempt upon\nhim. A single rash act, a single rash word, may inflict a wound upon\nthe soul, or a blemish upon the character, from which it will not\neasily recover; nay, like a moral palsy, it may strike us with\nweakness and timidity for life. If we would be Christians at all, we\nmust be Christians always. Then by the grace of God we are safe, and\nit would be pleasant to tell of some who have thus resisted the tide\nof iniquity which broke against them in the workshop, or silenced\nthe abundance of abuse.--The sinner is, by a necessary law, a coward.\nHe fears God, though he will not own it; he fears conscience, and\ntries to trample it out as a dangerous spark; he fears perdition,\nthough he seems to be stout against it; and, moreover, he fears a\nhumble, living, consistent Christian, though he pretends only to\ndespise him. The sinner, we repeat, is a coward, by a necessary law.\nTerror is part of the wages of sin; and though sinners in crowds be\ncourageous, /alone/ they are timid and discomposed. They shrink from\nthe glance of a good man's eye; in their secret heart they fear him\nwith a fear which in some cases passes into love.\n\n    A MORAL PESTILENCE.\n\nNow, the knowledge of that should make the believer bold and firm.\nBy consistency he will subdue--he may be the means of winning some\nfrom the error of their ways. He will generally find some Aquila\nwith whom to associate as he works. His God will raise up some\nlike-minded companion with whom he can take sweet counsel; and if\nthat believer will seek to keep alive in his memory, in the workshop\nand everywhere, the conviction, that there is only one really\nformidable thing in all God's world, /that is sin/, he will be made\nmore than a conqueror. Swayed by that deep conviction, the occupant\nof the workshop may often be vexed, as Lot was in Sodom; but,\nappealing to the Wonderful, the Counsellor, strength will be\nsupplied according to his day, while conscience is kept unsullied\nand at peace. The squalid victim of sin will be a beacon. The bold\nblasphemer will be an object of utmost pity. The Secularist, and\nall who give earth precedence to heaven, or man to God, or sin\nto holiness, will be shunned as a moral pestilence; and the felt\nnecessity of being much at the fountain, amid all these sources of\ncontamination, may turn the workshop into a Bethel. We could tell\nof more than one instance in which that has been the case.\n\n\n    ANALOGIES.\n\nIV. As it is not our object to enter into details, but mainly to\nsubmit such general suggestions as Christian wisdom may enable men\nto apply as occasion requires, we need scarcely say--At once, and\nresolutely, put away all the sinful compliances which may be common\nin the business which you pursue. There are usages, there are\nexpressions, there are pretexts in many departments which pure\nprinciple would at once put down, and let the workman of integrity\ndisown such things. The commonness of a sin only makes it worse;\nand instead of pleading that as a reason for compliance, it is, in\ntruth, a reason for our instant recoil. And never take up the words\nwhich are common on the lips of some, that they may cover their\niniquity, although the veil be thin: \"An honest man cannot live\nnow--that is, we must employ finesse, or fraud, in order to obtain\na livelihood, or clear our way through the world.\" Such a statement\nis a slander against the truth; it is dishonouring to the God of\ntruth, and the very reverse of it is true. But write it deep upon\nthe conscience, that \"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is,\nthan a stalled ox and strife,\" and be assured that godliness has\nthe promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is\nto come. Be poor, but be not unprincipled. Sit down to very humble\nfare, rather than harbour an angry conscience. When sinners entice\nyou, do not consent, whatever be the bribe. Holding fast your\nintegrity, in the strength of your God, he will redeem his promise,\n\"Bread shall be provided, and water made sure,\" and \"Better is the\nlittle that a good man hath, than the riches of many wicked.\"\n\nWould you struggle for your life were you suddenly to fall into a\nstream or the sea? You would: then will you calmly sink to rise no\nmore for ever, as regards the soul? Would you repel the attack of\na robber were he to invade the midnight silence of your home? You\nwould: then with equal earnestness, but in almighty strength, repel\nthe invader--the man that would be the assassin of your soul. Would\nyou refuse to let the oppressor plant his foot on the happy island\nof your home? You would hasten, I believe, to sweep him from our\nborders. Then, with equal heroism, defend the freedom which the Son\nof God bestows--freedom from the bondage of sin, from its pollution\nand its curse.\n\n    TOKENS FOR GOOD.\n\nNor should it be forgotten for the encouragement of the sons of\ntoil, that there is in our day a gradual approximation of the\nclasses of society. The spreading of education, and the attempts\nof one class to benefit another, are bringing men more closely\ntogether, to link them, as we have seen, in more brotherly concord.\nThere may still be the scowl of defiance from the lawless, and plots\non the part of the disaffected, while on the other hand, there are\nstill some remains of a class fast verging to extinction, who would\ndoom the people to hopeless ignorance and toil. But these are nearly\nobsolete notions, and men are more cordially walking together now,\nlike those who are agreed. In the brief space of a quarter of a\ncentury, the hopes of philanthropists once deemed Utopian, have\nbeen turned into realities; and while the doctrine of Christ is\nthus adorned, men's sorrows are soothed, their souls are blessed.\n\nMany other counsels might be added to those now advanced. We might\nsay--In the workshop avoid all high debate. It never leads to\nedification; it often occasions the loss both of our temper and\nour cause. \"Be always ready to give to every one that asks it, a\nreason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.\" Be as\nready to protest against all that is hostile to the soul and the\nhappiness of man. But contention about religion is often its death;\nand we would rather say, Hold in your mouth as with a bridle when\nthe wicked are before you. Let /the life/ argue for the Saviour and\nhis cause, far more than the lip. In that way, men will be compelled\nto take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus. The life\nof a Christian is always the most conclusive argument and the most\nsolemn appeal. \"Study to be quiet, and to do your own business,\nand to work with your own hands,\" and let the contentious bite and\ndevour, without retaliation from you.\n\nWe might farther say--Be diligent. Above all, be diligent for Christ.\nIt is thus that his people learn to put on armour of proof against\nall temptation. They redeem the time. They try to do all in the name\nof Christ, and he becomes like walls and bulwarks round about them.\nIf you will learn to be a \"miser of moments,\" you may grow rich for\neternity.\n\n    THE TEMPTER A REPTILE.\n\nOr we might say--When temptations come, remember that ere the first\ntempter succeeded, he had to become a reptile; and he that would\ntempt you is by that act a degraded being. He is to be shunned as\nan offence; as debased himself, and therefore anxious to debase.\nSuch men may sell their souls for woe, but surely \"in vain is the\nsnare set in the sight of any bird--\" will you follow the example\nof a self-destroyer?\n\nOr we might add--Be not deceived by any of the pretexts which\ncunning men adopt to beguile and ensnare. On the one hand, they\nflatter /the working/ classes, as if all were idle except the\ninmates of the workshop; but you know that it is not so. What Paul\nsaid to the Colossians concerning his own doings, is true of many\nstill: \"I toil, agonizing,\" he said, \"with the energy of Christ.\" On\nthe other hand, men speak of the lower orders as if /you who toil/\nwere they. But the really low are the men who live in idleness and\nsin. It is not toil, it is guilt that lowers or degrades us; and\nthat conviction should be rooted in all our minds.\n\n    ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\nBut enough. Let the men of handicraft and hard labour cling close\nto the Bible, for it alone can ennoble and purify. Before its light,\nlet all grow pale; before its wisdom, let all appear foolish.--As\nwe approach the mighty Alps, other objects begin to seem small or\ndiminutive; and after our eyes have been familiarized with those\nmajestic masses, what formerly appeared grand seems now reduced to\nlittleness.--Let it be so in the moral world. Before the majestic\ntruth of God, let every human being do obeisance, like the sheaves\nof his brothers to the sheaf of Joseph; and when we are like-minded\nwith our God, we shall be strong in his strength, and happy with his\npeace. We cannot be always in his house--our daily toils forbid it;\nbut we should be always in his Spirit; and that is light, that is\nstrength, that is a passport for man to glory.\n\nUpon a subject so full of interest as the moral condition and\nprospects of those who spend their days in workshops, we should not\nperhaps be contented with merely announcing general rules, however\nsound or scriptural they may be. It is commonly supposed that the\nhumble men who are so employed are cut off from the nobler outlets\nfor philanthropy, or from those higher walks in which some move and\ndo great deeds before the world's view. But no mistake can be more\nunfounded. The mighty Maker of heaven and earth has debarred no man\nfrom doing good, if man himself be inclined; and some of the noblest\nbenefactors of our land or race, have been found among the very\nclasses too commonly supposed to be doomed only to toil. We waive\nall reference to those who, by their inventions, even while engaged\nin manual labour, have extended the resources of our empire, and\nadded to the riches of our globe. We pass by those who have risen\nfrom among the sons of handicraft to take rank among our lawgivers,\nour nobles, and other signalized men. We point to only two examples\nnot less illustrious as benefactors than they were humble in their\nsphere.\n\n    HARLAN PAGE.\n\nHARLAN PAGE was born at Coventry, in Connecticut, in the year\n1791, and was taught by his father the trade of a house-joiner.\nHe received a good common education. For twenty years and more he\nlived without much concern regarding his soul, but in the year 1813,\n\"the one thing needful\" really became an object of earnest pursuit.\nSuch was his anxiety and distress on account of sin, that he had\nfrequently to retire from his work to pray. On journeys he often\nfelt constrained to withdraw to some thicket for a similar purpose;\nand on one occasion, after he had begun to teach a school, his\nsense of his lost condition as a sinner became so intense, that\nhe felt that he could not again leave the throne of grace till\nthe controversy with his Maker was closed. There, in the darkness\nof midnight, and under the guidance, none can doubt, of the Holy\nSpirit, he consecrated himself to the Redeemer, not merely in the\nconfidence of pardon and acceptance, but with the determination\nto live and labour to promote His glory in the salvation of the\nperishing. \"When I first obtained hope,\" he said on his dying bed,\n\"I felt that I must labour for souls. I prayed, year after year,\nthat God would make me the means of saving some.\"\n\n    \"BEHOLD HE PRAYETH.\"\n\nAnd his prayer was signally answered. Never did Page lose an\nopportunity of holding up the lamp to souls. By letters, by\nconversation, by tracts, by prayers, by appeals and warnings, as\nwell as by a holy and an earnest example, did he try to reclaim\nthe wandering or edify the believer. In factories, in schools, and\nelsewhere, did this mechanic labour, and only the mighty power of\ngrace can explain how one so humble could achieve so much: his life\nis a speaking comment on the words, \"God hath chosen the foolish\nthings of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the\nweak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.\nAnd base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath\nGod chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things\nthat are.\" \"Our faith in eternal realities is weak,\" he cried,\n\"and our sense of duty faint, while we neglect the salvation of\nour fellow-beings. Let us awake to duty, and while we have a tongue\nor pen, devote them to the service of the Most High, not in our own\nstrength, but with strong faith and confidence in him.\"\n\n    LOVE TO SOULS.\n\nNow, the record of this man's life shows that no day was allowed\nto pass without something done for the good of others' souls. What\nPage mainly aimed at was the conversion of the unconverted; and\nthe extent to which he was honoured may be viewed as at once an\nencouragement and a reproof. His own soul was all aglow when he\nheard of one after another brought to the Saviour. While he wept\nover men's impenitence, he exulted when he heard they had welcomed\nthe call. He tried to win the young and warn the old, and his\npleadings with sinners were sometimes most pathetic. \"Shall neither\nman nor God,\" he said to one, \"hear from your lips, 'O my sins,\nmy sins, I fear they will ruin my soul for ever?' Shall no prayer,\n'God, be merciful to me a sinner,' break from your heart?\" \"You are\nnow in an awful crisis,\" he said to another. \"Your eternal all may\ndepend on the course you take. The Lord has taught you by his Spirit\nthat you are a wretched, perishing sinner. You feel that you have\nno preparation for heaven, and see nothing before you but eternal\nwoe. O, my friend, /there is a refuge/. The Lord Jesus invites,\nin melting strains, 'Look to me, and live; come unto me, and find\nrest!' O go to Him /now/, as you value your precious, your immortal\nsoul.\"\n\n    A SPIRITUAL HARVEST.\n\nAt other times Page was brief and sententious, but solemn.\nSeeing four youths, for example, on one occasion employed in some\nthoughtless course, he accosted them, and drove this laconic warning\nlike a nail into their conscience, \"Prepare to meet thy God!\"--and\nit was blessed. In a word, he sowed beside all waters, and the\nincrease was proportioned to his faith. All this took place\namid bodily weakness and daily toil, insomuch that his ailments\nobliged him at last to seek a change of occupation, and he for\nsome time taught a school during the winter seasons. One hundred\nand ninety-five pupils passed through the hands of Page in that\ncharacter. The history of seventy of them is unknown; but of the\nremaining one hundred and twenty-five, eighty-four are thought to\nhave given evidence of conversion, and six became preachers of the\ngospel. In another place, fifty-eight were supposed to have been\nbrought to Christ by his instrumentality. Such was the blessing\nwhich made him and others rich and added no sorrow.\n\nNor need we wonder. So intense was the ardour of Page in dealing\nwith souls, that he has been known even in sleep to suppose that he\nwas expostulating with them, and to awake in tears of earnestness\nand pain. Knowing that every child of the fallen Adam must either\nbe born again, or never see God, he made that the burden of all his\nendeavours, his prayers, his struggles, and tears. To labour for\nthat became a portion of his very being; and he died as he had\nlived, beckoning all around him to follow him to be for ever with\nthe Lord.\n\nHere, then, is a man in humble life, without any adventitious aid,\nwithout any learning, for many years the occupant of a workshop, yet\nliving, labouring, dying to win souls to Christ. He was, indeed, a\nsweet savour of Christ wherever he went; and should not the example\nof Harlan Page summon many in his own sphere to go and do likewise?\nDoes it not prove, that if we have the grace of God in our heart,\nit is not rank, or wealth, or learning, or power, but a willing mind,\nand consecration to Christ, his cause and glory, that are required to\naccomplish great things? Let our artizans imbibe the spirit of Page,\nand then they may be honoured as he was; it may be inscribed upon\ntheir tombstones as it was upon his, \"He ceased not to warn every\none night and day with tears.\"\n\n    JOHN POUNDS.\n\nJOHN POUNDS was another benefactor to society who deserves to be\nheld in perpetual remembrance. He was born at Portsmouth in the\nyear 1766. By the fracture of a limb, he was forced to change\nhis employment as a shipwright for that of a shoemaker, or rather\nshoe-mender, for he never rose to the rank of a maker, and as the\noccupant of a \"weather-boarded tenement\" in his native town, John\ndivided his time between his awls and deeds of active benevolence.\nA cripple himself by his accident, he had also the charge of a\ndecrepit nephew; and the boy for some time divided the attention of\nPounds with a number of tame birds which he kept from affection or\nfor amusement. By exercising his ingenuity and benevolence at once,\nhe succeeded in restoring some degree of soundness to his nephew: he\nthen undertook to teach him to read; and that led him to seek some\ncompanion for his ward and pupil, under the wise impression that the\none would stimulate the other, and the progress of both be promoted.\nHis pupils gradually increased in number: his love of teaching grew\nupon him, and the work soon knew no limits but those of John's very\nhumble abode. It was about six feet wide by eighteen in length;\nand in that apartment did Pounds, surrounded by his scholars, ply\nhis double avocation of cobler and schoolmaster. The progress of\nthe scholars was as diverse as the employments of the master; but\nhe bore all with gladness. He had his eye upon each outcast in\nthe group, and by his expertness he showed that he was a born\nteacher--his gift lay in training.\n\n    A LOWLY PHILANTHROPIST.\n\nAs Pounds rose in popularity, the applications for admission to\nhis seminary increased; and with a remarkable but wise instinct,\nhe selected \"the little blackguards\" in preference to others, that\nhe might enjoy the pleasure of breaking them in like the wild ass's\ncolt. Some he would allure to his school by such poor bribes as he\ncould command; and though his labours were unrequited, though he had\nnot the means of purchasing school-books, but taught the alphabet\nfrom handbills and fragments of old volumes, yet some hundreds of\npersons owed all the learning they ever acquired to this facetious,\ndevoted, and humble philanthropist. He helped to keep down the\ncalendar of crime, and sent not a few into life possessed of\nacquirements sufficient to impart respectability in their sphere,\nwho, had it not been for John Pounds, the founder of Ragged Schools,\nmight have become the pests or the plunderers of society.\n\n    MAN'S RUIN AND RISE.\n\nSuch, then, is another instance of philanthropy, in one of the\nhumblest of mankind. After this, why wait for some costly apparatus\nfor doing good? Why delay the attempt to make the world better,\nhowever humble our sphere may be, when we see one so lowly, yet so\nhonoured--so poor, yet making so many others rich? Nay, with the\ngrace of God in the heart, and love to souls as its invariable\nattendant, be it the felt duty, the privilege, the resolute vow\nof all, even in the workshop, to seek to convert some sinner from\nthe error of his ways, and thereby hide a multitude of sins.--As\none wanders over the Seven Hills of Rome, he may often pick up a\nmarble fragment of a frieze, a portion of a capital, a volute, or\na triglyph, telling of the grandeur which once was there, when the\npalace of the C\u00e6sars crowned more than one of the hills, and the\n\"Golden House\" of Nero formed the glory of the whole. And, in like\nmanner, amid the ruins and the /debris/ of our fallen nature, we\nsometimes find what reminds us of its primal glory, and of the depth\nto which it has fallen; and yet assuring us, that fallen though it\nbe, it may not have fallen for ever. Benefactors to humanity, like\nHarlan Page and John Pounds, occupy that rank among men.\n\n    SERVING THE LORD.\n\nThere is no weariness to him who works for Christ: he is willing to\nspend and be spent. No sullen drudgery is his, as if work were only\na doom--nay, rather cheerful work from a glad, emancipated spirit,\nand joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That sweetens toil;\nthat braces the arm; that nerves man's spirit for all that can ever\ncome; and even his daily work, as a husbandman, or an artizan, is\nthus spiritualized into a service to his God.\n\n\n\n\n                            CHAPTER IV.\n\n                   RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE.\n\n\nLet not the design of these chapters be forgotten.\n\nThere are few opinions more prevalent among men, than that religion\nis to be attended to only at certain places or on set occasions.\nWhile some entirely neglect it, and live from day to day without one\nsolemn thought of God or the soul, others would attend to it only at\nfixed seasons, or when established usage calls them. At other times,\nreligion is reckoned an intruder. It interferes with the pursuits,\nor it interrupts the pleasures of men. It must therefore be kept\nin its proper place, without venturing to appear in the ordinary\nbusiness or the common intercourse of life.\n\nThe Romanist, accordingly, hurries to Mass; and that over, he\nhastens away to his holiday, his folly, and his sports. The\nformalist, whether Protestant or Romanist, complies with his\nroutine, appears at church, or tells his beads, and then dismisses\nreligion from his thoughts. The young leave religion to the old.\nThe old often postpone its claims, till attention to it is useless,\nunless it could operate like a charm; and thus the one thing needful\nis the last thing that some will permit to obtain any ascendency\nover their minds.\n\n    THE ALIMENT OF THE SOUL.\n\nBut instead of adopting such maxims, all who are in earnest about\nthe world to come have felt, that just as the body needs the vital\nair at all times, the soul at all times needs the guidance of\ntruth; or as the body may die, in the twinkling of an eye, if it\nbe deprived of that which is appointed by God to keep it in life,\nso the soul cleaves to the dust--it becomes dead to the noblest of\nall objects, even to God and eternity--when it is not constantly fed\nor constantly stimulated by the truth which connects us with Him in\nwhom we live, and move, and have our being.\n\nUnder the deep conviction of that, we have tried to show how the\ntruth which the Spirit teaches in the Word of God, should be mingled\nwith all that we do. Far from leaving it out of view for a breath,\nit is a party to all our transactions; it should be a counsellor in\nall our difficulties, and a guide in all the relations of life. The\nheart, the home, the workshop; the place of public resort, as well\nas the place where no eye sees, and no ear hears, but God's, should\nfind us evermore accompanied by the truth, evermore subject to\nits control, while it directs our thoughts, our words, and deeds,\naccording to the will of God.\n\nWe are now, then, to contemplate Christianity in the Market-place,\nor the place where business is wont to be done. Epithets of\ncontempt have been applied to us as a nation, because of our busy\nengrossments in the countless departments of buying, and selling,\nand getting gain; and it cannot but be important to consider the\nmaxims which should guide us in such pursuits.\n\nNow, it is one of the glories of our faith, that it makes ample\nprovision for all the activities of life. Yet, under pretext of\nbeing devout beyond the standard of ordinary men, there have been\nsome who fled to deserts, and dwelt in dens and caves of the earth.\nProfessing to seek a closer walk with God, or more ample scope for\nthe culture of the Christian graces, they have forsaken the duties\nof life, and made themselves useless to society, as if indolence\nwere a virtue, or inactivity a fruit or a proof of true religion.\n\n    THE MERCHANT PRINCES.\n\nBut any one who will merely glance at the Word of God, may see\nthat such opinions find no sanction there. Far from encouraging\ninactivity, or exhorting us to forsake the post of duty, and retire\nto loneliness and seclusion, that Word expressly prohibits such a\ncourse. It tells us not to be slothful in business. It says that\nwhat our hands find to do, we should do it with all our might. It\nassures us that we must study to be quiet, and do our own business,\nand work with our own hands. It adds, that if any man will not\nwork, neither shall he eat. It sets a brand upon those who \"learn\nto be idle, who wander about from house to house, not only idle, but\ntattlers also.\" In short, religion, as it lies in the Bible, stands\nat our side in the place of business, and says, \"Be not slothful\nhere;\" and adds, \"It is the hand of the diligent which maketh rich.\"\n--While we gaze on the merchant princes on the Exchange of London,\nwhen some exciting rumour has arrived, some war been proclaimed or\nthreatened, or while some mercantile crash is impending, or some\nmillionaire bankruptcy just announced--we cannot but feel that if\nmen retain their religion amid these excitements, they are religious\naccording to the highest standard that earth can ever know. Not the\nrecluse, not the man whose life is idle, and whose duties are tame\nand domestic, can display the loftiest style of Christianity; but\nthe man who holds fast his integrity amid the activities of life,\nand embodies in his practice the scriptural injunction, \"Be not\nslothful in business.\"\n\n    THE ENTHRONEMENT OF SELF.\n\nTrue, this maxim is often more than obeyed; business absorbs,\nbusiness agitates, business ruins millions. Surrendering themselves\nwithout a check to its engrossments, they are swallowed up by\novermuch care, and socially and religiously become wrecks, though\nthey may pile up gold in heaps. How many in this land are making\ngold their god, and fine gold their confidence, we need not try to\ntell. But to correct that tendency, the word of truth has commanded\nour men of busy lives not merely to be active, but, moreover, to\nbe \"serving the Lord\" by their activity. It is not activity for the\nsake of amassing wealth; it is not activity merely that we may stand\namong the foremost in the market-place, or be able, as some have\nbeen, to give laws to kings and empires, to make peace or to declare\nwar. That is not religion; it is the enthronement of self. We are\nto serve the Lord even in our business. His will is to be our will\nthere, as much as when we are upon our knees before him. The objects\nto which he points are to be pursued by us; and thus, amid the\nscenes of busiest occupation, where much that is secular may tend\nto disturb, or much that is sordid to debase, the man of activity is\nalso to be the man of piety and of Christian principle. Religion is\n/not/ to be kept for set times and set occasions; it is not to be\nleft behind us when we leave our homes: nay, as the Lord is in every\nplace, the fear of him should everywhere preside.\n\n    MAMMON.\n\nWhen the Saviour said, \"I pray not that thou wouldst take them out\nof the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil that\nis in the world,\" he not merely uttered a prayer, but, moreover,\nannounced a rule for regulating duty; and they who have imbibed the\nspirit of His words, understand the religion of Jesus--a religion\nmost exquisitely adapted to man on earth, a religion at once of\never-doing activity, and of faithful serving the Lord amid it all.\nThere are, no doubt, snares and perils beyond what can be counted\nto the souls of men, in the engrossments of business. In commerce,\nthrough all its branches, as it appears in our land and day, there\nis much to deaden the soul, much to eraze the very thought of God;\nand hence Mammon is the only god of many. But the reason of that is,\nnot that business is essentially godless, but that men prefer God's\ngifts to himself. Because he is forgotten, thousands are ensnared;\nthey are as completely entombed in worldliness, as the corpse that\nwas yesterday interred is entombed in the deep grave where it lies.\n\n    PRINCIPLE.\n\nOn the one hand, then, some are diligent in their business; but they\nforget to serve the Lord, and so their business becomes the grave\nof the soul. On the other hand, some would serve Him; but they keep\nthat service apart from their business: they are as worldly there,\nas selfish, as ready to grasp and to amass, as if responsibility\nto God could be shut up in the Bible after a passage of it has\nbeen formally perused. But the Christian merchant comes in between\nthese two. In the one hand he takes the clause, \"Be not slothful in\nbusiness;\" in the other he takes the words, \"Serving the Lord.\" He\nunites them in his life; that is, he takes religion from the Bible;\nand instead of separating what God has joined--namely, diligence and\ngodliness--that man is perfectly convinced, because the Spirit of\nGod is his teacher, that success would be a curse, that thousands\nadded to thousands would only augment his woe, were he to leave\nthe will of God out of view in the place of public resort.\n\nWith this general truth before us, then, /if we be Christians\nat all, we must be Christians everywhere/, let us consider some\nCounsels tending to make us Christians, according to the standard\nof the Bible. How may I assuredly retain my Christianity in the\nMarket-place, in the haunts of Commerce, or among its busy men? An\nanswer to that question may serve as a guide through what is, in\ntruth, a deep and dangerous morass.\n\n    WICKEDNESS AND FOLLY, ONE.\n\n    THE WOE OF THE WICKED.\n\nAnd the first Counsel we would announce is this: /God is a party\nin all our transactions in the Market-place/; we are either serving\nhim or sinning against him in all that we do. It is to be feared,\nindeed, that many forget this simple truth amid their manifold\nengrossments. They forget that the God of justice is a party in\nmen's unjust proceedings; that the God of truth is a witness to\nall their falsehood; that He who cannot look on sin is present at\nevery act, detecting fraud and deceit wherever they appear. In very\nemphatic language, men thus make the Holy One \"serve with their\nsins;\" He supplies the power, the skill, the reason, which they\npervert into instruments of iniquity against him and fraud upon\ntheir fellow-men. But shunning all this, it should be our rooted\nmaxim in the Market-place, and everywhere besides, that that Holy\nOne is a party in all that we do; he is either served or sinned\nagainst. We cannot swerve from truth, we cannot violate justice,\nwe cannot let go our integrity, without forsaking Him. It should,\ntherefore, be as firmly rooted in our convictions as the most simple\nmoral truth, that whatever dishonours God cannot benefit us. It\nshould be written on the conscience as with a pen of iron upon a\nrock, that the man who expects true success in violating the eternal\nprinciples of right and wrong, is not merely wicked, but foolish.\nThe man who expects to prosper by \"glossy fraud,\" has already\ninflicted a sore degradation on his moral nature. Even though he\nmay be lifted up by wealth to sit among princes, he is, in the eyes\nof God, a degraded and an outcast creature. He has sold his soul for\nwhat must soon be wrung from his grasp. He has bowed down to an idol\nas senseless, and as unable to bless him, as the stone god of the\nHindoo devotee. Though a world were in league to prove the contrary,\nungodly gain wraps up a curse in it; and the larger the pile, the\nmore deadly or crushing are its effects. Those were solemn words\nwhich Eliphaz spoke to Job: \"I saw him taking root, but I cursed\nhis habitation.\"[16]\n\nLet God, then, be recognised as a party in all that is done. Be it\nour maxim, in the market-place as well as on our knees: \"Thou, God,\nseest me;\" and it will at once fortify and warn us. He who forgets\nthat simple principle in our busy day, is like one who casts the\npilot overboard when the tempest is rising.\n\nThe suggestion now offered would at once sweep away those petty\nencroachments which pass in the world almost without rebuke, but\nwhich are an offence to the Holy One. It seemed a small and venial\nthing to Eve to do what she did, and to Adam to follow her example;\nbut that little thing dragged the world to ruin. And so before God,\noffences deemed venial by man are seen in the defilement and the\nhatefulness of sin. Hence the call to act under the divine eye\n--to adopt the divine standard--to make God a party in all our\nproceedings. His holiness, his justice and truth, should at once\nrepress the unprincipled and encourage the pure; and man would then\nbe made upright towards man by being made right with God.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n    MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH.\n\nBut side by side with that, we must place a second Counsel, not less\nneeded than the other--Watch with care, /lest the engrossments of\nbusiness should so accumulate as to overlay and crush the godliness\nof the soul/. Amid the pressure of times like ours, this is one of\nthe greatest perils of the market-place: it is destroying its tens\nof thousands. Men eagerly plunge into speculation after speculation.\nThey try to extend, to ramify, and engross, till you might suppose\nthey have a home in city after city; nay, in kingdom after kingdom.\nNot contented with the gains, the competency, or the honest rewards\nof what they can easily overtake or personally control, many make\nsuch haste to be rich, that an empire is too limited for their\nplans. In their zeal, they embark in scheme after scheme; they wrap\nthemselves round with entanglement after entanglement, till, in some\ncases, the ends of the earth are not too remote for their desires to\nreach.\n\n    TRUE ENTERPRISE:\n\nNow, far be it from us to place restrictions where the only wise God\nplaces none; far be it from us to limit enterprise, as if all should\nbe domestic, or run in the channels of home. It would be hindering,\nnot helping Christianity in the Market-place, to define and\ncircumscribe where its Author has not defined. The very sea--that\n\"highway of the nations\" which surrounds our island--would rebuke\nthe attempt. Godliness is not to be confined in monasteries, or even\nto the domestic circle; for if that were the case, then godliness\ncould not be designed for man as man. It would apply only to a\nfragment of his nature, instead of diffusing the wisdom of Heaven\nover it all. But if it be that godliness which is the result of\ngrace, and not that which is only a phase of monasticism, there\nis not a scene, however homely, where it may not preside; nor an\nenterprise, however grand, which it may not direct. It is only a\nfragment of religion, or of the truth as it is in Jesus, which would\nleave the counting-house, or any sphere, without heavenly direction.\n\n    --ITS LIMITS.\n\nThe exhortation, \"Be not slothful in business,\" then, opens a wide\ndoor for active energy; and we make no attempt to shut it. But\nstill, there is only a certain length to which any man can proceed\nwithout sinning, amid these engrossments and accumulated cares. Bear\nwitness families neglected--family altars thrown down--early hopes\nblighted--early religion erazed from the soul--as speculations and\nengagements increase. We have no right to laden ourselves with a\nmultitude of cares such as shall overlay, or supplant, or endanger\nthe truth of God in the heart. Every moment may be one of high-toned\nintegrity between man and man; every transaction may be presided\nover by purest equity: in the market-place, a merchant prince might\nblush to be even suspected of the mean, the fraudulent, or the\ndeceptive. But what if these moments and these transactions, so\npure in appearance, be so numerous or so engrossing, as to prevent\nattention to the high concerns of eternity and the soul? What if\nmy mind and my body be so worn out or worn down by these protracted\nhours of merchandise, that the things which belong to my eternal\npeace are neglected, or pushed from their proper place, which is\n/the first/? Am I not sinning against my soul and my God, by such\nexhausting engrossments? O! how many are ruined--ruined not by\ndishonesties in business, but by over-devotion to it! not by\ndefrauding a neighbour, but by defrauding their own soul alike\nof all time and all taste for attending to the one thing needful!\n\n    THE PERILS OF BUSINESS.\n\nWe plead, let it be remembered, for no inactivity, for there are\nperils in idleness as well as amid the cares of business. If the\nlatter destroy by crushing, the former wastes by rusting. But\nour urgency converges upon this point--men ought not so to plunge\ninto this world's engrossments--so to be entangled by this world's\ncares--so to laden themselves with this world's clay--as to leave\nneither liking, nor time, nor strength, for fervour of spirit in\nserving the Lord--\"Inasmuch as ye did it not unto me,\" will tarnish\nthe glory of all such doings. Every moment as it passes, in the life\nof some busy men, may be a moment of high-souled integrity between\nman and man; and yet there is danger, /lest all the moments summed\ntogether/ should be one long act of complicated robbery--a robbery\nof God, because he was forgotten--a robbery of the soul, because\nit was neglected for things which often melt as we grasp them--a\nrobbery of those dependent on us for religious guidance and example,\nbecause we are strangers at home, or, when we appear there, it is\nrather as the careworn speculator or the hoarding miser, than as\nthe kindly, genial, sympathizing husband, father, brother, friend.\n\n    THE PERILS OF BUSINESS.\n\nWe know that it is the golden maxim of some, that religion must give\nway to business. We have been told by one who could stand unabashed\non the Exchange, that \"/God did not expect us to be too strict in\nthese things/;\" and swayed by that maxim, if religion do not give\nway at the bidding of cupidity, its control is boldly disowned. Now,\nwe need not add, that the man who has adopted such an opinion has at\nonce dismissed the Word of God from his counsels, and consented to\nforego the use of reason in the highest of all its spheres--he has\nlaid his soul, a manacled victim, on the altar of Mammon. That man\nis not seeking /first/ the kingdom of God and his righteousness;\nthat is, he is deliberately setting aside one of the simplest,\nplainest, and most unequivocal injunctions contained in the Word\nof the Supreme.--It is well known that, among the ancient heathens,\nthe god of traffic was also the god of fraud. The Romans, moreover,\nhad a goddess of thieves, whom one of their poets thus addresses:--\n\n          O fair Laverna, grant me power to cheat,\n          And yet appear arrayed in saintly guise;\n          Let sable night enshroud my deep deceit,\n          And clouds conceal my fraud from prying eyes.[17]\n\n--And is there no reason to fear that that spirit has been\nperpetuated to modern times?\n\nNow, in these remarks, we have just been enforcing a trite, but\nprofound maxim, \"What is a man profited, though he could gain the\nwhole world, if he lose his own soul?\" Surely men buy gold at too\nhigh a price, when their immortal spirits are given in exchange for\nit. Success in such a case is a terrible disaster, and far better\na mercantile crash than eternal ruin. To give ourselves up to the\ndevoted pursuit of the world, and to secure what we pursue, while\nGod and heaven are forsaken, is a calamity to be deplored through\nall eternity. Better far the cross and the disappointment; better\nfar the shattered hope and the world's neglect, than to sit with\nprinces and to forfeit heaven--to rank among those whose gold cannot\nbe counted, and yet to be poor, and wretched, and miserable in the\nhigh estimate of eternity--There is an animal which strikes the arm\nwith feebleness the moment it is touched. The muscles are benumbed,\nthe sense of feeling is for the time destroyed, and the affected\nparts are as if they had been struck by lightning, and in a similar\nway, do this world's cares benumb or stupify the soul. Its desire\nfor the good and the pure, and its power to enjoy them, are at once\ndestroyed by intense engrossment with the world's cares; and he who\nhas not felt and lamented the effects of such engrossment, should\nbeware, lest his want of feeling be the result of his want of life.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n    THE PREVALENCE OF THE FALSE:\n\n    INSTANCES.\n\nAs a Counsel which we believe to be pre-eminently needed, we observe\nnext, that the man of integrity and Christian principle, will, in\nthe Market-place, /comply with none of the conventional maxims of\nbusiness which are based upon the false/.--Were it our object to\nenter into these things in detail, it would not be difficult to show\nto what an amazing extent the false, the pretended, the deceptive,\nnow enter into the business of our commercial or mercantile\ncommunity. It must be enough to say, that the father of lies has\ntaken possession of ten thousand points in business, and often holds\nthem all at the expense of integrity and truth. Lies are spoken; lies\nare acted; deceptions are practised; and conscience is all the while\nprevented from lifting any effectual protest, by the fact that such\nthings are common. Even those channels of public opinion which do\nnot usually adopt the Scriptures of truth as their standard, confess\ntheir amazement at the Jesuitical want of ingenuousness, or the\nincredible amount of dishonesty, which signalizes even those who move\nin the highest spheres. Descending, that spirit has taken possession\nof other classes--it has actually come to pass, that he is deemed\nsimple who is upright, or punctilious who is honest. Nay more, in\ndefending this state of moral degeneracy, there are some who do not\nscruple to quote the Word of the God of truth. \"Be not righteous\novermuch,\" is a favourite passage with some, as if it gave any\ncountenance to him who seeks wealth by disreputable means--by calling\nthat all silk which he knows to be partly made of cotton, or that\ngenuine which he knows to be adulterated, or that perfect which he\nknows to be defective.--Would that it were superfluous to dwell upon\nsuch subjects--that we never had occasion to refer to them and to\nthe Church of God in the same breath! \"/Serving the Lord/\"--that\nclause should banish for ever all such things from the practice and\nthe ways of men professing to be Christians, and if they are not\nbanished, we can picture nothing so likely to make religion an\noffence, and a Christian profession a subject of scorn, to honest\nworldly men.\n\nFarther, we have been told that there are some in business who will\nnot credit those who make a profession of godliness. They deem that\nprofession a cloak, and they either tear it off or despise it. Now,\nwe reckon that, to a great extent, just a display of the worldly\nman's hatred to the restraints and the sanctities of religion. He\nknows that such a profession upon /his/ lips would be hypocrisy, and\nhe ignorantly deems it the same in others. Hence his contempt for a\nreligious profession--his distrust of all who make it. Yet, is there\nno pretext afforded to that worldly man for the opinions which he\nholds? If those professing religion are known to imitate examples,\nor to adopt practices, and act upon maxims which religion repudiates\n--if they be as grasping as those who make no such pretensions as\nthey do, are they not cheering on the ungodly in their unchristian\ncareer? Are they not doing all that they can to assure the worldly\nman that his views of religion are correct--that it is a pretence,\nhypocrisy, and a name?\n\n    THE BELIEVER'S OBLIGATIONS.\n\nFor these reasons, we return to say, that all compliance with\ncustoms founded upon what is known to be false, should be shunned\nin business by a man of God. All should be transparent as sunlight\nwith him. He should never forget, that to escape detection is very\ndifferent from being honest; and that the man who has committed\nhimself to some course opposed to what is pure, or lovely, or of\ngood report, must either trample conscience out, or endure its\ngnawings, as fable says Prometheus endured the vulture. There /are/\ntemptations, we grant, in a state of society like ours, where gold\nis not merely a standard of value in the market-place, but often\nthe standard of character among men. Withal, however, I am not\nbound to be rich; but I /am/ bound not to bring an evil report upon\nthe Christian name. I am not bound to remain in a certain sphere,\nand there draw a certain revenue; but I /am/ bound not to sin. I am\nnot bound to retain my position at the expense of conscience; but I\n/am/ bound not to cheer on a covetous world to ruin by sharing its\nungodliness or smiling upon its falsehood. Nay, by the grace of God,\nwe are to hold fast our integrity. We are to say, \"Get thee behind\nme, Satan,\" to the most plausible pretext for sinning; and if there\nbe few among our merchant princes who act on such maxims--if they be\nuncommon in the Market-place--that is because few go to the Word of\nGod for their standard of duty--few, with meekness and reverence to\nthe Holy One, combine in action these three clauses: \"Not slothful\nin business\"--\"Fervent in spirit\"--\"Serving the Lord.\" \"One is your\nmaster, even Christ.\" To him we are responsible in every relation;\nand that responsibility is discharged only when we remember the\nwords: \"Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of\nthe Lord Jesus.\"\n\nBut we have only broken ground in regard to Christianity in the\nMarket-place.\n\n    THE STANDARD.\n\nIt is a universal law, that every soul of man must have an object to\npursue. The ambitious man has his object: he pursues it; and if he\nsucceed in his pursuit, he sinks into the grave, crushed perhaps,\nlike Tarpeia of old, by the weight of his success. And the covetous\nman has his object: he embarks his whole soul in the pursuit; and\nwhile a thousand who strive with him fail or are beggared, he who\nsucceeds is perhaps the most signally wretched of them all. And the\nlover of pleasure has his object of pursuit: he dismisses the fear\nof God, and, like one who is ambitious of wretchedness, he drinks up\niniquity, though along with it he drinks up poison to his soul. In a\nword, the fool and the wise man, the young and the old, the ignorant\nand the learned, all have some master object to pursue. That object\nmay involve destruction, for it may be sinful; or it may tend to\ndignify and ennoble, for it is pure and holy; but whatever be its\ncharacter, it is a law in man's nature, that, from the child amused\nwith its toy, up to the hoary patriarch tottering forward to the\ngrave, man must have something to fill and to engross his mind.\n\n    THE BIBLE'S LIGHT.\n\nNow, the Word of God, which is so exquisitely adapted to man, takes\nthat great law fully into account; and we advert to that again,\nbecause it furnishes an opportunity for repeating, that that Word\ndoes not repress man's activity--it only tries to give it a right\ndirection: it does not leave man without a pursuit--it only presents\nhim with one which is worthy of his immortal nature. Knowing that man\nwishes to advance or to rise, the Bible puts a light into his hand,\nand tells him to be the heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ.\nKnowing that man seeks to accumulate and amass, the Bible tells\nof unsearchable riches and treasures in heaven. Knowing that man's\nstrongest impulse is to seek his own happiness, the Bible perfectly\nresponds to that, and offers the very peace of God: it points to a\nhome of everlasting sunshine, without a tear, without one solitary\nwant. There is thus no attempt to suppress, but only to direct, man's\naspirations. Nothing that God gave to man is to be extinguished: all\nis to be sanctified and sublimed.\n\n    THE UNIVERSAL LAW.\n\nTo make this plain, we observe that all are familiar with the power\nexercised over the soul by any new object or new pursuit. Begin with\nthe earlier years of infancy. See a little child engrossed with his\ntoy. His whole soul is absorbed by it; for a time it is his world.\nBut present him with some new object; the former is speedily\ndiscarded, while the new engrosses the mind as the old had done. Or\npass onward from childhood to youth. There also you see the same law\nprevailing. Mind is never left a blank. The old is discarded, but\nit is for the sake of the new; and man thus flits from object to\nobject, the last being always the ascendant. Or pass upward to still\ngraver years, and there also the same law prevails. One pursuit,\none passion, one object of interest after another sways the heart,\nalternately expelled and expelling from the soul. The love of God\nin a converted soul supersedes the supreme love of the world. The\npleasures of godliness take the place of the pleasures of sin. The\npower of the world to come overmasters the power of a present evil\nworld; and thus a wise and exquisite law guides us in religion--a\nlaw as simple in its operation as that which keeps the planets in\ntheir orbits.\n\n    REASON AND RELIGION AT ONE.\n\nNow, in accordance with that law, our next Counsel is, that the\nChristian in the Market-place, should never forget that he is not\nforbidden to seek earthly things /at all/; he is only forbidden to\nseek them /first/. The Saviour just wished man to prefer what should\nbe preferred--to put eternity before time, and God before man, and\nthe soul before the body; and wherever men have escaped from the\ncontrol of blind passion, such a maxim must be approved for its\nwisdom. To believe that there is both a God and a soul, and yet seek\nsome ephemeral thing before either or both, is surely to outrage\nreason, as well as to turn aside from the plainest maxims of\nreligion. On the other hand, he who sets the Lord before him has\nadopted a course which will more than realize the fable of Midas,\nwho turned all that he touched into gold.\n\nAnd who can doubt that confidence placed or preference given\nanywhere but to God, will blight and wither all at last? Who can\ndoubt that the accumulated thousands of many who name Christ's\nname are their god? They seek happiness there. They find all their\nenjoyment there. These thousands are their rock, their confidence,\nand their high tower. They not merely seek them /first/, they seek\nthem exclusively. The portion of their heart is there as completely\nas the confidence of the Hindoo upon Shiva, or of the Romanist upon\nMary. It is thus that God is dethroned, and thus that man's blossom\noften goes up like the dust from the midst of his idolatrous\nconfidence.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n    EQUIVOCATIONS.\n\nBut another maxim which should guide us in business, may be thus\nexpressed.--In the Market-place, /never forget what is due to your\nChristian profession/. /We/ may forget it, but the world will not;\nnay, we have seen how prompt men are to condemn us for our oblivion.\nWe may plunge into the world as other men do. Deceived by our own\nhearts or by the hollow maxims which prevail around us, we may lose\nsight of the distinction between the frauds of men and the truths of\nGod. But though we may forget to seek first the kingdom of God, the\nworld does not forget that we /profess/ to seek it first. Nay, it is\nlynx-eyed to detect our pretences, and eager to point the finger of\nscorn at our unmasked inconsistency if we be inconsistent. The world\nfeels that it needs some countenance in its oblivion of God; and it\nis cheered, encouraged, or a little more at ease, when Christians\nare oblivious like itself. As we have already seen, there are words\nspoken, there are deeds done, in many departments of business, which\nare unequivocally false--describe them to an unsophisticated little\nchild, and he will tell you at once \"it is a lie.\" Yet it is well\nknown that gentle names are current for such forms of deception, as\nwell as for some of our household arrangements. Glozing pretexts are\nemployed to cover and conceal them, and the uneasy conscience, in\nspite of common habit, is betrayed by the fetches which are thus\nmade. Even a worldly man's conscience would start, at least at\nfirst, were such things distinctly called fraud, or over-reaching,\nor a lie. Palliating epithets are therefore thrown over them, like\ngaudy trappings upon a coffin; and, then, as if a gentle name could\nconceal an unprincipled thing, men barter for gain the concerns of\nthe kingdom of God. They often value that kingdom at less than Judas\ndid, when he sold its King for thirty pieces of silver.\n\n    CONSISTENCY.\n\nNow, all who would be Christians in the Market-place should dismiss\nand frown down such practices. Remembering what is due to our\nChristian profession, they should beware lest a stumbling-block be\nlaid in the way of those who watch for a believer's halting, and are\nhappy when he falls. The progress of missionaries in foreign lands\nis often impeded by the ungodliness of men called Christians; and\ncare should be taken lest similar impediments exist at home. Let no\nman say that his conversation is in heaven, while he is manifestly\ngrovelling in the dust. Far rather disown the holy name, than drag it\ndown into the fearful pit and the miry clay. Be it remembered again,\nwe do not plead for inactivity; we would limit no enterprise which\npure religion sanctions. But neither would we forget for a breath,\nthat the man who names Christ's name must adopt Christ's holy maxims,\nor that man is at once deceiving the world and betraying the truth\nof God. Unjustly to benefit ourselves at the expense of another, is\nto prove that we have not yet learned God's holy law, and still less\nthe Saviour's pure and perfect gospel. The world-side of our religion\nshould therefore be watched with the utmost care; and, amid our daily\ndoings in the market-place, it should often be our thought, /I am a\nChristian/, and cannot act upon the world's unholy maxims. /I am a\nChristian/, and must love my neighbour as myself; I must do to others\nas I wish others to do to me. /I am a Christian/, and can smile no\nconnivance upon that which nailed my Redeemer to a tree. No matter\nthough the transgression be small; a small sin ruined the world. No\nmatter though it be common; so is eternal ruin. No matter though men\nreckoned upright do it; their uprightness is a pretence before Him\nwho looks on the heart; and it is because few act upon these plain,\ndecided maxims, that Christ's people are still but a little flock\ncompared with the teeming myriads of world-adoring men.\n\n    THE CHRISTIAN.\n\nAnd the same maxim should guide us in all respects as well as in\nregard to gain. Am I one of the merchant princes whose ample stores\nare crowded with youth dependent on me for bread, and helping to\nenrich me by their industry or skill? Then I am to remember my duty\nto ward off, as far as is in my power, all that would corrupt or\ndebase them. Not merely a regard to my own interests, but a regard\nto the souls of those to whom I stand related, should constrain me\nto this; and if one among these crowds be dishonest or disreputable,\nI am to take care that his contagion do not spread; that neither\nmy property on the one hand, nor the souls of my dependants on the\nother, suffer at his hands. I may be deceived, but I dare not connive\nat deception. To raise the moral tone, I must give time for personal\nculture and for the training of principle. I must myself set the\nexample. I must countenance and encourage it. Instead of grinding the\nfaces of the dependent, I am to do them good in the highest sense of\nall. Instead of amassing wealth by the sacrifice of consciences and\nsouls, I am to honour all men.--The man who acts thus is a benefactor\nto society: he is elevating his fellow-mortals: he is blessed, and\nmade a blessing.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n    THE CONSECRATION OF GAIN.\n\n/Consecrate all your gains to God/--is another maxim enforced by\nChristianity in the Market-place. The silver and the gold are his.\nHis is the power which enables us to collect them, and they are all\nto be laid, along with ourselves, upon his altar. The wisest man our\nworld ever saw said, \"Honour the Lord with thy substance.\"\n\nNow, this suggestion touches one of the topics which stand most in\nneed of enforcement in an age and a community like ours.--It were\nneedless to tarry to tell how the sin of covetousness is eating into\nthe hearts of men, how greedily they run after gain, and make haste\nto be rich. The wrestler's arena, or the racer's circus of old,\nnever was crowded with more eager or more panting competitors than\nour marts of merchandise now. Nor need we pause to tell again what\ndegrading disclosures are made, from time to time, and that in the\nhighest spheres, regarding the withering effects of this headlong\npursuit. In cases not a few, our boasted mercantile honour, and our\nintegrity as a nation of merchants, have been proved, with painful\nplainness, to be as weak to restrain man's passion for gold as a\nthread of gossamer to bind a ravening lion.\n\n    THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA.\n\nSuch exposures, then, and such scenes, are well fitted to warn us to\nconsecrate all we have to God, both in the getting and the using. If\nthe riches of the world have the image and superscription of C\u00e6sar,\nthe Christian's should bear the stamp of the King of kings. There is\nno scriptural anathema against riches--nay, every gift of God is good\nin itself; but there are countless anathemas against riches acquired\nby fraud, or spent without seeking the direction or the blessing\nof God. The Christian in the Market-place is thus taught to use the\nworld as not abusing it, or not to grasp at what may bite like a\nserpent and sting like an adder. He thus learns to verify what was\nsaid of Tyre of old, \"Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness\nto the Lord; it shall not be treasured nor laid up.\" While many never\nthink of God--for one solemn thought of him would dash all their\nschemes; while self is the centre, the alpha and the omega, the first\nand the last, of many an adventurer, the Christian will try to gather\nwealth as his God directs, in channels which his God can bless.\n\n    A SCRIPTURAL CONTRAST.\n\nWe repeat it; we are permitted to use the world; for there is\nnothing unnatural, or extreme, or ascetic in the Word of God. We are\npermitted to /use/ the world; but it is only upon the condition that\nwe do not abuse it; and surely he abuses it who defers to the world\nmore than to God; who adopts the world's maxims, and discards God's;\nwho grasps the world's riches, but is poor toward God; who trembles\nat the world's frown, but mocks the majesty, the truth, and the\njustice of God. O, never let the Christian fear to be resolutely\nhonest--his God will provide. He should be encouraged by thinking\nthat, amid all our moral distemper, the world /is/ under the control\nof a king who will make his laws respected. Baffled we may sometimes\nbe in the world's headlong career; but it is well, it is /best/,\nthat we should be so. He who sees the end from the beginning, and\nwho brings order out of confusion, is doing all things well. He\nsays: \"I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself\nlike a green bay-tree: Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea,\nI sought him, but he could not be found.\" That is one side of the\npicture: the other is, \"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright;\nfor the end of that man is peace.\"\n\nAnd who has not seen this verified? Men whose hearts the Lord has\nopened, so that they gave their silver and their gold in thousands,\ntell us that the more they give, when it is to the Lord, the more are\nthey blessed. That is, \"they cast their bread upon the waters, and\nfind it after many days.\" \"They honour the Lord with their substance,\nand their barns are filled with plenty.\" \"They scatter, and yet\nincrease.\" \"The liberal soul is made rich.\" \"They lend unto the\nLord,\" and receive it back with usury.\n\n    FINANCIAL CRISES.\n\nOn the other hand, from time to time the Mighty One protests, in\nhis providence, against the headlong and unprincipled pursuit of\nwealth. What are our financial crises, our commercial crashes, our\nbankruptcies in stunning succession and surprising amount, what\nour unemployed labourers, what our beggared merchants, but just a\nprovidential corrective to our cupidity? These things occur almost\nwith the precision of system. They can be predicted like an eclipse;\ntheir causes are seen and read of all men; and yet, unwarned and\nuntaught, they make haste to be rich, till airy structures and\nnominal treasures melt away into air, leaving only poverty, perhaps\nshame and disgrace, as their residuum. The God who has, with a\nwisdom as unvarying as it is profound, made sin self-corrective,\nthus vindicates his own laws. Were his Sabbaths observed, our\nproduction would be less, and stagnation prevented. Were our\nmerchandise holiness to the Lord, our periodical gluts would be\nprevented by wiser measures than now prevail. Godliness would\nthus be great gain. The widow's cruse and barrel would be a better\nportion, because blessed by God, than the riches which, ever on the\nwing, are ever fluttering for their flight.[18]\n\n    ABRAHAM AND LOT.\n\nIt is thus, then, that God over all proves, to our sad experience,\nthat we forsake our own mercies by forgetting Him in the Market-place\n--but take an example. Abraham and Lot his nephew, are in their tents\nnear Bethel. A strife arises between their herdsmen, because the\ngrazing grounds were not sufficiently ample for the herds and flocks\nof both. But Abraham, the man of peace, disliked contention; and\nthough he was the elder, he gave the younger his choice of the\ncountry, that they might separate without strife. With primitive\nsimplicity, but also with true greatness of soul, he said, \"If thou\nwilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou\ndepart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.\"\n\nLot accordingly chose. Captivated by the rich pastures of the valley\nof the Jordan, he selected them. His eye was fixed only on what was\ngood for his herds; it was Eastern wealth, in short, which attracted\nthe nephew of Abraham. He did not think of the character of those\nwho dwelt where he was to dwell; and in his hot pursuit of riches,\nhe fared exactly as those who do as he did are faring still. The\ninhabitants of that garden-like valley were \"wicked exceedingly,\" but\nLot threw himself among them without forethought, and as the result,\nhis righteous soul was vexed from day to day. Their \"grievous sins\"\nharassed him; and if we may judge from his own conduct, he did not\nescape contamination. He had at last to haste and flee for his life,\nlest he should perish in the common overthrow.\n\n    EVIL COMMUNICATIONS.\n\nAnd when was it otherwise? Who ever tasted, touched, or handled what\npollutes, and yet continued pure? Who ever threw in their lot with\ngodless men, without incurring the risk of sharing their doom? Do\nnot worldly engrossments steal the heart from God? When we have goods\nlaid up for many days, is it not our instant thought, unless a double\nportion of grace be sought, that we are less dependent now on the\nAuthor of every good and perfect gift? The soul thus withers and\npines; and if a child of God escape, it is as Lot did from Sodom--\"so\nas by fire.\" Just as a dislocated limb gives pain to the body, or\njust as one member wrenched by violence from the rest makes the whole\nphysical frame quake and quiver, the dislocation of a single precept\nof God does violence to our moral nature. It has been often noticed\nthat the men who are deprived, by whatsoever cause, of the Sabbath\nrest, soon become the most degraded in a community, they have\nperished sometimes by their own right hand; and the remark may be\ngeneralized so as to include all the laws among the Ten. The man\nwho runs greedily after gain and forgets to consecrate it to God, is\nthereby self-degraded, and self-ruined in the end.\n\n    COUNSELS.\n\nBut perhaps all that we have argued might have been more briefly and\nmore emphatically urged in a few words: \"They first gave themselves\nto the Lord.\"[19] That is the true order of procedure on the part of\nChristian men, and that is the certain prelude to heavenly guidance.\nAll that we have will be dedicated to the Great Proprietor, if we\nhave first learned, as the Spirit teaches, to \"present our bodies a\nliving sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.\"\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n    THE ONLY RULE.\n\nWere it our object to exhaust this subject, instead of merely\noffering some general counsels, we should now proceed to other\naspects of the Christian in the Market-place--that place where\ntemptations are so rife, because the world's current is at the\nstrongest. We might refer to the necessity of excluding the\nengrossments of the Market-place from our hours of relaxation or\nour home duties, and press such examples as that of Him who left\nit as a counsel to others, that, they should leave all thoughts of\nbusiness in their counting-house on Saturday, till their return on\nMonday.--But enough has been said for our purpose. And now, let it\nnot be forgotten that all we plead for has been actually done in the\nMarket-place by not a few. We urge nothing Utopian, nothing beyond\nwhat is written in the Word of God. A man can be both a student of\nthe Bible, so as to regulate his business by its maxims, and yet\nprosper, as far as any Christian can care for prosperity; and that\nis proved by many examples. If a man, indeed, supposes that his life\nconsists in the abundance that he has, or that the kingdom of God is\nmeat and drink, then the Bible will be discarded; another god than\nit[*8] will be worshipped. But if it be the rooted conviction of a\nsoul, that it can be rich only in so far as it enjoys the blessing of\nJehovah, His word will be found at once a pleasant and a profitable\nguide. And even though poverty may assail us for abiding by God's\nsimple truth, we must still abide by it. Man lives not by bread\nalone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God; and\nthough that maxim may provoke a smile from the devotees of the world,\nit is the maxim of eternal wisdom notwithstanding. Some whose life\nwas spent in the place of business, of care and speculation, have\nleft it upon record, that such a maxim is the only remedy for the\nwoes of a groaning world.\n\nWe know that men cannot live upon their knees, especially in the\nmarket-place; but we also know that, in the most crowded mart, the\nway to the throne is open, if we have acquired a taste for walking\nin it. Have we not found some, and these among the busiest of men,\nwho knew how to retreat into the secret place of the Most High's\npavilion, so as there to feel the truth of his promise, \"My people\nshall dwell in quiet resting-places and peaceable habitations?\" Have\nthey not found a recess for communion with God, where no eye saw,\nand no ear heard, but his? If there be first a willing mind, a way\nto the throne will be found, even in the Market-place, and they who\nfind it are blessed.\n\n    THE POWER OF GRACE.\n\nAmid all this, we do not forget the difficulties of a merchant's\nsphere, in an age so bent upon amassing as ours. We are not\nunfamiliar with his anxieties, his cares, and crosses--crosses\nwhich often come upon him mainly because he would set the Lord\nbefore him. But just the more on that account, and surely not the\nless, do we urge him to carry the Lamp of Life. On the one hand, if\nthese anxieties and cares drive us from our steadfastness, and if\nGod be left out of sight, will that diminish our cares? On the other\nhand, if we hold fast our integrity, is it to be feared that we shall\nbe put to shame at last? Nay, all that we plead for /has been done/:\nthe grace of God can accomplish it, and more. There have been men\nsurrounded with many cares, who yet served the Lord amid them all.\nThey found that Christianity in the Market-place is as much provided\nfor, as Christianity in the place where prayer is wont to be\nmade. All that was needed was to seek the God and the grace of\nChristianity; they sought Him, and they triumphed. Cheered by the\nwords, \"Thou hast a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled\ntheir garments,\" they held fast their integrity as drowning men cling\nto the cable which is cast for their rescue; and in holding it fast,\nthey secured the heritage which the gold of Ophir could not buy.\n\n    STEADFASTNESS.\n\nIt will readily be believed that, in a nation signalized like ours by\ncommercial enterprise and mercantile activity, some have been found\namong our merchant princes whose proceedings have been presided over\nby purest Christian principle. If multitudes have sacrificed rather\nto Mammon than to the Holy One and the Just, some, on the other\nhand, have held fast their integrity, and sought to keep themselves\n\"unspotted from the world.\"--Among those who belong to the class\nwho have thus exemplified the loftiest Christian principle in the\nMarket-place, there are few whose name and memorial stand higher\namong men than the late Joseph Hardcastle of London. Early impressed\nwith religion in its living and energetic form, he made it his guide\nand close companion through life. The Scriptures were to him the\nsupreme and sovereign standard. He was led by their light to the\nSaviour of the lost, and, constrained by his love, he rejoiced\nin every opportunity for promoting His cause and glory. A life\nof dependence on his Redeemer was only another name for personal\nholiness; and to personal holiness he added abilities of a superior\norder, which appeared at once in the world-wide business which he\nconducted as a merchant, and the efforts of a directly religious\nnature which he put forth. Among the objects to which Hardcastle\nwas devoted, the London Missionary Society was perhaps the chief. In\nthe capacity of its treasurer, he laboured for many years with zeal\nin the service of Him who has the heathen for his heritage. To the\nduties of that office he brought the same sagacity and soundness\nof view, the same unbending uprightness and lofty integrity, which\nsignalized him as a member of the greatest mercantile community in\nthe world. Even amid the contentions of debate, Hardcastle was calm\nand gentle: his Christianized nature raised him above the influences\nof those shocks which ruffle and discompose more common minds;\nand though nothing could ever sway him to act against truth and\nprinciple, his mildness and benignity rendered him the friend of all.\n\n    JOSEPH HARDCASTLE.\n\nBut not merely were Hardcastle's time and energies thus largely\ndevoted to the Saviour's cause. His ample liberalities from year to\nyear, \"entitled him to the rank of the first pecuniary benefactor\nof the London Missionary Society.\" In short, faith unfeigned was\nthe basis of what he did, whether in the Market-place or amid scenes\nwhose duties appear to some to be incompatible with the assiduities\nof business. With commercial relations which touched the ends of\nthe earth, Hardcastle spread his influence for good as widely as his\nmerchandise. He proved by his example that it is possible to be at\nonce active in business, and serving the Lord; and our commercial\nenterprise[*9] would rest upon a more solid basis, or be more richly\nfraught with blessings, were that godliness which is the only solid\nfoundation of true dignity and /completeness/ of character cultivated\nby all, as it was by Joseph Hardcastle.\n\n    THE DYING BELIEVER.\n\nBut his own history was spoken, and his principles were described\nby himself, in some of the last sentences which he ever uttered.\nTo illustrate these, the following selections may suffice:--\n\n\"Lord Jesus, thou hast said, 'He that believeth in me shall never\ndie; and he that believeth, though he were dead, yet shall he live.'\nI believe this; I believe I shall never know what death is, but pass\ninto life.\"--This is the triumph of faith.\n\n\"Thou hast said, 'Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.'\nI come to thee; thou wilt not cast me out.\"--This is God honoured,\nand man made happy.\n\n\"Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life,\nand I am going to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. I am\ninfinitely indebted to him for his conduct of me from infancy to\nthe end of my life. He took me by the hand in a wonderful manner,\nand brought me into connection with the excellent of the earth. Most\ngracious God, I commit my children to thee, and I charge them to\nwalk in thy fear and love.\"--This is the death of the righteous.\n\n\"He has drawn me with the cords of mercy from my earliest days. He\ngave me very early impressions of religion, and enabled me to devote\nmyself to him in early life; and this God is my God for ever and\never--for ever and ever. I said to him when I was a young man, 'Thou\nshalt guide me by thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.'\n'Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth whom\nI desire besides thee.'\"\n\n    THE DYING PARENT.\n\n\"No principle can enter the mind so sublime as the doctrine of the\ncross, which, with infinite majesty, speaks peace in heaven, on\nearth, and throughout the universe. Let every one of my children\nglory in the cross of salvation--it is the power of God to every one\nthat believeth. The /power/ of God; what feeble ideas do I attach to\nsuch expressions!\"\n\n\"I am, in some respects, like the old patriarch Jacob, on his dying\nbed, with all his sons about him. Live in love, and the God of\nlove will be with you. This is my last farewell; this is our last\ninterview till we meet in a better world. My flesh and heart are\nfailing. I hope I have not been deceiving myself. My children\nseek for an interest in Christ--seek for an interest in Christ. I\nearnestly exhort you to be decided, and to be very useful. He is\nyour best friend: manifest your regard for him to the world; avow\nyour attachment; be not ashamed of him; he is the glory and the\nornament of the universe.\"\n\n\"I hope I shall be favoured, when my spirit is departing, with\nsome intimations of approaching glory. I will trust in him--I will\ntrust in him. In the meantime, I possess a sweet peace, calm and\nundisturbed. I will go to God, my exceeding joy, as the psalmist\nsays. It is an awful thing for a human spirit, deeply depraved as\nit is, to appear before the tribunal of so mighty a Being. He placeth\nno trust in his servants; the heavens are not clean in his sight.\"\n\n\"If I am to live,[20] I welcome life, and thank its Giver; if I am to\ndie, I welcome death, and thank its Conqueror. If I have a choice, I\nwould rather depart and be with Christ, which is far better.\"\n\n\"My last act of faith I wish to be to take the work of Jesus, as\nthe high priest did when he entered within the vail; and when I have\npassed the vail, to appear with it before the throne.\"\n\n\"I have just finished my course; I hope also I may say, 'I have\nfought the good fight, I have kept the faith; and henceforth there\nis laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the\nrighteous Judge, will give me at that day.'\"\n\n\"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Lord Jesus, receive my\nspirit when it leaves the body: thou hast redeemed it--I have waited\nfor thy salvation.\"\n\n    ALMIGHTY GRACE.\n\n--There /is/ much in the life of men whose home is chiefly in the\nMarket-place, to deaden and secularize their spirits; but examples\nlike that of Hardcastle tell that grace is almighty even there--even\nthere, were men to honour God, he would honour them. It would be made\nmanifest to all, that even the life of a merchant prince may be spent\nin the ways of God, and conduct to his eternal home.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER V.\n\n               RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE CONTINUED.\n\n\nEnough has been said to show that there is no incongruity between\nthe religion of Jesus and the most comprehensive enterprise, if that\nenterprise be characterised by wisdom, as well as extent. The Bible\nmay reign in the counting-house, as well as in the church; nay, where\nits power is felt at all, its most signal triumphs are not found amid\nthe scenes where only the Omniscient is our witness, but amid those\npublic proceedings where dangler is rife, because the current of the\nworld sets in against the soul at once with the greatest rapidity\nand the greatest volume. By example after example, it is proved, both\nin the Word and the providence of God, that His truth embodies the\nreligion of activity. One man, for example, is raised up to take\npossession of the promised land. He has seven nations to conquer,\nas well as a numerous people to guide, and amid the manifold\nengrossments of that position, how is Joshua employed? Had he adopted\nthe maxims merely of the world, he would have drawn the sword, he\nwould have thrown away the scabbard, and in the common language of\nmortal boasting, he would have determined to conquer or die. But the\nfirst sword which Joshua drew was the sword of the Spirit, which is\nthe Word of God. The verse which directed his steps was this, \"Thou\nshalt meditate on this book day and night ... for then thou shalt\nmake thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.\" That\nwas the secret of Joshua's victories--amid the cares of a camp, he\nhad his God to guide him.\n\n    JOSHUA--DAVID.\n\nAnd the man after God's own heart acted in the same spirit. Monarch\nas he was, and compassed about with all the cares of a kingdom, David\nmade the Word of God a lamp to his path. He could picture no greater\nself-deception than to suppose that man can find a better guide in\ndifficulty than God--a better Counsellor in doubt--a better Defence\nin danger. He could not even invent a more flagrant kind of folly\nthan to set aside the wisdom of God, and prefer the wisdom of man;\nto adopt some human device for remedying man's ills, for soothing\nman's sorrows or lifting him from his degradation, while we despise\nthe sovereign specific of the eternal God. The climax of all that\nis irrational is found in superseding God's revealed will, and\nsubstituting for it the opinions, the speculations, the dreams of\nmortal man. David, therefore, placed the Word of God upon his throne\nbeside him. Guided by it, the king was steadfast and unmoveable:\nForsaking it, he became one of the chief of sinners; he sullied one\nof the fairest names.\n\n    LUTHER.\n\nOr turning from inspired men, to those who had to spread the sacred\npage before them, and pray to God to shed light upon it, we may\nglance at the man whom God raised up, about three hundred years\nago, to emancipate a large portion of Europe from Popery, that dark\nsuperstition which ever crushes man to the dust. Luther stands alone\nbefore the crowned, the mitred, and the lordly. A bigoted emperor\nholds that solitary man's life in his hand; and had he doomed him to\ndie upon the spot, millions would have rushed to applaud him for the\ndeed. \"Recant,\" that is, deny the Word of God, was in substance the\ndemand made from Luther; and was the demand conceded? Nay; the Bible\nwas to him something better than a collection of syllables and words.\nThe Spirit had made it a power, a life, a soul to that man's soul;\nand, \"I cannot recant, so help me God,\" was in substance his reply\nto the crowned, and the lordly before him.\n\nBut there is a glare and a grandeur about cases such as these, which\nmay dazzle yet more than instruct. Let us pass then to a different\nscene, and seek some abode of poverty. We are, perhaps, afraid to\nenter, so repulsive, or unpleasing is all that meets the eye. In that\nrude home, which every wind of heaven can penetrate, we find a dying\none. Perhaps for a quarter of a century, she has been the inmate\nof that abode; for all that time, she may have had no hand but the\nhand of God, and of charity, to feed her. What, then, is it that has\nsustained her spirit, amid trials which we almost shudder to see?\nShe has lived, and is now preparing to die, upon the Word of her God.\nShe is strong in the strength which it supplies, and the home which\nlooks so cheerless to others, has been to her a home of hymns and of\nrejoicing. The God of the Bible has made her glad in the house of her\npilgrimage by means of his Word. She has learned to regard it as God\nhimself does; and it is visibly magnified in the effects which it\nthus produces in souls by nature weak, wavering, and ungodly.\n\nBut we have not nearly exhausted the illustrations of the power of\ntruth in the Market-place. We have looked at some proofs of its power\nwhere it is honoured and obeyed: let us now glance at some of the\nresults of neglecting it. If some men are of opinion that their main\nbusiness upon earth is to \"buy and sell, and get gain;\" the Holy\nOne has, on the other hand, made it plain that there is another God\nbesides \"the Mammon of unrighteousness.\"\n\n    MERCANTILE MANIA.\n\nWe have referred to the crashes, and the failures, the gluts and\nstagnations which occur in trade, with a periodicity which can almost\nbe calculated--they can at least be easily foreseen as they approach.\nThe adventurous \"traffickers,\" are sometimes seized with a mania\nwhich turns the counting-house into a gambler's den, involving\nresults and disasters from which the most judicious can with\ndifficulty escape; so powerful is the current, so ingulfing the\nsuction. Let us glance at some of these seasons.\n\n    THE TULIP MARTS OF HOLLAND.\n\nAnd the first which we mention is, the mania for dealing in Tulips,\nwhich engrossed even so calm and sedate a people as the Dutch, about\ntwo centuries ago. It began about the year 1634, and, like a violent\nepidemic, it seized upon all classes of the community, leading\nto disasters and misery such as the records of commerce, or of\nbankruptcies, can scarcely parallel. In their \"haste to be rich,\"\none of the most temperate and self-possessed of all the nations\nof Europe rushed upon a ruin which affected thousands, and plunged\nmultitudes into penury for life. In the year 1636, Tulip Marts had\nbeen established at Amsterdam, at Rotterdam, Haarlem, Leyden, and\nother towns in Holland.[21] As happens in all gambling transactions\nmany were speedily enriched. Their fortunes, it has been said, rose\nlike exhalations from the earth, but in many cases they vanished\nas speedily. Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, seamen, footmen,\nmaid-servants, even chimney sweeps--all caught the fever for tulips\nand gold. Houses and lands were either sold for what they would\nbring in the market, or pledged, and bartered, that men might\nget possession of the coveted bulb or blossom. Amid these things,\nthe prices of food, and other necessaries of life, rose to an\nunprecedented extent; and so complex, so ramified and pervasive did\nthe tulip trade become, that special laws were passed to regulate it;\nspecial functionaries were appointed to direct it; in a word, amid\nthe activities of Holland, then perhaps the foremost nation in the\ncommercial world, a frail, ephemeral flower became literally the\nrepresentative of man's wealth, or the object on which the hearts\nof thousands doated.\n\n    THE SHADOW GRASPED.\n\nNor were these negotiations confined to the great central emporiums.\nEvery village had its market-place for tulips; festive meetings were\nheld when sales were effected; and the universal favourite--a tulip,\nwas the constant decorator of such festivities. The learned and the\nignorant, the cautious and the eager, men of all classes and all\ntemperaments, were infected; it seemed as if the commerce of the\nworld were henceforth to run in one exclusive channel--the sale and\nthe purchase of tulips. The eagerness with which men embarked in\nthese wild speculations may be best explained by a statement of\nsimple facts.[22] Property to the value of 100,000 florins[23] was\ninvested in the purchase of a few roots. One kind of tulip, the\n/Admiral Leifken/, was reckoned worth 4,400 florins. A /Semper\nAugustus/ was deemed cheap, if purchased for 5,500 florins. At one\nperiod there were only two roots of that rare species in Holland;\nand so intense was the passion to possess them, that a merchant\noffered twelve acres of building lots for one of them, which was at\nHaarlem, while its neighbour of Amsterdam was purchased for 4,600\nflorins, a carriage, a span of grey horses,[24] and a complete suit\nof harness. A /Viceroy/ was worth 3000 florins. An /Admiral Vonder\nEyk/ was rated at 1,260 florins; and the whole were sold by weight\nas carefully as jewel merchants weigh the diamond. But to name no\nmore, there was a single root which cost two lasts[*10] of wheat, and\nfour of rye; four fat oxen, eight fat swine, and twelve fat sheep;\ntwo hogsheads of wine, and four tuns of beer; two tons of butter,\none thousand pounds of cheese, a complete bed, a suit of clothes,\nand a silver drinking cup, valued in all at 2,560 florins.\n\nSuch is a glimpse of the tulip mania--such the effect of man's\nextraordinary haste to be rich--such the condition into which men\nproverbial for their sobriety of judgment were precipitated, when\nthey pushed their speculations beyond their legitimate channels.\n\n    THE SUBSTANCE THROWN AWAY.\n\nAnd what was the result? How did a passion so extraordinary affect\nthose who had been impelled by its power? The bubble burst at length,\nand though a fierce tornado had swept over Holland, the devastation\ncould scarcely have been more complete. The hopes which had been\nso unnaturally inflated began to collapse. Panic seized upon the\nspeculators, and bankruptcy followed panic, as rapidly as the house\nwhich is built of cards is demolished by a blow. It soon appeared\nthat tulips were neither gold, nor houses, nor lands; neither bread\nfor the hungry, nor clothing for the naked, nor a home for the\nfriendless; and the worthlessness of the flower in itself, became the\nemblem of the delusions which it had fostered. Every town in Holland\nfelt the blow. Multitudes were precipitated into poverty, at least,\ntheir only possessions consisted in a few bulbs--the representations\nat once of the speculator's thoughtlessness and his woe. The result\nof the folly was now manifest, and the madness of what was nothing\nbut gambling, showed its bitter fruits. Merchants and their families\nwho had lived all their lives in independence and luxury, were\nreduced to beggary by this mania for gold.\n\n    THE ONLY SAFE GUIDE.\n\nAmid these calamities, the help of man was found to be signally\nvain, and those who had forgotten to take the Bible into the\nCounting-house, and the Market-place, were left to reap as they\nhad sowed. Every effort was made to arrest the tide of ruin. Law was\nappealed to. The governing power of the nation was addressed, but\nall in vain. The gourd had withered, the refuge of lies had fallen,\nand not a few were buried in the ruins. The trade of Holland was\nprostrated for a time, and some of its merchant princes never\nrecovered from the shock.\n\n    THE REAL SOURCE OF WEALTH.\n\nIt was by such a mercantile crash, then, that He who rules among\nthe nations protested against the folly, or the sin of such gambling.\nIt was proved, upon a national scale, that men cannot trample\non the wisdom which comes from above, and prosper; and over the\nwhole transaction, the eye of faith can read many a text inscribed\nin letters of light, we learn how much Commerce would be aided\nthroughout her extensive empire, were her measures regulated by the\nmind, and directed to the objects of God. \"He that makes haste to be\nrich shall not be innocent.\" \"Trust not in uncertain riches, but in\nthe living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.\" \"Ye shall\ndo no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, and in\nmeasure.\" \"By humility and the fear of the Lord, are riches, and\nhonour, and life.\" \"Let your conversation be without covetousness,\nand be content with such things as ye have; for He hath said, 'I will\nnever leave thee nor forsake thee.'\"--These and many other passages\nof the Word, proclaim the folly of extinguishing the lamp, and yet\nhoping to walk in the light. He who shall really prosper in such\na path, will be the first in all the world's history; but his\nprosperity will rest upon the ruins of truth, and justice--of all\nthat is pure, and lovely, and of good report.\n\n    THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME.\n\nBut this appears after all, to have been a mere hallucination. It\nmay be reckoned the dictate of capricious fashion, rather than a\nmanifestation of the true mercantile spirit. Let us turn, then, to\nanother illustration, and we find it ready in the Mississippi Scheme\nof France, which was begun in 1716, and continued till 1723. Of all\nthe wild speculations which have first duped and then ruined men,\nthis ranks among the foremost. It was projected by a man who spent an\nample fortune by his prodigality, and then adopted a gambler's life,\nthe last resort of many a fallen spirit. He first ruined a young\nEnglish lady and then slew her brother in a duel, for which he was\nobliged to flee from his native country. Amsterdam, Venice, and\nGenoa, became in succession his asylum. From each of these, however,\nhe was banished as a dangerous adventurer; and after fourteen years\nof friendless wandering, he at last secured the patronage of the\nDuke of Orleans, while Regent of France, about the year 1716.\n\nSuch was the unprincipled and profligate man employed to launch the\nMississippi Scheme. He began his career in Paris by establishing a\nbank, which aided in restoring the drooping commerce of France to\nsome measure of activity. Success in one enterprise[*11] prepared the\nway for another, and Law devised the scheme which has given such bad\nnotoriety to his name, and was the occasion of a ruin so wide-spread\nthat only Omniscience knows it. A French colony at the mouth of the\nMississippi occupied lands which were supposed to teem with gold;\nand, on that supposition, men who knew of no better riches than\nthose of earth, rushed into a wild and visionary scheme. The Regent\nsanctioned the undertaking, and notes were issued to the amount of\none thousand millions of livres.[25] One hundred and twenty /per\ncent./ of profit were promised upon all investments; and the\nbaseless proposal so captivated men who were willingly fascinated,\nthat at least three hundred thousand applications were made for fifty\nthousand shares. The titled, from the right hand of royalty downward,\nengaged in the scramble; and their equipages blocked up the streets\nfrom day to day, as they waited in feverish anxiety to know the\nresult of their application for a chance of sharing in the fabulous\nwealth.--It is known that when one maniac has committed suicide in\nany particular way--for example, by precipitation from the summit of\na tower--others morbidly follow his example; and one is irresistibly\nreminded of that development of mania while tracing the history of\nthe Mississippi Scheme.\n\n    THE POWER OF PASSION.\n\nBut, after all, it was still only in its infancy. The Regent created\nthree hundred thousand additional shares;[26] and so grasping were\neven the coroneted gamblers of Paris, that three times that number\nwould have been purchased had the scheme been extended so far. The\npressure for shares became so great, that a number of persons were\ncrushed to death in the crowd. Property suddenly rose in value, till\nit was worth twelve or fifteen times as much as it had been a brief\nperiod before; and so unwearied were these devotees of Mammon, that\nthe streets had to be cleared at night by the soldiery. For a time,\neven the gaieties of Paris were suspended; and all the energies, the\nearnestness, and ardour of its people, were turned into one absorbing\nchannel--the passion for gold lying buried, they believed, in the\nlands around the mouth of the Mississippi!\n\n    CORONETED GAMBLERS.\n\nSo ceaseless was the murmur of these speculators, and so loud, that\nthe Chancellor of Paris, whose court was in the neighbourhood of\nthe bank, could not hear the advocates as they pled. About five\nhundred pavilions were in consequence erected at some distance, for\nconducting the business. The ingulfing tide rolled on. Peers and\npeeresses continued among the suitors for Mississippi stock, and\nsometimes stood for six hours in succession, waiting for an interview\nwith an agent. In truth, all classes were seized with a mania similar\nto that which reigns paramount in the mind of a gambler, and which\noften goads him on to ruin. Amid the excitement, society became more\nand more distempered. The ignoble, who had become suddenly rich,\npurchased alliances with the titled. Robberies and murders took\nplace, and a Count D'Horn was tried and condemned to be broken\non the wheel for one of these deeds of blood. Such was the influx\nof strangers into Paris, that houses could not be found for\ntheir accommodation. Tents and stables were transmuted into\ndwelling-houses, and an artificial prosperity was produced, which\nquadrupled the cost of some articles. In a word, it appeared that\nLouis XIV. had been succeeded by Midas, a prince who turned all\nthat he touched into gold.\n\n    THE REACTION.\n\nBut this bubble also burst. The scheme was too baseless, and the\nprosperity too artificial to last; and again it was seen in one of\nthe greatest nations of the earth, that \"he who makes haste to be\nrich shall not be innocent,\" as he certainly is not safe. To all the\ngolden visions of France there succeeded a period of confusion, of\nbankruptcies, of beggary and ruin, deep and piteous in proportion as\nthe excitement had been high. Those who were trembling on the verge\nof ruin, or actually precipitated into it, surrounded the palace of\nthe Regent, and holding up the worthless bills of Law, which were now\nall the property they possessed, exclaimed against the injustice with\nthe vehemence of beggared men. The projector of the scheme was exiled\nto Pontoise. A few realized wealth by the speculation, but it is\ncomputed that millions were utterly beggared: many \"laid violent\nhands upon themselves, and sought a doubtful refuge in the grave.\"\n\nAnd thus, by another providence, did the only wise God protest\nagainst the burning passion for gold which had eaten into the souls\nof multitudes. Men\n\n                   \"Abrogate as roundly as they may,\n                The total ordinance and will of God,\"\n\nbut in spite of their attempts, he accomplishes all his purposes, and\nall his pleasure stands. He who loves silver shall not be satisfied\nwith it. He who says to the fine gold, \"Be thou my confidence,\"\nsooner or later finds that he has pierced himself through with\nmany sorrows. Wherever the will of God is violated by nations or\nby individuals, a day of retribution comes, as surely as rivers\nwhich have burst their banks carry devastation wherever they rush.\n\nIt is well known that the channel of the Po, as it approaches its\nembochure, is considerably elevated above the surrounding country.\nThe earth which it washes down from the Alps is gradually deposited\nwhere the river runs more slowly. The banks, in consequence, require\nto be periodically elevated; and were that neglected, the river\nwould soon sweep them all away, and render some of the most fertile\nportions of Italy a wide and noxious marsh, a focus of malaria and\nfever. Now, it is the same wherever man's cupidity has thrown up\nartificial mounds in Commerce. They are always attended with danger,\nand sooner or later they are swept away. It is the sure decree of\nGod: \"He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor\nhe that loves abundance with increase.\"\n\n    THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE.\n\n    DELUSIONS BELIEVED.\n\nOne such illustration may suffice for all: but there is another\nmemorable Scheme to which it seems proper to refer--that which is\nknown in this country as the South Sea Bubble. About the beginning\nof last century, an opinion generally prevailed that the wealth of\nSouth America was exhaustless. A privileged Company to trade with it\nwas accordingly formed, and though the genius of the French and the\nEnglish are widely different, a passion for speculation and gold\nseized upon our countrymen, as violent and absorbing as that which\nappeared in connection with the Mississippi Scheme of France. By\nvarious devices, in which the principles of the Word of God were\noutraged, the managers of the South Sea Scheme excited expectations\nof the most visionary kind. The mania seized upon the nation through\nall its borders. The stock of the Company rose till it was eagerly\nbought at a premium of 1000 /per cent./ Catching the general\nspirit, joint-stock companies sprang up everywhere as rapidly as\nthe Prophet's gourd; and so willing were men to be deceived, that\nschemes which should have been put down on their first appearance\nwere eagerly embraced. One of these was denominated, \"A Company for\ncarrying on an Undertaking of Great Advantage, but nobody to know\nwhat it is;\"[27] and yet Englishmen, proverbially calculating and\ncautious in their financial affairs, actually embarked in that\ntransparent deception, like men infatuated by their haste to be rich.\nThe projector of the scheme asked a deposit of \u00a32 on each share of\n\u00a3100, and the promised return was \u00a3100 /per annum/. On the first\nday of his scheme he received about 1000 deposits, or nearly \u00a32000,\nand with that sum he immediately and for ever disappeared. In this\nmanner, the original South Sea Scheme branched out into eighty-seven\ncognate speculations, each of which was eventually a fountain of\nmisery to multitudes.\n\n    THE RULING PASSION.\n\nThe following sentences graphically tell the state of London and\nthis kingdom at the period referred to:--\"From morning till evening,\n'Change Alley was filled to overflowing with one dense moving mass\nof living beings, composed of the most incongruous materials, and in\nall things, save the mad pursuit wherein they were employed, utterly\nopposed in their principles and feelings, and far asunder in their\nstations of life and the professions which they followed. Statesmen\nand clergymen deserted their high stations to enter upon this grand\ntheatre of speculation and gambling; and churchmen and dissenters\nleft their fierce disputes, and forgot their wranglings upon church\ngovernment, in this deep and hazardous game they were playing for\nworldly treasures, and for riches which, even if won, were liable to\ndisappear within the hour of their creation. Whigs and Tories buried\ntheir weapons of political warfare, discarded party animosities, and\nmingled together in kind and friendly intercourse, each exulting as\ntheir stocks advanced in price, and murmuring dissatisfaction and\ndisappointment when fortune frowned upon their wild operations;\nand lawyers, physicians, merchants, and tradesmen, forsook their\nemployments, neglected their business, and disregarded their\nengagements, to whirl giddily along with the swollen stream, to\nbe at last ingulfed in the wide sea of bankruptcy. Men of the\nhighest rank were deeply engaged in stock-jobbing transactions;\nand investments in the most worthless bubbles of the age were made\nby them in heavy sums, and without the least hesitation or previous\ninquiry. Females mixed with the crowd, and, forgetting the stations\nand employments which nature had fitted them to adorn, dealt boldly\nand extensively in the bubbles that rose before them, and, like those\nby whom they were surrounded, rose from poverty to wealth, and from\nthat were thrust down to beggary and want, and all in one short\nweek, and perhaps before the evening which terminated the first\nday of their speculations. Ladies of high rank, regardless of every\nappearance of dignity, and blinded by the prevailing infatuation,\ndrove to the shops of their milliners and haberdashers, and there met\nstockbrokers whom they regularly employed, and through whom extensive\nsales were daily negotiated. In the midst of the excitement, all\ndistinctions of party and religion, circumstances and character,\nwere swallowed up. Bubbles were blown into existence on every hand,\nand stocks of every conceivable name, nature, and description, were\nissued to an incredible extent.\"[28]\n\n    THE FOLLY OF MAN'S WISDOM.\n\nBut this also came to an end; and disasters followed which rent\nsociety like an earthquake. The leaders in the scheme were consigned\nto prison, or compelled to seek refuge in exile; while their deluded\nvictims were left amid poverty, and its attendant woe, to gather\nthe native fruit of the thorns and the thistles, from which they\nhad expected grapes and figs. It was miserable comfort to reflect,\nthat their own baseless expectations had abetted the delusion, and\nmade the ruin complete.\n\n    RESULTS.\n\nAnd such is another illustration of the effects which follow the\ninfatuation of putting Mammon in the place of God, or delivering\nup the whole soul to the pursuit of what the Holy One declares to\nbe unsatisfying as a dream. It is thus that he warns men, in his\nprovidence, against that lust of speculation, which is often as\nruinous as the lust of power, or any passion which drives men\nheadlong upon misery.\n\nThe very titles of some of the schemes which were projected at the\nperiod now referred to, stamp them with infatuation. The nation had\nbecome an aggregate of gamblers, and the following are some of the\nstakes:--\n\n    A Company for Increasing Children's Fortunes.\n\n    A Company for Furnishing Funerals in any part of Great\n        Britain.\n\n    A Company, already mentioned, for carrying on an Undertaking\n        of Great Advantage; but nobody to know what it is.\n\n    A Company for Making Looking-Glasses. Capital, \u00a32,000,000.\n\n    A Company for Improving Malt Liquors. Capital, \u00a34,000,000.\n\n    A Company for Insuring all Masters and Mistresses against\n        Losses by Servants. Capital, \u00a33,000,000.\n\n    A Company for Importing Walnut Trees. Capital, \u00a32,000,000.\n\n    A Company for Erecting Hospitals for Illegitimate Children.\n        Capital, \u00a32,000,000.\n\n    A Company for Erecting Loan-Offices. Capital, \u00a32,000,000.\n\n--But we need not enumerate more. In that scramble for riches,\nreason appears to have been befooled. Departing from the law of\nGod, men were left to starvation: \"They that did feed delicately,\nare desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet,\nembrace dunghills.\" What though one, or two, or a few realized\nwealth, and withdrew in time from the ingulfing vortex? The\nwide wail--the desolating explosions which followed, were poorly\ncompensated for by these exceptions. What though some might be\ncharioted to-day, who yesterday lived by the sweat of their brows?\nTo-morrow will see them more wretched than before. What though\nartificial standards have elevated a nominal wealth to the value\nof Potosi or Golconda? Broken fortunes, broken characters, broken\nhearts, are the sad realities which close the vista. And thus, would\nmen learn, they might; it is written in light above us, according\nto the words already quoted: \"He that loveth silver shall not be\nsatisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase.\"\nIf covetousness be idolatry, and Mammon the idol, his devotees are\ntaught that disaster and woe are their lot.\n\n    THE IDOL AND THE WORSHIPPER.\n\nYet men have not been warned by all these things; nay, the same\nspirit has revived in very recent years; and could we unveil the\nmisery which has been endured by thousands as the result of recent\ncrashes, the impression might be deepened as to the madness of\n\"making haste to be rich.\" Men have said, \"To-day or to-morrow we\nwill go into such a city, and continue there for a year, and buy and\nsell and get gain;\" but ere the year was closed, their gains have\ntaken to themselves wings. The will of God was left out of view in\ntheir plans, and they were baffled.\n\n    THE END.\n\nWe must repeat--we have no controversy with commercial enterprise,\nwhen conducted in accordance with the wisdom of the Word of God. It\nis one of the means of binding nation to nation, and bringing back\nthe alienated children of men to one wide family circle, according\nto the purpose of our Father who is in heaven. But that is not to\nbe accomplished by outraging his laws; and the man, the company,\nthe nation, which extinguishes the lamp, will be left to walk in\ndarkness.--When the butchers of the first French revolution were\nleading their victims to death, some of those who were doomed to\ndie, were conducted, by a refinement in cruelty, along an alley into\na garden of flowers, where only fragrance and beauty greeted their\nsenses; but at a certain spot, inevitable doom awaited them, at the\nhands of men who thirsted for their blood--and we need scarcely apply\nthe illustration. In their haste to be rich, men seem, for a season,\nto walk amid fragrance. Their path is all luminous with hope--such\nhope as man's devices can inspire; but sooner or later they are\nhurried into misery.\n\n           \"When infamous venality, grown bold,\n            Writes on his bosom, 'to be let, or sold,'\"\n\nmen have laid a snare in which, by God's decree, they will be\nentangled; they have dug a pitfall, in which, by God's decree,\nthey will be taken.\n\n\n\n\n                            CHAPTER VI.\n\n          RELIGION IN THE PROFESSIONS:--I. THE PHYSICIAN--\n                  II. THE LAWYER--III. THE DIVINE.\n\nThere are many symptoms of the reviving power of religion in our\nday. Some of the great questions which enter into the very heart of\nsociety are connected with the claims of truth upon the one hand,\nor the pretensions of those who would suppress it upon the other.\nThe high courts of Parliament are convulsed by religious discussions.\nWhen wars arise, or are threatened, they often owe their origin to\ntopics connected with religion. Periodicals which began their career\nin indifference or antagonism to the truth, are now obliged to do\nobeisance to it, if they would command the attention of men, and\nsome even of those whose opposition was once a mixture of sneers\nand acrimony, have now to borrow weight and influence from doctrines\nwhich will be found ascendant when every form of error shall have\nvanished away. In a word, empires, countries, households, individual\nsouls, are alike proclaiming that the kingdom of our Father who is\nin heaven must come--that His will must be done on earth as it is\ndone in heaven.\n\nNay more, there is a kind of Christianity even among our infidels\n--that is, they owe not a little of what they hold to the very\nsystem which they disparage and affect to ignore. The truth is thus\nproducing effects even in spheres from which men would gladly banish\nit, but into which it is making its way, like a rising tide, in spite\nalike of the indifference and the hostility of men. The friends of\ntruth are thus encouraged. The collected light of the past and the\npresent is projected into the future. Our nation, and the progress\nof truth within our borders, is a type of the world. In due time,\nreligion will rule all; either the sceptre of love will guide, or\nthe rod of iron will dash the nations.[29]\n\n    THE RELIGIOUS PHYSICIAN.\n\nIn no respect, perhaps, is this progress more apparent than as\nregards the Medical Profession. In ancient times, it was proverbially\ntrue, or alleged, that wherever there were three physicians, there\nwere two atheists;[30] that is, the majority of that profession were\nthen deemed atheists, or atheistic. How changed now! Many are, no\ndoubt, still living without any recognition of God. They refuse to\nbe illumined by the light which irradiates others, and grovel amid\nthe grossness of material things, instead of soaring, as they might\ndo, to the spiritual, the heavenly, the eternal. But others, led\nby the Supreme Wisdom, do soar to these. With religion for their\ndirectress, they are skilled in the remedy of the soul as well as of\nthe body. They can occasion the melody of spiritual joy and spiritual\nhealth, as well as promote the blessedness which originates in the\nwell-being of the body. An accomplished physician of our day has\nsaid, and said with truth: \"Every medical practitioner, whether he\ndesires to have it or not, has a cure of souls as well as of bodies.\nHe is literally an inheritor of some of the duties of the very\napostles, and called to be an imitator of the Lord Jesus Christ.\"[31]\nNow, as no sphere could be named where Religion is confessedly more\nrequired, let us consider it for a little in connection with the\nMedical Profession.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n    DANGER--\n\nI. Conversant daily with death, or walking from hour to hour along\nthe verge of the grave, and in sight of eternity, there is some\ndanger lest these great realities should lose their power--that is,\nlest the mind should become indifferent to all that is most solemn\nin the lot of man. And what is the antidote? There is none, except\na constant realizing of eternal and spiritual things. The mind\nmust be kept constantly under their influence, or the proverb as\nto the atheists will be at least practically realized. Deprived\nas Physicians often are, of the repose of the Sabbath, and all\nopportunities for worshipping the Father of our spirits, they need\na double portion of religion in the soul.[32] If it be not possessed,\nthen for the same reason as soldiers and seamen are profligate and\nabandoned, till their profligacy be proverbial, do those who tend\nour bodies sink into deeper spiritual darkness than others. Though\nfamiliar with death, they are not warned, as other men are, of\nthe need of preparing for what follows the all-decisive change.\nAccustomed to devote their thoughts and their care--sometimes,\nperhaps, with feverish anxiety--to the body, they are in danger of\nforgetting its immortal occupant. Many do forget it, and gaze on\nthe power of that ruthless destroyer who has baffled all their skill,\nwith as little thought as a sexton on a coffin, or on the fragments\nof the dead which he dishumes with his mattock. Regarding the body as\nthe man, and overlooking all beyond it, a gross materialism becomes\ndominant in the mind; and unless a divine, a living, and spiritual\nreligion occupy the soul, as the antidote to this danger, the most\nskilful physician may just become practically the most thorough\nmaterialist.\n\nNay, far more: such a physician must often see the mind of the\ndying utterly dependent on the state of the body. It is delirious\nor calm--it is soothed or agonized--it is torpid or restless, just\naccording to the stage of the disease. This at least is commonly the\ncase; and accustomed to that spectacle, the physician who watches,\nperhaps with deep sympathy for the sufferer, over every new phase\nof the disease, almost in spite of himself regards the patient as\na piece of mere materialism. It is upon the material part that his\nthoughts are fixed, or his skill brought to bear. He thus magnifies\nhis office, and hence his danger; hence the grossness of some of\nthe more vulgar minds among physicians; hence the perils even of\nthe purest and the most scientific.\n\n    THE ANTIDOTE.\n\nBut hence, also, the need and the preciousness of pure and undefiled\nreligion. Hence the mercy implied in the revelation of a spiritual\nTeacher, the very Spirit of God, to ward off that danger, and give\nreality and prominence to the things of the soul. Hence a loud call\nto those who know that there is a spirit in man, to realize its\nexistence and seek its welfare. Hence the need of solemn impressions\nof the truth of God, in all that is said to fix our thoughts upon\nthe soul, its condition and its destiny. Hence, in short, if any\nman needs a personal religion--that is, a religion for himself, a\nSaviour for himself, repentance, faith, love, hope, holiness, all\nfor himself--it is the man who lives on the confines between life\nand death--who has to do with the body when affection clings to it\nmost closely; and who is apt to forget the inmate while attending\nto its abode--the immortal, while concentrating his skill upon the\ntransient dust.\n\n    SIN, AND DISEASE.\n\nOr farther; no intelligent physician can practise for a single month\nwithout having the connection between sin and disease forced upon his\nnotice. He may be too thoughtless to attend to it, or too gross to\nthink of it at all; but whether he think of it or not, the fact is\nunquestionable--there is a necessary, a divinely-appointed connection\nbetween crime and disease. The bloated drunkard and the wasted\ndebauchee, the premature death of many a youth, the madness of many\na maniac--all proclaim the beneficent decree of God, that suffering\nshall follow sin. Now, can it be rational for men to be daily\ncognisant with that connection, and do nothing to counteract it?\nMaintaining a daily conflict with pain, shall they ignore its origin?\nAre they benevolent or merciful, who assail the bodily disease, but\nneglect the divine antidote for the soul? Nay, am I not conspiring\nagainst the immortality of self-deluded man, if I know a cure for\nthat mortal ailment which has seized on the very vitals of his being,\nand yet hide it from his view? Rather let me press it kindly on his\nnotice; and that I may learn to do so with tenderness and tact, let\nme make sure that it has attracted my own, that my soul is illumined\nby its radiance and animated by its hopes.\n\n    INSANITY.\n\nPhysicians, moreover, have often to deal with the insane; and,\nthough it be one of the grossest of all libels against the Gospel\nof peace, to allege that it ever produces insanity, it is no less\ntrue that exaggerated, distorted, and false views of some doctrines\nof revelation may intensely agitate the soul. Extreme degrees of\nremorse for sin committed, and felt in its sinfulness against God,\nmay convulse the whole man, till reason totter on its throne. With\nsuch cases the physician may be called to deal; and if he be ignorant\nof the power of religion, or prejudiced against it, not a cure, but\nan aggravation of the malady, may be expected to result. Religion is\nnow among the universally accredited means of cure in well-ordered\nInstitutions for the insane; and he who is ignorant of the soothing\npower of God's pure truth in the conscience of a believer, is ill\nadapted to apply that remedy with effect. Hence the need of personal\nreligion in those who watch for the diseased; hence the need of the\nSpirit's teaching, that he who is a guardian of the body's health\nmay know how to promote the soul's; and /that/ no physician will know\ntill the Saviour be a Saviour to him, and the great question, \"What\nmust I do to be saved?\" be practically adjusted.\n\n    A PHYSICIAN'S POWER--\n\nAnd when we think of the position in which the patient is commonly\nseen by the physician, the reasons why religion should reign\nparamount in the latter become more cogent still. The afflicted\nare, in some sense, at the mercy of the physician. The skill of\nthe medical attendant is the sheet-anchor of the sufferer. Actions,\nwords, and looks, are carefully watched and scrutinized, as if\ndestiny were in them. The physician has given relief from pain: he\nhas, perhaps, brought back the patient from the verge of the grave;\nand hence the one feels that the other is, for the time, the very\nlife of his life. Now, for what purpose should all that ascendency be\nemployed? Should it be used merely to amuse the sufferer, or beguile\nhis thoughts for a little away from the prison-house into which\nsickness has converted his chamber? Ah, no; but for higher, holier\nends: if that physician have religion in his own soul, he will use\nhis influence as a means of medicating the soul of the sufferer,\nby turning his thoughts to Him who kills and makes alive; and where\nthat is neglected, opportunities the most precious are lost--a talent\nwhich might reproduce itself more than a thousand-fold is guiltily\nhid in the earth.\n\n    ITS USES.\n\nNor should we fail to notice the influence for good which may be\nexerted over the relatives of the diseased in times of sickness\nand sorrow. When the ploughshare of trial has torn up the heart,\na physician can drop in the seed which bears fruit unto holiness,\nif he love souls, or be wise to win them. Grief is indulged before\nhim, which is pent up in the presence of others; fears are expressed,\ndark forebodings appear, which none but the physician is permitted to\nwitness. Confessions also are sometimes made, or secrets disclosed,\nwhich throw the door for doing good more open still; and, amid all\nthese things, only one explanation can be given, if the opportunity\nbe not seized--that physician has no love for souls; he does not know\ntheir value; eternity is a name to him. True, there is a professional\netiquette to which many defer, and which it would be wrong, in its\nown place, to violate. But that etiquette is worldly or morbid which\nstands in the way of loving men's souls, or seeking to do them good;\nand such love will watch for ways for displaying itself amid a crowd\nof obstacles.\n\n    THE GREAT PHYSICIAN.\n\nIt has been the conviction of some Christian physicians, that\nnone but a Christian can discharge aright the high duties of their\nprofession. In its widest sense, we adopt the maxim; it is specially\ntrue in regard to the necessity which exists for subordinating all to\nthe high interests of that life where \"there shall be no more death.\n\"--It is in this way that the Saviour's example is best copied and\nthe Saviour's glory best promoted. What physicians only attempt, He\naccomplished. They strive to prolong life; He is the life itself.\nThey are often physicians of no value; He dispenses the balm that\nis in Gilead; He is the physician there. \"This great Physician!\"\none exclaims, \"this great sufferer! this vanquisher of death! this\npossessor and granter of an endless life, the Lord Jesus Christ, God\nover all, is the true Head of our profession;\" and blessed is that\nphysician who has learned, from his Head in glory, to watch for the\nsouls, while he sheds blessings upon the bodies, of men.\n\n    ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\nNor are we merely theorizing here. Some physicians, in all countries\nand ages, have been alive to this view of their profession.\nBoerhaave, for example, was a physician in such practice, that\nprinces, ambassadors, and even Peter the Great, had to remain\nfor hours in his ante-chamber before they could be admitted to an\ninterview; and yet it was his constant habit to devote the first hour\nof every day to prayer and meditation on the Word of God--a practice\nwhich he recommended to others, as the source of that vigour which\ncarried him through all his toils. Harvey, the discoverer of the\ncirculation of the blood, tells us that he never dissected the\nbody of an animal without discovering something in which he had to\nrecognise the hand of an all-wise Creator. William Hey, a surgeon\nof eminence, is described as one of those who fear God in youth, who\nwalk with him through life, and to whom the hoary head is therefore\na crown of glory. Arrested by the words, \"If any man be in Christ,\nhe is a new creature,\" and affected by the love of God in the\nSaviour, he devoted himself, /first/ to that which God puts first\n--the soul. The holy duties and holy pleasures of the Sabbath rest\nwere zealously cultivated by Hey; in short, he escaped from the\ndangers of his profession, because he was afraid of them, and adopted\nthe divine means of safety. His \"support and comfort were found in\nbelieving views of the atonement made by Jesus;\" and, resting there,\nhe was blessed and made a blessing. And Jenner, the discoverer of\nvaccination, is to be ranked in the same class--but we need not\nparticularize. As we examine the records of the past, physician\nafter physician rises up before us qualified to minister to the soul\nas well as the body; and some of them actually doing so. Driven by\nthe perils of their profession, they sought the wisdom of \"God only\nwise,\" and were guided by his Spirit in the path whose end is glory.\n\nLet us, however, single out one example of a devout physician, and\ncontemplate the ascendency of pure and undefiled religion in his life\nand death.\n\n    DR. JOHN CHEYNE.\n\nDr. John Cheyne was born at Leith in the year 1777, and obtained\na medical decree at Edinburgh in 1795. After various attempts to\nestablish himself in practice, he settled in Dublin in the year 1809,\nand rose step by step from an income at the rate of three guineas\nfor six months, till he was in receipt of \u00a35000 /per annum/, on an\naverage of ten years. When failing health forced him to withdraw from\npractice, he had received in fees for four months no less a sum than\n\u00a32,230.\n\nBut while thus rising to a high point in his profession, Dr. Cheyne\nwas not oblivious of the soul. To a friend he once wrote: \"You may\nwish to know the condition of my mind. I am humbled to the dust by\nthe thought that there is not one action of my busy life which will\nbear the eye of a holy God. But when I reflect on the invitation\nof the Redeemer, 'Come unto Me,' and that I have accepted this\ninvitation; and, moreover, that my conscience testifies that I\nearnestly desire to have my will in all things conformed to the\nwill of God, I have peace, I have the promised rest--promised by\nHim in whom was found no guile.\"\n\n    A CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN.\n\nMoreover, Dr. Cheyne, with the calmness which only the truth as it\nis in Jesus, and good hope through him, can inspire, gave directions\nfor his own funeral, in a spirit which evinces the great firmness of\nhis faith. In the act of triumphing over death, he ordered a column\nto be erected near the spot where his body lies, on which were to\nbe inscribed these texts, as voices from eternity: \"God so loved the\nworld, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth\non him might not perish, but have eternal life;\" \"Come unto me,\nall ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;\"\nand, \"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man\nshall see the Lord.\" And while Dr. Cheyne thus strove even from the\ntomb to beckon sinners to the Saviour and to glory, he was careful\nto conceal his own name, and withhold it from the column. He was not\nless careful, however, to say, as speaking to the passer-by, \"The\nname, profession, and age of him whose body lies beneath are of\nlittle consequence; but it may be of great importance to you to know,\nthat, by the grace of God, he was brought to look to the Lord Jesus\nas the only Saviour of sinners, and that this 'looking unto Jesus'\ngave peace to his soul.\" Nor was this all; the appeal is yet more\ncogent to the reader. \"Pray to God,\" it says, \"pray to God that you\nmay be instructed in the Gospel; and be assured that God will give\nthe Holy Spirit, the only teacher of true wisdom, to them that ask\nhim.\"\n\nThere, then, is the case of one physician whom no materialism could\nharden, and no familiarity with death blind to the glories of life\nand its Lord. He was careful to roll back every reproach from the\npure truth of God; and whether that reproach originated with the\nsuperficial and the prejudiced in his own profession, or the ignorant\nin other spheres, his fine mental powers, his love of souls, his felt\ninterest in the things of eternity and the favour of God, evermore\nurged Dr. Cheyne to act like one who knew the grace of God in truth.\n\nNow, what has been may be--what has been in such a cause, /ought/\nto be; and were men not too often the willing victims of the evil\nheart of unbelief, we should find more of the guardians of our health\nwalking in the steps of Luke, the beloved physician, than is now the\ncase. A godless physician beside a dying man's couch must exercise a\ntorpedo-like influence on the soul, deadening or disturbing all that\nis heavenly. On the other hand, the man who can wisely and tenderly\nprescribe for the soul, or at least point to its great Physician,\nwhile caring for the aching or the wasted body, is a brother born\nfor adversity indeed. Countless as are the opportunities which that\nwise and Christian physician may enjoy for warning the careless, for\ncheering the despairing, or pointing the dying to the Life, he is\nnot the friend, but the heartless enemy of man, who neglects to\nembrace them, and tell of Him who is both our righteousness and our\nstrength. If no words of reprobation be too strong for him who sees\na fellow-creature writhing in agony without assisting him when he\nhas the power, what shall we say of the unfeeling, the inhuman being,\nwho lets a fellow-sinner perish in his guilt for ever, unheeded and\nunwarned?\n\n    RETRIBUTIONS.\n\nOne sentence more. Various solutions have been attempted for the\nphenomenon which has long been common--the ungodliness or the gross\nlives of many physicians. Without challenging any of the explanations\nwhich have been offered, there can be no doubt that that phenomenon\nhas a moral cause. Men neglect the most solemn warnings. While\ntending the sick and the dying, they see sin and its effects linked\ntogether in bonds which cannot be broken; and yet they continue in\nsin themselves. Unchecked by what /should/ check, passion carries\nthem forward in their downward career, and the coarseness of\nthe lives of some physicians appears a righteous retribution for\nwarnings slighted--for lessons not learned--for God not heard--and\nthe divinely-appointed connection between sin and misery not\nrecognised. Where, on earth, can a scene so appropriate for religion\nas a dying man's chamber be found? And shall the physician leave\nit without blame, if he not merely drop no hint of the glory which\nawaits the ransomed, the woe of the unsaved; but, moreover, proceeds\nto add sin to sin in his own life? The man who does so, voluntarily\nand sinfully comes down from the highest vantage ground on which\na mortal can stand. The patient feels as if his life were in the\nphysician's hand; a word from him would sink like an oracle into\nthe soul, but that word is not spoken--not one hint is given, and\nin the high reckoning of eternity is not such a man guilty in the\ndeepest sense?\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    THE LAWYER.\n\nII. Perhaps the Lawyer is exposed to yet greater spiritual peril\nthan the physician, and his need of a better wisdom than man's is\nproportionably great. The circumstances in which he is generally\nconsulted render it specially needful that the law of God should be\nin his heart, and shine as the pole-star of his mind. Men resort to\nhim, smarting under a sense of injury; and the lawyer needs prudence\nto repress the rising or the rankling desire for revenge. They seek\nhis guidance when threatened by the oppressor; how discreet, then,\nshould he be in his counsels! They may even ask his aid to accomplish\nsome nefarious project--to overreach and defraud; or, to defend\nsome fraud already committed. How prompt, then, should lawyers be\nto repress such iniquity, that the land may not mourn because blood\ntouches blood! Every trial in this world's concerns--every dread of\nloss, of bankruptcy, or imposition, may send the client to the door\nof his legal adviser; and, amid all these things, if there be a man\non earth who needs the control of steadfast, unfaltering truth--a\ncounsellor who is ever near--a wisdom which cannot err--a charity\nwhich \"seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no\nevil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth\nall things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all\nthings\"--the lawyer is that man.\n\n    MORAL DANGERS.\n\nAnd yet there is much in his position to bias or to pervert\nhis judgments. Accustomed, at least in some departments of his\nprofession, to various sinister influences, and often more bent\non discovering what can be said for a cause than what is true, the\nmind may be so warped as to lose the power of dispassionate decision.\nIt may acquire such a habit of tampering with the truthful, or be so\nmuch more anxious to carry a point than to establish a fact, that a\nkind of subtle Jesuitism may be the result--a habit of perplexing all\nthat is simple, or shrouding in mystery all that is plain.\n\nMoreover, an advocate, while he pleads for the life or the liberty\nof a client, may not merely feel himself free, but bound, to use\nevery means, to accomplish his object, even though some of them may\nbe tortuous or equivocal. Nay, it may become a point of honour to\nconceal or perplex the true, and attempt to establish the false. In\nthis manner, the endeavour to keep as near to falsehood as a regard\nto character, or rather to success, will allow, may foster a habit\nof mind subversive of all that is lofty or pure in truth. And\nwhere shall we find an antidote to that but in the truth which\ncame from heaven--where but in the authority of Him who is the Lord\nof conscience--where but in the Judge of all, whose law written on\nthe heart, though only partially legible now, taught even a heathen\nto say, \"/Fiat Justitia, ruat coelum?/\"\n\n    SPECIAL PLEADERS.\n\n    \"THE LICENCE OF COUNSEL.\"\n\nThe baneful effects of this moral peril are recognised, in common\nlanguage, by the discredit always thrown upon a Special Pleader,\nnow almost a synonyme for meanness, chicanery, and deception. There\nare, no doubt, many who are above the baseness of fraud, and the\ndishonesty of a conscious attempt to deceive; but it may fairly be\nquestioned whether it be common to find men, in certain departments\nof the legal profession, so thoroughly elevated above temptation as\nnot to be exposed to moral peril. Nay, we speak too guardedly on this\nsubject--others have spoken out. \"There are many,\" an eminent lawyer\nhas said, \"whom it may be needful to remind, that an advocate, by\nthe sacred duty of his connection with his client, knows, in the\ndischarge of that office, but one person in the world--that client,\nand none other. To serve that client, by all expedient means; to\nprotect that client, at all hazards and costs to all others (even\nthe party already injured), and, amongst others, to himself, is the\nhighest and most unquestioned of his duties. And he must not regard\nthe alarm, the suffering, the torment, the destruction, which he\nmay bring upon any other. Nay, separating even the duties of a\npatriot from those of an advocate, he must go on, reckless of the\nconsequences, if his fate should unhappily be to involve his country\nin confusion for his client.\"[33]\n\n    INIQUITY SYSTEMATIZED.\n\nNow, this is plain, but it is also perilous. The expedient is here\nallowed to supersede not merely the patriotic, but also the truthful.\nIf the object aimed at, which may be to screen successful villany, or\nshelter even a murderer from punishment, can be accomplished--all is\nreckoned fair. Truth may be compromised; honest witnesses browbeaten\nor bewildered; and the beautiful transparency of one upright man's\nintercourse with another turned into mockery, or treated with\nderision. Lawyers not a few have proved, by their offences against\ntruth and the sacred obligations of man to man, that it is only too\ncongenial to their liking thus to trample truth in the dust. They\nfeign \"pity, indignation, moral approbation, or disgust or contempt,\nwhen they neither feel anything of the kind, nor believe the case\nto be one that justly calls for such feelings; they are led also\noccasionally to entrap or mislead, to revile, insult, and calumniate\npersons whom they may, in their heart, believe to be respectable\npersons and honest witnesses,\" and such putting of bitter for sweet,\nand sweet for bitter, must involve a woe. It cannot fail to warp the\nconscience and becloud the mind; and the man who does not feel the\ndanger of such ways, is already their dupe or their victim. One\nhas pertinently asked the learned and the noble who patronize these\noutrages against truth, while yet they profess to be Christians,\nhow they can reconcile the two. There is a religion which says that\n'lying lips are an abomination to the Lord;' and how can men, it is\nasked, avoid the solemn scriptural denunciation, \"Woe unto them\nthat call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light,\nand light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for\nbitter; ... who justify the wicked for reward, and take away the\nrighteousness of the righteous from him.\"[34]\n\n    LORD BACON.\n\nPerhaps the most remarkable illustration of the injurious effects\nof such habits upon the heart and mind is found in the case of Lord\nChancellor Bacon--\n\n            \"The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.\"\n\nThis is not the place to tell of his learning, his world-wide fame,\nhis greatness as a philosopher who revolutionized science, and\ncertainly introduced a new era in the history of man. His eloquence\nas a pleader, and the stately majesty of his thinking, place Bacon\nhigh among \"the starry lights of genius.\" He is in philosophy what\nShakespeare or Milton is among poets.\n\nAnd yet, that man so gifted and transcendant, was guilty of actions\nwhich equal in turpitude aught that is recorded in the history of\nhuman weakness. Whether we are to ascribe it to the discipline of his\nprofession, fostering some inborn tendencies to what is disreputable\nand degrading, we do not tarry to inquire; but looking at the fact\nwhich history renders too unquestionable, we have in this illustrious\nphilosopher but unscrupulous man, a painful exhibition of man's\nnative weakness when the heavenly lamp is shaded or extinguished.\nSome have explained the low morality of Bacon by supposing that\nhe was an infidel, and some of his reputed works rather favour the\nsupposition.[35] But his productions as a whole forbid us to adopt\nthat solution, and we are consequently left with an example of a most\npainful kind, to prove the worthlessness of powers the most colossal,\nof learning and originality unsurpassed, of gifts the most varied\nand transcendent to keep man in the path of virtue, when the heavenly\nguide is abandoned. We can only enumerate in a catalogue some of the\nincidents in the life of Bacon which establish these conclusions.\n\n    \"MEN OF HIGH DEGREE ARE A LIE.\"\n\nAt a critical period, he received from the Earl of Essex, when that\nnobleman was in favour with Queen Elizabeth, a gift of land which was\nworth at least \u00a31800. Yet against his benefactor, Bacon afterwards\nenlisted his great powers, to convict him of high-treason; and that\nmerely to purchase the Queen's favour, and promote the philosopher's\nadvancement. \"Bacon spent the ten days which elapsed between the\ncommitment of Essex to the Tower and his arraignment, shut up in\nhis chambers in Gray's Inn, studying the law of treason; looking out\nfor parallel cases of an aggravated nature in the history of other\ncountries, and considering how he might paint the unpardonable guilt\nof the accused in even blacker colours than could be employed by the\nferocious Coke, famous for insulting his victims.\"[36] The man whom\nBacon thus laboured to condemn had heaped favour after favour upon\nhim, and been meanly fawned upon in return, yet during the trial,\nLord Campbell says, Bacon \"most artfully and inhumanly compared Essex\nto the Duke of Guise,\" and adds, in regard to the Earl after he was\ncondemned, and an interview which Bacon had with the Queen upon the\nsubject, \"Why did he not throw himself on his knees before her and\npray for a pardon? Because, while it was possible that he might have\nmelted her, it was possible that he might have offended her, and\nthat, a vacancy in the office of Solicitor-General occurring, (for\nwhich Bacon was a suitor) he might be again passed over.\"\n\nBut not contented with having pled for the condemnation of Essex,\nBacon, in order to ingratiate himself farther with the Queen,\npublished an attack upon the fallen man, regarding which the great\nphilosopher's biographer says: \"No honourable man would purchase\nBacon's subsequent elevation at the price of being the author of\nthis publication.... The base ingratitude and the slavish meanness\nmanifested by him on this occasion, called forth the general\nindignation of his contemporaries.... He had before his eyes no\njust standard of honour, and in the race of ambition, he had lost\nall sense of the distinctions between right and wrong.\"\n\n    THE TORTURE.\n\n    EMPLOYED BY LORD BACON.\n\nIt were a weariness to trace all the instances of Bacon's meanness in\nplace-hunting, and his fulsome adulation of those who appeared likely\nto promote his views. He even went so far as to prosecute a clergyman\nnamed Peacham, for a sermon alleged to contain treason, but never\neither preached or published. Bacon was then Attorney-General. He\ntampered with the judges, says Lord Campbell, and had the unhappy man\nput to the torture, to wring a confession from him, without success.\n\"He was examined before torture, between torture, and after torture.\n\"--These are Bacon's own words, and according to the biographer of\nthe Chancellors, there is reason to believe that he even presided at\nthe rack. He thus outraged the law and the constitution of England\nto gratify James I., then upon the throne. But the Lord Chancellor\nof the day was aged and infirm. Lord Campbell says, \"he could\nnot much longer hold the seals, and Bacon was resolved to be his\nsuccessor.\" That was his aim, and is not Lord Campbell right in\nadding, \"there are stronger contrasts of light and shade in the\ncharacter of Bacon, than probably of any other man who ever lived?\"\nThe instances of meanness, of subserviency, of adulation to those\nfrom whom he expected favours, as proved by his own letters, convict\nthis philosopher and sage of conduct which would have degraded a\nmenial; while to the whole he could add a malignity never surpassed,\nall under pretence of acting a Christian part. His biographer says\nthat he poured oil of vitriol into the wounds he had inflicted,\nand it was in perfect keeping with this that that Attorney-General\nof England, in consequence of some offence which he had unwarily\ngiven, flung himself on the floor, kissed the feet of such a man as\nBuckingham, the profligate favourite of James, and vowed never to\nrise till he was forgiven.\n\n    BACON'S BRIBES--\n\nBut he could not always proceed unchecked. Nemesis was not forgetful\nof the right. Bacon had reached the summit of his ambition; he was\nLord High Chancellor of England, and in that character soon became\nnotorious for the bribes which he accepted for his judgments. This\nmore than European philosopher, this author of a new logic, and of\nworks which brought the learned from all parts of Christendom to\nconverse with him, was known to take bribes as a judge! A committee\nof the House of Commons was appointed to investigate such corruption.\nThe Chancellor shuffled, equivocated, denied, but at last confessed,\nbecause the evidence was such as no partiality could escape. A great\nnumber of charges of bribery were established. The whole have been\nsupposed to amount to \u00a3100,000. Bacon was about to be impeached.\nHe broke down under the load of infamy, and appealed to the King to\ninterpose; but all was unavailing, and the Lord High Chancellor of\nEngland, one of the profoundest thinkers of modern times, gave in\nto his peers, \"His confession and humble submission.\" It says, \"I\ndo plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption;\nand do renounce all defence and put myself upon the grace and mercy\nof your Lordships.\" When visited at his house, where he lay in\nshattered health, to ascertain the genuineness of his signature to\nthe confession, he exclaimed, \"My lords, it is my act, my hand, my\nheart. I beseech your Lordships to be merciful to a broken reed;\"\nand he subsequently surrendered the great seal, the bauble for\nwhich, Macaulay says, he had sullied his integrity, had resigned\nhis independence, had violated the most sacred obligations of\nfriendship and gratitude, had flattered the worthless, had persecuted\nthe innocent, had tampered with judges, had tortured prisoners, and\nhad wasted on paltry intrigues all the powers of the most exquisitely\nconstructed intellect that has ever been bestowed on any of the\nchildren of men.\n\n    HIS DISGRACE.\n\nBacon's sentence from his peers was, a fine of \u00a340,000; he was to be\nimprisoned in the Tower during the King's pleasure; to be for ever\nincapable of holding any public office, place, or employment, and\nnever to sit in Parliament, or come within the verge of the court.\nThe king was eventually moved to rescind the judgment, but Bacon was\nthen too old to profit by the clemency--he was on the eve of passing\naway to meet the just and merciful Judge of the skies.\n\nNow, this glimpse at the rise and fall of this great lawyer,\nproclaims aloud the insufficiency of all but the grace and truth\nof God to keep man morally erect. Not gigantic intellectual powers\n--had these sufficed, Bacon would have been steadfast as a rock. Not\nworldly success--Bacon sat at the right hand of royalty, and kept\nthe conscience of a king. Not great trust--the Lord High Chancellor\nof England was the foremost subject in that respect. Not celebrity\n--with that, Bacon might have been satiated. Not greatness--without\ngoodness, that is a tinkling cymbal. What then? The answer which\nexperience, history, and the Word of God combine to give, is this,\n\"I am what I am by the grace of God that is in me.\" The man who\ndims the light of that lamp which was kindled in heaven, has already\ntottered to his fall.\n\nBut truth would have \"fallen in the streets,\" had all lawyers acted\nthus. There have been some, however, who repelled such things with\nhigh-toned integrity and honour, and we now turn to a contrast to\nLord Chancellor Bacon--to one\n\n                                            \"In whom\n            The British Themis gloried with just cause.\"\n\n    SIR MATTHEW HALE.\n\nSir Matthew Hale was one of those upright men whom all the good\ndelight to honour. With his conscience quickened by habitual contact\nwith the Word of God, and his whole soul familiar with the heavenly\nstandard, he repudiated all that was disreputable in his profession.\nPure religion presided over his practice; and while honouring God, he\nwas honoured by him. As soon as Hale was convinced of the injustice\nof any cause, he immediately declined to advocate it, and utterly\nrefused to plead against the truth. He at least frowned upon all\nthat was false and unfair. As a judge, he repressed every attempt\nto ensnare or mislead a witness. He felt that, when such things are\ndone under the very shadow of the judge's bench, where the great\nends of truth and justice should be inviolably promoted, gross guilt\nmay be expected to reign in other spheres. He, therefore, shunned\nas a sin all that savoured of finesse; and, braced for duty by the\ntruth of God, no influence, no entreaty, not even a monarch's smile,\ncould induce him to swerve from the path in which a good man ought\nto go. In short, his pleadings as an advocate were characterized by\nthe same integrity, and the same Christian consistency as the other\nactions of his life. Indeed, to act otherwise, or to be one thing as\na lawyer and another as a man, is one of the numerous conventional\nsnares laid for conscience which tend to meanness as surely as they\nencourage immorality. It seems a truism, \"It is as great a dishonour\nas can be inflicted, for man to say otherwise than he knows to be\ntrue, for the love of a little money;\" and yet what crowds are thus\ndegraded!\n\nNeed we add, religion repudiates all these fetches? Common as it\nmay be to sacrifice conscience for gain or for professional success,\nthe man who has sat down at the Saviour's feet, and is taught by the\nSaviour's Spirit, will be ready with the cry: \"Into their assembly,\nmine honour, be not thou united.\"\n\n    SIR WILLIAM JONES.\n\nSide by side with Sir Matthew Hale we may place Sir William Jones,\nwho was as eminent for personal religion as he was for his profound\nacquaintance with the Oriental and other tongues. Lawyer as he was,\nhis was a mind of decided godliness, and a life of much consistency.\nThe atonement of the Saviour was the anchor of his hope, and the Word\nof God a light to his feet and a lamp to his path. He said of it: \"I\nhave carefully and regularly perused the Holy Scriptures, and am of\nopinion that the volume, independently of its divine origin, contains\nmore sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and finer\nstrains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books,\nin whatever other languages they may have been written.\" Now, that\nis much--but not too much--from one who had mastered eight-and-twenty\nlanguages, and was familiar with the riches of them all. It stands in\ninstructive contrast with the flippant ungodliness of those who never\ndevoted one earnest hour, or poured forth one earnest petition, to\nknow the mystery which was hid for ages, but which is opened up in\nthe revelation of Jesus. It shows that there is nothing essentially\nor necessarily godless in a lawyer's profession; and it leaves the\nunprincipled men who sell their very consciences for gold, without\nexcuse, amid their systematic violations of honour, of integrity,\nand truth.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n    MINISTERS OF RELIGION.\n\n    SPIRITUAL DEATH.\n\nIII. It may appear strange to occupy a sentence in saying that\nMinisters of Religion should be Christian men; and yet the dark\nhistory of the past makes it necessary to say it. Nay, so necessary\nis it, that Luther made no over-statement, when he averred that\nreligion is never in such danger as among reverend men. Habituated,\nas they are, to handle divine things, they are scarcely less\nhabitually in danger of doing so deceitfully. To be called upon\nprofessionally to engage in sacred duties at all times and in all\nstates of mind--to be constantly contemplating truth in some of its\ncountless forms for professional uses, without applying it to the\nheart, and life, and practice of the person contemplating it--to\nexpatiate upon the glories of redemption and the Redeemer, topics on\nwhich the most phlegmatic heart may glow, without taking any personal\ninterest in them at all;--these, and countless other dangers, beset\nthe ministers of religion; these account for their frequent falls,\nand the disgrace which is thereby brought upon the holy name they\nbear. To urge conversion while we are not converted--to commend the\nlove of Christ when we do not feel it--to preach repentance which\nwe do not practise, and faith which we do not hold--to tell of a\nSaviour whom we know only by rumour--of a Spirit whom we habitually\ngrieve--of a heaven to which we are not going, and an immortality\nwhich is to be only one of woe to us;--to what can all that lead but\nself-deception of the direst kind--to searedness of conscience--to\nhearts hardened, and salvation rendered hopeless? Of all dangers,\nthose of an irreligious minister must rank among the greatest. We do\nnot limit the grace of God; but he who has learned to preach about\na Redeemer whose power /he/ never felt, about a Prophet who does not\nteach /him/, about a Priest who does not atone for /him/, about a\nKing who does not rule /him/, seems not far from destruction. At the\nsame time, constant exposure to that danger lessens the sense of it;\nand consciences which were uneasy at first, gradually settle quietly\ndown, like a ship which has foundered at sea--and all is peaceful,\nbecause all is death.\n\nMoreover, ministers of religion are not usually exhorted, warned,\nor unmasked, as other men are; and hence their dangers are enhanced.\nProfessional devotion is apt to be all that they have; and they may\nthus pass through life with a lie in their right hand. They can at\nlast tamper with truth without compunction or alarm; and the most\nsolemn functions have often furnished materials only for mirth.\n\nBut it is far from our object to do more than refer to this subject.\nLet us only observe how insufficient mere professional punctilio is\nto keep the heart of man, how easily all the withes of formality are\nsnapped when temptation assails. Religion has little to fear from the\nopen enemy; it is the pretended friend, the professed defender, but\nreal assailant, who weakens it.\n\n    TRUTH ENTHRONED.\n\nYet while we do not dwell on the duties of the ministry, we cannot\nomit the opportunity which a reference to the sacred office affords\nfor showing the necessity of enthroning the Word of God in the heart\nof man; and for having every thought, and word, and deed, subject to\nits control. It has been often said that without the Bible, London\nor New York would soon become what Paris, Vienna, Rome, and Naples\nare. In as far as the Bible is neglected in the protestant cities,\nthe saying is fast hastening to its fulfilment; and the clerical\nprofession supplies too many instances by which the remark may be\nfarther verified.\n\n    THE REV. DR. DODD.\n\nIt might be supposed, then, that fenced round as minister's of\nreligion are by professional barriers, kept as they are, or should\nbe, in daily contact with the truth of God, and the things of\neternity, all would be pure, and lovely, and of good report. But\nexample after example can be quoted to show how far it is often the\nreverse, and the case of the Rev. Dr. Dodd will amply illustrate the\nremark. He was a prebendary of Brecon, and chaplain in ordinary to\nGeorge III. As a preacher he was celebrated and popular; he was often\ncalled on to plead the cause of the London charities, and took an\nactive part in promoting their interests. He published a commentary\non the Scriptures, which Dr. Adam Clark, no incompetent judge,\npronounced \"the best in the English language.\" To that work he added\nvarious others, chiefly of a devotional kind, some of which still\nhold a prominent place among productions of their class. But neither\nthe mental powers which produced these works, nor the eloquence which\nhe displayed, nor the spirit of devotion which appeared to some to\nbreathe through his volumes, nor his rank as a royal chaplain, nor\nthe claims and regards of those who were dependent on him, nor his\nhigh position in society, could restrain Dr. Dodd within the narrow\nway. He contracted expensive habits of living, occasioned, it is\nsaid, by licentiousness of manners. Dr. Johnson, his earnest and\nindefatigable friend, says, \"His moral character was very bad;\"\nand in an evil hour, Dodd forged a bond for \u00a34,200, upon his former\npupil, the Earl of Chesterfield.\n\n    THE WAGES OF SIN.\n\nThe fallen man, no doubt, hoped that he would be able to meet the\ndemand when that transaction reached the stage which made that\nnecessary, so as neither to expose himself, nor really defraud his\nformer pupil. Dodd was unable, however, to meet the emergency, for\ndifficulties were increased, not diminished, by such a step. The\nforgery was detected; the Earl of Chesterfield would not interfere;\nthe law took hold of the culprit, and the sad spectacle was presented\nto the nation of one who had formerly stood so high, dying a\ncriminal's death. The man who had commented on the Word of God,\nforgot to apply it to the regulation of his own life. Extravagance,\nlicentiousness, and fraud, were the stages by which he descended from\nhis elevation. He began by slight degrees to overstep the restraints\nof the Word of God; and when he had once succeeded in setting it\naside, the descent was rapid, the ruin utter. He who attempted to\ndeceive his fellow-men, and for a time succeeded, had first deceived\nhimself; but his sin found him out, and on the 27th of June 1777,\nthe Commentator on the Bible, the author of several devotional works,\ndied at Tyburn by the hands of the public executioner. The jury who\ntried him recommended him to the royal clemency. The city of London\npetitioned the crown in his favour; and another petition prepared\nby Dr. Johnson, and signed by three-and-twenty thousand, was also\npresented. But all was unavailing; the adviser of the crown would\nnot recommend even a respite, and though Dr. Dodd cherished the hope\nof pardon till the last, there never was a foundation for the hope.\nJustice took its inexorable course.\n\n    A DEATH OF INFAMY.\n\nThe view which many took of this culprit's case, may be represented\nby a letter from Boswell to Dr. Johnson. He says--\"I own I am very\ndesirous that the royal prerogative of remission of punishment should\nbe employed to exhibit an illustrious instance of the regard which\nGod's vicegerent will ever show to piety and virtue. If for ten\nrighteous men, the Almighty would have spared Sodom, shall not\na thousand acts of goodness done by Dr. Dodd counterbalance one\ncrime? Such an instance would do more to encourage goodness than\nhis execution would do to deter from vice.\" But neither this nor the\nspeeches, the petitions, nay, not even the letters which Dr. Johnson\nwrote for Dr. Dodd to royalty itself, availed, and just before\npassing to execution he confessed that \"his life for some few unhappy\nyears past had been dreadfully erroneous.\" In one of his letters to\nthe king, the fallen man, in language which Dr. Johnson had prepared,\n\"confessed his crime, and owned both the enormity of its consequences\nand the danger of its example.\" He, at the same time, said, \"I have\nnot the confidence to petition for impunity, but humbly hope that\npublic security may be established without the spectacle of a\nclergyman dragged through the streets to a death of infamy, amidst\nthe derision of the profligate and profane; and that justice may be\nsatisfied with irrevocable exile, perpetual disgrace, and hopeless\npenury.\" Every effort, however, was fruitless. Large sums of money\nwere ready to bribe the turnkey to connive at an escape. A figure in\nwax, representing Dr. Dodd, was said to have been conveyed into the\nprison to aid the same object, but neither did that succeed; and,\naccording to Dr. Johnson, he died on the scaffold \"with pious\ncomposure and resolution.\"\n\nIt was, indeed, a spectacle which might have touched the hearts of\nthousands, did aught but Omnipotent grace possess that power, to see\na minister of religion conducted to Tyburn in such circumstances as\nwe have described. We may deem the law severe, or think that the life\nof Dr. Dodd should have been spared; but his melancholy lot is not\nthe less instructive. His whole history tells how feeble are human\nbarriers against human guilt.\n\nAnd the consequences of this crime did not terminate with Dr. Dodd\nhimself. He had married a Miss Perkins of Durham, but, left in\nsorrow, poverty, and disgrace, by her husband, reason forsook\nher, and she died a wretched maniac at Ilford in Essex. Is it not\ntrue that unthinking men, in pursuit of the wages of sin, scatter\nfirebrands, and arrows, and death, though they say, Am not I in\nsport?\n\n    THE ONLY GUIDE.\n\n    THE TRUTH OUR SHIELD.\n\nHere, then, is a case which thoroughly exhibits the necessity of\nenthroning the Bible in the heart, and keeping it enthroned. There\nis some reason to fear that the minister whom Dr. Johnson describes\nas having \"lived a life of great voluptuousness,\" had never felt the\npower of the truth, even before he fell into the habits which ended\nin his ruin. But, however that may be, it is manifest that after\nDr. Dodd had entered on his downward career, the truth was discarded,\nand the deceitful heart consulted--not the Wonderful, the Counsellor.\nThe truth could have kept him steadfast. It could have taught him to\ndash temptation from him, as Paul shook off the viper from his hand\ninto the flames at Melita. But Dodd forgot the Bible, he tampered\nwith temptation, and he fell. We say nothing of the extravagance\nwhich the need of so large a sum as \u00a34,200 on the part of a clergyman\nbetokens. We only glance at what was most probably his purpose, to\npay the sum for which he had forged, before it became due. These\nand other things might be pled in palliation, but looking simply at\nthe act, who does not see that neither professional punctilio, nor\nexternal barriers, nor a thousand earthly bonds can prevent man from\nsinning, when the lamp to our path is extinguished--the Word of God\nset aside even in a single transaction?\n\n    GIFTS WITHOUT GRACE A SNARE.\n\nFurther: Dr. Dodd is known to have continued his professional\nemployments after his felonious transaction. Conscious as he must\nhave been of what he had done with his own right hand, he yet\ncontinued to lead the devotions of his flock, and act as if no\ncrime had been committed. We do not refer to the feelings of a\nminister of Christ amid such things; but we do say that the whole\ntransaction proclaims, in a way the most solemn and the most cogent,\nthat no secondary restraints will keep man from iniquity; they are\nall like sand before the torrent, or flax before the flame. The\nBible, and the Bible alone, laid up in the heart, and blessed by the\nSpirit there, can either make man right, or keep him so. In a word,\nthis example tells aloud that every human influence, every earthly\nappliance, is weak against the heart of man, unless the truth of\nGod control it. Conscience will be warped. Reputation will be risked.\nProfessional standing will be presumed upon. Life will be hazarded.\nThe hearts of those whom we love will be broken; and only when the\nWord of God is permitted to rule the soul, is the heart kept as the\nfountain of the issues of life. Men regard such cases as that of\nDr. Dodd as doing injury to religion, and the infidel hails them\nas a disproof. They are in truth confirmations of it, and prove\nthat only that truth admitted into the heart, enthroned and\nmaintained in the conscience as it demands to be, can rescue man\nfrom self-degradation and moral death. Dr. Dodd fell because the\nBible was not his guide. He deserted religion and was ruined.\n\nAnother example points in the same direction, and may deepen the\nimpression of that of Dr. Dodd. At a recent period, a preacher of\ngreat popularity gathered crowds around him in London; thousands\nheard the truth at his lips; and he filled a large place in the\npublic eye. Accomplished as a scholar, eloquent as a preacher, and\ngraceful as a man, he wielded no limited power within a considerable\nsphere. To his influence as a minister of religion he added that of\nan author; and what he published was read by thousands. Not a little\noriginality of thought, and vigorous powers rendered him, in short,\nan able advocate of the truth.\n\nHere, then, is another man who seems to be fenced off from the world\nby much that should have been constraining; that in this case also,\nwe may see how futile every subordinate influence proves against the\nwayward heart of man.\n\n    A FELON.\n\n    THE GAMBLER'S END.\n\nThe divine referred to, elated perhaps by his success, began to\nfrequent the haunts of wit, and to associate with the literary,\nmerely as literary men. He laid aside, or he merged for the time,\nthose truths of God which alone can elevate, and went down to\nthe level of those who think they can find something to make them\nblessed apart from the truth, and the favour of their God. From the\nexcitement of wit there is scarcely a transition to the excitement\nof wine, and that followed next. By a gradual descent, that man, at\none time so ascendant, became a felon in his own eyes; he fled from\nthe pulpit which he had begun to desecrate, and sought an asylum in\nParis, where theatres--saloons of fashion--\n\n            \"The midnight revel and the public show,\"\n\nbecame his haunts. For years his friends could find no trace of him;\nand when he was discovered, it was as one who lived by gambling--a\ndegraded, wretched outcast. While he lived in that self-outlawed\ncondition, a friend who had learned the truth from the fallen man's\nlips, actually resorted to a /hell/, to make sure of the sad change\nwhich had come over his former teacher, and to his horror he found\nwhat he sought. He saw that minister of Christ taking part in the\norgies of a Parisian pandemonium, and hastened with an aching heart,\nfrom that last retreat of the infatuated. That victim of his own\nheart was at length taken ill at Bordeaux; a surgical operation was\ndeclared to be necessary, and to escape from the pain, he blew out\nhis brains with a pistol.\n\nNeed anything be said to enforce the moral of such a case? Everything\nbut the Word of God controlling[*12] the heart is feeble against\npassion, as a spider's web against a storm. Everything else is\nfleeting as the sand of the desert, or veering as the mimic figures\nwhich tell the changes of the wind. The Word of the Lord alone\nendureth for ever, both in itself and its moral ascendency.\n\n    BLIND LEADERS.\n\nNor is it only in insulated cases, among ministers of religion, that\nsuch mournful truths are pressed upon our attention. In times of\nreligious declension, such sad demonstrations of the insufficiency\nof all but grace and truth to tame the passions of men, may be seen\nalmost upon a national scale. There is a man, for example, whom the\ngrace of God has arrested amid a life of waywardness and guilt, and\nrendered a signal monument of mercy. In terms of his own confession,\nthere was scarcely a sin which he had not committed, and as a fiery\nduellist, he was, in the eyes of God, a murderer. But the truth\nwas at last felt in the conscience, and that man once so bold in\niniquity, sought the society of those from whom he expected help on\nhis way; with what result his biographer shall tell: \"Other proofs,\"\nwe read, \"of the degraded state of the dominant party in the Church\n(of Scotland) might be mentioned, particularly a Presbytery dinner\nto which Mr. James Haldane was invited in Edinburgh, upon a special\noccasion, and to which he had gone, hoping for useful, perhaps\nspiritual, or at least rational conversation, on the topics in which\nhe was now chiefly interested. Instead of this, the company were\ntreated to bacchanalian songs, the folly of which was aggravated\ninto something approaching to wickedness, by an admixture of\nridiculous, if not profane allusions to their own sacred calling\nand functions. The burden of one song was the prescription of 'a\nbumper of Nottingham Ale' in the pulpit, at the different stages\nof a Presbyterian discourse. If, in the hey-day of youth and folly,\nwhile God was not in all his thoughts, he had been disposed to turn\naway from the convivial excesses of his associates at sea, how was\nhe likely now to appreciate such approaches to the same intemperance,\nin connection with eternal realities, amongst the professed heralds\nof the Cross, whose duty it was to warn men to flee from the wrath\nto come?\"[37][*13]\n\n    SPIRITUAL DEATH.\n\nPainful and profoundly instructive as the incident now mentioned\nis, we have yet more humbling evidence of the danger to which\nmen are exposed by their familiarity with sacred things. In the\nautobiography of the Rev. Dr. Hamilton of Strathblane, we read,\n\"Many of the ministers of Scotland were genuine Socinians. Many of\nthem were ignorant of theology as a system, and utterly careless\nabout the merits of any creed or confession. They seemed miserable\nin the discharge of every ministerial duty.... When they preached,\ntheir sermons generally turned on honesty, good neighbourhood, and\nkindness. To deliver a gospel sermon, or preach to the hearts and\nconsciences of dying sinners, was as completely beyond their power,\nas to speak in the language of angels. And while their discourses\nwere destitute of everything which a dying sinner needs, they were\nat the same time the most feeble, empty, and insipid things that\never disgraced the venerated name of sermons.... They had no more\nreligion in private than in public. They were loud and obstreperous\nin declaiming against enthusiasm and fanaticism, faith and religious\nzeal.... But though frightfully impatient of everything which bore\nthe semblance of seriousness and sober reflection, the elevation\nof brow, the expansion of feature, the glistening of the eye, the\nfluency and warmth of speech at convivial parties, showed that their\nheart and soul were there; and that the pleasures of the table,\nand the hilarity of the light-hearted and the gay constituted their\nparadise, and furnished them with the perfection of their joy.\"[38]\n\nIt is thus that men are degraded by the perversion of what was meant\nto ennoble. It is thus that of all the piteous spectacles which\nour world presents, few are more sad or distressing than that of\na godless minister of religion; such a man\n\n                            \"Is branded to the last,\n            What atheists call him--a designing knave,\n            A mere church juggler, hypocrite, and slave.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\n            The sacred function in his hands is made,\n            Sad sacrilege! no function but a trade.\"\n\n--When the standard-bearer falls, who will fight? When the Cross is\ntorn down by those who should point to it, who will believe?\n\n    THE UNCHANGING WORD.\n\nAnd such is the process by which God, in his providence, often makes\nit plain that his own revealed truth alone can either reclaim man\nfrom guilt, or keep him steadfast in the path to glory. We, indeed,\nare prone to suppose that there is nothing fixed in that Word, that,\nlike the chameleon, it takes on the hue of every mind that studies\nit. But the Holy One, on the other hand, demonstrates that his\nWord is the only fixed thing which our world knows. Like himself\nit is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; it either makes man\nright and keeps him so, or it detects and unmasks him as hopelessly\nincorrigible and clean gone in guilt. It tells of the anchor for\nthe soul both sure and steadfast;[*14] and when man drifts away from\nthat mooring, whatever be his position, he is rushing fast to ruin.\n\n    MONUMENTS OF GRACE.\n\nEvery view of truth, then, calls upon man, whatever be his sphere,\nto make sure that it is planted in his heart by the power of the\nSpirit of God. Without that, the physician may degenerate into\nan atheist or a materialist, whose hopes terminate at the edge of\nthe grave. Without the presiding power of truth in the soul, the\nlawyer, nay, the very judge, may become a corrupter of public morals,\nas multitudes have done--a patron of the false and the degrading.\nWithout truth enthroned in the heart, and a thorough transition from\ndarkness to light, even ministers of religion are only blind leaders\nof the blind; they are clouds without water, carried about of winds;\nthey are tree whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead,\nplucked up by the roots. And all these things press upon men the\nnecessity of enthroning truth. Time asks it: eternity asks it:\npatriotism asks it: pure religion asks it; and he is willing to\nthrow poison into our wells who resists such multiform appeals.\n\n    GOD'S WITNESSES.\n\nBut it would not be difficult to show, at greater length than we\nhave tarried to do, that in every sphere there have been men who\nfeared God, and held forth a testimony for his truth, often amid open\nprofanity or the oblivion of all that is sacred. Like Cornelius of\nold, devout men have adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour alike\nin the Army and the Navy. Among the accomplished devotees of Science,\nall do not forget God in the investigation of those laws by which He\nrules the world, or of those wonders which embody his wisdom and his\npower. Among those who cultivate the Arts, there have been many who,\nlike the sculptor Bacon, might have caused it to be written on their\ntomb: \"What I was as an artist, seemed to me of some importance while\nI lived; but what I really was as a believer in Christ Jesus, is the\nonly thing of importance to me now.\" In every sphere, we repeat, God\nhas had his witnesses, testifying to the power of his grace, it may\nbe in sackcloth, as regards men, but yet in the sunshine of God's\nfavour. And who shall tell what unthinking men forego, by neglecting\nto do as these believers did--to make the religion of Jesus their\nguide, and Jesus himself their Alpha and their Omega! He is the rock\nthat is higher than we. He is a sun and shield. He is life to the\ndead, and wisdom to the unwise. It is by His might that we conquer,\nand by His righteousness that we are saved. It is by His spirit\nthat we are sanctified--and are they the wise who ignore all this?\n\n    MAN'S IDOLATRY.\n\nAmid such meditations as these, it is one of the deepest lessons\nwhich meet us in the history of man, that there is room in his heart\nfor every god but the true One. From the sun in the firmament down\nto the meanest reptile that crawls, all have been adored. The foulest\nhuman passions have been exalted to the rank of divinities, and\nworshipped in gorgeous temples with costly parade. Even after God\nhas dwelt on earth as \"God with us,\" we find men in millions clinging\nto every god but Him--not merely the dead, but fragments of their\nbones, are adored, as possessing power to bless. Now, were the lamp\nof life admitted into the heart, it would instantly dispel such\ndebasing delusions from minds of every class. It would guide man\naway from the rank to which sin degrades him, to that for which the\ngospel is designed to fit us; and the peace of God which passes all\nunderstanding is the portion of those who have thus hailed the truth\nof God and discarded the lies of men; who have welcomed the religion\nof Jesus to the soul, and dismissed the religion of nature as a blind\nguide, the religion of Rome as a dark, debasing superstition, the\nreligion of unconverted men as fit only to lead us more assuredly to\nwoe.\n\n\n\n\n                            CHAPTER VII.\n\n                RELIGION IN OUR SOCIAL INTERCOURSE.\n\n\nWhen the Word of God has obtained its true place in any man's heart,\nit disposes at once of a hundred questions which were difficult or\nperplexing before. On the one hand, when we have the divine standard\nof right and wrong set up, it becomes immediately apparent that one\nclass of actions are right, are just, are necessary, on the part\nof all who would make God's will their rule. On the other hand, it\nbecomes no less apparent that another class of actions are distinctly\nprohibited. No man who believes the Word of God to be his word can do\nthese things.\n\nBut between these two, or the decidedly right and the decidedly\nwrong, there are some actions whose moral character it is not so\neasy to adjust. They are not so exactly described in the Word of God.\nThey lie on the debateable territory between the right and the wrong.\nThey may partake of the one character or the other, according to the\ncircumstances in which they are performed. They may be right, for\nexample, for me in sickness, but wrong for me in health; or the\nreverse.\n\nNow, it is generally among these undecided cases that a man's\nprinciples are exposed to the greatest strain. No one who professes\nto respect[*15] the Word of God can refuse to do what is decidedly\nright, and as little can he refuse to shun the decidedly forbidden.\nIf he do not shun it, he is detected as offering to the Bible only\nthe mockery of respect--to its God only the semblance of homage.\nHe has extinguished the lamp of life, and deliberately walks in\ndarkness.\n\n    THE SABBATH LAW.\n\nIn regard, for example, to the Sabbath law, certain things are\ndistinctly commanded, and other things are as distinctly forbidden.\nThere can be no doubt in any mind which has bowed to the supremacy\nof God, or recognised his right of property in us and ours, that he\nclaims a seventh part of our time as his own, to be employed in his\nservice and in preparing for his abode for ever. Our blessedness here\nand hereafter is thus involved in that law; and all objections to\nspend the Sabbath with God, are suggested by ignorance of what is\nat once our chief good and our chief end--GOD.\n\nBut it is equally certain that works of necessity and mercy are not\nprohibited; and it is regarding /these/ that a man's principles are\nput to the most decisive test. It is not possible to lay down any\nrule applicable to every case, for what is necessity at one time\nmay be no necessity at another; or what is mercy in one case--for\ninstance, to the aged and the feeble--may be indolence and sloth in\nothers. Between the unvarying right, then, and the unvarying wrong,\nlies the territory where men are tried as moral agents. Will they\nuse their liberty, or will they abuse it? Will they grasp at feigned\nreasons for violating the Sabbath law? Will they be guided by\nthe necessity which God creates, or will they fabricate pleas and\npretences for themselves, under cover of which the law of God may\nbe broken, and the consciences of men entangled or defiled?\n\n    THE EXCELLENT OF THE EARTH.\n\nNow, our ordinary Social intercourse belongs to the class for which\nit is difficult or impossible to lay down rules which are applicable\nto all occasions. It is a divine maxim from which we cannot swerve,\nthat our \"speech should be always with grace, seasoned with salt.\"\nWhatever is offensive or unholy should not be once named among us;\nbut still it is difficult to lay down any rules which apply to every\ncase. On the one hand, there are men with whom intercourse the most\ncordial may be cherished, nay, earnestly coveted. Where \"they that\nfear the Lord speak often one to another, while the Lord hearkens and\nhears,\" the man of God may expect to find what will gladden his soul.\n\"The excellent of the earth\" can impart blessings of the highest\norder, for the law of the Lord is on their lips. But, on the other\nhand, there are the profane, the godless, who walk through the world\ntrampling on the laws of the Eternal, and with these we can hold no\nwilling intercourse, unless we would catch their spirit, and at last\nshare their doom--\"The companion of fools shall be destroyed.\" But\nbetween these two classes there are various shades of character; and\nit is in reference to /these/ that our difficulties in life actually\noccur.\n\n    THE ASSEMBLY OF THE UNGODLY.\n\nThere is one passage in the Word of God[39] which may throw light\nupon this subject. A patriarch is speaking of certain cruel deeds,\nwhich he contemplates with strong emotion. Aware that man cannot\nbe much in contact with what is immoral without being polluted,\nor associate with the profane without learning profanity, he thus\nexpresses, in graphical language, the recoil of a pure or an upright\nmind: \"O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their\nassembly, mine honour, be not thou united.\" He is referring to his\nown sons, but he feels that his honour would be laid in the dust were\nhe associated with them in some of their doings; and he therefore\nplants a beacon over the spot of danger, to warn us away from what\nmay end in death. He enforces the words, \"Have no fellowship with the\nunfruitful works of darkness.\" He, in substance, asserts what Paul\nasserted seventeen centuries thereafter, \"Evil communications corrupt\ngood manners.\" He takes up the language of John, and says in effect,\n\"He that bids God-speed to an ungodly man becomes a partaker of his\nevil deeds;\" and thus we have, at least, a general rule for universal\nguidance--The godly cannot /choose/ the godless for their associates.\n\nTo illustrate this point, we observe: Enter some societies. Listen\nto the conversation which excites; notice the amusements which\nexhilarate--the pleasures which impart the greatest gladness. Might\nthey not all exist in a world where the Son of God is unknown--where\nno need of him is felt, and no reference to him made? It could not be\ndiscovered from such social intercourse, that men are sinners, that\nthey need a Saviour, or that there is one pressed on their acceptance\nby the God whom they have offended; nay, a single reference to these\nthings would cast a cloud over the scene, would turn its mirth into\nmuteness, and be regarded as an offence.\n\n    FORBIDDEN INTERCOURSE.\n\nNow, wherever that is common, the earnest Christian cannot prosper;\nhis soul must pine; it is deprived of what is to it like vital air,\nand plunged into an atmosphere of azote. There may be cases where\nduty compels some humble believer to witness such things, and\nat the sight his heart must be sore pained within him; but where\nthe language of Canaan is not spoken, where the things of God are\nnot relished, where He, the soul, and eternity do not obtain the\nprominence which heavenly wisdom has assigned to them, a child of God\nwill not willingly go; he will never go of choice; duty may compel,\nbut the feelings of the soul even in that case must be like those of\nthe Jews by the rivers of Babylon, when they said, \"How shall we sing\nthe Lord's song in a foreign land?\" Children are reared--friends are\nentertained--sometimes the dead are buried, amid unequivocal proofs\nthat God is forgotten; and should not a believer in Jesus \"flee these\nthings?\"\n\n    LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE.\n\nWherever we look in the wide domain of nature, we may notice that it\nis an universal law--Like attracts like. We do not find a timid bird\nassociating with its natural enemy, a bird of prey. They fight.--We\ndo not find the gentler animals seeking to associate with the beasts\nof prey.--We do not see the men of high civilization associating, in\ncommon life, with the savage or the gross--there is always something\nmonstrous or unnatural where that universal law is outraged. Such a\nthing is commented on as a marvel, a departure from the established\norder of nature. Just as the fishes of the deep have their element,\nand the birds of the air have theirs, there is a broad unvarying line\nseparating the different orders of creatures in the world which God\nhas made.\n\n    REPULSIONS.\n\nNow, to apply this to our present subject, that law reigns with more\nthan common force in the domain of grace. Has the truth of God taken\npossession of any man's soul? Has the wisdom which comes from above\nbeen consulted? Is God's revealed mind placed high above the highest\nof all authorities? Then from that day, that man cannot repose, with\nthe confidence of cordial friendship, upon him who turns the truth\nof God into a lie, or the authority of God into a name: there must\nbe a separation, however painful it may be. Does the love of Christ\nconstrain any heart and soul? Under that constraining power, do\nold things pass away, and all things become new? Then, \"unto the\nassembly of the ungodly, mine honour, be not thou united,\" becomes\nthe language of that soul. Has any man felt that salvation must take\nprecedence of all besides, in the mind of a rational being? Then that\nman cannot consent, or choose to consort, with those who are ripening\ntheir souls for an undone eternity, in spite of the warnings of their\nGod. Has any man felt that the high concerns of an infinite futurity\ndemand instant attention, and adjustment on the earliest possible\nday? Then that man can be no willing party to the wide conspiracy\nformed by worldly men against that futurity, and all that is\nmomentous there. Has any man discovered that, to live only for the\npresent hour and its pleasures, is to sink to the level of the beasts\nwhich perish? or that to be a coward before man's frown, and to have\nno fear of God's, is to act an impious part? Then the man who has\nmade such a discovery will take up the language of the patriarch;\nhe will shun the company of men who prefer what debases to what\nennobles, for he clearly sees, or deeply feels, that their company\nis contamination.\n\nSince these things are so, the general law in grace is established\n--There can be no friendship, /of choice/, between a godly and a\nworldly man. Their hearts, their feelings and sympathies, cannot\ncoalesce upon the most momentous of all topics--God, eternity, and\nthe soul; and just as water repels fire, or fire water; just as the\nvulture cannot and does not choose the dove for its mate, the soul\nof a man who loves God, who believes in the Saviour, and who would\ngrow in holiness, is repelled and chilled by the assemblies where\nthese great realities are ignored. He cannot, without self-inflicted\ndegradation, walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way\nof sinners, or sit in the seat of the scorner.\n\n    THE WISDOM OF SCRIPTURE.\n\nBut it has already been noticed, that there is nothing strained,\nnothing extreme or overdone, in the Word of God. Whether it be\ngiving a command, or issuing a prohibition, it is always wise,\nalways considerate as to man's condition--if we may presume with\nsuch a word, it is always judicious. We are more and more struck\nwith that fine peculiarity of the Bible the longer we study its\never-blessed pages.\n\nNow, in connection with our Social intercourse in common life with\nmen not godly, we have an instance of this considerate care in the\nWord of God. In writing to one of the churches,[40] Paul had occasion\nto lay down rules for their dealings with unholy men. He prohibits\nsuch intercourse; and in giving the prohibition, he points to some\nof the impious by name. After indicating their crimes--too gross to\nbe lightly mentioned--he adds, \"Yet not altogether must ye refuse to\ncompany with such men, /for then must ye needs go out of the world/.\"\nIn other words, the believer has duties to do in the world; and these\nhe must discharge. His principles may be put to the test; his heart\nmay be pained and vexed; what he hears and sees may distress or\nimperil him; but still, even amid such trials, duty, /when it is\nduty/, must be done. A man is not merely not at liberty--he is\nforbidden, to flee from his post. He is to lean the more on God when\ntemptation meets him in the path of duty; but he may not forsake the\npath. He has duties perhaps to unconverted kindred, and to those who\ndepend on him in life. He has duties to discharge to the Church and\nto God, and these no man is free to forsake. On the one hand, the\nmost lovely earthly affection is to be put aside whenever it opposes\nthe will of God; but, on the other, we are to remember, that wherever\nGod has placed us, He will keep us--as our day is, so our strength\nwill be. But do we rush into danger unsent? Do we meet it while we\nare in pursuit of pleasure, and not in the path of duty? Then we may\nexpect to fall; nay, we have fallen already. By tempting God, we have\nunnerved ourselves, and shame and confusion may be the result.\n\n    THE YOUNG CONVERT.\n\nIn connection with this, we observe that perhaps there never was\na young convert, who, during the first days or weeks after his\nconversion, had not thoughts of fleeing from the post where the\nrenewing Spirit found him. Aware of its dangers, perhaps groaning\nunder its temptations, that young soul would flee, and seek that\nin change which can be found only in the unchanging One.\n\nNow, are the engagements of that young convert really sinful? Is he\nviolating God's law? Is he, for the sake of gold, or honour, or any\nselfish end, sojourning near some focus of sin? Then all that must\nbe abandoned; conversion, while these things are retained, is a\nthing impossible.\n\nBut, on the other hand, are the lines of that young convert cast only\namid trials, and not actual sins? Has He who appoints the boundaries\nof our habitations, appointed ours where faith is put to the proof,\nand the need of Almighty grace more clearly demonstrated? Then, by\nthat grace, that young Christian must stand; even there it may be\nwith him as it was with the three children in the tyrant's furnace\nwhen it was heated seven times. The highest display of the power of\ntruth, the brightest trophy to the triumph of grace, is to see some\ndevoted believer holding fast the faith without wavering at the post\nof duty, alike against the scorn of the money-worshipper and the\ngrossness of the unblushingly profane; and, blessed be God, his\ngrace is sufficient even for that.\n\n    THE WORLD AN OBJECT OF PITY.\n\nBut farther: While the Christian, in his social intercourse, tries\nto shun the society of godless men, he is to make it plain that /he\nshuns, because he loves them/. We assume that that Christian /will/\nshun them; for he is bound to that by a law both in nature and in\ngrace. But his motive is not that of spiritual pride. It has nothing\nakin to the feeling which dictated the words, \"Stand by, for I am\nholier than thou;\" nay, he is to show that he withdraws, because he\ncannot countenance what is ruinous to man and opposed to the mind of\nGod. While we try to make religion felt, it must be the religion of\nlove, and not of haughtiness or of bigotry. We should remember that\nthe world is a poor jaded world, and calls for pity rather than for\nwrath: its men have no resting-place either for the body or the soul;\nit has no antidote for its misery, no remedy for its disease. It\nis the shipwrecked seaman on his raft, trying to quench his burning\nthirst with the water of the ocean, only to make that thirst more\nburning still. It is the body weighed down with dropsy to the grave's\nedge, yet seeking relief in what only augments its misery. And all\nthat should awaken pity for the world in our intercourse with it.\nBe it made plain, that we can be no parties to the world's ruin; we\ncannot trample on the Word of God to gratify the sinner's love of\nsin. Nay, if we be Christians indeed, if we have in us the spirit\nof Him who died for the ungodly, we must love the sinner too well to\ncountenance him in his ways. Our shunning of him, wherever duty will\npermit, is to be our silent protest against what the holy God so\nemphatically describes as \"drowning men in perdition.\" Love, wisdom,\nGod, all demand that course.\n\n    THE WORLD'S DEADENING POWER.\n\nAnd, to re-enforce all this, let it be remembered that we cannot\nassociate of choice with wicked men without bringing our own religion\ninto doubt. Our relish for communion with God is blunted. Our love\nto the holy and the pure is lessened. The world to come fades away\ninto dimness, and even a child of God is thus prone to catch the\nworld's spirit by intercourse /of choice/ with worldly men. All this\nis notorious in regard to those haunts where the pride of life is\npampered, and where the children of folly squander in frivolity or\nguilt the hours which are given to prepare for eternity and its joys.\nBut it is true also of more ordinary social intercourse; and the man\nwho loves his own soul will guard, by the grace of God, against the\nfirst approach to the world's godless ways, as he would against the\nfirst drop in a poisoned cup, or the first inch of a stiletto.\n\n    THE TRUE LIGHT.\n\nWe feel, however, that we must repeat the warning--Be sure that you\ndisplay the religion of love, not of bigotry, in separating from the\nworld. Let your light shine before men, but be sure that it is the\ntrue light--Heaven's.--There is a vessel sweeping across the deep. It\nis night, and her hundreds on board are locked in the insensibility\nof sleep. But suddenly there is a collision, a crash; her timbers\nare breaking up; and the hundreds who slept so securely a few breaths\nbefore, are now screaming out their agonies as they sink to rise no\nmore. And what caused that disaster and these watery graves? The man\nat the helm just mistook the light, and, in doing so, hurried some\nhundreds into eternity. In like manner, we may exhibit a false phase\nof Christianity which shall tend only to ruin. It may not be God's\nlight, but sparks which we ourselves have kindled, and these may\nonly drive men nearer to destruction.\n\nBut hitherto we have done little more than attempt to show how and\nwhy they that fear God should separate from those who have no fear\nof Him before their eyes. We have endeavoured to show that a godly\nman cannot go down to the world's level without dragging Christ's\nreligion along with him. We have been urging the followers of the\nSaviour never to let the world think that the Christian and it\nare the same in their likings and pursuits. If we leave the world\nunder that conviction, we have given an uncertain sound, and we\nhave therefore endeavoured to make it plain that there is a broad,\nclear, deep line drawn by the Eternal God between the world and the\nchurch--between the converted and the unconverted--the man who lives\nfor earth and the man who lives for God. They do not pass into each\nother by imperceptible shades, like the colours of the rainbow;\nthey are separated like mid-day and midnight; they are different\nin nature, in liking, in pursuits, and in end.\n\n    THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS.\n\nAll this, however, is only preparatory to telling how the godly\nshould proceed in their intercourse with each other.--A prophet has\nsaid that \"they who fear the Lord speak often one to another;\" he has\nadded, that \"the Lord hearkens and hears,\" and assured us, moreover,\nthat \"a book of remembrance is kept before the Lord for them that\nfear him and think upon his name.\" Now, amid such employments, what\ncan be the topics but the common salvation? What can engross the\nmind more than the death which Christ accomplished at Jerusalem,\nwhen he finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in\nan everlasting righteousness? What but the love of the Redeemer, and\nthe mercies to which that love opened the way, can occupy such men's\nsouls? Holiness, and its author, the Spirit; grace, and its fountain,\nGod; its channel, the Redeemer; glory, and the Almighty One who made\nit sure by his blood; that which is perfect \"when the former things\nshall have passed away;\"--these and kindred topics may well animate\nthe souls and strengthen the faith of the people of God. It is amid\nemployments like these that their hearts may burn within them, like\nthe hearts of the disciples while they walked with the Saviour to\nEmmaus. It is thus that foretastes of the heavenly joys are obtained,\nthus that clusters are brought from Eshcol, and thus that the earnest\nof the purchased possession is at once secured and rejoiced in. To\nhave a relish for such holy and hallowing employments, is a proof\nthat we are born from above; our soul's native land is there; and to\nhave no such relish is a proof that the soul is dead to the holiest\nand the noblest things.\n\n    TRUTH IN THE HEART.\n\nBut enough to have indicated this; none can completely fill up the\nsketch, for \"eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered\ninto the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them\nthat love him.\" Still, however, where the truth of God is in the\nheart, it will well up. Attempts may be made to repress a gushing\nspring; but it will rise at another place, and another, and another,\nspreading verdure and fertility wherever it flows. Now, the truth\nin the heart is a well of water springing up unto eternal life. It\nwaters the waste, it purifies the vile, and fits us for that home\nwhere nothing that defiles can enter.\n\n    MARRIAGE.\n\nThere is one sphere, that of married life, regarding which we offer\na closing sentence. Considering the importance which is attached to\nthat relation, and its mighty influences for good or ill, alike on\nour time and our eternity, nothing can surprise us more than the\nrecklessness with which it is often formed. How rarely is the\nguidance of the Holy One sought! How little is his will consulted!\nHow limited is the influence which eternal things are allowed to\nexert in the choice on either side! And who will marvel, then, if\nnot a few make shipwreck of the faith and a good conscience, just\nat the threshold of their marriage-chamber? Who will wonder to see\nso many hearts broken, so many wives worse than widowed, so many\nchildren worse than orphans, the promise of godliness given in youth\nall blighted--the book, the house, the day of God, deserted? When\nHe himself has been left out of view, it is as easy as the downward\ncurrent of a stream, to abandon all besides.\n\nBut wherever the lamp of life illumines a soul, this relation should\nbe peculiarly directed by it. The results are for life, nay, they\nare for eternity; and they who leave the Eternal God out of view in\nforming such a bond, are digging a pit into which they are sure to\nfall, or laying a snare in which they will assuredly be taken. The\ngrace of God may win such parties after all; but that can only be\nin His own holy sovereignty, according to his word, \"I was found of\nthem that sought me not,\" for the man who ventures here without the\nguidance of the Wonderful, the Counsellor, is gambling with a stake\nwhich may be eternal death.--Marriage was meant to double man's\nhappiness, and, when contracted in the fear of God, it accomplishes\nhis purpose; on other terms, its misery is unspeakable.\n\n    THE HEROES OF TRUTH--LUTHER.\n\n    CALVIN--KNOX--CHALMERS.\n\nOne closing sentence more. The difficulty and delicacy which\nare often felt in ordering our Social intercourse, makes a wise\ndecidedness essential. To follow the right path implies self-denial;\nand, what is often worse, it may compel us to shun those whom we\nperhaps fondly love in the bonds of nature. Now, to arm us for this,\nwe should call to mind that all the men who have signally served\ntheir God have been remarkable for decision--they were everywhere\nspoken against; their names were often a hissing and a byword,\nbecause they were decided for the ways of God against the ways of\nman. Paul was thus decided, and we know that, for his reward, he had\nto fight with wild beasts, and contend with wilder men. Luther was\nthus decided, and Romanists, in every age and land, have poured forth\ntheir enmity against him. Calvin was decided, and men have piled\ncalumny upon calumny in their attempt to crush him. Knox was decided,\nand shared the same portion--he is sharing it still. Chalmers was\ndecided, and had to live and die in armour. The truth, and nothing\nbut the truth of God, was their guide--\n\n               \"Not the light which leaves us darker;\n                Not the gleams that come and go;\n                Not the mirth whose end is madness;\n                Not the joy whose fruit is woe.\"--\n\nThe banner which the Eternal gave to be displayed, these men held\nup, that all might learn to rally round it; and the times on which\nwe have fallen are such as require a wise decision, a holy boldness,\na close walk with God, like the times of these heroes of the truth.\n\n\n\n\n                            CHAPTER VIII.\n\n             RELIGION THE CROWN AND GLORY OF MAN'S LIFE.\n\n\nThere can be no doubt that one reason why so many keep religion far\naway from the heart, is the supposition that it offers no present\npleasure. It holds out promises, but their fulfilment appears remote,\nand, men fear, uncertain. It tells of enjoyment, but that enjoyment\nsprings from causes which myriads cannot comprehend, and the whole\nappears to be mystical, incomprehensible, or unreal. Such pleasure\nas the world can yield, the worldly mind can understand at once and\ncordially relish. It is at hand. It even solicits attention. It seems\nreal and palpable as well as near. While religion appears to approach\nin the character of a jailor to imprison, rather than of a friend\nto set us free and spread out joys in endless succession before us,\nthe world comes with sparkling bribes and with congenial joys. It\npromises freedom unbounded, and, like the silly bird which hastens\nto the blaze kindled by the fowler to attract it to his snare, souls\nin thousands are duped, and deceived; it may happen that they are\nundone for ever.\n\n    OUR JOYS.\n\nBut were it possible to impart to such minds some taste of the\npleasures which are enjoyed in the paths which are peace, it would\ninstantly be seen what injustice their views inflict upon the truth.\nIts joys are /not/ projected into the distant future; they are nigh\nto us, they are even in our hearts. It does not give us a stone\ninstead of bread, or a serpent instead of a fish--it is the world\nwhich imposes in that manner upon all who trust it. When religion\ncomes to a worldly man to rob him of his gross or material joys,\nhe fears that he is about to lose his all--because he knows no joy\nbut what is earthly; and the very ways of God appear repulsive and\nirksome; not a few would imitate him who cried, \"Hast thou found me,\nO mine enemy?\" or, \"hast thou come to torment us before the time?\"\nBut what /can/ yield joy, if not the favour of God? What /can/ spread\nsunshine through the soul, if not the sense of sin forgiven? What\n/can/ impart true nobility, if not restoration to the image of God?\nWhat /can/ give peace, if not the Prince of Peace? What /can/ dry\nour tears or soothe our sorrows, if not He who came as a Comforter\nto earth, and who re-erects the kingdom of God in the soul? Amid all\nthat plenitude of mercy, men may still persist in thinking that the\ntruth is a bondage, and that its joys are shadowy or evanescent; but\nthat can only be because their hearts have never bowed to the majesty\nor rejoiced in the love of their God.\n\n    THE GAIN OF GODLINESS.\n\nAnd this repugnance to His truth is sometimes augmented, when\nreligion begins to be contemplated with more care than the world\ncommonly bestows on it. When men, for example, read the words\n--\"Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise\nof the life that now is, and of that which is to come,\" their\nperplexities sometimes increase. That godliness has the promise\nof the life that is to come, multitudes may passively concede, for\nthey bestow no thought upon the subject. But when their attention is\ndrawn to the fact, that the promise farther embraces the life that\nnow is, men are not prepared to acknowledge the truth. Godliness\ndoes not permit a man to ask, What will my fellow-mortals approve?\nIts all-decisive question is, What has God said? It never pauses\nto inquire, What will men think? what is current, or what is\ncountenanced among them? It goes at once to the fountain-head,\nand seeks to ascertain what God has decided; what standard He has\nset up; what aim or end proposed. That once ascertained, the godly\nimmediately feel bound thereby. They are in a court from which there\nis no appeal, or a hand from which there is no escape. Now, as they\ncannot do as others do, as they dare not pursue the world with the\nintense avidity of multitudes, how can it be true that godliness has\nthe promise of the life that now is?\n\nMoreover, are not the men called godly often hated, and persecuted,\nand of all men the most miserable? Is not this their promised\nlot--\"In the world ye shall have tribulation;\" or \"The world shall\nlaugh, but ye shall weep and lament?\" How, then, can it be time,\nthe question again and again recurs, that such buffeted men have\nthe promise of the present life? Nay, does not an apostle himself\nconfess, that, in certain conditions, Christians may be of all men\nthe most miserable?\n\nWith all these things, however, full in view, we still declare\nthat the promise is true, and that no man really enjoys this world\nexcept the man of God. Whether it be in the Heart, that heart is the\nhappiest whose godliness is greatest; or in the Home, that home is\nthe most blessed where godliness is the most ascendant; or in the\nWorkshop, that workshop is ever the best conditioned, and the most\nfree from those things which rudely shock man's moral nature, where\nthe fear of God is most felt; or in the Market-place, that business\nis ever the most healthy, the least exposed to panics or to failure,\nwhere the lamp of life, the Bible, sheds light upon our path. Gain\nwithout godliness is gold put into a bag with holes. It is a rusted\nand a moth-eaten thing; it eats the flesh as doth a canker.\n\n    ESAU.\n\nLet us now, then, glance at religion in its general bearing upon the\nlife of man on earth. It is the appointed Director of life; it is the\nOrnament and the joy of life; it is the prelude, the foretaste, or\nthe earnest of the Life to come.--Viewed under these aspects, it may\nnot be difficult to discover the folly of those who act in the spirit\nof Esau, and barter away their birthright for pleasures which perish\nin the using; or the wisdom of those who seek that righteousness,\nand peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which are guaranteed to the\nChristian by an eternal covenant.\n\nAs the Director of life, then, it cannot be difficult to show that\ntrue religion is all-important.\n\n    THE GUIDE, THE COUNSELLOR, THE FRIEND.\n\nCan we, in the nature of things, ever find a wiser guide than the\nonly-wise God? Is not that man under some dire infatuation, who\nthinks that he can discover a safer? But true religion, the religion\nwhich the Spirit of God has embodied in the Bible, just consists in\nbeing under the guidance of the Holy One, in thought, word, and deed.\n\nCan we, in the nature of things, ever find a path more pleasant than\nthat in which the Eternal leads us? Now, the religion of truth just\nplaces us in the narrow path to glory opened up by God.\n\nCan we be sane, and at the same time pretend to select a better\nstandard, a better rule, a better aim, than that which God\nprescribes? Now, pure and undefiled religion just consists in\nmaking that standard, that rule, that aim, our own. Like the ship\non the ocean, driven by the wind and tost, it may often seem as if\nall hope were gone; but if we be godly, that is, if we have religion\nin the heart as the Spirit of God plants it there, One comes to us\neven upon the angry waves, and his presence makes a calm. Whatever\nbe our condition, here is a Guide. Whatever be our perplexity,\nhere is a Counsellor. Whatever be our loneliness, here is a Friend.\nWhatever be our tendency to wander, here is one at our right hand,\nproclaiming, \"I am the way.\" Could the heart of man be persuaded\nto follow the Lord fully, would he consult only for an hour with\nreason, and with common sense, thousands more might be found in the\npath which leads to glory and to honour.\n\n    THE SOVEREIGNTY OF TRUTH.\n\nAnd let it be remembered that the directions which are given to guide\nthe godly in the way are authoritative and divine. We have more than\na royal road to heaven--we have a divine one. The man whose religion\nis planted in the heart, is not guided by opinions, but by verdicts;\nand these are the verdicts of the unchanging One. They are not\nconjectures--they are the decisions of an infallible Judge; they\nare the very maxims, the very laws by which we shall be tried, when\nwe stand before the great white throne, and the Judge of the quick\nand the dead. Some men act as if they were at liberty to cancel the\ndecisions of God; to review them, and indorse or reverse them at\npleasure. In this manner, the word of the Supreme, which he cannot\nalter without ceasing to be true, is made to bend to men's liking;\nand if it will not bend, they break it. But the man who holds the\nlamp, and is therefore truly wise, makes it a maxim in his life that\nhe cannot judge the Word of God--It judges him. He cannot bring his\nreligion to the Bible--He must get his religion from it. He does not\nconsult the sacred page with the view of welcoming or rejecting it\nat pleasure. Nay, it is the sovereign umpire in every perplexity. It\nis the director of his steps, and the sun of his soul. Guided by it,\nand by it alone, that man walks under the direction of the Father\nof lights, with whom is no darkness at all, to that abode where the\nglory of God is manifested to all, and the Lamb is the light thereof.\n\n    THE LAMB OUR LIGHT.\n\nThey who have thus surrendered their souls to the guidance of God in\nhis Word, have felt, in their own experience, how blessed it is to\nhave Him for their light; they never yet were in a position for which\nthe only wise God has not made provision; the lamp of life is always\ntrimmed by the very hand which lit it.\n\n--One is persecuted for righteousness' sake; the man who hates the\ntruth appears anxious to \"chase him up to heaven.\" But even then, the\near of faith can hear Him whom the world hated yet more, pronouncing\na blessing over all who suffer in the paths of godliness.\n\nOne has had to follow child after child, or brother after brother,\nto the tomb; but has he not been told, perhaps at the edge of the\ngrave, of Him who is the resurrection of the body and the life of\nthe soul; and that them who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him\nfrom the dead?\n\nOne has neither father nor mother, nor friend on earth to lean on--he\nis absolutely and utterly an orphan; but is he not told, \"When father\nand mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up?\" Is it not added, \"I\nwill not leave you orphans?\"\n\n    VICISSITUDES.\n\nOne has cherished dreams of happiness on earth--he is expecting\nhere what God declares we can never, never find. Well, He came, and\nproved that his declaration was true; in mercy and in love he came,\nthough the lacerated heart felt that the stroke was sore. The gourd\nwithered. The frail reed broke. The shadow flitted away. The Word\nof God was verified, and the happiness of earth appeared rather like\nthe lightning flash, than the steady shining of a summer day. But did\nnot He who wounded heal? If that soul had godliness, was it not made\napparent that the sovereign Lord of all had something in store for\nit better than it was choosing for itself?\n\nOne is tottering very near the grave. However he may cling to life,\nhe cannot now be blind to the fact that the last resting-place of\nman must soon be a resting-place to him. But just then, just there,\nif that soul be godly, a light appears. It irradiates the tomb. It\nillumines the vast unknown beyond it; and almost in the language of\na hosanna, such souls have passed away exclaiming, \"To me to die is\ngain.\"\n\nOr, last of all, one has felt, what many never feel, the sinfulness\nof sin. That soul has discovered how foolish as well as wicked it is,\nto contend against Omnipotence. It feels that man forsakes his own\nmercy by cherishing thoughts, or doing deeds opposed to the mind of\nGod; and that as well may we expect comfort on the rack, or pleasure\nfrom the blaze which consumes us, as joy in that path which the Holy\nGod has forbidden. According to the Word of the Lord, that soul has\ndiscovered what it is to be exposed to the wrath of God and of the\nLamb; or how like the career of the suicide, or the maniac, is the\ncourse of those who live in sin unpardoned, with a soul unsaved.\nBut it has also discovered that the Word of God has devoted passage\nafter passage, or Psalm after Psalm, to the subject of pardon. In one\naspect, that is the burden of the Bible's lessons--to tell how free,\nhow immediate, how complete, is the forgiveness provided by Him whose\ntender mercies are over all his other works. No entreaties so tender,\nno lessons so plain, no commands so cogent, no promises so full, as\nthose which relate to the fountain opened for sin. The earnest soul\nthus discovers that the word is indeed a light to man's feet, and a\nlamp to his path. It is a light shining in a dark place--a directory\nfrom heaven for man on earth--the very God of truth is there pouring\nencouragement, or joy, or hope, into the heart.\n\n    THE PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE.\n\nWhen we buffet with a baffling tempest, how gladdening is the glimmer\neven of a lamp seen through the drift, telling us of comfort and of\nhome! When we have long been driven by the waves and tost, so that\nhope has fled and exertion become paralysed, how welcome the haven\nof our rest! When strangers have long been our only associates in a\nforeign land, where no familiar face was near to greet us with its\nsmile, how pleasant to know\n\n                            \"There is an eye will mark\n            Our coming, and look brighter when we come!\"\n\n--And how much more gladdening that Word of God which irradiates\nthe path of a believer, a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire\nby night! In joy or in sorrow, in youth or in age, in his home, in\nhis place of toil or of business, amid unceasing activities, or when\nthe sands of life are ebbing low, such a man has a directory at every\nhour of need, a counsellor in every difficulty--enough to crown his\nweary life with a portion of the joy of his God.\n\n    THE HALCYON.\n\nWe meet with some who have manifestly no guide but passion, or\nfeeling, or human opinion. They therefore live in a state of constant\nfretfulness and mental fever, at once troubling and troubled. While\nothers have an anchor cast within the veil, these men are driven\nby the wind and tost. Some are kept in perfect peace, even amid the\nagitations of life; they are like the little bird which is said to\nbuild its nest amid the breakers of the sea, and is most calm when\nperched on the crest of an angry wave. Others are like the restless\nsea; and whence this difference? The divine directory is in the hand\nof the one class; it is ignored or perverted by the other. The divine\nmind is the mind of the one; caprice and the changing passions of a\ntroubled soul form the standard or the tyrant of the other. To the\none, truth is truth, in the heart, the home, and the place of public\nresort; to the other, truth is but a name.--The bodies of those\nwho live under a directly vertical sun, reflect no shadow; at least\ntheir shadow is under their feet, and these shadowless bodies are\nemblems of the condition of those who live nearest to the Sun of\nRighteousness: like the children of the light, they are preparing\nfor the world where there is neither shadow nor night.\n\n    THE ORNAMENT OF LIFE.\n\nBut godliness is the Ornament of life as well as its Director.\n\nAnd what is it that constitutes the beauty of a soul?--All that God\nhas made is lovely according to its kind. Look at the little flower,\nand see what beauties beam upon us there. Contemplate the firmament\nabove us, the meet type of Jehovah's immensity; and mark the\nsurprising loveliness which is there. Or examine the winged insect\nwhich buzzes around us, only, perhaps, to vex and to annoy--there\nare more beauties and more marks of wisdom in that little thing,\nthan the science of man has yet been able to tell. Now, if even\nthese mean, these transient, and ephemeral things, are clothed in\nloveliness by God, may we not expect a more exquisite beauty in that\nimmortal thing, the soul of man? It was once in the image of God;\nit is capable of wearing that image again. And what is it that\nconstitutes its beauty?\n\n    THE MISERY OF SIN.\n\nWe need not again reply--/It is holiness/. It is purity like the\npurity of God. It is perfection like his perfection. Sin at the first\nmarred the moral beauty, and put all that is morally offensive in its\nstead. But a new creation takes place. The original loveliness begins\nto be restored. The beauties of holiness decorate the soul, and with\nthe restoration of holiness the restoration of happiness begins. Give\nthe unholy soul the wealth for which millions pant; give it an empire\nlike that of our sovereign, on which the sun never sets. Let all that\ncan gladden and regale be poured into the cup of an ungodly man. The\nmere fact that he is unholy, would leave him deformed and unseemly;\nhis soul would be wretched, craving, aching still.--A nobleman\nof ancient name and brilliant powers once ranked among the most\nconspicuous of all who dwelt in our land. He was admired by millions,\nand, for a time, was \"followed, flattered, sought, and sued,\"\nwherever he appeared. But he was slightly deformed in a limb; and\nwhen his eye fell on the deformity, even from the heights of his\nfame, he was chafed and chagrined: it was more than a counterbalance\nto all the incense which was offered to his powers. Now, that\nnobleman was as signal for his ungodliness as he was for his powers.\n\n    THE JOY OF HOLINESS.\n\nBut, on the other hand, place a holy soul in a dungeon. Let the new,\nthe holy nature which the Spirit of God imparts, be imparted to such\na man. With that in his soul, let the persecutor wreathe his chains\naround him; let him \"five times receive forty stripes save one;\"\nlet all men forsake him and flee;--still, by the grace of God, that\nsoul would be made more like the Holy One by the very sorrows which\nit encountered and the tears which it shed: and it is thus that\ngodliness becomes the ornament of life. As the rainbow would never\nbe seen were it not for the clouds and the rain, the beauties of\nholiness would never shine so brightly were it not for the trials\nwhich the Spirit of God employs to promote them. But /when/ he\nemploys them, the soul of man is changed into the image of the\nRedeemer, from glory to glory. Though covered by sin with wounds\nand bruises and noisome sores, it is created anew, after the image\nof God, in righteousness and true holiness. The altogether lovely\nOne becomes the model of that soul; and ornament after ornament\nis bestowed--such adornings as the eye of God can complacently\nregard, for they are the work of his own Spirit: they indicate\nthe restoration of his handiwork, from the state of ruin into which\nit had lapsed, to the state of beauty in which it appeared when it\nsprang into being at his word.\n\nIt is holiness, then, that is the ornament of man. Without that,\nno mental power, no constellation of gifts, can give beauty to our\nspirits, as they are seen by God. Knowledge may be power; but it is\nonly the power of evil. Acquirements may be extensive; but they are\nonly like gaudy trappings on a hearse, or music in a dying man's\nchamber, unless truth in the heart become holiness in the life.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut when Christianity is planted in the heart and soul of man,\nit becomes his Joy as well as his director and ornament. This is\nsunshine; all besides is gloom.\n\n    THE VAIN PURSUIT.\n\nUpon this we need not expatiate long. It is manifest as day to all\nwho have submitted to the guidance of reason illumined by the lamp of\nlife, the Bible, that Christianity introduces us to the highest joy\nof earth or heaven, even joy in the Holy Ghost; and while destitute\nof that, whatever he may possess, man is wretched, and miserable,\nand blind. One man seeks happiness in sin; but did he ever find it?\nNay, is it not like taking fire to his bosom? Is it not like a wound\nto his immortal nature? O, is it not a mournful delirium, to dream\nof finding joy in that which caused the creation of a place of\ntorment--which doomed a world to misery--which digs our graves--which\nlays us in them, and fills our homes from time to time with the voice\nof lamentation and woe?\n\nAnother man seeks joy in wealth; but after he has all that he can\ngrasp, is not his heart still, like the daughters of the horse-leech,\ncrying, \"Give, give?\" As well attempt to satisfy the hungry body with\nthe name of bread, as the craving soul with material things. It was\ncreated to be happy in God; and, without him, the universe cannot\nfill the void in man's heart.\n\n    DEATH-BEDS.\n\nAnother seeks joy in friendship, or in beautiful human affection.\nBut remorseless death comes: he strikes down the object to which\naffection clings; and where is the bereaved one now? He is well-nigh\nwearying for the grave, and so of all that begins and ends on earth:\nits blossom goes up like rottenness at last. It is simply impossible\nthat any object whose root is in the dust can gladden the soul of\nman, apart from the God who made it.\n\nHas God, then, left us without joy? When we became idolaters, did he\nleave us to our idols, to tears, and woe? Nay, there is blessedness\neven here below; and the knowledge, the fear, the love, and favour\nof God, is its fountain-head. In reconciliation to Him--in His image\nrestored--in growing holiness--in greater and yet greater love and\nlikeness to the Saviour of the soul--the man of God, the man who\nis truly rational, finds the streams of his joy. God himself is the\nfountain; but his blessings are the rills which flow from it: and\nhe who has not felt this joy, is still living among shadows, and\nphantoms, and names. His is only the comb rifled of the honey; his\nis the dream without the reality; his the corruption and the death\nof sin, without the pleasures which flow from God into the soul.--Is\nthe land of his fathers a source of joy to the returning exile? Is\nthe breath of spring a source of gladness to man's fevered brow?\nIs the face of nature a source of pleasure to him who has long\nbeen immured amid the damps of a dungeon? Far more than all these\ntogether, is a sense of God's favour to the soul which has returned\nfrom its wanderings, to seek its blessedness again on the bosom of\nits God.\n\n    VOLTAIRE.\n\nAnd it is to godliness, or at least some counterfeit of it, that all,\nor nearly all, men flee for joy at last. Some, indeed, die like the\nbeasts that perish, without either fear or joy. Conscience is dead\nbefore the body. It occasions no alarm; and such men pass into\nthe presence of the Judge perhaps denying his very existence. But\nnot so all. When conscience is aroused from its long stupor by\nthe nearness of death, how eager do some appear for the joy which\nreligion promises! how gladly would they now grasp at what they have\npractically despised, perhaps for threescore years and ten! There is\none who has spent a lifetime in denying the truth as it is in Jesus.\nHe declared that he hated the Saviour's very name, and did all that\nwit and powers the most diversified could accomplish to blot it\nfrom the hearts and memories of men. That man hated the truth with\na perfect hatred, and gloried in his hatred; it secured for him the\napplause of myriads who felt that truth to be fettering, and who\nrejoiced in the help of one so gifted in their attempt to banish it\nfrom the earth.--But that man is dying at last, and all is changed\nnow. Goaded by conscience, he flees to a poor superstition--he tries\nto soothe his soul by believing one of the most enormous impositions\never practised upon man. He eats what he reckons, or what an abject\nsuperstition teaches him to regard as \"the body, the blood, and the\ndivinity\" of Him whom he had so long blasphemed and denied; and that\nvery superstition of that dying infidel[41] tells where it is that\nman finds or tries to find his joy after all. It is just an infidel's\nmethod of proclaiming, \"Godliness has the promise of the life that\nnow is, and of that which is to come.\"\n\nOr if we refer to a case less extreme than that of an avowed infidel,\nthe same truth appears--the same lesson is taught. God and his favour\nalone can gladden or satisfy the soul.\n\n    SIR WALTER SCOTT.\n\nAnother man, then, not less distinguished in his day than Voltaire,\nis passing on to his great account. Millions in many lands have\nadmired his genius, and offered incense to his name. Wherever he\nmoves he is followed by applauding crowds; and if ever there was one\nwho might have been satisfied with the homage of his fellow-mortals,\nthat was the man. Princes deemed themselves honoured by being under\nhis roof. Royalty set him at its right hand. He added field to field.\nHe determined to make for himself a local habitation, as he had\nalready made for himself a name; and his mansion, once modest and\nhumble, grew into \"a romance in stone.\"\n\nBut the fashion of this world vanishes away, and that man must die.\nBefore he leaves the scenes which his presence had long invested\nwith smiles, he must read a lesson to man--had man a heart to learn\nit--more salutary and profound than any he had ever tried to teach.\nThe wind of adversity blew, and shattered his fortunes and his hopes\ntogether. Death entered his abode, and one who had long been its joy\nwas carried to the tomb. Then affliction laid its hand upon himself.\nThe body was palsied, the mind a wreck; and amid all this, that man's\nspasmodic efforts to resume his former self, rank among the most\ntouching incidents in the chequered history of humanity. But we must\nlisten to his own words to learn his tale of woe, and see how broken\nis every earthly cistern when man seeks joy from it apart from God;\nhow shadowy and dream-like is every earthly thing apart from Him who\nis the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.\n\n    SORROW UNSOOTHED.\n\n\"When I think,\" says this idol of millions, on the eve of leaving his\nhome at the bidding of stern necessity and financial pressure; \"when\nI think what this place now is, compared with what it has been not\nlong ago, I think my heart will break. Lonely, aged, deprived of all\nmy family, I am an impoverished and embarrassed man.\"\n\nFarther, he thus touchingly wails: \"Death has closed the dark avenue\nof love and friendship. I look at them as through the grated door of\na burial-place, filled with monuments of those who once were dear to\nme, and with no other wish than that it may open for me at no distant\nperiod.\"\n\nAnd as if to show that all his anguish did not come from without,\nthe great Novelist says, \"Some new object of complaint comes every\nmoment. Sicknesses come thicker and thicker; friends are fewer and\nfewer. The recollection of youth, health, and power of activity\nneither improved nor enjoyed, is a poor strain of comfort. The\nbest is, the long halt will arrive at length, and close all.\"[42]\n\n    THE MIMIC IMMORTALITY.\n\nNow, it will be noticed in these extracts that it is /the grave/\nwhich closes the vista of that greatly gifted man; at least he never\nrefers to the bright ulterior of which the tomb might be the portal.\n--\"I have no other wish than that the grated door of a burial-place\nmay open for me at no distant period.\"--\"The best is, the long halt\nwill arrive at length, and close all\"--it is there that the mind\nseems to rest. It never rises into the region of immortality. It\ndoes not refer to that favour of God which is life. As far as these\nmournful records tell, that soul had nothing to repose on but what\nwas soon to enwrap the body--the earth, and earthly things. Dazzled\neven to blindness by the mimic immortality which man bestows on\nman, the life and immortality of the Gospel were ignored. Steeped\nin the possessions which only increase the thirst which some suppose\nthey quench, that man discovered and confessed that he was \"an\nimpoverished and embarrassed man,\" when he might have exulted in\nthe unspeakable gift, the unsearchable riches of Christ.\n\n    THE BROKEN HEART.\n\nNow, it is thus that men sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, by\nexpecting that joy from things which are seen and temporal, which\ncan be found only in the things which are unseen and eternal; and\nit is thus that the men who\n\n                \"Hunt their misery with a zeal to die\"\n\nproclaim to all who have ears to hear, that if we would have joy to\nthe full, and blessings such as can satisfy the soul, they must be\nsought in Him who is our peace, \"of whom and to whom are all things.\"\n\"Surely he is, or ought to be, a happy man,\" said a visiter at Sir\nWalter Scott's abode. \"When I think of what it is now ... I think\nmy heart will break\"--is his own dirge-like response.\n\nBut it is not merely in the high concerns of eternity that a man\nof God finds sources of joy. Even amid the cares and distractions\nof earth, he has often a peace which is independent of all earthly\nsources. He sees God in all events, and soon discovers that they\nall work together for his good: however diverse in their origin\nor aspect, they sweetly blend into one harmonious whole, of which\nblessedness is the product to a child of God. Think of the complex\nmachinery which pours such wealth into the lap of our nation, by\nmultiplying manifold its productive power. How intricate in its\nparts! how apparently incomprehensible to an inexperienced mind;\nyet how simple, how exquisitely beautiful in its /results/! Or think\nof the sunlight in which all nature rejoices. It can be decomposed\ninto seven primary elements, yet how simple and how lovely is the\nproduct of their combination! And so it is in the various events of\nprovidence: they all blend into one harmonious result; they are all\npresided over by our Father who is in heaven; and they all pour into\nthe soul of a believer more real joy than the world can know, even\n\"when its corn and its wine are increased.\"\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut the crown and consummation of the whole is, that godliness is not\nmerely the Director, the Ornament, or the Joy of this life; it is the\nprelude to the Life that is to come.\n\nWhat are to be our employments in heaven? How shall we be sustained?\nHow perceive, or feel, or rejoice? Shall we recognise in glory those\nwhom we loved on earth?--or is the Alpha and the Omega of faith,\nthe Alpha and the Omega of fruition? These, and a thousand other\nquestions, are raised by the curious mind; but the most that we can\nsay in reply is, \"It doth not yet appear what we shall be.\" There\nwill be praise in glory. There will be following the Lamb. There will\nbe satisfaction with God's likeness. There will be the fulness of\njoy and pleasures for evermore. But after all, the mind, while in\nthe body, is exhausted by the effort to comprehend what we shall\nbe: it falls back fatigued upon the words of him who once lay on\nthe Redeemer's bosom, \"It doth not yet appear what we shall be.\"\n\n    THE MILLENNIUM.[*16]\n\nAnd yet there is a sense or a measure in which we can understand\nheaven.--In our day we hear much of the Millennium. Churches\nare divided on the subject. Brother differs from brother; and\nit is difficult indeed, definitely to fix \"what saith the Lord\"\nregarding it. But connected with the millennium there is one\nsubject, concerning which we may speak with perfect decision on\nthe undoubted authority of God. As the whole is composed of its\nparts, the blessedness of the millennial state can be composed only\nof the blessedness of individual souls. Now, would I introduce that\nblessed era as far as I am concerned? Then let me make sure that\nChrist is already personally reigning in me. Would I see the kingdom\nof God set up in our groaning world; and would I like to fix a day\nfor its commencement? Then let me /this day/ make it sure that the\nking of glory is on the throne of my heart, that \"Christ is in me the\nhope of glory.\"--Whatever the millennium is to be, or whensoever it\nis to begin, it can, at the most, consist only of Christ's personal\nreign. Now, he should be reigning at this hour in me. Be that,\nthrough grace, accomplished, and we are in preparation for the\nmillennial glory; though the bright visions of some were turned\ninto realities to-morrow, we should be found meet to enter on the\njoy of our Lord. \"The millennium will never come,\" said Harlan Page,\n\"till Christians are more awake to duty.\"\n\n    HEAVEN.\n\nAnd so of the eternal state. Does Christ reign in any soul now?\nThen, beyond the grave, that reign perfected will be heaven. Is\nChrist stamping on us now the image of the Eternal, and restoring\nwhat the fall ruined or effaced? Then that restoration completed will\nbe heaven. Is Christ on earth showing us the Father? Then beyond the\ngrave, we shall be eternally restored to the Father's favour; and\nthat is heaven, for his favour is life, and his loving-kindness\nbetter than life. Our joy on earth--our religion--when it is a fruit\nof the Spirit, is at once a preparative and a prelude to the joys\nof heaven. They are the same in kind, and differ only in degree. He\nthat is holy in a measure now, will be holy in perfection at last. He\nthat loves the Saviour in a measure now, will love him in perfection\nbeyond the grave; here we see the bud, on high we shall partake of\nthe ripe and mellow fruit--all according to the words, \"He that is\nunjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be\nfilthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still:\nand he that is holy, let him be holy still.\"\n\nLet us try to find some one who is ignorant of the great processes of\nnature; one of the untutored savages who still hover near the margin\nwhich separates the rational from merely animal nature. Let him be\nignorant, for example, of the processes of vegetation. With the one\nhand show him an acorn--a thing so small that it can scarcely serve\neven for an infant's toy; with the other, show him some majestic oak,\nbeneath whose ample shade the beasts of the field and the birds of\nthe air find a common shelter. Then tell that degraded one, that\nthat majestic tree was once enveloped in such a little seed--how\nincredulous, or how amazed, would that \"Stoic of the woods\" appear!\n\n    THE BUD--THE BLOSSOM--THE FRUIT.\n\nAnd the same thing happens in regard to the coming eternity.\nGodliness is the germ, of which eternal glory is the majestic\nresult. Grace is the bud, of which heaven is the ample fruitage.\nLike the darkling savage, we may be unable to comprehend the process\nby which the one passes into the other. But our ability is not the\nmeasure of God's. The one /does/ pass into the other; grace does\npass into glory; and he is wise, he /only/ is wise, who makes it\nhis business on earth to tend that germ, or screen it from all that\nwould crush or destroy it. He is wise who places it often in the\nclear shining of the Sun of Righteousness, or under the influence\nof Him who assures us that he will refresh it like the dew. The\ndelicate exotic will not otherwise grow; and for want of such\ntending, ten thousand times ten thousand let it wither, and pine,\nand perish.\n\n    THE RESURRECTION.\n\n    GLORY--HONOUR--IMMORTALITY.\n\nIt is a saddening thing to stand by the edge of the open grave, and\nsee dust returned to the dust. One, perhaps, with whom we have often\ntaken sweet counsel, upon whose arm we have leant, whose soul has\ntouched our soul, with whom we had all things in common, even to\nthe secrets of the heart, is entombed. The cold earth must hide\nhim, and even affection must hasten to bury him out of sight. But\nthat very body thus consigned to corruption is yet to come forth a\nglorious body, when death shall be swallowed up of life. That which\nis sown in dishonour is to grow in glory, if united to Him who is the\nresurrection and the life, who has abolished death, and brought life\nand immortality to light in the gospel. Its home for ever is to be--\n\n                \"The city of the golden pavement--\n                    Seat of endless festival.\"\n\n--And thus do we glance at the Spirit's fruit in the soul--or God's\nreligion, not man's--as the crown and consummation of life. We have\nlooked at it as it /should/ reign in the Heart: /Does/ it reign\nthere? We have studied it as presiding in our Homes, and leading all\nwho are there in the \"way of the Lord:\" To what extent has that been\naccomplished? We have gone, with the lamp of life in our hand, into\nthe Workshop of the artisan, and tried to tell how it ennobles toil\nby sanctifying him who toils. We have taken that lamp, and tried\nto shed its light upon the Marts of business; and is it the case\nthat our merchandise and our hire are holiness to the Lord? We have\nreferred to what should be the ascendency of God's truth in our\nSocial Intercourse; and if it preside there, we are not far from\nthe kingdom of heaven; nay, we are within its sacred borders, and\nthe crown of all will be glory, honour, and immortality, through\nJesus Christ our Lord.\n\n\n\n\n\n          FOOTNOTES\n          ---------\n\n     1  See Rom. v. 6, and compare Acts v. 31.\n\n     2  Ps. li. 10.\n\n     3  Ezek. xxxvi. 26.\n\n     4  Jonathan Edwards.\n\n     5  John Albert Bengel.\n\n     6  Thomas Halyburton.\n\n     7  Pascal.\n\n     8  Matt. vi. 25-33.\n\n     9  See the Domestic Constitution, by Christopher Anderson.\n\n    10  Discourses on the application of Christianity to the\n        Commercial and Ordinary affairs of life.--Discourse VI.\n\n    11  See a remarkable little volume, \"Memoirs of Harlan\n        Page.\"\n\n    12  1 Cor. iv. 3, 4.\n\n    13  \"It may look to some a degradation of the pulpit,\n        when the household servant is told to make her firm\n        stand against the temptation of open doors and secret\n        opportunities; or when the confidential agent is told\n        to resist the slightest inclination to any unseen\n        freedom with the property of his employers, or to any\n        discoverable excess in the charges of his management;\n        or when the receiver of a humble payment is told\n        that the tribute which is due on every written\n        acknowledgment ought faithfully to be met, and not\n        fictitiously to be evaded. This is not robbing religion\n        of its sacredness, but spreading its sacredness over\n        the face of society. It is evangelizing human life by\n        impregnating its minutest transactions with the Spirit\n        of the Gospel.\"--Dr. CHALMERS.\n\n\n    14  Acts xviii. 3; xx. 34. 1 Cor. iv. 12. 1 Thess. ii. 9.\n\n    15  \"He lives in a cottage, and yet he is a king and a\n        priest unto God. He is fixed for life to the ignoble\n        drudgery of a workman, and yet he is on the full\n        march to a blissful immortality. He is a child in\n        the mysteries of science, but familiar with greater\n        mysteries. That preaching of the cross which is\n        foolishness to others, he feels to be the power\n        of God and the wisdom of God.\"--Dr. CHALMERS.\n\n    16  Job v. 3.\n\n    17                            \"Pulchra Laverna,\n        Da mihi fallere, da justo sanctoque videri.\"--HOR.\n\n\n    18  \"We state it as our opinion, that though the whole\n        business of the world were in the hands of men\n        thoroughly Christianized, and who, rating wealth\n        according to its real dimensions on the high scale of\n        eternity, were chastened out of all their idolatrous\n        regards to it; yet would trade, in these circumstances,\n        be carried to the extreme limit of its being really\n        productive or desirable. An affection for riches beyond\n        what Christianity prescribes, is not essential to\n        any extension of commerce that is at all valuable\n        or legitimate; and in opposition to the maxim that\n        the spirit of enterprise is the soul of commercial\n        prosperity, do we hold that it is the excess of this\n        spirit beyond the moderation of the New Testament,\n        which, pressing on the natural boundaries of trade,\n        is sure at length to visit every country where it\n        operates with the record of all those calamities which,\n        in the shape of beggared capitalists and unemployed\n        operatives, and dreary intervals of bankruptcy and\n        alarm, are observed to follow a season of overdone\n        speculation.\"--Dr. CHALMERS.\n\n    19  2 Cor. viii. 2.\n\n    20  Mr. Hardcastle died in his sixty-seventh year.\n\n    21  See Mercantile Morals by Rev. W. H. Van Doren,\n        chap. iv.\n\n    22  See Mercantile Morality, chap. iv.\n\n    23  The Dutch florin is worth about two shillings.\n\n    24  A span of horses means a team or pair of /matches/\n        for a carriage.\n\n    25  A livre is equal to about 10\u00bdd. English.\n\n    26  See Mercantile Morals, chap. iv.\n\n    27  See Dr. Boardman's \"Bible in the Counting-House,\"\n        p. 132.\n\n    28  /Hunt's Merchant's Magazine/, quoted in Boardman's\n        \"Bible in the Counting-House.\"\n\n    29  Psalm ii. 9-11.\n\n    30  \"Ubi tres Medici, duo Athei.\"\n\n    31  Lectures on Medical Missions, Lect. V., by\n        Dr. G. Wilson.\n\n    32  Gouge, in his \"Surest and Safest Way of Thriving,\"\n        tells of an eminent physician of his day, Dr. Bathurst,\n        that \"all his Lord's-day fees were kept as a bank for\n        the poor.\"\n\n    33  See this quotation from the \"The Licence of Counsel,\"\n        in Whately's Rhetoric. Part II., chap. iii.\n\n    34  See Archbishop Whately's Rhetoric. Part II.,\n        chap. iii.\n\n    35  See Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vol. ii.\n        pp. 429, 430.\n\n    36  Campbell, vol. ii. p. 307.\n\n    37  Memoirs of the Lives of Robert Haldane, and James A.\n        Haldane, p. 132.\n\n    38  See Lives of the Haldanes, pp. 128, 129.\n\n    39  Gen. xlix. 6.\n\n    40  1 Cor. v. 9-11.\n\n    41  It was Voltaire.\n\n    42  Sir Walter Scott. The closing chapter of his Life by\n        J. G. Lockhart ranks among the most melancholy and\n        instructive portions of our literature. Could aught\n        but a divine power undeceive the sons of men, these\n        chapters might undeceive them.\n\n\n\n\n          TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES\n          -------------------\n\n     1  'Edinburg' replaced with 'Edinburgh'\n\n     2  'Boerhave' replaced with 'Boerhaave'\n\n     3  'dependents' replaced with 'dependants' for consistency\n\n     4  'uare taght' replaced with 'are taught'\n\n     5  Numeral 'I.' missing in text.\n\n     6  'engulphing' replaced with 'ingulfing' for consistency\n\n     7  'dishallowed'replaced with 'disallowed'\n\n     8  'its' replaced with 'it'\n\n     9  'enterprize' replaced with 'enterprise'\n\n    10  Meaning 'load', it measured about 120 cubic feet varying\n        by the item measured and changing over time\n\n    11  'enterprize' replaced with 'enterprise'\n\n    12  'controling' replaced with 'controlling'\n\n    13  Quotations marks corrected based on original source in\n        Footnote 37.\n\n    14  'stedfast' replaced with 'steadfast' for consistency\n\n    15  'respects' replaced with 'respect'\n\n    16  'MILLENIUM' replaced with 'MILLENNIUM'","title":"A Lamp to the Path: Or, The Word of God in the Heart, the Home, the Workshop and the Market-Place","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":63425}