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W/'r/y 



A GUIDE 



YOUNG DISCIPLES 

OF THE 

HOLY SAVIOR, 

IN 

THEIR WAY TO IMMORTALITY, 

FORMING A SEQUEL TO 
PERSUASIVES TO EARLY PIETY. 

— ^' 

BY REV. J. G. PIKE. 



" Christian is the highest style of man." 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW-YORK. 



D. Fanshav.', Printer. 



Prefatory Address ^^'>^^'^t"^'"^'f'.'' ... 5 
Chap. 1. A brief scripture delineation of the attri- 
butes AND PERFECTIONS OP GoD, AND ON DfiVO- 

TEDNES3 TO HIM — his majesty — wisdom — knowledge 
— goodness— eternity — reverence and devotion due 
to him 9 

Chap. 2. On the natur^nd love of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and love to him — he is God — eternal — 
the creator — his attributes— Christian obligations 
to him — union with him— danger of deception , 45 

Chap. 3. On the personality, deity, and influences 
OF the Holy Spirit— his personality — attributes — 
works— the christian a temple of the Spirit — test of 
self-examination — directions 88 

Chap. 4. The Christian life a life of faith — its na- 
ture — effects resembling those of sight — conquests 
— preciousness 105 

Chap. 5. The Christian life a life op prayer — its 
solemnity — subjects — requisites — fervency— offered 
in faith — with forgiveness — constant — language of 
the heart — offered in Savior's name — praise— pro- 
mises to it— blessings obtained . . . .121 

Chap. 6. The Christian a pilgrim upon earth, and a 
MEMBER OF THE FAMILY OF GoD — earth tiansieut — 
eternity — home in heaven 147 

Chap. 7. On Christian holiness — examples— progres- 
sive — motives, both cheering and alarming . . 159 

Chap. 8. On the mortification of sin — kill the root — 
besetting sins — deceitfulness of sin — its malignity 
—falsehood—scandal — profaneness— covetousness 
— love of the world — avoid occasions . . . 17G 

Chap. 9. On humility, resignation, patience, and con- 
tentment— influence of pride how exhibited — ex- 
ample of Christ 211 

Ciup. 10. Government of the temper — of the 

thoughts — OF THE LIPS — SELF-EXAMINATION — IM- 
PROVEMENT OF TIME — RECREATIONS , . . . 234 



CONTENTS. 



Chap. 11. On the choice of companions, and on 
MARRIAGE—" only in the Lord "—evils of a contrarv 

course— objections 249 

Chap. 12 On Family Duties— duties of parents— du- 
ties of children— of husbands and wives— of >.er- 
vants and masters— family worship— individual ' 
responsibility— meeting oi: relatives in eternity . 268 
CHAP. 13. On the Sabbath, and its improvement— 
Its institation-change of day-how to be observed 

—value and usefulness 286 

Chap. 14. On prizing and sEARcmNG 'the 'Scriptures 

—necessity of humility— their value . 298 

Chap. 15. On the Lord's SupPER-design-excuses 
lor neglect answered-neglect accompanied by de- 
clension-letter to a voung lady . 307 
Chap. 16. On displaying Christian love, on glori- 
fying brOD BY DOING GOOD, AND ON LOVE TO ENE- 
MIES— how holy love is manifested— reproof-love 
to brethren— to ministers— motives to brotherly 
loYe—7iielkods of usefulness— infinite obligation— 
—treatment of enemies . ... 322 
Chap. 17. On the spiritual conflicts and sorrows 
OF THE disciples OF Christ— God's mcrciful de- 
sign—conflicts from within— from the world-frcm 
featan-sympathy and aid from Christ-christian 

cAo/lllplGS • • , • QK,0 

Chap. 18. On BACKSLiDiNG-causes-secret and open- 
guilt and mischiefs-letter to a young lady-ihe 
backslider insensible to warning . . . 395 

Char 19. Consolations and encouragements for the 
Christian in his spiritual PiLGRiMAGE-what the 
bavior is-his intercession-a Friend and Brother 
oi his people-blessings of union with him-minis- 
tryof angels-God a friend, father and portion- 
trials sent in mercy-soon to end— happy prospect 
— present with the Lord "-concluding address 



:s 
406 



PREFATORY ADDRESS. 



While, my young friend, a few fleeting years will fijc 
you in that awful world where the business of life will no 
longer engage, and its amusements will have no power to 
charm; while every moment hurries on your final hour, 
and every beating pulse beats nearer to the last; while 
endless ages rise in solemn succession before you, and death, 
at the door, is ready to introduce you to those unbounded 
and amazing scenes ;— O what is worth a thought except 
the favor of God, and glory in the heavens ! O what is 
worthy of a moment's care, compared with making your 
calling and election sure ! To this momentous subject I now 
solicit your attention. The design of another little volume,* 
which I have addressed to the young, is to urge them to 
make that religion their choice which renders its possessor 
rich in poverty, and happy in affliction; secure in danger, 
and triumphant in death. In this the principal design is 
the benefit of those who have found the path of peace. May 
I address you as such a happy person 1 Are you a partaker 
of that grace which comes from God, and leads the soul to 
him'? Is he your Father and your Friend 1 Is the blessed 
Jesus your Savior 1 Can you contemplate heaven as your 
home, and read your title clear to an everlasting mansion 
in that happy country which lies beyond the stormy sea of 
timel If you can, rejoice in ike Lord always. The things 
anseen will not deceive you. They will not perish, when 

* Persuaiivcs to Early Piety. 



6 PREFATORY ./ADDRESS. 

all that is seen shall fade, and dr oop, and die. Let ear^h if 
It will, be all delusion, for heaven is all reality. Let a'l 
below be treacherous shadow, for all above is endurin- 
substance. If, my young friend, through grace, those unt 
seen realities are your portion, the cross of Christ your 
glory, and heaven your home, still you have need io grow in 
grace, and in the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ. 

To be a Christian indeed, is widely different from what' 
multitudes suppose. The Christian character, as delineated 
m the Scriptures, is one of a most peculiar and elevated 
nature. It rises almost as much above the ideas apparently 
entertained of it by many professors of the Gospel as it 
does above those of the carele.ss followers of the world In 
times like these, when no prison opens its doors to receive 
Christian victims as its prey, when no flames call for mar- 
tyrs to glut the persecutor's rage, it is an easy thing to pro- 
fess religion ; and if to add to that profession a character 
fair m human sight, and an attention to religious privile- 
ges, were sufficient to constitute a Christian, n^any would 
deserve that exalted name; but all this, and much more 
than this, will not constitute a Christian. A Christian in 
realty , as described by the Sj^irit of God, is one whom grace 
makes free, and enriches with a thousand blessings : whom 
grace prepares for glory, and allures to heaven; whose 
chief busmess is with the things bevond the grave He is a 
new creature in Christ Jesus ; a child of God ; a member ol 
Christ; a stranger on earth; a traveler to glory ; a future 
companion and equal to the angels of light; an heir of 
heaven ; even here one of that family that Mall all meet at 
length beforejhe throne of the Most High; and whose love 
and hatred, hopes and fears, desires and tempers life and 
conduct, will bear a likeness to the new and happy relation, 
he sustains Such is a Ch, istian. How different is the re^ 
hgion which produces this change in an immortal being 



PREFATORY ADDRESS. 7 

from that cold, formal, uninteresting thing, which the world 
esteems religion. Is this, my young friend, the character 
which you sustain 1 or do you view it as one too highly 
elevated for your desires and aims'^ If you do, will you in 
the last hours of life maintain the same opinion'? When 
this momentary scene of care and vanity is closing upon you 
for ever 1 when it no longer matters what you sulTered or 
what you enjoyed; when the overwhelming scenes of the 
eternal world are ready to burst upon your soul, will you 
then think that piety could be too elevated, or the Christian 
upo7i earth too nearly like the Christian in heaven 7 If you do 
seriously believe that, in your dying moments, you will 
think it possible to be too pious ; if you do indeed believe 
that, when going to meet your God, you will think it possi- 
ble to love, or serve, or honor him too much ; then slight 
the advice this little book contains. If you can suppose that 
when you have plunged into the unseen world, and are 
fixed in happiness or wo for more myriads of millions of 
years than there are drops in the ocean ; that then you will 
think you could be too earnest, too prayerful, too diligent, in 
preparing for an everlasting state ; if you can indeed think 
so, then read no further. But if instead of this, you feel con- 
vinced, that when you die, and come to meet your God, you 
will think all faith weak, all love cold, all diligence care- 
lessness, all labor idleness, and all piety scarcely worth the 
name, compared with that faith, and love, and zeal, and 
piety,' which the eternal God, the eternal Savior, an im- 
mortal soul, and an endless heaven demand; if you will 
think so ; and will you not as surely as you are born to diel 
O then aim at nobler piety than that which satisfies so many ! 
Stay not in the vale beneath, but as at death you will wish 
to have done, scar to the heights above. O learn to live as 
having soon to die, that you may die assured of living with 
God for ever ! 

The principal object of this little hook, is to assist you in 



® PREFATORY ADDRESS. 

your Christian pilgrimage, though at times it may contain 
a lew lines more suitable to those who are strangers to re- 
ligion, than to those who have embraced the Gospel- for 
perhaps some that know not God, may glance over the fol- 
lowing pages. 

Let the writer be permitted to add, that in drawing up 
this small volume with the design of assisting youthful 
piety, he has endeavored to draw instructions from the Sa- 
cred Volume, that only fountain of real wisdom. 

That holy book declares, that neither is he that planteth 
any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth 
the mcrease. To his all-important blessing the writer 
therefore now commends this little volume. 

Derby, July ICth, 1S23. 






YOUNG DISCIPLES. 



CHAPTER I. 

A BRIEF SCRIPTURAL DELINEATION OF THE AT- 
TRIBUTES AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD, AND ON 
CHRISTIAN DEVOTEDNESS TO HIM. 

§ 1. Were you, my young friend, going to spend 
one hour in England, and then never to see it more, 
but afterwards to pass threescore years in India, of 
which country would you desire the most extensive 
knowledge? Would you not reason, the knowledge 
that will benefit me but for one hour in a country 
which, after that, I shall never visit again, is unworthy 
of a thought, compared with that knowledge which 
will be useful to me for sixty years ? Were you to 
spend that one hour in company with persons whose 
favor or displeasure would render it either a happy or 
a wretched hour ; and were you to pass the following 
sixty years with those whose smile or frown would 
make them all years of happiness or years of pain, 
whose favor would you be most anxious to enjoy? 
Would you not argue, the smiles or the frowns of 



10 MAJESTY AND POWER OF GOD. 

those Who shall cheer or embitter but one hour, and 
whom then I shall leave forever, areoflittle moment: 
but their friendship, who miist render me happy or 
wretched for sixty years, is ten thousand times more 
important? Apply these thoughts to your state in this 
world, and the next. Here you have a little while to 
spend; but, compared with the endless life that awaits 
you there, it is infinitely less than an hour, when com- 
pared With sixty years. Of which world is the know- 
ledge most important to you? of that where your life 
is the twinkling of an eye ? or that where eternal a4k 
he stretched before the view of the astonished soul? 
The friendship or displeasure of your fellow-creatures 
may cheer or embitter life's short hour; the friend- 
ship of your God will brighten and bless your whole 
eternity; or his displeasure make eternal years one 
scene of darkness, bitterness, and wo. How worthless 
to a creature born for eternity, is all knowledge, com- 
pared with a holy acquaintance with God ! how des- 
picable all friendship, compared with his friendshio 
and love ! ^ 

§ 2. The book of nature may teach much respecting 
God— may at least declare his eternal power and god- 
head ; but it is the book of grace alone that unfolds 
the brighter glories of Jehovah. Would you be inti- 
mate with God, the God of heaven, not with the idol 
philosophers frame in their imagination? then search 
the Scriptures. That holy volume represents the ado- 
rable God as possessed of those excellencies which 
should excite the deepest reverence and the most fer- 
vent love in the human heart. 

" God is a Spirit." He " created the heavens and the 



MAJESTY AND POWER OF GOD. 



11 



earth." He " said, Let there be light, and there was 
liaht." The sun obeys his voice, and the stars of hea- 
ven appear at his command. He is the one Jehovah, 
"the only true God." Heaven is his throne, and the 
earth his footstool. He reigneth King for ever. He is 
clothed with majesty. "Clouds and darkness are 
round about him ; righteousness and judgment are the 
habitation of his throne." He is " the King eternal, im- 
mortal, invisible ; the only wise God." To his enemies 
he is " a consuming fire." He is " able to destroy both 
feoul and body in hell." 

In Providence, and in the works of nature, the 
power and majesty of God are displayed. "He killeth 
and maketh alive ; he bringeth down to the grave and 
bringeth up. He maketh poor and maketh rich." He 
"raiseth the stormy wind," or "maketh the storm a 
calm." He turneth rivers into a wilderness, or water- 
springs into dry ground ; a fruitful land into barren- 
ness ; "or a dry desert to a watered field." " He saith to 
the snow, be thou on the earth." He "giveth rain, 
and sendeth waters upon the fields." He feedeth the 
fowls of the air, and clotheth the lilies of the field 
with more than kingly glory: and so extensive is his 
providential care, that without him not a sparrow 
falleth to the ground. 

The sublime description of the majesty and glory 
of God, in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, is as much 
superior to the loftiest descriptions which unassisted 
poets or philosophers have given of the Deity, as the 
God it represents is superior to the idols they extolled. 
" Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his 
hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and com- 



12 MAJESTY AND POlvER OF GOD. 

prehended the dust of the earth ;„ , 

weighed the mountains in s'a'e, and 7Tu' """^ 

balance? Behold the n,f „ ' ^ ""^ '""^ '" a 

andaree„unte°dt'th7sr7ur:;ttr,'^'"^''^'' 
hold, he taketh up the isles as a v , "'"'"• •>"- 

nations before him a.-ea nn,?- ^ '""' ">'"«• ^11 

eatohin,,esst;r::tM,:ra;,d%;si.^'^^^---- 

their unfathomable depths The ,'''''^,;''" '"-'"''"red 
spend months or yea.?-';^e roli .^ r ! ^^'^ 
those vast and fathomless oceans a esn Jn'^ ^ ^"^ 

fo»(/A« Aa,./. Behold the h aveL '2" "" 'f 
moon, the stars of li.rht- how hrni ' *""' ">« 
how immense their" d sta'cs-trGrd ''"^t'-^' 

f-"f" ™"'^ '"''"'■ '"easures\v h ;i:r:f ""' 
the least of measures fh«f ,.. . 1 , ^^^' almost 

grandeur and o g^'r?'BX:"""""<":- "''' "< 
islands, its cloud-ca^pt m'ou„ta'°,s i tt , '"■"' "^ '''' 
sens; the fertile landTol hs ,' ' ""'"-'^^"ed de- 
where numerous nation fil ami '"''/""''"-"'^. 
sidence, and which eouire »T '^ , ""'" ^"' "'^'" re- 
in extent to m as„ e^ i'Lr .h T"'"' "^ ""-» 
breadth; but whata e the e v , ' '"'«"' " ""^ir 
earth, b fore Jeho a . ' ff ■„ ' "TT' ""' '"'^ ^«^' 

yet to God, so insi^nlfioa" ha tW " "" ""'"''^'- ' 

« 6<.K .«. «. ..f .^rrAiscuXdXf 

^nnui^, less than noilimg, and vanity. 



WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, 13 

§ 3. Now glance at the unsearchable wisdom and 
infinite knowledge of God. " He is the Lord of hosts 
(wonderful in counsel. God the only wise. He seeth 
m secret. He seeth not as man seelh ; for man looketh 
on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on 
the heart. He searcheth all hearts, and understandeth 
all the imaginations of the thoughts."' He is not an in- 
attentive spectator of what passes in his wide empire. 
"By him are actions weighed." "The Lord looketh 
from heaven ; he beholdeth all the sons of men, he 
considereth all their works." In this vast survey, he 
beholds his children with peculiar love. "The eye of 
the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that 
hope m his mercy, to deliver their soul from death ■" 
"to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose 
heart is perfect towards him." 

Would any wish to hide themselves from his all- 
pi^rcing eye, it is impossible; for "in him we live, and 
move, and have our being." He smiles in heaven: he 
frowns in hell. The veil of night, which hides all 
things from the eyes of man, hides nothing from his 
eye. No spot in the universe can be found that is be- 
yond the reach of his arm, or where it should cease 
to be said, Thou, O God, seest me! "Whither shall I 
go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy 
presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; 
It I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I 
take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utter- 
most parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead 
me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely 
the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be 
light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from 



.14 HOLINESS AND GOODNESS OF GOD. 

thee ; but the night shineth as the day : the darkness 
and the light are both alike to thee." 

§ 4. This adorable and all-seeing God is holy and 
amiable in the highest degree. He is " glorious in ho- 
liness." " There is none holy as the Lord." " He is 
of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on 
iniquity." " Just and true are his ways." He is the 
"faithful God," " who keepeth truth for ever." 

" High o'er the earth his mercy reigns, 

" And reaches to the utmost sky ; 
*' His truth to endless years remains, 

" When lower worlds dissolve and die." 

Venerable and lovely in his holiness, he is, if pos- 
sible, still more lovely in his goodness and mercy. 
He is " the Father of mercies, and the God of all com- 
fort." " Of great mercy." "A merciful God." "There 
is none good but God." He proclaimed his nalhe 
" Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, long- 
suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping 
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression 
and sin." The fountain of his goodness pours forth 
many streams. He is "not willing that any should 
perish, but that all should come to repentance." He 
is " kind to the unthankful and the evil." He is " a 
God ready to pardon" — " is gracious and full of com- 
passion — is good to all — and his tender mercies are 
over all his works." " He is plenteous in mercy and 
truth." The world might drink at the ocean of his 
love, and the ocean still be full. " He giveth grace 
and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from 
them that walk uprightly." 



GOODNESS AND MERCY OP GOD. 15 

He is the Father of all the righteous ; " their Father 
in heaven ;" " and like as a Father pitieth his children, 
SO the Lord pitieth them that fear him ; for he knoweth 
our frame, he remembereth that we are dust." A 
stronger principle of love than natural affection ac- 
tuates him: "If ye, being evil, know how to give good 
gifts unto your children, how much more shall your 
Father, who is in heaven, give good things to them 
that ask him." Parental love, in its strongest form, can- 
not rival his. " Can a woman forget her sucking child, 
that she should not have compassion on the son of 
her womb ? yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget 
thee." Love like this cannot be measured. " Thy mer- 
cy, O Lord, is in the heavens." Who can measure the 
heights of heaven ? or stretch a line from the east unto 
the west ? Yet this were an easier task, than to tell the 
extent of divine love. " As the heaven is high above 
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear 
him ; as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he 
removed our transgressions from us." This charming 
excellence is his delight. " He delighteth in mercy;" 
" and taketh pleasure in those that fear him, and that 
hope in his mercy." To sum up all in a few words, 
" GOD IS LOVE." 

His richest love is the love unfolded in the Gospel ; 
iove, like an ocean, which has neither shore nor bot- 
tom, measure, beginning, nor end. " For God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." " God commendeth his love to- 
ward us, in that while we were vet sinners, Christ 
died for us." « Herein is love, not that we loved God, 



^^ ETERNITY OF GOD. 



but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro- 
pitiation for our sins." A pious writer observes, 

" When God gave us his Son, he gave us an infinite- 
ly greater gift than the world : the Creator is infinitely 
more glorious than the creature, and the Son of God 
is the Creator of all things. God can make innume- 
rable worlds by the word of his mouth ; he has but one 
only Son, and he spared not his only Son, but gave 
him to the death of the cross for us all. God's love to 
his people is from everlasting to everlasting : but from 
everlasting to everlasting there is no manifestation of 
It known, or conceivable by us, that can be compared 
to this. The light of the sun is alvvavs the same, but 
It shines brightest to us at noon: the cross of Christ 
was the noon-tide of everlasting love, the meridian 
splendor of eternal mercy. There were many bright 
manifestations of the same love before, but ihey were 
hke the light of the morning, that shines more and 
more unto the perfect day; and that perfect day was 
when Christ was on the cross, when darkness covered 
all the land." 

Pursuing his schemes of love and mercy, he ap- 
pears as « the God of all grace, who hath called us to 
his eternal glory by Jesus Christ." "He loveth those 
who love his Son." " It is the Father's good pleasure 
to give them the kingdom." '' And God is not ashamed 
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them 
a city." 

§ 5. All this l-ove is like himself, eternal. " His mer- 
cy endureth for ever ;" and " is from everlasting to 
everlasting upon them that fear him." " The heavens 
shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax 



REVERENCE DUE TO GOD. 17 

old like a garment; but his salvation shall be for 
ever." 

He who manifests this love is " the eternal God." 
" A thousand years in his sight are as yesterday when 
it is past, and as a watch in the night." One day is 
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day." " He inhabiteth eternity ;" and 
such is that eternity, that, compared with it, one day 
and a thousand years are alike ; they are both so insig- 
nificant, that one appears as long as the other. 

§ 6. What awe, what reverence should these views 
of God inspire ! His works, how glorious ! but himself, 
how infinitely majestic ! When compared with him, 
his vast creation is mean, as a speck of floating dust ; 
and sun and stars, like momentary sparks of fire, just 
seen and forgotten. Angels and archangels, cherubim 
and seraphim, shine with a glory which the loftiest 
language scarcely describes. Yet thrones and domin- 
ions, principalities and powers, cherubim and seraphim, 
in prostrate homage bow before him, and veil their 
faces, and cast their crowns at his feet, and cry, " Holy, 
holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, who is, and was, and 
is to come." While such is their homage, how reve- 
rent should be yours ! You, a mote, a worm, an insect, 
compared with them ; yet they, with all their radiant 
majesty, insects, compared with him. While they in 
his presence shrink into nothing, and less than nothing, 
what are you? How great a God is our God ! Cherish 
the deepest reverence for him. Should such a God be 
treated with irreverence? Should he be mocked in 
professed devotion, " with solemn sounds on a thought- 
less tongue ?" Abhor and watch against this common 
2* 



18 IMPORTANCE OF THE DIVINE FAVOR. 

Sin, and humble yourself in deep abasement before 
him, for doubtless it has often polluted your soul. 

§ 7. What deep concern for a full assurance of his 
favor should these views of God excite in your heart! 
O, could we feel but a thousandth part as much where 
eternity is concerned, as we do when health or com- 
fort is at stake, how seriously and fervently should we 
inquire, and is God indeed my God? A single doubt 
would wring the heart with anguish, and uncertainty 
almost drive us to distraction. Pursue this blessing. 
If others are satisfied with a little religion, imitate 
not such folly ; but seek, in and by Jesus, the full as- 
surance of faith. The power and justice of God are 
armed with ten thousand terrors against every one 
that is not his child ; the love and goodness of God 
display ten thousand charms to every one that is. O 
how dreadful must it be to have him for a foe whose 
thunders,.lightnings, earthquakes, tempests, and pesti- 
lences can sweep millions to the grave in a moment ! 
whose command would extinguish the sun, and crush 
the universe to nothing ! But how inexpressibly desi- 
rable is such a friend ! a friend, whose knowledge no 
enemy can elude, whose power none can resist, whose 
wisdom none can baffle, and whose love none can 
comprehend. Who bids seed-time and harvest, sum- 
mer and winter, revolve ; who kindled up sun and 
stars; who rolls the moon and planets through the 
expanse of heaven, and pours floods of light and 
warmth from the sun upon this distant earth ; who 
saith to the sea, " Peace, be still," and to the seraph in 
glory, " Go," and he goeth. While all the inanimate 
creation obey his voice, while angels bask in his smile, 



IMPORTANCE OF THE DIVINE FAVOR. 19 

while the treasures of heaven are at his disposal, while 
nothing exists of which he is not the rightful owner, 
and while devils are shrinking from his frown, and 
trembling beneath the chains of his wrath, O what is 
any thing to thee, compared to God ! 

You have to meet this infinite God. How will you 
meet him, if you have not become his friend, his child ? 
How will your soul sustain that awful day ? How bear 
the appalling survey of his infinite majesty? How will 
you shudder at the guilty past! How tremble at the 
amazing future ! Prepare to meet thy God. What- 
ever engages you, let God engage your most fervent 
thoughts. Whatever claims your heart, let God have 
the first place there. 

Much as earthly friendships and earthly cares may 
now agitate and engage you, remember they are but 
the things of a moment, compared with what shall be 
revealed hereafter. The time is coming, when those 
which appear of most importance to your present 
comfort, and which may now be contemplated with 
ardent interest, or inexpressible delight, will seem of 
no moment, any further than as they advance your 
preparation for eternal scenes. Keep this in mind, 
and strive to resign all your dearest interests into the 
hands of the All-wise ; and seek your lasting good and 
best treasure in his love. He deserves your best affec- 
tions, and your highest regard. How much should 
the earnestness generally felt after happiness in the 
present state, impress upon you the value of immortal 
blessedness ! and how much should the anxiety you 
perhaps feel to secure the affections of kind and amia- 
ble friends here, urge upon you the necessity and im- 



20 ON DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD. 

portance of possessing the love of the ever-gracious 
God, and adorable Redeemer, both here and hereafter ! 
Compared with our God and Redeemer, what are our 
tenderest, best, and dearest friends? What even the 
kindest and most valued parents to us ? Their warm- 
est affection is cold as rocks of ice, compared with that 
which actuated the breast of the Eternal, when he so 
loved the world as to give Jesus for its ransom, or with 
that of the divine Immanuel, when he became for us 
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The love 
of the fondest mortal friends is in a great degree but 
the return of affection ; and such, too, is the love of man, 
of saints, of angels, to God. " We love him because 
he first loved us." The love of God was unsought, un- 
solicited ; shown not to friends, but enemies ; and shown 
when in our character there was every thing to pre- 
vent, and nothing to produce it. On our interest in 
this, an eternity is concerned ; on our interest in the 
breasts of those we hold most dear on earth, nothing 
but an inch of time. 

§ 8. Consider that not merely is the favor of God 
eternally important to you, but that he has an entire 
and unalienable claim on all you have and all you are. 
The first and the greatest commandment is. Thou shall 
love the Lord thy God with aU thy heart, and with all 
thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. 
This commandment is binding upon all on earth, and 
all in heaven. The love it enjoins is the golden link 
that would bind the whole universe together in har- 
mony and bliss. It would inspire all with one desire, 
and lead all to pursue one object, calculated supreme- 
ly to glorify God, and to benefit man. The Gospel of 



ON DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD. 21 

Jesus, while it delivers his followers from condemna- 
tion incurred by transgressing this law, takes not onfi 
jot or one tittle from our obligation to obey it; but 
strengthens that obligation by additional motives, and 
thus in fact establishes the law. 

Such is the extreme deceitfulness of the human heart, 
that it may be useful more in detail to show what is re- 
quired from those who are indeed devoted to God. 

There can be no true devotedness to God till the 
corrupt selfishness of the human heart is subdued. 
Selfishness is the root of man's depravity. He is his 
own idol. He would give to himself that place which 
God alone has a right to possess. Some of our old 
writers called sin deicide; probably from the idea that 
man, pursuing his career of sin and self-exaltation, 
would, if he possessed sufficient power, not slop till he 
had thrust the Creator from his throne, and by de- 
stroying him, had assumed that honor to himself. This 
notion is correct. Were the sinner possessed of suffi- 
cient might when he had raised himself above all, ex- 
cept his God, he would esteem his God an enemy, and 
not be happy till he had advanced one step higher, 
and placed his throne above the throne of God. This 
is the tendency of the selfish depravity of the human 
heart, and were this corruption armed with equal 
power, this would be its end. When Alexander, hav- 
ing conquered one world, wept because he had not ano- 
ther to conquer, if he could have carried his victori- 
ous arms into the world unseen, and have waged war 
against his Maker, doubtless no place lower than his 
Creator's throne would have satisfied the infernal am- 
bition that governed in his bosom. Every child of man 



23 



THE EVIL OF SELFISHNESS. 



is born with this corrupt principle, though in some it: 
afterwards appears much more prominent than in 
others. It is the root o( human wickedness. Every: 
human being, by having indulged it, has become an 
idolater, for he has preferred self to God ; and given 
this that place in his afFec^ons which only God de- 
serves and justly claims. 

Ah ! my friend, if pharisaic motions of the goodness 
of human nature charm your mind, you will think , 
the writer a poor enthusiastic creature, almost beside 
himself, for penning assertions so strange. But if your 
heart has ever been broken up, if you have ever gained , 
a glance at the great deep of iniquity within, though 
your life should have been fair and blameless, yet yoq 
will be ready to lie down in the dust of self-abasement, 
and to acknowledge, not as the extravagance of error, 
but as the correctness of truth, that 

" God only knows the utmost hell 
" Of the deceitful heart." 

§ 9. All by nature are without love to God ; aliena- 
ted from him, and disposed to give to self the place he 
ought to have in their esteem. Where grace does not 
subdue this corrupt principle, and transform the man, 
this acts and governs in every station. The Indian 
Brahmin, who courts divine honors; the New Zealand 
chief, while esteemed a god by his fellow-savages, dis- 
play its power. The soldier, the sailor, the tradesman, 
the man of science, the dissolute youth, and the giddy 
girl, are all under its influence. Ambition, in every 
form, is a desire of self-exaltation. Selfishness mounts 
the thronCj when a desire to gratify the thirst of plea- 



SELFISHNESS THE ROOT OF SIN. 23 

sure, grandeur, and power, is the governing principle 
in a monarch's heart. Selfishness guides the general 
when spreading desolation through peaceful realms, 
that he may be extolled as a mighty conqueror. Selfish- 
ness.' rules the philosopher when pursuing his studies 
or fovming his theories, that his name may be applaud- 
ed through distant days. Selfishness governs the mer- 
chant and the tradesman when laboring for riches, that 
they or their children may be great upon the earth. 
Selfishness ascends the pulpit, when the preacher la- 
bors not to exalt the Lord, but to charm his hearers, 
and to advance his own reputation. Selfishness governs 
the dissolute youth, whose pursuit is worldly plea- 
sure; and the giddy girl, whose object is the admira- 
tion of the vain flatterers around her, or whose ambi- 
tion it is to be more admired than some rival trifler 
like herself. Selfishness descends to the lowest sphere, 
it governs even in a beggar's breast; and tha^lowly 
peasant, whose ambition rises no higher than to be the 
first man in his native village, is as much under its 
corrupt influence as a Napoleon, disturbing the peace 
and coveting the possession of a world. The principle 
is the same, the sphere of action makes the diflference. 
§ 10-. When this corruption of human nature is not 
subdued, it creeps into every action, and pollutes all it 
touches. Generosity in relieving distress may spring 
from selfish motives, from a desire to be seen of men ; 
but then, whatever benefit the relieved sufferer finds, 
the giver finds none ; his charity is polluted by self- 
ishness, and changed into sinful ostentation. Activit}' 
and zeal may spring from this wicked source, and 
their real motive be the desire of human applause. 



24 SELFISH^^ESS THE ROOT OP SIN. 

We even read of prayers offered to be seen of men j 
prayers that, springing from so polluted a source, must 
bring curses, not blessings, down on the heads of the 
pretended but wicked worshippers. 

This is in fact the root of innumerable sins. It pro- 
duces pride and ambition. Man exalts himself in his 
own esteem, and would fain be exalted higher. It is 
the source of avarice and worldly-mindedness. Man 
covets much for himself. It is the parent of resent- 
ment and envy. He is resentful, because self has re- 
ceived a real or fancied hurt; he is envious, because 
he would not have any rise higher or prosper more 
than himself. This makes man indifferent to his fel- 
low-creatures' good. While self does not suffer, it is a 
trifle to him that others do. This evil root produces 
slothfulness and inactivity. Even some professors of 
religion sit down contented with enjoying the bless- 
ings <^ the Gospel, and careless of a perishing world; 
for ikey (at least they think so) feel no want. Selfish- 
ness picJuces deceit, and treachery, and dishonesty. 
These are pursued to advance its ends. Discontent is 
its offspring. From thinking highly of what himself 
is or deserves, man becomes dissatisfied with the con- 
duct of his God towards him. Nay, murders, the sin- 
gle murders of villains, the uholesole murders com- 
mitted by hostile nations, or by heroes, are to be as- 
cribed to this. Had man been a stranger to this cor- 
ruption, and loved his God and his fellow-creatures, 
the earth would never have been dyed with human 
blood. 

Could this radical corruption ofhuman nature enter 
heaven, even heaven would become a scene of discord 



GOD CLAIMS THE HEART. 25 

and confusion. Its inhabitants would each have an in- 
terest of his own, distinct from that of all around him, 
and opposed to the glory of God. God, instead of be- 
ing universally loved and enthroned in every heart, 
would be comparatively disregarded ; while each would 
exalt himself, at least in his own esteem and desires, 
to his Creator's place. Harmony and holiness would 
flee away ; and the wicked scenes of earth be acted 
over again in heaven. Hence it is, that to meeten man 
for heaven, he must be born again. 

It is an awful and alarming thought, that all short 
of the vital power of religion may exist where selfish- 
ness, instead of God, governs in the heart. Consider, 
therefore, what real religion demands, and inquire 
whether yours is such as leads you to devote yourself 
entirely, unreservedly, and eternally to God. "Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with ALL thy soul, and with all thy mind, <and with 
ALL thy strength. This is the first and great command- 
ment." " Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye 
do, do all to the glory of God." " Ye are not your own, 
for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God 
in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's," 

Behold what an unreserved surrender of yourself to 
God is here enjoined. Nothing less than consecrating 
to him all your powers, and all your faculties, all you 
have, and all you are. With your whole heart you are 
bound to love him. Our days are to be spent for him, 
our property considered as his. You are called upon 
to offer your body a living sacrifice to the Lord; to 
esteem yourself no more your own, but his; your feet 
to move at his bidding, your hands to labor for his 
3 



86 



BELIEVERS CHILDREN OF GOD. 



honor, your tongue to speak to his glory, and your 
body, with all its powers, to be holy and devoted to the 
Lerd. So that, even in the common actions of life, 
God maybe regarded and honored by you. Nor is this 
a mere matter of choice, which may be chosen as a 
higher good, but neglected without any considerable 
harm. It is the very object the Gospel is designed to 
promote. There is no piety without devotedness to 
God. All professions of religion, without this, are as 
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal— Nay, worse. 
The unconscious brass, when it emits a sound, is not 
false and hypocritical ; but professions of religion, 
without devotedness to God, are glaring hypocrisy. 

O, reader, is such the life you lead? Has God your 
heart ? Can you, with the Psalmist, exclaim, my heart 
is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed?— fixed on thee, on 
Jesus, and on heaveti; fixed on consecrating to thee 
my faculties and powers ; and though my flesh and 
heart must fail, yet would I consecrate to thee all the 
nobler powers of my immortal mind, and in life and 
in death aspire to thee, my God, and my portion for 
ever. 

The view thus offered of the nature and necessity ol 
devotedness to God, is further confirmed and illustrat- 
ed by those numerous passages which represent the 
Christian as a child of God. Surely from the children 
of such a Father, all this consecration of their whole 
selves to him is demanded. The affection of parents 
claims much, but the love of God claims more; and 
shall it be thought wicked ingratitude not to requite 
theirs with obedience and affection, and does not his 
demand much more devoted obedience, much more 



TRUE DEVOTEDNESS TO GOT 27 

fervent aflfection? How high, how noble a character 
is that of a child of God 1 Ask an angel what is his 
highest honor, his noblest joy, and he might reply, it 
is that I am a child of God. Is this yours also, and 
should not an angel's dispositions be cherished in your 
heart? How supreme is their devotedness to God! 
How fervent their love! How rapturous their delight! 
They have no will but his, no pleasure but in pleasing 
him. Why should they be more devoted to God than 
you! Are not you his ^hild, his son, or daughter? 
they are no more. Are not you his child, ransomed 
by the blood of his Son ? they are not so much. In 
this your nearness and dearness to him excels even 
theirs; and can you feel this, and not devote' to him 
your body and your soul ? 

§ 11. True devotedness to God is connected with 
deep self-abasement and child-like affection. It is not 
the devotedness of a servant, who employs his powers 
for his master, merely on account of the wages he ex- 
pects to earn; it is the devotedness of a ransomed 
criminal, who consecrates, to the friend that redeemed 
him, the life his kindness has prolonged. It is the de- 
votedness of a penitent prodigal, when restored by un- 
deserved compassion to his father's house and bosom. 
He serves God, not for the benefits he wishes to acquire, 
but for the mercies he has received. 

Think of the case of a condemned criminal. Having 
violated his country's laws, he is justly doomed to 
death. His claim to life is forfeited. His interest in 
his property ceases. His connection with his friends 
terminates. His all is lost. Neither on liberty, nor pos- 
sessions, nor friends, nor life has he a further claim. 



28 



TRUE DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD 



He Stands a wretched, insulated being, cut off from his 
connections with man, severed from all of which he 
was once a part, and unable to sav of any thina that 
surrounds him, excepting misery. This is mine. Sup- 
pose some generous friend to pay a price sufficient for 
the ransom of this man : the sentence of death is re- 
versed, he is restored to liberty, to friends, to posses- 
sions, to life. But if possessed of proper feeling, whose 
would these be? whose would he be ? Could he say of 
these things, They are mine^? Must he not say, They 
are his, and I am his, who ransomed me ? 

An anecdote related in the life of Doddridge, may 
afford an impressive illustration of this subject. A 
poor Irishman had been convicted at Northampton of 
murder, and in consequence was doomed to die Dod- 
dridge visited him in prison, and becoming convinced 
of his innocence, exerted himself to procure a reprieve 
These exertions were vain, the man suffered death • 
but that benevolent Christian observes, " Among other 
things, I remember he said, 'Every drop of my blood 
thanks you, for you have had compassion on every 
drop of it.' He wished he might, before he died, have 
leave to kneel at the threshold of my door, to pray for 
me and mine; which indeed he did on his knees, in 
the most earnest manner, as he was taken out to be 
executed. 'You,' said he, ' are my redeemer in one 
sense, (a poor impotent redeemer !) and you have a 
right to me If I live, I am your property, and I will 
be a faithful subject.' 

" May I not learn from it, gratitude to Him who hath 
redeemed and delivered me ? How eagerly did he re- 
ceive the news of a reprieve for a few days ' How 



PRODUCED BY REDEEMING LOVE. 29 

tenderly did he express his gratitude; that he should 
be mine; that I might do what I pleased with him; 
that I had bought him— and the delight with which 
he should see and serve me ; that he would come once 
a year from one end of the kingdom to the other, to 
see and thank me, and should be glad never to go out 
of my sight ! O, why do not our hearts overflow with 
such sentiments on an occasion infinitely greater. 
We are all dead men. Execution would soon have 
been done upon us: but 'Christ has redeemed us to 
God by his blood.' We are not merely reprieved, but 
pardoned ; not merely pardoned, but adopted ; made 
heirs of eternal glory, and near the borders of 
it. In consequence of all this, we are not our own, but 
' bought with a price. May we glorify God in our bo- 
dies and spirits, which are his!"' 

Every child of God was once as surely a condemn- 
ed wretch as was the poor Irish criminal. And con- 
demned to a more direful death, the death that never 
dies. What then should be the language of the Chris- 
tian, who views himself and his condition rightly? 
" Father, nothing that I have is mine; for I have for- 
feited all and lost myself. Behind me were years of 
sin, before me the gloom of eternal night. I lay a help- 
less, ruined wretch, justly condemned to death and 
hell ; and as able to pluck the sun from the firmament, 
as to blot out my crimes, or to set aside the sentence 
of deserved condemnation. I had lost thy favor. I had 
no claim upon the smallest blessing ; nothing was mine 
but guilt ; nothing awaited me but perdition ; without 
one gleam of hope, I was hastening to eternal night. 
Then 'didst thou interpose. Then did thy Son bleed 
3* 



30 TRUE DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD. 

and atone for me ; and now I live. Thou hast given 
me mOre than a reprieve, a gracious pardon. I live, 
pardoned and saved ; but whose am I ? not my own. 
The blood which ransomed me when I had lost my 
all, bought all I now possess and all I am. Thou art 
my Redeemer, and thou hast a right to me. Thou 
hast had compassion on my body and my soul. I am 
thy property, and while I live would live to thee. 

How important is such a life ! how different the 
views and feeling of a heart actuated by such princi- 
ples from those they indulge who, having never known 
themselves utterly condemned, hope to please God by 
their defective morality ! How different in its designs' 
as well as in its governing principles! Let the mere 
moralist, or the fashionable worldly Christian, utter 
his sentiments, and he might say, "I trust the virtue? 
of my character, and the goodness of my heart and 
actions will obtain me the favor of my Maker." Let 
him, who acts from the principles above displayed, ex- 
plain the design of his obedience, and he would say, 
" I have no such expectation as my deluded fellow- 
sinner describes; I have deserved hell, and having de- 
served that direful doom, I know I cannot deserve hea- 
ven. All that I do, and alf I ever can do, for God, (and 
I would do all I can,) is but a poor imperfect offering 
of gratitude and love to him for saving me. It is not 
a service by which I hope to earn his favor, but itis 
his rightful claim, because he, as it were, bought my 
body and my soul, wlinn he redeemed me from the pit 
of destruction, by the blood of his Son. 

A life of devotedness to God is not generally con- 
nected with retirement and withdrawment from the 



LIFE TO BE PASSED AS IN GOD's SIGHT. 31 

duties of the present world. Some avocations, indeed, 
are of such a nature that religion absolutely forbids 
them ; but with respect to those that are lawful and 
needful, the followers of Christ are directed to be " not 
slothful in business," as well as fervent in spirit, serv- 
ing the Lord. Religion does not set aside the common 
avocations of life, but, while it allows or enjoins the 
employments, it sanctifies the motives that are to go- 
vern in their performance, and says, Do this, not with 
the views of the thoughtless worldling, but do all to 
the glory of God. Let thy industrj'-, let thy diligence, 
reflect honor on the Gospel, and furnish thee with ad- 
ditional means for promoting the honor of God. Seek 
nealth, that God may be glorified by thy improvement 
of its blessings. Labor for food, that God may be glo- 
rified in the life that food supports. Let holiness to 
the Lord be as much inscribed on all the engagements 
of life, as upon the hours devoted to religious acts. 

§ 13. Another feature in a life of devotedness to God 
will be, a prevailing concern to pass life as in his sight. 
That we are so, all but atheists acknovdedge, but most 
forget. That he is so, the Christian desires to remem- 
ber, and more and more impressively to feel. 

In public or in private, in blazing day, or midnight 
darkness, still acknowledge, Thou, O God, seest me. 
In the season of business, and in the hour of prayer, 
in the house of worship, or by your own fire-side, still 
God sees you. He hears every word, he observes every 
action, and watches every thought. Alas ! how much 
practical atheism have even his children to deplore ! 
for how much are these truths forgotten ! He sees thee 
in the day of pain, and knows thy every secret sor~ 



32 DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD URGED FROM 

row. He sees thee in thy cheerful hours, and knows 
how those hours are spent. Were an apostle or an 
angel always with you, how would you watch your 
actions and your words! but an infinitely greater is 
always near you ! Were you to spend a few years im- 
mediately in the presence of God, how would you live ? 
God is as intimately acquainted with you, and all you 
do, say, and think, and are, as he could possibly be then. 
Act therefore as in his sight. Often think, " Should I 
live as I do, if I saw my God? Should I do these ac- 
tions, utter these words, should I indulge these thoughts, 
if I beheld him who now beholds me? 

Imitate the Lord Jesus Christ. In his holy life, de- 
votedness to God shone with its brightest lustre. He 
represented it as his meat, his very support, to do his 
heavenly Father's will. When, after a fatiguing jour- 
ney, his disciples entreated him to partake of refresh- 
ment, he replied, " I have meat to eat that ye know 
not of. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, 
and to finish his work." He labored and suflfered for 
the honor of God. He ascribed to his heavenly Father 
his actions, his doctrines, and his success. He Avaited 
on him in his temple, or sought the solitude of deserts, 
to spend whole nights in fervent devotion. In life, he 
was all activity and zeal for his heavenly Father's ho- 
nor; and in suff'erings and death, all submission and 
resignation to his heavenly Fathers will: and he left 
us his example, that we should follow his steps. 

§ 13. Perhaps you think the devotedness to God, 
thus urged upon you, is far superior to that which 
numbers who profess religion manifest. Be it so. Num- 
bers deceive themselves, and have a name to live while 



HIS GOODNESS IN PROVIDENCE AND GRACE. 33 

they are dead. Numbers more of whose sincerity some 
hope may be entertained, yet, alas ! give cause for 
many a fear that, when weighed in the balance, they 
will be found wanting. You would not wish at last to 
belong to either of these classes. You will wish for a 
religion that, when proved by death and eternity, shall 
appear of the right kind. Think not then that you are 
entreated to devote yourself too entirely to God. He 
claims you for his mercies' sake. " I beseech you, by 
the mercies of God, that you present your body a liv- 
ing sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to him, which is 
your reasonable service." O think of those mercies ! 
God made you what you are. You might have been a 
brute,; but he has blessed you with a human form and 
an immortal soul. You enjoy the use of reason. It is 
his gift. You might have been an idiot or a maniac. 
Do you possess hearing, speech, sight? Can you taste, 
feel, smell? It is he who has blessed you with these 
powers ; you might have been deaf, dumb, and blind, 
unable to smell, or feel, or taste. Perhaps you were 
born to the enjoyment of wealth; consider that, but for 
his goodness you might have been the child of a beg- 
gar. If not wealthy, you are probably placed in a situa- 
tion which affords you many temporal comforts. He 
placed you there. You might have been an Arab, wan- 
dering and famishing in burning deserts; a Koon-kee, 
dwelling with the wild beasts, in dens or trees ; a Bush- 
man or a Hottentot, sunk almost to a level with the 
brute creation. You have had parents or friends, whose 
love cheered and blessed your early years. God gave 
them. 'You might have been born where heathenism 
destroys natural affection, and parents offer their chil 



34 DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD URGED FROM 

dren to Moloch. God has been kind in fixing your lot ; 
and has he not been as kind in the dealings of his pro- 
vidence? Of how many comforts has he been the giver ! 
Through how many years has he been your preserver ! 
Your body is formed hkc a delicate yet complicated 
machine, and one part disordered might have disor- 
ganized all the rest. Yet he has kept its parts in ac- 
tion, and preserved and regulated the whole. 

" Your life contains a thousand springs, 

" And dies if one be gone : 
" Strange, that a harp of thousand strings 

" Should keep in tune so long!" 

Ah ! it would not have kept in tune if he had not 
preserved the harmony. Survey your past years. 
They have been )7ears of mercy. He has watched over 
you by day and by night. How many days of ease 
have you enjoyed I How many nights of security 
have you passed, when, sunk in sleep and insensi- 
bility, you had none to secure you but God ! Have you 
enjoyed health ? He gave it. Has sickness, if it visited 
you, yet made but a'transient visit ? He ordered its de- 
parture, raised you from the bed of pain, and bright- 
ened your pallid countenance with the returning 
bloom of health. Have you lived many years, and 
never, even for a day, been destitute of needful food 
and decent clothing? God has supplied these wants 
through all the days of those departed years. Have 
you, from the moment of your birth to tliis hour, had 
friends who have been the solace of your life? God 
gave those friends. Perhaps you have seen twenty, 
thirty, or more years roll away j can you say of one 



HIS GOODNESS IN PROVIDENCE AND GRACE. 35 

day in all those years, That day God forgot me ; that 
day I had nothing from his bounty? You know you 
cannot ; though you doubtless can say, I forgot him 
lor many long rebellious years. Through what chang- 
ing scenes has he led you, and still been uniformly 
kind ! and so kind, that neither ingratitude nor rebel- 
lion has ever checked the torrent of his mercies. He 
blessed you in childhood ; he watched over you in 
youth ; and if riper years have rolled over your head, 
he has crowned those years with all the mercies they 
have brought you. Through how many dangers has 
he led you! From how many storms has he shel- 
tered you ! 

§ 14. Kind in providence, has he not been kinder 
still in grace ? How much has God done to make you 
happy for ever ! Compare your lot with the lot of mil- 
lions; your holy light with their degrading darkness; 
your bright hopes with their mournful despair; the 
brightness of your day with the gloom of their sad 
night. If a Christian, "contrast your pure and peace- 
ful Sabbaths with their unhallowed festivals of cruel- 
ty and superstition ; your resources in sorrow, with all 
their unheeded sadness; your consolations in death, 
with all their dark and cheerless agonies ; your assur- 
ed prospects into eternity, with their cold and heart- 
sickening theories; and what a theme have you for 
gratitude ! what an argument for praise !" Who hath 
made you to differ? Why were you not born in Da- 
homy, or Hindostan, or Ceylon, and trained to wor- 
ship the tiger, or juggernaut, or devils? Some com- 
pute six hundred millions of pagans to exist on earth. 
You might have been one ; but God fixed your lot 



36 DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD URGED F£OM 

where the Gospel spreads a cheering day. There are 
perhaps one hundred millions of papists, the greater 
part of them as ignorant of religion as the heathen 
themselves. Why are you not one ? Why were you 
not born where, instead of learning to adore God and 
the Lamb, you would have been taught to worship 
" silver saviors and saints of gold !" and, nursed in su- 
perstition and vice, have lived the slave of sin, believ- 
ing that you could purchase of antichrist a pardon for 
your crimes? Have you a Bible ? Millions never saw 
its holy pages. For perhaps a thousand millions of 
human beings, but twenty-five millions of Bibles are 
supposed to have been printed. AVhy have you that 
precious book ? God bestowed it on you. 

But I address you as a partaker of still greater mer- 
cies. Turn your eyes from earth to heaven. Think of 
God commending his love toward us, in that wJiile we 
were yet sinners Christ died for us. Think that he 
who kindled up the stars of light assumed your na- 
ture, and suffered in your stead ! and O, what miracles 
of love have been manifested to you ! Nor did they 
stop here. Did not God meet with you when you 
knew him not? Did he not enlighten your mind, that 
else had been for ever dark ? did he not kindle in 
your heart desires that else you VN^ould never have 
felt ? Did he not lead you to that Savior to whom 
else you had never gone? and when you feared re- 
buke, did he not forgive, receive, adopt, and save? 
What mercies are these ! 

Can you not exclaim, "I was lost, but am found ; I 
was dead, but now, I hope, alive; I was a prodigal, but 
here I am in my Father's house !" Who sought, who 



HIS GOODNESS IN PROVIDENCE AND GRACE. 37 

quickened, who gave you welcome there? God, who 
is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved 
you. And look you not forward to a time, when you 
hope, in a heavenly home, to join the song of the ran- 
somed, and to praise redeeming love for ever? And 
.there will you not have to exclaim. What miracle of 
mercy brought me here? me, once so vain, so gay, so 
thoughtless of all real good— me, once so dissipated, 
,„so worldly— me, once stained with ten thousand sins— 
me, for whom the pit of destruction yawned, and 
whom devils expected as their prey ! God, that awful 
venerable name ! God brought me here ; and never, 
never should I have seen this abode of peace, but for 
his saving love. O, my friend, are these rich mercies 
in possession, these richer in prospect, all the gift of 
that much injured, yet still benevolent Being— God ? 
And can he expect, or can you be willing to offer, less 
in return than all you have and are ! Is it much to de- 
vote that little to him who gives so much? Has he 
given you life and health, a thousand comforts, and 
more than doubled all in giving Christ, and will you 
not devote to him yourself and your all ? Will he give 
you heaven, and is it much to devote to him a span ot 
time on earth? O rather, pray, Merciful God! little, 
far too little, is the most I ever can devote to thee ; 
and let me not make that little less, by offering a 
heart but half set on thee, and life but half devoted to 
thee ! O rather, whatever other professors of thy Gos- 
pel do, enable me to offer to th^e all I have, and all I 
am, an unworthy and insignificant, yet a living, and, 
through Jesus Christ, an acceptable sacrifice ! 

§ 15. As one motive more for devotedness to God, 
4 



«o SELFISHNESS LEADS TO RUIN. 

remember that they who live most to God, live most 
to their own true welfare ; and they who live to them- 
selves, live to ruin. On this subject a pious writer 
observes : 

" The fact is, no man will have been found too cun- 
ning for God. Men, all men, will be for ever and ever 
what they were through life. Not a grain of the seed 
sown in time, but what will bear in time and through 
eternity its own fruit. The tree which thou planlest, 
O immortal, of its fruit shalt thou partake for ever. 
By the merits of Christ believers will attain to life 
eternal, but the history of that life eternal will bear 
the motto, 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap.' A life of selfishness invariably ends in dis- 
appointment in some shape or other. There is an in- 
separable, an eternal connexion between actions and 
their fruit, and no wit or cunning of men can dissolve 
it. ' He that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparing- 
ly ; and he that soweth bountifully, shall reap also boun- 
tifully.' ' He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh 
reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall 
of the Spirit reap life everlasting.' 

"But he who has lived to himself, shall 'arise to 
shame and everlasting contempt.' I set before thee a 
heavenly life, a glorious career of Christian benevo- 
lence ; and my grace should have been perfected in 
thy weakness. But thou preferredst a partial view of 
thy own interests, and thou livedst to thyself. Ab- 
sorbed in secular engagements, thou raisedst a noble 
mansion j thou elevatedst thy family to the highest 
dignities, and the name of thy house has survived the 
ravages of centuries. But see, the world is on fire I 



GOD IS LOVE TO TUB BELIEVER. 39 

Behold, a new earth and a new heaven ! What share 
hast thou in this new creation ? Is there one soul on 
these thrones which thou hast instrumentally raised 
thither ? Is there one scene to the beauties of which 
thou hast contributed ? None. All thy labors, all thy 
projects, have perished in the great conflagration, and 
ihou art left alone, since all earthly connexions are 
dissolved, for ever to reflect on the inexpressible folly 
and turpitude of a life which has been consumed on a 
oase and fruitless eff"ort to make self the object of ado- 
ration and service, while the Deity and all the crea- 
tures have been made to ' serve with thy sins.' Go, 
infatuated wretch, eternity is before thee— a god for a 
moment, a miserable reptile for ever. Hadst thou lived 
to me, I had made thee a son and an heir of God. 
Thou hast lived to thyself; thyself in ruins shall be 
to thee the only object of contemplation amidst the 
solitudes and unavailing anguish of eternity 1''* 

§ 16. While the goodness, and love, and compassion 
of God thus claim for him your supreme regard, the 
contemplation of his excellences should fill your soul 
with pure delight. If you are indeed a follower of the 
Lamb, then this God is thy God for ever and ever; 
he will be thy ffuide even unto death. Look at the crea- 
tion, and you may exclaim, " My Father made it all." 
Look at the sun ; it is darkness to his glory. Look at 
the world ; it is the creature of a moment in his sight. 
He, before whom angels veil their faces ; he, at whose 
frown the pillarst of heaven tremble— he is thy God. 
He who inhabiteth eternity is thy God, and is for thee 

Ward 



^ GOD 13 LOVE TO THE BELIEVER. 

preparing a mansion in his own abode. think more 
of God. and less of the world ; more of his favor, and 
less of earthly cares or troubles. What is the world to 
one who has to do with God ? What are its pleasures 
or its pains to one who hopes ere long to be with God ? 
What all the cares tjiat agitate its followers, to one 
that knows he has but a moment here and eternity- 
there? What is the world, what is thy country, what 
all thy friends to thee, compared with God? This 
world is not thy world. This country is not thy coun- 
try. These friends, unless they too are the children 
of God, are not thy lasting friends ; but heaven is thy 
country, and God is thy Friend and thy Father for 
ever. 

And who is he that is thus engaged as thy friend 1 
The God who is love. Love is his brightest glory. 
For scores of ages has he been showering down innu- 
merable blessings on this ungrateful world ; for he is 
love. The meanest insect is not beneath his care. A 
sparrow does not die without him, and the fowl of 
heaven are fed, because GOD IS LOVE. But in eter- 
nity the sun of his love sheds its brightest beams with- 
out one darkening cloud. Joy is diffused through all 
the immense regions of heaven, because GOD IS 
LOVE., Eternal day smiles on its peaceful mansions, 
for God is there, and GOD IS LOVE. Myriads of 
happy spirits; exult therein unsullied holiness, unmin- 
gled happiness, and never-fading glory, for God is 
their friend, and GOD IS LOVE. He pours the tide of 
joy through their abodes, he lights up their eternal 
day : all they are, and all they have, all that heaven 
can furnish and eternal life bestow, all is the gift of 



GOD IS LOVE TO THE BELIEVER. 41 

God, for GOD IS LOVE- And is this God, thy God ! 
then rejoice. The Friend of angels is thy Friend and 
Father ; and GOD IS LOVE TO THEE. What are 
all thy friends, and all their love, compared wilh his 1 
His love that reaches through earth and heaven! His 
love that supplies a sparrow's wants, and crowns wilh 
glory every angel's head! His love that extends 
through time, and stretches to eternity ! His love to 
thee, more boundless than that to the angels that bow 
at his feet! For, for thee, a rebel and a worm, he gave 
his Son. wonder and adore ! This God, thy God! 
O bow at his feet ! Abhor thyself for having ever of- 
fended him, and triumph in his love. Father of hea- 
ven, art thou mv Father, and shall I not delight m thee 1 
Giver of eternal life, art thou my life, and shall I not 
live to thee ? God of angels, art thou my God, and a 
kinder God to me than even to them, and shall I not 
love thee, and yield all my powers to thee, and wish 
to love thee with an angel's fire? Light of eternity, 
art thou my light, and shall I not listen to thee, and 
count all wisdom folly, but the wisdom of thy word? 
all learning ignorance, except the truth thy blessed 
book unfolds? Thou art love. O patient love ! I have 
injured thee, yet thou art kind to me. How are my 
sins, even of a hellish dye ! How have I acted the 
devil's part in sinning against infinite goodness ! and 
orievinc^ infinite love ! Yes, my young friend, these 
mingled feelings of exulting joy in God, and deep self- 
detestation, well become us when viewing the love of 
God Look but at his everlasting love, and there thou 
wilt find a sufficient portion to gladden all thy soul ; and 
without a sigh, thou wilt leave riches, and honors, and 
4* 



42 GOD AN EVER PRESENT FRIEND. 

pleasures, and fame to their possessors, whilst thou 
canst say, GOD IS LOVE, and God is mine. 

§ 17. Reflect further : He, thy God, is ever with 
thee. Friends may be absent, he is always near. He 
sees thy tears, he hears thy prayers, he beholds the 
pantings of thy heart and the desires of thy soul af- 
ter more of his presence, his likeness, and his love. 
He is by when thou art praying in secret ; and he 
goes with thee in thy lonely walks. He gives thee 
strength for the labors of the day ; and watches over 
thee through the darkness of the night. Perhaps thy 
house is poor ; the great ones of the earth might scorn 
to enter thy humble dwelling, or come under thy low- 
ly roof, but thy God is there. Thy cottage is not too 
mean for him, whom the heaven of heavens cannot 
contain, there to dwell with thee. He is by when thou 
art meditating on his word, to pour the light of in- 
struction on thy soul ; to wing thy hopes, and fire thy 
heart, and raise thy desires to the mansions of eternal 
love. He is by when thou art conversing on his good- 
ness ; and hearkens and hears, and a book of remem- 
brance is written for those that fear the Lord and think 
upon his name. Nor is he absent when thou art wish- 
ing that thy eyes were fountains of tears, to pour a 
ceaseless flood because thou lovest and servest him 
no better. Through all thy days of health, God is 
with thee ; and when thou layest on thy sick-bed he 
will be near thee, and near thee in thy dying hour. 

Perhaps thou art unknown and despised on earth, 
thy wisdom counted folly, thy name cast out with 
scorn; but while God is thy portion, what tri- 
fles are poverty, contempt and scorn ! However lowly, 



GOD AN EVERLASTING FRIEND. 43 

however despised on earth ; as his child, thy name is 
written in the book of life, atid stands enrolled in the 
records of heaven. While God is thine, though thou 
may est have little here, thou hast much there. On 
earth but just an humble shelter, in which to lay thy 
head ; but in heaven a7i inhej-itance, incorruptible and 
undejiled, and that cannot fade away. No riches here, 
but endless riches there ; and it matters not if thou 
art poor on earth, whilst thou art rich in heaven. 

Perhaps thou hast few friends, yet canst thou want 
a friend, while God is thy friend? He is more to thee 
than the whole universe ; and his friendship of infi- 
nitely more value than that of all the inhabitants of 
earth or heaven besides. Thou art feeble as a moth, 
but the eternal God is thy refuse, the everlasting arms 
support thee. Thou art beset by foes and dangers, but 
the infinite God is thy shield ; thou art a dying crea- 
ture, but the immortal God is thy life and thy portion. 

Perhaps God has given thee more of the comforts 
and mercies of this dying world ; yet it is a dying 
world, and all is dying around thee. Rejoice, then, 
not in fading transitory things, but in thy God. God 
is thy God for ever, but nothing here is thine for ever. 
The tender parents, or beloved and loving friends, 
whose kindness and affection give life its chief charm, 
and gladden the very heart, are not m this shadowy 
world to be thy friends for ever. The bloom of youth, 
the strength of manhood, the vigor and joy of health, 
will not be thine for ever. The possessions and com- 
forts of this life cannot long be thine. This is not 
the eternal world. All is shadow here, all is change 
and deception. Thy friends must quickly die, but thy 



44 GOD AN EVERLASTING FRIEND. 

God will never die. He inhahiteth eternity. Thy health 
must be changed to sickness, thy ease to pain, ihy life 
to death. Thy taper will expire ; thy sun will set ; 
all thou hast, rapacious death will tear away. Rejoice 
not then in dying things; but if God is thine, glory in 
thy God, who dwells above the reach of change ; thy 
God, the everlasting solace of the immortal soul. And 
he thy friend, thy portion, through the span of life, 
will be thine through eternal years. The sun that 
cheers thee with its light and warmth, must shortly 
shine upon thy grave ; but God, thy glory, will then 
shine with all the beams of heavenly love upon thy 
soul. That sun itself must ere long expire, but God 
shall be thy everlasting light. The world, on which 
thou art a pilgrim now, must perish like a bubble, that 
bursts and is forgotten ; but God, who leads thee here, 
will be thy God in those brighter regions where dwell 
the nations of the saved. 

There will he make thee rich, when all except his 
children are poor; and happy, when all but they are 
wretched. There will his love diffuse joy unutterable, 
far more exceeding and eternal, through thy soul! 
There, "violence shall no more be heard in thy land, 
wasting nor destruction within thy borders ; but thou 
Shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. 
The sun shall be no more thy light by day ; neither 
for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee ; but 
the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and 
thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down : 
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord 
shall be thy everlasting light, and the days of thy 
mourning shall be ended." 



LOVE OF THE LORD JESUS. 45 

§ 18. The views the Scriptures afford you of God, 
should lead you to bind that volume to your heart. 
How different is the God of the Bible from that motley 
train of polluted idols which heathenism has produced ! 
weak and feeble, vile and sinful gods. How different, 
too, is Jehovah from the idol which infidels, who ad- 
mit any God, describe as God ! A God who sees with 
unconcern the vicious conduct of men ; a God divest- 
ed of holiness, and justice, and his brightest attributes. 
Who, except men inspired by God, could represent 
him as he is described in the Scriptures? Whence, 
but from heaven, should Moses and the prophets, and 
the unlettered men of Galilee, obtain these views of 
divine majesty and glory which we have now contem- 
plated ? What but inspiration could teach them what 
the philosophers of all nations, and of all ages, never 
discovered ? and so teach them, that all the philoso- 
phers of the world, with all their vaunted wisdom, are 
mere idiots in divine knowledge, if compared with 
many a poor child instructed from the sacred writings 
in a Sabbath school ! 



CHAPTER II. 



ON THE NATURE AND LOVE OF THE LORD JESUS 
CHRIST; AND ON LOVE TO HIM. 

§ 1. There are few more impressive proofs of hu- 
man depravity, than the general indifference of man- 
kind to subjects of everlasting moment ; and the 



^^ LO^E OP THE LORD JESUS. 

conteii.pt of the world for tlie happy few who are 

warmly devoted to the Savior. Zeal i„^ hlr pursuTs 

sadjj,,ed, zeal for the Gospel is despised. Ye w 

real Christians triumph in their Redeemer's cross 2d 

Gospel, for attachment to which, the world most ridi! 
c« les and despises them. No name is so dear to them 
as that name which shall endure for ever ; no part o 
Christianity so prized as that which is to the Jew a 
stumblmg^block, and to the wise of this world foolish- 
ness. The glowing fervors of a poet's language ex 
press the sober feeling of their hearts. ^ 

" Religion, thou the soul of happiness, 
••And groaning Calvary, of thee! there shine 

The noblest truths; there strongest motives sting; 

1 here sacred violence assaults the soul : 
"There nothing but compulsion is forborne. 

Thou my all ! 

'•My theme! my inspiration! and ray crown! 

" My strength in age ! my rise in low estate ! 

" My soul's ambition, pleasure, wealth ! my world ' 

" My light in darkness ! and my life in death ! 

" My boast through time ! bliss through eternity .' 

" Eternity too short to speak thy praise, 

" Or fathom thy profound of love to man ! 

" To man of men the meanest, ev'n to me ' 

'' My sacrifice ! my God ! What things are these 7 

" Talk they of morals ? O thou bleeding Love ! 

" Thou Maker of new morals to mankind ! 

" The grand moraJity is love to thee !" 

Such regard to the Savior can exist only where ex- 
aited views are entertained of his person and offices 
§ 2. In taking a view of a few of the leading argu- 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 47 

ments that prove that Jesus Christ is God over ail, 
blessed for ever, we may observe that the Scriptures 
repeatedly assert that he is God, and give him the 
names and titles of God. 

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God." John, 1 : 1. That 
Jesus Christ is here spoken of is clear from a follow- 
ing verse. " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us." " They shall call his name Immanuel, 
that is, God with us." Jesus Christ therefore is God 
with us. " Christ came, who is over all, God blessed 
for ever." Rom. 9 : 5. 

The Father is represented as addressing Christ as 
God. " Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, God, is 
for ever and ever." Heb. 1 : 8. While the Father pro- 
nounces him God, God possessed of an everlasting 
dominion, shall we hesitate to acknowledge him di- 
vine ? 

Christ is called the inie God. '• We are in him that 
is true, and in his Son Jesus Christ; this (or he) is the 
true God and eternal life." 1 John, 5 : 20. That the 
person here called the true God is Jesus Christ, is evi- 
dent not merely from the natural import of the pas- 
sage, but from chap. 1, ver. 2, of this epistle, where 
Christ is called " that eternal life that was with the 
Father, and was manifested to us." 

Christ is called the great God, and the miglihj God : 
" Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious ap- 
pearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." 
Tit. 2 : 13. It is Christ, and not the Father, who will 
appear as the Judge of the world ; consequently, as the 
appearing of Christ is that of the great God and our Sa- 



48 tME DIVINITY OF CHRIST 

vior, Jesus Christ is here declared to be the great God. 

" Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and 
his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The 
mighty God, The everlasting Father, (or, The Father 
of the everlasting age,) The Prince of Peace." Isa. 
9 : 6. These are titles which no mere mortal could 
sustain. Yet if Jesus were merely a man, there is no 
more reason for applying them to him, than to Moses ^ 
or Elijah. 

Christ is called the Lord, or Jehovah. This is God's ' 
incommunicable name. He says, " I am Jehovah ;* that 
is my name, and my glory will I not give to another." 
Isa. 42 : 8. This name, the peculiar title of the eternal 
God, is freely applied to Clirist. " This is his name 
whereby he shall be called, the Lord (Jehovah) our 
righteousness." 

" The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare 
ye the way of the Lord (Jehovah,) make straight in 
the desert a highway for our God." Isa. 40 : 3. In 
each of the four Gospels it is asserted that the person 
here spoken of, as a voice crying in the wilderness, 
was John the Baptist. Since John came as a messen- 
ger, to prepare the way for Jesus Christ, he, in this 
celebrated prophecy, is called Jehovah. This view of 
the passage is further confirmed by the language of 
the angel Gabriel -to Zacharias. "Many of the chil- 
dren of Israel shall, he turn to the Lord their God ; and '. 
he shall go before him (the Lord their God) in the ' 
spirit and power of Elias." 

•The English reader of the Scriptures may observe, that 
when the word Jehovah occurs, and is translated the Lord, it 
U printed in small capitals. 



ARGUED mOM THE NAMES HE BEARS- 49 

That Jesus is called Jehovah is further evident from 
observing that the glory of the Lord (Jehovah,) which 
Isaiah saw, was the glory of Christ. " In the year that 
king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord (Jehovah) sit- 
ting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train 
filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims; and 
one cried to another and said. Holy, holy, holy is the 
Lord (Jehovah) of hosts ! the whole earth is full of his 
glory." Isa. 6 : 3. St. John refers to the 9th and 10th 
verses of this chapter, (John, 12 : 40,) and then, speak- 
ing of Christ, adds, These things said Isaiah, ichen he 
saw his glory, and spake of him. It was the glory of 
the Lord of hosts, and of no other person, which the 
prophet saw; and yet St. John says that he then saw 
theglory of Christ, and spake of him. Consequently 
Christ is the Lord (Jehovah) of hosts. 

Thus, in the plain, unperverted language of Scrip- 
ture, is Jesus Christ represented as God, as the true 
God, the great God, the mighty God, Jehovah ; as God 
over all, blessed for ever ; and even as addressed as God 
by the Father. If, as the Unitarians assert, Christ were 
no more than man, how dark, confused, and unintel- 
ligible would that holy volume appear ! Instead of be- 
ing a sure guide, none would be more uncertain. If 
Christ were but man, to worship him would be idola- 
try; yet millions of the best and wisest of mankind 
have been led to worship him by that very book, 
which says, "keep yourselves from idols." If Jesus 
Christ is not God, the sacred writers have deceived 
millions, who wished to know the divine will ; have 
led them to pay divine honors to a man, or an angel ; 
and thus drawn them into the enormous and ruinous 
5 



50 CHRIST SHOWX TO BE GOD BY HIS ATTRIBUTES. 

crime of idolatry. Can you believe a system true which 
evidently leads to this conclusion ? 

§ 3. That Jesus Christ is God, is further proved 
from his possessing those divine excellencies which 
dwell in no created nature. He is eternal. Of himself 
he says, " I am the first and the last :" " These things 
saith the first and the last, who was dead and is alive." 
These words contain "the strongest assertion that 
eternity past and to come belongs to himself. If he is 
the first, none can have been before him ; if he is the 
last, none can be after him."* Were he the eldest 
and the greatest of created beings, he would not be the 
first, for God would have been before him. 

If it were possible to render these passages more 
decisive, it might be done by comparing them with 
some others which speak of Jehovah. " Thus saith Je- 
hovah, I am the first and I am the last, and besides me 
there is no God." " I am the first, I also am the last : 
mine hand also hath laid the foundations of the earth." 
That existence from eternity to eternity, which Jeho- 
vah claims to himself in these passages, Jesus claims 
in the former. 

§ 4. Christ is God, for he is the Creator of all things. 
Let us survey this argument a little more fully. It 
may be stated thus : 

. The Scriptures represent creation as the work of 
God. The same holy volume declares that the crea- 
tion was the work of the Lord Jesus. In effecting this 
work he did not act as an agent of the Father's 
Therefore, as the Creator of all things, lie is God over 
all, blessed for ever. 

* D^right. 



CHRIST THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS. 51 

The Scriptures represent the creation of the uni- 
verse as the work of God ; this is so generally al- 
lowed, that it may seem almost needless to refer to 
that sacred book in proof of the assertion. The Scrip- 
tures appropriate the work of creation to God, and ex- 
clude all others from any participation in the glory of 
having effected that work. " He that built all things is 
God." " Jehovah, thou hast made heaven and earth." 
" Where wast thou when / laid the foundations of the 
earth?" "I am the Lord (Jehovah) that maketh all 
things ; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that 
spreadeth abroad the earth hy myself.'''' " I have made 
the earth, and created man upon it; /, even viy hnnds^ 
have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts 
have I commanded." Thus plainly does Jehovah as- 
sume to himself the glory of creating the universe, 
and deny the claim of every inferior being, how ex- 
alted soever, to any participation in the honor of that 
stupendous work. 

We may next observe, that that holy book which, 
in terms so express, declares God to be author of 
the whole universe, in terms as express ascribes that 
work to Jesus Christ. "In the beginning was the 
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 
was God ; all things were made by him, and without 
him was not any thing made that was made." Criti- 
cism has labored hard to wrest this passage from its 
obvious meaning, but, after all, it stands a steadfast wit- 
ness to the fact, that Christ is the Creator of all things; 
strong as it appears in our translation, but still strong- 
er in the original, "Without him was not made a sin- 
gle thing that was made." " By him were all things 



52 CHRIST THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS. 

created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visi- 
ble and invisible, whether they be thrones or domin- 
ions, or principalities, or powers ; all things were cre- 
ated by him, and for him: and he is before all things, 
and by him all things consist." The language in this 
passage is peculiarly powerful. The leading idea, that 
all things owe their existence to Christ, is repeated 
twice over— by him were all things created— all things 
were created by him. It is also asserted that he exis^t- 
ed before them all ; and that his power keeps them 
all in being— by him all things consist. 

It may properly be observed, that the language used 
here is altogether opposed to the idea of Jesus Christ's 
having acted as the Almighty's agent in producing 
the world ; " He is before all things— Without him 
was not one single thing made." Can he be a crea- 
ture who existed before all creatures ? Can he have 
been made, without whom was not one single thing 
made 7 

The next testimony that shall be adduced is ren- 
dered remarkable by the circumstance of the very 
.same words, which in the Old Testament ascribe crea- 
tion to God, being used in the New Testament to at- 
tribute that work to Christ. " Thou, Lord, in the be- 
ginning hast laid the foundation of the earth ; and the 
heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall pe- 
rish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old 
as doth a garment ; and as a vesture shalt thou fold 
them up, and they shall be changed ; but thou art the 
same, and thy years shall not fail." 

The unavoidable conclusion is, that Jesus Christ is 
God over all. These statements respecting creation, if 



VARIOUS ATTRIBUTES OF CHRIST. 



53 



Christ were a created being, would be perfectly con- 
tradictory; but explained by his own words, "I and 
my Father are one," they are perfectly true and con- 
sistent. 

§ 5. It would occupy too much of this little volume 
to pursue the s-ubject very diffusely ; however, allow 
me to present a few more proofs, in a concise form, by 
placing in one column passages which undoubtedly 
refer to the infinite God; and in an opposite column, 
passages which ascribe the same perfections as Jeho- 
vah possesses to Jesus Christ. 



OMNISCIENCE. 



GOD. 

Thou, thou only knowest the 
hearts of all the children of men. 
1 Kings, 8 : 39. The heart, " who 
can know ii? I the Lord search 
the heart." Jer. 17:10. 



CHRIST. 

I am He who searcheth the 
reins and the hearts. Rev. 2:23. 



These passages are peculiar. In one of them it is 
declared that God only knows the heart. In the other, 
not merely that Christ searches the heart, but is he 
(the Divine Being) who searches the heart. 



The Lord is a God of know- 
ledge; by Iiim are actions weighed. 
1 Sam. 2: 3. 

The Lord understandeth all the 
imaffinations of the thoughts. 1 
Chrbn.28:9. 



I know thy works. Rev. 2 : 2, 
&c. 

Jesus knew their thonsrhts. — 
Luke, 6 ; 8. 5 : 22. 9:47. Matt. 9 : 
4. &c. 



OMNIPRESENCE. 



GOD. 

God is not far from every one 
of us, for in him we live, and 
move, and have our being. Acts, 
17:27. . 



CHRIST. 

Where two or three are gather- 
ed in my name, there am I in tho 
midst of them. Matt. 1 8 : 20. 

Lo, 1 am with you always eveu 
to the eml of lUoworld. Matt. 88; 
20. 



54 



APPEAL TO THE READER. 



I am the Lord 
Mai. 3 : 6. 



IMMUTABILITY. 

change not. I Jtsus Christ, the same yester- 
day, to-day, and for ever. Heb 
I 13 : 8. 



PRESERVATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 
Thou Preserver of men; Thou I Rv Him (ThpieA ^<, »ii .u- 



THE END FOR WHICH ALL THINGS WERE CREATED. 



The Lord hath made all things 
for himself. Prov. 16r4. 



All things were created by hiin 
and for him. Col. 1.17. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNIVERSE. 



God is the King of all the earth. 
Ps. 47 : 7. 

The Lord is King for ever and 
ever. Ps. 10 : 16. The blessed and 
only Potentate, the King of kings, 
and Lord of lords. 1 Tim. 6 : 15. 



He is Lord of all. Acts, 10 : 3R. 

He hath on his vesture a name 
written. King of kings, and Lord 
of lords. Rev. ]9:I3-!6. The 
Lamb ; He is Lord of lords, and 
King of kings. Rev. 17:14. 



DIVINE WORSHIP. 



Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God, and him only shalt thou 
serve. Matt. 4 : 10. 

Thou shalt worship no other 
God, for Jehovah is a jealous God. 
Exod. 34: 14. 

Father, into thy hands I com- 
mend my spirit. Luke, 23 : 46. 



Let all the angels of heaven 
•worship him. Heb. 1 : 6. 

All men should honor the Son, 
even as they honor the Father. 
John, 5 : 23. 

Lord Jesus 
Acts, 7:59. 



receive my spirit. 



Stephen worshipped the Lord Jesus in his dying 
moments. Paul worshipped him. Christians are de° 
scribed as his worshippers. Saints and angels in hea- 
ven worship him. This worship is similar to that which 
they pay to God himself. 

§ 6. Now, as if placed in the presence of God, let 
me call upon you to give a faithful verdict on this 
^reat question— Is the Lord Jesus Christ God over all • 



Christ's humanity. 56 

or is he merely man ? or, at most, an exalted creature ? 
Can a man or an angel bear the exalted titles of God ; 
God with us ; God over all ; the true God ; the great 
God ; the mighty God ; Jehovah ? Can a man or an an- 
gel be the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last; the 
Creator of all things visible and invisible? Can such a 
being be the Searcher of hearts, present in all places 
at the same moment, wherever two or three are gath- 
ered ill his name ? and this to the end of the world ? 
Can a man or an angel be the same yesterday, to-day, 
and for ever? the Preserver and Sovereign of the uni- 
verse ? and the end for which all things were created ? 
Could it be said of a man or an angel, that all should 
honor him as they honor the infinite God ? that even 
all the angels of heaven should worship him ? 

In your progress through the world you may pro- 
bably hear objections started to the all-important truth 
maintained in these pages. Bear in mind, however, 
that there is no truth against which cunning men can- 
not start puzzling objections. One plain assertion of 
God's, on subjects known to him, should do more to 
confirm your belief, than a thousand perplexing cavils 
to shake your confidence. Some bring forward objec- 
tions against the being of God, others against the ex- 
istence of matter ; some will argue that you have no 
soul, others that you have no body. Perhaps the so- 
phistry of their arguments may perplex you. Will 
you therefore believe them? Will you not rather 
scorn their fancied wisdom ? 

$ 7. That holy volume which thus clearly asserts 
the divinity of Jesus Christ, also declares that he was 
strictly and properly man. The Holy Spirit, speaking 



^ THE OBLIGATIONS OF 



by the apostle Paul, unites in one passage, Phil. 2 : 6, 
8, the two views, and in others speaks of the latter 
only. As man, ho was born of a virgin ; was the re- 
puted son of a carpenter ; was subject to his parents ; 
increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with 
God and with man; was himself a carpenter; was 
wearied; hungered; thirsted; wept; prayed; was 
poor and destitute ; was rejected of men, and a man of 
sorrows; was in an agony; was betrayed, judged, 
condemned ; was crucified ; complained of his Father 
forsaking him ; died and was buried. 

How wonderful was the union thus subsisting be- 
tween God and man ! How was human nature exalted, 
when Christ appeared as God manifest in the flesh! 
But the subject grows in wonder as we advance. Je- 
sus, in his exalted state, though God, still is asserted 
to wear the glorified human nature. This subject is 
referred to by the apostle, when referring to the Chris- 
tian's future glory ; '' We look for the Savior, the Lord 
Jesus Christ ; who shall change our vile body, that it 
may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according 
to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all 
things unto himself." 

The Lord himself also speaks of this subject: "I 
am the first and the last ; I am he that liveth and was 
dead, and behold I am alive for evermore." It is only 
as God that he could assert, " I am the first and the 
last." And it is only as man that he could declare, " I 
am he that liveth and was dead:^ The subject is won- 
derful, above the reach of our powers, but not of our 
praise. 

$ 8. The Christian is represented asunder the great- 



CHRISTIANS TO CHRIST. 57 

est obligations to the adorable Savior, and as sensible 
of those obligations. 

" While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 
" When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God 
by the death of his Son." " Who gave himself for our 
sins, to deliver us from the present evil world." Christ 
liath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
made a curse for us." " Jesus, who delivered us from 
the wrath to come." " God hath blessed us with all 
spiritual blessings in heavenly 'places in Christ ; he 
hath made us accepted in the beloved. We have re- 
demption through his blood; are made nigh by the 
blood of Christ ; are no more strangers and foreigners, 
but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the house- 
hold of God." " Being justified by faith, we have peace 
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; and rejoice 
in hope of the glory of God. Being now justified by 
his blood, we shall be saved from wrath, through him." 
" Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our 
sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and 
priests unto God and his Father ; to him he glory and 
dominion for ever and ever." "And they sung a new 
song, saying. Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, 
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of 
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. 
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, 
and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and 
glory, and blessing." 

With what union of heart and voice do the disci- 
ples of Jesus thus express their obligations to him ! 
The grateful acknowledgments of earth become the 
ixieme of heaven ; the song of praise begun by men 



58 



REFLECTIONS ON THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 



below, is carried on by saints and angels in the realms 
above; and the Lamb that was slain is the boast and 
theme alike of earth and heaven. Christians are de- 
scribed not as anticipating, but as actually possessing 
blessings of inestimable value. And all this multitude 
of blessing flows from no superiority or virtue of 
theirs, nor from the mere mercy of their God, but all 
is enjoyed through the blessed Jesus. Are they recon- 
ciled to God? It is through his death. Have they 
peace with God ? He made it through the blood of his 
cross. Have they redemption ? It is through his blood. 
Are they delivered from this present evil world ? He 
gave himself for their deliverance. Have they received 
the atonement? It is through the Lord Jesus. Are 
their sins forgiven ? He is their propitiation. Are they 
delivered from the curse of the law? He was made a 
curse for them. Are they saved from the wrath to 
come? He died and delivered them. Are they rich? 
It is through his poverty. Are they accepted? It is in 
the Beloved. Are they complete? It is in him. Have 
they hope? Jesus Christ is their hope. Are they 
made divinely righteous? He was made a sin-ofFering 
to render them so. Are they made nigh to God? It is 
by the blood of Christ. Have they all spiritual bless- 
ings? They have them in him. His atoning blood has 
done so much for them as to justify the expression of 
a pious minister, " We are floating to heaven in the 
blood of the Deity." 

§ 9. The subject of this chapter displays in the most 
amazing manner the love and condescension of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle represents this love as 
incomprehensible ; " that ye may be able to compre- 
hend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, 



REFLECTIONS OX THE LOVE OF CHKIST. 59 

and depth, and height; and to know the love of 
Christ, which passeth knowledge." We have reason 
to believe the Savior's incarnation the most amazing 
event that ever liappened, even in the records of eter- 
nity ; and. to believe that, through an eternity to come, 
it will never have an equal. Had Gabriel, from bene- 
volence to insects, left the presence of God, to assume 
an insect's form, such condescension and love might 
have excited astonishment in every angel's breast ; but 
with what astonishment must they have beheld the 
incarnation and the sufferings of Jesus! 

They saw him the brightness of his Father's glory, 
and the express image of his person. They worship- 
ped him as the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. 
He had created the heavens and the earth, and upheld 
them in being for four thousand years. He had peopled 
earth with myriads of immortal beings, and he had 
filled heaven with ranks of glorified angels. Seraphim 
and cherubim, thrones and dominions, principalities 
and powers, owed to him their being, their dignity, 
and happiness. He had kindled up the seraph's fire, 
and arrayed with immortal youth, and beauty, and 
glory, every angel's form. 

In heaven these immortal multitudes enjoyed hap- 
piness beneath his smile. Below, all things appeared 
supported by his hand, and governed by his power. 
All was harmony above, and all, excepting man, order 
and subjection below. Thus he reigned, blessing and 
blest: heaven his throne, the universe his kingdom. 
At length a time of inexpressible wonder and astonish- 
ment arrived. From the heights of eternal glory he 
descends. The infinite enjoyments of heaven he leaves •, 
forsakes the bosom of the Father ; quits the region of 



60 REFLECTIONS ON THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 

eternal day; and, in a way surpassing all thought and 
investigation, this divine Person unites himself to hu- 
man nature; so unites himself as to become literally 
man; and though rich, to become poor. And though 
he thovght it not robbery to be equal with God, so co°n- 
nects himself with the nature of man, that he made 
himself of no reputation^ and took upon him the form, of 
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and 
beinff found in fashion as a man, proceeding in his ca- 
reer of humiliation, he humbled himself and became 
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross Piiil. 2 : 
6-9. Thus, in one wondrous person God and man are 
united. When he had thus taken human nature, this 
divine Person spends more than thirty tedious years 
below. He is wearied with labor. The sun scorches 
him by day, and the cold chills him by night. Friends 
forsake him, and enemies murder him. He stoops to 
all. What a succession of wonders! What unequalled 
love! What condescension is here! And this display- 
ed for creatures, meaner, compared with him, than a 
moth compared with an archangel! Creatures, whose 
destruction could not have taken one ray from the 
sun of his glory, nor one drop from the ocean of his 
joy. Creatures, whose very world he could have de- 
stroyed by a word, as easily as a moth is crushed by a 
human hand: and have banished them, and sin, and 
misery together, into everlasting nothingness and 
obhvion. But, with love unparalleled, he descends to 
this dark, polluted world ; and lives and dies for de- 
ceived, guilty, and wretched man. O love divine! 
where are thy limits? Great God! beyond the sight 
of mortals and of angels! The stupendous sun, the 
brilliant moon, the amazing stars, the extended firma- 



DISPLAYED IN HI3 INCARNATION. 61 

mentj these have their bounds, but that love has 
none. It extends 

" Beyond the flaming bounds of space and time." 

It reaches from 

" The living throne, the sapphire blaze, 
" Where angels tremble as they gaze." 

to man's humblest habitation. 

Lift up your eyes and behold this vast world, the 
product of his power ! See its continents and its oceans 
extending for thousands of miles ; those continents may 
be measured, but not his love, who, though God, be- 
came man, to die for man. Sooner would those unfa- 
thomable oceans be fathomed than the deptlis of his 
compassion. Lift up your eyes to the heavens I Sur- 
vey the countless glories of the starry firmament, all 
its fixed or " moving worlds of light !" Let your 
thoughts rove from star to star 1 How great is he who 
formed them all ! Hovv glorious he who has bid them 
shine with undiminished splendor through six thou- 
sand years ! and to whom they are mean as a speck of 
flying dust ! Yet he who hung out those brilliant fires 
stooped from his amazing heights of bhss and majesty 
to assume mortal flesh, and appear a feeble infant, and 
a suffering man. Far sooner should you measure their 
measurable distances, and count their countless num- 
bers, than tell the vaslness of his love, and the bless- 
ings it bestows. 

The sun is darkness, compared with his superior 

glory who hung it in the heavens, and yet he humbled 

himself to the dark abodes of misery and death for 

guilty man. ! when you gaze upon the blue ex- 

6 



63 THE UNION OF CHRIST 

panse, or when the solemn stillness of night banishe? 
from your mind the thoughts of a vain, departing 
world; when you behold the midnight sky, and mark 
the thousands of its glowing fires ; then think, that he 
who fixed them there once hung on Calvary for you, 
that you might shine a star, a sun, in heaven, when all 
those stars shall shine no more. Think that he was 
once mean and dishonored, stained with blood, and 
blue with blows, that you might have a treasure greater 
than a thousand worlds united, and infinitely more 
lasting than the countless lights which illuminate the 
firmament. Amazing love ! 

But vain is language, and vain is thought, it cannot 
grasp this love, nor by all the powers of imagination 
reach it, much less by words express it ! And vain is 
ti-me. Its ages, were they as numerous as the drops of 
winter rain, would not suflice to unfold all the wonders 
of this mysterious wonder ! nor to declare the heights 
and depths, and lengths, and breadths of this myste- 
rious love ! Were " all the love of all the men tiiat 
ever were, or shall be on the earth, and all the love of 
all the angels in heaven, united in one heart, it would 
be a cold heart to that which was pierced with the sol- 
dier's spear."* Holy Jesus, thy creatures can but dis- 
honor thy love, when speaking of it. But come, ingulf 
me in it 1 Come, overwhelm my sinking, rising soul, 
by the amazing view ; at least so far overwhelm it, that 
I may speak, and think, and act, and live and love for 
thee! 

§ 10. While the Scriptures represent the love of 
Christ and the obligations of the Christian as so great, 
they furnish an important view of the Christian cha- 
*Maclautm. 



AND HIS DISCIPLES. 63 

racter, by declaring that an intimate connection sub- 
sists between the eternal Savior and his blood-bought 
flock. To describe this union, ideas are borrowed from 
those unions in the present world that are of the most 
close and binding nature. Is the tie of marriage a 
strong, indissoluble tie? the believer is described as 
married to the Lord Jesus. Is the connection between 
parent and child most affectionate and lasting? the 
Christian is represented as the child of the Savior. Is 
the relation between brethren most dear and intimate? 
Jesus owns his followers as his brethren. Are the vine 
and its branches, the body and its members, but one ? 
Jesus is the vine, and his disciples the branches; he is 
the head of the body, and his disciples the members. 
How dear, how close, how inestimable is that connec- 
tion with the adorable Savior, which such language is 
used to describe ! But on this occasion these passages 
are adduced chiefly as descriptive of the Christian cha- 
racter. In that view glance at them again. Does mar- 
riage express a union of affection and interests? the 
sincere Christian cherishes such affection, and esteems 
his Lord's interests as his own. Does a worthy child 
render filial love and dutiful obedience to a tender pa- 
rent? they who know the Savior's grace render him 
such love and such obedience. Do brethren, united in 
heart, unite in pleasures and pursuits? the Christian, 
honored with the title of a brother of Christ, pants to 
resemble his exalted Lord. The branch is like the 
vine on which it grows. It possesses similar qualities, 
and, nourished by its connection with the tree, pro- 
duces similar fruit. No poisonous qualities harbor in 
the branch, for none harbor in the vine. So, a likeness 
will and must exist between the Savior and his flock ; 



^ FEW CHRISTIANjS IN REALITY. 

a likeness in disposition, in character, in conduct, in 
interest, and aim. Those deadly fruits of nature's tree 
hatred and envy, malice and revenge, and furious rage 
and swelhng pride, are not the fruits that brandies ot 
the living vine will bear ; but fruits of gentleness and 
love, of humility and patience, of faith, and hope, and 
holiness. The same truth is forcibly inculcated in those 
passages which represent Christians as members of the 
body of Christ, as his flesh and bones. Does not one spi- 
rit actuate the body, and direct every member, and move 
every limb? Does not the same blood flow through 
Ihe hand that flows through the foot? Does not the 
same principle that moves the finger, move the arm'? 
Has not every member a similar feeling? Do not all 
display a similar nature? and have not all a similar 
mterest ? Is it thus with the body and the members ? 
and must it not be thus with that spiritual body of 
which Jesus is the head ? All that are truly members 
of Christ feel the same principles within, and are anx- 
ious to display the same character without. The spirit 
that moves one, moves all. The life which animates 
one member, animates all. Jesus is the head of the 
body, and they are his flesh and his bones. 

Perhaps in the present day there is nothing more 
common than self-deception, yet nothing more ruin- 
ous. How few imagine that they are not Christians ' 
but how few bear the Christian character, as drawn 
by the hand of God ! Setting aside the profane and 
the profligate, can we affirm of the generality of those 
that remam, that they resemble the picture of a Chris- 
tian which is exhibited in Scripture ? Can it be said 
of them, that they seek first the kingdom of God and 
his righteousness ? that they are justified, are reconciled 



FEW CHRISTIANS IN REALITY. 63 

to God, and have peace with him through the blood 
of his Son ? Can it be said of them that their sins are 
forgiven them, and that they have redemption through 
the blood of Christ, and belong to the household of 
God ? Can it be said of them, that as the faithful wife 
loves her husband, and esteems his interest hers, so they 
love the Savior, and esteem his interest theirs? Can 
it be said of them, that liiie affectionate children they 
obey the Lord, and like admiring brethren they imi- 
tate their endeared elder brother ? Do they appear like 
branches of the living vine ? displaying likeness to the 
holy Jesus, and manifesting those heaven-born graces 
which his Spirit infuses into every regenerate heart; 
those lovely fruits that branches of such a tree will 
bear ? Do they appear members of Christ ? So con 
nected with him, so like him, that they may be term 
ed even his flesh and bones ? Are the desires and dis- 
positions, the love and hatred, the joys and sorrows, 
the hopes, and fears, and feelings they cherish, so like 
his, that one spirit may be said to move, one life to an- 
imate them? This is the scriptural delineation of a 
Christian; is this theirs? How many of the moral 
and the amiable have not one feature of this portrait! 
Are not many, that even make a more decided profes- 
sion of religion, utterly unlike the picture drawn in 
Scripture colors ? Their careless lives, their worldly 
minds, their groveling hearts, their covetous hands, 
their slandering tongues, their formal prayers, their 
lialf- wasted Sabbaths, their proud resentful dispositions, 
their conformity to the vain world, make up a charac- 
ter as unlike the Scripture character of a Christian, as 
winter is unlike summer, or midnight darkness to 
6* 



66 ON LOVE TO CHRIST. 

noonday splendor. Can these be disciples of Christ ? 
As well might you expect the branches of a vine to 
produce only poisonous berries; as well might you 
expect to find a human body joined to a tiger's 
limbs. Do many that are called Christians bear 
those marks which make their final rejection sure? 
Then inquire what you are. Can you in solemn self- 
examination trace in yourself the growing, though 
too imperfect, features of the Christian's likeness? 
then do you feed on that immortal food, the bread 
of life; then do you pant after all the Savior's 
likeness; and thence go with renewed strength to 
imitate and serve him, through the rest of life's short 
and fleeting span. If this is the case, you may rejoice 
in those promises full of love, and life, and immorta- 
lity, which glow in the sacred page ; you may, you 
should believe, that having received Christ, he has re- 
ceived you. 

§ 11. The love of Christ claims the return of fervent 
love, and a most important trait in the Christian cha- 
racter is, love to the Lord Jesus. The Lord himself 
asserts, that his friends possess this love. " The Fa- 
ther himself loveth you, because ye have loved me." 
He declares that, without a high degree of this love, 
they are not wortliy of him. The grand inquiry that 
he proposed to the apostle Peter after his fall, an in- 
quiry thrice repeated, was, " Simon, son of Jonas, lo- 
vest thou me?" The Scriptures pronounce a divine 
blessing on all who possess this love, and denounce 
an awful curse on all that want it. 

How vain is every hope, as to eternity, where this 
love is absent ? If any man love not the Lord Jesva 
Christ, let him be mafhema v^aran-qthdi m &rcurse4 



ON LOVE TO CHRIST. 67 

«reaturej devoted to destruction. Had it been said, if 
any mun hate the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema, 
millions that now fall under this awful anathema^ 
would have pleaded that it did not refer to them. But 
the words are far more comprehensive. If any man 
LOVE NOT the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. 
Though his character be ever so fair, his moral vir- 
tues ever so many, his knowledge ever so correct and 
extensive, his profession ever so shining, yet if he 
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, he falls^under this 
anathema. 

That love of the Lord Jesus which is thus required 
from every heir of heaven, is not love which can sub- 
sist in the soul, with love to the world and sin. It is 
love stronger than that which a child cherishes for a 
parent, or a parent for a child. The Lord Jesus so- 
lemnly declares, " He that loveth father or mother 
more than me, is not worthy of me ; and he that lov- 
eth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of 
me." If there be one friend or object on earth as dear 
to you as the Savior, you have no proper sense of his 
worth; you have no interest in him. 

The love the real Christian bears to Christ is love 
stronger than the love of life itself. The Son of God 
himself declares this, He that laketh not his cross and 
followeth offer we, is not imrthj of one. To take the 
cross is not to subject ourselves to a few small incon- 
veniences or sufferings for the Savior's sake; but it is 
to tread in the bleedmg way, lo encounter mockery, 
insult, and cruelty, and at last to close the scene of 
sorrow by the slow tortures of a death full of sham.e 
and agony, Tlie Christian may not actually be called 
to these gufferings, yet he must possess that love for 



68 christian's value for christ. 

Christ which would lead him, if he were support- 
ed by his Lord, to encounter them all, and to love the 
Savior more than ease and life. Our Lord speaks of 
this not as the honorable distinction of a few superior 
characters, but as that without which any one would 
^e unworthy of him. He, whosover he be, that 
,aketh not his cross and foUoweth after one, is not icor- 
■fhyofme. 
The dying love of the Lord Jesus is esteemed by 
is disciples, vast as an immeasurable and fathomless 
cean. He is indeed a friend for whom they will sa- 
crifice every other. Thus the apostle acted : / count 
all things loss, that I may win Christ. Learning, 
friends, prospects for future life, ease, health, liberty, 
and life, all were sacrificed by him for Jesus' sake ! 
"Whp.n, expecting that he would make the last sacri- 
fice, his friends wept around him, he calmly said, 
"What mean you to weep and break mine heart? for 
I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at 
Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus." Doubt- 
less, multitudes besides have possessed a similar spirit. 
Many unknown, except in heaven, and others whose 
names are in the records of the church below. Luther, 
invited to Worms, and besought not to venture him- 
self among the perfidious followers of antichrist, re- 
plied, '-Since I am sent for, I am certainly determin- 
ed to enter Worms in the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, though I knew there were so many devils to 
resist me as there are tiles to cover the houses in 
Worms." A martyr said, "My wife and my children 
are so dearly beloved to me, that they cannot be bought 
from me for all the riches and possessions of the duke 
of Bavaria ; but for the love of my Lord God, I will 



christian's value for christ. 69 

willingly forsaken them. Another sufferer, when asked 
if he loved not his wife and family, replied, " Yes : if 
the world were gold, and were mine to dispose of, 1 
would give it to live with them, though it were but 
in prison ; yet my soul and Christ are dearer to me 
than all." 

Did these form too high an estimate of the Savior's 
worth? Were they willing to lose more than was 
needful for him ? Ah no, my friend, without as high 
an estimate you cannot be his disciple. He himsell 
has taught this important lesson : " Whosoever he be 
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot 
be my disciple." You may not (and under our mild 
government most probably will not) be required to sa- 
crifice friends, liberty, and life for adherence to Jesus, 
but in heart you must make the sacrifice. The Chris- 
tian's situation is now very different from what it was 
in the days of a murderous Mary, and a treacherous 
persecuting Charles; but the Christian's spirit must 
be the same ; the Christian's value for Christ must be 
the same. God must see you a martyr in heart, though 
you are not called to martyrdom. Nothing less than 
this can be meant by those solemn and decisive words, 
" Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that 
he hath, he cannot be my disciple." He may assume 
the Christian name, he may make the Christian pro- 
fession, he may join the Christian church, he may in- 
dulge hopes of inheriting the Christian's happiness, 
but he is deceived; he cannot, till he sacrifices his all 
at the foot of the cross, be my disciple. 

Is such your value for the Savior ? Can you for his 
sake endure the frown of friends, the ridicule of former 
companions, the contempt of the great mass of man- 



70 SELF-EXAJIINATION URGED. 

kind, and perhaps decided opposition or persecution in 
some of its many forms? Can you endure to become 
the drunkard's song, to deny yourself your wisdom, 
your companions, your pleasures, your profits, your 
ease, your character, your liberty, your life, and to 
sacrifice all that is dearest to your heart, for Jesus's 
sake ? If he esteems you wise, care you not who deems 
you foolish ? if he smiles, care you not who frowns? if 
he approves, is it to you a little matter who condemns? 
if he bless, is it to you comparatively a trifle, though all 
around you curse ? It will be so, if you are counting 
all things loss for Jesus ; if you are in heart forsaking 
all for his sake ; if you have indeed that value for the 
Savior which his love and your wants require. Can 
you exclaim. Give me but a Savior, great God, I ask 
no more ? Let me but win Jesus, and all I need is mine. 
Were the adorable Savior to propose the question 
to you, that he proposed thrice to Peter, could you 
give a similar reply ? were he to say, Lovest thou me? 
lovest thou me more than these? more than all the 
pursuits of life ? more than parents or than children? 
more than life itself? Couldst thou reply, " Blessed 
Lord, thou knowest all things; I cannot deceive thee. 
I trust, Searcher of hearts ! thou knowest that I love 
thee. I trust thou knowest, that though in myself the 
unworthiest of the most unworthy, yet that thy cross 
is my boast ; thy heaven my hope ; thy approbation 
my reward ; thy love my ambition ; thy will my rule. 
I trust thou knowest that I love thee more than these ; 
if not with more of the fire of my passions, yet with a 
stronger and more steady attachment, an attachment 
stronger than my love of life. But, Lord, thou seest 
I would love thee more ; for cold and weak is mv love 



^ FEW HAVE LOVE TO CHRIST. 7X 

to Ihee, compared with the infinite extent of thy dyincr 
love to me." The Christian may find luispeakable 
comfort, when conscious of being able to make such 
an appeal to Him who searcheth the heart, Thou know- 
est that I love thee. Amidst all my doubts and fears, 
my discouragements and perplexities, my unworthi- 
ness and corruption, amidst all I mourn, and all I pray 
deliverance from, still thou knowest that I love thee. 
Is your religion a religion of this description? oris 
It that common delusive thing which makes few or no 
sacrifices for Christ, which trembles at the frown of a 
friend or the laugh of a scoffer, which adapts itself to 
the fashions of the age, which sins against God and 
duty if an ungodly employer command that sin, which 
lives in the sunshine, but dies in the storm ? If this be 
the case, even now your hope and religion are but 
delusion : but let me jiope better things of you Yet 
of millions we cannot hope better. Look at thafc aged 
man ; he reads his Bible, he goes to the house of God 
no atrocious vices stain his life; but he is vain, impe-' 
nitent, worldly: he stands on the brink of the grave, 
and yet, with all the eagerness of youth, is grasping a 
departed world. He thinks he is a Christian : but does 
he prefer the Savior to all beside? See that aged wo- 
man ; the world is her portion ; she grows fonder and 
fonder of it, more and more careful about it; as vain, 
as trifling as in her youngest years. Does she count 
all things lost for Christ? Behold that young man 
beginning hfe; moral and amiable, but pu'tting^'off the 
concerns of the soul to future years. He enters the 
busy scenes of time with eagerness, but is careless of 
eternal scenes. His time is devoted to the shop, the 
counting-house, the study, or the farm. His conscience 



72 PAULS LOVE TO CHRIST. 

sleeps, because no flagrant guilt alarms it. He assumes 
the Christian name, and goes on the Sabbath to the 
house of prayer; but does he count all things loss for 
Christ? Observe that young woman. Her deluded 
friends think her innocent and safe. She spends more 
time at her glass than with her God. She is more 
careful ot'the fashion of her dress, than of the conver- 
sion and salvation of her soul. Does she part with all 
for Christ? Alas! what myriads are there of such 
perhaps amiable and inoffensive persons, who, after 
all, are so far from being Christians, that, instead of 
sacrificing every thing for Christ, they part with no- 
thing, and never denied themselves one vain delight, 
or resisted one temptation, from regard to him. 

§ 12. Observe how this heavenly grace was exer- 
cised by that great and blessed man, the apostle Paul. 
He expressed it as his prayer, that Christ should he 
magnified in his body, -whether by life or by death, and 
added, For to mc to live is Christ. Self was sub- 
dued, and ruled no longer in his heart. While some 
live to pleasure, some to wealth, some to fame, all for 
which he lived was to bring honor to his Lord. To do 
this, whether weaving a t^nt or preaching the Gospel. 
This was his ruling passion, strong in life, and strong 
in death. Hence that prayer, that Christ might be 
magnified in his body, whether by his life or by his 
death. It was not his desire that Paul might be mag- 
nified, that his name might be honored far and wide, 
that ease and comfort, reputation or wealth, might be 
his portion, but that his Lord might be honored. Nor 
did he pray that Christ should be honored, merely by 
the labors and sufferings of a devoted life, but even by 
his death. Could he by labors and sufferings honor 



73 



his Lord, he was willing to live; could he by dying 
advance his Redeemer's glory, he was willing to die. 
His sufferings were many, but the love of Christ 
constrained him to bear them all. He was in labors 
more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons 
more frequent, in deaths oft; in journeyings often, in 
perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by his 
0W71 countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in 
the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the 
sea, in perils among false brethren ; in weariness and 
pamfuhiess, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, 
HI fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 

A pious writer remarks, "Here is a man impelled 
by some extraordinary principle, sacrificing the ho- 
nors which awaited him, his ease, and every eartldy 
comfort, and voluntarily embracing, and persevering 
i", a life exposing him to stripes, to imprisonments, to 
perils by land and'by sea, to incessant deprivations, to 
want, to persecutions, and to death itself. What can 
constrain such a man to reject the intercessions of his 
friends who are entreating him to retire from these 
conflicts? What is it that impels him to reply, 'What 
mean you to weep and to break mine heart ? for I am 
not only willing to be bound, but to die at Jerusalem ' 
What IS it? 'If we be transported beyond ourselves 
It is to God.' ' I am willing to die at Jerusalem,' but it 
IS 'for the name of the Lord Jesus: It is the love of 
Christ that bears him away, and extinguishes every 
recollection of himself and of his own sufferinxrs This 
IS the secret of the life of Paul ; and this is the sprin<r 
and source of all that is distinguished, all that inte° 
rests us, in the life of Whitfield, of Brainerd, of Pearce 
and of Martyn, In short, this is the source of every 
7 



74 CHARACTER AND SPIRIT OF PAUL. 

thing great in Christian exertion ; and where this is 
wanting, that place remains ' the region and shadow 
of death.' 

" It is this principle which disarms death, and makes 
heaven itself desirable. Hence, while one of the mar- 
tyrs was sealing his testimony with his blood in 
Smithfield, a voice was heard from amidst the flames, 
saying, ' None but Christ— none but Christ— none but 
Christ.' And hence the apostle says ' I desire to depart.' 
Ah ! Paul, thou mayest well wish for rest : thy pilgrim- 
age has been filled with thorns ; many a weary step 
has-t thou trod ; many an hour of excessive labor hast 
thou endured ; many a time hast thou been in perils, in 
prisons, in tumults, in hunger, in thirst. No wonder 
then that such a pilgrim wishes for repose, should de- 
sire to depart. But no— this is not his meaning, ' I de- 
sire to depart, that I may be with Christ.' Yes, this is 
what impels him heavenwards j this, is the torrent that 
carries him irresistibly along to the bosom of the Sa- 
vior."* 

Referring to the life of the same apostle, another dis- 
tinguished writer says, " We see him, in the prosecu- 
tion of his purpose, traveling from country to coun- 
try, enduring every species of hardship, encountering 
every extremity of danger, assaulted by the populace, 
punished by the magistrates, scourged, beat, sioned, 
left for dead ; expecting wherever he came a renewal 
of the same treatment, and the same dangers, yet, 
when driven from one city, preaching in the next j 
spending his whole time in the employment, sacrifi- 
cing to it his pleasures, his ease, his safety; persisting 
in this course to old age, unaltered by the experience 

* Ward. 



ANECDOTE OF A CHRISTIAN NEGRO. 75 

of perverseiiess, ingratitude, prejudice, desertion; un- 
subdued by anxiety, want, labor, persecutions ;' un- 
wearied by long confinement, undismayed by the 
prospect of death. Such was St. Paul."* 

What made him such ? The constraining love of 
Christ. What is necessary to make you in your station 
as zealous and pious as he? To know the love of Christ. 
And why on his part this willingness, this desire, by 
life or death, to honor his Lord ? Because he felt the 
Savior's love, and loved this gracious benefactor. Yet, 
was he more indebted than you or I ? Had Jesus suf- 
fered more for Paul than for you ? had he sacrificed 
more, or did he invite him to a happier heaven? Ah 
no, the blood which ransomed Paul was shed for you, 
and Jesus invites you to the same eternal realms 
of peace and life. O then, under equal obligations 
pray and seek for equal love. ° ' 

A few years ago died an aged Christian negro. She 
was often visited by some friends of religion. On one 
occasion she told them if it was the will of " Jesus 
Massa" to call her to-morrow, she would be satisfied 
to go ; if it was his will to spare her some time longer, 
she should be satisfied to stay. She repeated, that she 
was waiting for her summons from above ; said, God 
spared her a little, and she thanked him for it. By and 
by, when he saw his time, he would come, and then 
she would thank him for that. 

The next evening she appeared faint and low, and 
said she was in pain from head to foot : " Jesus Mas- 
sa " had sent the pain, and she thanked him for it. 
Some day when he saw good, he would come and 
take it away. 

* Paley. 



7G Devotedness to ciirist. 

After lingering thus for some time, still in pain, but 
prayer and praise ever flowintr from her lips, she drew 
near her end. When in her greatest extremities, she 
said her Savior would give her ease wlien he saw 
fit ; and if he did not give it her now, he would give 
it her yonder, pointing upwards. 

How similar the spirit of resignation to the Savior, 
displayed by this poor negro slave, and by the great 
apostle of tlie Gentiles. 

§ 13. The Christian's love to the adorable Jesus is 
described as accompanied by sincere and unreserved 
devotedness to him. "None of us liveth to himself, 
and no man dieth to himself. For whether we hve, 
we live unto the Lord ; and whether we die, we die 
unto the Lord ; whether we live therefore, or die, we 
are the Lord's." " The love of Christ constraineth us ; 
because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then 
were all dead : and that he died for all, that they 
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, 
but unto him which died for them, and rose again." 
"Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God 
in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 

Ransomed with the Savior's blood, the believer, 
amidst all his defects, lives to Christ; lives not to him- 
self, but to the Lord, who died for him. The Chris- 
tian is deUvered from his vain conversation ; becomes 
one of a peculiar people, who are zealous of good 
works; is not his own, but the Lord's; and for the 
sake of Jesus will labor without fainting, and suffer 
with patience. What has now been laid before you is 
represented as descriptive of that character in general, 
not merely in some elevated instances : there is no- 
thing in this description of Avhich grace will not make 



DEVOTEDNESS TO CHRIST. 77 

you a partaker, if in sincerity you go to Christ, and 
follow him. It is true, this standard for the Christian 
character is much higher than that with which many 
professors of religion appear satisfied. But be not 
deceived. God's word is not changed. God's descrip- 
tion of a Christian is not altered to adapt itself to 
their selfish dispositions and worldly minds. We have 
every reason to fear that Christ at last will say to my- 
riads, that in this land of peace profess adherence to 
the Gospel, I never knew you, depart from me. He is 
no Christian who lives to himself; who does not act 
upon the principle, that he is the Lord's ; who does 
not appear a peculiar person, zealous of good works. 
Let him plume himself on his conversion, or what he 
please, he is no Christian. 

An expressive description of devotedness to Jesus is 
that in which the apostle describes his own. " I am 
crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not I, 
but Christ liveth in me." Impressive statement! happy 
they who realize it all! I am crucified with Christ; 
dead, through his cross, to the world, it has no charms 
for me. Yet I live, freed from condemnation and 
death. I live the life of grace. Yet not I ; no excel- 
lency, no natural power of mine produced this life, or 
gives it vigor. Not I ; Christ liveth in me. He governs 
in my soul. He guides and reo^ulates my actions. He 
gave me spiritual life, and his Spirit, dwelling in me, 
produces all the fruits of the life of grace. How hap- 
py a life ! how holy must be its practice ! how bene- 
volent its tendency ! how peaceful its end ! But was it 
the life of an angel ? No ; of a man, and that man 
once one of the chief of sinners, but now made a child 
7* 



78- CADTIONS AGAINST SELF-DECEPTION. 

of God by faith. O pant, and pray, and labor after such 
devotedness to Jesus Christ. You never will repent oi 
being too much devoted to him, though millions have 
mourned being too little. 

§ 14. After this brief delineation of some important 
parts of the Christian character, allow me affection- 
ately to urge on you the grand inquiry, Do these things 
meet in mine? Am I washed from my sins in the 
blood of the Lamb, and justified by faith in the Son of 
God 7 Is my whole dependence on him ? Do I count 
all things loss for him ? Am I united tohim in a bond 
as firm as that which binds husband and wife in 
lasting union? Do I discern a supreme glory in him, 
and cherish a supreme love for him ? Is there no one 
thing on earth so prized by me as Christ crucified ? 
The inquiry is needful, for many deceive themselves. 
All is not gold that glitters. Not all that appear penitent 
truly repent. Not all that profess faith truly believe. 
Not all that seem zealous for the Gospel feel its power. 
Not all that profess to be disciples of Jesus here, will 
dwell with Jesus above. 

To avoid self-deception is so unspeakably momen- 
tous, that it may be useful to observe how far you might 
go, and yet have no saving faith in the Lord Jesus. 

1. You may be free from gross and open sins, may 
be adorned with many moral virtues, may be chaste 
and dutiful, just and liberalj courteous and engaging, 
and yet be a stranger to saving faith in the Lord Jesus. 
All this was the young ruler, who^e history is record- 
ed by the evangelists ; who was so moral and pleasing, 
that Jesus loved him, and yet so worldly that Jesus 
spoke of him as a perishing sinner, of whose conver- 
sion ihere was little hope. 



CAUTIONS ACiAINST SELF-DECEPTION. 79 

2. You may, alarmed or instructed by the preaching 
of the Gospel, have forsaken some iniquities in which 
you once delighted, and yet be no Christian, So Herod 
acted. He listened for a while to the instructions of 
John the Baptist : and when he heard him, he did many 
things, and heard him gladly. Yet Herod soon mur- 
dered the man he once respected, when requested by 
the profligate daughter of a revengeful harlot, 

3. You may be a hearer of the Gospel, and with re- 
gularity, and yet be a stranger to all its blessings. Such 
hearers were the Jews at Capernaum ; when the Lord 
himself preached, they crowded and thronged to ex- 
cess the place where he uttered his divine lessons, yet 
were they so far from embracing the Gospel that he 
said, " Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto hea- 
ven, shalt be thrust down to hell." "Many (he de- 
clares) are called, but few are chosen." Many will be 
rejected at last that may say to him, "We have eaten 
and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in 
our streets." 

4. You may be impressed and affected by the truths 
of the Gospel, and yet not be a disciple of the Lord 
Jesus. So Felix was. When Paul " reasoned of righte- 
ousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix 
trembled." The Lord describes one class of hearers of 
the Gospel, who, when they have heard the word, im- 
mediately receive it with gladness, but yet have no 
root in themselves, and so endure but for a time. 

5. You may be a professor of the Gospel, and yet 
be no Christian ; but destitute of every Gospel bless- 
ing: for you read of those who "profess that they 
know Goo, but in works deny him ;" " who wax worse 
and worse, deceiving and being deceived." 



80 CAUTIONS AGAINST SELF-DECEPTION. 

6. You may pray formally and frequently, and yet 
offer no prayers that God will hear. So did the Phari. 
sees of old; they made long prayers "in the syna- 
gogues and in the streets ;" but it was that they might 
be admired by men, and in that admiration they had 
tneir reward. 

7. You may be esteemed a Christian by others, and 
yet not be a Christian. Doubtless the apostles looked 
on Judas as a faithful brother. When told by their 
Lord, " One of you shall betray me y' each seemed 
to suspect himself, and said, "Lord, is it I?" but no 
one seems to have suspected Judas; yet he was the 
traitor. 

8. You may deem yourself a Christian, and yet not 
be one ; for some deceive themselves. " But be ye do- 
ers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your 
own selves." ° 

9. You may profess to trust in Christ, and call him 
Lord, you may be even engaged in his service, and yet 
be no Christian. " Not every one that saith unto me, 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,' 
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven." 

How many never advance as far as this, vet all this 
only would leave you as far short of heaven as even the 
careless profligate ! It is needful then to inquire, whe- 
ther you have gone much further? whether you have 
received Jesus with all your heart, to cleave to him in 
pain and in ease, in wealth and in poverty, in honor 
and in dishonor, in the sunshine and in the storm, in 
youth and in age, in life and in death, in time and in 
eternity ? 

§ 15. While the adorable Lord Jesus calls for this 



CLAIMS OF Christ's love. 81 

consecration of yourself to him, does he demand too 
much? Can he demand too much? 

Again, contemplate his love, and think how it was 
enhanced by the utter unworthiness of them for whom 
he died. For what a world did he suffer ! a miserable 
world ! yet in love with sin, the source of all its mise- 
ry ! A world in league with Satan, and in dreadful 
subjection to him ! millions hardened in their crimes ! 
millions more heedless in their folly ! every heart by 
nature set against himself, and of not one of whom it 
could be said, This is not a child of sin and wrath! 
The busy wrapt up in care ; the gay pursuing plea- 
sure ; the young charmed with a fading world ; the 
aged still occupied in its pursuits ; yet this active, bu- 
sy, thoughtless world, all dead ! all deserving of eter- 
nal death ! and all under righteous condemnation to 
all its horrors! A world whose guilt no powers can 
measure ; of whose ruin no heart can form a right 
conception ; and whose wretchedness an inspired pen 
described in those two emphatic words. All dead ! Such 
was the world he pitied. How could he pity it ! Such 
was the world from whose polluted tribes he came to 
collect a colony for heaven. How could he stoop to 
accomplish this amazing work of love ! He forsook 
riches, not like those of earth — vain, empty, transient — 
but riches of divine glory, divine blessedness, divine 
majesty. He becomes poor. A babe at Bethlehem, a 
man of sorrows through successive years, an agonizing 
sufferer in Gethsemane, a bleeding victim on Calvary. 
And this poor sufferer is God, made man, for man to 
die. Oh ! how changed from what he was ! How infi- 
nite the difference between the torturing cross and his 
eternal throne! between the thornv crown and the 



82 CHRIST'S LOVE INCOMPARABLE. 

many crowns of divine glory that rested on his head? 
between the murderer's cry, Crucify him, crucify him I 
and the seraph's worship. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord 
of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory ! During 
his transient abode on earth his love shone like a sun, 
but without a setting beam. He dispensed blessings 
with a lavish hand for the body and the soul. He 
cured the diseased, and raised the dead ; he taught 
the ignorant ; he forgave the penitent ; and bound up 
the broken heart. He cheered and comforted his 
friends, he wept and prayed for his enemies. He 
snatched from destruction the soul of a criminal dying 
by his side, and gave that ransomed penitent a place 
in paradise. And has the sun of his love ceased to 
shine? has the torrent of his mercies ceased to flow? 
Ah, no ! the stream still flows with all its abundance. 
The sun still shines with all its glory. He has not be- 
come less loving since he returned to his eternal 
throne, to the bosom of his Father. Do you not say, 
My own experience proves he has not. How long did 
he bear with my unfruitfulness and neglect I how 
many invitations, rich in mercy, have I received from 
him ! how many blessings has he showered on my 
unworthy head ! His patient forbearance, his gracious 
invitations, his oft repeated calls, his unwillingness to 
be denied my heart and soul ! His pardoning mercy, 
and the complete eternal salvation he bestows, all this 
displays his love, and makes it appear as vast and 
boundless as when he dwelt below. And when will 
that love cease ? The narrow span of time cannot set 
limits to its riches ; and the ample ages of eternity 
wiil never bring its end ; he declares that he will dis- 
play it there, by having his followers with him, and 



CLAIMS OF Christ's love. 83 

by exalting them to honors inconceivable now. There 
he will give them eternal deliverance from labors, sins 
and sorrows. There he will own them before his Fa- 
ther, and before an assembled world. And through 
eternal ages he will bless them with his presence, and 
enrich them with his love and care. " For the Lamb 
which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, 
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters ; 
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." 
O boundless love ! that before time began, pitied those 
that in time would be ruined and undone ! Love, that 
reaches from God's high throne of eternal majesty, to 
earth's abyss of sin and wo ! Love, that from this deep 
abyss raises countless myriads to glory, honor, and 
immortality ! that will invest with an angel's eternal 
youth and splendor, millions, once the heirs of sin, 
decay, and death ! that will bless with all an angel's 
happiness these millions, once born to mourn, once 
children of misery I O boundless love ! that traveling 
through eternity, in the greatness of its strength, like 
the sun traveling as a giant through the heavens, shall 
make eternity itself one unclouded day of h.oliness and 
joy ! O love of Jesus Christ ! vain were the wish to 
measure thy heights, and depths, and lengths, and 
breadths ! What dost thou not demand ? 

This love demands little when it demands your all, 
and shall it not have that little ? could you wish to be 
but half devoted to him, whose love to you is bound- 
less and eternal? Whoever lingers in the Christian 
race, make it your study and your prayer to run with 
peed. Whoever is but half a Christian, make it your 
concern and supplication to yield to Christ your soul, 
your life, your heart, your all. Do you want more 



84 



CLAIMS OF Christ's love. 



motives to this? Contrast your present state, if you 
are indeed a Christian, with what it was. Once your 
sins unpardoned, like a mountain, were pressing your 
soul to perdition ; now that load is all removed, and 
your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. Once 
you had no hope, no true peace, no solid comfort ; now 
peace in believing, and hope of the glory of God, and 
peace with God, all are or may be yours. Once you 
were the enemy, now the child of God. Once 'the 
slave of Satan, now the friend of Christ. Once the heir 
of hell, but now of heaven. Once a fit companion for 
devils and the damned, now you have come to the 
general assembly and church of the first-born, whose 
names are written in heaven. Once all was dark and 
gloomy round you and before you, now all is bright 
and cheerful. Once this dream of life was your all, 
and death a curse, a foe, that would end your fleeting 
comforts, and consign you to eternal night ; now life is 
a shadow, eternal life your portion, and death itself a 
friend that will conduct you to eternal day. And all 
this, and more than this, you enjoy through redeem- 
ing love. O what heart should not melt before such 
kindness? who that enjoys it should wish to offer to 
Jesus any thing less than all his heart, all he has, and 
all he is ? 

§ 16. When we connect with this subject the short- 
ness of time, and the nearness of eternity, the conside- 
rations should unite to urge upon us the most heart- 
felt devotedness to our blessed Lord. It is but a little 
span of service, at the most, that you can present to 
that blessed Redeemer who suffered in your stead. 
Time is short. Much of your life is already gone. How 
many that read this page will never double the age 



QUILT OP REJECTING CHRIST, 85 

they have already reached ! How many never see as 
many more years as they have already seen ! What a 
scanty glance surveys our departed years! a still 
scantier might probably survey our lime to come. One 
may say, I have seen fifteen years; and another, I 
have seen twenty; and another, I have seen thirty- 
and another, I have seen forty, and very, very likely 
shall never see as many more ; and O, what a narrow 
span is this, to offer in gratitude to liim who will give 
me a life so lasting, that ages as numberless as the 
flakes of winter snow, and the drops of summer rain, 
were a moment, compared with its immense dura- 
lion ! A thousand lives spent in his service would be 
Bhort. How much shorter is the poor remnant of one! 
Ah ! can you too early devote yourself to this adora- 
ble Savior ? can you too entirely be his to the last hour 
of life ? O may it be your holy ambition to join with 
an apostle in declaring. Whether we live, we live to the 
Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord; whether 
we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. 

§ 17. Still indulge one reflection more. If Jesus ia 
your glory and your boast, then indulge it to promote 
pity for others ; but if you are not his humble disciple, 
indulge it that you may pity yourself. 

How great is their guilt and folly who make light 
of such a Savior ! What an assemblage of wonders 
does his love display ! Yet these are the wonders that 
almost all the world neglect. ! my Redeemer, few 
are the followers thy dying love has gained ! Few 
alas ! regard thy sufferings, and seek the heaven thoj 
hast so dearly purchased for man. Ah ! deceived, de- 
ceiving world ! such hopes to renounce, such a Savior 



oO GUILT OF REJECTING CHRIST. 

again to crucif)^, for the sake of a few poor, short 
years of earthly vanity ! Perhaps you, my youthful 
readers, are not clear from such frightful guilt. Per- 
haps you neglect that Savior who spread the heavens 
abroad, and who created the earth beneath you. Per- 
haps you indulge no thoughts of his love ; or let any 
trifling folly drive sucli thoughts away. Perhaps you 
forget the eternal bliss of heaven, and the bitter ago- 
nies and bloody sufferings of the compassionate Sa- 
vior ; and forget all these for trifles so mean, that they 
would not drive from your thoughts one day of pro- 
mised pleasure, and yet they can induce you to for- 
get a gracious God, a crucified Savior, and an eternal 
world. Ah! foolish creature and unwise, thus to re- 
quite the Lord and giver of salvation I The cruelly to 
yourself of such neglect is as great as the ingrati- 
tude towards him. You, though young, and gay, and 
thoughtless, have a soul whose worth worlds cannot 
measure, whose price worlds cannot pay. You have 
been viewing the Redeemer's works, the earth, the 
sun, the stars of light, but your neglected soul in value 
outweighs them all. The period is coming, when of 
the sun, and all those meaner but brilliant fires, not 
one glittering fragment will remain ; but never will 
that time arrive when your soul shall cease to live. 
Were one person to enjoy all the pleasure that has 
ever been enjoyed by all the millions that have ever 
lived, all that united would be but a moment of plea- 
sure, compared with that enduring bliss which ran- 
somed souls possess in the kingdom of God. And were 
all the sufferings that through almost six thousand 
years have imbittered so many lives, and broken so 
many hearts ; were all the sickness and pains, and all 



r 



RUIN INCURRED. gy 

the dying pangs of the countless millions that death 
hag swept away; were all these united and poured 
upon one unhappy head, it would be less than a drop, 
compared with those mountainous billows of misery 
wh ch, in the world to come, will overwhelm every 
neglecter of the Son of God. These all would not 
form eternal sufferings, not amount to everlasting sor- 
row. These immense sums of happiness or of pain 
would have an end; but the joy or sorrow to which 
you are hastening can have none. How highly you 
valie tliis fleeting life! How precious is even the un- 
certain prospect of a few years of peace and ease! 
Hov bitter are sufferings when no end of them can be 
seen! How bitter is it to the galley slave to think 
that the chain which binds him, binds him foi 
life! How severe a sentence of perpetual imprison- 
ment! Were such your circumstances, how insup- 
portible would the load of misfortune appear ! These 
chaiis for life! This imprisonment for life! What 
tenfold bitterness would the words, " for life," add to 
the prison and the chain ! How great are sorrows 
when only death can end them ! O, what will eternal 
sorr3ws be? sorrows to which no death can ever 
bnnr relief! O, what will be the wretched creature's 
lot VTho has through eternity to exclaim, "Mercy once 
woo3d me, but mercy is gone for ever ! God pitied me, 
but !ias now left me for ever! The Savior I slighted 
IS departed for ever ! for ever ! O, that dreadful for 
ever! Peace, and hope, and comfort, all have left m-e 
for ever! and now this hellish prison is my abode for 
ever! This dismal gloom, this eternal heart-ache, this 
torraenting flame, are my sad portion for ever! O 
coujd that eternity be shortened! O could one hope 



bo OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 

gleam across tl>€ eternal gloom ! could death, thoigh 
at the distance of infinite years, appear to end my sor- 
rows and my being! But no such comfort can -visit 
me ! There is no gleam of hope in the distance of eler- 
nal night. There is no death that can end my being. 
The death I suffer is the death that never dies. God, 
and Christ, and hope, and mercy, and peace, and ease 
are all gone ! wo ! wo is me ! gone for ever and for 
ever!" 

Shall this be your lot ! It must, it will, if you ne- 
glect that blessed Friend whose glory and love this 
chapter has faintly represented to you. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE PERSONALITY, DEITY, AND INFLUENCES OF 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

§ 1. "When the disciple of Jesus contemplates his 
Savior's dying love, the exalted allurements presented 
in the Gospel to a life of piety, and the eternal ter.'ors 
denounced against a life of vice, he is ready to wonder 
that all are not Christians. But when he looks inward, 
and judging from his own heart, perceives what hu- 
man nature is, he is perhaps as ready to wonder ;hat 
Jesus has ani^" followers in so dead a world. Tlese 
views lead thfc mind to that Spirit of truth, who isthe 
source of piety. To his agency the Christian acknow- 
ledges himself indebted for the religion he enjoys ; ind 
is encouraged and pleased by believing that his dinne 



DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 89 

Friend will do that for others which he has done for 
hire. 

Ii is of high importance to have scriptural views re- 
specting the Holy Spirit; the agency, and the divinity, 
and even the personality of the Spirit of God, have 
beeu denied. He has been represented as an angel, 
but most commonly by those who have denied his di- 
vinity, as a mere attribute, the power or the Avisdom 
of God. 

§ 2. In briefly surveying the Scripture testimony 
respecting the Holy Spirit, first observe those passages 
in which his name stands united with the Father and 
the Son. "Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost." "The grace of our Lord Jesus, and the 
love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, 
be with you all. 

If the Holy Ghost were a mere divine attribute, and 
not a divine person, the former of these passages 
might be read, Baptizing them in the name of the Fa- 
ther, and of the Son, and of holy power, or holy wis- 
dom, or divine operation. This, instead of represent- 
ing the Lord Jesus as having spoken sense and truth, 
would represent him as uttering language without 
a meaning. For what meaning could be attached to 
the expression of baptizing in the name of an attribute. 
If a person took an oath of allegiance to the king, the 
peers, and the commons, assembled in parliament, the 
meaning would be obvious; but if he swore allegiance 
to the king, the parliament, and the king's power, the 
Intter part of the oath would convey no idea. 
When the apostle implored for his Christian friends 



90 PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of 
God, he implored most important blessings ; and if '.he 
Holy Spirit is a divine person, not a less important 
one, when he added, the communion of the Hjly 
Ghost. But if the Holy Ghost were a mere attribute, 
wisdom, or power, how absurd would appear a devout 
prayer, that the fellowship of God's power or wisdom 
might be with tliera! 

§ 3. The actions and attributes ascribed to the Holy 
Spirit furnish further proof of his personality. 

The Spirit is said to approve or be ]AeasecL "It 
seemed good to the Holy Ghost."— To be displeased 
or vexed. " They rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit." 
" Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."— To be resisted. 
" Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ; as your fathers 
did, so do ye." — To strive. " My Spirit shall not always 
strive with men." — To hear and speak. "He shall not 
speak of himself, but whatsoever he hear, that shall he 
speak."- 7'o direct. "The Spirit said to Philip, Go 
near, and join thyself to that chariot." — To forbid. 
" They were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach 
the word in Asia." — To guide. "He will guide you 
into all truth." — To inhabit as a temple. " Ye are the 
temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." 
To search and know. " The Spirit searcheth all things, 
even the deep things of God." — 7'o discover what hethus 
knows. " He shall glorify me (Christ,) for he shall re 
ceive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things 
that the Father hath are mine, therefore said I that he 
shall take of mine and show it unto you." " The Com- 
forter shall teach you all things, and bring all things 
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you." — To be sent for this purpose, and when sent, to 



PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 91 

testify^ comfort, and convince. " When the Comforter 
is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, 
even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the 
Father, he shall testify ot me." " When he is come he 
will reprove (or convince; the world of sin, of righte- 
ousness, and of judgment."— 7'o inspire. "Holy men of 
old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."— 
To work and distribute according to his jdeasure. 
"All these worketh one and the same Spirit, dividing 
to every man severally as he ioill.''—To give lije. 
" Quickened by the Spirit.'' To he the object ofatiewpt- 
ed deception. Peter said, "Ananias, Why hath Satan 
filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" 

Is it possible reasonably to suppose, that in a vo- 
lume written by inspired men, to instruct the illite- 
rate, such ]anguag[e sliould be used respecting the wis- 
dom or the power of God ? Could it, to speak merely 
common sense, be said of wisdom, or power, or any 
other attribute, that it is pleased, is displeased, is vex- 
ed, is grieved, is resisted ; that it strives, hears, speaks, 
directs, forbids, inhabits, searches, and knows, reveals, 
teaches, is sent, inspires, works, distributes according 
to its own will, quickens, and is the object of attempt- 
ed deception. If sensible men would not use language 
so absurd, would inspired men use it when penning a 
book designed to enlighten, and guide, and save the 
world ? 

Would the pronoun HE be repeatedly applied, even 
by Christ himself, to the Spirit, if the Spirit w^ere 
merely one of God's perfections? HE shall testify. 
I will send HIM. When HE is come, HE will re- 
prove the world. HE, the Spirit of truth, HE will 
guide you into all truth. HE shall not speak of 



92 DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

HIMSELF, but whatsoever HE shall hear shall HE 
speak. HE will show you things to come. HE shall 
glorify me. HE shall receive of mine. Dividing ac- 
cording as HE will. Would there be any propriety 
in applying expressions like these to God's power 
or wisdom ? Would even a child make use of them ? 
Can we then suppose that he who spake as never 
man spake, should speak thus unintelligibly? Unita- 
rians may talk about eastern allegories and personifi- 
cation, but we may defy them to produce an instance 
from the grave sedate language of a sensible man, of 
personification so absurd as the above would be if it 
were but the language of metaphor. 

§ 4. The plain inference from these arguments is, 
that the Holy Spirit is not a mere attribute, but a per- 
son.* It remains to show that he is a divine person. 

He is called God hy Peter. " Why hath Satan filled 
thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Thou hast not 
lied unto men, but unto God." As lying to the Holy 
Ghost was lying unto God, the natural inference is, 
that the Holy Ghost is God. 

The Holy Ghost is eternal " Christ, who through 
the eternal Spirit offered himself." None is eternal 
but God. 

* On this expression it may be proper to observe, that it is 
used here on this awfully mysterious subject for want of a 
more suitable one. We do not mean, by the use of it, to assert 
such entire distinctness as subsists between two men or two 
angels, but such a distinction between the Spirit, and the Fa- 
ther, and the Son, as is sufficient, notwithstanding their union, 
to sanction assertions respecting one of them which cannot be 
made of another. Thus, for instance, in the economy of redemp- 
tion, the Father sent ; the Son came. The Son took human na- 
ture; the Father and the Spirit did not. 



DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 93 

The Holy Ghost is omniscient. " The Spirit search 
eth all things, even the deep things of God. For what 
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a 
man that is in him ? Even so the things of God know- 
eth no one but the Spirit of God." Could this asser- 
tion be made of any created being ? Of what creature 
could it be affirmed that he surveys the treasures of the 
infinite Mind, knows the inmost secrets of his Creator's 
breast, and searcheth even the deep things of God ? 
Respecting God, it is said, " His thoughts are very 
deep." " His understanding is infinite." " There is no 
searching of his understanding." He is " the only wise 
God." These passages refute such a supposition as 
that the most exalted creature can search the depths 
of his Creator's wisdom. Could an archangel explore 
that wisdom, God would no longer be the only wise. 
His creature would be as wise as himself. He then 
who searches the deep things of God, must himself be 
God ; as the spirit of man is an essential part of man. 
§ 5. The part which the Holy Spirit acts in the eco- 
nomy of redemption further proves his divinity. If not 
God, he must be an angel. But what are angels ? are 
they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister 
for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? The Holy 
Spirit's work is represented as of a far higher nature. 
" Believers are born of the Spirit." Are saved " by the 
renewing of the Holy Ghost." « Are sanctified by the 
Spirit of God." " Abound in hope through the power 
of the Holy Ghost." " Have the love of God shed 
abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost." " Are led 
hy the Spirit, and shall of the Spirit reap life everlast- 
ing." These things cannot be the effects of an angel's 
agency, for elsewhere it is declared that believers are 



94 DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

bar?! of God, and that every good gift, and every per- 
fect gift coineth from the Father of mercies. He there- 
fore who is the distributer of these best gifts, must 
himself be God. 

These "blessings are too great to be communicated 
by any being who is not divine. Could the higiiest 
archangel be represented as the author of them 7 Could 
it without the utmost impiety be said that believers 
are born of Gabriel, are sanctified by Gabriel, abound 
in hope and love by Gabriel, are led by Gabriel, and 
shall of Gabriel reap life everlasting? Would not such 
assertions shock every pious feeling? Would it not be 
felt that such language exalted the creature to the Crea- 
tor's place? Yet, unless the Spirit were one with God, 
it would be as improper to apply such expressions in 
reference to him as to an archangel. 

§ 6. Finally, his divinity is proved from his being 
united with the Father and the Son in the baptismal 
form, and in the blessing implored for Christians. To 
unite a mere attribute with God in those solemn forms 
would be absurd ; but impious to unite a creature, and 
pay him the same religious homage as his Creator. 

§ 7. Besides the numerous passages that have been 
brought forward in proof of the deity of the Son and 
Spirit, the Scriptures abound with others, which admit 
of no reasonable interpretation if that doctrine be re- 
jected. Of this description are the following: "And 
God said. Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR 
likeness." After the fall of man the LORD GOD said, 
" Behold, the man is become osone of us, to know good 
and evil." Similar language is used on other occasions. 
The Lord said, " Let US go down." In the vision of 
the divine glory which Isaiah saw, Jehovah is describ- 



THE spirit's influence. 95 

ed as saying, " Whom shall I send, and who will go 
for US ?" The language of the Most High on these oc- 
casions is correct and just, if the Father, Son and Holy 
Spirit are one God 3 but if the doctrine of the Unitarians 
were true, the language would be unreasonable. 

§ 8. The Christian is represented as unspeakably in- 
debtcd to the Holy Spirit, whose benevolent agency is 
to him the source of unutterable good. When the sub- 
ject is mentioned in a general way, the Holy Spirit's 
influence is described as of the utmost importance. 
When the sacred writers descend to particulars, and 
enumerate distinctly the various blessings bestowed 
by the Holy Spirit, they mention numerous most pre- 
cious mercies. 

The whole renewal of man is ascribed to his injlu- 
ence. "Except a man be born of water and of the 
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 
That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit." " As many as 
received him, to them gave he power to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name ; 
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 

The different parts of the new creation are traced to 
his agency. Me enlightens the mind. " Thou gavest 
thy good Spirit to instruct them." " W^e have receiv- 
ed the Spirit, which is of God, that we might know 
the things that are freely given to us of God." Re- 
pcntance is ascribed to divine iiifuerice. " I will pour 
upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications : and 
they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and 
ihey shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his 



96 THE SPIRITS INFLUENCE. 

only so»." To divine injluence is faith also ascribed. 
" By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of 
yourselves, it is the gift of God." Hope and love are 
described as the product of the SpiriCs fower. "That 
ye may abound in hope, through the power of the 
Holy Ghost." " The love of God is shed abroad in 
our hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto us." " God 
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son in your hearts, 
crying, Abba, Father." The Spirit is further repre- 
sented as the Author of holiness in its most extensive 
sense, iriduding the mortification of sin, and exercise of 
Christian graces and duties. "If ye, through the 
Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." 
" But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are 
justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
Spirit of our God." " The fruit of the Spirit is love, 
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance." That blessed Spirit who thus 
meetens for immortal life all who come to Jesus, is re- 
presented as assisting them in prayer. " We have ac- 
cess by one Spirit unto the Father." " The Spirit also 
helpelh our infirmities." He helps them to persevere. 
" That good thing which was committed unto thee, 
keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us." To 
promote spiritual con fort cdso appears pecidiarly his 
office. The Lord Jesus said, " I will pray the Father, 
and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may 
abide with you for ever." 

Besides other passages in which the work of the 
Holy Spirit is peculiarly mentioned, the Scriptures 
contain multitudes in which the necessity of divine 
influence is declared, or its benefits described in a 
more general way, as benefits bestowed by God. "We 



THE CHRISTIAN THE TEMPLE. 97 

are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
good works," " God worketh in you both to will and 
to do of his good pleasure." "The very God of peace 
sanctify you wholly ; the God of all grace make you 
perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." "The God 
of peace make you perfect in every good work to do 
his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing 
in his sight.." "Without me ye can do nothing." 

If a partaker of the Savior's love, surely you now 
acknowledge "by the grace of God I am what I am." 
§ 9. The subject presents an important view of the 
Christian character. The representation given of the 
Christian as the temple of God, or of the Holy Spirit, 
is of a peculiarly pleasing, solemn, and awakening na- 
ture. The temple was a place solemnly set apart for 
God. It was devoted to the worship and service of 
God ; was favored with his special presence ; and, as 
far as any place on earth could be so, was described 
as his abode. How important therefore is this repre- 
sentation of a real Christian ! the temple of God— re- 
deemed from the world, and solemnly consecrated to 
the worship and service of the Most High— Holiness 
to the Lord inscribed upon this temple, and God, by 
his Spirit, there taking up his abode. 

This is a description of the Christian character 
which cannot possibly comport with a life of worldli- 
ness, ambition, sensuality, or pride. 

As reasonably and as truly might a temple of Dagon 
or of Moloch, or of Juggernaut, be called a temple of 
Jehovah, as a mere nominal Christian be esteemed the 
temple of God's Holy Spirit. On the Christian's heart 
this view should have an impressive and awakening 
9 



93 THE CHRISTIAN THE TEMPLE 

tendency. "Am I the temple of God, and shall I not 
cherish those dispositions which he approves, and seek 
those graces that should dwell in his temple? Shall I 
not apply to him for aid, and strive with all my power 
to banish from this temple those polluting lusts that 
would fain intrude, and offend its blessed inhabitants? 
Should pride, or ambition, or selfishness, or covetous- 
ness, or malice, or envy, or rancor, or revenge, or 
love to the world, be cherished in my heart, I should 
then harbor in this temple the detestable brood of hell. 
And am I indeed the temple of God ? O what manner 
of person ought I to be, in all holy conversation and 
godliness ! 

§ 10. Closely connected with this view of the Chris- 
tian character, is the test of self-examination furnish- 
ed by this subject. The Spirit of God operating on 
the heart, must produce a resemblance of the mind 
which was in Christ. Not indeed at once a perfect re- 
semblance, but a resemblance progressively advancing 
nearer to perfection. The Spirit is declared to lead 
and guide the submissive soul ; will he lead and guide 
in any path, except the path which Jesus trod ? If the 
Spirit leads the soul, he will lead it to all the mind 
which was in Christ ; and in the narrow path of watch- 
ful, humble holiness. The Spirit is declared to renew 
the mind. In whose im.age will he renew it, except 
the image of Christ ? The God of truth declares, '.' If 
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of 
his." Christ himself was a pattern of meekness and 
humility, of gentleness and love, of deadness to the 
world, of forgiveness to enemies, benevolence to 
friends, and devotedness to God. The Spirit of Christ 
will prompt the soul that feels his influence to follow 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 99 

Christ ; will renew the soul in the likeness of its Sa- 
vior. How important a test for judging of our real 
character is thus set before us! Christ was humble. 
Do you indulge ruling pride ? If so, you have not his 
Spirit, you are none of his. Christ was devoted to 
God. Are you careless of him ? If so, you have not 
his Spirit, you are none of his. Christ in his temper 
displayed meekness, gentleness, and forbearance. Do 
haughtiness, and harshness, and violence reign m 
yours ? If so, you have not his Spirit, you are none of 
his. Christ was forgiving to his enemies. Are you im- 
placaiile and unforgiving to yours? If so, you have 
not his Spirit, you are none of his. Oirist was dead to 
this world. Is it the object of your love, and the aim 
of your life? If so, you have not his Spirit, you are 
none of his. Christ was holy, harmless, and undefiled. 
Do you live the willing servant of any lust, the slave 
of any sin ? If so, you have not his Spirit, you are 
none of his. But do you feel wrought in your soul a 
strong desire to grow like him? do you find a relish 
for spiritual objects, a devotedness to Christ? do you 
experience a prevalent concern to acquire his image? 
to be holy, humble, self-denying, meek and genlle, 
dead to the world and all its charms, alive to God, and 
bent on heaven ? You may surely take encourage- 
ment from this, and view it as one of the clearest tes- 
timonies to your possession of the grace of God ; for 
doubtless the reverse of the solemn declaration just 
mentioned is as true as that declaration itself: If any 
man have the Spirit of Christ, he is one of his. 

$ 11. The promised aid of the Spirit furnishes an 
encouraging motive for pursuing eminent holiness. 
" Work out your own salvation with fear and trem- 



100 CAUTIONS AGAINST 

bling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will 
and to do of his good pleasure." Were the Christian 
left to his own feeble powers, he might be disposed, at 
times, almost to sink beneath the load of life, and to 
consider exertion hopeless. But, God worketh in you — 
what now is wanted to insure the acquisition of every 
grace? God worketh in you, both to will and to do. 
He gives the holy desire. He gives ability to execute 
the desire, to do what the soul longs to perform. Could 
a promise like this be made in reference to much 
meaner objects than advancement towards heaven, 
how powerful would be its effect. Were it said to the 
pious husbandman, by a voice from heaven, " Till your 
fields with care, you shall not labor in vain, God works 
with you ;" how zealous would be his labor ! how 
rich a harvest would he anticipate ! what an incite- 
ment would he feel to activity ! 

§ 12. The important discoveries which the Holy 
Scriptures make, respecting the blessed Spirit's agen- 
cy, are connected with cautions or directions of the ut- 
most moment to man's eternal welfare. " Walk in the 
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." 
" Be ye filled with the Spirit." " Grieve not the Holy 
Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of 
redemption." As our obligations to the Holy Spirit are 
so immense; as advancement in the divine life, and 
growing meetness for heaven, depend upon his bless- 
ing, to slight or grieve him is unspeakably foolish and 
wicked. Can the lamp burn without oil to feed its 
flame ? can the cold earth bloom with vernal beauty, 
without the sun to warm its frozen surface, and to call 
that beauty forth 1 can the stream flow whose fountain 
is dried up ? can the limbs move, when the heart has 



GRIEVING THE SPIRIT. 101 

ceased to play? Yet as easily wonld the lamp burn 
without oil, the earth bloom without the enlivenin<r 
sun, the stream flow witliout a fountain, and the limbs 
move when the heart is still in death, as a man sliine 
in Christian graces wit'nout the sanctifying Spirit. 
Then prize the Spirit. Quench not the Spirit ; resist 
not his gentle motions ; stifle not his still small voice. 
Grieve not the Spirit. This admonition expresses the 
interest he takes in human welfare. Grieve him not 
by slighting his blessed influences. Grieve him not by 
undervahiing his aid. Grieve him not by allowing un- 
clean imaginations and hateful passions to harbor in 
his temple. Grieve him not by lagging in the Chris- 
tian course, when he prompts you to run the race that 
is set before you. Grieve him not by cher-ishing a sloth- 
ful lukewarm mind, when he is exciting in your soul 
desires after fervent piety and distinguished useful- 
ness. Perhaps the Scriptures contain no admonition 
more momentous than this, yet how is this forgotten ! 
Thou shalt not kill. Thou shall not commit adultery, 
and similar command-ments, are frequently recollected ; 
but. Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, is, by many 
that profess religion, an almost unregarded precept. 
As you wish to be prepared for eternal blessedness, let 
regard to this important rule govern your lil'e. Often 
think, " Is there any thing in the dispositions I cherish, 
or the conduct I pursue, calculated to grieve the Spirit ? 
or am I anxious to enjoy his blessed aid, and to be 
guided- and led by the Spirit?" 

To these admonitions the Lord Jesus Christ adds, 
what is in fact a direction to pray for the Spirit's aid, 
" I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, 
9* 



102 WONDERS IN man's REDEMPTION. 

and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that 
seeketh findeth ; and to him that knockelh it shall be 
opened. If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
unto your children, how much more shall your hea- 
venly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
him? Encouraging consideration ! such a Father will 
not refuse a blessing so precious ! 

While we are taught that the Spirit's influence is ot 
so much consequence to our own comfort, holiness, 
and happiness, we are reminded that it is of equal im- 
portance in our endeavors to benefit others. " Who 
then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by 
whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every 
man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave 
the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any 
thing, neither he that watereth ; but God that giveth 
the increase." 

§ 13. An animating motive for gratitude is furnished 
by the subject of this chapter. Had a kind physician, 
at an immense expense, ransomed from the gallows a 
wretch condemned to die, and then cured him of a 
deadly plague that infused its poison through every 
vein, and threatened him with a dreadful and inevita- 
ble death, this man would lie under a vast and two- 
fold obligation to his kind benefactor. Yet how insig- 
nificant would be these obligations compared vvith those 
under which every heir of heaven is brought. He, like 
this ruined but favored criminal, has enjoyed a double 
deliverance from death and ruin, from condemnation 
without and the plague of sin within. How divinely 
amiable does God appear as exhibited in the Scrip- 
tures, and how infinitely glorious a scheme is that for 



WONDERS IN man's REDEMPTION. 103 

human redemption 1 The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
conjointly the infinite and everlasting God, are all re- 
presented as acting their part in the wonderful scheme. 
The Father pities an undone world, and cherishes love 
so infinite, that he gives his beloved Son to be the sin- 
ner's sacrifice. He sends him into this world, by one 
dreadful offering of himself, to atone for sins unnum- 
bered, and for guilt that deserved eternal wrath. The 
Son, acting his part in the wonderful plan of mercy, 
assumes human nature, and comes to be a willing vic- 
tim. He dies, and accomplishes his Father's purposes, 
and his own. The scheme of mercy has proceeded so 
far, that God can now be just, and criminal man be 
saved ; sin be punished, and the sinner be forgiven ; for 
the Son of God has atoned for sin, and brought in an 
everlasting righteousness. He rises from the dead, and 
his Father thus declares that justice has no more claim 
upon him. He rises to heaven, to pursue the work of 
mercy in which he labored while upon earth. But all 
the parts of this amazing scheme are not yet developed. 
The agency of the Spirit is now introduced to com^ 
plete the wonderfully gracious plan. He enlightens 
the mind and subdues the soul, disposes it to adore 
the Father's love, to rest on the Son's sacrifice. He re- 
news its dispositions, forms it to a meetness for hea- 
ven, and trains it up for that happy state. Thus God 
begins the scheme, God carries it forward, and God 
completes it. From first to last it is divine. It began 
in divine love, it ends in human happiness, promoting 
the divine glory. It began in heaven, was pursued on 
earth, and ends in heaven. It began in eternity, was 
carried on in time, and when comoleted extends its 
effects to all eternity. This transitory world is ihe 



104 GOODNESS IN MAN'S REDEMPTION. 

theatre on which the most wonderful part of this plan 
was acted ; but it originated in the eternal world, and 
is completed there. Man, the object of this scheme of 
mercy, stands infinitely indebted to the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost. Had the kindness of either been with- 
held, man would have been for ever undone. The 
atonement of the Son would not benefit the sinner, 
were the influence of the Spirit withheld ; nor would 
the influences of the Spirit prepare him for heaven, 
were an interest in the atonement denied him; nor 
would either have been exerted for him, if the Father 
h;id not so loved the world as to give his only Son for 
human salvation. O, see God acting all through this 
scheme of mercy, and filling up the wondrous ^vhole. 
See man, the object of the eternal Father's pity, of the 
^-n's sufferings, and of the Spirit's influence. See every 
one tliai reaches the abodes of light, indebted, eternal- 
ly indebted, to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Among 
the nations of the saved, not one. can or ever will be 
found not thus indebted. Not one of whom it can be 
said. He owes his happiness to other friends, or other 
sources; he owes salvation to the purity of iiis heart, 
to the vigor of his exertions, to the merit of his labors, 
or the severity of his sufferings. Among the countless 
myriads of the great multitude that no man can num- 
ber, not one such will be found. The agency of God 
will be seen to have been exerted for them all ; the Fa- 
ther to have loved them all ; the Son to have atoned 
for them all ; the Spirit to have renewed them all. The 
salvation of each, and all, will be seen as of God, from 
first to last. Thus, while God shines conspicuous 
through all the scheme of love, while God is seen be- 
ginning, pursuing, completing the wonderful plan, the 



THE NATURE OF FAITH. 105 

praise, the endless praise, will be the Lord's. Adore 
this mysterious love; admire this amazing plan of 
mercy ; and pray to be the ineffably happy partaker of 
this unsearchable grace. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE A LIFE OF FAITH. 

§ 1. It is said respecting the author of the Night 
Thoughts, that in his garden he had the painting of a 
seat, which, at a distance, appeared really a seat, but 
when the spectator drew near, he perceived the decep- 
tion, and read the words, 

Invisibilia non decipiunt. 

The things unseen do not deceive. 

How true I how important ! 

" All, all on earth is shadow, all beyond is substance, 
" How solid all where change shall be no more !" 

The Christian, while described as devoted to God, 
is represented as actuated by a principle which makes 
him familiar with things unseen, more familiar than 
with the things of time and sense. That principle is 
Faith. 

Faith, in all cases, means confidence in the truth of 
certain propositions which are presented to the view 
of the mind. I am told there is such a country as In- 
dia. The evidence of this proposition is such, as con- 



106 THE NATUKE OK EAirH. 

vinces my mind of its truth. I believe, or I have faith, 
in the statement. When convinced of this truth, I 
might be unwilling to take a voyage to India, but if 
Avilling to undertake it, should have no apprehension 
of finding that no such country existed. In this case, 
and many others, what is faith but confidence in the 
truth of certain propositions? Confidence, resting upon 
sufficient evidence. Less than this may be thinking a 
statement probable, but it is not believing. I may think 
it probable that a certain person will prove a kind 
friend, and this may influence my conduct, but I do 
not actually believe this, till the evidence convinces 
my mind that he is indeed a friend. 

If the truths thus presented to my view are truths 
which immediately concern myself, belief in them pro- 
duces correspondent emotions and conduct. I am told 
of some impending danger that threatens me with 
ruin. Belief in the statement excites concern, alarm, 
and endeavors to avoid the threatening evil. I am told 
of some important advantage offered to me. Belief in 
the statement leads me to embrace the offer, and seize 
the proffered good. If I merel}^ think it probable that 
such danger threatens, or such good is offered, I can- 
not be said to believe either the one or the other. I 
think it likely,_that is all ; and the mere likelihood, 
though it may excite some degree of alarm or desire, 
will probably do nothing more. 

Saving faith includes a confidence in the truth of 
those statements which the Gospel makes respecting 
the Lord Jesus Christ; and in other words, the mind 
is convinced of the certainty of the discoveries of the 
Scriptures respecting him and his salvation. That in 
this case, as well as where the subjects of time are 



CHRISTIAN JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. 107 

concerned, this confidence is a principal part of faith, 
is evident from the divine word. Rom. 4; 20-22, 
Heb. 11: 1, J3. 

In saving faith, with this conviction of the truth of 
the great discoveries of the Gospel is united the cor- 
dial acquiescence »f the heart in this way of salvation. 
The Scriptyres declare that it is with the heart man 
believeth unto righteousness. When the believing pa- 
triarchs are represented as persuaded of the promises, 
it is added, and embraced them. Jesus Christ appears 
to represent comhig to him as the "same thing as be- 
lieving on him, and believers on him are said to re- 
ceive him. As the heart is represented as the seat of 
the affections, to believe with the heart, suggests not 
merely the idea of confidence in a truth proposed, or 
a friend revealed, but the cordial affectionate reception 
of that truth. And such is the case with every believer 
in the Son of God. Am I convinced that sin has un- 
done me? Am I anxious for that salvation which I 
feel to be beyond the attainment of human efforts? 
While in this state of mind, am I convinced tliat it is 
indeed a faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into 
the world to save sinners ? This is a declaration full 
of comfort. I feel it to be suited to my condition. I 
perceive the Son of God to be such a Savior as my 
wants require. My heart welcomes this Savior, and 
cordially acquiesces in this scheme of mercy ; I rest 
on his promise, and intrust my all for eternity to his 
care. Now I can say, "Lord, I believe." 

Let it not be imagined that the view now given of 
saving faith would insinuate that God is not its giver. 
He is strictly its author, as he enlightens the mind, 
and disposes it to form a correct judgment respecting 



i08 THE CHRISTIAN LIVES BY FAITH., 

the certainty of Gospel truths, and as he disposea the 
heart to acquiesce in the Gospel scheme of salvation, 
and leads the penitent to commit his eternal all to the 
Lamb that was slain. 

§ 2. The Christian lives by failh, as by faith in the 
Son of God he is delivered from condemnation, and 
made the heir of eternal life, and as faith directs his 
conduct and governs his life. * 

While believers are thus represented as forgiven, 
justified, and accepted with God, through faith, the 
Scriptures explicitly declare that this is not in conse- 
quence of some virtue existing in faith itself, but in 
consequence of what the Son of God has done and 
suffered, whose people they become by faith. Before 
they believe they are ungodly, and after they believe 
are still unworthy ! 

The atonement of the blessed Jesus is that on which 
justifying faith more especially fixes. Hence it is de- 
scribed as FAITH IN HIS BLOOD. The expression is re- 
markable. It is not faith in his divine commission, 
faith in his rich benevolence, faith in his gracious 
promises, faith in his lovely character, but faith in 
HIS BLOOD. And as a propitiation for sin it is, by faith 
in his blood, that the soul enjoys the benefits he be- 
stows. The Socinian has faith in his divine commis- 
sion : what will it avail him ? the Mahomed an has the 
same. The humble disciple has faith in his blood. 
The importance of a faith which thus fixes on the 
atoning death of the Savior, appears inculcated by 
himself, in the most solemn manner, when he, in a 
figurative discourse, represented his flesh and blood as 
the meat and drink of his disciples. 

fi 3. The nature of faith is illustrated in the word of 



THE NATURE OF FAITH. 109 

Ood by a reference to its effects. It is represented as 
a strong confidence in the truth of divine declarations 
or promises ; a confidence doubtless resting on the di- 
vuie character, and so strong as to lead its possessors 
cheerfully to follow wherever God directed them to 
go, and cheerfully to perform whatever God directed 
them to do. Faith influenced Noah. Perhaps a cen- 
tury before the deluge God announced that tremen- 
dous judgment, and commanded him to build the ark. 
At that time, and probably for many succeeding years, 
no indications of the flood were seen. Seed-time and 
harvest, summer and winter, pursued their usual 
course. Sun and moon, and all the heavenly bodies 
moved in their accustomed order. But God had spo- 
ken, and assured of God's faithfulness and veracity 
Noah prepared for the dreadful day, which he was 
sure would come. He built the ark— the day of de- 
struction arrived— but he was safe. Of Abraham, the 
father of the faithful, it is added, « By faith Abraham, 
when he was called to go out into a place which he 
should after receive for an -inheritance, obeyed ; and 
he went out, not knowing whither he went." "He 
knew not whether the people would be friends or ene- 
mies, kind or cruel." Whether sorrow or comfort 
awaited him in that strange land. But assured of the 
wisdom and goodness of God, he confided fully in the 
promise that God made him. God had commanded 
him to forsake his country. This was sufficient. 
Wherever he might roam, God would be his guide. 
This was enough to render him safe and happy. 

§ 4. In the account given by the word of God re- 
specting faith, it is represented as producing effects 
10 



110 EFFECTS OF FAITH 

similar to those which sight would produce. What sight 
is with respect to this world, faith is with respect to 
the next. 

As faith in regard to eternal things, is similar to 
sight with respect to those of time, so it produces ef- 
fects exactly similar. Were the Christian to see the 
Son of God expiring for his sins, what more could 
sight effect, than to lead him to abhor himself, to hate 
his sins, and to yield himself a living sacrifice to his 
crucified Lord ? All this faith effects, wherever it is 
genuine. Were the glories of eternity unveiled to the 
believer's eye, and the bliss of heaven presented to his 
sight, what more could the sight effect, than lead the 
soul to seek its portion above, to slight the trifles of 
time, and feel and act as a pilgrim upon earth ? Where 
faith is possessed, all this will be effected ; not with 
feelings as lively, or perceptions as vivid, as those pro- 
duced by sight, but the choice will be as real, and the 
affections as truly turned to heaven, and fixed and cen- 
tering there. 

Were the scenes of eternal judgraentj or the dark 
prison of eternal misery, presented to the Christian's 
sight, what could it effect more than lead him earnest- 
ly to flee from the wrath to come, and to prepare to 
render his last account? And this, too, faith effects on 
all that feel its saving power. 

Were a dying Savior, a blissful heaven, the awful 
judgment-throne, and a miserable hell, presented io- 
gelher to the Christian's view, what more could the 
sight effect, than lead him so earnestly to flee the 
dreaded evil, so devoutly to seize the proffered good, 
that, compared with this, health, and liberty, and 
friends, and life shfKild seenii things of no account in 



LIKE THOSE OF CHRIST. Ill 

his esteem'? Could sight do more than lead him to 
resign all these, and lo choose pain, and bonds, and 
death, so that he might but win Christ and heaven? 
All this faith has done; and done not only in one so- 
litary instance, but in millions of instances. It has 
been supposed that since Christianity arose, not less 
than iiiiy millions of martyrs have laid down their 
lives for its sake. Thus, even when sufferings or death 
are in the way, faith still leads the true Christian for- 
ward. It is an unseen heaven that he seeks, an unseen 
hell that he dreads, an unseen God tliat he loves, and 
an unseen Savior to whom he resigns himself. Yet, 
while all that in his esteem is most dreadful, or most 
allurinjz-, is unseen, he avoids or pursues these unseen 
things with a resolution as strong, and a heart as de- 
cided, as that of the most inveterate worldling, who is 
pursuing the visible objects of earth and time. It may 
rather be said, with a stronger resolution and a firmer 
decision. For let almost certain death stand between 
the worldling and his object, and he shrinks from the 
pursuit; but he whose faith is genuine, strengthened 
from above, will not shrink from the pursuit of Christ 
and heaven, though painful bonds, or certain death 
obstruct his way. 

In the illustrations of the effects of.faith, which have 
already been adduced from the word of God, it is 
plain that its effects were such as sight would have 
produced. Had Noah seen the deluge, could he have 
done more than build the ark? Had Abraham seen the 
country to which God would lead him, and beheld 
even a thousand attractions, could he have yielded a 
more ready obedience to the divine command? 

In the case of Moses, what could sight have done 



112 EFFECTS OF FAITH 

which faith did not effect? Could he have suffered 
with more resolution ? could he have chosen God as 
his portion with more decision ? could he have sought 
eternal rest with more patient perseverance ? He suf- 
fered, he acted, he endured, a« seeing him who is in- 
visible, and seeing the things that are unseen. 

The same were the effects of faith on the holy host 
of confessors, who were tortured, were stoned, were 
sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the 
sword ; who wandered about in sheep-skins and goat- 
skins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented ; of whom 
the world was not worthy. 

Surely the faith of these sufferers accomplished all 
that could have been accomplished if they beheld 
their " God in glory," and their wished-for home. 
Could they, who died martyrs that they might obtain 
a better resurrection, have done more than die, if all 
the solemn and triumphant scenes of that resurrec- 
tion had been exhibited to their view ? Could they who 
met death in a hundred horrid forms, or wandered in 
the dens of wild beasts, more desolate than they— 
could they have endured more constantly if the world 
they sought had been continually before their eyes ? 
Faith was indeed to all these the substance of things 
hoped for. They all endured as seeing things invisible. 

In accordance with this view of the effects of faith, 
the Christian is described as walking by faith. "We 
walk by faith, not by sight." The idea suggested ap- 
pears to be, that the Christian pilgrim pursues his 
journey to eternity with his heart, and soul, and affec- 
tions, and actions, directed by those solemn objects 
which are as yet unseen. He goes forward step by 
step, influenced solely in his choice, and heart, and 



LIKE THOSE OF CHRIST. 113 

conduct, not by the visible objects which charm the 
deluded eyes of worldly men, but by the invisible 
realities of an everlasting slate. 

According to Scripture representations, Faith over- 
comes the world.— Faith produces love.— Faith insures 
holy obedience. — Faith prornotes inward purity as well 
as outward obedience.— Faith is a source of peace and 
comfort. — Faith gives energy to patience, and promotes 
perseverance. Faith is a shield. The warrior's shield 
protected his body, and warded off the thrusts and 
blows of his enemy; so faith protects the Christian 
warrior. It is a breast plate. The breast-plate, as the 
word suggests, was designed to guard the breast, and 
thus protect the vital parts, and especially the heart. 
This is the place of faith, and while faith is possessed, 
the heart will be engaged for God, its affections will 
still turn to him, and the humble believer, safe in this 
impenetrable breast-plate, will be kept by the power 
of God, through faith, to final victory and full sal va~ 
tion.— Fa/7/i produces spirituality of mind and affec- 
tion.— Faith can be exhibited only by its fruits. "Show 
me thy faith without thy works." Do it if thou canst. 
It is beyond thy power to do so.— Faith cannot live 
without being productive of the fruits thus described. 
This is evident from the fact, that in the most solemn 
manner the Son of God declares that those only shall 
enter heaven who do his Father's will, and yet that 
with equal certainty salvation is promised to every 
believer. The inference is clear; every believer will 
do the will and hearken to the precepts of God. 

Need we wonder that the faith which produces such 
effects, and with which the most valuable blessings are 
10* 



il4 FAITH PROVED BY WORKS. 

connected, is described as precious faith ; and have we 
not reason to unite in the frequent prayer of the apos- 
tles, "Lord, increase our faith!" 

§ 5. Are you a believer? You have borne the name 
of Christian; but most who bear that sacred and 
abused name are practical unbelievers. If you have 
been one of the careless and the formal, permit me to 
ask, should you fear a threatening dagger ? should you 
dread to swallow a bowl of poison ? You know you 
would ; but why ? Have you ever felt the miseries in- 
flicted by a dagger or by poison ? You have not. Why 
then would )^ou fear them? Because you believe, on 
the testimony of others, the dreadful effects of daggers 
and of poisons. You avoid them, through faith. A 
greater than mortals, a greater than angels, the Lord 
Jesus Christ himself, declares that you are a lost crea- 
ture, and tells you of scenes of misery to which sin 
leads, more dreadful than the most dreadful here— of 
a world where eternal horror reigns ; where miseries 
beyond description dwell ; where, could they inflict a 
second death, daggers and poisons would be blessings 
indeed— blessings fought for more earnestly than 
crowns on earth! He tells you of an eternal hell, 
which sin has merited, and to which sin is sinking 
you ; and do you believe ? O ! if you did, you would 
flee from the wrath to come. 

A friend tells you of some important good that you 
may obtain ; you follow it. Of some pleasures you 
may enjoy ; you pursue them. Why ? because you 
believe his word, and believe they will increase yonr 
satisfaction. Perhaps you are ill. An acquaintance 
tells you of a medicine that is an infallible antidote to 
your disorder: you take it. Why? have you ever 



WANT OF FAITH. 115 

tried its virtues? No : but you believe him who has. 
In all these cases you are a believer, and faith leads 
you to pursue desired good. 

God tells you in his word, that, pitying your misery 
and concerned for your happiness, he gave his best 
Beloved to suffer in your place. This divine friend 
calls you to follow him, and assures you that eternal 
life is the heritage of his disciples. The joys oi earth 
are only like gliding shadows or departing dreams of 
joy. Heaven alone possesses the fair reality. Every 
thing fades here ; nothing fades there. Here time is 
short; but there, eternity how long ! Yet in this moment 
must that eternity of bliss be gained, or never be ob 
tained. Now would the Savior make you an heir of 
heaven ; but beyond the grave he will never extend to 
you a pitying, helping hand. All this he declares to 
you in his word. You profess, perhaps, to believe it 
all, and, O dreadful ! you slight it all. Do you believe 
him? What infatuation ! what want of common sense 
to suppose you do ! No ! if you did, you would flee to 
the shelter of his cross, and find salvation there. No ! 
if you did believe him, you would not prefer earth to 
heaven, and a moment to eternity. No ! if you did be- 
lieve him, you would not continue dying of sin, and 
careless of the great Physician. And while you ne- 
glect him, what are you but a practical infidel ? You 
may talk of eternity and prefer time before it, but not 
believe in eternal life, as the gift of God through Jesus 
Christ, and think of eternal life, without feeling that 
time is a dream, and life a vapor. If this earth couid 
be hung on one side of a balance, and a speck of dust 
be laid in the other scale, would the dust weigh down 
the world ? Sooner would it do so, than time be pre- 



116 WANT OF FAITH. 

ferred to eternity by him who cordially believes what 
the blessed Scriptures say about his wretchedness, and 
his only remedy ! 

Ah ! what solemn scenes will soon open upon you ; 
an endless world and all its endless joys or woes; the 
mighty Redeemer and the eternal God. Were there 
only a probability of that solemn woild, it might be 
sufficient to make a reasonable creature indifferent to 
one so transitory and perishing as this ; but here it is 
not bare probability, it is certainty ; and yet will you 
grasp at the passing shadows of this world, and neglect 
the endless realities of the other! Now you say of a 
part of life, it is gone; yet you look forward and hope 
for other years to come ; but what will be your slate 
when looking backward ? you must say, Time is gone ; 
and looking forward. Eternity is come. O that awful, 
that dreadful eternity ! How will it torment the mur- 
derers of time! how will it teach the tlioughiless sin- 
ner, and the mere nominal Christian, their folly and 
their madness. In tliis world, the most wretched may 
look for ease from earthly misery in the hallowed rest 
of the grave ; there, they may say, the wicked cease 
from troubling, and the weary are at rest. But when 
they enter that neglected eternity, O, what a change 
will there be in this respect I As there no death alarms 
the happy, so no death relieves the miserable. On 
earth, sleep may afford the most miserable intervals 
of ease ; but there will be no sleeping in hell. The 
sufferer on the bed of distraction and pain often finds 
relief in the power of laudanum and opiates. how 
often, when sitting by such a bed, have I thought, 
there will be no laudanum in the world of wretched 
spirits ! no medicines there to assuage the force of 



WANT OF FAITH. 117 

pain, or render the sufferer insensible of his state ' All 
this, too, deserved by sin. And do you profess to be- 
lieve the book which warns you of such danger, and 
shows you how to escape ? and yet do you slight that 
salvation ? O what heads, what hearts have they who, 
professing to believe these things, can trifle life away ! 
You would start with horror at a proposition to mur- 
der yourself; can you, without hesitation, do ten times 
worse than murder your immortal soul ? by a careless, 
ungodly life train it for destruction ; fit it for hell ; 
make it the eternal enemy of God ; prepare it to be a 
suitable companion for devils ; and eternally subject 
it to Satan's power ! If you were in a room surrounded 
with armed enemies, and one were to enter with two 
lists in his hand, in one or the other of which the name 
of every person present would be found ; if all in one 
list were devoted to death, consigned to the bayonets 
of the surrounding soldiers, and all in the other list 
sure of life and joy, how anxious would you be to 
know in which list your name stood ! especially if the 
dead list were the more numerous of the two ! Yet 
here all your anxiety would be concerning a life that 
must soon end by disease, if saved from violence. But 
eternal life or eternal death is before you ; and do you 
never think it worth while to inquire. Is my name 
written in the book of life ? am I a candidate for glory ? 
have I fled to the Giver of life eternal, and found sal- 
vation in him ? or does my name still stand in the list 
of those who are the slaves of sin, the children of wrath, 
and the heirs of hell ? O my fellow-sinner ! if you have 
hitherto professed to believe the Bible, and yet with 
the multitude neglected Jesus and salvation, learn 
more wisdom now. You cannot neglect this much 



118 FAITH TO BE 

longer, without neglecting it for ever. Be then what 
you profess to be, be not a hypocrite or a practical in- 
fidel, and you will be a Christian. 

§ 6. But, perhaps, the eye that reads this page is an 
eye that sees no glory like that it sees in Christ ; yet if 
you have reason to hope it is so, still it is needful often 
to commune with your own heart, often to examine 
your own condition. Try yourself, my friend ; the 
Judge eternal will try us all. Try your every grace; 
hereafter all must be tried. And is your faith like that 
described m the precious Scriptures, as genuine and 
saving? is it ''the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen?" does it engage your 
heart powerfully and decidedly for God and Christ ? 
does it lead you to act as seeing him who is invisible? 
and though you see not God, to live, and pray, and 
persevere as if you saw him ? Though the blessed Je- 
sus is unseen by you, does faith lead you to trust him, 
and love him, and follow him? so that it may be said, 
whom having not seen, ^oz^love; in whom, though 
now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice ; and 
whose word you hear with as much deference as if 
you heard him speaking from "heaven. 

While the things that are seen would engage your 
heart, does faith lead you to look above them? to 
choose a world you never saw, before ihat you daily 
see? to set your affections upon a heaven, of which 
by sight you never gained the slightest glimpse, in pre- 
ference to the honors, and profits, and pleasures of 
earth and lime? and to flee more earnestly from an 
unseen world of ruin, than you would from 

" Hunger, poverty, and pain, 

" And all the transitory iiis below 1" 



CHERISHED AND EXERCISED, 119 

Does faith cause you, with Enoch, to walk with 
God? with Noah, to dread God's threatened judg- 
ments? with Abraham, to forsake an earthly, and seek 
a better country ? with Moses, to esteem the reproach 
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt? 
with Paul, to count all things but loss that you may 
win Christ, and be found in him ? and with all the 
holy host of martyrs, whatever you may lose, whate- 
ver you may suffer here, still to persevere, looking for 
a better resurrection ? 

In short, does faith thus govern your heart, thus di- 
rect your choice, thus rule your conduct, thus fire 
your love, thus wing your desires, thus strengthen 
your hopes, and thus enable you to live on earth as a 
stranger traveling to heaven ? If it be genuine, if it be 
saving, these will be its effects; and if effects of this 
kind are not produced, you have but the shadow, 
instead of the substance. 

Make it your study and prayer to bring faith into 
daily and hourly exercise. You believe in a gracious, 
an all-seeing and almighty God : act as in his sight. 
You believe in an atoning Savior: look daily to him 
as your life, your all. You believe in eternal judg- 
ment: now live as one whose actions and thoughts 
must then be scrutinized ; live as you will wish to have 
done, when standing to receive the sentence of your 
Judge. You believe that there is a happy heaven : pur- 
sue it with that earnestness which eternal life demands. 
You believe that there is a miserable prison of eternal 
punishment: watch and pray against sin, the- source 
of misery, the cause of the creation of hell. You be- 
lieve that your way to eternity is beset with snares : 
watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. You be- 



120 FAITH TO BE EXERCISED. 

iieve that you are dark in your reason, and weak in 
your powers: listen then with all humility to him 
whose knowledge is as boundless as yours is confined. 
Receive implicitly whatever Jesus has revealed ; and 
let it be enough to engage your beliefj that he has said 
it. You believe that you are weak : let frequent daily 
prayer implore the guidance and strength of your God 
and Savior, to attend you through the world, down to 
death, and up to glory. Thus live as a believer. And 
when a few more suns have risen and set ; when a few 
more days, and weeks, and months have rolled away 
when you'have suffered a few more of the pains, and 
enjoyed a few more of the pleasures of life ; your days 
will be numbered, your time will be no longer, your 
farewell must be taken of earthly comfort, and your 
freedom from earthly pain will be complete. Then 
will you see what you now believe. Death, when it 
closes your eyes upon this world, will open them on 
the next ; there to see all that is now unseen, to know 
what is now unknown ; there to change faith for sight, 
and fleeting comforts for eternal life. Blessed are those 
servants that, when the last great change approaches, 
are found watching ! Be not slothful, but a follower of 
them, who through faith and patience inherit the pro- 
mises. Persevere, is the direction of the Savior; and 
let it animate you to think that perseverance will not 
long be requisite. Let faith direct your thoughts to fu- 
ture scenes. Like the watchmen on the mountains of 
Judea, watching the first glimmerings of the moon, let 
faith look for its returning Lord. In pleasing medita- 
tion, let faith descry the events of other years, and tell 
us the language of his saints in distant days. Ah l let 
it say to us, He comes— one staf is blazing— the firma- 



PRAYER A PRIVILEGE. 121 

ment is catching fire from its flames : He comes — the 
lightning spreads before him — again it spreads, and 
turns midnight darkness into awful day : He comes — 
the last trumpet speaks him near: He comes — let us 
go hence ! let us leave this ruined world ! this perish-' 
ing creation ! Ah ! Savior, Shepherd, Guardian, Friend, 
and God ! thus wilt thou come ! thus wilt thou visit 
earth a second time ! But we — ah, we — must we wait 
those distant years ! Ah no ! long ere that time ar- 
rive, all who love thee here now, shall love and adore 
thee in the dwellings of unfading life. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE A LIFE OF PRAYER 

§ 1. Prayer is a sacred privilege. By it the Chris- 
tian maintains intercourse with his God and Savior. 
Prayer brings down numberless blessings upon man. 
It is the breath of the soul. It is the life of religion. 
A Christian cannot live without it. A corpse maintains 
for a while the form of man, but the spirit is fled, it 
is destitute of life. The form of religion may be as- 
sumed where the life is wanting. Without prayer it is 
dead ; the breath, the vital spirit, are wanting. Religion 
begun leads to prayer. Of every renewed sinner, it may 
be said, as it was of Paul, Behold he prayeth. Religion 
U 



-122 NATURE OF PRAYER. 

Strengthens, matures, and lives by prayer; and clos&s 
its course below with prayer, when the dying believer 
breathes out his soul and his desires together with 
Stephen's petition, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit !" 

§2. Consider the so/ewJuV/y of prayer. The most so- 
lenni change that will ever take place in our situation, 
is that made by death, when we at once leave all ihe 
scenes of mortality for the more important scenes of 
eternity; quit the society of our nearest relatives and 
dearest friends to enter on the presence of Jesus and 
of God ; and from being inhabitants of this changing 
world, are, in the twiniding of an eye, removed to eter- 
nal abodes of unchanging misery or bliss. This is a 
change whose terrors the wicked must dread, and 
whose solemnity the righteous must feel. But on earth 
there is a change which we may justly deem next in 
solemnity to that of death. It is the change made in 
our circumstances by prayer; often as unthought of 
as it is solemn. In death, we leave time for eternity; 
the converse of mortals for the presence of God. In 
prayer, we leave the business of time for that of eter- 
nity, and intercourse with man for intercourse with 
God. One minute our attention is occupied with those 
dying crealures, who, like ourselves, are hastening to 
the grave ; the next, our business is with the gre%t God 
who made heaven and earth. To him, though we be- 
hold him not, we speak, and are as really in his pre- 
sence, as if death had dismissed us hence, and our se- 
parated spirits stood before him. You would not trifle 
in a dying hour; and if you feel aright the nature and 
solemnity of prayer, you wUl no more trifle in prayer 
than trifle in death, 

Pursue this thought a little further. In prayer you 



NATURE OF PRAYER. 123 

speak to God — that awful God whom you must sliort- 
ly meet, with whom you must have a most solemn in- 
terview when a few years, at most, have rolled away 
— that God, in whose kingdom you will rejoice ten 
thousand millions of ages hence, or whose displeasure 
you will then be lamenting as your bitterest curse. 
Prayer is not the mere repetition of a few words, ut- 
tered by us when none can hear. The faintest wiiis- 
per of real prayer passes beyond the limits of this 
world, and goes where we cannot at present fly; it 
enters the skies, and God hears it. 

Suppose you could discern the glory and majesty 
of him who is invisible, how would you pray then ! 
While looking up to the throne of his glory, small 
would seem the value of the universe in comparison 
of his love ! Then what would earth and time appear ! 
The sun, the moon, and stars glowing in the sky, would 
vanish into nothing, compared with him who fixed 
them there ! With eyes fixed on heaven, and hearts 
sinking to the earth, overwhelmed with astonishment 
and rapture, might we view the glory of that God 
whom we must shortly meet. The splendors of eter- 
nal day might delight, the rewards of blessed spirits 
enrapture the astonished soul; but what would be the 
feelings these excited, compared with those springing 
from the view of his Majesty, whose presence is the 
source of that glory and the spring of that happiness ! 
What would be your thoughts and feelings could you 
gain a glimpse of his Majesty ! Would you see the 
sun? ah, no! the sun would shine unseen. Would you 
look upon the earth? ah, no! its bustles and its tu- 
mults, its pleasures and its sorrows, would pass unno- 
ticed by. 



124 WATCH UNTO PRAYER. 

Suppose then, whenever you pra)- , you could quit 
the earth for a short time, and enter the presence of 
this holy God, and after pouring out your desires 
and thanksgiving before him; could return to this 
world — how solemnly would you enter his presence ; 
how fervently, yet with what awe, call upon his name 
and bow at his footstool ; and with what a thoughtful 
serious mind would you return from these interviews 
to the business of life 1 O consider, you have now as 
really in prayer to speak to God as you would then— 
as really to go into his presence, though clouds, and 
darkness, and the veil of mortality hide him from your 
view. 

Another consideration that should add solemnity to 
prayer is, that it cannot be an indifferent thing. You 
cannot rise up from your knees as you knelt down. 
You have either gained a blessing or incurred guilt. 
If offered through Jesus in sincerity, the continuance 
of former blessings, or the bestowment of new ones, 
is surely obtained. But if it be a formal lip-service, it 
is a mockery of the divine Majesty. When you rise 
from prayer, you must rise possessing the favor, or la- 
boring under the displeasure of the Almighty. 

§ 3. To have such impressions as these on your mind 
in the hour of prayer, is of no little moment ; fc>r fer- 
vent prayer, though the most inestimable of privileges, 
is often a difficult duty. To repeat a few lifeless words 
is indeed an easy thing, but to pray in sincerity a very 
different one. To push the world aside ; to place our- 
selves as in the presence of God ; surrounded by earth- 
ly things, to forget all that is earthly; and far from 
heavenly scenes, to have our hearts engaged among 
them ; to bow down as before the throne of the Most 



SUBJECTS OF PRAYER. 125 

High ; to address an invisible God as if he were visible ; 
to have our thoughts, our hearts, our desires engaged 
in his service, and thus to hold communion with him ; 
this is effectual fervent prayer, but this is no easy 
thing. Address the blessed God as in his immediate 
presence ; pray to him, praise him, as if he were visible ; 
and this is communion with him; but words repeated 
without thought, offend God and bring no blessings 
down upon the thoughtless creature that utters them. 
§ 4. The subjects of prayer should chiefly be those 
blessings which respect God's glory and our own eter- 
nal welfare. The blessed Jesus has taught this in that 
form which he gave as a pattern for the devotions of 
his followers. The first three petitions respect the di- 
vine glory; "Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom 
come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 
Thus he teaches us that this is the subject which 
should lie nearest to our hearts, and take the lead in 
our prayers. He introduces only one petition for 
earthly good, and that the most limited possible— 
" Give us this day our daily bread." Bread is what he 
tells us to implore, and that for but one day at a time. 
Earthly blessings should not be a leading subject in 
prayer. It is true you may pray for them, and for de- 
liverance from temporal evils; for the most eminent 
saints did so. But for every thing of this kind you 
should pray with resignation and submission, leaving 
the subject after all to God ; for time is short, and 
earthly good of little importance to one who has to 
live for ever. Besides, our own blindness should teach 
the necessity of praying humbly and conditionally for 
what we may deem earthly blessings. God sees more 
11* 



126 



SUBJECTS OF PRAYER. 



than we see, and he may see that the very objects we 
most importunately desire, might be a source of ruin 
here, or destruction hereafter. Rachel said. Give me 
children, or I die ! God granted her desires ; she had 
children given her, and died through the grant. God 
may see the objects we desire would be a bitter curse j 
the troubles we deprecate our greatest blessing. Life, 
that desired object, the sorest of evils ; death, that 
dreaded foe, the best of friends. We may desire life 
for ourselves or others, when he may see storms of 
affliction too heavy to be borne arising, and therefore 
send death to lay our bodies in the grave, that silent 
abode, over which the tempests of life may pass, but 
which they never reach ; and to conduct our spirits to 
that world, where 

'* Pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears, 
" And death itself shall die." 

For spiritual blessings you may pray without appre- 
hension of asking amiss. For them you may go holdly 
to the throne of grace. These are blessings which it 
is for the glory of God to bestow, and for the good of 
man to receive. These are of everlasting importance, 
and everlasting worth. Whatever trifles others pray 
for, when your heart rises to heaven in solemn devo- 
tion, let your petitions chiefly relate to the glory of 
God and the honor of Christ. Pray that you may un- 
derstand clearly, and believe firmly, the invaluable 
Gospel ; that you may discern the infinite evil of sin, 
and comprehend the love of Christ j that you may be 
cleansed from all sin in his atoning blood ; that with 
full confidence you may rest your eternal all on him, 
as on the Rock of ages; that you may obey his holy 



SUBJECTS OF PRAYER. 127 

instructions, copy his spotless example, and trust his 
sacred promises ; that you may live on earth as one 
who belongs to heaven ; that swelling multitudes may 
travel with you to that happy world ; that the divine 
Spirit may rest on them and you ; and that at length 
you may enter that world where all error and corrup- 
tion being left behind, you shall continue to eternity, 
praising, loving, admiring, and adoring Him that sits 
upon the throne, and the Lamb that was slain, and re- 
deemed you to God by his blood. 

To see that such should be the leading subjects of 
prayer, observe what is expressed in a few scriptural 
petitions. 

'^Hallowed be thy name." " Thy kingdom come." 
" Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Done 
in usj and done by us, and done with us, and done as 
perfectly and as cheerfully as it is done in heaven. 
Pray that "the word of the Lord may have free course 
and be glorified." "I pray," says the apostle, "that 
your love may abound yet more and more;" "that 
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith : that ye may 
know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge." 
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; 
and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, 
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." " Now the God of peace make you per- 
fect in every good work, to do his will." " The grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the 
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." 

What important prayers are these ! The direction 
of an ancient poet, to pray . for ???e?2^ sa^ia m cor-pore 
sam, a sound mind in a healthful body, has been ad- 
mired and applauded ; but how unspeakably did the 



128 PRAYER SINCERE AND FERVENT. 

noblest advice of a heathen philosopher fallTDclow the 
sublimity and importance of the subjects of Christian 
prayer ! 

§ 5. The word of God also represents what are the 
7'equisites of acceptable prayer. 

Prayer must be sincere. If it be not the offering ot 
the heart, ii is worse than nothing. "God is a spirit 
and they that worship him, must worship liim in spi- 
rit and in truth. " The bended knee, the suppliant look, 
the devout expression, cannot please him where the 
heart presents not the offering. No bodily services, 
or repetition of devotional but lifeless words, is suffi- 
cient. If that were prayer, teach a parrot to repeat 
them, and a parrot could pray. Such were the prayers 
of Israel of old. '• This people draw nigh unto me with 
their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their 
heart is far from me." Such are the prayers of my- 
riads now. They ask for what they do not desire ; beg 
for holiness and follow sin, and mock God with their 
solemn requests ; because their hearts join not sin- 
cerely in any petition that their lips utter. 

§ 6. Prayer should be solemn and fervent. "The 
effectual FERVENT prayer of a righteous man arail- 
eth much." 

In the season of devotion we address that God whom 
we cannot love enough, and implore blessings of ever- 
lasting importance. At such a time reverence, hu- 
mility, unfeigned sorrow for sin, earnest desire for 
blessings needed, and thankfulness for blessings pos- 
sessed, cannot sufficiently be called into exercise. 
Think of God—and what is man ! What a moment 
his life ! What an insect himself! What an atom the 
•world on which he dwells! Before that God what hu- 



PRAYER IN FAITH. 129 

mility should we feel ! with what reverence adore ! 
What deep self-abasement should we cherish, and 
what entire abhorrence of the dreadful ingratitude and 
hellish evil of sin committed against such a Friend ! 
Then, too, should the immense and unbounded love 
of God call forth gratitude the most devout. Who 
would cross the Atlantic ocean to save a fly perisliing 
on the other side that ocean ! Such love to a dying in 
sect warms no human breast. But the Son of God, at 
his Father's appointment, performed a miracle of 
mightier love. Man, compared with him, is far more 
worthless than a fly compared with man. Yet, given 
by his Father, for us he left his heavenly dwelling, 
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross. This " love of infinite degree," this " immeasura- 
ble grace," should ever be remembered in the hour of 
devotion. At such a season, too, there is every thing in 
our state to excite fervor. We speak to the God whose 
decision Vv'iil flx our everlasting state ; whose smile 
is life eternal, and whose frown eternal death. We 
ask him for blessings of eternal worth. How earn- 
estly would a wretch, condemned to die, implore the 
mercy of his judge, if he saw that judge melting 
with compassion over him. And can we in prayer 
feel our state, and look forward to the solemn and de- 
cisive scenes of an endless world, and not be earnest? 
§ 7. Prayer should be off"ered while exercising/ajV/i 
in your Redeemer's atonement and your heavenly Fa- 
ther's love. "What things soever ye desire when ye 
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have 
them." " If two of you shall agree on earth as touch- 
ing any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for 
them of mv Father which is in heaven. For where 



irO FORGIVENESS IN PRAYER. 

two or three are gathered together in my name, there 
am I in the midst of them." 

It is true, some or all of these passages have a pecu- 
liar and special reference to faith in God, enabling the 
apostles to perform miracles for the confirmation of 
the Gospel ; but while this is allowed, there can be no 
reasonable doubt of the importance of the exercise ol 
faith, in imploring the more common blessings of his 
providence and grace. The exercise of faiili will add 
fervor, solemnity and reverence to your devotions. 
You will then pray as seeing him who is invisible, and 
wiih the confidence of a child addressing a beloved 
and loving father. And to all Christians it is said, " If 
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giv- 
eth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it 
shall be given him. But let him ask in faith." 

§ 8. With acceptable prayer must be connected the 
exercise of a benevolent and forgiving disposition. As 
an important part of prayer is the imploring of for- 
giveness for sins and defects, so we are solemnly as- 
sured, that while asking forgiveness of God we must 
exercise it to man. " When ye stand praying, forgive." 
" If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Fa- 
ther will also forgive you : but if ye forgive not men 
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your 
trespasses." The divine Savior also taught his friends 
to pray, "Forgive us our debts AS we forgive our debt- 
ors." "Forgive us our sins; FOR we also forgive 
every one that is indebted to us." In the latter of these 
petitions the Christian is taught, while asking forgive- 
ness, solemnly to declare to God, that he forgives all 
who have trespassed against him. An assertion which, 
if uttered by a person of an unforgiving disposition, 



PERSEVERING PRAYER, 131 

would be a lie told to God himself. In tne former pe- 
tition, we are taught to ask for tliat measure of forgive- 
ness which we exercise. Forgive as we forgive. It is 
obvious, that a person using this petition who does not 
forgive others, in fact asks God not to forgive him, 
and thus implores a curse instead of a blessing. And 
this the Son of God has solemnly declared the unfor= 
giving worshipper will bring down on his own soul : 
as he does not forgive, he siiall not be forgiven. 

§9. Prayer should also be pei'severmff. "Be care- 
ful (full of carej for nothing; but in every thing, by 
prayer andsuppHcation, with thanksgiving, let your re- 
quests be made known unto God." " Continuing in- 
stant in prayer." The Lord Jesus taught perseverance 
in prayer by two instructive parables. Luke, 18 : 1-8; 
11 : 5-8. The blessmgs you solicit may not immediate- 
ly be granted, yet still pray, and if they are really 
blessings, depend upon it, God at length will hear. He 
may see it wise and kind to exercise your faith and 
patience, by delaying mercies he intends to bestow ; 
still, therefore, pray. Let not delay or discouragements 
damp your earnestness. "Wait on the Lord and be of 
good courage, and he will strengthen thine heart." 

§ 10. Prayer should be constant. " Pray without 
ceasing. In every thing give thanks." " Watch ye, 
therefore, and pray always." At every suitable oppor- 
tunity, on every stated season, and at other limes, 
having the heart kept in a praying frame. This may 
be called praying always, praying without ceasiug, in 
the same way as the sacrifice that was regularly offer- 
ed every morning and evening in the teniplc, was 
called the perpetual sacrifice. Those prayers which 
are only offered by fits and starts, proceed not from a 



132 PRAYER CONSTANT. 

heart reconciled to God. When any alarming danger 
threatens to overwhelm them, many, who never other- 
wise think of prayer, profess to pray. The profligate, 
or the man of the world, languishing out what he 
thinks his last hours, begins to pray ; but let health 
return, and the profligate forgets his promises, his de- 
votions, and his vows. Can such prayers be heard in 
heaven? Prayer should be a stated employment of 
part of every day. How often these seasons should be 
appointed, must partly depend upon the situation and 
circumstances in which persons are placed. The 
Psalmist appears to have had seven such stated sea- 
sons daily ; Daniel had three of them. Many followers 
of Jesus Christ should not have less; but none that 
wish to walk with God should have less than two ; one 
in the morning, and the other in the evening, of every 
day. To begin the day with God is unspeakably im- 
portant. Every night we are preserved by his care ; 
his eye, which never sleeps, watches over us, while 
we are insensible to all that may surround us. This 
goodness calls for every morning's praise. The day, 
with its snares and avocations, is then before us, and 
his help is needed to enable us that day to act the 
Christian's part, and his grace to prepare us for an 
eternal day above. Prayer should be the first employ- 
ment ; because, when just risen from repose, the mind 
is not distracted with perplexities and cares, as it is 
when it has been occupied for a while with the cares 
of the day. Let the first half hour, if possible the first 
hour of the day, be consecrated to reading the Scrip- 
tures, meditation, and prayer ; and this will prepare 
you for the following employments of the day ; will 
help you to walk with God, and strengthen you to 



PRAYER CONSTANT. 133 

meet the temptations or troubles that may beset your 
path. Of the pious Colonel Gardiner, who is stated to 
have attained such fervehcy in prayer as few have 
equalled, and whose life was rendered eminently hap- 
py by religion, it is recorded tliat he devoted two 
hours to religious exercises every morning. If business 
called for his attention by four o'clock, he would thus 
be engaged, at latest, by two. The evening is also an 
equally suitable time for devotion. We have then for 
a little while done with the cares of the day ; possibly 
have done with them for ever. We have enjoyed the 
mercies of God through another day. The night is at 
hand ; possibly the night of death. How important at 
such a season is thanksfjjiving for the mercies which 
the departed day has brought ! and prayer for pardon 
of its faults, for protection through the coming night, 
and for grace to prepare the soul for the evening of 
life, the night of death, and the bright morning of 
eternity. Time taken from prayer, is time misspent in- 
deed. At least fix the morning and evening as stated 
seasons for devotion, and let nothing tempt you to 
neglect the solemn exercise. If neglected once, ano- 
ther and another excuse will arise for neglecting it 
again and again. A chain with one link broken, no 
longer binds ; and a habit of duty once broken, may 
soon cease to be a habit. You cannot reasonably ex- 
pect any spiritual blessing on a day begun without 
prayer. It will probably be a day of sin; it must, if 
you have proper feeling, be a day of uneasiness. Nor 
would you like to die some night, when you had lain 
down to sleep without communing with your God. 
O would you pray successfully, pray statedly. Be- 
12 



131 MEDITATION ASSISTS PRAYER. 

sides, such stated seasons for prayer cherish that frame 
of mind which is adapted to prayer; and you will find 
many intervals from bLi?iiieas^ and many circumstances 
in which you may and will lift up your heart unto God. 
§ 11. It may assist you in offering your private ad- 
dresses to God, to remember that every thing like a 
solicitous attention to language, or matter, is then ut- 
terly needless — God, who sees your heart, knows your 
meaning, and the broken language of an humble heart 
is acceptable to him; while studied eloquence in prayer 
is contemptible indeed. Pray to him as your heavenly 
Father; speak to him from your heart, and God will 
hear. If any rnle is necessary to direct you how thus 
lo pour out your desires before God, it is comprised in 
one word — meditation. Think of the greatness and ma- 
jesty of God, and you will learn how to praise him. 
Think of his goodness, and you will learn to bless him. 
Meditate on your obligations to him; the numerous 
mercies you enjoy, the needful gifts of Providence, and 
the means of grace, the word of life, the great Redeem- 
er, and the hope of glory ; and you will surely know 
how to thank him. Review your life, reflect on your 
sins and ingratitude, and you will leajrn how to colifess 
your offences to him. Meditate on your wants, your 
weakness, and imperfections, the love of Christ, the 
value of your soul and the nearness of eternity, and 
this will teach you how to pray for everlasting bless- 
ings. Look by faith into the eternal world, listen to 
your Redeemer's promises, and think of being forever 
with him in a better state, and you will not need the 
language of others to express your earnest desires to 
be his humble follower here, and his glorified disciple 
there. A child knows how to ask favors from an affec- 



PRAYER IN JESUS'S NAME. 135 

tionate parent, and needs no form composed by others ; 
and shall not a child of God acquire the same facility 
in speaking to his heavenly Father? What if, wiien 
first starting in the Christian course, he found a devout 
form adapted to cherish the flame of devotion, yet, 
when accustomed lo the worship of the closet, habi- 
tuated to communion with God, should lie not indulge 
the spirit of a child, who knows that even his broken 
accents are welcome to his Father's ear? 

§ 12. There is one requisite more of essential im- 
portance to successful and acceptable prayer — that it 
be offered in the Savior's name. " Whatsoever ye shall 
ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. At 
that day ye shall ask in my name. Ask, and ye shall 
receive, that your joy may be full." To ask a favor in 
another's name, is to present our petition, relying for 
success upon the influence of the friend whose name 
we are permitted lo use. 

Jesus Christ is in heaven, ever living to intercede 
for his friends as their advocate there. And when they 
pray in his name, they ask as his friends, relying on 
his intercession, and expecting success on his account. 
His sufferings, his merits, and his intercession, are the 
ground of their acceptance. In themselves there is no- 
thing that can add weight to their prayers; but going 
in his name, the Father hears and blesses them for 
Jesus's sake. Ever pray in the name of Jesus. 

§ 13. The observations already made, have been de- 
signed principally in reference to private devotion : 
but, as the house of God is the beloved spot to which 
religion often leads its friends, a remark may be intro- 
duced on public devotion. Be as solicitous to realize 
the presence of Gcd, when surrounded by a crowd of 



136 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

fellow-worsliippers, as when no eye but that of God is 
fixed upon you. It is to be apprehended that multi- 
tudes profess to join in prayer who never pray. Their 
vacant looks, their wandering eyes, staring around to 
see who is present, or to mark the dress of those they 
know ; their heads turned at every motion of the door, 
to observe who is entering, but too plainly show them 
guilty of a profanation of sacred time, and of a dread- 
ful mockery of God. It need scarcely be said, that you 
pray only when you join in the petitions offered, when 
your heart accompanies them. Alas, with how many 
is the case widely different from this ! They appear to 
listen to the prayer as they listen to the sermon, with- 
out attempting to pray with the speaker ; as if he alone 
were to pray for them, and they had nothmg to ask 
for themselves, or as if he were speaking to them in- 
stead of addressing God. But this is not devotion; 
though only hearers when the preacher addresses 
them, if they expect any benefit when he speaks to 
God, they must be humble worshippers, pouring out 
the desires and confessions of their hearts before the 
throne of God. In all devotion, pray as on the borders 
of eternity. Closing the eyes during the time of public 
prayer, will frequently assist a worshipper in main- 
taining that seriousness and abstraction from the world 
which prayer demands ; and when it is found to do 
this, it becomes an incumbent duty. 

§ 14. Connected with prayer is praise. Many of the 
observations made already respecting prayer, apply 
equally to this sacred, and to a grateful heart delight- 
ful, part of divine worship. The wants of man call for 
prayer ; the goodness of God demands praise. Many 
Christians, who pray much, are comparatively forget- 



PRAISE AND SINGING. 137 

fill of praise. This springs from looking at Uieir wants 
more tiian at their mercies, or from a want of grateful 
feelings for the blessings with which tlieir years are 
crowned. The sacred Scriptures, which contain so 
many directions respecting prayer, also abound with 
admonitions respecting praise. A considerable portion 
of the book of Psalms is praise ; and exhortations are 
frequently given, to present this grateful offering to 
the Most High : " Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of 
his, and give thanks at tiie remembrance of his holi- 
ness." "Praise is comely for the upright." "Offer un- 
to God thanksgiving." "In every thing give iha»»ks : 
for iliis is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning 
you." 

§ 15. In many congregations, singing constitutes a 
considerable part of public worship. This sacred ex- 
ercise should ever be conducted in the spirit of hum- 
ble devotion. It is frequently an address to God, and 
always connected with divine subjects. Perhaps, in 
few ways is God more insulted than by hymns suvg 
without devotion. Much sin is thus committed. Many 
sing without considering whom they address, or what 
they utter. Sometimes the congregation engages their 
attention, and their eyes are wandering f om place to 
place. At other times the tune attracts all their no- 
lice ; and God and Jesus, and life or death eternal, and 
all the solemn truths the hymn on their lips may con- 
tain, are forgotten, while the eye is fixed, perhaps, on 
a stranger entering the door, or the ear is engaged in 
observins the harmony of a fleeting sound. 0, watch 
against this common sin, into which thoughtless wor- 
shippers so often fall ! God of old complained of some 
12* 



138 VALUE OF PRAYER. 

who drew nigh to him with their lips, and honored 
him with their mouths, but their heart was far from 
him. In singing hymns descriptive of the feelings of 
the heart, it is needful to observe how far the feelings 
of our own hearts accord with the hymn; lest we 
should be guilty of uttering any thing approaching the 
nature of a solemn falsehood in the presence of the 
Most High. Keep in view the apostle's words, " I will 
sing with the spirit and with the understanding." 

§ 16. Your present welfare and eternal happiness 
greatly depend on a strict attention to prayer. Its va- 
lue will never be fully known till that day when an 
end shall be put to every hope that is not eternal. 
Then, when the sepulchers of brass and marble melt 
away, the pyramids of brick and stone moulder back 
to dust ; when humble cottages and gorgeous palaces, 
little villages and mighty cities, fruitful plains and 
barren deserts, lowly valleys and lofty mountains, and 
the world itself shall be weltering in final flames ; then, 
when the solemnities of eternal judgment commence, 
proceed, conclude, and all have their unchangeable 
abodes — then, and not till then, will the value of de- 
vout intercourse with God be fully known. O keep 
those scenes in view! and no earthly pleasure, no 
earthly care, will lead you to neglect communion with 
your heavenly Father. 

§ 17. To increase your sense of its value, observe 
the importance attached to prayer by the example 
and in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. His life be- 
low was a life of devotion ; and events of peculiar im- 
portance were accompanied with a peculiar attention 
to prayer. When the Holy Jesus was baptized, he pray- 
ed. Before he chose his twelve apostles, he went out 



VALUE OF PRAYER. 139 

into a mountain to pray. Before his transfiguration, 
he took James, and John, and Peter apart into a high 
mountain, for the same sacred exercise. When he 
stood by the grave of Lazarus, he lifted up his eyes to 
heaven, and thanked his Father for hearing him. 
When certain Gentiles desired to see him, after speak- 
ing of the effect of his sufferings, he prayed, " Father, 
glorify thy name." After working many miracles, on 
one occasion he rose in the morning a great while be- 
fore day, and went into a solitary place and prayed. 
At- another time, when he had healed great multitudes, 
he whhdrew into the wilderness and prayed. When 
he had fed five thousand with five loaves and two 
fishes, he sent away the multitude, and went up into 
a mountain apart to pray ; and when the evening was 
come, he was there alone. When he foresaw Peter's 
temptation, he prayed for him that his faith should 
not fail. He closed the solemnities of his last supper 
with an affecting prayer. For those who crucified him 
he prayed, " Father, forgive them ; for they know not 
what they do." And on the cross, before he expired, 
he addressed God, saying, " Father, into thy hands I 
€ommend my spirit." As thus, on every solemn occa- 
sion, prayer expressed the feelings of his heart, so he 
'persevered in prayer. When he went out into a moun- 
tain to pray, before he chose the twelve, he continued 
all night in prayer to God. And after feeding the 
multitude with a few loaves, and retiring for praye4' to 
a lonely mountain, he continued there from evening 
almost till the following morning dawned. Thus did 
he converse with his heavenly Father. Amidst the 
stillness of midnight his prayers ascended to heaven. 
Though he had no inward corruptions to harass hir 



140 PRAYER RECOMMENDED BY 

holy soul, his exemplary devotion manifested his love 
to prayer, and proclaims to his followers, that prayer 
should be their pleasure and their strength. 

While such was the conduct of the holy Savior, 
what should be that of the unworthy disciple ? Surely, 
if you follow Jesus, prayer should be the pleasure of 
every day ; and when any circumstance occurs of 
more than usual moment, let it be attended with more 
than usual prayer. See the Savior on a lonely moun- 
tain employing the whole night in prayer, or rising 
for that sacred exercise before the first glimmering of 
the dawn. See this, and learn of him. Leave the bed 
of sloth to commune with your God. And when call- 
ed to engage in duties of peculiar weight, then, like 
the Lord, watch unto prayer. Amidst the silence of 
midnight let your prayers and your praises be ascend- 
ing to God. 

§ 18. The value of prayer, and the strongest encou- 
ragement for it, appears in the numerous promises 
made to it, with vvliich the Scriptures abound. "They 
that seek the Lord shall not want any good." " The 
eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears 
are open unto their cry." " Call upon me in the day 
of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glo- 
rify me." "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call 
upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.^^He will 
fulfill the desire of them that fear him ; he also uill 
hear their cry, and will save them." "Ask, and it shall 
be given you ; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it 
shall be opened unto you : for every one that asketh 
receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him 
that knocketh, it shall be opened. If ye, being evil, 



THE savior's example. 141 

Know how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
much more shall your Father which is in heaven give 
good things to them that ask him ?" " If ye shall ask 
any thing in my name, I will do it." " If ye abide in 
me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye 
will, and it shall be done unto you." 

These are a few of the numerous promises made to 
prayer. How precious are the blessings promised ! If 
solid holiness and real peace in life, if comfort or tri- 
umph in death, and the love of God through a whole 
eternity, are important to you, then is prayer unspeak- 
ably important ; for all the grace that makes the death- 
less soul a partaker of these blessings, is promised in 
answer to sincere, humble, fervent prayer ; and it is 
given. All who truly pray obtain these blessings, and 
none possess them who live a prayerless life. 

§ 19. The blessings that have been granted to prayer 
illustrate its importance and its worth. The records 
of religious history abundantly prove that God is the 
hearer of prayer ; and this not only on subjects of great 
magnitude, but on those of real, though of less mo- 
ment. Abraham prayed for Sodom ; and if ten righte- 
ous persons could have been found in it, God would 
have spared that guilty city. Abraham's servant, sent 
to obtain a suitable wife for Isaac, prayed to God for 
direction, and was guided to the lovely Rebecca. Ja- 
cob, alarmed at Esau's approach, in his distress prayed 
to God, and prevailed, and Esau became his friend. 
Moses prayed that the plagues might be removed from 
Egypt, and they were removed ; again and again he 
implored mercy for stubborn and backsliding Israel, 
and Israel was spared, even when God had proposed 
to exterminate the guilty race. Hannah, insulted by a 



144 PRAYER IN' ADVERSI'IT. 

great love to you, that he will grant you what you ask 
in my name. But though this is the case, still the Sa- 
vior pleads as the advocate of his friends. '• We have 
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righte- 
ous." "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, 
that is passed into the heavens. Jesus the Son of God, 
let us hold fast our profession. Let us come boldly 
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, 
and find grace to help in time of need." " Through 
him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Fa- 
ther." 

What strong encouragement for prayer ! The eter- 
nal Father willing to hear our requests, the Son of 
God, by his intercession, adding weight to every de- 
vout petition, and efficacy to every suitable desire ; to 
all this the aids of the divine Spirit are added. How 
precious is prayer thus sanctioned ! How wonderful 
the love of God that gives us such encouragement ! 

§ 22. You may discern the worth of devotion by 
glancing at its happy effects upon the truly devout. 
True devotion trains the soul for heaven ; it raises the 
Christian's views and desires above the groveling ob- 
jects of a dying world, and endows the humble wor- 
shiper with steady fortitude to press onward to hea- 
ven, though ten thousand dangers should beset the 
way. In prayer, 

**His hand the Christian fastens on the skies, 
"And bids earth roll, nor feels her idle whirl." 

Prayer is also his solace in the day of adversity. It 
is a relief to the really piou5, to tell their sorrows to 
their compassionate God, and resign themselves to hia 



PRAYER IN PROSPERITY. 145 

disposal, saying, "Tlie Lord gave, and the Lord hath 
taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." " The 
cup whicli my Father hath given me, shall I not drink 
it ?" They cannot lose their chief support, whose prin- 
cipal happiness springs from God as their Father, Je- 
sus as their Savior and Intercessor, and immortality as 
their future portion. Let the world deprive me, may 
be the language of the Christian, of all its blessings 
and satisfactions; let it take from me relatives and 
friends; let it load me with ignominy and suffering, or 
deprive me of liberty: these things it may do, but it 
cannot take from me the comforts of prayer; it cannot 
take away death, that shall dismiss me ere long to no- 
bler worship and belter enjoyments above. 

Equally is prayer the Christian's safeguard in 
prosperity. When earthly comforts and sensible de- 
lights surround us, we are tempted to forget that the 
time for these things will soon be no longer. A hedge 
of roses, or of sweet briers, may hide the loveliest 
prospects from our view; so do the concerns and de- 
lights of life hide the sweet regions of immortality. 
But when we retire from the world, the things un- 
seen again appear before our souls. Then we see the 
vanity of all below the sun ; see that prosperity is but 
a snare that would tempt us to destruction. Then we 
may learn to pray— save us from the snares we 
dread ! Save us from a world as deceitful as it is at- 
tractive ! and let not its momentary shadows of happi- 
ness deprive us of the everlasting substance ! Blessed 
Jesus ! however allured, let us not love a world that 
murdered thee ! nor seek our portion where thou wast 
but a pilgrim and a stranger ! 

13 



146 NEGLECTING PRAYER. 

^ Thus, Whatever be your lot, devotion will lessen its 
evils, and add to its comforts. The more spiritual and 
fervent it is, the more gladness will it diffuse through 
the heart. " Even the tears of penitential sorrow and 
contrition, or of sympathy and benevolence, into 
which a devout person may sometimes be melted, 
have a sweetness in them not to be expressed, and are 
more to t^e desired than the greatest joys of the irre- 
ligious." 

§ 23. Such being the value and importance of prayer, 
it is not strange that the Christian should at times be 
tempted to neglect this sacred duty ; that Satan should 
labor hard to disturb the soul in its best moments, and 
to prevent its obtaining the blessing. Sometimes he 
suggests : "Such prayers as yours are worse than no- 
thing : you had better not pray at all, than pray as 
you do." Ah, look on this temptation as one that pro- 
ceeds from your great enemy. If you ever yield to it, 
you will soon perceive it answers his designs; your 
soul will grow more dead, prayer still more a burden. 
Instead of your state mending by this neglect, it will 
grow >yorse ; ypur heart less and less disposed for 
prayer, and the frame of your mind less and less suit- 
ed to it. Pray, then, and continue instant in prayer. 
Pray, though the world with its cares would hinder 
you. Pray, though the devil with a host of tempta- 
tions would prevent you. Still pray, and God will 
hear. And when unable to pray as you would, still 
pray as you can ; an4 pray for help to pray better. 

Pursue this course,; cleave to the great Intercessor; 
and then, in a little while, in a brighter world, prayer 
shall be changed for endless praise ; 



THE CHRISTIAN A PILGRIM. 

"While sweet remembrance calls to mind 

" The scenes of mortal care ; 
*» When God, your God, for ever kind, 

" Was present to your PKAYER." 



147 



CHAPTER VI. 



^HE CHRISTIAN A PILGRIM UPON EARTH, AND 
A MEMBER OF THE FAMILY OF GOD. 

§ 1. An important and pleasing view of the Chris- 
tian's state and character is that of a traveler to a bet- 
ter world. 

" Turn, pilgrim, turn, thy cares forego, 

" All earth-born care is wrong; 
" Man wants but little here below, 

" Nor wants that littje long." 

The Scriptures describe life as a pilgrimage, and the 
child of God as a traveler to a lasting home. " I am a 
stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers 
were." "When a few years are come, then I shall go 
the way whence I shall not return." The aged pa- 
triarch, Jacob, said, " The days of the years of my pil- 
grimage are a hundred and thirty years ; few and evil 
have the days of the years of my life been." Of him, 
and those who lived much longer than he, it is said, 
that they " confessed that they were strangers and pil- 
grims on the earth ;" but they " desired a better country, 



148 REFLECTIONS. 

that is, a heavenly : wherefore God is not ashamed to 
be called their God ; for he hath prepared for them 
a city." 

Cherish the views these holy men professed. You, 
if a Christian indeed, are but a traveler here. Infancy, 
childhood, youth, manhood, and age, succeed each 
other so rapidly, that many scarcely reflect they are 
in one, before tliey find tliemselves advanced to ano- 
ther. A poor man, who had spent more llian seventy 
years on earth, once observed to me, that his time 
seemed but like two or three weeks. Yes, life is a pil- 
grimage, and short is the passage from the cradle to 
the tomb : some find it a longer, some a shorter, but all 
a short and hasty journey. It is hasty, though its haste 
be unperceived. A traveler in a packet, driven by steam 
and tide down the smooth surface of a river, may in- 
dulge the illusion that all he sees on shore, the trees, 
the spires, the villages are in rapid motion, hurrying 
away ; but it is he who moves, and all on shore is stilF. 
Thus, even when least sensible of the speed with which 
you go, are you advancing with sure and rapid haste 
to the eternal world. Think when you lie down, think 
when you rise up, think when you walk, and think 
when you rest, I am but a traveler here. Amid the 
cares of life, remember these are but the cares of a 
journey ; amid iis pleasures, these are but the comforts 
of an inn. This world is not my world ; for I am but a 
traveler here. 

§ 2. Think of those who are jrone. The great and 
noble, who once turned the world upside down— whnt 
are they ? where are they now ? Those who abounded 
in riches, or revelled in pleasures— where are they? 
and what is theirs? The moment that they breathed 



REFLECTIONS. 149 

their last, riches, pleasures, pomps, and honors va- 
nished all. "Those lying vanities of life, that ever 
tempting, ever-cheating train"— what are they to those 
whose journey to eternity is finished? Their life is 
ended ; that valued life is valued no longer. What one 
day they would not have resigned for the world, the 
next is snatched from them, and they are consigned 
over to the grave. What is then to them the value of 
all they once most loved and prized? It is but a mo- 
ment since they were warm with life, gay with hopes 
and pleasures, or perplexed with plans and cares ; and 
now all these are finished for ever. 

§ 3. Think of the living; look at the multitudes that 
crowd a populous city, and reflect how soon all will 
have left this world, and be for ever fixed in another. 
All their business brought to an eternal close. All 
their transient griefs and joys eternally ended. No 
longer traversing the streets, hurried with cares, and 
distracted with business ; no longer concerned about 
the varying changes and commotions of the world, 
about the nations that rise or that fall ; but silent in 
the dust. Think, that could you revisit those now 
crowded streets when one hundred years are passed, 
if no new generation arose, you would find them en- 
tirely deserted ; not a single passenger in them, nor an 
inhabitant in the houses; but the streets, where a blade 
of grass is never seen, then covered with it ; the houses 
falling into ruin ; many of them already in the dust; 
thebirdsof the desert building their nests in the de- 
serted rooms, and foxes, half hid with grass and net- 
tles, peeping through the shattered windows. The 
houses of divine worship all forsaken ; every preacher 
13* 



^^ THE WORLD TRANSIENT. 



gone from his pulpit ; every crowded congregation 
vanished and forgotten in Mie dust; and all as t.ilent as 
the midst of an Arabian desert, or as tlie chambers of 
the grave. 0, act as a stranger and pilgrim while in 
so vain a world ! 

§ 4. Or view the subject, by indulging pensive re- 
flection on the transient nature of all the most endeared 
earthly lies. Think with yourself, Could I rise from 
the tomb when the year two thousand comes, and look 
around on the world I shall then have so long forsaken, 
what a scene of desolation would it present to me ! 
Not those only whom I saw go before me, but all I left 
would have gone to eternity. Could I approach their 
now cheerful hearths, I should miss them there; walk 
iheir gardens or their fields, I should not find tbem 
there ; go to their tombs, and even there would not 
one v.retched trace be found, nor even a stone remain, 
to tell that they had ever been. 
^ Look forward a little further to the period, when all 
the noise, and tumult, and business of this world shall 
have closed for ever. How has it vanished ! How have 
its short-lived multitudes departed! Their business 
over, their little pleasures finished, their hasiy sorrows 
ended ; their doom pronounced, their endless uwelling 
fixed, and their once gay, distracting, perplexing world 
lost! vanished! gone for ever! Let its admirers tell 
us of honors and fame, that \\ ill last as long as the sun 
sJiall shine or the world endure. Alas, contemptible 
honors ! that will endure for so brief a span ! The sun 
is but a lamp that liglits our pathway to an endless 
world. The earth is but the road, prepared for pil- 
grims to travel, till, in the eternal abodes of grief or 
bliss, they reach an endless home. It is but as a mo- 



SOLEiMNtTY OF ETERNITY. 151 

ment, as an inch of time, as the darting of an arrow 
the falling of a star, the twinkling of an eye, or the 
glancing of a thought, before all which you now be- 
hold shall pass away from you as a dream when one 
awaketh, and give place to those eternal scenes. Then 
farewell earth, farewell sun, moon, and stars; farewell 
a busy or an idle, a sad or a jdeastirable world ! but, 
no farewells are known beyond the grave. To the 
scenes which will then open upon you, you will never 
bid adieu. Start forward, then, my ftllow-pilgrim, 
start forward, in your thoughts, to everlasting scenes, 
and roam among the immeasurable ages tha°t lie be- 
yond the judgment-day. How the world recedes as 
you advance. It sinks to a speck— to a mote— to no- 
thing. How six thousand years, or six thousand ages, 
dwindle as you sail down the tide of eternity; they 
sink to an hour— to a moment— to the twinkling of an 
eye— to nothingness itself! 0, remember that on that 
awful tide you must shortly sail, when the world is 
iiotliing lo you. Strive to love it no more than you 
will do, when, myriads of ages after its destruction, you 
look back upon it. Value its honors as you will value 
thpm then, and prize its pleasures as then you will 
prize them ; and let the prospect of those amazing 
scenes strike deeper on your heart the salutary thought 
— I am but a traveler here. 

§ 5. Above all, let the full prospect of eternity deepen 
the impression : let but the solemn idea of eternity 
dwell in your mind, and life must then appear a jour- 
ney or a dream. '' Suppose," says a writer of the se- 
venteenth century,* " that the vast ocean were distilled 

* Bates. 



152 SOLEMNITY OF ETERNITY. 

drop by drop, but so slowly, that a thousand years 
should pass between every drop, how many millions 
of years would be required to empty it! Suppose that 
this great world, in its full compass, from one pole to 
another, and from the top of the firmament to the bot- 
tom, were to be filled with the smallest sand, but, so 
slowly, that every thousand years only a single grain 
should be added, how many millions would pass away 
before it were filled ! Jf the immense superficies of the 
heavens, wherein are innumerable stars, were to be 
filled with figures of numbers, and every figure signi- 
fied a million, what created mind could tell their num- 
ber, much less their value ! Having these thoughts, I 
reply, the sea will be emptied drop by drop, the uni- 
verse filled grain by grain, the numbers written in the 
heavens will come to an end; and how much of eter- 
nity is spent? Nothing; for infinitely more remains." 
O, keep your eyes fixed on that eternity! look not 
at the things which are seen, but at things which are 
not seen ; " for the things which are seen are tempo- 
ral, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 
Life is a vapor, a point, a nothing ; eternity is all. Yet 
a little while, and the golden hours of life will be gone ; 
the last sands in the glass of time will have run out; 
the sun will have passed over the dial; the arrow will 
be flown ; the vapor will be vanished, and time will 
be no longer: but vast, boundless, joyful or dreadful 
eternity knows no limits, and fears or hopes no end. 
How can you much rejoice in pleasures that are dying 
while you enjoy them! or sorrow much at distresses 
that are vanishing while you feel them ! Loosen, then, 
your heart from the earth : it is but a world of dreams 
and shadows, through which you journey to a vrorld 



SOLEMNITY OP ETERNITY. 153 

of solemn and eternal realities. Let the world talk of 
their pleasures, and be as cheerful as their condition 
should render them wretched; but, do you think of 
ending time and unending eternity. ETERNITY! 
blessed or dreadful word! whose meaning no num- 
bers can unfold, no ages can declare; into whose 
depths no eye but that of God has pierced ; a span 
whose length no heart has ever comprehended. O, 
look at tliat eternity more ! So near the world where 
all is solemn, sliould yon trifle? So near the state 
where all is endless, can you prize what is perishing? 
At the gate of eternity, on the threshold of an endless 
world, or, at most, with but a few steps before you 
must step into it, are the concerns of a fleeting pilgrim- 
age of much importance? Are you so near doing 
what you must do for ever; so near rejoicing, where 
you must rejoice for ever, or mourning, where you 
must mourn for ever; and should not this make a 
transitory life and a perishing world little things in- 
deed? Live then, O live as a traveler to eternity; a 
pilgrim here, pressing to a happy, endless home ! 

§ 6. While this is your condition, if a Christian in- 
deed, even here you belong to a better vorkl You are 
a stranger; but, you have a settled dwelling-place. 
You are a pilgrim; but you have a rest.—There is a 
family to which you belong; a family in that country 
''' where pilgrims roam no more." That family is the 
family of God, and that home is heaven. "You are no 
more a stranger and foreigner, but a fellow-citizen 
with the saints, and of the household of God " You 
bf long to Christ, " of whom //^e uhole family in heaven 
awr/er/r/Ais named." 
It is true, the splendors of eternal day do not yet 



152 SOLEMNITY OF ETERNITY. 

drop by drop, but so slowly, that a thousand years 
should pass between every drop, how many millions 
of years would be required to empty it ! Suppose that 
this great world, in its full compass, from one pole to 
another, and from the top of the firmament to the bot- 
tom, were to be filled with the smallest sand, but, so 
slowly, that every thousand years only a single grain 
should be added, how many millions would pass away 
before it were filled ! Jf the immense superficies of the 
heavens, wherein are innumerable stars, were to be 
filled with figures of numbers, and every figure signi- 
fied a million, what created mind could tell their num- 
ber, much less their value ! Having these thoughts, I 
reply, the sea will be emptied drop by drop, the uni- 
verse filled grain by grain, the numbers written in the 
heavens will come to an end; and how much of eter- 
nity is spent? Nothing; for infinitely more remains." 
O, keep your eyes fixed on that eternity! look not 
at the things which are seen, but at things which are 
not seen; "for the things which are seen are tempo- 
ral, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 
Life is a vapor, a point, a nothing ; eternity is all. Yet 
a little while, and the golden hours of life will be gone ; 
the last sands in the glass of time will have run out; 
the sun will have passed over the dial; the arrow will 
be flown; the vapor will be vanished, and time will 
be no longer: but vast, boundless, joyful or dreadful 
eternity knows no limits, and fears or hopes no end. 
How can you much rejoice in pleasures that are dying 
while you enjoy them! or sorrow much at distresses 
that are vanishing while you feel them ! Loosen, then, 
your heart from the earth : it is but a world of dreams 
and shadows, through which you journey to a vrorld 



SOLEMNITY OF ETERNITY. 153 

of solemn and eternal realities. Let the world talk of 
their pleasures, and be as cheerful as their condition 
should render them wretched; but, do you think of 
ending time and unending eternity. ETERNITY! 
blessed or dreadful word! whose meaning no num- 
bers can unfold, no ages can declare; into whose 
depths no eye but that of God has pierced ; a span 
whose length no heart has ever comprehended. O 
look at that eternity more ! So near the world where 
all is solemn, sliould yon trifle? So near the state 
where all is endless, can you prize what is perishing -2 
At the gate of eternity, on the thresliold of an endless 
world, or, at most, with but a few steps before you 
must step into it, are the concerns of a fleeting pilgrim- 
age of much importance? Are you so near doing 
what you must do for ever; so near rejoicing, where 
you must rejoice for ever, or mourning, where you 
must mourn for ever; and should not this make a 
transitory life and a perishing world little things in* 
deed? Live then, live as a traveler to eternity a 
pilgrim here, pressing to a happy, endless home ! 

§ 6. While this is your condition, if a Christian in- 
deed, even here you belonn^ to a better world. You are 
a stranger; but, you have a settled dwelling-place 
\ ou are a pilgrim ; but you have a rest.—There is a 
family to which you belong; a family in that country 
• where pilgnms roam no more." That family is the 
family of God, and that home is heaven. "You are no 
more a stranger and foreigner, but a fellow-citizen 
with the saints, and of the household of God » You 
belong to Christ, "of whom ///. ulwle family in heaven 
a mf earth is named." 
It is true, the splendors of eternal day do not yet 



154 THE CHRISTIAN A MEMBER 

blaze upon your dazzled eye; nor do the first-born 
sons of light, arrayed in immortal youth and glory, 
yet visibly walk or commune with you: it is true, the 
gladness that is mingled with no alloy does not yet 
overflow your soul ; nor have your eyes yet seen the 
King, the Lord of hosts. But soon you shall join the 
disciples of Jesus, whqhav6 passed the stream of 
death, and rest from every labor. They shine as the 
sun in the kingdom of their Father. Jesus, their Shep- 
herd, who was "their boast through time, is their bliss 
through eternity." Happy conquerors ! But the disci- 
ples of Jesus below belong to the same family. One 
part is not dearer to God than the other. The ^^ whole 
family in heaven and earth" has the same parent, and 
is loved with the same love. The whole family has but 
one Shepherd, and has the same interest in his over- 
flowing kindness and tender care. The same hand pro- 
tects them all.' The same blood redeemed them all. 
The same love has crowned, or is about to crown 
them all. The whole family has 'but one Father, one 
Savior, one Sanctifier, and one heaven. The same pri- 
vileges belong to all ; the same eternal love is fixed on 
all. The same Spirit inhabits all, and the same heaven 
is the home of all. Part are landed on 'the heavenly 
shore ; the gales of death are dfiving others into thb 
harbor; and to it all the rest. Urged' on by wind and 
tide, hasten apace. The whole family in heaven and 
earth will soon be the family in heaven; a fimily for 
ever unbroken there. 

§ 7. Such is the Christian's state. My dear brother 
or sister, is it yours? It is, if you belong to Jesus 
Christ, in spirit and in truth. 0, think of it again j 
how ennobling a connection ! And, 0! remember how 



OF THE FAMILY OF HEAVEN. 153 

vou were brought into it, when only death eternal was 
your desert. Then Jesus pitied you. Then " God, who 
is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved 
you, even when you were dead in sijis, quickened you 
with Christ; (by grace are you saved;) and raised 
you up, and made you sit jn heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus; that in the ages to come he might show the 
exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards 
you, through Christ Jesus." 

This view of the Christian state should make the 
heaviest eartnly trials appear to you as they did to St. 
Paul— light afflictions, which are but for a moment. 
If this world \yere your all, well indeed might you 
make much account of its trials and griefs; but, should 
a citizen of heaven, a member of God's immortal fa- 
mily, deeply feel the trials of a rough but short voy- 
age, or of an unpleasant but hasty journey ; could 
one of the family who has reached his rest return to 
the world to spend a few more days below, how light 
would he esteem those trials which are the trials of a 
moment! how little would he regard those afflictions, 
that, as in the twinkling of an eye, will vanish for, 
ever ! In the day of trial think, This is not my coun- 
try: there is no trouble in that happy land. This is not 
my home; but I shall re^ch it soon, and then shall 
bid a last farewell to sorxaiv apd to care. 

§ 8. In this view also, how; momentous is the pur- , 
suit of holiness— how infinitely inconsistent with your 
character is the indulgenceof sin! /Could an angel of ' 
light, or one of the spirits of.the just, visit this world, . 
and spend a few years here, how inexpressibly shock- 
ing would it be thought for such a being to indulge in 
iniquity ! Would it not be said to him. How dreadfully 



156 WAITING FOR THE LORD. 

inconsistent is this with your character and your con- 
nections! Do you not belong to heaven? are you not 
a member of the family of God? and will you plunge 
from that height of privilege, and disgrace that sacred 
character? If you are a Christian, you belong to the 
same family, and should pant after the lovely likeness 
of Jesus, which glorified spirits bear. Like theirs should 
be your love and hatred, your aversion and delight. 
The dispositions that dwell in their breasts, are those 
you should cherish in yours. The spirit that glows in 
their souls, is the spirit that shouhi animate yours. If 
viewed aright, willful sin would appear almost as shock- 
ing in you as it would in them ; for the whole family 
in heaven and earth is one in Christ Jesus. One in pri- 
vileges, one in blessings, one in friends, one in obliga- 
tions; and, therefore, bound by every holy tie to be 
one in principle, one in disposition, one in praclice. Re- 
vere yourself. Respect your high and holy calling, 
and pray to live and act as a member of Jesus' family, 
as a traveler to the skies. Love not the world, neither 
the things of the world ; for you are dead, and your 
life is hid with Christ in God. 

§ 9. Learn from this important view of your condi- 
tion one lesson more. It should teach you to live wait- 
ing- for your Lord. " Let your loins be girded about, 
and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto 
men that wait for their lord. Blessed are those ser- 
vants whom the lord, when he cometh, shall find watch- 
ing." " I say unto all. Watch." The followers of Christ 
are described as those who have turned from idols to 
serve the living God, and to wait for his Son from hea- 
ven. Important representation ! may you feel it aright. 
A. waiting frame of mind is that the Christian should 



CONNECTION WITH HEAVEN. 157 

ever cherish. But, what is it to wait ? Let a familiar 
illustration furnish a reply. 

The father of a numerous family leaves his children 
intending to go and settle in a foreign land. Before he 
departs, he says, " My dear children, I am going to 
leave you for a while, but not for ever. I am going to 
prepare for you, in a country where we shall be hap- 
pier than we can be here. As soon as I have made the 
needful preparations I shall return to fetch you ; there- 
fore, wait and be ready." The father departs ; his chil- 
dren continue in their old abode, but with new feel- 
ings. It is hardly like their abode now; for they are 
expecting to go. They pursue their needful duties, at- 
tend as before to necessary concerns, but still their 
hearts are gone after their father. They are looking 
for their new abode. They are waiting for their fa- 
ther's coming. 

Such are the feelings and views which you should 
cherish. Not feelings that will prevent your discharg- 
ing the duties of life; that will drive you into a desert, 
or turn you to a hermit; but, that will lead you to act 
and live as not at home, but looking for your Lord ; 
waiting as those children would wait. Not building on 
long years below; not expecting great things here;\ut 
with a heart untied from the world, ready to go, be the 
warning ever so short, and to welcome your Lord, let 
him come ever so soon. 

Blessed are they who indulge this watching, waiting 
spirit: the King of heaven and earth has pronounced 
them blessed. 

§ 10. But perhaps I am addressing one of a charac- 
ter very opposite to that described in these pages. Per- 
14 



158 THE WORLDLY MINDED. 

haps you who read these lines are no member of the 
family of God ; no fellow-citizen with the saints ; no 
heir of heaven and immortality. If it be so, O ! let ma 
for a moment affectionately speak to you. How pitiable 
is your condition 1 Your transient morning might be 
the dawn of an immortal day I Your vain, half-painful, 
half-pleasing life on earth, might be the forerunner of 
an endless life of unmixed bliss above 1 But, you slight 
the Savior who would conduct you to that abode. 
You, who might, through the grace of Jesus, ascend to 
the kingdom of God, and range that blessed world for 
<3ver, are satisfied, alas I with the low scenes of earth. 
You might rival angels, as an inhabitant of heaven; 
but, by taking up your portion here, become the rival 
of the brutes that perish. Here you bury all your 
hopes. Here you renounce that great salvation, which, 
once finally lost, can never be regained. O, sinful and 
unhappy choice ! When we see swine wallowing in 
the mire, we see them gratifying themselves, and los- 
ing nothing by their pleasure ; but when we see im- 
mortal beings Avallowing on earth in the mire of sin 
and sensuality, we see them losing more than tongue 
can express. To see millions that might be heirs of 
God, and joint heirs with Christ; that might, in sera- 
phic blis'5, walk the spacious regions of heaven, and, 
washed in the blood of the Lamb, be happy and glori- 
fied for ever : to see these slighting the only Savior's 
grace and love, rejecting immortal hopes, and damn- 
ing their own immortal souls: to see the young and 
the aged, the gay and the grave, the cheerful and the 
sad, the rich and the poor, aoing this by millions, is a 
pitiable sight indeed ! What must it appear to the an- 
gels of heaven ? 



THE heathens' virtuous man. 159 

" Could they tremble, 'twere at such a sight." 

Are you one of the number? Unhappy creature I 
how poor ! liovv wretched ! how undone ! O, *awake, 
before eternal ruin awakes you ! and while the Savior 
invites you to his fold, to his family, be not so besotted 
by sin, so led captive by the devil, as to refuse the 
offered mercv. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ON CHRISTIAN HOLINESS. 

§ 1. When heathen philosophers described their vir- 
tuous man, they represented him as filled with self- 
conceit and pride, in consequence of the virtues he had 
acquired, and the heights to which he had raised him- 
self above the common level. One of them represents 
this man of virtue as superior to the gods ; because they 
were virtuous by nature, but he by choice. Such was 
the Satanic pride inculcated by the men that modern 
infidels admire. Christianity requires holiness of the 
most elevated kind, but connects this holiness with 
the deepest humility. " Be ye holy, for I am holy." 
" Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the 
Lord." 

The Scriptures recognize not as a thing of any value, 
that negative kind of virtue, which consists in doing 
no harm. To leave undone what we ought to do, is as 
really sin, as to do what we ought not. Accordingly, 
the Christian's faith is represented, not as faith which 
merely preserves him from evil but \vhich " works by 



^^ HOLINESS INDISPENSABLE. 

love." The Christian's love is described, not as love 
which evaporates in empty professions, but which con- 
strains " him to live not to himself, but the Lord Jesus 
Christ." The servant who had one talent committed 
to him, which he neglected to improve, is declared to 
be a slothful and wicked servant; not because he had 
wasted that talent, but because he had made no im- 
provement of the trust. The blessed Savior describes 
myriads as condemned to destruction with the devil 
and his angels, not for crimes they had perpetrated 
but for the neglect of duties they had omitted. When 
the different virtues that should adorn the Chris- 
tian character are compared to fruit, this fruit is re- 
presented as indispensably necessary. This lesson is 
inculcated by the Lord in various expressive ways 
He taught it by the parable of a fig-tree planted in the 
vineyard. The owner sought fruit, not leaves; and his 
forbearance was extended to the tree, under the hope 
of Its producing fruit. The great Husbandman expects 
the fruits of piety; and the leaves of a fair profession 
will not be valued where the fruit is wanting. By an 
expressive miracle the Lord taught the same important 
lesson, when he said to the barren fig-tree, Let no fruit 
grow on thee henceforward for ever. Many professors 
of religion appear satisfied if they disgrace not their 
profession by flagrant inconsistency; yet, let such con- 
sider that the fig-tree in the vineyard was not ordered 
to be cut down because it bore pernicious fruit, but be- 
cause it bore no fruit. The tree which withered at 
Jesus s word, was not blasted because it was covered 
with poisonous berries, but because it had nothing but 
leaves. As the adorable Jesus thus declares that his 
followers will produce the fruits of holiness; he also 



PAUL AN EXAMPLE. 161 

declares that this will not be in a small and inconside- 
rable degree. When he compares himself to a vine, and 
his disciples to the branches, he says of those disciples 
" He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bring- 
eth forth much fruit. Herein is my Father glorified, 
that ye bear much fruit." In the parable of the sower, 
he describes his disciples as producing thirty, sixty, 
and a hundred-fold ; some as rising \p piety much more 
elevated than that of others; yet, while some yield a 
hundred-fold, those who produce the least yield thirty- 
fold. Ask the husbandman, and he will tell you that 
thirty-fold is no inconsiderable increase. Conformable 
with these representations are the divine admonitions . 
"Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in 
the work of the Lord." " Be diligent, that ye may be 
found of him in peace without spot and blameless." 
§ 2. An instructive example of the spirit with which 
Christians should pant after holiness was exhibited by 
the apostle Paul: "Herein do I exercise myself, to 
have always a conscience void of offence toward God 
and toward men." A conscience void of offence to- 
wards God, that should charge him with no neglect of 
God's precepts, that should witness that he devoted 
his whole heart, and all he was and had, to God. A 
conscience void of offence towards men, that should 
bear testimony to his concern to discharge all the du- 
ties of life, to do all as he would have them to do to 
him, to furnish none with any cause of complaint 
against him, but rather, as far as ability extended, to 
do good to all around him. This he labored to possess 
always: yet, after all, acknowledged himself less than 
the least of all saints ; the chief of sinners, saved by 
14* 



162 



CHRISTIAN HOLINESS. 



grace. The same spirit breallies in his affectionate ad- 
dress to the Pliiliopians:— "Not as thougli I had al- 
ready attained, either were ah-eady perfect; but thi. 
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are be- 
hind, and reacliing forth unto those things wliich are 
before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the 
higlv calhng of God in Christ Jesus." When Paul 
made this impressive declaration, he iiad probably 
been nearly thirty* years a Christian. His splendid 
course was nearly run; he had labored above mea- 
sure; he had suffered much; he had been enabled to 
exemplify, in no common degree, the mild and bril- 
liant glories of Christianity— the zeal that never tires, 
the love that never cools, the patience that never wea- 
ries, the benevolence that never slackens; yet, such 
were his ideas of the exalted nature of gospel holiness, 
that after these long years of labor, of suffering, and of 
ripening piety, he still pressed on, and aimed at some- 
thing higher than all the heights he yet had reached. 
Nor do the Scriptures represent this laboring after ho- 
liness as something peculiar to the great apostle; for 
tlic Holy Spirit directed him to add, "Brethren, be ye 
followers together of me, and mark them which walk 
so, as ye have us for an ensample." 

§ 3. But in the pursuit of Christian holiness, the 
word of God directs us to an infinitely higher pattern 
for imitation than that now contemplated. "Be ye fol- 
lowers of God, as dear children." Be ye therefore per- 
fect, even as your Father which is in heaven is per- 
fect." As the blessed God is proposed as a pattern for 
imitation, in the exercise of benevolent affections ; the 
holy Jesus is set before us as an example we are called 
to copy in the general conduct of life. " Christ also 



HOLINESS PROGRESSIVE. 163 

suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should 
follow his steps." " He thai saiih he abideth in him, 
ought himself also so to walk even as he walked." 
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they 
follow me." A nobler example of spotless holiness 
cannot be proposed than that of the holy Jesus. Even 
infidels have admired his unblemished life, and on it 
passed eulouiwms. But his disciples are called upon to 
imitate, as well as to admire, to follow, as well as to 
applaud. Cherish the spirit, that, burning with de- 
sires for a closer resemblance to the blessed Savior, 
and for the diffusion of his gh)ry, thinks nothing gain- 
ed while any thing remains ungained, nothing done 
while any thing remains undone. Except when you 
acknowledge what God has done for you, to cherish 
gratitude for grace enjoyed, forget all that you have 
gamed, and reach at more. It is an apostolic lesson, 
FORGET the things behind, and reach after tliose before. 
§4- Christian holiness musi he progressive. What- 
ever attainments in the divine life' you may have 
reached, much is yet unattained. In eminent Chris- 
tians, how low, how weak are Christian graces, com- 
pared with what they ought to be ! but in many of 
the followers of the Lamb, how much lower! how 
much weaker! 

The commands given in the sacred Scriptures ex- 
pressly require advancement in Christian holiness. 
"Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue ; and 
to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance; 
and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, godli-' 
ness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to 
brotherly kindness, charity. Give diligence to make 
your calling and election sure; for if ye do these 



jg4 LIFE THE SEASON OF 

things ye shall never fall." Grow in grace, and in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 

The reality and importance of advancement in 
Christian holiness are also inculcated strongly in the 
prayers of the inspired writers for their fellow disci- 
ples What is thus the subject of divine commands, and 
of inspired prayers, is also represented by the blessed 
Savior as receiving his peculiar approbation. When he 
commends the church atThyatira, and says, I know 
thv works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy 
patience, and thy works," he adds, "and the last to 

BE MORE THAN THE FIRST." 

The experience of all Christians who have honored 
their profession by consistent holiness, bears testimo- 
ny to the correctness of these statements. Their hu- 
mility has deepened ; their faith has strengthened ; 
iheir'hopes have become more bright; their love has 
assumed, not the brightness of a flash or momentary 
blaze, but of a stead y flame. Their devotedness to God 
has become more entire ; their reliance on Christ more 
pure, and unmingled with other dependence. The 
depravity of their own nature has been more clearly 
seen, and been viewed with more abhorrence. Its cor- 
ruptions have been opposed, and in many instances so 
conquered that their power has hardly been felt. It is 
said of Isaac Watts, that he was by nature quick of 
resentment ; but by habitual practice, gentle, modest, 
and inoffensive. I remember having some knowledge 
of a person, a number of years ago, whose natural dis- 
po'^ition seemed covetous ; but who had followed the 
precepts of the Gospel till liberality was no longer a 
difficult duty, and it appeared to him almost or quite 
as easy to give as to receive. In the earlier stage 



! CHRISTIAN GRACES. 165 

of his Christian progress, it seemed to him much to 
give away a religious book that had cost a few pence; 
when more advanced, he gave scores of much more 
expensive Iwolis away; and I have understood, even 
sold part of his own library, to enable iiim to pursue 
this mode of promoting religion. 

If then you would adorn the holy Gospel, and walk 
worthy the character of a child of the holy God, let it 
ever be impressed on your heart, that it is not merely 
holiness, but ripening^ advancing holiness, which you 
are to follow. 

§ 5. Many are the weighty motives that urge upon 
the Christian the incessant pursuit of perfect holiness. 
You should pursue holiness with all the energy oi 
your soul : because this life is the only season in which 
some Christian graces can be exercised. It is now that 
we can serve the Lord, who redeemed us by his blood. 
Now, in sorrow we may practice resignation to the 
will of God : the Christian cannot in heaven— there 
are no sorrows there. Now must we learn lessons of 
forgiveness : the blessed will find no enemies to for- 
give beyond the grave. Now must we prove our faith- 
fulness in the scenes of the Christian warfare ; for only 
this world is the field of conflict : no spiritual foes dis- 
turb the peace of heaven. Now should our tempers, 
amidst rufl^hng, disturbing things, acquire the serenity 
of Christ's : there is nothing to ruffle in the realms 
above. Now must we feed the hungry and clothe the 
naked : 

" In heaven are found no sons of need." 

Now must we visit the sick and afflicted, or never ; lor 
above, the inhabitant shall never say, I am sick. Now 



166 HOLINESS HONORS GOD. 

must we instruct the illiterate, and spread the Gospel, 
or never: and as we sow, we shall hereafter reap. 
And would you not wish, in these respects, to copy 
nim who went about doing good. The time for these 
will soon be passed ; and once gone, is gone for ever. 
§ 6. Follow holiness ; because thus you may glorify 
God and recommend religion to man. Doubtless, in 
many instances, the calm but powerful eloquence of a 
holy life has awakened the thoughtless to attention to 
their best interests, and taugh.t even scoffers wisdom. 
Thus enforced, 

"Truth from the lips has come with double sway 

"And fools, who -else had laugh'd, have learn'd' to pray." 

The meek forbearance that resents no injury ; the calm 
submission that never utters a murmur ; the expansive 
love that pities and blesses friends and foes ; and all 
the unostentatious charms of Christian piety ; these, 
even when they shine like the stars in solemn silence, 
yet, like them, utter a voice, 

;' The hand that form'd us is divine." 

These impress hearts that no arguments would reach, 
no reasonings convince; and lead even some that 
know not God to acknowledge that there is a power in 
religion to which they are strangers, a reality of which 
they have no conception.* 

* Of the effects of consistent piety, the following pleasing 
anecdote furnishes one illustration out of many : 

" In a family in the north of Ireland, a pious young woman 
was engaged as a servant. The poor girl was much ridiculed 
for her religion by the young ladies, but did not render evil for 
evil ; on the contrary, she would allow them to laugh at her 



HOLINESS HONORS GOD. 167 

The eloquence of a holy life speaks in any land. 
After Mr. Peter had labored for a length of time at 
Balasore, a young Brahmin, named Jugunnat'ha, em- 
braced the Gospel. Soon after, the brother of a native 
magistrate said to him, "Do you believe this from 
your heart ?" Jugunnat'ha said, " Yes." " Well," said 
the other, "we are watching; you are making an ex- 
periment: if you live a holy life, we shall know that 
this Gospel is true. Padree-saheb has been preaching 
for three or four years; but we have our doubts, and 
cannot believe ; none of the Ooriyas till now have em- 
braced this religion ; if you bear good fruit many will 
follow your example." 

Well indeed said the blessed Savior, "Let your light 
so shine before men, that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father who is heaven." And 
do you not wish to promote this double object — the 
glory of God and the eternal welfare of man? This 

and then mildly reason with them. She made it her study to 
be attentive and useful to them; took opportunities to speak 
to them about religion; and would offer to read the sacred 
Scriptures to them when they went to bed. They commonly 
fell asleep, and that in a little time, under the sound; but she 
was not discouraged. Having exemplified Christianity in her 
life, Providence sent a fever to remove her to a belter state. 
The young ladies were not permitted to see her during her ill- 
ness ; but they heard of her behavior, which did not lessen the 
impression which her previous conduct had made upon them. 
Soon afte**, the two elder made a profession of religion : the 
little leaven spread; and now all the nine young ladies appear 
truly pious. Nor is religion, in this highly favored fimily, con- 
fined to them : other means were employed by God in produc- 
ing this great change; but one of the two first who became 
serious, informed me that she chiefly ascribed it to the life 
and death of the servant-maid." 



168 HOLINESS HONORS GOD. 

double object occupied on earth a Savior's hands, and 
in heaven engages that Savior's attention ; this double 
object is tlie aim of those ministering spirits which are 
sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation, to dif- 
fuse happiness and holiness among beings destined to 
immortality, and to advance the honor of that God 
whom all the hosts of heaven adore. This is indeed a 
pursuit in which an archangel might delight to con- 
sume myriads of ages; and this in your sphere you 
may advance by the silent lessons of a holy example. 
In the epistle to the PhiHppians this subject is placed 
in a most important and striking light. " Holding forth 
the word of life." Preach the Gospel in your lives ; 
preach it by your conduct, and thus hold forth the 
word of life to an undone world, as a light-house dis- 
plays its light at the entrance of a harbor. A building 
of that description is designed to warn mariners of 
rocks or quicksands, and to show them a safe passage 
out of a stormy sea into a peaceful haven. Thus every 
Christian should stand, like a light-house on the edge 
of the ocean, to show all around him how they may 
escape the storm of eternal wrath, and where they 
may find a haven of repose; in other words, by a 
blameless life to teach mankind that this is happiness, 
holiness, and life eternal, to know the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. 

Important situation ! Who that feels one spark of 
love to God, or love to man, but must be anxious to 
accomplish heaven's benevolent design? and, saved 
himself, to be the means of saving others? Indeed, so 
powerful, so effective is Christian example, that it 
seems reasonable to believe, if individuals and nations 
that have professed the Gospel had universally adorn- 



TRAITORS TO CHRIST. 169 

ed the Gospel, the whole world must long since have 
been brought to bow to the sceptre of the cross. 

§ 7. The motives hitherto adduced for a devout at- 
tention to holiness have been chiefly of a pleasing de- 
scription ; but there are others of another kind, which 
ought not to be entirely unnoticed. If holiness is not 
your pursuit, you have n.o evidence that you enjoy 
God's grace: you have evidence, that in your present 
state you cannot enter his kingdom. "Without holi- 
ness no man shall see the Lord." However fair your 
profession, however splendid your gifts, however ex- 
tensive your knowledge, without holiness you are like 
a lifeless corpse, that has the human form, but wants 
the soul; or like a whitened sepulchre, fair without, 
but within full of dead men's bones and all unclean- 
ness. To such the Son of God declares, "Not every- 
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my 
Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in 
that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy 
name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in 
thy name done many wonderful works ? And then will 
I profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from 
me, ye that work iniquity." 

§ 8. Without holiness you would act the part of the 
worst of traitors to the Son of God. When Judas be- 
trayed him, he professed affection and friendship, and 
kissed him, and said, " Hail, Master !" while he pointed 
him out as the prey of cruelty and scorn. The incon- 
sistent professor of the Gospel really imitates Judas. 
He hails Christ as his Master and Savior, while he 
exposes the cause of Christ to contempt and reproach 
15 



170 TRAITORS TO CHRIST 

by his ungodly life. In the world, religion is scorned 
through him ; in his own family, it is hated through 
him. The world and his family think. If this is reli- 
gion, we are as well or better without it. Satan injured 
Christ, but Judas must help him. So Satan opposes 
the progress of the Gospel, and injures the religion of 
Jesus; but other Judases must help him now, or he 
would labor in vain to throw a shade over the bright 
glories of Christianity, He leads these insincere or 
careless professors of the Gospel into dishonesty, or 
lying, or drunicenness, or some other crime ; and then 
an outcry is raised against the religion of Jesus, 
through their wickedness, that are really strangers to 
religion and traitors to the Lord Jesus Christ. How 
terrific a description of any that have professed subjec- 
tion to Jesus ! Enemies to the cross of Christ. The 
cross — God's grand instrument of saving mercy. The 
cross of Christ — where shines the brightest display of 
heavenly love. The cross of Christ — man's only re- 
fuge ; the sinner's only hope. The cross of Christ — 
the means by which that blessed sufferer would sub- 
due the world ; and these, even while they profess sub- 
jection to his sway, enemies to his cross. Dreadful 
character ! 

§ 9. Without holiness you would rob God of his 
right, and violate your own most solemn engagements. 
You are not your own ; but God claims your services, 
your love, your life ; yet to be inattentive to holiness, 
is to deny him all he claims. It is a great crime to rob 
a man of his property, but it is a far more atrocious 
one to rob God of his glory; and not merely to rob 
him of his right, but to blacken the villany by giving 
to the world, and sin, and Satan, the time, talents, and 



AND ROBBERS OF GOD. 171 

obedience which God claims. And all this wickedness 
IS, in a professor of religion, rendered still more wick- 
ed, because it is connected with the violation of the 
most solemn engagements. Is not that man thought a 
poor, perjured wretch, who swears allegiance to his 
country and king, and then deserts and fights against 
both ? Is he noi deemed still more vile, if to perjury 
and desertion he adds treachery; and while he acts as 
his country's enemy, wears her colors, and professes to 
be a friend ? Such, or a still more wretched and wick- 
ed being is he who professes the Gospel, and slights 
the holiness by which it is adorned. He, who, perjured 
by the violation of all his solemn engagements to God, 
has deserted his station, and is treacherously serving 
the devil while he professes to fight under the banners 
of Jesus. 

§ 10. Without holiness you would contribute to de- 
feat the benevolent labors of others, and render injury 
to the church of Christ as real as that offered by the 
most bitter persecutors. Suppose you knew a profane 
scoffer that made it his business to counteract the zea- 
lous labors of some faithful minister, would you not 
think him a miserable and dreadful instance of human 
depravity ? would you not tremble at the prospect of his 
impending destruction? Ah, my friend! ministers of 
the Gospel have worse enemies than profane scoffers. 
Unholy professors much more effectually defeat their 
labors than all the scoffers upon earth. When those 
who are strangers to the power of the Gospel behold 
its professors as careless, as slanderous, as fond of 
worldly vanity, as resentful, or as covetous and world- 
ly-minded, as themselves ; when they see little or no 
difference, in conduct, disposition, and temper, be- 



172 SUPPORT TO Satan's empire, 

tween a professor of religion and moral persons who 
profess it not, they infer that religion is an empty 
name. And when they see conduct openly flagrant in 
its professed disciples, they infer that all professors 
are alike, and that all profession of religion is hypo- 
crisy. It is true this is an unjust inference, but it is a 
common one ; and they who give occasion for it, more 
effectually than scoffers or infidels, liinder men from 
embracing the Gospel of salvation ; and doing so, 
they act the same part as the most bitter persecutors. 
At what did they in reality aim, but to support pagan 
ism or antichrist, and to keep mankind from the true 
way of life and peace? For what end but this were 
their dungeons, their racks and flames occasionally 
employed? And this end the inconsistent professor of 
religion, by his unholy deportment, daily promotes. 
Some who have begun to seek the way of peace, dis- 
gusted by his conduct, give up the pursuit; and he 
quenches in their hearts the little spark of grace, occa- 
sions them to resist the Holy Spirit, contributes to 
their damnation, and becomes a partaker of their sins. 
Others, always careless from the same cause, are 
sealed up under carelessness and impenitence of heart. 
§ 1 1. While leading a careless or unholy life, the in- 
consistent professor of religion really imitates the de- 
vil, upholds his kingdom, and most effectually does 
him service. He imitates Satan. That enemy of God 
and man, it is said, can appear as an angel of light; 
but he is a devil still. So he who professes religion 
while he does not practice it, may appear in his 
conversation a child of God ; but he is still a child of 
Satan. He upholds the kingdom of the wicked one. 
Satan endeavors lo uphold that kingdom by prevent- 



AND INCALCULABLE MISCHIEF. 173 

ing men from discerning the worth and excellency of 
the Gospel. The holy Scriptures declare this. Who 
so successfully hinder mankind from discerning the 
real nature of religion as its unholy professors? Re- 
ligion, as exhibited in the lives of some of its faithful 
followers, is a fair and beautiful form, adorned with 
graces so divine and heavenly, that it is sufficiently 
powerful, if not to captivate every heart, yet to extort 
respect and admiration even from its foes; but the re- 
ligion of an unholy professor of the Gospel, when 
seen, like a hideous monster, excites abhorrence and 
disgust ; and mankind are ready to exclaim, If this is 
religion, we are better wi-thout it. Thus are they hin- 
dered from discerning its heavenly excellences; and 
taking a monster for it, are prevented from seeing its 
eternal worth. The unholy man or woman that occa- 
sions this mischief, is indeed one of the most faithful 
servants of the wicked one. The profligate cannot so 
effectually serve Satan as the hypocrite. The profli- 
gate is like an enemy without the walls of a fortress ; 
he appears in his true colors, and men are aware of 
him ; but the unholy professor is like a treacherous 
wretch that has crept into the fortress only to betray 
it. A drunkard, a dishonest man, a liar, a miser, out of 
the church of Christ, can never render Satan half the 
service they can render him when within its walls. 

§ 12. If you profess religion and neglect holiness, 
you may be a source of mischief and misery for ages 
and ages. It is impossible to tell where the evil of a 
sinful example, or even of one sinful action, may ter- 
minate. One open crime, and much more an unholy 
life, in a professor of religion, may be a means of 
15* 



174 SUPPORT TO Satan's empire, 

propagating vice and misery, and dealing to many 
deatli and damnation for generations to come. How 
easily may this be tiie case wlien a young person is 
influenced by sucli causes to neglect the Savior. The 
impressions he felt are destroyed, his desires are 
quenched, and his soul is undone. But he, perhaps, 
becomes the head of a family. Had he followed Jesus, 
his children would have been trained up for God; but 
now their eternal welfare is slighted, and they rise up 
heathen, like their father. Perhaps the same course of 
irreligion and vice is acted over again by their de- 
scendants, and again by theirs, each new generation 
copying the example of the former. This is not un- 
common. Thus sin and misery are propagated from 
age to age. And that professor of the Gospel wh(», by 
his crimes, prevented the ancestor of such a family 
from following the Savior, is in an awful degree a 
cause of all tliis sin and misery ! Ah, how watchful 
should a Christian be, that no one at the judgment-bar 
may be able to stand forth and sa}', " My ruin is ow- 
ing to that sin, by which you wounded your friends 
and disgraced your profession; but for that I should 
have sought the Savior; through that I pronounced 
religion hypocrisy, and neglectful of it, lived and died." 
§ 13. Neglecting holiness, you expose others and 
yourself to that awful wo which the Lord has de- 
nounced against those who slight his Gospel on ac- 
count of the sins of others, and against those who are 
the cause of this neglect. " Wo unto the world be- 
cause of offences ! for it must needs be that offences 
come; but wo to that man by whom the offence Com- 
eth." Let the unholy professor of religion tremble at 
this heavy wo, denounced by such gentle lips !— thia 



AND INCALCULABLE MISCHIEF. 175 

WO which, heavier than a mill-stone round the neck, 
will sink him in a direful ocean of eternal wrath. O, 
let the unholy professor of the Gospel meditate terror, 
while he meditates on these words, '• Wo unto that 
man by whom the offence cometh." 

§ 14. Such are a few of those awfully momentous 
motives that urge the Christian to make advancing 
holiness his fervent desire, his incessant pursuit, his 
daily prayer. If you would improve life's little span ; 
if you would glorify God and honor Christ; if you 
would recommend religion to mankind, and lead them 
to tlie abodes of bliss, you must follow after consistent 
holiness. Without it, the more zeal you display for the 
Gospel, the more mischief will you do. If you v/ould 
not be shut out of heaven ; if you would not be another 
Judas, another traitor to the blessed Savior; if you 
would not defeat the labors of Gospel ministers, more 
effectually than is done by bitter persecutors; if you 
would not rob God of his right ; if you would not lie to 
God. and become a poor perjured wretch ; if you would 
not uphold the kingdom of tlie devil, carry on his de- 
signs, and be his most faithful servant; if you would 
not contribute to spread sin, and misery, and damna- 
tion for ages to come; if you would not expose others, 
and yourself, to one of the most tremendous woes ever 
denounced from heaven against sin and sinners; if you 
would not commit all these hideous sins ; if you would 
not do all this complicated mischief; in short, if you 
would not be a pest to earth, an enemy to the cross of 
Christ, a friend of the devil, an agent of hell, and a 
curse to yourself, you must follow after holiness. 



176 ' MORTIFICATION OF SIN^ 

CHAPTER VIII. 

ON THE MORTIFICATION OF SIN. 

§ 1. Were man what Adam was, what angels are, or 
what the spirits of the just will be, holiness would cost 
no pains, and require no labors. But during the pre- 
sent state, so much corruption works within, that the 
daily mortification of sin is essential to growth in grace. 

The Scriptures contain many impressive admoni- 
tions respecting this duly. " Let us lay aside every 
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." " If 
ye live after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye, through 
the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall 
live." " Abhor that which is evil." " As strangers 
and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war 
against the soul." 

That inbred corruption, which is the fruitful parent 
of all man's actual transgressions, is described in the 
Bible as " the old man." Not as something light and 
trifling which attaches itself to man, but as that which 
is so incorporated with his fallen nature that it be- 
comes as it were " the man." It is represented also as 
the body of sin, in which all sins are united, as all the 
members of man are in a human body. 

Freed by divine grace from the " dominion " of sin, 
the Christian is not freed from its more open assaults 
or secret guile. It is like an enemy defeated, and trod- 
den under foot, yet not dead ; still possessed of life, and 
only wanting an opportunity to rise again, and ready 
then to act with vigor. Or like an enemy nailed to a 



NECESSITY OF MORTIFYING SIN. 177 

cross, that if not kept there till his slrenfflh is exhaust- 
ed and life expires, may live again, and be a worse en- 
emy than ever. Hence the important admonitions, to 
mortify sin, to mortify the deeds of the body. The 
sense of the original word is, to kill, to destroy. It 
contains therefore a direction, to aim at the utter de- 
struction of sin. The Scriptures do not, however, re- 
present this enemy as soon dead. Our old man is cruci- 
fied. Crucifixion was a lingering death. So sin does 
not die at once. Long will it linger; perhaps seem 
dead, the4i show again that life is not gone; then seem 
expiring, yet not expire. To the cross must it still be 
fastened, and wound after wound be inflicted on it, and 
never should it be presumed to be quite dead till it dies 
finally, and dies eternally. 

§ 2. If you would live to God, you must mortify sin 
Aim not merely at avoiding sin in your outward con 
duct, but seek and pray to kill the root of it in your 
heart. That you may do this, cherish self-acquaintance 
Watch the motions of your own heart. If a strangei 
to yourself, sin cannot be mortified ; however it may 
be checked in your outward conduct, it will reign and 
triumph in your heart. Pride will be filling you with 
self-conceit and self-importance. Self-love will pro- 
mote covetousness, and make you indifferent to the 
miseries of others. It will pollute your motives; and 
when God's glory is the ostensible object, your own 
praise will be the true, though hidden spring of action. 
When afflicted, you will be disposed to murmur. When 
others are more prosperous or applauded than you, in- 
stead of rejoicing in their happiness you will be dis- 
posed to envy them. All this is the effect of sin that 
lies unmortified, and perhaps hidden, in the heart. 



17S 



SINFUL THOUGHTS. 



Hence, too, you will be studying for this world, when 
you should be meditating on a better ; and planning for 
earth, when you should be reaching after heaven. The 
natural elfect of all this is a cold, heartless, barren form 
of religion, where the life, and soul, and vital heat are 
Avanti-ng. This cannot be avoided unless you mortify 
sin, nor can sin be mortified without self-acquaintance. 

To mortify sin, it is necessary that you have a deep 
impression of the evil of those innumerable sins, the 
sins of the heart. These are hidden from the eye of 
man. Human laws take no cognizance of them; but 
the great Searcher of hearts looks upon them with the 
same abhorrence as on finished crimes. Sin in the 
seed, in the bud, the blade, or the ear, is in his sight 
equally hateful. For as it is said, " Sin aims always at 
the utmost ; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, 
might it have its own course, it would go out to the 
utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought or 
glance would be adultery, if it could ; every covetous 
desire would be oppression; every thought of unbelief 
would be atheism, might it grow to its head."* 

The sacred Scriptures represent those sins which lie 
hidden in the heart, as incurring guilt and condemna- 
tion of the same description as the crimes to which 
they would lead. Thus the Judge of all declares, that 
a lustful thought cherished in the mind, incurs the 
guilt of adultery. " I say unto you, That whosoever 
looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed 
adultery with her already in his heart." The indul- 
gence of a resentful disposition incurs the guilt of mur- 
der. " Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, 

• Oweu. 



SIN DIVERTED TO NEW OBJECTS 179 

and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abid- 
ing in him." 

On the same principle, he who meditates a dishonest 
action, is, in God's esteem, a thief; he who lets his vain 
mind dwell with pleasure on scenes of revelry, de- 
bauchery, and intoxication, stands charc;:eable in his 
Maker's sight with all those crimes. And they whose 
thoughts are occupied with vanity, excess, and plea- 
sure, are, in the sight of God, guilty of the crimes and 
follies they would commit if their situation placed 
these things within their power. Would you therefore 
mortify sin, view it as exceeding sinful ; and remember 
that a sinful disposition indulged, as to guilt, is equiva- 
lent to the guilt of committing the sin to which that 
disposition would lead. O, what myriads of millions 
of crimes are thus committed in the chambers of the 
mind and heart, those scenes of iniquity ! crimes, hid- 
den from every human eye, beneath impenetrable 
shades, yet all of them glaring with hideous horror 
before the face of eternal Majesty, as clearly as in the 
blaze of clay. 

§ 3. In mortifying sin, it is of unspeakable impor- 
tance to observe that sin be really worlijled ; not mere- 
ly diverted to some other object, or permitted to flow 
in some new channel. It is to be apprehended that the 
supposition that sin is mortified, when only diverted to 
a new object, is a frequent cause of ruinous deception. 
Thus, perhaps, the reigning sin of a man has been pro- 
digality; he lays this sin aside, and ceases to be a 
spendthrift; but he takes up covetousness, and be- 
comes a miser. Perhaps he has been covetous, he for- 
sakes his avaricious ways, he is no longer the slave of 
avaricej he becomes liberal, but he becomes the slave 



180 SIN DIRECTED TO NEW OBJECTS. 

of ostentation. Another has been a profligate, proud of 
his drunken feats; he forsakes profligacy, frequents 
the house of prayer, and leads a life of regularity ; but 
he is now as proud of his fancied virtues. Another has 
been a leader in a tavern club; he forsakes his former 
haunts and associates, and professes religion; but 
knows no ease, and allows no quiet, unless he can be 
a leader in the Christian church. Who does not see 
that in all these, and ten thousand such cases, sin is 
not mortified ? Ruling iniquity still rules. The man is 
still its slave. The stream of iniquity is not lessened, 
but flows in another channel. 

Another fatal mistake on this subject is, that of 
supposing sin mortified, when it is merely forsaken, 
through a change in oui~ circumstances and situations. 
The flight of time produces many such changes. The 
faults and mischievous tricks of childhood give place 
to youthful lusts. These, in more advanced life, are in 
a degree forsaken for the sins of age. Yet sin is not 
mortified ; it is merely adapting itself to the situations 
of its servants. The system of delusion goes on even 
to the day of death, and many die beneath its dread- 
ful influence. How often, when visiting persons on the 
confines of the grave, of whose conversion I had not 
the slightest hope, have I heard them profess that they 
gave up the world ; when the fact was, that they felt 
they could keep it no longer, and the world gave up 
them. Time changes man ; but unless he be changed 
by a mightier than time, sin rules from the days of 
sprightly childhood to the last moments of feeble age. 

As you value your eternal welfare, guard against de- 
lusions, by which myriads are undone. If there be one 
bosom lust that you would suflfer to live, that one will 



' BESETTING BINS. 181 

kill your soul. If you have a true hatred for any sin, 
you will indulge hatred against every sin ; and if you 
would willingly spare one, it shows you not sincere 
in the destruction of any. Should you aim at the de- 
struction of every sin but one, in cherishing that one 
j^ou would as truly trample under foot the authority 
of God, as if you cherished all ; as truly defeat the 
end, as to yourself, of the Redeemer's death. "For 
whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in 
one point, he is guilty of all." Remember, the blood of 
Christ was shed as much to atone for the secret sins 
of your heart, as for the more open transgressions of 
your life. Only the blood of the Son of God can wash 
away the slain of your least offence against the Ma- 
jesty on high; and shall any sin be small in your 
esteem, when for the least that precious blood was 
shed ? If you are indeed his follower, you will spare 
no sin. 

§ 4. To mortify sin, watch more especially against 
those sins to which your circumstances or age may 
peculiarly expose you. As the constitutions and situ- 
ations of mankind vary, so do their sinful propensi- 
ties. Hence the admonition to lay aside the sin which 
doth so EASILY BESET US. Couslder what, in your un- 
converted state, were the sins to which your disposi- 
tion most prompted you ; and watch peculiarly against 
those sins. Some are peculiarly prone to pride, others 
to passion ; some to suilenness and obstinacy, others 
to fiery resentment; some to envy, others to ambition 
and the love of glory ; in other words, of worldly ap- 
plause : others to love of worldly pleasure ; some to 
strife, others to scandal and backbiting; some to here- 
16 



182 



BESETTING SINS. 



files, others to drunkenness and lewdness; some to 
covetousness, others to prodigality; some to sloth, 
others, that are free from grosser crimes, to mere levi- 
ty and folly. A cheerful disposition will be more liable 
to such sins as excessive levity, love of pleasure, and 
passion ; a melancholy one to sullenness, to revenge, 
when brooding over imagined wrongs; to discontent, 
when destitute of desired advantages. Are you rich ? 
you will be tempted to exlravat^auce ; and under the 
delusive idea of living conformably to your rank, will 
be tempted to squander in self-gratification or idle 
show, what would feed the hungry, clothe the naked 
bring the blessing of multitudes ready to perish upon 
you, and if employed in diifusing divine knowledge, 
would spread it far and wide. Are you rich 7 you will, 
if 'professedly liberal^ be tempted to confine your libe- 
rality within such narrow bounds, that your donations 
to relieve the miseries of man, or assist the cause of Gody 
will be really pitiful, paltry things, compared with the 
widow^s mite, or the poor man's penny. Are you rich 1 
you will, if you have a family, be tempted to hoard so 
liberally for them, that you will probably, in the end 
curse them with love to the world, with alienation 
from God, with a disposition to be the slaves of fashion, 
and the associates of the gay, however wicked or 
worldly ; and thus, in the end, will undo them for eter- 
nity. Probably not one rich man in ten thousand im- 
proves that important talent, wealth, as at the judg- 
ment bar he will wish to have employed it. Few in- 
deed are our Reynoldses and our Thorntons. Are you 
poor? your situation will tempt you to discontent, to 
repine and murmur at your own humble lot, to envy and 
reproach those in more favored circumstances. Are 



8IN DECEITFUL.. 183 

you young? you will be tempted to self-conceit; to 
slight the counsels of age and experience, of valuable 
friends or lender relatives, through the pride of your 
own foolish and wicked heart. You will be tempted to 
indulge in youthful lusts ; to form friendships, or & 
more lasting union, with such as charm your ungo- 
venied fancy, though they may be strangers to the 
grace of God, and the children of the wicked one. 
Are you in the last stage of life ? you will be tempted 
to indulge unreasonable prejudices; to censure, with- 
out reason, the wisest and most benevolent plans, be- 
cause they differ from what you saw in youth ; to 
murmur beneath the infirmities of advancing age, and 
to grasp, with a tighter embrace, the world that is de- 
parting from you for ever. As in a journey through a 
wilderness, if you expected the assaults of tigers, you 
would particularly observe every bush where they 
could lie prepared for their fatal spring ; if you feared 
the bite of serpents, you would observe the herbage 
in which the enemy might lie across your way ; if you 
dreaded a fall from some hidden precipice, you would 
watch every step you made: so in the journey of life, 
guard peculiarly, in its different stages, against the dan- 
gers incident to that stage; and mortify the sin which 
may most easily beset you. 

§ 5. If you would mortify sin, consider its deceit- 
fulness^ and guard against deception. We read of those 
who are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin ; 
and God himself represents the sinful heart as not only 
desperately wicked, but "deceitful above all things." 
Sin deceives millions of the victims which it ruins. 
Many are the modes in which this system of decep- 
tion is conducted. Virtue is stigmatized as vice, and 



184 SIN DECEITFUL. 

vice is extolled as virtue. A formal nominal Christian, 
with a heart as cold as Nova Zembla's eternal ice, is 
deemed a rational Christian; and a zealous, warm- 
hearted disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is pronounced 
an enthusiast or a fanatic. Soft names are affixed to 
odious crimes. An abandoned whoremonger, or a pro- 
fligate seducer, with the falsehood of Satan on his 
lips, is called a man of pleasure. A man, so full of in- 
fernal pride that he would risk his own life, or take his 
fellow-man's, for an offensive word, is deemed a man 
of honor. Revenge assumes the name of justice. Flat- 
tery is termed courtesy. Covetousness cloaks itself un- 
der the name of frugality; and while adopting for its 
golden maxim the hackneyed remark, that "charity 
begins at home," takes care that it shall end there too. 
Atheism and infidelity are free thinking or free in- 
quiry. Thus the darkest crimes which men commit 
are softened down, and represented as pleasing or ho- 
norable, by some specious and delusive name. 

§ 6. While thus called to duties so eternally impor- 
tant, and yet so difficult, lean not upon a human arm. 
Trust not in your own ability or might. No inherent 
power of yours will ever accomplish the momentous 
work of mortifying sin. The Scriptures direct your 
view to a mightier agent; to the Spirit of God. "If 
ye, THROUGH THE SpiRiT, do mortlfy the deeds of the 
body, ye shall live." As the Holy Spirit is the souree 
of peace, and hope, and joy, and love, so by his in- 
fluence and aid sin must be subdued and destroyed. 

Look therefore to him who sanctifies, renews, gives 
the disposition, and carries on, till death, the work of 
grace. O, look to him for heavenly influence, to strike 
at the very root of sin ! Let mortification of this evil 



MALIGNITY OF SIN. 185 

engage your labor ; yet still depend upon the Holy 
Spirit's aid, and go forward, trusting in his might. 

§ 7. To impress your mind most deeply with a ha- 
tred of sin, and witli the necessity of mortifying this 
horrid evil, indulge such views as these of its unspeak- 
able iiialignily.'^ 

It is infinitely hateful. Sin is " the only object o 
God's infinite hatred." God is love. He loves-iiis Son, 
his angels, his children. His love, like the sun shining 
in its strengtli, diffuses good through his immense do- 
minions ; but sin is the object of his infinite abhorrence. 
A sinful word, or a sinful thought, has in it that evil 
against whicli God's infinite hatred and indignation 
are directed. 

Sin is more hateiil than the most hateful " fiend in 
hell — tlian even the devil himself," For sin made Sa- 
tan what he is. But ''or sin the dark fiends of hell had 
been angels of light, but for sin Satan himself had 
been a child of God. Had there been no sin, there 
would have been no de/il ; had there been no sin, 
there would have been no hell. Could an infernal 
spirit appear to you, glaring with hideous wo and 
hellish dispositions, what alarm would seize you ! if 
power to flee remained, how would you flee from the 
horrid being ! Flee then from sin, the parent of devils 
and the author of hell. 

Sin is most pollntirig. Could Satan be cleansed from 
tlie pollution of sin, he would no longer be a devil. 
Could his fallen legions be cleansed from sin, instead 
of miserable fiends they would become happy angels. 
Could souls enduring the miseries of damnation be 

* On the maliirnity of sin, several thoughts are borrowed 
from Kobejt Boltou. 



186 



MALIGNITY OF SIN. 



freed from its pollution, they would pass from the 
blackness of eternal night to scenes of peace, and joy, 
and love. Sin made them wretched, and its polluting- 
stains, eternally upon their souls, will make them 
eternally hateful, eternally wretched. 

Sin is most infectious. Like a contagious pestilence, 
it pollutes -and destroys all it touches. All within the 
reach of its infection die. The first sin polluted all the . 
sons and daughters of Adam, from the hour when he 
sinned in paradise, to that when time shall be no more. 
Think of the mighty multitudes that have lived on 
earth since that time began. Think of the swarming 
millions that now people the earth — perhaps a thou- 
sand millions of immortal beings. Think how soon 
these must be swept into the grave, and give place to 
other generations, and these again to others. And then, 
if you can, estimate the malignity of one sin's infec- 
tion — that infection vvhich has spread a deadly poison 
through the veins of generation after generation, for 
ix thousand years ; which has defiled them to such a 
degree, that man is altogether corrupt and depraved ; 
which has ruined them so completel}^, that it has 
made them all the heirs of death, and dug a grave for 
all mankind. While such is the effect of one sin, who 
can describe sin's malignity, or estimate its evil ? By 
one sin was the whole race of man rendered corrupt 
and wretched. By one sin all this lower creation was 
made subject to vanity. And now, if but one sin lie 
lurking in the heart, unpardoned and unrepented of, 
•♦ --.nP.iites all man's words, affections, thoughts, and 
acMons ; blasts all his knowledge and privileges, kills 
all his hopes, and damns his soul. 

Sin is full of effects most fearful, most dreadful. It 



MALIGNITY OF SIN. 



187 



deprives the " soul of God's favor, of all part and por- 
tion in the blood of Christ," a blessing worth more 
than a thousand worlds ; of the kind protection and 
paternal care of the Most High ; " of the glorious 
guard of angels," the comfortable communion of 
saints, and the sweet delights those blessings yield, 
"of the quiet joy and tranquillity of a good con- 
science," a jewel worth far more than a world : of all 
the heavenly illuminations and comforts by which the 
Holy Ghost visits and refreshes the hearts of holy men ; 
of all calm delight and true satisfaction in this life; 
and stretching forward its malignant influence, it de- 
prives the deathless soul of the crown of life ; of the 
unspeakable joys of heaven ; of that immeasurable and 
endless bliss that patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and 
martyrs enjoy in the presence of God and the Lamb. 
While sin indulged thus robs the soul of peace, and 
happiness, and heaven, it loads it with ills immense and 
eternal. It subjects it " to blindness of mind, hardness 
of heart, horror of conscience," estrangement from 
God, and bondage to Satan ; to fear, uneasiness, and 
restlessness in life ; to doubt and terror in the day of 
death; to banishment from God, the source of happi- 
ness. It loads it with remorse that will last for ever ; 
with guilt that will occasion eternal torments and eter- 
nal despair. It kills the soul with the death that never 
dies; for none can take the life of the soul away, 
though millions makeit an accursed, wretched thing. O, 
dreadful cruelly ! for man to murder with such a death 
his own soul ; and to make it die eternally ! What must 
it be to die for ever; to suffer the pangs of death to- 
day, only as a prelude to suffering them to-morrow ? 
What must it be to die from morning till night, and 



188 MALIGNITY OF SIN. 

from night till morning; to die through days, and 
years, and centuries, and thus to spend eternity in 
dying?" 

Sin is so vile that it can never he pardoned or washed 
away but by the blood of the Son of God. " Had all 
the dust of the earth been turned into silver, and the 
stones into pearls; should the boundless sea liave 
streamed with nothing but liquid gold," all would not 
have been a sufficient ransom for one sinful soul. 
Should all the creatures of the earth, and all the angels 
of heaven, have offered themselves as a sacrifice to di- 
vine justice, all could not have expiated one sin, or 
atoned for one transgression. Or had the Son of God 
himself sought man's happiness by supplication only, 
there is no reason for supposing he could have been 
heard. He must suffer, or man eternally must die. 
And shall not the heart's blood of the Son of God, shed 
for sin, fill you with eternal abhorrence of that which 
murdered him on Calvary, and which, but for his death, 
would have murdered your soul with everlasting de- 
struction? 

Sin is unspeakably hateful and loathsome, because 
it is committed against God. It offends the blessed ma- 
jesty of heaven, insults the Father, wounds the Son, 
and grieves the Spirit. Had it power according to its 
nature, it would dethrone the Eternal, and strip him of 
his majesty and blessedness. O, how hellish is that 
e\il v.'hich thus lifts its hand against the King eternal, 
immortal, and invisible! What has not God done to 
bless you ! From' the void of non-existence he called 
you into being; formed a charming world for your re- 
ception here, and bade the sun shine and the seasons 
revolve. How numberless have been his mercies ! mer- 



INGRATITUDE OF SIN. 189 

cies of every varied kind. The seeing eye, the hearing 
ear, the speaking tongue, the active limb; days and 
years of health, nights of peace and ease; the spright- 
liness of youth, the vigor of maturer life; the pulse 
still beating, the heart still playing, the functions of all 
going forward without any care of yours ; food to sup- 
port you every day of every year, and friends to cheer 
life every day. Not one blessing deserved, yet millions 
given to bless this transient life; and all given by God. 
Nor has he stopped here : higher mercies, nobler gifts 
claim attention. He has given you an immortal soul, 
with all its noble and deathless powers ; the word of 
life, to show the path to immortality ; hundreds of gra- 
cious promises and salutary precepts; his Son to die 
in your place, and by his miseries to secure endless 
bliss for you ; his Spirit to instruct, to enlighten, to 
sanctify, and fit the soul for heaven. AH this he has 
done ; and if more be wanting, all that is wanting he 
engages to do. Now think of sin, which you have in- 
dulged in your heart. It insults this blessed God, it 
offends him ; as far as it can it injures him, it disorders 
his work, confuses what he made harmonious, darkens 
what he formed bright, renders hateful what he crea- 
ted lovely ; it abuses his mercies, it tramples his laws 
under foot, it does despite to the Spirit of his grace; 
and had it power, as sure as it is sin, would hurl him 
from his throne. Such is sin. Will you cherish this 
monster of wickedness? Can you think without hor- 
ror of rebelling against so good, so great a Benefactor 7 
Can yon bear the thought of burdening your soul with 
such hellish ingratitude ? Can you think of indulging 
in what God hates and the devil loves? Surely you 
cannot. Then hate sin : mortify sin, the enemy of God, 



wo INGRATITDDE OF SIN. 

Che enemy of Christ, the enemy of angels, the enemy 
of man, and the worst enemy of your immortal soul. 
Consider again, that sin, in all so iiateful, is in you 
more hateful. Is not God your God ? is he not your 
Father, the God of your choice, the object of your 
hopes? have not you chosen him as your portion? 
have not you in private and public avowed this choice? 
have not you professed to yield him your heart, and 
to surrender to him all you are ? You were once a pro- 
digal ; but have not you come back into your Father's 
family, and found an open door, a gracious welcome, 
and a Father's love? Is not the Son of God your Sa- 
vior? Did not he shed his blood to wash your stains 
away ? and have not you confessed before him, that 
"love so amazing, so divine,"' not merely demanded, 
but should have your " life, your soul, your all ?" Are 
not you indebted to him for all your hopes, for peace 
and pardon ? Is not the Spirit of God your Sanctifier? 
Are not you indebted to his gracious illuminations for 
all your comforts, and for all your knowledge of God 
and the Lamb? for a disposition to walk in the way of 
peace? for a heart to flee to the Savior and his cross? 
By faith in Jesus, have not you acquired a title to a life 
above; and been introduced into the family of God? 
Have not you had your hopes strengthened, and sealed 
your solemn vows in the courts of your God, in the 
professions of your baptism, and at the table of your 
atoning Lord ? 0, my friend, who then shall describe 
the evil of willful sin in you? You would sin against 
the God of all these mercies, against your forgiving 
Father. You would sin against the solemn vows by 
which your soul is bound to him. You would sin 
against your crucified Savior ; against his dying lovej 



MADNESS OP SIN. 19X 

against him to whom your soul is committed ; against 
him who writes your name in the book of life; against 
him who lives to promote your happiness in lieaven, 
as once he died for you on earth ; against Jesus, your 
only hope, and whom you have engaged to serve and 
love. You, too, would sin against the blessed Spirit, 
who has sought your happiness, and been to you the 
source of numberless blessings. O, then, mortify sin- 
sin, which inflicts all these evils, and is connected with 
all this worse than salanic ingratitude. 

When tempted to sin, compare the poor, short, va- 
nishing delights of sensual pleasure, with the heaven 
of which sin would deprive, and the hell into which 
sin would plunge you. If going to plunge into sin, 
think of the wages it earns; and consider, if you fall 
into that sin, you fall into hell, unless God's grace 
should bring you to true repentance, and of this you 
have no certainty. 

Remember, that to consent to the enticements of 
sin, is to be guilty of that height of folly which wants 
a name to express its greatness. It is as if you were to 
■put into one scale of a balance the glory and favor of 
the eternal God, the rich joys of an eternal heaven, the 
life of your own eternal soul, and the precious blood 
of the Son of God ; and in the other scale, some sen- 
sual pleasure, some worldly profit, or some fading va- 
nity ; and after deliberation and choice, let these sinful 
trifles outweigh in your esteem those vast and inesti- 
mable blessings. O, monstrous madness, and dreadful 
contempt of God, and the Savior, and heaven ! 

§ 8. Let your abhorrence and opposition of sin thus 
proceed from Gospel motives. Be not satisfied with re- 
sisting it, merely through the fear of shame or hell. 



191 EFFECTS OF A SINGLE SIX. 

He who opposes it only from these, has no more grace 
than the highwayman, who would steal, but that he 
sees the gallows before him. Take away the sight of 
the gallows, and he will rob at ease ; take away from 
many men the fear of hell, and they would sin at ease. 
But the Christian mortifies sin from nobler principles. 
With Joseph he can exclaim, "How shall I do this 
great wickedness, and sin against God?" Above all 
things, the influence of the cross of Christ is fatal to 
sin. Look to the Lamb of God suffering there : con- 
template the severity of those nameless agonies; the 
depth of that bitter humiliation; the sharpness of 
those outward and inward torments; and then ex- 
claim, " Was this for my sin ? For my transgressions 
did he groan and die? Were my iniquities his intole- 
rable burden ? Did my sin bring him from his Father's 
throne to the accursed cross and its ignominious sor- 
rows ? O ! bitter were the fruits of sin when man lost 
paradise; dreadful were the effects of sin, when the 
Avorld perished in a deluge, or when Sodom and Go- 
morrah were overwhelmed with the fires kindled by 
an angry God; but not so dreadful did sin appear, 
when Adam lost Eden, when all nations were drowned, 
or when Sodom burned, as when the Son of God hung 
on the cross, and for my transgressions expired. Be- 
fore his cross let me renounce my dearest lusts, and 
by the influence of his cross mortify every corruption." 
§ 9. Besides other motives for the mortification of 
sin, it is by no means an inconsiderable one, that a 
singls sin may fix upon your character a stain, which 
on this side the grave will never be worn out. A piaus 
minister observes, "I have been much affected with 
the following reflection : Though, if not greatly de- 



FAUSEHOOD. 193 

ceived, I have had some degree of experimental ac- 
quaintance with Jesus Christ for almost forty years ; 
though I have borne the ministerial character for up- 
wards of twenty-five years ; though I have been, per- 
haps, of some little use in the Church of God ; and 
though I have had a greater share of esteem among 
religious people than I had any reason to expect ; yet, 
after all, it is possible for me, in one single hour of 
temptation, to blast my character — to ruin my public 
usefulness, and to render my warmest Christian friends 
ashamed of owning me." An earthen vessel once 
cracked, though it may afterwards be used, will never 
again appear what it once was : so the character of a 
professor of religion, or a minister, once injured by 
any flagrant crime, into which unmortified sin may 
lead, has received a wound that will, probably, never 
be healed. In David's adultery, Hezekiah's ostentation, 
Peter's cowardice, falsehood, and perjury, it is too vi- 
sible that even persons of eminent virtue may, if sin be 
not mortified, soon plunge deep in atrocious vices. 
And the same truth is taught in the blasted characters 
of many, once conspicuous for piety and usefulness, 
but, perhaps, by a single transgression so sunk that, 
however penitent, they never rose again. Think not, 
therefore, any Scriptural admonitions needless. 

Permit me aiTectionately to caution you more mi- 
nutely against some sins. 

§ 10. Falsehood, Every thing, whether in ;e.s< or ear- 
nest, that is not consistent with the strictest truth. 
Lying is a sin of so shameful a nature, that an inge- 
nuous mind, even if a stranger to converting grace, 
holds it in abhorrence; yet too often we see this dis- 
17 



194 FALSEHOOD. 

graceful sin committed, or near approaches made to it, 
and this in many ways. How many lies are told in 
trade, and in other pursuits of human life. The buyer 
lies when he affirms an article is not worth its real 
value: the seller lies when he declares it worth more, 
and asserts that to be cheap which he knows to be 
dear. The seller lies when he declares that such a 
price is the very lov/est, and almost immediately ac- 
cepts a lower. The buyer lies when he declares that a 
certain price is the highest he will give, and presently 
gives a higher. The physician or the surgeon lies when 
he declares of his hopeless patient that his danger is 
small, and recovery almost certain. The servant lies 
when she declares that a master or mistress is out, 
whom she knows is at home. That they are not at 
home to the person who inquires, is a mere quibble, 
and lessens not the lie. The manufacturer lies when 
he promises to complete an order by a certain day, but 
knows that he is too busy to accomplish it, or from 
carelessness neglects to do so. Flatterers lie when they 
compliment persons as possessed of excellences, of 
which they do not really believe them possessors. 
Tattlers lie when they circulate as truth, tales and ac- 
counts whose truth or falsehood they have not investi- 
gated. Numberless lies are uttered by persons profess- 
ing to relate narratives of facts, but which, through 
carelessness, inattention, or love of the marvelous, 
they embellish with additions of circumstances that 
never took place. Many parents and persons intrusted 
with children often lie, when endeavoring to persuade 
childrea to comply Avith what they dislike, or in de- 
claring they will punish them, though they have not 



SCANDAL. 195 

such intention. In these and other ways, almost innu- 
merable, is this hateful sin committed. 

To impress your mind with the 'deepest abhorrence 
of this sin, consider that it is hated by God. " Ly- 
ing lips are abomination to the Lord These six things 
doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto 
him; a proud look, a lying tongue." The devil undid- 
the world by a lie, and is peculiarly the father of lies 
and liars. "The serpent said unto the woman. Ye 
shall not surely die." " Ye are of your father the devil ; 
when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he 
is a liar, and the father of it." Lying is numbered with 
the worst sins; with fornication, adultery, murder, 
idolatry, and even hatred of God. And while liars are 
^us numbered with the most atrocious criminals, it is 
with dreadftd emphasis declared, that they as it were, 
above all, shall be shut out of heaven, and endure 
eternal destruction. "ALL LIARS shall have their 
part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, 
which is the second death." What a dreadful empha- 
sis do the words all liars bear! It is as if it were said 
that the damnation of every impenitent liar is so cer- 
tain, that if it were possible, which yet it is not, for 
some of these other classes to be saved in their sins, 
yet that not one liar should. Let it be added on this 
subject, that quibbling or equivocation has in number- 
less instances all the guilt of falsehood. 

§ 11. Another sin of awful prevalence is scandal. 
Perhaps no sin is so common ; perhaps none commit- 
ted with so little thought, or remembered with less re- 
morse. It is a sin, not like some others, chiefly com- 
mitted by the open slaves of the world and the wicked 
one J but, alas! frequently by those who profess to 



196 



SCANDAL. 



follow the benevolent Savior, from whose lips not one 
word of scandal ever dropped. This sin is perpetrated 
in various ways. It is committed, not merely by the 
slanderer who fabricates falsehoods respecting his 
neighbor, but by them who circulate these falsehoods. 
A tale-bearer comes, and brings some plausible ac- 
count to another's disgrace. It may be true, it may 
not; the slanderer seldom takes much pains to inquire, 
but spreads the report far and wide ; and in doing so, 
gives publicity to the willful lie of an abandoned liar, 
and makes himself a partaker of that liar's crimes. If 
they to whom he relates this account respect him, 
this adds new weight to the scandal. They spread it 
farther still, and confirm the account by relating from 
whom they heard the odious tale. Thus a hundred or 
a thousand make themselves partakers in the guilt of 
the first lie, and of all the scandal that flows from the 
fabrication. But it is not merely when circulating 
falsehood, that the guilt of scandal is incurred : it is 
incurred to a dreadful extent by persons who circu- 
late what may be substantially correct. The backbiter 
pleads in excuse for his mischievous conduct, "The 
account I give is true." It may be so ; but it is not all 
the truth, or it is truth misrepresented, or it is truth 
which he has no right to repeat. 

It is not all the truth. Perhaps a brother has fallen 
into sin. The slanderer hears of it, and away he goes, 
and, like a trusty messenger, bears the news through 
the whole circle of his acquaintance. It is true that the 
sin has been committed ; but there are perhaps circum- 
stances connected with it, which so far extenuate the 
guilt as to call for pity to the ofl^ender rather than the 
severity of censure. All these circumstances, however, 



SCANDAL. 197 

the slanderer takes care to omit. Perhaps the offender 
fell the victim of a temptation so sudden and so strong, 
that, thus tempted, his slanderer would have fallen into 
crimes ten times as great ; but of this the slanderer says 
nothing. Perhaps he has deeply and bitterly repented 
of his momentary error; bnt of this the backbiter too 
is silent. He tells not half the truth. 

The backbiter pleads, " The account is true." Yes 
but it is truth misrepresented. Perhaps a Christian, 
provoked and irritated, has uttered some harsh and 
hasty expression respecting another Christian, whom 
in his cooler moments he esteems and loves. The back- 
biter hears it, and away he goes to the person against 
whom these harsh words were directed, and tells him 
what his friend has said : but he does not tell him that 
these words were merely uttered in an unguarded mo- 
ment, and lamented or retracted almost as soon as 
spoken. All this, and every thing else which would 
show the harsh words not deserving of a moment's no- 
tice, he omits. He sows strife and discord, and leaves 
the persons to whom he bears his tales, to esteem a 
real friend a cool and deliberate enemy. 

Or if all be true, he is still a backbiter ; for it is truth 
which he has no business to repeat, and which he 
would not repeat in the hearing of the person concern- 
ed. The word of God by no means represents the guilt 
of scandal as consisting exclusively or principally in 
lying. Whether the statement be true or false, if it be 
calculated to injure the reputation or comfort of ano- 
ther, he who circulates it, except only in cases where 
duty requires the disclosure, is a backbiter. There are 
cases indeed, in which a disclosure of what is thus 
17* 



^9® SCANDAL. 



known or heard becomes a duty. Thus, to disclose to 
a parent the misconduct of a child, may be of high im- 
portance. Regard to the honor of religion, and con- 
cern for the welfare of a fallen brother, frequently ren- 
der it the duty of one member of a Christian church 
to disclose the criminal conduct of another: but such 
disclosure should not be made indiscriminately, but to 
some whose office it is to see that Christian discipline 
and order are regarded, and disorderly conduct is 
checked by due reproof. The common practice of 
spreading a brother's or a sister's shame, by telling his 
fault to any or every member of a Christian society, is 
a flagrant sin ; frequently far worse than the crime it 
discloses. All the guilt of scandal and backbiting at- 
taches to this shameful practice. 

There is another common kind of scandal, in which 
less is said, but frequently more mischief done. The 
persons guilty of it are justly denominated '• whisper- 
ers." By half sentences, sly insinuations, and affected 
silence, they disclose the malicious feelings of their 
hearts; and frequently convey ideas more false and 
unfavorable respecting the person they dislike, than 
would be suggested by the open slanderer. 

It should be considered, that they who encourage 
tale-bearers by listening to them, really become par- 
takers of their sins. Were slanderers universally spurn- 
ed as unworthy of notice, who would be a slanderer? 
but when a tale-bearer's accounts are readily received, 
though he who hears them may not circulate them,' 
yet by hearkening to them he inspires the slanderer 
with fresh confidence, and prepares him more readily 
to go and repeat them elsewhere. 

One short rule well observed will save vou from an 



SCANDAL. 199 

immense mass of sm : it is merely, when you can say 
no good of any one, unless duty requires you to speak, 
say nothing. 

Backbiting is the source of innumerable evils. " A 
whisperer separatetFi chief friends." " The words of a 
tale-bearer are as wounds." " Where there is no tale- 
bearer the strife ceaseth." Individuals, families, and 
churches have been ruined by scandal. Wars have 
been kindled, nations desolated, and myriads murder- 
ed, through tale-bearing. 

Backbiting is a sin which is ranked in the Scrip- 
iures with the most atrocious crimes. In the first chap- 
ter of the Romans, it is a conspicuous line in the 
dreadful picture of the wickedness of an apostate 
world. "Filled with all imrighteousness, fornication, 
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, 
murder, debate, deceit, malignity; WHISPERERS, 
BACKBITERS, haters of God." 

^Backbiting is a sin of a diabolical description. A 
Christian, when under the influence of religious feel- 
ing, can take no pleasure in hearing or in circulating 
evil. Where pleasure is found in hearing of iniquity, 
or in publishing a brothers shame, the heart must 
plainly be under the influence of malice, or envy, or 
resentment, or some disposition akin to that of devils, 
who take delight in sin. In the Epistle to Titus, aged 
women are cautioned against being false accusers. 
The original is more impressive — not devils. The pas- 
sage may suggest, that none approach nearer the like- 
ness of devils than backbiters ; and none so like him 
as professors of religion that are backbiters. This in- 
fernal disposition of slanderers is frequently seen in 
the manner in which they attack persons most emi- 



200 PROFANENESS. 

nent for piety and usefulness. Baxter was represented 
as a murderer, Doddridge as unjust and time-serving. 
Whitfield as all that was vile. Even their Lord was 
represented by slanderers as a glutton and drunkard. 
This infernal disposition still exists. There are profes- 
sors of religion who will represent the principal agents 
in our Bible and Missionary Societies, who are sacri- 
ficing time, property, ease, and perhaps health and 
life, to the diffusion of religion, as designing, self-in- 
terested men, whose object is to filch some of the mo- 
ney that passes through their hands. Do not such per- 
sons show the disposition of him who was the accuser 
of Job ? Is there not reason to warn them to be not — 
devils'? 

§ 12. Besides those sins of the tongue which have 
been mentioned, there is another against which the 
Christian should watch with peculiar care. It is jpro- 
faneness. By this is not here meant the profaneness 
of the swearer or of the blasphemer, but the light and 
irreverent use of the name of God in common conver- 
sation, and more especially in professed devotion. It 
is indeed to be hoped, that of those who profess reli- 
gion, few will profane that venerable name by such 
irreverent expressions as " Godd God !" " O Lord !" 
"Lord have mercy on my soul !" and expressions like 
these, lightly uttered in common discourse. But how 
often in professed prayer, both public and private, and 
in singing, is that holy name profaned ; when God is ad- 
dressed with solemn sounds upon a thoughtless tongue. 

This so common sin is a great sin, as it is a dread- 
ful violation of the third commandment, "Thou shalt 
not take the name of the Lord. thy God in vain." 

§ 13. The immense multitude of sins which an un- 



AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE. 201 

governed tongue commits, is a reason for watchful 
care. It has been truly observed, that "the tongue is a 
most convenient instrument of iniquity, always ready 
for use. The sins of the tongue are perpetrated with 
ease and delight, every day, and in every place where 
even a solitary individual can be found to listen. 
Hence transgressions of this kind are multiplied won- 
derfully. The thief steals, and the cheat defrauds, oc- 
casionally only ; but the slanderer will slander every 
day." The formal worshipper will every day, and per- 
haps several limes in the day, insult his God by the 
mockery of prayer. The careless singer frequently 
every Sabbath, and perhaps often in the week, mocks 
the Most High. 

Above all is the importance of mortifying the sins 
of the tongue, inculcated in the awful description 
given in the word of God, of an ungoverned tongue. It 
is wilder than the most savage and murderous beasts. 
" For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of ser- 
pents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been 
tamed of mankind ; but the tongue can no man tame." 
Nothing short of divine power can bring it into due 
subjection. It is venomous as the most venomous ser- 
pent. " It is an unruly evil," evil as it were in its essence, 
" full of deadly poison." " The poison of asps is under 
their lips." It is like fire, when properly managed, 
highly beneficial ; but when no longer under restramt, 
most terrible and destructive. The tongue is a fire, 
and not merely iniquitous, but a world of iniquity. 
" It defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the 
course of nature ; and it is set on fire of hell." How 
awful a description ! How awful the last idea in it ! 
set on fire of hell. Hell inflames the reviler ; instigates 



202 



CONTRACTING DEBTS, 



the slanderer; prompts the liar. Dreadful thought! 
Let none imagine the daily and countless sins of the 
tongue inconsiderable sins ; while poisonous as asps, 
they diffuse their deadly venom, and defile the whole 
body ; and destructive as fire, kindled by hell itself, 
they destroy the immortal soul, and spread desolation, 
and misery, and wo. 

§ 14. There is one sin, which it may be thought al- 
most ridiculous to name, and which perhaps, for that 
very reason, has more need of being mentioned. It is 
the sin of consulting persons that profess to foretell fu- 
ture events. I have known persons weak enough, or 
wicked enough to fall into this. That it is weak, rea- 
sonable persons will allow ; that it is wicked, the word 
of God declares. 

§ 15. Another sin, often witnessed in some persons 
that profess religion, and by which they dreadfully 
disgrace their profession, is the sin of contracting 
debts, which they afterwards neglect to discharge. 
This is a sin which springs from many sources. Often 
from idleness, and neglect of the proper duties of a 
person's calling in life. At other times it springs from 
pride, and a desire indulged to figure away beyond 
what a small income will allow. Sometimes it springs 
from extravagance, and frequently from thoughtless- 
ness. Persons contract debts without considering how 
unlikely it is that they shall be prepared for payment 
when the appointed time arrives. In all these cases, 
and in many others, it is a sin which not only ruins 
the credit of the guilty person, but if he profess reli- 
gion, brings disgrace, in the view of an undiscerning 
world, on religion itself. This common and dishonor- 
able practice is a very wicked one. 



] COVETOUSNESS. 203 

§ J 6. Another sin, which it is to be feared has blasted 
the eternal hopes of many professed disciples of the 
Son of God, is covetousness. Covetousness is a sin con- 
fined to no peculiar age ; for if it be allowed that it is 
frequently the ruling sin of old age, yet it is also often 
a sin of youth. It is confined to persons in no station ; 
the poor and the rich are frequently alike covetous. 
Nor is it, like drunkenness and lewdness, found almost 
entirely among those who are destitute of the profes- 
sion of religion ; but it has been the curse and the ruin 
of many that have named the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

It is an insidious sin. The covetous man scarcely 
ever has any suspicion of his real character. He that 
robs knows that he is a robber ; he that plunges into 
drunkenness, when reason returns, knows that he has 
been intoxicated ; but he that indulges covetousness 
generally has no suspicion of his guilt and danger, but 
lives, and dies, and perishes in his delusion. 

It leads to other most atrocious crimes. Balaam's co- 
vetousness made him desire to curse Israel, whom God 
blessed. Ahab's covetousness of Naboth's vineyard 
caused Naboth's murder and Ahab's destruction. Ju- 
das's covetousness led him to betray the Lord of Life, 
and thus to sell his gracious Master and damn his own 
soul for thirty pieces of silver. The single murders 
which robbers have committed, the wholesale murders 
which war has perpetrated, have been frequently the 
effect of covetousness. Fatal to individuals and na- 
tions, it is not less deadly to churches and families. A 
covetous minister of the Gospel is one of the worst of 
monsters. Good withers before him, as life and ver- 
dure before a pestilential blast. Demons might walk 



204 COVETOUSNESS. 

beside him, and exult in viewing opening schemes of 
usefulness neglected, and opportunities of doing im- 
mortal good slighted, through the freezing influence of 
covetousness. 

The peculiar vileness of covetousness is further seen 
in it sbeing a sin of the heart, and as such, diametrically 
opposed to all ffood. It is not a transient crime, into 
which the person falls through strong temptation, but it 
is a disposition of his heart, by which, in effect, he pre- 
fers the creature to the Creator. As such, it is worse than 
the grossest crimes — worse than profaneness, worse 
than perjury, worse than even adultery. The Scrip- 
tures record mournful instances of men of piety that 
through strong temptation fell into these dreadful sins, 
but the Scriptures mention no instance of a child of 
God that was a covetous man. The covetous man be- 
longs to the family of Balaam and of Judas. "Be not 
deceived: nor thieves, nor covetous, shall inherit the 
kingdom of God." Awful and decisive declaration! 
Let not the covetous indulge so false a hope as the 
hope of reaching heaven. 

Think not, however, that this sin is merely or chief- 
ly that excessive avarice which has rendered a few 
noted misers eminently infamous. If this were the 
case, there would be less probability of being hardened 
and ruined by it. But the Lord Jesus represents con- 
duct much less dark, much less miserly, as ruinous co- 
vetousness. Luke, 12 : 15-21. He does not describe 
the covetous man as a thorough miser, hoarding up 
his useless stores merely to gaze upon them ; nor as 
a hard oppressor, who gains his riches by grinding 
the faces and keeping back the wages of the poor. He 
does not describe him as one who starves himself and 



Christ's example. 206 

his family to increase his golden heap. His riches 
we~e given him by God's bounty; his fields brought 
forth plentifully. He showed his covetousness, not by 
the way of acquiring riches, not by gathering in the 
bounty of heaven, but by the use he made of them. A 
m:re selfish use. Instead of promoting God's glory and 
man's happiness by his abundance, he proposed em- 
ploying his riches in self-gratification, and God pro- 
nounced him a fool. 

O learn, that not merely the miser, who hoards up 
his useless gold, not merely the oppressor, or the ex- 
tortioner, whose gains are the fruits of cruelty and dis- 
honesty, are in God's sight guilty of covetousness; but 
the honest tradesman, the moral youth, the amiable 
girl, who look no further than gratifying themselves 
with what they possess. According to their Maker's 
judgment they belong to the same class. Take heed, 
therefore, and beware of covetousness ; of this more com- 
mon, but not less ruinous covetousness. 

§ 17. Closely connected with covetousness is love of 
Ihis world. The sacred Scriptures represent the Savior's 
disciples as persons who have little concern with this 
world ; whose chief business here should be to glorify 
God, and press forward to heaven. Jesus said, " They 
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." 
" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth." 
" Set your affections on things above, not on things on 
the earth ; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with 
Christ in God." 

How full, how impressive, are those words of the 
blessed Jesus, " They are not of the world, even as I 
am not of the world." This world was no object of his 
18 



206 «hrist's example. 

affection. He slighted its wealth, scorned its treasures, 
disregarding all its fading pursuits, and ail its deceit- 
ful maxims. It had no charms for him ; its terrors 
could not alarm, nor its allurements entice him. He 
acted in it as a stranger come to perform an important 
commission, and then to leave it for ever. Are you 
one of his disciples? This world is no more to be the 
object of your affections than it was of his. 

This holy deadness to the present world is described 
impressively by the Apostle Paul; " God forbid that I 
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
by which the world is crucified to me, and I unto the 
world." Such was the influence of the cross of Christ 
upon his heart, that the world was crucified to him. It 
was as unlovely as a crucified malefactor in his view. 
All its charms were dead, all its attractions gone; and 
darkness, deformity and death lov/ered over its face. 
He was crucified to the world— he looked upon it with 
feelings similar to those of a person dying on a cross. 
How little interest would such a one take in the most 
interesting and affecting scenes of earth I All that is 
most engaging in nature might be spread around his 
cross, and busy multitudes be seen eagerly pursuing 
the concerns of life ; but the crucified man would 
scarcely cast one glance from his dying eyes, on all 
the charms of nature or the bustle of life. All that is 
most charming would not tempt him ; all that is most 
dreadful would not alarm him. If you are a follower 
of Jesus, you too must be crucified to the world, and 
the world to you. If a Christian indeed, your treasure 
and your home lie beyond the grave ; and your heart 
and hopes are fixed on unfading blessings there. 

As you would escape eternal death, as you desire 



LOVE TO THE WORLD. 207 

eternal life, watch against love to the world. It has 
been the ruin of millions. Beware of this rock. On it 
crowds, that once seemed setting out for heaven, have, 
made shipwreck of faith and eternal hopes. The world 
is Satan's grand temptation. If that bait fail, he has 
none more alluring to present. The world was the last 
temptation by which he tried the Son of God: "All 
these things," said he, '-will I give thee, if thou wilt 
fall down and worship me." When that was rejected, 
he fled ; he had no higher bribe to offer. Love to the 
world is the most fatal of sins. The Scriptures tell of 
some eminently pious men that fell deeply, but as bit- 
terly repented ; but not one child of God is described 
who was a lover of the world. For this is not merely a 
single sin, a casual fall, but a state of mind, a disposi- 
tion of heart, connected with all that is opposed to 
God and goodness. This sin also is peculiarly dange- 
•rous, because it is peculiarly insidious. It steals into 
the heart and governs there, and yet deceives the slave 
it governs. It kills immortal hopes, it damns the im- 
mortal soul ; and yet its wretched slave, perhaps, con- 
nects himself with a Christian church; professes the 
religion of Jesus ; brings, it may be, no flagrant dis- 
grace on his profession; but still lives and dies de- 
ceived. Were he to become a swearer or a drunkard, 
his friends would disown him, as dead to God. His 
crimes would stare him in the face, and conscience at 
last might take the alarm, and bid him flee from the 
wrath to come. But the lover of the world feels no 
such alarm. He stands as a member of the church of 
Christ, or perhaps sustains some office in it; or as- 
cends the pulpit, and bids others flee from ruin ; yet 
he is himself a child of hell, for he is a lover of the 



208 MARKS OF LOVE TO THE WORLD. 

world. O, my fellow-pilgrim, there is no religion in 
the heart while the world is loved. If any man, let his 
knowledge of divine truth be ever so extensive, let his 
profession be ever so strict, his zeal for orthodox .' 
ever so flaming, his character ever so amiable, and his 
standing in the Christian church ever so long, yet, 
" If any man love the world, the love of the Father is 
not in him." All the forms of religion may be as- 
sumed, all open sins be renounced by him who yet re- 
mains a lover of the world. The drunkard may be- 
come sober, the lewd grow chaste, the liar true, the 
pilferer honest, the profane begin to reverence his 
Maker's name, the Sabbath-breaker frequent God's 
house, and the prayerless learn to pray, and yet this 
master sin, this treacherous vice, may lie hidden with 
in. And the man who has undergone the change now 
described, may be as far from God, and perhaps even 
further, than when he drank in iniquity like water. 
Then he had some fears that his state was bad ; now 
he thinks that all is right ; and yet, because he loves 
the world, all is wrong. 

Perhaps you inquire, How shall this secret evil be 
discerned ? The mention of a few marks of it may as- 
sist self-examination. 

Love to the world rules within, if, for the sake of 
profit, ease, or pleasure, you are kept back from ac- 
cepting Jesus Christ as your Lord, your Savior, and 
your all. Jesus said, "He that taketh not his cross 
and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." 

Love to the world governs in your heart, if, through 
fear of loss, or injury, you persist in what you know 
to be sinful. If, for instance, there be in your trade or 
avocation any thing that you know is inconsisteni 



SCENES OF TEMPTATION. 209 

with religion, and yet, to avoid loss or secure gain, 
you persist in following this, by so doing you plainly 
show that you love the world more than God and 
your own soul ; that you are no Christian. " Whoso- 
ever he be of you tliat forsaketh not all that he hath, 
he cannot be my disciple." 

Common reason may further convince us, that love 
to the world is to be known by anxiety to acquire 
worldly good, and unwillingness to part with it. He 
that saves or toils for wealth, that, with what he ac- 
quires, he may feed the hungry, clothe the naked, sup- 
port the cause of religion, and send the Gospel far and 
wide, shows in his industry no symptoms of love to 
the world; but he who pursues the same conduct, 
saves with the same care, and toils with the same as- 
siduity, not to benefit mankind, but that he may heap 
up a Hltle more for hiniBelf and his family ; he who, 
though he may contribute his mite to benevolent ob- 
jects, yet he gives a contemptible trifle, compared with 
what he ought to give, and perhaps even that trifle 
with reluctance; he bears the fatal mark of having 
this plague upon his soul. His assiduity to get the 
world, and his care to keep what he acquires, demon- 
strate him a perishing lover of the world. 

§ 18. This little volume would far exceed its design- 
ed limits, if as much notice were bestowed on every 
sin as has been on those just mentioned. Permit the 
writer however to add, 

If you would mortify sin, flee from the occasions of 
sin. Be not bold in venturing into scenes of tempta- 
tion. "Depart from evil, and do good." If you love the 
Lord, " hate evil." •' Enter not into the path of the 
18* 



210 APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 

wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, 
pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away." Multi- 
tudes confiding in their own strengtli, have gone into 
scenes of temptation ; the consequence has been their 
present, and probably their eternal destruction. You 
are taught to pray, "Lead us not into temptation;" 
but he who willfully rushes into it has no reason to 
expect divine assistance to keep him from its danger; 
but rather to suppose that God will leave him to him- 
self, to punish his sin and folly. 

§ 19. It is not sufficient for the Christian who would 
honor his profession, to abstain from sin : he is com- 
manded to " ABSTAIN FROM ALL APPEARANCE OF EVIL." 

So high does the morality of the Gospel rise, that it 
thus positively forbids, under the most awful sanc- 
tions, not only what is actually evil, but ALL that has 
even the appearance of bdng so. There are many 
things which are not positively sinful, but which have 
the appearance of evil. These are to be abstained from 
as carefully as sin itself. There are others, which the 
well informed Christian may be convinced are free 
from actual guilt, yet their appearance may be such 
that weaker brethren esteem them wicked. These, too, 
the Scriptures forbid. Think not that this point is of 
little importance. The appearance of evil may as ef- 
fectually injure the cause of Christ and dishonor God, 
as evil itself. The mere appearance of evil^ by throw- 
ing a stumbling-block in the way of others, may as ef- 
fectually as evil itself harden men in sin, defeat the 
end for which Christ died, blast the labors of Gospel 
ministers, and ruin immortal souls. 



NATURE OF HUMILITY'. 211 

CHAPTER IX. 

ON HUMILITY, RESIGNATION, PATIENCE, AND 
CONTENTMENT. 

§ 1. Humility is a principal Christian grace. It is 
so essential to the Christian character, that without it 
religion cannot possibly exist; and to promote its 
growth and yield to its influence is a principal part of 
true wisdom. 

Humility consists in entertaining those lowly views 
of ourselves which become dependent and mortal, cor- 
rupt and sinful creatures. It is to be manifested to- 
wards God in confessions of sin, in self-abasement and 
contrition, in lowly reverence, resignation, submission, 
patience, and contentment; and is to be displayed in 
our intercourse with manliind, not by the constant lan- 
guage of self-depreciation, but by meel^ness and gen- 
tleness ; by esteeming others better than ourselves ; by 
calmness, when slighted or insulted ; by forbearance 
and forgiveness, wlien provoked or mjured ; by kind- 
ness, that stoops to the meanest objects of compassion ; 
and by benevolence, that does good in secret, and blush- 
es to find its actions applauded. 

Humility is not a disposition naturally existing in 
the human heart. On the contrary, pride is the radi- 
cal sin of human nature, and displays itself in a thou- 
sand forms. Multitudes are proud of their reasoning 
powers, of their fancied wisdom. Tliough in the world 
of nature mystery meets them at every step, they cavil 
at the word of God on account of what they deem 
mysterious. But humility sits at the feet of Jesus and 
learns of him. 



212 



PF-IDE IN DRESS. 



Pride renders men impatient of reproof. The hum- 
ble will receive with gratitude the faithful reproofs of 
Christian friends, but the proud resent the kind dealing 
of those who tell them their faults; they love their 
flatterers, and are ingenious in devising excuses for 
their guilt. 

§ 2. Pride in dress is the ruling sin in many hearts, 
and is not confined to one age or to one sex. When 
this sin abounded in Israel, the great God threatened 
it with his judgments. Isa, 3: 16-18, 24. Think not 
that it is a matter of little importance. The Scripture 
direction to Christian females is, " That women adorn 
themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness 
and sobriety: not with broidered hair, or gold, or 
pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women 
professing godliness) with good works." 

Pride is indulged in apparel, when our dress is too 
costly for our circumstances. It governs in the heart 
when, instead of being content with Christian neat- 
ness and simplicity, persons are fond of displaying 
themselves in gay and gaudy attire ; or when they 
suffer that to occupy their hearts, and for hours and 
hours engage their thoughts; when, like an infant, 
they are delighted at appearing in a new garment, or 
filling their minds with anticipations of the appear- 
ance they shall make. 

One most injurious way in which pride in dress ope- 
rates among the poor is, by inducing them to abstain 
from the house of God because they have not such 
clothes as they desire. If you who read this book are 
poor, and have, acted this part, be assured it is pride, 
and only pride, that has occasioned this sinful neglect. 
Your prayers would not be less acceptable to God, nor 



PRIDE HATEFUL. 213 

5'Our soul less benefited in his house, because your 
garments were mean and decayed. There is nothing 
shameful in poverty that sin does not occasion ; but 
there is much sin in slighting the interests of your im- 
mortal soul and neglecting the house of your God for 
want of better clothing. This wicked pride, that dwells 
in the hearts of so many of the poor, deprives them of 
the means of grace, keeps them from hearing the Gos- 
pel of salvation ; if they once knew religion, renders 
them dead and indifferent to it; if they have not known 
it, prevents their obtaining the only true wisdom, and 
at last sinks them down to hell. O, what folly and sin, 
to neglect the salvation of an immortal soul because 
the clothes that cover the dying body are mean and 
poor ! I have seen with pleasure a poor disciple of Je- 
sus attend the house of God in tattered and worn-out 
garments when he possessed no better, and known 
such a one soon furnished, through Christian liberahty, 
with more corritortable clothing; who, if he had in- 
dulged the pride that many cherish, might have con- 
tinued at home, his body covered with rags, and his 
soul languishing, and religion dying, through neglect 
of the ordinances of God. 

§ 3. Pride is hateful to God, and the proud are the 
objects of his wrath. " Every one that is proud in 
heart, is an abomination to the Lord." "The Lord 
hateth a proud look." " God resisteth the proud." It 
is the parent of strife ; the fruitful source of quarrels, 
discords, dissensions, revenge, of the private murders 
of villains, and the wholesale murders of war. '*Only 
by pride cometh contention." It is an uneasy passion, 
and the source of that devilish passion, envT/, which 
looks with dissatisfaction on others' good; which 



^14 PRIDK, PARENT OF ENVY. 

mourns their prosperity, if superior to its own ; and 
would feel more satisfied to see them wretched when 
itself is afflicted, than to see them happy. Yet, infer- 
nal as is this passion, it is the sure attendant of pride; 
and if not visible in its greatest excesses, still will ex- 
ist where pride rules. 

Pride is hateful, as it is the parent of discontent 
with the dealings of God, and ingratitude for his mer- 
cies. On this subject one says, " I have trials by per- 
plexities respecting the things of time ; yet they seem 
needful; for they have shown me more of myself 
than I knew before. This day or two these discove- 
ries have led me to enter into Wesley's words: 

' God only knows the utmost hell 
' Of the deceitful heart.' 

I did not know mine. Instead of a submissive spirit, I 
feel that there is within me a disposition to murmur. 
Instead of humility and thankfulness for what 1 have, 
I can at times perceive a feeling rising, as if others, 
who deserved less, were favored more— a hellish feel- 
ing, springing from that pride and self which I abhor, 
but feel clinging closely to my nature." 

The dispositions which this writer lamented the 
proud man cherishes. When God chastises him, he is 
discontented, and perhaps murmurs, because he thinks 
he has not deserved the affliction. When the good he 
desires is withheld, he repines, because he thinks he 
deserves more, and receives less, than some others that 
he esteems more highly favored. I once knew a man 
who in affliction declared that the Lord was not mer- 
ciful to him. He would say, "Can this be of love?" 
and assert that he could not love God, who so afflict 



PRIOE CRUEL AND FALSE. 



215 



*d him. He would declare that he had not deserved 
what he suffered ; that there must be some mistake, 
and that he must be suffering for the sins of another. 
The discontent which pride breeds may not often be 
so openly expressed ; but as seen by Him who searches 
the heart, and knows sin in the blade as well as in the 
ear. it is doubtless seen as a disposition of this infernal 
nature. 

§ 4. Pride is cruel as death. Prompted by pride, 
ambition wades through seas of blood, and sees with 
unconcern myriads of victims slain, that it may obtain 
fame or power. Pride is not less cruel in private life. 
What sums of money are uselessly expended for the 
sake of glitter and show, that might feed the hungry, 
clothe the naked, and cheer many a broken heart! 
How many professors of religion are there that have 
nothing to impart to the afflicted, and contribute no- 
thing, or next to nothing, to support and diffuse reli- 
gion, because their pride leads them to spend every 
spare shilling upon themselves in dress ! Their pride 
is cruel. How many wealthy professors of the Gospel 
spend scores or hundreds of pounds on vanities in 
their dress, their furniture, or their style of living, to 
make their fellow-worms esteem them respectable, 
while they give a paltry annual guinea to institutions 
that are laboring to diffuse the Gospel among Six hun- 
dred millions of perishing and benighted m6n? Their 
pride is cruel. Were it not for this cruel pride among 
professors of the Gospel, how rich Would be the funds 
of every benevolent institution ! The silver and the 
gold would pour like copious streams mto their trea- 
suries ; but pride and selfishness render them poor ; 
pride, that gives a shilling where a guinea ought to be 



216 HUMILITY PRIZED BY GOD.' 

given, and gives a guinea where a hundred or a thou- 
sand ought to be imparted. 

Pride is false. How many lies are told through 
pride, by persons who have sinned, to shield them- 
selves from shame and disgrace ! They are not asham- 
ed to sin, but they are ashamed to appear what they 
really are — the lovers of sin. How many lies are told 
by persons whose circumstances are depressed, that 
they may appear more wealthy than^they really are ! 
Pride is dishonest. How often do persons, for the 
sake of finer furniture and apparel than they an af- 
ford, contract debts which they cannot discharge ! 
They are ashamed to appear in poor clothing, but 
they are not ashamed to obtain their neighbor's ^jods, 
and really to rob them of their property. 

§ 5. The importance and value of humility is strong- 
ly enforced in the word of God. "Though the Lord 
be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly," "He 
giveth grace unto the lowly." "Thus saith the high 
and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name 
is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy plac-, with liim 
also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive 
the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the 
contrite ones." " Blessed are the poor in spirit : for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "When ye shall 
have done all those things which are 'Commanded 
you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done 
that which was our duty to do." "Be oiolhed with 
humility." 

§ 6. The Lord Jesus was humble. He left a spotless 
pattern, that we should follow his steps; and of the 
glories that unite in that example, none shines brighter 
than humility. Before he appeared on earth he was in 



THE LORD JESUS HUMBLE. 217 

the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal 
with God ; but with condescension that has no parallel, 
he became a man, a man of poverty and wo. When 
he appeared on earth, he appeared not as the son of a 
monarch, but of a carpenter ; and chose for a birth ■ 
place not a palace, but the stable of an inn. Unlike the 
proud, who think the employments of the lower ranks 
of mankind disgraceful, he most probably labored as a 
carpenter. When he commenced his public ministry, 
he invited not princes or philosophers to convey a mes- 
sage, which angels would be honored by conveying, 
but he chose for his apostles a few poor fishermen. 
With these he associated on terms so condescending, 
that he said, " I am among you as he that serveth." 
Unlike those who esteem poverty disgraceful, he was 
so poor, that when a trifle was demanded from him 
for tribute, he had lo work a miracle to raise even to 
the value of half a crown for himself and a beloved 
disciple. Instead of sumptuous fare, he was contented 
with the plainest food, with small fishes and barley 
bread. No abode was too mean for him to enter ; no 
office of kindness too humble for him to perform; no 
child of wretchedness too degraded for him to benefit. 
Though infinitely superior to the angels of heaven, 
no consequential behavior ever appeared in him ; but 
the meanest of the mean was not below his kind atten- 
tion. When the Samaritan woman, poor in circum- 
stances and debased in character, found him sitting by 
Jacob's well, he freely conversed with the poor wan- 
derer, unveiled the guilty secrets of her heart, and di- 
rected her into the way of life. When the centurion 
sent, beseeching him to heal his servant, with the hu- 
19 



218 THE LORD JESUS HUMBLE. 

mility which listens to every call of distress, he imme- 
diately replied, " I will come and heal him." When 
parents, anxious for their children's welfare, sought his 
blessing, unlike the self-important philosopher, who 
esteems such little ones beneath his notice, Jesus look 
them in his arms and blessed them. Despised as were 
the publicans, he readily allowed them to sit down 
with him and his disciples; and careless of the mur- 
murs of the proud, said on one occasion to their chief, 
"Zaccheus, to-day I must abide at thy house." He 
preached the Gospel to the poor, and the common 
people heard him gladly; and unlike those who think 
the poor and illiterate of little importance, who value 
churches or congregations according to what they call 
respectability, he rejoiced that such were his disciples ; 
and said, " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." 
Though he might have assumed the loftiest title, he 
often chose the humblest; and spoke of himself under 
the lowly appellation of the Son of man. The love of 
fame has been pronounced the universal passion; but 
he whom angels praise, sought no praise. Instead of 
magnifying those works of mercy which deserved the 
admiration of the world, he spoke of them i-n the hum- 
blest terms. When about to raise the daughter of Jairus, 
he said, " Why make ye this ado, and weep ? the dam- 
sel is not dead, but sleepeth." When going to raise 
Lazarus from the grave, he said, " Our friend Lazarus 
sleepeth ; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep." 
And when he healed the Gadarene demoniac, from 
whom he expelled a legion of devils, he would not per- 
mit such a monument to his praise to attend him from 



Christ's humiuty. 219 

city to city, but said, " Return to thine own house, and 
show how great things God hath done unto thee.'* So 
far was he from seeking applause, that instead of court- 
ing the fame his miracles would attract, he often charged 
those for whom these miracles were wrought, to tell 
no man of the benefit they had experienced. At other 
times he immediately left the place, as when he healed 
the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. On one occa- 
sion he took aside the sufferer whom he cured ; and on 
another, when his help was solicited, immediately 
granted it when he saw a crowd assembling. How dif- 
ferent from their conduct whose pride renders them 
uneasy when benevolent actions or labors are not no- 
ticed and applauded. Influenced by the same spirit, he 
sought not his own glory, but his that sent him; and 
said, "As my Father hath taught me, I speak these 
things." No slights, no insults, disturbed the calmness 
of his soul. When not treated with common civility 
at the house of a Pharisee, who invited him to dine, 
he manifested no displeasure. When the Samaritans 
would not receive him, and his two disciples provoked 
at the insult, said, " Lord, wilt thou that we command 
fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, 
even as Elias did? he turned, and rebuked them, and 
said. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 
For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, 
but to save them." Though the Author of Christianity, 
and the Lord of heaven and earth, he willingly per- 
mitted his unworthy disciples to excel himself in the 
splendor of their miracles and the fullness of their in- 
structions. He said, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he 
do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; be- 



220 Christ's humility. 

cause I go unto my Father." " I have yet many things 
to say unto you^ but ye cannot bear them nov/.-' 

O, think whose character you thus contemplate — 
whose humility you thus behold— his in whom every 
excellency met— spotless innocence and perfect holi- 
ness—yet he was humble. His possessions were hea- 
ven and earth— his dwelling-place eternity— his ser- 
vants cherubim and seraphim — his Father, the King 
eternal, immortal, invisible, whom no man hath seen 
nor can see— his happiness the delights enjoyed in the 
bosom of the Father; yet he was humble; and when 
he came to earth, led a life of humility as consummate 
as his benevolence Vv^as boundless. And can you be his 
follower, and cherish pride? pride, which sprang up 
first in Satan's breast. Was he poor; and will you 
scorn the poor, or think it beneath you to enter the 
lowliest dwelling? Did he, when a man of poverty, 
labor for his daily support; and will you, a worm ol 
the dust, look down with contempt upon a fellow- 
worm, because he does what Jesus, when incarnate 
did, earns his support by the labor of his hands ? Did 
he make the pious poor his followers, and rejoice that 
such were his disciples; and will you look on piety 
itself as scarcely deserving notice if it be united with 
poverty? or think that piety in a fine house and cost- 
ly apparel deserves a hundred times more attention 
than perhaps much superior piety in coarse clothes 
and a cottage? If these are your feelings, how differ- 
ent from those of him you perhaps call your Master. 
Were he on earth as poor as formerly, you would 
doubtless be ashamed of him. 

It would shock your genteel feelings, to be the 
friend or associate of a journeyman carpenter, though 



REASONS FOR HUMILITY. 



221 



under that guise the Son of God were concealed. Yet, 
poor worm ! of what have you to be proud? You, by- 
nature a child of wrath, and by sin's desert an heir of 
hell ! You, who must soon leave all your gay apparel, 
to assume the dress of the grave. You, who must soon 
say to corruption, "Thou art my father, and to the 
worm, thou art my mother and sister." Of what have 
you to be proud ? Is it your property ? God values 
it so little, that he gives it to millions of his enemies, 
but to few of his children. Is it your rich attire? does 
that add one grain to your real worth ? Is it your 
beauty ? it must soon be exchanged for deformity and 
rottenness: all of you that is mortal must soon be 
moldering dust or a ghastly skeleton. ! think : Je- 
sus was humble, and angels are humble ; only devils 
and fallen men are proud. 

§ 7. If more than the example of that divine Friend 
is requisite to make you humble, think what you 
were; and this one thought, properly indulged, will 
be sufficient to destroy pride. You were a child of 
wrath, a slave of Satan, an enemy to God ; in the view 
of God, a wretched creature, a malefactor, doomed to 
an eternal hell ; and deservedly condemned to suffer 
there the death that never dies. You must acknow- 
ledge this, or overturn the whole Gospel, and set the 
grace of God altogether aside. Do you, with me, ac- 
knowledge this? then of what have we to be proud ? 
Behold a poor wretch, whose crimes are bringing him 
to the gallows. He has deserved to die. The utmost 
that human justice can inflict upon him, is no more 
than he has merited. He has lost his friends, his cha- 
racter, his liberty, and deserved to lose them all ; he is 
19* 



222 REASONS FOR HUMILITY. 

about to lose his life, and if it be taken from him, all 
must acknowledge it is justly taken. Of what has that 
man to be proud ? Let that man by an act of free mer- 
cy be pardoned, yet of what has he to be proud '? If 
you are a Christian, you know that you were a lost 
sinner ; that whatever your character may have been 
in the view of man, in the sight of God it was blasted 
by the atrocious wickedness of rebellion against him. 
Of what have you to be proud ? You were a slave of the 
devil, and perhaps passed many years as his slave ; can 
you think of this and be proud ? Had God left you to 
yourself, you would have been a slave of the devil to 
this very hour ; can you think of this and be proud? 
You delivered not yourself, it was God who translated 
you out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom 
of his dear Son. You did deserve hell, you were con- 
demned to it ; can you think of this and be proud ? 
The most miserable wretch that was ever led to execu- 
tion w-as never a hundredth part so guilty with respect 
to his fellow-creatures as we have been with respect 
to God ; and the most miserable death which the most 
wicked criminal ever suffered, was not a thousandth 
part so dreadful as that eternal punishment which eve- 
ry sinner has deserved. Of what then have we to be 
proud ? 

§ 8. When you view yourself as a Christian, you 
may doubtless find much to deepen humility. Com- 
pare yourself with some other disciples of the Savior. 
IJow much stronger has been their faith ! What far 
brighter hopes have animated their souls 1 How much 
stronger has the flame of holy love burned in their 
breast ! With how much closer imitation have they co- 
pied the holy Jesus? How much more have they honor- 



REASONS FOR HUMILITY. 223 

ed God, glorified their Redeemer, and benefited their fel- 
low-pilgrims ! In short, how heavenly have been their 
aflTeclions, how holy their lives, and with how quick a 
progress have they been pressing on to heaven ! View 
this, and sink low in humility. Perhaps, too, this has 
been the case of many who had few privileges and ad- 
vantages like yours ; who had less knowledge and 
fewer gifts, and whose natural talents were far below 
yours. See this, and sink still deeper in humility. 

§ 9. Think what, as a Christian, you should he. How 
elevated is the Christian character, as described in the 
word of God ! What holiness, meekness, gentleness, 
devotion, faith, love, peace, and joy should adorn the 
Christian ! How much should the follower of Jesus 
on earth resemble the disciple of Jesus in heaven! 
But is not the likeness in yourself extremely imper- 
fect? Have not you reason to lament numerous de- 
fects ; to deplore the weakness of almost every grace, 
and to confess yourself still but a mere infant in reli- 
gion? Is this the case, and should you not be clothed 
with humility, and appear robed in it in all your deal- 
ings with man, and all your intercourse with God ? 

Consider not what you are in the judgment of your 
fellow-creatures, but what you are in the judgment of 
the infinitely pure and holy God. What they call frail- 
ties, are in his sight great crimes. Place yourself as in 
his presence. Contrast the pollution of your nature 
with the infinite purity of his; your sinful heart with 
his unspotted holiness; your defective virtues with his 
unblemished excellences; your weak graces and im- 
perfect services with those perfect glories that adorn 
his character, and with that perfection of purity and 
obedience which his law requires. As in the bright 



224 REASONS FOR HUMILITY. 

beams of the noon-day sun, innumerable atoms, before 
unseen, become clearly visible, and are seen floating in 
the air; so, in the presence of Jehovah, innumerable 
defects, and faults, and sins, perhaps before unseen, 
become conspicuous in the view of the soul. Angels 
veil their faces in his presence, and saints the most ex- 
alted sink before him into the lowest depths of self 
abasement. The eminently pious Doddridge, express- 
ing his feelings not long before the close of a life of 
distinguished usefulness and activity, said, "My confi- 
dence is not that I have lived such or such a life, or 
served God in this or the other manner: I know of no 
prayer I ever offered, no service I ever performed, but 
there has been such a mixture of what was wrong in 
it, that instead of recommending me to the favor of 
God, I needed his pardon, through Christ, for the same. 
Yet I am full of confidence: and this is my confidence; 
there is a hope set before me : I have fled, I still fly 
for refuge to that hope." 

Of Archbishop Usher it is related, that a friend 
urged him to write his thoughts on sanctification, 
which he engaged to do; but when the performance 
of his engagement was claimed, he replied to this ef- 
fect: "I have not written, and yet I cannot charge my- 
self with a breach of promise, for I began to write; 
but when I came to treat of the new creature which 
God formeth by his Spirit in every regenerate soul, I 
found so little of it wrought in myself, that I could 
speak of it only as parrots, or by rote, without the 
knowledge of what I might have expressed ; and there- 
fore I durst not presume to proceed any further upon 
it." His friend being amazed at such a confession from 
so eminently holy a person, he added, " I must tell you, 



REASONS FOR HUMILITY. 225 

we do not well understand what sanctification and the 
new creature are. It is no less than for a man to be 
brought to an entire resignation of his own will to the 
will of God, and to live in the offering up of his soul 
continually in the flames of love, and as a whole burnt- 
offering to Christ : and O how many who profess 
Christianity are unacquainted experimentally with this 
great work upon their souls !" 

Consider further, whence all that is holy in your 
dispositions, all that is virtuous in your character has 
sprung : not from yourself — you have not made your- 
self to differ ; but may say, " By the grace of God I 
am what I am." Your defects are your own ; but every 
virtue and every excellence comes from God. To 
know that you are made a partaker of Christian gra- 
ces, should call forth your gratitude to him whose 
grace has made you what you are ; but to know that 
all these graces come from God should still keep you 
humble. When a Christian,* eminent for charity, had 
conferred some help upon an orphan, a lady who receiv- 
ed it, said, "When he is old enough I will teach him to 
name and thank his benefactor." "Stop," said he, "thou 
art mistaken : we do not thank the clouds for the rain. 
Teach him to look higher, and thank him who giveth 
both the clouds and the rain." When a friend was at- 
tempting to comfort the eminently useful Richard Bax- 
ter, on his death-bed, by reminding him of the good 
done by his preaching and writings, he replied, "I was 
but a pen in God's hand ; and what praise is due to a 
pen ?" So, whatever you are, or ever may be, God is 
the source of your graces. Praise should be his, hu- 

militv yours. 

* Richard Reyuoldt. 



226 RESIGNATION. 

§ 10. Resignation .—To yield all we have and are 
to the disposal of God ; to lie passive in his hand ; and 
to have no will of our own, no will but his, is a stale 
infinitely desirable. 

Entire resignation to the will of God is impressive- 
ly inculcated in the Scriptures, by the example of va- 
rious distinguished characters, and above all others, 
by that of the Lord of Life. Eli, who appears to have 
been a man of piety, but in the management of his 
family guilty of great faults, when warned of the des- 
truction that awaited his house, acquiesced in the dread- 
ful decision of God : " It is the Lord, let him do what 
seemeth him good." Job, bowed down with almost 
insupportable woes, calmly said, " The Lord gave, and 
the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the 
Lord." Hezekiah having offended God, and being 
warned of the evils that would overwhelm his family, 
replied, " Good is the word of the Lord which thou 
hast spoken." An infinitely greater than these, Jesus, 
displayed resignation still more perfect. When con- 
templating his sufferings, he said, "Now is my soul 
troubled ; and what shall I say ? (shall I say) Father, 
save me from this hour? But for this cause came I 
unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." When 
agonizing in Gethsemane, he prayed, " Abba, Father, 
all things are possible unto thee ; take away this cup 
from me : nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou 
wilt." " O, my Father, if this cup may not pass away 
from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." 

That it is not improper to desire the removal of 
sufferings and the alleviation of pain, is evident from 
the Redeemer's conduct; and it is equally evident 
that the Christian in aflBiction may pray repeatedly 



^ RESIGNATION. 227 

and earnestly for deliverance from the sorrows he en- 
dures. But then he still should strive to add, as the 
language of his very heart, Not my will, but thiue be 
done. These examples of resignation are recorded for 
our imitation. Think not that this sweet passive grace 
is only needed to adorn the brightest piety, to shine 
around a martyr's head. It is essential to the Chris- 
tian character in every clime, in every form, and un- 
der every circumstance. 

While you are a pilgrim upon earth, love and che- 
rish this heavenly grace; especially, in the dark and 
cloudy day of adversity and pain, strive to exercise 
unfeigned submission to your heavenly Father's will. 
Perhaps he may bid you leave the scenes of comfort 
for the chamber of affliction ; perhaps he may bid you 
retire from the scenes of useful, active life, to weak- 
ness, languishing, and inactivity ; perhaps he may 
snatch from your embrace friends dearer than life, or 
warn you, by incurable disease, that your sun is about 
to go down, even at noon ; yet still labor and pray for 
resignation— that resignation, the most unfeigned, the 
most entire, whose inmost feeling is, It is the Lord, let 
him do what seemeth him good. Possessed of this, 
your soul will enjoy a sweet tranquillity. The tempest 
of unruly passions will be hushed into a calm. The 
rebellion of your will to God being subdued, you will 
be freed from a thousand secret sorrows that torment 
the unyielding heart. Peace will take up an abode in 
your breast, and you will find that it is indeed 

" Sweet to lie passive in his hand, 
" And know no will but his." 

A season of suffering is not the only season in which 
resignation to the divine will is to be exercised. Daily 



228 PATIENCB 

to yield yourself to the.disposal of God, is resignation ; 
and daily to do this is a privilege and duty. 

§ 11. Patience is another Christian grace, which 
the sacred Scriptures inculcate upon all the follow- 
ers of the Lamb. The occasions for the exercise of 
patience may perhaps all be included under three 
classes. One consists of the painful and mysterious 
dispensations of the Most High. Patience in enduring 
these aright, is nearly allied to resignation. The deal- 
ings of the Most High are often mysterious. " Clouds 
and darkness are around about him." Afflictions are 
perhaps protracted, or one trial scarcely ends before 
another begins. Calamity treads on the heels of ca- 
lamity, cloud rolls on after cloud, and tempest follows 
tempest. Then to trust in God needs patience. This 
patience he requires. "Despise not thou the chasten- 
ing of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked ot 
him." " Let patience have her perfect work." My 
brother, or sister, follow after patience. Calmly to bear 
a momentary trial, needs little of this important crrace; 
but to bear trial after trial ; to pass with calm submis- 
sion, and not a murmuring wish, through weeks, or 
months, or years of affliction ; and when the scene is 
darkest, still to exclaim, " Though he slay me, yet will 
I trust in him :" this is the spirit to which a Christian 
should aspire. 

Patience is equally necessary to enable the Christian 
to persevere. It is not enough in the Christian pil- 
grimage, to commence the journey with alacrity, and 
to pass through its first stages with pleasure. He who 
wishes for the Christian crown, must till death pursue 
the Christian course. Whether the way be rough or 



PATIENCE. 229 

smooth, flowery or thorny, he must tread it to the end. 
Whether the heavens smile or frown, shed beams of 
exhilarating light, or are clothed in darkness and 
storms, he must pursue his course. Whether he have 
many friends to help him on to heaven, or none to as- 
sist him in his way, but many foes to oppose his pro- 
gress, he must still go on. Whether he go cheered by 
the company of fellow-pilgrims, or have to press 
through hosts of enemies, and meet the scorn, the 
hatred, the persecution of friends and of mankind, he 
must still press forward. And whether he advance 
cheered by his heavenly Father's smiles and abound- 
ing in spiritual joys, or has to walk in darkness and 
have no light, without one spiritual comfort, but wrest- 
ling with the rulers of the darkness of this world, and 
encountering the fiery darts of the wicked one, the 
Christian must still go onward. To advance when all 
smiles around you, is no difficulty; but you are called 
to follow those who through faith and patience in- 
herit the promises, and who went out of great tribula- 
tion. "Add," therefore, " to your faith patience." 

Patience is also indispensable, to enable the Chris- 
tian to exercise that meekness, gentleness, forbear- 
ance, and forgiveness, which are essential parts of the 
religion of the Savior. The character, says Paley, 
which is the subject of the commendation, precepts, 
and example of the Lord Jesus, is " meek, yielding, 
complymg, forgiving; willing to suffer; silent and 
gentle under rudeness and insult, suing for recon- 
ciliation where others would demand satisfaction 
giving way to the pushes of impudence ; conceding 
and indulgent to the prejudices, the wrong-headed- 
20 



230 PATIENCE OP CHRIST. 

ness, the intractability of those with whom it has to 
deal. 

§ 12. The .Savior does not merely represent such a 
character as amiable in his sight, but he inculcates the 
attainment of it upon his disciples. His word says, 
" Be patient towards all men." " Follow after pa- 
tience." " If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye 
take it patiently, tliis is acceptable with God. Christ 
also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye 
should follow his steps: who, when lie was reviled, 
reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threatened 
not." "Resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite 
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." 

The patience thus inculcated, the divine Savior ex- 
emplified. He bore with mildness the dullness and un- 
belief of his friends, and the taunts and malice of his 
enemies. When his disciples contended who should 
be the greatest, he mildly reproved them, by setting a 
little child in the midst, and leaching them, that those 
who would inherit his kingdom must become lowly as 
that child. When Peter, James, and John slept, in- 
stead of watching with him, in the season of his great- 
est sorrow, he calmly said, "Could ye not watch with 
me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into 
temptation." When Peter wickedly denied him, he 
only turned and looked on Peter, and by that piercing 
look reproved him; and though all his disciples for- 
sook him and fled when his death approached, yet 
when he rose again he said, " Go tell my brethren 
that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me." 
When Judas came to execute his treason, he meekly 
said, "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" and when 
the traitor drew near and kissed him, instead of an up- 



PATIENCE OF CHRIST. 231 

braiding word, liis gentle language was, "Judas, be- 
trayest ihou the Son of man with a kiss?" Witii equal 
patience did he expostulate with other more open ene- 
lilies, when he said, "Many good works have I showed 
you from my Father, for which of those works do ye 
stone me ?" 

Perhaps for conscience' sake you may have to en- 
counter tliat kind of persecution which still exists. 
You may have to bear the frown of friends, the ridi- 
cule of former gay companions, or possibly even the 
loss of home. Perhaps you may be threatened with 
the displeasure of parents and relatives, or of employ- 
ers on whom your support has depended. If this should 
be the case, let patience have its perfect work. With 
patience take up your cross and follow Christ. He 
says, "I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of 
them that kill the body, and after that have no more 
that they can do: but I will forewarn you whom ye 
shall fear : fear him, which, after he hath killed, hath 
power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, fear 
him." " Blessed are they which are persecuted for 
righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of hea- 
ven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and 
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against 
you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding 
glad ; for great is your reward in heaven : for so per- 
secuted they the prophets which were before you." 
" If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him : 
if we suffer, we shall also reign with him." 

If you are called to trials of these descriptions, the 
great God encourages you to trust in him, and fear 
not what man can do. But if you shrink from them, 
in doing so you will turn away from heaven. The 



232 CONTENTMENT. 

fearful, as well as the unbelieving and profligate, must 
have their portion in the lake of fire. But if you are 
called 10 such trials, and persevere, the prize is great, 
the crown is glorious. 

§ 13. Connected with resignation and patience is 
CONTENTMENT. The posscssiou of this will save you 
from a thousand snares, and from a thousand sorrows. 
The holy Savior displayed it in his life, and taught it 
by his precepts. How little did he possess ! How 
humble was his fare! No sumptuous entertainments 
were made in his lowly abode ! No glitter of finery 
adorned his dwelling ! He was content with the situa- 
tion of a carpenter. He was partly supported by the 
kindness of a few pious followers, " who ministered 
unto him of their substance ;" and paid a trifle of tri- 
bute by a miracle. His most eminent disciple mani- 
fested a similar spirit : "I have learned in whatsoever 
state I am, therewith to be content." 

Similar to these examples are the. instructions ad- 
dressed, in the sacred Scriptures, to the disciples of the 
Savior. " Be content with such things as you have . 
for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake 
thee." " Having food and raiment, let us be therewith 
content." " Be careful for nothing : but in every thing 
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let 
your requests be made known unto God." "Art thou 
called, being a slave ? care not for it." 

The admonition given to Baruch is most important: 
" Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them 
not." By discontent multitudes have destroyed their 
peace, and, it is to be feared, undone their souls. Dis- 
satisfied with the allotments of the Most High, they 



CONTENTMENT. 2^ 

have aimed at greater things, and in pursuit of these 
have neglected the admonitions of conscience, have 
violated the precepts of Heaven ; and following the 
shadows of time, have slighted and lost the treasures 
of eternity. The course of some has ended in disap- 
pointment ; others have succeeded in obtaining the 
wealth or honor they pursued, but have lost religion 
and heaven in the pursuit. Many young persons, em- 
ployed in the service of pious families, or in situations 
"where their religious privileges were fully enjoyed, 
have left such situations for others, where they had no 
such advantages, but where a few more pounds a year 
might be obtained. In such cases religion has often 
died. They have gained a little worldly profit ; but it 
has been gained by the loss of everlasting life, and the 
ruin of an immortal soul. Ah, dreadful profit! wretch- 
ed bargain! deceived and foolish purchasers! How 
much happier are they, whose worldly profits and pos- 
sessions may be much smaller, but who, taught by Je- 
sus, are content with such things as they have ; whose 
home is in the skies, whose heart is there; who pass 
through life as travelers to heaven, and who, having 
sought first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, 
rea-d their title clear to the inheritance of the saints in 
light. 



20« 



234 GOVERNMENT OF THE TEMPER, 



CHAPTER X. 

GOVERNMENT OF THE TEMPER. GOVERNMENT OF 

THE THOUGHTS. GOVERNMENT OF THE LIPS. 

SELF-EXAMINATION. IMPROVEMENT OF TIME. 

RECREATIONS. 

§ 1. Whether we regard the lionor of religion or 
the comfort of domestic life, much depends upon gov- 
erning the temper. Some persons are naturally pos- 
sessed of a temper kind and sweet; and are thus pre- 
pared, when they become partakers of religion, to 
display its most attractive charms. Others are natu- 
rally violent and passionate, or sullen and morose. 

It is as much the office or religion to soften and 

SUBDUE HARSH AND UNRULY TEMPERS, AS IT IS TO MORTIFY 

THE MOST FLAGRANT VICES. Little do they know of the 
design of religion, and little do they feel of its power, 
who are insensible to this. 

The word of God inculcates meekness and gentle- 
ness, and the mild and lovely tempers of the Savior. 
" Cease from anger, and forsake wrath." " Be ye an- 
gry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your 
wrath ; neither give place to the devil." " Let all bit- 
terness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, be put away 
from you, with all malice." "Put on, as the elect of 
God, holy and beloved, humbleness of mind, meekness, 
long-suffering." " Be yc kind one to another, tender- 
hearted." " The fruit of the Spirit is peace, gentle- 
ness, meekness." " Follow after meekness." 

In these important passages how many weighty- 
reasons are included for cherishing a meek and gentle 



GOVERNMENT OF THE TEMPER. 235 

temper, and for repressing harshness, suUenness, and 
passion. If the authority of the infinite God avails, 
you here have his commands. If a dread of yielding 
to the wicked one can prevail, he cautions us not to 
give place to the devil by indulging wrath. 

The Most High enforces the necessity of gentleness 
and meekness, by pronouncing the meek blessed ; by 
declaring gentleness a fruit of the Spirit ; and by 
teaching us, that if we would walk worthy of our ho- 
ly calling, it must be with lowliness and meekness. 
Important promises are made to the meek. " The meek 
will he guide in judgment, the meek will he teach his 
way." "The meek shall increase their joy in the 
Lord." If any thing more were wanting to stamp a 
value on mild and gentle tempers, it may be found in 
the declaration, that they form an ornament to the 
human character, highly valued by God himself. 
" Whose adorning let it be the ornament of a meek 

AND QUIET SPIRIT, which iS In THE SIGHT OF GOD OF 
GREAT PRICE." 

After these testimonies to the importance of mild- 
ness and gentleness, think not that the government ol 
your temper is of little importance. A furious, or sul- 
len and sour professor of the Gospel, instead of re- 
commending religion, more effectually teaches men 
to hate it than does a drunkard or a blasphemer. And 
the same authority that condemns drunkenness and 
the drunkard, declares harsh tempers the fruits of the 
flesh, and forbids them to the followers of the Lamb. 

§ 2. The honor of religion, your own happiness, and 
that of those around you, depend so much on the daily 
exercise of mild and gentle tempers, that it may be 
important to pursue the subject by viewing the exam 



236 



GOVERNMENT OF THE TEMPER. 



pie of the holy Jesus. During his life of trials, he 
manifested unruffled gentleness and meekness. No 
passion, no resentment, no sullen anger ever appeared 
m him. His life was a life of meekness ; and when 
injuriously led to death, he was led as a lamb to the 
slaughter, and not on^ angry word escaped his lips. 
Wrath and passion are most apt to be displayed to 
enemies. His enemies were many ; but he displayed 
no resentment. When the Jews were about to stone 
him, he mildly said, " Many good works have I shown 
you from my Father, for which of those works do ye 
stone me ?" When cruelly insulted before the tribu- 
nal of Caiaphas, he said, " If I have spoken evil, bear 
witness of the evil ; but if well, why smilest thou me." 
His friends often displayed much dullness and unbe- 
lief; yet he manifested no resentful emotions; but 
kindly instructed them, or mildly expostulated with 
them. And for them, when sleeping even during his 
agony, he pleaded in excuse, " The spirit inde°ed is 
willing, but the flesh is weak." 

Would you honor religion, and have your dwelling 
the abode of peace, copy the gentieness'of Jesus, and 
watch and pray for meekness like your Lord's. By 
soft words turn away anger : and never, never relax in 
your prayers and exertions, till your temper is brought 
mto obedience to Christ. Great occasions for display- 
nig some of the splendid virtues of Christianity seldom 
occur; it is by a doili/ attention to its more retired 
graces that you must manifest its power. A martyr's 
firmness you will probably never be called to display; 
but the Savior's gentleness and mildness you are called 
upon to manifest every day. Not once in your life you 
may be summoned to prove, by renouncing liberty, 



GOVERNMENT OF THE THOUGHTS. 237 

friends, and property, that you prefer your Lord to all 
earthly good; but a hundred petty, yet vexhig occur- 
rences may arise even in a day, to give you an oppor- 
tunity of proving that you imitate Jesus's example, 
and show that you treasure in your heart, and display 
in your life, his admonitions respecting the loveliness 
and worth of a meek and quiet spirit. 

§ 3. Another often much neglected duty is the go- 
vernment OF THE THOUGHTS. Thought is the spring of 
action. Holy affections are strengthened by virtuous 
thoughts and meditations; and countless sins are com- 
iiiitte°d by the indulgence of impure, or sensual, or re- 
sentful thoughts. Think it not therefore a matter of 
small importance, what are the thoughts which fill your 
mind during your busy or your lonely hours. Consi- 
der that God^ observes your every thought. " The 
Lord looketh at the heart," " and understandeth your 
thoughts afar off." The blessed Savior also asserts, that 
the greatest crimes may be perpetrated in the secret 
chambers of the imagination ; for " whosoever looketh 
on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed 
adultery with her in his heart." The indulgence of 
evil thoughts is represented as descriptive of those 
who are fastening to perdition. " The wicked will 
not seek after God : God is not in all his thoughts." 
Hence their thoughts are declared to be hateful to the 
heart-searching God. " The thoughts of the wicked 
are an abomination to the Lord." " A heart that 
deviseth wicked imaginations, God hateth." Such 
thoughts need repentance and forgiveness. " Repent 
therefore of this thy wickedness," said the Apostle Pe- 
ter, "and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine 
heart may be forgiven thee." Those who wish for ho- 



238 GOVERNMENT OF THE THOUGHTS. 

liness and happiness, are exhorted to forsake evil 
thoughts. " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
unrighteous man his thoughts." 

On the other hand, to indulge pious thoughts is re- 
presented as descriptive of piety. " I will sing praise 
unto my God, my meditation of him shall be sweet." 
" Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the 
Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night." 
To have the thoughts frequently occupied with divine 
subjects, was required from the people of God under 
the old dispensation ; and reason and Scripture may 
convince us that it is not less important under the 
new. The Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, 
directed Timothy to meditate on these things, and to 
give himself to meditation and prayer. Peter, the fa- 
vored disciple of the Lord of glory, not long before he 
quitted this world, wrote his second epistle, that his 
beloved friends might be stirred up to have those things 
which belonged to their eternal peace " always in re- 
MEMBRANCE." If, after all these testimonies to the im- 
portance of repressing evil thoughts, and of cherish- 
ing those of a holy and pious nature, more were neces- 
sary, you have it in the declaration of the blessed God, 
that " a book of remembrance was written before him 
for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon 
HIS NAME. They sliall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, 
in the day when I make up my jewels." 

To assist in governing the thoughts, it is a highly 
useful practice in the morning to fix upon some part 
of the divine word, though it should be but a single 
verse, which may furnish matter for meditation at lei- 
sure intervals during the day. Such a practice will 
store the mind with Scripture knowledge, will greatly 



GOVERNMENT OF THE LIPS. 239 

promote pious feeling, and will lead to enlarged views 
of the wisdom and loving-kindness of the Lord ; if one 
day in a believer's life can be spent with God, every- 
day may; and who at the close of life will regret such 
exertions to promote in his own soul a spirit of piety 
and of meetness for eternal glory ? 

§ 4, If yon are a Christian, the government of your 
WORDS will be an object of your earnest care. You 
wmII not think it sufRcient to avoid falsehood, profane- 
ness, and slander; but all conversation that can pollute 
the mind, or that tends to excite improper passions or 
unchristian feelings in others or yourself. " Let no 
corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, 
neither foolish talking nor jesting, which are not con- 
venient; but that which is good, to the use of edifying." 
Plainly sinful is language calculated to irritate those 
whose natural disposition may be less calm than your 
own. In such cases, they who provoke, however tran- 
quil themselves, are guilty of more sin than they who 
are provoked into rage. As he who coolhj tempts ano- 
ther to sin, is evidently much more wicked than he 
who falls by that temptation. Religion also enjoins its 
professors to guard against unprofitable as well as mis- 
chievous conversation ; and to endeavor to render their 
discourse beneficial and improving. Jesus said, "I say 
unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, 
they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." 
'• Let your speecli be always with grace, seasoned with 
salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every 
man." And let it not be forgotten, that the Christian 
should cherish a habit of frequently discoursing on 
subjects not only harmless and useful, but decidedly 
religious. " They that feared the Lord snake often to 



240 8ELr-EXAMINATI0N. 

one another, and the Lord hearkened and heard." " Let 
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom ; 
teaehingf and admonishing one another in psalms, and 
hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your 
hearts to the Lord." 

The government of our discourse is not easy ; but is 
one of the highest Christian attainments ; so high, that 
the Scriptures declare that " If any man offend not in 
word, the same is a perfect man." Nor is it unimpor- 
tant; for in that solemn survey of our conduct and cha- 
racter which must fix our eternal state, words, as well 
as actions and dispositions, will be brought into ac- 
count, and " by thy words thou shalt be justified, or by 
thy words thou shalt be condemned." 

The power of speech is an important talent; by it 
you may reclaim the vicious, cheer the sad, guide the 
bewildered, instruct the ignorant, and comfort those 
who mourn. Improved aright, it will be the source of 
innumerable benefits to yourself and those with whom 
you are connected ; but if misimproved, it will heap 
upon your soul numberless sins, and prepare it for final 
condemnation. 

§ 5. When interests of great magnitude are at stake, 
how solicitous are men to guard against deception ! 
What care the purchaser of an estate employs to pre- 
vent being deluded by an insufficient title ! How watch- 
fully the general of an army scrutinizes every move- 
ment of the enemy, lest by artifice and delusion he 
should be robbed of victory ! But you are engaged in 
a more important warfare than any on which crowns 
and kingdoms, life and liberty depend. You seek a 
title to richer possessions than misers ever coveted, or 
kings possessed; a far more exceeding and eternal 



SELF-EXAMINATION. ^ 241 

weight of glory. Delusion however may rob you of 
the splendid prize. Self-deception, that common foe, 
would shut you out of heaven, and sink you to per- 
dition. 

There is not so much self-deception on any subject 
as on those connected with the interests of eternity. 
The poor are sensible of their poverty, the sick feel 
their want of health, the captive his imprisonment; 
but myriads, who are poor for eternity, suppose them- 
selves rich in heavenly treasures; and while sinking 
into the arms of eternal death, imagine themselves the 
heirs of immortal life. The Searcher of hearts assigns 
the cause of such horrible delusion : " The heart is de- 
ceitful above all things. Who can know it?" Hence 
arises the importance of frequent and rigid self-exami- 
nation. The sacred Scriptures inculcate this impor- 
tant duty. " Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the 
faith ; prove your own selves : know ye not your own 
selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be 
reprobates?" In that holy book we are also taught to 
look up to the Seacher of hearts for grace to purify 
the soul from those corruptions which, after the most 
rigid self-examination, may still remain hidden from 
our observation. " Search me, O God, and know my 
heart ; try me, and know my thoughts ; and see if there 
be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way 
everlasting." The importance of self-acquaintance is 
strongly enforced by the Lord Jesus Christ, in the pa- 
rable of the ten virgins. Of ten that set out for heaven, 
he represents half as self-deceived. Five were wise 
and fiv^e were foolish. And the foolish were always 
foolish. At the commencement of their course they 
21 



242 



SUBJECTS FOR SELF-EXAMINATION. 



were so; yet such was their delusion, that they never 
discovered their error till the day of grace was past. 
Only when called to meet the bridegroom, did they 
perceive that they had no oil in their lamps. 

That you may not be deceived where eternity is at 
stake, try yourself as in his sight who will hereafter 
try yon. Frequently examine your own spiritual es- 
tate. Mark every symptom which may assist you in 
forming a faithful judgment of your own condition, 
and endeavor to form no opinion of yourself but that 
which you have reason to believe God forms of you. 

§ 6. Examine the reality of your conversion, and the 
sincerity ofyour repentance. Is your repentance heart- 
felt ? is it universal ? do you abhor yourself? do you 
hate all sin ? 

Examine your faith. Is the blessed Jesus the grand 
object on which it fixes? Have you been drawn to him 
for pardon and peace? Is your faith active? does it 
work by love? is it powerful? does it overcome the 
world ? is it sanctifying? does it purify your heart ? is 
it covforiing? through it have you obtained from the 
Lord Jesus all the true peace you ever knew, and are 
you seeking more ? is it indeed living? does it operate 
in your heart as a mighty principle, urging you to 
mortify all sin, to pursue all holiness, and set your af- 
fections on heaven, and to scorn all that earth can give 
or threaten, for the sake of Jesus Christ and him cru- 
cified ? Is your soul committed to his care ? are your 
immortal interests intrusted to his hands ? Is he your 
all in all ? and are you his humble and sincere, though 
unworthy disciple? 

Examine your conduct. What is it in the family, 
the church, and the world ? Do you imitate the Son of 



SUBJECTS FOR SELF-EXAMINATION. 243 

God ? do his laws rule, his precepts guide you ? do 
you daily set his example before you ? and copy him 
who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from 
sinners 1 

Examine your tempers and dispositions. Are you 
humble, gentle, meek, forgiving, courteous, patient ? 
Not giving way to pride, anger, passion, suUenness, 
obstinacy ; but mortifying those evil tempers to which 
by nature you may be most prone? 

Examine your heart. Keep it with all diligence ; for 
out of it are the issues of life. What harbors there ? 
do unkindness, self-conceit, self-importance, discon- 
tent 7 Anger, that fires at a word ; pride, that flames 
into resentment at every real or supposed offence; 
envy, that repines at another's good ; and worldly- 
mindedness, that grovels in the dust, and grasps at 
earth more eagerly than heaven ? Or are you labor- 
ing and praying to defeat and kill all this hellish brood? 
and cherishing within your breast those sweet graces 
wiiich angels cherish, meekness, and humility, and 
gratitude, and love ? 

Examine your discourse. Do you watch over your 
lips, that neither impure nor foolish talking may ever 
proceed from them; that no slander may wound 
another's mind, or injure another's character ? that no 
provoking language may inflame another's passions ? 
and no unkind expressions pierce and pain another's 
heart? Is your discourse about even the ordinary con- 
cerns of time, such as you would not wish to be con- 
cealed from the Savior ? Does your tongue speak its 
Creator's praise, and direct, or comfort, or encourage 
those fellow-pilgrims to heaven with whom you asso- 



344 REDEEMING OF TIME. 

ciate? and do you warn and endeavor to reclaim 
those you see wandering to perdition? 

Tlius examine yourself, and let not this be a rare 
and strange employment to you. If your circumstan- 
ces will allow sufficient leisure, every evening take a 
review of the departed day. Recollect its faults, that 
you may mourn and avoid them j remember its mer- 
cies, that you may praise their Giver, and lie down, 
considering that your last day will soon arrive, and 
your body be laid in that bed where it must continue till 
the heavens be no more. But if you cannot obtain suf- 
ficient time for this exercise daily, yet when the Sab- 
bath brings its rest from toil and care, not only wait 
upon your God in public, but devote some part of every 
Sabbath to serious self-examination. Consider how 
the week that is gone for ever has been spent; what 
progress you are making in }Our journey to heaven ; 
what duties you have neglected; what sins you have 
committed; what graces most need maturing; what 
temptations you have to prepare against ; what mer- 
cies you have received ; and what awaits you in your 
endless home. An hour thus spent every Sabbath will 
prove an invaluable blessing. Attendance on the most 
judicious ministry, and uniting in the most fervent 
public devotions, will not help you materially forward, 
without such private communion witn yourself, and 
then with your God. 

§ 7. Redeem the time. The sacred Scriptures direct 
us diligently to improve the fleeting span of life, to 
;ive sensible of its uncertainty, and waiting for its end. 
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might : for there is no work, nor device, nor know- 



REDEEMING OF TIME. 245 

ledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." 
' Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." 

Think how much you have to do in time. How 
many corruptions to mortify ! How many graces to 
strengthen ! If you are a child of God, yet how far 
you fall short of what a child of God should be ! And 
time is the season given that you may grow in grace, 
and under the forming hand of God be meetened for 
eternal rest. 

How will you value time when you approach the 
borders of eternity ! How will time then appear to 
have been idled away, that has not answered some 
profitable purpose ! The great end of your being here, 
is to glorify God and to secure eternal life. If this 
be slighted, it matters little whether the reason for 
which it is neglected be the attainment of a monarch's 
crown or a day laborer's hire. Some waste time, and 
leave the business of hfe undone, because they are too 
busy to regard it ; others, because they are too idle. 
Some are tempted by the grandeurs of the world to 
waste the precious day of life, while from the thoughts 
of others its due improvement is banished by multi- 
plied cares. Some waste time in airy speculations, 
which they esteem learning ; others on romances, no- 
vels, or other foolish trifles that consume their hours 
but impart no useful knowledge to their minds. 

act a wiser part than they. Waste not that pre 
cious time, which must so soon end. It flies fast 
enough, and when once gone, it is not to be recalled. 
It is too precious to be redeemed, and too steady to be 
stopped in its course. Thrones and dominions cannot 
purchase back one hour of wasted time. Did a voice 
21* 



246 REDEEMING OF TIME. 

from heaven every morning tell us how many years, 
or months, or days we had to live, we should then 
perceive how fast time departed, and how soon its end 
must come; but now one day is so like another, that 
we perceive no difference, and are not affected by think- 
ing, To-day I am nearer to eternity than I was yester- 
day. I have one day less to live, and one more to ac- 
count for at my Judge's bar. Indulge such reflections: 
let every morning remind you of the great morning of 
eternity. It comes, it hastens on. Ah, who can tell 
how fast ! Let every closing evening lead you to con- 
template the close of life — the period when it shall be 
said to you. Thy day of service and of grace is no 
more. Feel your pulse — it beats — what does it de- 
clare? — that your time is going; for at every stroke it 
has one less to give. Look therefore on time, as time 
ever coming nearer to its end; and spend its golden 
moments as in your dying day you will wish to have 
spent them. As a follower of Jesus, shun as much 
as possible such upbraiding reflections as these 
upon a dying bed, or in the eternal world : — My Sa- 
vior never spent one idle moment. But, oh! how 
much of my time that should have honored him, was 
idled away ! What far brighter holiness might I have 
reached ! How much better might I have served my 
Lord ! How much more might I have done for him 
who did so much for me, had I but well improved that 
time I trifled uselessly away ! 

§ 8. Rising late in the morning is one mode in which 
much time is lost. It was observed by a pious young 
lady, that one day well spent condemns a life, so much 
may be crowded into one well spent day. Of that em- 
inently pious minister, Joseph Alleine, it is related, 



MOTIVES FOR REDEEMING TIME. 



247 



that if he heard workmen pursuing their business be- 
fore he was engaged in his religious exercises, he 
would say, "O how this noise shames me 1 Doth not 
my Master deserve more than theirs ?" And often said, 
" Give me that Christian that accounts his time more 
precious than gold." The same spirit appeared in va- 
rious other expressions which he used ; for instance, 
at the beginning of a week—" Another week is before 
us, let us spend this week for God !" In a morning— 
"Come now, let this day be spent for God. Let us live 
this one day well. Could we resolve to be more than 
ordinarily circumspect for one day at a time, we might 
live at extraordinary rates." 

And does the Savior demand too much, when he bids 
you sedulously and devoutly to improve that fleeting 
span of time which must so soon give place to eternity? 
Is it too much for you to devote the whole of this little 
life to his glory who will bestow on you eternal ages 
of salvation? Can you regret to be always Ye]\o\ous, 
always diligent, always bent on improving time, on 
honoring Jesus, and growing ripe for heaven ? Let 
your life be as long as it may, yet compared with those 
worlds of ages, it is but as a thought, or a dream, or a 

sigh. 

§ 9. So far as recreation is necessary, let it be such 
as accords with your character. Are you a Christian 
in truth? Then you are a disciple of a compassionate 
Savior, and compassion should distinguish you. Any 
amusement that occasions pain, even to the meanest 
creature, is inconsistent with your character and dis- 
graceful to your profession. As a Christian, you are a 
child of God, a member of his family, a temple of his 
Spirit, a member of Christ, and a citizen of heaven, 



248 AVOID IDLENESS. 

And do the vain pastimes of a sinful and blinded world 
comport with such a character? Is the giddy ball- 
room, or the wanton playhouse, the midnight assem- 
bly, or the card or gaming-table, suited to your situ- 
ation and becoming your profession? Did the Savior 
of mankind ever frequent such scenes, or were he on 
earth would he frequent them now? Yet he left you 
his example, that you should follow his steps. Would 
any one of his apostles (unless it were Judas) have 
partaken of such amusements ? Yet if there were no 
harm in them, there would have been no harm in apos- 
tles sharing them. And if they were improper for 
them, they are for you. For the blood that redeemed 
them was shed for you, and the eternity that awaited 
them awaits you. Should a Christian, a child of God, 
be seen standing to gaze at a puppet-show; or mingle 
with the clamoring, shouting, swearing, drinking, gam- 
bling crowd that frequent races, and fairs, and other 
worldly amusements? If the amusement itself were 
not sinful, to associate with such men is to disgrace 
the sacred profession of religion. 

Let your recreations accord also with your pros- 
pects. You look forward to death— you have eternity 
before you. You hope to join the throng of the re- 
deemed ; to sing the anthems of heaven ; to become 
every thing but an angel, among the angels of light; 
to worship before the eternal throne; to dwell with 
God ; to live and praise among all the myriads of the 
blest. Should a dying man trifle away the fair day of 
life ? Should one who expects to be judged for every 
hour, waste the hours which go so fast and never must 
return? Could an angel or a glorified saint sojourn a 
few w^eeks in this world, where would you expect to 



CHOICE OF COMPANIONS. 249 

find him 7 Not in the theatre, not in the ball-room, not 
at the card-table, not employing the few days of his 
stay on novels or romances, be they ever so ingenious; 
but cheering by his presence the abodes of sickness 
and sorrow, or recreating his mind with admiring the 
works, and ways, and word of God. And do not you 
expect to be a glorified spirit soon? Are you not al- 
ready a member of the family to which glorified spi- 
rits belong ? O, let even your amusements, then, com- 
port with such hopes and such a character ! One sim- 
ple rule, well observed, will lead you right. Let your 
amusements be such as an apostle might have partaken 
of, such as you will not regret in your dying moments, 
nor be ashamed of before the bar of the eternal Judge. 



CHAPTER XI. 

ON THE CHOICE OF COMPANIONS, AND ON MAR- 
RIAGE. 

§ 1. Of all the snares to which the Christian is ex- 
posed, perhaps the most fatal, the most ruinous, are 
those which spring from improper companions. These 
are often Satan's grand and most successful instru- 
ments for entangling and finally destroying some who 
bid fair for heaven. 

To have no intercourse with those who are stran- 
gers to religion, is in the present state of tilings im- 
practicable ; " for then must you needs go out of the 



250 EVIL COMPANY. 

world." And so to seclude ourselves from the world, 
as to neglect opportunities for doing good to the bo- 
dies or the souls of those who may be perishing in sin 
around us, would be conduct opposed to both the pre- 
cepts and example of the holy Jesus. Yet with equal 
plainness and solemn authority the God of the Bible 
forbids his children selecting their bosom friends and 
intimate companions from among those who are stran- 
gers to his grace. 

§ 2. The word of God expressly forbids associating 
with evil companions. "Enter not into the path of the 
wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, 
pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away." " If sin- 
ners entice thee, consent ihou not. My son, walk not 
thou in the way with them ; refrain thy foot from their 
path." "Be not unequally yoked together with unbe- 
lievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with 
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light 
with darkness?" 

As the Most High thus forbids intimate friendship 
between his children and the followers of the world, 
so his word abounds with weighty motives for obedi- 
ence to these commands. It describes those as blessed 
who avoid irreligious associates. " Blessed is the man 
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor 
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat 
of the scornful." Separation from the evil is also de- 
scribed as necessary, if we wish to walk in the paths of 
piety. The Psalmist said, "Depart from me, ye wicked 
men ; for I will keep the commandments of my God." 
As if he had said, I cannot keep those commandments 
and associate with you ; but I will keep them, therefore 
we must part. On the other hand, to cherish intimate 



EVIL COMPANY. 251 

* 

acquaintance with tliosewho are strangers to religion, 
is represented as the way to destruction. "A compan- 
ion of fools shall be destroyed." The history of Lot 
affords one of the most affecting examples possible of 
the effect of evil society. When Abraham departed 
from his country at God's command, Lot accompanied 
him, and probably then was influenced by a similar 
spirit of devoted piety ; but when, attracted by the fer- 
tihty and beauty of the plain of Jordan, he went to 
dwell in the cities of that plain, how dire was the re- 
sult ! Part of his family perished at the burning of 
Sodom, his only surviving daughters, infected with all 
the depravity of that guilty city, debased their father, 
by rendering him drunk, and committing with him the 
most atrocious incest. They became the parents of a 
guilty and idolatrous race, and he stands upon record, 
a monument of the bitter fruits of plunging into the 
society of the evil, for the sake of transitory worldly 
advantage. 

§ 3. But yon may inquire, What company is evil? 
Not that only of the profligate and profane, of the dis- 
solute and abandoned; but that of all those who are 
strangers to vital piety. The vain, giddy, thoughtless 
multitude, who disregard the interests of eternitj^, and 
live without God in the world, however moral in their 
conduct, or amiable in their manners, are associates 
that would be ruinous to your best interests. 

There is no snare by which young professors of re 
ligion are more likely to be undone than by this. To 
urge you therefore to shun this snare, consider its nu 
merous evils. Consider that evil company is the ro«u 
of all evil. 

Should you make any that are strangers to religion 



252 MISCHIEFS OF EVIL COMPANY. 

♦ 

your bosom-friends, you will most probably soon be- 
come like them. If they are lewd and debauched, they 
will lead you to the same guilty excesses. Though at 
first your soul may tremble at their abominations, you 
will soon join in their revelry, and partake of theii 
crimes. If they are scoffers and infidels, though you 
may think your faith too firm to be shaken, you will 
soon find your confidence weaken, your hopes decline, 
your valu^e for the Gospel and religion lessen, and you 
will go on step by step, till, Jesus and salvation for- 
saken, you sit in the seat of the scorner. But if your 
companions are of a less openly wicked kind, yet their 
influence and example will be immensely and eternal- 
ly mischievous to you. Religion will languish and de- 
cline. When you see your favorite friends neglecting 
that one thing needful, and perhaps representing de- 
vout attention to eternal things as enthusiasm, you will 
most probably imbibe their spirit. At first perhaps be 
silent, then laugh with them at what they deem pre- 
ciseness, then venture on the sinful follies they call 
harmless pleasures. Your soul will grow cold and dead 
to the Savior and his love. With such companions you 
will learn to profane your Sabbaths. Devotion will be- 
come burdensome, and then perhaps be altogether ne- 
glected. Your mind will be alienated from its sacred 
exercises, and have no longer any relish for its plea 
sures. Can you imagine that when you have spent per- 
haps your evenings with those whose chief concern 
seems levity, laughter, and mirth, you can retire to 
read, to meditate, and pray? Ah, no ! the duties of de- 
votion will become a burdensome task; its most im- 
portant exercises dull and tedious; your heart will be 
estranged from God, and fixed upon your beloved but 



MISCHIEFS OF EVIL COMPANY. 263 

vain and destructive companions. With them, too, you 
will incur the heavy guilt of wasting many precious 
hours— hours given you by God to secure a happy 
eternity — hours which, when this scene of vanity is 
ending, you would give worlds to purchase. 

§ 4. But if you associate with worldly companions, 
you will not stop here. V/hen you have lost the power 
of religion, you will most probably go on from sin to 
sin. Perhaps, as thousands have been, you may be 
drawn into crimes which may ruin your reputation, 
blast your prospects, destroy your comforts, or even 
shorten your days. If this should not be the case when 
drawn aside from religion, there will be little hope of 
your ever enjoying its blessings again. Few backsli- 
ders are restored. You may live forsaken by God, with 
a heart hardened hi impenitence ; by your example you 
may train up your children; and at last, without hope 
meet death, and under the frown of your Judge enter 
eternity. 

Then those thoughtless creatures that were your be- 
loved companions upon earth will be your companions 
in hell. But their hours of sinful pleasure will then be 
past; their delights will have reached an eternal close; 
their laughter at religion and their cheerful songs will 
be terminated, and all that rendered their intercourse 
dehghtful will have come to an eternal end. Then will 
be fulfilled the dreadful declaration, " The companion 
of fools shall be destroyed." 

§ 5. Were you sure that you should not be drawn 
altogether from religion by worldly companions, yet 
there would be many reasons to forbid such unhal- 
lowed intimacies. All that are strangers to converting 
22 



254 CHOOSE PIOUS COIvlPANIONS. 

grace have the carnal mind, which is enmity against 
God ; and " should you love them that hate the Lord?-' 
Should you take your chief pleasure in those in whom 
God takes no pleasure? Should you find your chief 
delight in them who have no delight in your Savior; 
and in whom he has no satisfaction? Is it right that 
they should have your heart, while the world and the 
wicked one have theirs? What though their friend- 
ship should not be ruinous to your best interests, yet 
what pleasure should you find in them who are has- 
tening to eternal death ? Shortly there must be an eter- 
nal separation between the children of this world and 
the children of light. They must soon part, and part 
for ever. As thus after a moment of time they must 
separate, and never, never meet again ; it is best for the 
Christian to begin this separation now, and not to set 
his heart and affections upon those who soon must be 
torn from him, and placed at an impassable distance 
through all eternity. It is best for the Christian to form 
those friendships now, which may be renewed in hea- 
ven, and perpetuated for ever and ever. 

§ 6. Choose those, therefore, for your friends, who 
are the friends of God— friends that will be friends for 
ever. They can sympathize with you in your sorrows — 
the worldly cannot : they may obtain blessings for you 
by their prayers — the gay and thoughtless would gain 
you none, but rather deprive you of the blessings your 
own prayers might obtain. They would do you good 
in your pilgrimage, and you might indulge the com- 
fortable hope of meeting them in heaven, and of join- 
ing them there in all the nobie employments and ex- 
alted pleasures of that happy, holy world. How much 
better, how much happier, to travel to heaven with be- 



ON MARRIAGE. 255 

loved companions, heirs with you of the grace of life, 
than to have associates that are vi^ithout hope, without 
God, and without Christ ! 

Besides all these motives for shunning evil companyj 
the blessed God has graciously furnished a motive, 
wonderfully endearing and encouraging. He promises 
you his own friendship, if you renounce the friend- 
ship of the world. When he says, "Come out from 
among them, and be ye separate," he graciously adds, 
" and I will receive you, and be a Father unto you, and 
ye shall be my sons and daughters." With such a 
promise proclaimed in your hearing, can you hesitate 
whether to choose the friendship of God, or the attach- 
ment of some, perhaps amiable, but ungodly and pe- 
rishing companions? His friendship for eternity, or 
theirs for an inch of time ? His that would bless you 
with eternal life, or theirs that would rob you of that 
prize, and sink you in destruction? His favor, that 
would fill your soul with present peace, and enrich 
you with blessings that will be enjoyed without inter- 
mission through an eternal day of glory ; or theirs, 
which, when it does its utmost, can but please a few 
short hours with vain mirth, that is, like a transient 
blaze, followed by eternal darkness ? 

ON MARRIAGE. 

§ 7. As wisdom in the choice of companions is thus 
important, still more important is the exercise of Chris- 
tian wisdom in the choice of a companion for life. 
There is no subject on which many professors of reli- 
gion seem so inattentive to the rules of duty as on this ; 
and deplorable are the consequences of their sin and 



256 ON MARRIAGE. 

folly. If you have already entered that union, which 
death only must dissolve, and have formed it with one 
who is a stranger to the paths of peace, the advice con- 
tained in this chapter can be of little service to yoU: 
"The die is cast, and cast for life." Your duty is to 
watch and pray, that you may not be drawn into the 
paths of the destroyer. Endeavor to act the Chris- 
tian's part. Labor and pray for the eternal welfare oj 
him or of her who may be as dear to you as your own 
life, but who, you are aware, is not dear to God, but 
perishing in sin. With what melting pity should you 
behold the friend of your bosom, the partner of your 
heart, no sharer with you in even one spiritual bless- 
ing ! dear to you through nature's ties, but an enemy 
to your God ! With what sorrow should you think 
that the friend who was travehng with you the jour- 
ney of life, sharing its cares and its comforts, has no 
inheritance in your home ; but when the journey of 
life ends, must be separated from you, to meet no more 
through all eternity! How fervent should be your 
prayers, how watchful your conduct, that if possible 
you may lead this dear, but perishing friend, to your 
Savior, for life, and peace, and pardon ! 

§ 8. But if you have not entered into the marriage 
union, then, as you love your soul, as you regard your 
peace, as you value the favor of your God, never form 
that connection with any one, however amiable, how- 
ever moral, however endowed with the gifts of fortune 
or nature, who is not a decided follower of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

This advice may be enforced by reasons the most 
weighty and momentous. 

§ 9. Marriage between those who partake of divine 



ON MARRIAGE. 267 

grace, and those who are strangers to religion, is re- 
presented in the Scriptures as the source of the greatest 
evils, and such unequal matches are abundantly con- 
demned. According to the sense usually attributed to 
several verses in the sixth of Genesis, unhallowed 
marriages are represented as the cause of that dreadful 
wickedness which occasioned the destruction of man- 
kind by the general deluge. It was when the sons of 
God chose for their wives the fair but impious daugh- 
ters of men, that the iniquity of man became so great 
as to call down that dreadful judgment from a patient 
and merciful God. These wicked connections matured 
human depravity, filled up the measure of man's ini- 
quity, ripened a world for impending vengeance, ba- 
nished the last lingering traces of piety from almost 
every heart, made this earth a scene of dreadful deso- 
lation, and hurried multitudes to the pit of eternal 
night. When the world was repeopled, the same cause 
produced in smaller circles effects not less deplorable. 
What made part of the daughters of Lot slight God's 
gracious warning to escape from perishing Sodom? 
They were married to some of its depraved inhabitants. 
What rendered those who did escape such monsters of 
impurity? Doubtless they had contracted this among 
those with whom they had too long conversed. What 
rendered Solomon, the wisest of men, an idolatrous 
fool ? What made him, once so favored by God, once 
so devoted to his glory, an impious apostate, a wor- 
shiper of pagan abominations? "His wives turned 
away his heart after other gods, and he went after 
Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians ; and Milcom, 
the abomination of the Ammonites ; and Chemosh, the 
22* 



258 ON MARRIAGE, 

abomination of Moab ; and Molech, the abomination of 
the children of Ammon." The piety that erected God's 
most splendid temple, the wisdom that nations admir- 
ed, could not shield him from the accursed influence 
of unhallowed connections. When we see the wise 
Solomon become an aged infatuate apostate, bowing 
at an idol's shrine, because an impious wife adored that 
idol, need we wonder if we see professors of religion, 
that marry unbelievers, joining in the sins and follies 
that please an ungodly wife or husband, and going, 
like an ox to the slaughter, where Satan leads them? 
What aggravated the crimes of impious Ahab, who 
sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord ? 
Jezebel, his pagan wife, urged him forward in his ca- 
reer of iniquity. 

§ 10. The word of God not only represents such un- 
hallowed unions as dangerous in the extreme, but ex- 
pressly and d.hso\uie\y forbids them. They were ex- 
pressly forbidden to Israel of old. The reason of the 
case might sufficiently prove, that what was thus offen- 
sive to God under the dispensation of Moses, could not 
be less offensive under the more spiritual and holy dis- 
pensation of the Gospel. But we are not left to dubious 
inference. The Christian law upon this sul jeet is de- 
cisive and plain. "Be ye not unequally yoked toge 
ther with unbelievers : come out from among them, 
and be ye separate, saith the Lord." 2 Cor. 6 : 14-18. 
Nothing can be a more complete violation of this law, 
than marriage with a person destitute of heavenly 
grace. In that case, instead of not being unequally 
yoked together with an unbeliever, the believer is vo- 
luniarilu yoked, till death dissolve the union, to one 
whom God esteems an unbeliever. Instead of coming 



ON MARRIAGE. 259 

out from such persons, the believer is permanently 
united to one in the closest of all connections. Instead 
of being separate, a union is soyffht and formed, where 
the interests, hopes, cares, fears, business, pains, and 
pleasures of the parties are all intimately mingled, and 
mingled for life. What can be more glaring rebellion 
against the majesty of heaven ? What more willful con- 
tempt of the giver of this law ? 

The same law is given in expressions equally defi- 
nite on another occasion. When the liberty of a female 
to marry is declared, it is said, " She is at liberty to be 
married to whom she will, ONLY IN THE LORD.'- 
1 Cor. 7 : 39. All considerations respecting property, 
or age, or temper, or health, or prospects, are left to 
the prudence of the parlies; but this one restriction 
God lays down, the believer must marry no one who 
is not in the Lord. The expression in the Lord, is too 
common in the Scriptures for its meaning to be mis- 
taken. It evidently signifies a person who is a partaker 
of saving grace, a true disciple of Jesus, an humble 
child of God. 

§ IL When we behold the conduct of many that 
profess religion, we might suppose that a law like this 
did not exist in the Bible. How many thoughtlessly 
entwine their aflfections and interests with those who 
are utter strangers to the way of peace — clasp in their 
arms the children of the wicked one, and give their 
hearts to those whom Satan rules ! 

To arm you, if in any danger of insnarement,^gainst 
this common and destructive sin, consider thaWt is a 
great sin, a sin deeply dyed with wicked ingratitude. 
God is the giver of the law which forbids your being 
yoked Vv^ith an unbeliever, and which allows you to 



«bU ON MARRIAGE. 

marry only in the Lord. And are not you under the 
greatest obligations to obey your gracious God ? Are 
not you under the strongest ties to love him ? Are not 
you bought with that price, precious and invaluable, 
the blood of Christ? And are not you directed to do 
whatever you do, "to the glory of God ?" Should not 
you then yield your heart to him who has so loved 
you ? To encourage you to this, he gives the most gra- 
cious promise possible, "I will be a Father unto you, 
and ye shall be my sons and daughters." Of what in- 
gratitude would you be guilty, if, with such a promise 
given by such a God, you trample under foot his righ- 
teous law ! 

§ 12. To break this law has all the guilt of rebellion 
against the authority of God. Idolatry, fornication, or 
adultery yon would esteem great crimes ; for God ab- 
hors and forbids those crimes; but God as truly for- 
bids unhallowed marriages; and they who marry stran- 
gers to religion as truly rebel against God as they who 
lead lives of unlicensed lewdness. 

The sin committed by a believer in such case is 
much aggravated by its being a willful and deliberate 
sin. It is not a sudden fall, like Peter's; it is not a 
crime committed unawares, or to which persons are 
hurried in a moment of impetuous passion; but it is a 
deliberate and willful crime. The young man, month 
after month, pursues the object on which he fixes his 
affections, though he knows that whatever charms she 
possess, she has not that one which excels all others, 
the charm of humble piety. The young woman, month 
after month, receives the addresses of her lover, though 
she is aware that whatever worth he may possess, he 
is not a disciple of the Son of God. Thus the rebellion 



ON MARRIAGE. 261 

against the authority of God is willful and continued ; 
and month after month, and perhaps year after year, 
is the Most High insulted by beholding those who pro- 
fess to serve him, willfully, obstinately, and persever- 
ingly transgressing one of his righteous laws. 

This crime, great and aggravated in every case, re- 
ceives a further aggravation in the case of men. They 
are not under that restraint which custom and modesty 
impose upon the tender sex. They may look around 
the whole circle of pious females with whom they are 
acquainted, to select one on whom the fondest affec- 
tions of their hearts may repose ; but when they, slight- 
ing all those with whom they enjoy or might obtain 
acquaintance, go into the world to look for the com- 
panion of their days, and fix upon a person who is a 
stranger to the religion of the Gospel, their conduct 
is flagrantly criminal. It admits of no palliation or 
excuse. It is open, hardy, undisguised rebellion against 
the Lord of heaven and earth. 

If the motives that lead to these unhallowed unions 
be examined, the guilt of those who contract them will 
not be lessened. In the least guilty it may be a rash 
and thoughtless affection. To those who are thus in- 
fluenced it may be said, Shouldst thou love them that 
hate the Lord? Surely those professors of religion 
who, out of love to a fellow-mortal, trample on the au- 
thority and willfully violate the laws of the Lord of 
heaven and earth, plainly show that God is not the 
first in their affections, that the Savior does not rule 
supreme in their hearts. They show that they prefer 
the objects of their choice to God and Christ, and thus, 
that in reality they are joined to idols. 

But many enter into such unlawful marriages from 



262 ON MARRIAGE. 

the influence of other merely sordid motives. These 
see no peculiar personal attractions in the objects of 
their respective choice ; but they have more money 
than some, that in every other respect are their supe- 
riors, and who unite true piety with all their other re- 
commendations. In such cases it is evident the law of 
God is broken merely for the sake of money, or other 
worldly advantage. What would you think of a per- 
son committing idolatry, or adultery, or swearing, or 
blasphemy, because he was paid to commit such crime? 
Would it not be thought a decisive proof that he was 
destitute of the love and fear of God ? But why more 
so in this case than the other ? He would break God's 
law for the sake of the money he hoped to gain by 
breaking it. And they, who for the sake of money marry 
strangers to religion, as truly break God's law, and the 
motive is the same — money is the motive. This is to 
pay them for their sin. They trample on God's au 
thority, because they hope to be paid for doing so. 

§ 13. Such being the guilt of enterim^ into one of 
these unnatural marriages, it is not surprising that 
such conduct should be followed by effects mischiev 
ous in the extreme. No one is too cunning for God. 
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 

The evils are numerous. In many cases the total 
loss of piety is the deplorable effect. In these sad cases 
the professor of religion gains the object of idolatrous 
affection, or acquires the property thus sought, but 
it is at the dreadful price of eternal happiness, and 
the ruin of an immortal soul. Many who once ap- 
peared promising fair for heaven, when united to 
followers of the world have forsaken the path of 
peace. Some find in their unbelieving partners the de- 



ON MARRIAGE, 263 

cided enemies of religion ; others gradually imbibe 
the spirit of those with whom they are united. These 
tempt them to join in pleasures they once abhorred; 
to abandon duties they once loved ; to profane the 
Sabbath ; to neglect their religious privileges ; to slight 
their pious friends; to mingle vi/ith associates averse 
to piety, and to join with them in scenes of dissipation. 
Gradually, but too surely, the blighting, blasting influ- 
ence of the forbidden union is felt upon the soul. Re- 
ligion languishes— declines— and dies. The day of 
their marriage is the day that sets the seal to their 
eternal ruin. According to the language of the divine 
word, they marry, " having damnation, because they 
have cast off their faith." 

§ 14. Perhaps if you, who now read these pages, arc 
inclined to form such a forbidden union, you are deluded 
with the hope of bringing the object of your attach- 
ment to the ways of peace. Alas, this is but delusion ! 
It is not in your power to change another's heart, and 
you have no reason to hope that God will reward your 
sin by granting you the object of your wishes. When 
persons have been converted after marriage, in many 
cases husbands and wives have been the means of 
leading their respective partners to embrace religion 
also. Thus God has blessed them and their endeavors. 
But when those who knew religion have married those 
who knew it not, seldom if ever do we see the uncon- 
verted party afterwards converted. In numberless in- 
stances the professor of religion is drawn away from 
God, and back to the world and destruction ; but in few 
<;ases indeed do we behold the unbeliever drawn from 
the world and led to God. If this is your hope, it is 
delusion. 



^4 ON MARRIAGE- 

§ 15. In some few cases total apostacy is not the 
consequence of these unnatural marriages; but in these 
cases they are often the cause of much unhappiness. 
Much temporal distress is often their bitter fruit. It 
appears from various passages of Scripture, that some- 
times when God forgives the sins of his own people so 
far as to shield them from their punishment hereafter, 
he lets them feel painfully the effects of their sin and 
folly while here. Thus, though David's adultery was 
forgiven, the sv/ord was never to depart from his 
house. Acting apparently upon this system, the Most 
High frequently punishes professors of piety who form 
these forbidden unions. They expect happiness, but 
he bids sorrow encircle them; distress and affliction 
in various forms, and poverty, beset them. Their ex- 
pectations are disappointed; their hopes fail; and 
though their hope for eternity is not lost, for time they 
see little before them but difficulty and sorrow. Thus 
he frowns upon them, and marks his displeasure of 
their sin. At other times their distresses are of another 
nature. They are spiritual distresses. Instead of a 
helper in their nearest earthly friend, they find a hin- 
derance. If a family rises up, the instructions of one 
parent are counteracted by the example of the other. 
A good writer referring to this subject observes, that 
the language of a child, so circumstanced, to the mis- 
erable mother, who intreats him to read the Bible, 
may be, " Why should I pore over that tedious book 
my father never reads ? Why should I spend that day 
in the wearisome services of the church or the chapel, 
which my father spends in recreation and pleasure ? 
Why should I be so anxious to obtain what you call a 
NEW HEART, which my father tells me he has got through 



I 



ON MARRIAGE. 265 

the world well enough without, and which he calls 
folly and fanaticism ? He says that you are too strict, 
and would rob your children of all the innocent en- 
joyments and indulgencies of youth."* If not the ac- 
tual language, yet are not such sentiments likely to be 
adapted to the feelings of the child, one of w^hose pa- 
rents follows the Savior, and the other the world? How 
painful must it be to a father or mother who feels the 
value of an immortal soul, who knows the Savior's 
love, and anxiously desires that a beloved family of 
children should know this also, to think, by marrying 
contrary to the will of God, I have, I fear, entailed 
eternal damnation on all ray dear but thoughtless chil- 
dren. 

§ 16. Those who cavil against a divine law because 
they are unwilling to submit to its restraint, invent va- 
rious OBJECTIONS against the pjeceding statements, or 
excuses for rebelling against the authority of the Most 
High. Some plead that the unbelieving party may re- 
ceive spiritual benefit, and urge the apostle's words, 
"What knowest thou, wife, but thou mayest save 
thy husband ?" 

Ans. A reply to this objection has, in fact, already 
been given. The good done bears no proportion to the 
mischief. Few strangers to religion are brought to em- 
brace it by marrying those that professed to enjoy ita 
power ; but many that professed religion are led to 
forsake and renounce it by entering into such forbid- 
den unions. The words, " What knowest thou, O wife, 
but thou mayest save thy husband," refer not to a case 
of this kind, but to those cases where, of those persons 

" Raffles. 

23 



266 ox MARRIAGE. 

who are equally strangers to religion, one party aftCT 
marriage is brought to embrace it. In these cases the 
wife or husband, when converted, often becomes the 
means of converting their respective partner; hut it is 
not so in those cases where professed disciples of Jesus 
violate his laws by marrying those who knew him not. 

Obj. 2. Still it may be said, in some cases the happy 
result of a friend of religion marrying an amiable per- 
son who knew not its power, has been the conversion 
of the unbelieving party. 

Ans. Allowing this in some instances to be true, it 
forms no justifiable reason for violating a plain divine 
law. The principle maintained in this case is neither 
more nor less than "Let ns do evil that good may 
come." The good expected may never come, yet if it 
were certain that it would, the sin of breaking God's 
holy law is not thereby lessened. Of those who do 
evil that good may come, it is said their "damnation 
is just." I recollect reading of a thief who stole a Bible, 
or other religious book. This book proved the instru- 
ment of his conversion ; but would any one argue. It 
is lawful to steal Bibles, because they may convert the 
thieves that steal them ? Would they not rather ac- 
knowledge that the dishonest action retained all its 
criminality, whatever might be its effect? It is the 
same in the present case. Whether the unbelieving 
party be converted to God or remain unconverted, the 
believing party has incurred the guilt of willfully de- 
spising the authority of the Majesty on high. 

Obj. 3. It is further objected, that so much differ- 
ence exists between a nominal Christian and a heathen, 
that the rule which is applicable to the latter will not 
oe so to the former. 



ON MARRIAGE. 267 

Ans. In reply we may inquire, Wlierein does that 
difference exist? Not in their state in the sight of God. 
Both are children of wrath. Not in their enjoyment of 
spiritual blessings; for neither has any. Not in the 
state of their hearts. The nominal Christian as much 
needs conversion as the profligate heathen, and is as 
unable to be saved without it. Not that one needs less 
grace than the other for salvation. The nominal Chris- 
tian cannot be saved unless born again of the Spirit of 
God, and with that great change the heathen may. In 
fact, in many respects the balance turns in favor of the 
heathen. The nominal Christian has heard the Gospel, 
and slighted its message; the heathen has not. In one 
case, neglect of religion is plainly proved— that there 
would be such neglect is not plainly proved in the other 
case. The preponderance in guilt and ruin evidently 
lies with the nominal Christian. The Lord Jesus re- 
presented the state of heathen Tyre and Sidon, of So- 
dom and Gomorrah, as preferable to that of the Jews 
who heard his message of love in vain. 

Where, then, is the diiference in favor of the nomi- 
nal Christian? With a heart as hard as the heathen's, 
and as much needing divine power to soften it; with 
greater sins and darker prospects, in consequence of 
sinning against more light and greater obligations than 
the heathen ever knew, the nominal Christian is going 
apace to a ruin as sure, but still more tremendous. 



268 FA^ULY DUTIES. 

^ 

CHAPTER XII. 

ON FAMILY DUTIES. 

§ 1. A very considerable portion of human happi- 
ness depends on the members of a family cherishing 
those sentiments and practicing those duties which 
spring from the relations of domestic life. The reli- 
gion of the Gospel is designed to diffuse peace, love, and 
harmony through the family circle; to soften every 
rugged passion, to strengthen every affectionate feel- 
ing, and to open in each house, as well as "in each 
breast, a little heaven." There are persons who abroad 
appear courteous and humble, gentle and good natured, 
that at home are harsh and passionate, proud or peev- 
ish, soon provoked and easily offended. It should ne- 
ver be forgotten by you that true piety should be shown 
at home. Let the family that has daily converse with 
you behold its brightest radiance. Thus Jesus acted; 
Judas, who knew him best, and saw him in his retired 
hours, had not one charge of folly or inconsistency to 
bring against him. How different from those of his 
professed disciples, who are esteemed abroad, but not 
at home; loved as Christians by those who know them 
least, but whose profession is doubted or scorned by 
those who know them best ; hypocrites in reality, that 
have given rise to the proverb, "A saint abroad, and 
a devil at home." The religion of Jesus, however, is 
not answerable for the hypocrisy it condemns. ,The 
true disciples of the Savior will act a very different part. 

There is no scene in which the all-important 
graces, meekness, humility, gentleness, courteous- 



PAREls'TAL DUTIES. 269 

ness, are more important than at home. There is no 
situation in which watchfulness over your words and 
tempers is more necessary. There, many Httle things 
will occur to vex and irritate j there you are more lia- 
ble to be off your guard, and thus more liable, by im- 
proper tempers and hasty words, to bring sin upon 
your own soul and to injure the souls of others. The 
directions given in the Scriptures respecting harmony^ 
kindness, care not to provoke nor be provoked, and 
others of a similar kind, should be impressed on the 
heart of every Christian who would honor religion in 
the family to which he belongs. 

In the general it may be observed, that whatever be 
your situation in the family of which you form a part, 
as a Christian, it should be your constant aim and daily 
study to display a meek, humble, gentle, benevolent, 
affectionate spirit, and to maintain a conscience void 
of offence towards all around you. The Scriptures, 
however, descend to directions more minute and pe- 
culiarly expressive. 

§2. Dalles of parents.— To instruct their children 
in divine truth. "These words, which I command thee 
this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach 
them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of 
them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou 
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and 
when thou risest up." "Teach them thy sons, and thy 
sons' sons." By needed correction to restrain them 
from evil "Withhold not correction from the child j 
thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his 
soul from hell." Eli, though pious, fell under God's 
dreadful displeasure "because his sons made thera- 
23* 



270 



DUTIES OF CHILDREN. 



selves vile, and he restrained them not." Not to dis- 
courage or provoke their children. "Fathers, provoke 
not your children to wrath." "Fathers, provoke not 
your children, lest they be discouraged." To love 
their children, and to pray for them, as Job and David 
did, and to labor for their eternal welfare. " Train up 
a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, 
he will not depart from it." " Bring them up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

The expression, " Train up a child in the way he 
should go," signifies, to draw along by a regular and 
steady course of exertions. This calls for line upon 
line, precept upon precept ; continued exertions ; con- 
tinued watchfulness, and unceasing care. Many pious 
parents, who have done something to promote their 
children's religious welfare, have still been far from 
training them up in the way of life. Numerous in- 
stances can be adduced of pious parents who have had 
ungodly children, but perhaps it would be difficult to 
produce one instance of the kind, in which a parent 
who has literally trained up his child in the way he 
should go, has had to encounter this affliction. 

§ 3. Duties of children.— To indulge that honor and 
respect for their parents which flow from filial love, 
and which God approves, while opposite conduct in- 
curs his most severe displeasure. " Honor thy father 
and mother, (which is the first commandment with 
promise,) that it may be well with thee, and thou raay- 
est live long on the earth." " Cursed be he that set- 
teth light by his father or his mother." " Whoso rob- 
beth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no trans- 
gression, the same is the companion of a destroyer. 
To hearken to the counsels of their parents, and obey 



SERVANTS AND MASTERS. 271 

their directions, excepting only in such cases as would 
be sinful in the sight of God. " Children, obey your 
parents in the Lord : for this is right." " Children, 
obey your parents in all things : for this is well-pleas- 
ing unto the Lord." " We ought to obey God rather 
than men." If in age their parents need assistance and 
support from them, cheerfully to render this, and thus 
to minister to their comfort, and requite their kindness. 
" If any widow have children or nephews, let them 
learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their 
parents : for that is good and acceptable before God, 
But if any provide not for his own, and especially for 
those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and 
is worse than an infidel." 

Duties of husbands and wives. — On the part of the 
wife, submission and affection ; on that of the husband, 
tenderness, forbearance, and love, like that of the Lord 
Jesus to his church. " Wives, submit yourselves unto 
your husbands, as unto the Lord. Husbands, love your 
wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave 
himself for it. So ought men to love their wives as 
their own bodies : he that loveth his wife loveth him- 
self," " Teach the young women to be sober, to love 
their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, 
chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own 
husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. 
Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded." 

Duties of servants and masters. — On the part of ser- 
vants, respect, obedience, and faithful attention to their 
employers' interests. " Servants, be obedient to them 
that are your masters according to the flesh : not with 
eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but as the servants of 
Christ, doing the will of God from the heart ; with 



272 MOTIVES FOR FILIAL DUTY. 

good-Will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to 
men.' "Let as many servants as are under the yoke 
count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the 
name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And 
they that have believing masters, let them not despise 
them, because they are brethren ; but rather do them 
service, because they are faithful and beloved, parta- 
kers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort." 
Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own mas- 
ters, and to please them well in all things ; not answer- 
mg again ; not purloining, but showing all good fideli- 
ty; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Sa- 
vior in all things." '' Servants, be subject to your mas- 
ters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but 
also to the froward." On the part of masters, kind- 
ness, moderation, and justice in recompensing services 
Thou Shalt not oppress the hired servant that is poor 
and needy." " Wo unto him that useth his neicrhbor's 
service without wages, and giveth him not for his 
work." After servants are directed to be faithful, and 
to serve with good will, it is added, " And, ye masters, 
do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening- 
knowing that your Master also is in heaven ; neither is 
there respect of persons with him." "Masters, give 
unto your servants that which is just and equal ; know- 
ing that ye also have a Master in heaven." 

After this brief view of some of the duties incum- 
bent upon persons in several of the principal relations 
of domestic life, allow me to beg you to consider the 
importance of regarding those which belong to the sta- 
tion that you yourself occupy. Perhaps you are the 
child of parents still living, whose hearts are wrapt up 
m you and your welfare. Consider how many solemn 



FAREXTAL CARE. 273 

motives, enforced by the most encouraging or awful 
sanctions, urge you to treat tliem witli filial affection, 
kindness, obedience and respect. If your heart is open 
to the impressions of gratitude, you will render this 
tribute to them, who have watched over you without 
wearying, who have toiled for you without fainting, 
who have never thought they could do too much to 
promote your happiness, who tended you with unceas- 
ing care in infancy, and who have followed you with 
kind attentions even to the present hour. 

If the spotless example of the Son of God, when 
he dwelt on earth, weighs with you, you have that 
example with all its power to enforce the exercise of 
filial piety. "This wonderful person, notwithstand- 
ing his great and glorious character and sublime des- 
tination, was the fairest specimen of obedience to pa- 
rents ever seen in the present world. Let children 
remember, that ifihey have not the spirit of Christ, they 
are none of his. He was subject to his parents, as a 
child of their family, until he was thirty years of age j 
and forgot not, when he hung on the cross, to pro- 
vide an effectual support and protection for his mo- 
ther. Let all children remember, when they are wearv 
of laboring for their parents, that Christ labored for 
his; when they are impatient of their commands, that 
Christ cheerfully obeyed ; when they are reluctant to 
provide for their parents, that Christ forgot himself, 
and provided for his mother amid the agonies of cru- 
cifixion. The affectionate language of this Divine ex- 
ample to every child is, Go thou and do likewise. 

§ 4. Are you a parent, a father or a mother ? Con- 
sider how much depends on your attention to your 
children's eternal welfare. "I was blessed with a mo- 



274 PARENTAL DUTIES. 

ther," says Mr. Ward, the excellent Missionary to In- 
dia, " who frequently took my sister and me aside to 
pray with us ; and often have I heard her pray with 
such earnestness, mingling her tears with her peti- 
tions, and throwing so much of the feelings of the 
mother into her prayers, that, young as I was, it went 
to my very heart." He adds : " I was lately informed 
by a pious and able minister, that on the evening when 
the first permanent religious impressions were made on 
his mind, his pious mother was detained at home. But 
she spent the time devoted to public worship in secret 
prayer for the salvation of her son ; and so fervent did 
she become in these intercessions, that, like our Lord 
in Gethsemane,she fell on her face, and remained in fer- 
vent supplication till the service had nearly closed. Her 
son, brought under the deepest impressions by the ser- 
mon of his father, went into afield after the service, and 
there prayed most fervently for hioiself. When became 
home, the mother looked at her son with a manifest 
concern, anxious to discover whether her prayers had 
been heard, and whether her son had commenced the 
all-important inquiry, 'What shall I do to be saved V 
In a few days the son acknowledged himself to be the 
subject of impressions of which none need be ashamed ; 
impressions which lay the foundation of all excellence 
of character here, and of all blessedness hereafter. 

"O ye Christian mothers 1 have yoit thus, in refer- 
ence to your children, ' wrestled in birth again, till 
Christ be formed in their hearts the hope of glory? 
Have you taken them aside, and prayed with them 
and for them, one by one ? There is something most 
touching in such a scene, and to the heart of a child 
almost irresistible. It is a holy violence, put forth 



PARENTAL DUTIES. 276 

to snatch a darling child from impending destruc- 
tion; and, like the prayer mentioned by the apostle 
James, will unquestionably 'avail much.' " 

§ 5. If you are a parent, consider the happy effect 
which results from such pious care. Frequently active 
parental piety meets its speedy reward, in the early 
piety of the dear objects for whom it prays, and over 
whom it watches. Thus were the seeds of piety sown 
in the hearts of Baxter, and Doddridge, and *Watts; 
and how speedy, how rich was the harvest ! In other 
instances instruc tions and prayers for a time have ap- 
peared in vain. The seed has seemed buried beneath 
a frozen, barren soil ; yet at length it has sprung up, 
and bore fruit a hundred fold.* 

* A pious age^ woman had one son; she used every means 
in her poAver to train him up in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord; he was the child of many prayers. The youth grew 
up, but was of a gay, dissipated turn; she still followed him 
with her entreaties, faithfully warned him of his awful situa- 
tion as a sinner before God, and told him what his end would 
be, dying in that state. One day he went to his mother and 
said, "Mother, let me have my best clothes, I am going to a 
ball to-night." She expostulated with him, and urged him not 
to go, by every argument in her power; he answered, "Mo- 
ther, let me have my clothes, I will go, and it is useless to say 
any thing about it." She brought his clothes, he put them on, 
and was going out; she stopped him, and said, "My child, do 
not go." He said he would; she then said to him, " My son, 
while you are dancing Avith your gay companions in the ball- 
room, I shall be out in that wilderness praying to the Lord to 
convert your soul." He went ; the ball commenced, but instead 
of the usual gayety, an unaccountable gloom pervaded the 
whole assembly. One said, " We never had such a dull meet- 
ing in our lives ;" ajiother, " I wish we had not come, we have 
no life, we cannot get along;" a third, " I cannot think what is 
the matter." The young man instantly burst into tears, and 



276 PARENTAL DUTIES. 

The happy and important effect of sucli instrurtions, 
even where conversion does not immediately follow, 
has been evident in a multitude of cases. Young per- 
sons who have received a pious education, cannot easi- 
ly forget that eternal world which has been often set 
before them. However they may slight religion, death 
and judgment still alarm them. They know they are 
wrong, and that their parents are right. Conscience 
will not let them sin at ease. Its warnings mar their 
pleasure, and often check their career, or render them 
wretched when they expect delight. And perhaps years 
after those who prayed with and taught them are gone 
to the grave, they are led to the Savior, whose love was 
unfolded to them in their early years. 

§ 6. If parents would promote the eternal welfare of 
their family, let them sedulously and devoutly attend 
to family devotion. If a parent, not only pray for your 
children, not only occasionally in your closet pray 
with them, but daily in your family. Let your house 
be a house of prayer to the living God. Many excuses 
are offered for neglecting this duty ; but the real cause 
of neglect is coldness and indifference to the things of 
God, and the eternal welfare of a family. Let that be 
subdued, and other excuses will vanish like mists be- 
fore the rising sun, 

A striking testimony to the effect of family devotion 

said, " I know what is tbe matter ; my poor old mother is now 
praying in yonder wilderness for her ungodly son." He took his 
hat, and said, " I will never be found in such a place as this 
again," and left the company. To be short, the Lord converted 
his soul. Mr. Irish, his pastor, baptized him. He was soon 
after taken ill, and died very happy. Praying breath is nevei 
spent in vain, — Americaii Baptist Magazine. 



DOMESTIC PIETY. 277 

and consistent piety, is recorded in the life of the late 
venerable minister of the Gospel, Mr. Scott. His son 
observes, " To his constant and edifying observance of 
family worship, in connection with the steady con- 
sistent spirit and conduct, which they could not fail 
to remark in him, is, I am persuaded, very much to be 
traced, not only the blessing of God, which I trust has 
descended on his own family, but the further striking 
and important fact, that in very few instances has any 
person passed any length of time under his roof, with- 
out appearing to be brought permanently under the in- 
fluence of religious principle. And yet it was not much 
his practice to address himself closely and minutely, 
as some have done with very good effect, to such per- 
sons individually. It was not so much by preaching 
directly to them, as bij livino- before them, making an 
edifying use of incidents and occasions, and being so 
constantly instructive, devout, and benevolent in fami- 
ly worship, that, under the blessing of God, he pro- 
duced so striking an impression upon them." 

Consider too, that in training up children in the way 
of piety, you may be diffusing good for ages to come. 
Many are the instances in which God has so blessed 
these exertions, that for age after age the stream of 
piety has continued to flow. One generation after ano- 
ther has caught the sacred flame, has felt the sacred 
principle, and though religion flows not in the blood, 
yet it has descended, like a fair inheritance, from pa- 
rent to child, through a long succession of years. One 
inst:ince of this kind, out of myriads, occurs in the 
case of the celebrated John Wesley. His mother was 
a pious woman, the daughter, of an eminent noncon- 
24 



278 DOMESTIC PIETY. 

formist minister. He again was descended from a re- 
ligious mother, who took so much care of his educa- 
tion, that he was under serious impressions so early, 
that he declared he knew not the time when he was 
unconverted. In this instance we see religion flowing 
on through four generations, and had we information 
to trace it farther back, might probably trace it for 
many more. On the other hand, a parent who neglects 
training up his children in the way of life, may be a 
principal means of diffusing ignorance and wretched- 
ness, guilt and damnation, among his descendants for 
generations to come. 

§ 7. Though the remarks here made have a peculiar 
reference to the effect of parental example and instruc- 
tion, yet let them not be confined to that only. The 
influence of displaying piety at home is felt, and may 
be great, whatever be the situation which the disciple 
of Jesus fills. When one member of an irreligious 
family has been converted, if that member has adorn- 
ed the Gospel, has united piety,' prudence, and prayer, 
it has often led to the conversion of many others. 
Some years ago I knew a youth awakened to the im- 
portance of religion, and deeply impressed v/ith his 
OAvn condition. He began to inquire for the path of 
peace ; others of his family imitated his example. He 
joined the Christian church ; two brothers older than 
himself, and two other relatives, connected with them 
by marriage, soon followed him. He has finished his 
course in hope, and his friends, it is trusted, are now- 
walking in the way of peace. 
The child may win the parent.* I know a young 
' The child may .win the parent. The following proof of thia 
occurred not long since in* the United States: " Two daughters 



PIETY AT HOME. 279 

disciple of the Savior who, when she set out in reli- 
gion, had parents who were both of them strangers to 
the Gospel of salvation. But to see her child embrace 
religion while she knew it not, impressed the mother's 
heart, and under God w^as a means of leading her to 
inquire for the grace of life. She soon became a mem- 

of an irreligious father, while away from home, embraced reli- 
gion. The father alarmed, immediately sent for them home ; 
but before the messenger reached them they had made their 
lasting choice, and found the peace the world cannot give. 
They returned to their father's— not overwhelmed (as he ex- 
pected) with gloom and despondency, but with countenances 
beaming with a heavenly serenity and celestial hope. 

'• They told their father what the Lord had done for their 
souls — that they were pilgrims here — they kept m view the 
bright fields of promise as they traversed this desert of sin, and 
were looking for that city which hath foundations. 

" Soon after their return home they were anxious to esta- 
blish family worship. They affectionately requested their fa- 
ther to commence that duty. He replied that he saw no use 
in it. He had lived very well more than fifty years without 
prayer, and he could not be burdened with it now. They then 
asked permission to pray with the family themselves. Not 
thinking they would have confidence to do it, he assented to 
the proposition. 

" The duties of the day being ended, and the hour for retir- 
mg to rest having arrived, the sisters drew forward the stand, 
placed on it the Bible — one read a chapter — they both kneel- 
ed—the other engaged in prayer. The father stood, and while 
the humble, fervent prayer of his daughter was ascending on 
devotion's wings to heaven, his knees began to tremble, his 
nerves, w^hich had been gathering strength for half a century, 
could no longer support him— he also kneeled, and then became 
prostrate on the floor. God heard their prayer, and directed 
their father's weeping eyes (which had never shed tears of pe- 
nitence before) to the Lamb of God which taketh away the 
sins of the world." 



280 MOTIVES FOR PIETY 

ber of the church to which her daughter had been pre- 
viously united. 

The wife may win the husband ; the husband the 
wife. Were it necessary, cases of this description 
might be mentioned, for they are many. In the same 
way a pious master may produce incalculable good 
among those he employs. If he considers himself, as 
he should do, lying under a solemn responsibility wiih 
respect to his servants, and if he labor and pray for 
their conversion, his servants may have reason to eter- 
nity to bless the hour which brought them under his 
pious care. 

Even the servant may win the employer. The effect 
of piety in persons in humble life may be great on 
those in circumstances far above theirs. A pleasing 
instance of this kind has already been mentioned in 
chapter vii. § 6, note. 

§ 8. Besides all that has been urged, there are many 
other considerations which should impress on your 
heart the importance of showing piety in your own 
home. If you would not be stained with the hateful 
crime of hypocrisy yon must act this part. For surely 
no hypocrisy, is more hateful, and none more mischie- 
vous, than theirs who abroad seem pious, but at home 
manifest little or nothing of the influence of religion. 

If you would not eternally undo your nearest friends 
and dearest relit ives, you must show piety at home. 
Are you the child of parents who are strangers to re- 
ligion ; and do you profess it? They will form their 
idea of religion from you. If they see you gentle and 
humble, affectionate and kind, patient of injury and 
prompt to good, and shining in all the graces of the 
Gospel, it will recommend religion to them, and per- 



IN THE FAMILY CIRCLE. 281 

haps lead them to the Savior and to lieaven. But if 
they see you proud, passionate, quarrelsome, unkind, 
and disobedient, what will they think of your religion? 
What will your conduct do but seal them up under 
darkness and impenitence to the judgment of the great 
day? And at that day they may charge you, as a wick- 
ed murderer, with having kept them in darkness, and 
contributed to damn them to eternity. 

It is an awful fact, that where persons profess reli- 
gion, and yet honor it not by their conduct, they con- 
tribute in a dreadful degree to harden their own chil- 
dren or nearest relatives against the truth. Few are so 
hardened as the children of those professors of religion 
that display not piety at home. It is far better to be 
the child of a profligate than the child of an inconsis- 
tent professor of the Gospel. The child of a profligate, 
however nurtured in vice, is not hardened against the 
Gospel by seeing his parents profess it with their lips, 
but disregard it in their life; and thus, by being con- 
tinually taught at home, to believe all religion hypo- 
crisy. Hence there is more hope of the conversion of 
a profligate's child than of the child of unholy pro- 
fessors of the Gospel. 

The effects of professing religion without displaying 
piety at home, are thus awful and dreadful in the ex- 
treme. Some years ago an aged minister stated to me, 
that in early life he spent some years under the roof 
of a person who was a popular preacher of the Gos- 
pel, and who was the instrument of awakening many 
■from a state of carelessness and sin. But while thus 
successful abroad in turning many to righteousness, at 
home he displayed little of the influence of religion. 
24* 



282 MOTIVES FOR PIETY 

Family prayer was seldom or never practiced in his 
liouse. He gave way to harsh and violent tempers. 
He had six children; but alas! there was not reason 
to believe that even one of them became a follower of 
the Savior. They went on, driven, as it were, to per- 
dition by their father's unholy conduct. Thus it is that 
persons who profess religion, but do not honor it in 
their own families, entail on their friends or their chil- 
dren hardness of heart, and profligacy or infidelity in 
this world, and eternal enmity lo God and endless 
damnation in the world which is to come. 

§ 9. How will relatives meet the relatives their un- 
holy conduct has ruined! How will unholy parents 
meet their injured children at the tremendous bar of 
final judgment! Ah, in that day, friends united here 
in nature's strongest, dearest ties, but not united in the 
lies of grace, must part asunder to meet no more for 
ever. Families that once met around the same hearth, 
sat around the same table, and passed the best and hap- 
piest years of life beneath the same roof, must separate 
to an' infinite and eternal distance. One part rising 
high in glory in the blissful climes of heaven; the other 
sunk deep in eternal despair in the pit of fire and wo. 
The parents in heaven, and their once beloved children 
in hell ; or perhaps the children welcomed by the Judge 
of all to life and bliss, and their unholy, unhappy pa- 
rents doomed to all the horrors of eternal night. Bro- 
thers and sisters, husbands and wives, here much and 
mutually beloved, when they leave this world must 
frequently separate. for ever. One crowned with glory, 
will join the family of the first-born, the other sink be- 
neath a load of unforgiven sin to misery and despair. 
Thev Avho once were united in such fond attachment, 



IN THE FAMILY CIRCLE. 283 

now united no more. They part, and part for ever. 
They pursued their journey in union through the liille 
span of time, but now, while some exult in all the lij^ht, 
and love, and joy of life eternal, their once beloved as- 
sociates, swept into the gulf of perdition, feel nothing 
but guilt, remorse, despair, and wretchedness, and an- 
ticipate not one bright moment in the dreary ages of an 
eternal night. O, my friend, can you bear the thought 
of such a separation between yourself and those you 
hold most dear? Do you not tremble at the idea of so 
dismal a parting from the child you tenderly love; or 
the dear parent you revere; oj- the brothers or sisters 
who have been the aff^iciionate companions of your 
youthful hours; or the husband or the wife that is now 
the fond soother of your care ? Yet if you are devoted 
to Jesus, and they are not, it must come. How should 
the dreadful idea add fervor to your prayers, and life 
to your endeavors, to snatch them as brands from the 
burning ! But perhaps they are consecrated to the Sa- 
vior and you are not. can you bear to be the wretch- 
ed outcast? to see your child or your parent, your 
brother or your sister, your husband or your wife, as- 
cend to heaven, while you, with a broken heart, look 
after them in vain? to see them rise to glory and eter- 
nal life, while you sink to darkness, misery, and de- 
spair? If the thought is dreadful, what will' be the re- 
reality? Flee from the dreadful heart-breaking wo, 
and make their God and Father yours.* 

* Perhaps a brief but impressive narrative may add force to 
these remarks. '• I have known," said a pious father, "the 
grace of (iod for nearly thirty years; but in spite of all my 
advice, my five sons and two daughters, all grown up, ran on iu 
the broad way to destruction. This cost me many a prayer 



284 



FAMILY !N HEAVEN. 



§ 10. How hafpy is that family where all, united in 
the Savior's love, are traveling together to eternal life ! 
What prayers, what labors of love will not such a pros- 
pect recompense ! It is true, death will tear that family 
asunder, and snatch one by one, till all the once happy 
circle are snatched away : yet they are cheered with 
the bright prospect of forming a family again, where 
adieus and farewells are a sound unknown. How sweet 
is their united devotion, when 

"Kdeeling down to heaven's eternal King, 

"The saint, the father, and the husband prays; 

"Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing, 

"That thus they all shall meet in fuiure days. 

"There ever bask in uncreated rays; 

"No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, 

"For ever singing their Redeemer's praise 

"In such society, but still more dear, 

"While circling time moves round in one eternal sphere, 
and tear, yet I saw no fruit of all my labors. In January last I 
dreamed that the day of judgment was come. I saw the Judge 
on his great white throne, the holy angels sitting around him, 
and all nation j gathered before him. I and my wife were on 
the right hand, but I could not see my children. 

" I then thought that I must go and seek them ; so I went to 
the left hand, and found them all standing together, tearing 
their hair, beating their breasts, and cursing the day that 
they were born. As soon as they saw me they all caught hold 
of me, and said, ' O father, we will part no more !' I said, ' My 
dear children, I am come to try, if possible, to get you out of 
this dismal situation.' So I took them all with m-e; but when 
we were come within a bowshot of the Judge, I thought he 
cast an angry look, and said, ' What do thy children with thee 
now ? they would not take thy warning when upon earth: they 
shall not share the crown with thee. Depart, ye cursed!' At 
these words I awoke, bathed in sweat and tears. ^ few days 
after this, as we were sitting all together on a Sabbath even- 
iniTf I related my dream to them. No sooner did I begin, but 



FAMILY IN HEAVEN. 283 

How sweet will be their future union ! O blessed day, 
when they who associated below shall meet in realms 
above! Blessed day, when they v/ho mingled sorrows 
here shall meet to mingle raptures there ! when they 
who shared together the trials of earth, shall share in 
sweeter union the triumphs of heaven! For ever safe ! 
for ever and for ever blest ! far from every evil ! far 
from every grief! No longer soothers of each other's 
wo, but partakers of each other's felicity ! Assaulted 
by temptation, afflicted by calamity, stained by sin, 
humbled by imperfection, alarmed by danger, never 
more! Security is their privilege, as happiness is their 
portion. The boisterous storms of time cannot foliow 
them, sheltered safe from every storm. The blasts at 
affliction shall beat no more on their now peaceful 
home. The inroads of disease shall no more alarm, 
nor the assaults of death break their eternal union. 
The time for these things will be no longer. These 
began and ended in the field of mortal existence; but 
the peaceful mansions of the blest are for ever shel- 
tered from them. Happy tranquillity, which nothing 
through eternal ages can disturb! lasting harmony, 
which nothing can dissolve ! delightful security, which 
nothing through eternity shall ever alarm ! and happy, 

first one, then another, yea, all of them, burst into tears, and 
God fastened conviction on their hearts. Five of thera are 
now rejoicing in God their Savior. I believe God is at work 
with the other two ; so that I doubt not that he will give thera 
also to my prayers." This good old sr.int, before he exchanged 
time for eternity, had the happiness of seeing the remainder 
of his children converted to the truth as it is in Jesus, and 
adorning the doctrine of God our Savior by useful lives. 



286 INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH. 

happy union, which shall continue unbroken, while 
the infinite periods of an eternal day are rolling for 
ever along ! Blessed family I with what melody will 
they join the everlasting song, "Worthy is the Lamb 
that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wis- 
dom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. 
Blessing, and honor,- and glory, and power be unto 
HIM that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the LAMB 
for ever and ever !" 

O, my friend, with such inducements, who that feels 
the Savior's love, and true affection for his beloved 
connections, would not wish to show piety at home ! 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ON THE SABBATH, AND ITS IMPROVEMENT. 

§ 1. Of all the instructions designed by heavenly 
mercy to promote the temporal and eternal welfare of 
mankind, there is no one of such immense importance, 
and productive of such immense benefits, as the Sab- 
bath. " Wherever the Sabbath is not, there is no wor- 
ship, no religion. Man forgets God, and God forsakes 
man." Where the Sabbath is not regarded, man dege- 
nerates to a brute, a heathen, an infidel, or an atheist ; 
and hastens, v»^ith a rapid step, to a scene where he 
will bear all the character and all the features of a 
fiend. Where the Sabbath is loved, venerated, and im- 
proved, peace smiles, hope blooms, piety matures and 



INSTITUTION OP THE SABBATH. 287 

l:ipens, and the soul hastens onward to the period when 
the Sabbaths of time shall be exchanged for the long 
Sabbath of eternity. 

§ 2. God, at the beginning of time, appointed a Sab- 
bath. This solemn season for rest and religion he or- 
dained should then be the seventh day. " God blessed 
the seventh day, and sanctified it ; because that in it 
he had rested from all his work which God created 
and made." There is reason to believe that this day 
was regarded as sacred by the patriarchs, and it is de- 
cisively clear that it was esteemed holy before the time 
when the law was given at Sinai. For some time 
before .that period, Moses is described as speaking to 
the Israelites respecting it, and speaking of it not as if 
it were a new institution, but one well known to them. 
" He said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath 
said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto 
the Lord." 

When the Lord with appalling and terrible majesty 
gave the law from Mount Sinai, the observation of the 
Sabbath was the subject of one of the ten precepts that 
he delivered on that tremendous occasion. " Remem- 
ber the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt 
thou labor, and do all thy work : but the seventh day 
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt 
not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, 
thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, 
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six 
days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all 
that in them is, and rested the seventh day : wherefore 
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." 

This solemn law of the Most High does not appear 
to have been introduced at this time as a new law, but 



288 CHANGE OF THE SABBATH. 

as a law referring to a subject with which the Israel- 
ites were well acquainted. Remember the Sabbath day. 
This phraseology implies that they were acquainted 
with the day and with the law which they were now 
solemnly commanded to regard. 

§ 3. With respect to the change of the Sabbath from 
the seventh day of the week to the first, it may be ob- 
served, that the Lord Jesus Christ was Lord of the Sab- 
bath, and consequently possessed authority to alter the 
day on which the Sabbath is to be observed : " The 
Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day ;" and that 
the Scriptures lead us to believe that he, or his divine- 
ly inspired apostles, did make such alteration. 

The first day of the week was the day on which the 
Lord Jesus, after his resurrection, repeatedly appeared 
to his disciples. John, 20 : 19-26. It was the day on 
which the Gospel was first preached, with the Holy- 
Ghost sent down from heaven, and on which several 
thousands were converted, and a wide foundation laid 
for the Christian church. " And when the day of Pen- 
tecost was fully come, they were all with one accord 
in one place. And tliey were all filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the 
Spirit gave them utterance." And the same day there 
were added unto them about three thousand souls. 
This fact is peculiarly remarkable. If the Most High 
had designed the seventh day to be continued as the 
day for public worship, can it with any reason be sup- 
posed that tiie abundant effusion of the Holy Spirit, 
which qualified the apostles to preach for the first 
time what is stricili/ the Gospel, should have been 
made on the first uay? and that the first day of the 
week should have been the day honored by the first 



FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. 289 

preaching of the Gospel, and by the conversion of 
thousands ? Did not this procedure of the Lord God 
mark out the first day of the week, as the day on 
which he designed the Gospel of Jesus to be most ex- 
tensively and successfully preached ? 

The first day of the week was the day on which the 
disciples united in that most solemn act of worship the 
supper of the Lord. " And we sailed away from Phi- 
hppi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto 
them to Troas in five days ; where we abode seven days. 
And upon the first day of the week, when the disci- 
ples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto 
them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued 
his speech until midnight." The argument for the first 
day being the Lord's day, which is furnished in this 
verse, is peculiarly forcible, in consequence of its be- 
ing expressly stated that the apostle and his compa- 
nions abode seven days, or one week at Troas If the 
seventh day of the week, in which the apostle arrived 
at Troas had been the day devoted to public worship, 
he was there to engage in its sacred exercises; but in- 
stead of the account stating that any thing of this kind 
took place on that day, it passes that day over in si- 
lence, and records, that on the first dav of the follow- 
mg week the disciples met for that solemn act of wor- 
ship, the Lord's Supper, and that then the apostle 
preached unto them. 

The first day of the week was the day on which the 
disciples were directed to make their charitable con- 
tributions for their suffering friends. 1 Cor. 16 : 2 

There cannot be a reasonable doubt that the first 
day IS the day distinguished by the appellation of the 



290 JtTSTIN's TESTIMONY, 

Lord's day, by the apostle John, in the Revelation. "I 
was in the spirit on the Lord's day." The name appli- 
ed to the day expresses its peculiar design. It is the 
Lord's day. Other days are allotted to man for atten- 
tion to the needful concerns of this transitory world ; 
but this day is peculiarly the Lord's, a day to be de- 
voted to his worship and glory. It may be said, in- 
deed, that all days are his. They are in one sense ; but 
so is all creation. The cattle on a thousand hills are 
his ; yet the Jewish husbandman was allowed to es- 
teem his cattle his own ; but if a part of his herd were 
presented as a sacrifice to God, that part, though in 
one sense the Lord's before, was now esteemed as set 
apart in a peculiar way for God. So with the Chris- 
tian every day should be the Lord's ; but while ho 
claims one day as more peculiarly his own, it suggests 
that that day is to be set apart from common for sacred 
purposes, as the beast presented for the sacrifice was 
no longer its former owner's, but the Lord's. 

Though to look to ancient Christian writers for ar- 
guments in support of institutions which the Scrip- 
tures do not mention, is to dishonor the word of God, 
and to open a wide door to superstition ; yet it is not 
impleasant to trace in the writings of very early Chris- 
tians further accounts of institutions which the Scrip- 
tures do record. Justin Martyr, who wrote his Apo- 
logy at hardly the distance of fifteen years from the 
time of the apostle John, observes, "And in every eu- 
charistlcal sacrifice we bless the Maker of all things, 
through his Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy 
Spirit ; and upon the day called Sunday, all that live 
either in city or country meet together at the same 
place, where the writings of the apostles and prophets 



OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. 291 

are read, as much as time will give leave ; when the 
reader has done, the bishop makes a sermon, wherein 
he instructs the people, and animates them to the 
practice of such lovely precepts ; at the conclusion of 
this discourse we all rise up together and pray : and 
prayers being over, as I now said, there is bread, and 
wine, and water offered ; and the bishop, as before, 
sends up prayers and thanksgivings with all the fer- 
vency he is able, and the people conclude all with a 
joyful acclamation of Amen: then the consecrated ele- 
ments are distributed to and partaken of by all that 
are present, and sent to the absent by the hands of the 
deacons. 

" But the wealthy and the willing, for every one is 
at liberty, contribute as they think fitting, and this col- 
lection is deposited with the bishop, and out of this he 
relieves the orphan and the widow, and such as are re- 
duced to want by sickness or any other cause, and 
Buch as are in bonds, and strangers that come from 
far ; and in a word, he is the guardian and almoner of 
all the indigent. 

"Upon Sunday we all assemble, that being the first 
day in which God set himself to work upon the dark 
void, in order to make the world, and in which Jesus 
Christ our Savior rose again from the dead ; for the 
day before Saturday he was crucified, and the day af- 
ter, which is Sunday, he appeared to his apostles and 
disciples, and taught them what I have now proposed 
to your consideration." 

§ 4. With respect to the loay of observing- the Sab- 
bath, it is to be set apart for God. It is the Lord's day, 
and not yours. The day is the Lord's, not merely the 
morning, or the afternoon, or the evening, but the day. 



292 PROFANATIONS OF SABBATH- 

The command is not. Remember the Sabbath morning 
to keep it holy, or the Sabbath afternoon; but the 
Sabbath day. And so we are informed of the early 
Christians, that they spent a great part of the day to- 
gether, engaged in those solemn exercises which were 
ripening them for a Sabbath above. The day should 
be begun with God, be carried on with God, and be 
ended with God. Private prayer, family devotion, 
self-examination and meditation; reading the Scrip- 
tures, visiting the sick, public worship, and the reli- 
gious instruction of the young, and if a parent, of 
your own children, are the engagements that should 
occupy the Sabbath. If at the head of a family, you 
are commanded by God to let your servants and your 
cattle rest; and if you are employing these, you as 
much profane the Sabbath as if employed yourself. 

The ways in which this sacred day is profaned are 
innumerable. Some profane it by buying, selling, 
traveling or amusements. To such the words apply, 

" What evil thing is this ye do, 

" Who God's peculiar day profane ; 

" Your calling's common work pursue, 

" Your journeys, sports, aod pleasures vain ? 

" Ye buy the curse of God !— ye sell 

" Your souls to sin, the world, and hell !" 

The Sabbath is profaned in numberless instances by 
attending to household business, that should be done 
on Saturday or left till Monday. It is profaned by ba- 
kers busy at their ovens ; by farmers employing their 
servants in work not absolutely essential to the well- 
being of their cattle ; by reading improper books, not 
only books of a profligate tendency, but books not cal- 



KEEPING THE SABBATH HOLY. 293 

culated to promote the power of vital piety, as works 
in science, in history, or on mere speculative subjects 
in theology. 

The Sabbath is profaned in an awful degree by the 
indulgence of improper thoughts, and by conversation 
of a description unsuitable to the day. What has the 
Christian, who should be improving the Sabbath as a 
means of meetening the soul for heaven, to do on the 
Lord's day with politics ? with the state of the nation ? 
with tattling about the affairs of families ? with the 
state of trade? with fashions, with diversions? Are 
these subjects for such a day, and for creatures who 
have a heaven to gain, a hell to escape, a God to glo- 
rify, an eternity before them, and but a few Sabbaths 
to improve? Yet what more common ! What else do 
many professors of religion on the Lord's day converse 
about ? Many hearers of the Gospel scarcely leave the 
house of prayer before they begin discoursing on these 
or other mere worldly subjects. 

A short and expressive account of the mode in which 
the Sabbath should be spent is furnished in the fifty- 
eighth chapter of Isaiah ; and an important promise 
connected with it : " If thou turn away thy foot from 
the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; 
and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, 
honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own 
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking 
thine own words ; then shalt thou delight thyself in 
the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high 
places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of 
Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it." Nothing merely of a ceremonial nature 
25* 



294 KEEPING THE BAEBATH HOLY. 

appears in this description, and though the latter part 
of the passage contained a promise more immediately 
applicable lo Israel, yet the promise, "Thenshalt thou 
delight thyself in the Lord," is so naturally connected 
with the solemn improvement of the Lord's day, that 
it may justly be viewed as made to all who pursue the 
practice previously required. 

§ 5. Now allow me affectionately to urge upon you 
a devout, a strict improvement of this holy day. All 
that is dear to you as an immortal being, all that you 
are anxious to promote, if indeed a Christian, enforce 
such observance. "To this institution," says Dr. 
Dwight, "we owe far the greater pan of the spiritual 
blessings which we enjoy ; and in a high sense, we 
owe them all. But for this day, we should neither 
have sought, nor secured, eternal life; for where no 
Sabbath is, there is no religion. But for this day, 
earthly things would have engrossed all our thoughts. 
But for this day, the world, as a canker, would rust, 
corrupt, and consume all the dispositions to piety, and 
all the hopes of heaven. The soul would be benumbed. 
Religion would die. God would be forgotten. The 
death of Christ would be vain. Mankind would cease 
to be saved ; and heaven would fail of her destined in- 
habitants. How desolate the prospect ! How strongly 
would this world resemble the regions of final despair ! 
where no Sabbath dawns; where no prayers nor 
praises ascend ; no sermons proclaim pardon and 
peace to sinners; the voice of mercy never sounds; 
and the smiles of forgiving, redeeming, and sanctify- 
ing love never illumes the dreary valley of the shadow 
of death !" 
§ 6, A strictly religious improvement of the Sabbath 



KEEPING THE SABBATH HOLY. 295 

will be fraught with incalculable blessings to yourself. 
It will counteract the influence of the world ; it will 
strengthen every grace ; it will nourish the flame of 
holy love, and mature your soul for all the enjoyments 
of the heavenly world. Judge Hale observes, " I have 
found by a strict and diligent observation, that the due 
observing the duties of this day hath ever had joined 
to it a blessing upon the rest of my time, and the week 
that hath been so begun hath been blessed and pros- 
perous to me. And on the other hand, when I have 
been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the 
week hath been unsuccessful and unhappy to my se- 
cular employments. So that I could easily make an 
estimate of my successes in my own secular employ- 
ments the week following, by the manner of passing 
this day : and this I do not write lightly or inconside- 
rately, but upon a long and sound observation and ex- 
perience." 

§ 7. To strengthen and deepen your impressions of 
the immense importance of the strict observance of the 
Lord's day, look at what passes around you, think of 
your obligations to God, and contemplate the scenes 
before you. 

Look at what passes around you. Some will tell you 
that a strict observance of the Sabbath is superstitious ; 
but observe their character. Can you point to one of 
this description that displays any eminence in piety? 
Do their affections seem heavenly ? their hopes bright? 
their souls devout ? Are they zealous and devout fol- 
lowers of the Lord? Rather, are they not those, whose 
profession of religion is a cold, barren, heartless, worth- 
less thing ? Are these they with whom you would wish 



296 SANCTIFYING THE SABBATH. 

to die? and when they quit this transient world, would 
you wish your soul in their soul's place? 

Look at others, whose piety is elevated, whose zeal 
is warm, whose faith is strong, whose hopes are bright, 
who live as strangers here, and as travelers to glory, 
and whose souls are ripening apace for heaven; to 
whom religion is their meat and drink, their pleasure 
and their all : these are they tliat reverence the Lord's 
day, and strictly improve its holy hours. Would you 
not wish to die their death, and to have your soul 
gathered with theirs? Then imitate their example. 
The rule of the Lord Jesus, " By their fruits ye shall 
know them," may be applied here. Eminent piety is 
uniformly connected with the devout and strict obser- 
vation of the Lord's day : and the want of a strict im- 
provement of the holy day is, even where a profession 
of religion is made, as uniformly connected with luke- 
warmness or hypocrisy. 

Think of your obligations to God. Does he, who 
gives you every day, and from whom you hope for im- 
mortality, require too much, when he bids you conse- 
crate to him one day in seven? Had he condescended 
to ask you what portion of your time you would so- 
lemnly set apart for his peculiar service, would you 
have thought of less ? could you have thought of so 
little? Part of the Sabbath is employed in receiving 
needful support, and were a person, from fourteen years 
of age to sixty, to spend ten hours every Sabbath in 
employments of a strictly religious nature, in a life 
of sixty years the time thus employed would by no 
means amount to three whole years ; and is this much 
in such a life to consecrate to such a friend ? Besides, 



SANCTIFYING THE SABBATH. 297 

While the Lord thus claims the day, he intends the 
profit of the day for you. 

Think of what is before you— a dying day and an 
eternal world. And when you come to quit this tran- 
sitory world, will you then repent of having improved 
the Lord's day with the most strict devotion ? Will 
you then wish to have trifled away in idle conversa- 
tion, or vain amusement, or worldly science, its sacred 
hours ? Rather, would not the recollection of Sabbaths 
thus passed fill the hour of death with alarm, and 
plant with thorns your dying pillow ? What way of 
spending the Lord's day will yield you most pleasure 
in death and eternity ? Only spend it in that way. 
Spend it as you will wish in your last hours to have 
done. Spend it as a traveler hasting to eternity. Re- 
member that every Sabbath which passes leaves you 
one less to improve, and one more to account for; and 
consider, that for all an account must soon be rendered ' 
before the bar of the Eternal. Sabbaths improved are 
precious blessings; but wasted Sabbaths are dreadful 
curses. O spend them as one who knows that every 
Sabbath, as it finishes, leaves you one Sabbath nearer 
heaven or hell ! O improve them as you should do if 
you wish to be blessed with an eternal Sabbath when 
Sabbaths below are gone for ever. 

§ 8. In addition to all these considerations, it is no 
inconsiderable motive for a strict observance of the 
Lord's day, that this may have the happiest efl-ects in 
promoting- religion. I have heard a respectable minis- 
ter of the Gospel relate a striking fact illustrative of 
this observation. A solicitor had a law-suit in hand 
which was expected to come to trial on Monday morn- 
mg. Several signatures were necessary to some papers 



298 ON SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES. 

which were to be obtained previously to the trial ; and 
on the Lord's day before the expected day of trial he 
applied to a lady, a member of a dissenting church, 
for her signature. She refused to give it on the Sab- 
bath, but was willing to sign the requisite deed the next 
morning. In vain he tried to move her from her reso- 
lution. All his influence failed ; she was immovable. 
He then applied to two other persons, also members of 
a dissenting church in London, but met with a similar 
reception: they were willing to sign as soon as he 
pleased in the morning, but would not sign on the 
Lord's day. The effect of this consistent conduct on 
their part was very pleasing. He discerned the effect 
of religion ; it led him to reflection ; he perceived his 
own want of religion ; and the affair issued in his con- 
version. He became a firm friend of the Gospel ; was 
the principal, if not the sole instrument in erecting a 
house of prayer in his own neighborhood, and after- 
wards was a principal supporter of the interests of re- 
ligion there. Such is one out of many instances of the 
happy effects produced where Christians let their light 
shine before men. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

^^N PRIZING AND SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES. 

§ 1. A most important help in the way to eternal life 
IS the regular and devout perusal of the sacred Scrip- 



ON SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES. 299 

tures. They are an inestimable treasure, and of all 
books should be your chief and most beloved compa- 
nion. They are to the disciples of Jesus a light for 
their feet, a lamp for their paths. To search them is 
an express Christian duty. " Let the word of Christ 
dwell in you richly, with all wisdom." " Search the 
Scriptures." You are commanded not merely to read 
the Scriptures, but to read them with such attention 
that your mind may be amply stored with their divine 
instructions. The precept, " Search the Scriptures," 
is peculiarly emphatic; it signifies to search them as a 
miner searches a mine for jewels or for gold ; thus dig 
into the sacred mine, and search for the precious trea- 
sures it contains. 

With respect to the doctrines and duties of religion, 
make the word of God your sole guide and reject all 
human traditions. The Lord Jesus taught his disciples 
how to treat human traditions on religious subjects, 
when he condemned a regard to those of the elders. 
"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not 
according to this word, it is because there is no light 
in them." The doctrines of the Bible are the doctrines 
you are to believe. The duties enjoined in the Bible 
are the duties you are to practice; and all the additions 
which the traditions of men or human authority make 
are not worth a rush ; and often become the occasions 
of sin, when men reject the commandment of God to 
keep their own tradition. 

As the word of God is thus in religion to be your 
sole guide, so you are required to add nothing to it, 
and from it to take nothing. "Ye shall not add unto 
the word which I command you, neither shall ye di- 
minish aught from it, that ye may keep the command- 



300 BIBLE THE CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE. 

ments of the Lord your God which I command you.' 
" Every word of God is pure : he is a shield unto them 
that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his 
words, lest ^re reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." 

-} 2. To read the Scriptures profitably, read them 
Tfiih a docile and humble mind, and with a desire to 
receive spiritual instruction from them. "As new-born 
babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may 
grow thereby." " For the wisdom of this world is fool- 
ishness with God. God resisteth the proud, and giv- 
eth grace unto the humble." 

To read the Scriptures profitably, guard agamst their 
sin and folly who wrest the word of God, who reject 
its distinguishing doctrines because they are mysteri- 
ous, and whose self-conceit and wicked pride, while 
they prevent them from learning of the Savior, are 
leading them to perdition. "The Lord knoweth the 
thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." "Though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel 
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, 
let him be accursed." 

To read the Scriptures profitably, always read them 
with prayer for divine instruction. " They shall all be 
taught of God." "If any of you lack wisdom, let him 
ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and up- 
braideth not ; and it shall be given him." 

§ 3. Many are the inducements presented in the Scrip- 
tures for such devout attention to their sacred contents. 
They are in truth " the word of God ;" the word of 
Jehovah; " the oracles of God ;" " the word of Christ." 
The truths revealed are spoken by God, " who hath 
spoken to us by his Son." " For all Scripture is given 
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 



VALUE OP THE BIBLE. 301 

for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness ; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
furnished unto ail good works." " The holy Scriptures 
are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through 
faith, which is in Christ Jesus." They are " the word 
of God's grace, which is able to build you up, and to 
give you an inheritance among all them which are 
sanctified." "Heaven and earth shall pass away," but 
Christ's "word shall not pass away." "These are 
written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God ; and that believing ye might have 
life through his name." Error springs from a neglect 
of the Scriptures. " Do ye not therefore err, because 
ye know not the Scriptures ?" They promote holiness 
and peace here, as well as lead to heaven hereaf- 
ter. " Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his 
way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. 
Through thy precepts I get understanding : therefore 
I hate every false way." " The law of the Lord is per- 
fect, converting the soul : the testimony of the Lord is 
sure, making wise the simple : the statutes of the- Lord 
are right, rejoicing the heart. More to be desired are 
they than gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also 
than honey and the honeycomb." They who improve 
this sacred book, shall enjoy in a peculiar degree their 
Creator's favor. " Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is 
my throne and the earth is my footstool ; but to this 
man will I look, to him that is of a poor and contrite 
spirit, and that trembleth at my word." 

§ 4. As you desire happiness, let the word of God 
be your ever dear delight. You cannot prize the bless- 
ed book sufficiently. Had it been brought you from 
26 



302 



VALUE or THE BIBLE. 



heaven, in an angel's hand, it could not have been a 
more precious prize, or a surer guide to immortality. 
Suppose that but one in the world had been blessed 
with this treasure, that salvation had been offered to 
but one, and that this divine book had been sent to 
that one, to guide him in his way to heaven, how would 
the rest of mankind have envied that one ! Happy 
person to possess the promise of eternal life beyond 
the dark shades of death! and to see heavenly day 
dawning beyond the gloom of the grave ! O, had but 
one possessed this treasure, how would all besides have 
desired his lot ! how would they have wished that the 
path to heaven were open to them also ! How would 
multitudes have longed to enjoy, with the possessor of 
this single Bible, the sweet hope of immortality; and 
could that one have sold his treasure, how eagerly 
might all the monarchs of the earth have contended 
who should purchase the invaluable good ! O consider 
the Bible is as precious a treasure now as it would bo 
if there were but one Bible in the world ! As surely 
will it guide that happy possessor to heaven, who with 
childlike docility makes it his perpetual guide.* 

* The justly celebrated Sir William Jones, one of the bright- 
est geniuses and most distinguished scholars of the eighteenth 
century, observes, "I have carefully and regularly perused 
these holy Scriptures, and am of opinion thatthe volume, inde- 
pendently of its divine origin, contains more sublimity, purer 
morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, 
than can be collected from ALL other books, in whatever lan- 
guage they may have been Avritten." It is related that the em- 
inent English poet Collins, in the latter part of his mortal ca- 
reer, "withdrew from study, and traveled with no other book 
than an English Testament, such as children carry to school. 
When a friend took it into his hand, out of curiosity ,"to see what 



VALUE OF THE BIBLE. 303 

§ 5. The Bible has been the instrument of producing 
all the true piety that has for many ages existed upon 
earth. Were the world deprived of the sun, light and 
heat, and life, would expire for want of its vivifying 
beams, and all would become one mass of barrenness 
and death. Were the world deprived of the Bible, it 
would soon present one deplorable scene of unmingled 
wickedness. Nothing would meet the eye but pollu- 
tion and crime. Hell might exult in a complete con- 
quest, and claim this world as a province of its own. 
Among the myriads of mankind not one heir of hea- 
ven would be found; but all, thronging to destruction 
together, would rush from the darkness of spiritual 
night to the darkness of eternal perdition. It may con- 
fidently be asserted, that no one who slights the Bible 
is virtuous ; and that no one who loves it, feels its power 
on the heart, and conforms to its precepts, is vicious. 
Infidels may rave at such assertions : let them rave. 
They are monuments of the truth, which excites their 
indignation. They show what man is when he slights 
the Bible. 

Let it never be forgotten by you, that those Chris- 
tians whose piety has shone with the brightest luster, 
whose hopes have been fullest of immortality, are those 

companion a man of letters had chosen — 'I have only one book,' 
said he, ' but that is the best.' " — Johnsoii's Lives of the Poets, 
vol. iv. John Locke, so distinguished as a philosopher, in the 
latter part of his life studied scarcely any thing but the word 
of God ; and when asked which was the surest way for a young 
man to attain a knowledge of the Christian religion, he replied, 
"Let him study the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Tes- 
tament. Therein are contained the words of eternal life. It 
hath GOD for its author— SALVATION for its end— and 
TRUTH, without any mixture of error, for its matter." 



304 VALUE OF THE BIBLE. 

who have loved and valued most the word of God. It 
is related of De Renty, a French nobleman of most 
eminent piety, that lie used every day on his knees to 
read three chapters in the word of God. On the other 
hand, how many Christians of even eminent piety, 
when leaving the world, have lamented their folly in 
^ot having studied the Scriptures more, and human 
writings less. " When Salmasius, who was one of the 
most consummate scholars of his time, came to the 
close of life, he saw cause to exclaim bitterly against 
himself. ' O !' said he, ' I have lost a world of lime ! 
time, the most precious thing in the world ! whereof 
had I but one year more, it should be spent in David's 
Psalms and Paul's Epistles! O! sirs,' said he again 
to those about him, ' mind the world less, and God 
more !' "* When that eminent Christian, James Her- 
vey, who died in triumph, "apprehended himself to 
be near the close of life, with eternity full in view, he 
wrote to a friend at a distance to tell him what were 
his senjiments in that awful situation. ' I have been 
too fond,' said he, ' of reading every thing valuable and 
elegant that has been penned in our language, and 
been peculiarly charmed with the historians, orators, 
and poets of antiquity ; but were I to renew my studies, 
I would take my leave of those accomplished trifles: I 
would resign the delights of modern wits, amusement 
and eloquence, and devote my attention to the Scrip- 
tures of Truth. I would sit with much greater assidui- 
ty at my divine Master's feet, and desire to know no 
thing in comparison of Jesus Christ, and him cruci- 
fied.' " 

§ 6. Consider the Scriptures as a message from God 
* Simpson's Plea for Religion. 



VALUE OF THE BIBLE. 305 

to you on the most momentous subjects. A new world 
is here presented to you. An amazing eternity appears 
to overwhelm the poor moments of time. Life is a 
span, and death is the way to an immense unmeasured 
life. Read the message of your God : the discoveries 
that it makes, it makes to you. To you it points out a 
second life; to you it unveils an eternal world. Your 
thoughts it leads beyond lije grave- The judgment it 
discloses, is that at which you must appear. To you 
God in it reveals a Savior and a heaven, the gift of re- 
deeming love ; or a hell, the dire desert of sin. To 
your view he presents the spirits of the just, washed 
in the blood of the Lamb, and triumphing in the full- 
ness of joy; and bids you be not slothful, but a follower 
of them, who through faith and patience inherit the 
promises. 

§ 7. What is there in human science compared with 
discoveries so important ? What is there in the letters 
of friends, the dearest and the best beloved, compared 
with that book, which is an epistle from your God? 
What are those studies on which youth is so often em- 
ployed, and much of manhood spent, compared with the 
knowledge oUhat book— that one book, which God has 
given? that one book, which guides the soul to lasting 
peace? that one book, which disperses the shadows, 
clouds, and darkness, that hang over the grave? that 
one book, which directs those who love its truth, to 
glory and honor that will endure when "stars and 
sun have lost their light?" 

Tliere is one view in which the Scriptures are im- 
portant beyond all expression. They are the only guide 
to eternal life. When we contemplate an eternal state, 
26* 



306 GUIDE TO ETERNAL LIFE. 

the most momentous concerns of a few vain years 
dwindle into insignificance. Health or sickness, pain 
or ease, liberty or slavery, life or death, appear the 
merest trifles, compared with those awful and amazing 
scenes which await man beyond the grave. Then 
what is learning ? what is human science? When in a 
few short years all must be forgotten in the dust ! How 
different that knowledge which the word of God im- 
parts ! That extends its blessings onward, and will dif- 
fuse unfading good in ages so remote in the depths of 
eternity, that no human thought ever reached, no hu- 
man calculation ever approached them. Or think of 
appearing in the presence of God— a deathless spirit, 
appearing to receive a doom that never can be changed ! 
All the boasted wisdom of human science can afford 
you no aid in the awful prospect ; but there is one book, 
one precious though oft neglected book, that discovers 
all we need to know. Should not that book be prized ? 
That book is the Bible. Other books are for time, but 
this for eternity ! other knowledge amuses a few short 
moments here, this directs to never-ending good here- 
after ! Other wisdom pleases or profits for the tran- 
sient day of life, this is the source of unfailing bless- 
ings for infinite periods beyond the hour when stars 
and sun shall cease to shine, and " rolling years shall 
cease to move." Other learning may gain the applause 
which must soon be hushed for ever by the hand of 
death ; but divine knowledge will direct the soul to the 
raptures of eternal day, and insure the approbation of 
the King of kings, and the welcome congratulations 
of angelic myriads, in the presence of Him who is, and 
who was, and who is to come ; the Eternal, the Al- 
mighty. ThuS; as much as eternity excels time in im- 



ON THE lord's SUPPER. 307 

portance, as much as an infinite life of bliss outweighs 
the advantages of a fleeting hour ; so much the pre- 
cious Bible excels in value all that orators, philoso- 
phers, historians and poets ever wrote, all that human 
wisdom ever inspired, all that vain world ever ex- 
tolled. 



CHAPTER XV. 



ON THE lord's SUPPER. 



§ 1. Before the Lord Jesus left our world he insti- 
tuted the sacred ordinance, in which to the end of 
time there was to be a commemoration of his dying 
love. Three of the evangelists have recorded the in- 
stitution of this important ordinance. The substance 
of their accounts when united into one, furnishes an 
impressive view of its obligation and design. "And 
as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, 
and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said. 
Take, eat ; this is my body,* which is given for you : 

THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME/'f " Aud he tOOk the 

cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 
Drink ye all of it: for this is my blood of the new tes- 
tament, which is shed for many for the remission of 

* Matt. 26 : 26. t Luke, 21 : 19. 



308 ON THE lord's SUPPER. 

sins;* and they all drank of it. And he said unto 
them, This is my blood of the new testament, which 
is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink 
no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I 
drink it new in the kingdom of God."t 

After the holy Jesus had left this world, and return- 
ed to his eternal throne, he communicated by divine 
revelation, to the apostle Paul, an account of the insti- 
tution and design of this ordinance.:I:§ 

Can a Christian, who feels unspeakable obligations 
to the adorable Savior, read these impressive portions 
of the word of God and not perceive his duty, and the 
most powerful motives for obedience ? 

" Do this in remembrance of me." Can any com- 
mand be more plain, more positive, more reasonable, 
or more important ? Do this— Attendance at the Lord's 
table is not a subject left to human choice ; but to 

* Matt. 26 : 27, 28. t Mark, 14 : 23-25. t 1 Cor. 11 : 23-29. 
§ The reader of the sacred volume who makes that holy 
book his guide, may find in the brief scriptural statements re- 
specting this holy ordinance, a sufficient antidote to the prin- 
cipal errors that have been broached respecting it. Popery 
maintains that the wafer its priests offer is the body and 
blood of Christ, and has murdered myriads for rejecting this 
monstrous absurdity: the Scriptures declare that it was 
bread which Jesus took and brake. Popery reserves the 
wine for its antichristian priests, and withholds the cup from 
the people : Jesus said. Drink ye all of it; and his apostle de- 
scribes the members of the Corinthian church as drinking 
of the cup as well ap eating of the bread. No absurdity how- 
ever can be too great, no abomination too vile, no supersti- 
tion too heathenish, and uo cruelty too atrocious for popery, 
which the Scriptures represent as the mother of harlots and 
abominations, and which an able writer, Mr. Cecil, described 
as Satan's masterpiece. 



MOTIVES FOR COMMUNmO. 309 

fivery disciple of Jesus his express and solemn com- 
mand is— Do this. And the command has sanctions 
superior to those of even his other precepts. It was 
uttered almost by his dying lips. It was given the 
same night in which he was betrayed ; and after his 
ascension was repeated in the revelation made to the 
apostle Paul. To neglect this ordinance is thus far to 
reject the authority of the Lord of heaven, and to vio- 
late an express and positive command, enforced by the 
most solemn sanctions that even the word of God con- 
tains. If then you can neglect the Savior's table, where 
is your faith, your love, your obedience ? 

§ 2. When the design of this ordinance is consider- 
ed, the subject is presented in a still more impressive 
light. On the one hand, obedience is enforced by mo- 
tives springing from its design, and pleasing in the ex- 
treme ; on the other, disobedience appears peculiarly 
flagrant, because it resists all those charming and im- 
pressive motives. Behold the Son of God instituting 
this holy ordinance. The last night of his life has ar- 
rived. The traitor has gone out to betray him. The 
bloody agony of Gethsemane, and the horrors of the 
cross, are in sight. He is about to interpose himself as 
a spotless victim between an apostate world and of- 
fended justice. The intolerable load of the sins of 
countless millions is going to press him down with a 
weight which none but he could bear. All this is to be 
borne before another sun shall rise and set. He knows 
it, yet, full of heavenly love, forgets his own sorrows 
that he may minister to the comfort of his flock. In 
that last awful night he broke the bread, and poured 
out the wine, and said, This do in remembrance of 
me. Cold is the heart that can forget him. Cold the 



310 MOTIVES FOR COMMEMORATINQ 

heart that delights not to cherish the remembrance of 
such a friend. Follow him from the table where he 
broke the bread, to the cross on which he died. There 
he atones for sins numberless as the drops of morning 
dew, and vast as. the mountains that pierce the skies. 
There he brings in an everlasting righteousness, and 
opens wide the gate of heaven. There he dies, and dies 
that you may live, if you will believe in him ; sheds 
his heart's blood to wash away your sins; and endures 
his Father's frown, that on you, a poor ruined child of 
death and wo, his Father may for ever smile. For you 
he purchased peace, by agonies intolerably severe. To 
you he opens heaven. Your shepherd would he be 
through the wilderness of time, and crown the long 
eternity that awaits you with glory, honor and happi- 
ness. In those many mansions in his Father's house, 
where he is now exalted at the right hand of power, 
he would give you a peaceful dwelling ! In those re- 
gions, where, as the Lamb that was slain, he will lead 
his flock to living fountains of waters, and where God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, he would 
enrich you with all the treasures of eternal life. Com- 
pared with this immense benevolence, what are human 
benefactors, the wisest, the greatest and the best ! 
Their kindness, when it shines brightest, and glows 
with the warmest fervor, is more insignificant compared 
with his, than the glimmering of a glow-worm com- 
pared with the meridian sun. What grateful recollec- 
tions then does he deserve ! All his dying love, and 
all his living care ; all he has done for your salvation, 
all he is doing, all he will do through eternity, should 
unite to impress this precept on your heart, and to 
render it the most delightful precept in the book of 



THE savior's death. 321 

Cod; « This do in remembrance of me." Can thev be 
Christians who hesitate to obey a precept recommend- 
ed by such a design as that of remembering such a 
friend ! Will not the Christian rather say to him 
" Holy Redeemer, thou hast united my happiness and 
duty in bidding me remember thee. O thou divine 
friend ! I would remember thee while memory keeps 
Its seat within my soul; and rather let my right hand 
forget Its cunning, let my heart forget to move, my 
pulse to beat, my tongue to speak, my eyes to see 
than I forget thee, whose dying love procured eternal 
salvation for my ruined soul !" 

§ 3. These considerations, on remembering Christ 
with gratitude and love, receive additional weight 
when we take into view the particular event, in his 
benevolent course, to which the sacred supper leads 
our meditations. The event was the most important 
m the annals of time, the most momentous in the re- 
cords of eternity. We have no reason for apprehend- 
ing that such another event ever did take place in eter- 
nity past, or during an eternity to come ever will 
The happines of the millions of the redeemed, and 
the glory of God in their salvation, through eter- 
nal ages, was suspended on his atonement. If that 
had not been effected, the apostate world must have 
been for ever lodt ; heaven must have closed its gates 
against all the inhabitants of the earth. No songs 
of redeeming love could ever have resounded through 
Its blissful regions. No child of Adam could ever have 
become a child of God. The wisdom and love of God 
in man's redemption could never have been displayed. 
1 he triumphs of Satan would have been complete, and 
the earth have become only an ample nursery for hell 



312 MOTIVES rOR COMMEMORATINO 

On this one event all these others were suspended. 
This one was effected. Jesus died, and dying glorified 
the law and made it honorable, atoned for sin, and res- 
cued the sinner. The way to heaven was then open- 
ed. Myriads, admitted there in consequence of this 
sacrifice, even before it was oflTered, were confirmed in 
happiness, and the way prepared to that abode for 
millions more. The plans of the wicked one were 
baffled. A display of the love and wisdom of God, 
that will shine bright to eternity, then commenced. 
Eternity may roll away its ample ages, but never will 
this event be forgotten ; this event, to which heaven 
will owe all the praises of redeeming love ; this event, 
to whrich multitudes, countless as the sands on the sea- 
shore, will ascribe their felicity through ages without 
end ; this event, to which the hosts of angels will owe 
all their intimacies, and friendship, and mutual joy 
with the spirits of the just; this event, to which even 
God will owe all the rich revenue of glory that as the 
God of salvation will accrue to him through all eter- 
nity. What is the creation of man compared with this? 
what the formation of a world compared with this? 
What even the creation of cherubim and seraphim, 
and til the sons of light, compared with this? Their 
creation would never have called forth songs of eternal 
praise, so fervent, so lofty, so expressive of infinite 
benefits, as this event will elicit. And glorious as God 
shines when he appears the Creator of cherubim and 
seraphim, of angels, archangels, principalities and 
powers, yet their creation would never have invested 
him with half that glory which shines around him as 
a just God and yet a Savior. And shall that one 
amazing, astonishing, overwhelming event, the aton- 



THE savior's death. 313 

ing death of Jesus, thus be remembered to eternity in 
worlds of light— thus to eternity fill heaven with its 
sweetest praise, and invest the character of God with 
its most radiant glories—sliall the hearts and songs of 
the redeemed be full of it for ever and ever — and shall 
we not remember it with gratitude and delight? Will 
you not listen to him who says, '• Do this in remem- 
brance of me ?" 

§ 4. Perhaps you have done it with repeated de- 
light. Persevere: do it till he come to call you from 
the sorrows of time to all the blessings of eternal life. 
But perhaps I address one that has hitherto lived care- 
less of this sacred ordinance, and disobedient to the 
Savior's will. Why do you act thus? Perhaps you 
reply, 

Obj, I. I apprehend I am not fit to approach the 
Lord's table, and partake of an ordinance so solemn. 

Ajis. This objection must spring either from a con- 
sciousness that you are a stranger to converting grace, 
or from incorrect views of the Gospel of Christ. 

If you are a stranger to converting grace ; if you 
know not what it is to flee from sin and ruin to the 
Savior ; if you are the slave of allowed sin, then in- 
deed you are unfit to approach this sacred table. But 
while this is your condition, you are unfit for heaven, 
and are really and truly fit for hell. The same remark 
will apply if you know that you are not decided in 
your acceptance of the Savior, but halting between 
him and the world ; an almost-Christian, and no more. 
You are unfit ; but then the reason is, you have no 
part in Christ ; you are unfit for heaven, and if you 
die as you are, sure of not entering there. 
27 



8W OBJECTIONS TO ATTENDANCE 

But perhaps your fear springs from incorrect views 
of the Gospel. When one wiio professes to love and 
follow Christ says, I am not worthy to approach his 
table, it seems to show that the heart is yielding to a 
self-righteous bias, and that the professed believer, in- 
stead of seeking acceptance wholly in Jesus, is de- 
pending on some fancied personal worthiness. It is 
not as a worthy creature, but as an unworthy, yet 
penitent believer, that you should commemorate ihe 
Savior's death. What does the ordinance point out to 
you, which has any reference to a worthiness of yours ? 
Is not its very design to remind you, that when you 
were yet a condemned sinner, an ungodly creature, 
without strength, Christ died for you? Perhaps you 
add, 

Ohj. 2. I am not absolutely convinced that it would 
be improper for me to attend to this holy ordinance; 
but I have many scruples respecting the propriety of 
my doing so. 

Ans. Your scruples are either well founded, or with- 
out sufficient foundation. If they are well founded, 
you sin in living in such a slate as gives occasion foi 
them. If there is no sufficient ground for them, you 
sin if you do not endeavor their removal. Were you 
heir to a rich estate, but had some doubts about the 
title, would you not se'^k with earnestness the best ad- 
vice you could obtain upon the subject? Have you 
done so on a subject of infinitely more importance? 
Have you disclosed your scruples to your minister, or 
other intelligent and pious persons ? If you have not, 
it seems that the case truly is this— you care liitUi 
whether you rebel against the Savior's authority, or 
obey his sacred precepts. 



AT THE LOKD'3 TABLE. 315 

Obj. 3. It is true I have neglected communion with 
the church of Christ ; but the cause of my neglect has 
been the wickedness of some that were professors of 
religion. 

Ans. Will this excuse avail you at the day of judg- 
ment? If they have been hypocrites, will this justify 
you in rebellion? Suppose that the apostle Paul, 
%vhen ordered by the Savior to preach the Gospel, had 
replied, No, Lord ; in secret I will love thy Gospel, but 
I will never preach it; for Judas preached it once; 
nor will I ever join thy people ; for Judas once belong-- 
ed to them. What would the Savior have thought of 
him? If boundless mercy had not changed him, he 
would have been left to go on in pride and disobedi- 
ence, and with all his professed love to the Gospel, to 
travel to perdition. If you rebel against Christ's au- 
thority because some false professors have dishonored 
him, take care lest this should be your case. 

Obj. 4. I acknowledge that I neujlect communion at 
the Lord's table; but the reason is, my mind is vexed 
and troubled by the conduct of one who attends there. 
He has said some very unwarrantable things about me. 

Ans. Are you to fall out with the ordinances of the 
Lord Jesus Christ because a brother or a sister has 
fallen out with you? Are you to disobey the Son of 
God, because a friend has used a harsh word respect- 
ing you, or an unkind action ? Is your regard to the 
Lord's precepts, is your love to his ordinances, is your 
pleasure in remembering him, so small, that the un- 
kind conduct of an imperfect fellow-sinner should lead 
you to disobey his commands, and to slight his ordi- 
nances ? Blush at such weakness, and such weak at- 
tachment to the best of friends. Be assured this ob- 



3^® lord's table 



jection commonly springs from unmortified pride^ 

You are probably indulging rancor and resentment 

While you indulge such hellish dispositions, what is 

your professed religion worth ? Unless you forgive 

you will never be forgiven. But if you feel not these 

passions, let not the unkind conduct of a fellow-sinner 

keep you from that ordinance which reminds you of 

him who died for all your sins. Go there, and think 

that ten thousand talents are forgiven you, and forgive 

and forget an erring brother's debt of a hundred pence. 

Obj. 5. I love the Savior, and wish to follow him • 

but I fear coming to his table, lest I should eat and 

drink unworthily, and thus eat and drink damnation 

to myself. This leads me to neglect his command. 

Ans. It is probable that your fears are founded on 
mistake. To eat and drink unworthily, and to partake 
of this ordinance with a deep sense of entire unwor- 
thiness, are two things as distinct as possible. The sin 
of eating and drinking unworthily, is committed when 
persons commune at the Lord's table in a careless, ir- 
reverent manner. So did the Corinthians, when some 
were hungry and others were drunken. 

But probably the idea you attach to the expression, 
eating and drinking unworthily, is of quite a different 
description, and consequently you have quite mista- 
ken its meaning. They who were once the chief of 
sinners, but who have fled to Jesus for salvation, un- 
worthy as they feel themselves, do not eat and drink 
unworthily, when commemorating his death, who is 
their hope. But the proud moralist, the good-hearted 
young man, or innocent young woman, as the world 
esteems them, who never knew their sinfulness, and 
whose religion is no more than a little morality and 



APPROACHED WITH REVERENCE. 317 

an outward form, when they come to this sacred table, 
do eat and drink unworthily. 

Perhaps you have misunderstood the meaning of 
the expression, eating and drinking damnation. It is 
evident fi^om the connection that the word does not 
here signify future punishment, but temporal judg- 
ments; for the apostle adds, "For this cause (viz. 
eating and drinking unworthily) many are weak and 
sickly among you, and many sleep." Sickness and 
death were the judgment that the members of the Co- 
rinthian church incurred by their irreverent behavior 
at the Lord's table. But so different was the judgment 
they endured from damnation, that it was sent to pre- 
serve them from that dreadful doom ; for the apostle 
adds, " When we are judged, we are chastened of the 
Lord, that we should not be condemned with the 
world." 

§ 6. Tills sacred ordinance should be treated with a 
peculiar degree of reverence. " Let a man examine 
himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of 
that cup." The feelings we should cherish at the Sa- 
vior's table are those of deep self-abasement, sincere 
gratitude, fervent love, and increasing devotedness to 
the Son of God. Go not to that sacred ordinance in a 
light, irreverent way. Go not without self-examina- 
tion, as to the state of your soul, and your progress in 
the divine life. Go not there to perform a duty, but to 
enjoy a privilege. And 0, go there with a mind dis- 
cerning the Lord's body. Tremble at the thought of 
partaking with alight irreverent mind of the memo 
rials of the Savior's love. Place yourself as before his 
cross, and in the view of an expiring Redeemer devote 
27* 



318 IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNING 

yourself anew to him, and let one subject of self-exami- 
nation, before partaking at the table, be, how far the 
resolutions formed at the preceding opportunity have 
been regarded by you. Pursue this course, depending 
on the Spirit's aid, and though you should feel yourself 
the unworthiest of the unworthy, yet you will not eat 
and drink unworthily. 

Often improve this sacred privilege. It appears that 
the primitive Christians very frequently, even weekly, 
and perhaps oftener, partook of the Lord's supper. If 
partaken of with proper views, it will nourish every 
grace, strengthen every virtue, and promote your grow- 
ing meetness for that world of felicity, where, though 
this ordinance will cease, yet the event it commemo- 
rates will be celebrated in the triumphal anthems of 
the redeemed for ever and for ever. 

§ 7. There are many lamentable instances in which 
communicants at the table of the Lord manifest a de- 
clension in religion by a disposition to neglect that sa- 
cred ordinance, and at the same time delude them- 
selves with the notion that they are not going to give 
up religion altogether. Some extracts from a letter 
drawn up with the design of sending it to a young fe- 
male who was falling into this deplorable condition, 
may perhaps without impropriety conclude these brief 
observations on the supper of the Lord. This young 
woman, while expressing her wish to neglect the Lord's 
table, professed that she should continue her attend- 
ance at public worship. 

" A sincere desire to promote your spiritual welfare 
leads me to trouble you with these lines. Be assured 
they are written with an earnest wish for your ever- 
lasting welfare. Read them seriously, and weigh their 



AT THE LORD S TABLE. 319 

purport as carefully as you would do on a dying bed ; 
and as you love your own soul, consider well what 
you are doing before you decide on what I fear will 
prove one of the most fatal actions of your life. Let 
me be plain with you. That plainness proceeds from 
love to your soul. Consider then, my friend, what you 
are doing, and whom you are pleasing by doing soj 
think what will be the probable consequences of the 
step you wish to take, and how you will view it at ano- 
ther day; and remember that the reasons of your con- 
duct, whatever they are, must be examined by the 
Judge of all. 

" Consider what you are doing. You wish to leave 
the church of Christ. Can you leave it without plung- 
ing into sin ? and when separated from it, can you help 
leading a life of sin ? You cannot, for you will live a life 
of disobedience to the Redeemer. If you were to live 
uttering an oath with every sentence, you would think 
this a wicked life, and it would be so. Its wickedness 
would arise from its disobedience to him who said, 
' Swear not at ail.' But you know that it is as much 
his will that his disciples should be united in church 
fellowship, as it is that they should avoid profane lan- 
guage ; and it is as great a sin to break Christ's com- 
mands in one thing as in another. Did he ever give a 
more plain or positive command than, ' This do in re- 
membrance of me V It was his dying precept, and gra~ 
litude and love, if duty were out of the question, should 
lead you to obey his command. But in the life you 
wish to lead you would neglect this precept, and thus 
live a life of rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ, 
whose last command you would habitually violate. 
Such conduct in any case is a dreadful sin ; but in you 



320 EFFECTS OF NEGLECTING 

the sin will be aggravated by the profession you have 
made. Have not you solemnly confessed the Savior? 
Have not you, in private and in public, declared that 
you devoted yourself to the Lord ? and would you fly 
from these solemn engagements? Have you vowed to 
the Lord, and would you go back? O, were you to 
live henceforth free from all other sin, yet this one of 
refusing and neglecting this sacred ordinance would 
bring a dreadful load of guilt upon your soul. Surely 
you could not say to your Redeemer, ' Lord, thou hast 
commanded me to remember thy dying love in thy 
own ordinance; but I will forget it, and slight thy ap- 
pointment. Thou hast taught me that I should be uni- 
ted with thy flock; but I will forsake it, and cherish 
no such union.' You could not, I know you could not 
say this in words ; but depend upon it the eternal Judge 
reads this as the language of your present wishes. In 
his sight, as well as in ours, actions speak louder than 
words. 

"Think whom you are pleasing by your present 
conduct. Not your God. In his sight obedience is bet- 
ter than sacrifice. Not your Redeemer ; for he says, 'If 
a man love me he will keep my words.' But be sure, 
as the wolf is delighted when he sees thft sheep stray- 
ing from the fold and exposing itself to his assaults, so 
are those infernal spirits pleased with your conduct 
who watch for your halting and wait for your de- 
struction. 

"Consider, also, what will be the probable conse- 
quences of the step you are taking. I cannot but fear 
that it will lead to entire backsliding. A deceitful 
heart and a deluding enemy may persuade you that 
there is oo danger of this kind. You may think, *I 



THE lord's t^ole. 321 

will keep on attending at the house of God ;' but when 
3^ou are persuaded to neglect one part of duty, you will 
soon be persuaded to neglect another. I fear the step 
you are taking will prove in the issue a principal step 
in your way from your Redeemer to destruction. 
While leading a life of disobedience to his institutions, 
if he should vouchsafe you any of his blessing, you 
have no reason to expect it in such a measure as if you 
faithfully followed him, and therefore will probably 
soon forsake him altogether. You will also be deprived 
of the watchful care of every religious friend. If you 
fall now, there are those who are willing to raise you 
up; if you stray, who are anxious to bring you back; 
but when separated from the flock of Christ, every ad- 
vantage of this kind will be lost to you. You will be 
numbered again with the unconverted world, and most 
probably will walk in the way of the multitude. And 
should your conduct, as it most probably will, end in 
total backsliding, surely you know who has said, The 
latter end of such is worse than their beginning. 

"Think, also, how you will view your conduct at 
another day. If you disregard this faithful warning, 
if by degrees you fall from the truth, O what bitter- 
ness and anguish will seize upon you when, at death, 
you review your conduct! Then, when your spirit is 
just quitting its mortal tabernacle, when your flesh and 
heart fail, how will you mourn the fatal hour when you 
began to slight the Redeemer's will ! how wish that you 
had been faithful to your Lord, whoever may be un- 
faithful ! Even if your present conduct should not lead 
to these sad consequences; if its issue should not be 
total declension; if you should keep up some of the 
form, and even feel some of the power of religion j 



322 WAY3 OF DISPLAYINe 

yet would it not fill your last moments with doubts 
and fears to remember that you had led a life of willful 
and obstinate disobedience to one important part of 
the blessed Redeemer's will? Will not those excuses 
which now satisfy your mind, then appear but vanity 
and folly? And after all, what are those reasons, those 
excuses? Are they such as will stand the test of the 
judgment bar of Jesus Christ? Alas, does not con- 
science tell you that the true reason of all is, that you 
are not so much alive to God as you once were, that 
you are less concerned about eternal blessings, and, at 
least in heart, fallen from what you once enjoyed?" 

The fears expressed in this letter appeared after 
wards too well founded. The young woman by de- 
grees dropped every thing like the form of religion; 
and a few years after her withdrawal it was stated to 
the writer that she had even parted with her Bible, as 
she declared it would no longer be of any use to her. 
Thus the way of the wicked seduceth them. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

ON DISPLAYING CHRISTIAN LOVE, ON GLORIFY- 
ING GOD BY DOING GOOD, AND ON LOVE TO 
ENEMIES. 

§ 1. To a serious mind connection with the flock of 
Christ will appear the most honorable of earthly con 
nections. In it a union is commenced which strength- 



CHRISTIAN LOVE. 323 

ens when other unions dissolve, and which will be con- 
tinued through eternity. However despised by many, 
however slighted by many more, a vital union with the 
fiock of the Redeemer is a union with the family of 
God and the heirs of heaven. If you have entered in- 
to this sacred connection, having first given yoursfdf 
10 the Lord and then to his church, your own happi- 
ness, the honor of religion, and the comfort of those 
connected with you will much depend upon the man- 
ner in which you discharge the duties of so important 
a relation. There are many in the flock of the Savior 
who pursue a steady course of consistent piety from 
the day they enter the church below to that which re- 
moves them to the family above. Humble and kind, 
watchful and holy, beloved and loving, they move for- 
ward with a steady step to the home on which their 
best affections center. Their light shines more and 
more unto the perfect day; nor then declines, but 
shines brightest at its setting; and when it sets, sets 
to rise brighter in eternity. Their pastors and their 
Christian friends never mourn on their account till 
they mourn their departure hence, and with such sor- 
row mingle gladness at the remembrance of what they 
were, and in the confidence of what they are. How 
different from those professors of religion whose in- 
consistencies excite many a fear that they are stran- 
gers to converting grace; whose harsh, or unkind, or 
conceited, or selfish ways are calculated to provoke 
disgust rather than win affection, and whose departure 
is darkened with a cloud of apprehensions that they 
are perhaps lost for ever. That you may be a happy 
and useful, and act as an honorable member of tlie 
church of Christ, pay peculiar attention to the nume- 



324 



fTAYS OP DISPLAYINO 



rous precepts addressed immediately to his disciples, 
with which the New Testament abounds. 

§ 2. Consider that Christianity is peculiarly a reli- 
gion of LOVE. Holy love is its heart and soul. Love 
was its origin in the breast of the Eternal. Love di- 
rected its progress when the Son of God assumed our 
nature to atone for sin. Love governs its sincere vo- 
taries—the constraining love of Christ; and love will 
.swell the triumphal songs of heaven. Cherish this 
godlike disposition, for love is of God. 

§ 3. The following are some of the ways in which 
this heavenly disposition must be manifested to those 
who are traveling with you to heaven, and, wherever 
applicable, to those who are not so. 

By rejoicing with them in their comforts, by sym- 
pathizing with them in their sorrows, and according 
to your utmost ability relieving them in their afflic- 
tions. " Let us do good unto all men, especially unto 
them who are of the household of faith." "Rejoice 
with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep." 
" Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law 
of Christ." "Comfort the feeble-minded, support the 
weak." " Whoso hath this world's good and seeth his 
brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of com- 
passion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in 
him?" 

In pursuing such labors of love, the Christian's time 
and strength are to be employed to administer to the 
eomfort of others as well as to his own. The apostle 
Paul said, "So laboring ye ought to support the weak, 
and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how 
he said. It is more blessed to give than to receive." So 
far should the Christian be from heaping upsuperflui- 



CHRISTIAN LOVE. 325 

ties for self-gratification, that he is to deny himself for 
the sake of promoting the benefit of others. "Sell that 
ye have, and give alms ; provide yourselves bags which 
wax not old, a treasure in the heavens, that faileth not." 
To those who act this part, in the day of final account 
the Judge and King will say, " Come, ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world : for I was an hungered, and 
ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: 
I was a stranger, and ye took me in : naked, and ye 
clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in 
prison, and ye came unto me. Verily I say unto you, 
inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." To those 
who act not this part, whatever, may have been their 
profession, or their knowledge, or their zeal, or their 
gifts, the King will say, "Depart from me, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his an- 
gels: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: 
I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : I was a stran- 
ger, and ye took me not in : naked, and ye clothed me 
not : sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Verily 
I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the 
least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go 
away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous 
into life eternal." 

Christian love to brethren in the Lord is to be shown, 
by bearing with their weaknesses, by subduing a selfish 
spirit, and seeking their welfare. Instead of being, as 
multitudes of professors are, only intent upon their 
own advantage, the real Christian is to cherish an in- 
terest in the welfare of all his fellow-pilgrims. "We 
28 



o^o v;ay3 or ei.iplayi^g 

then that are strong ought to bear the iiifininties of the 
weak, and not to please ourselves. For even Christ 
pleased not himself." " Let no man seek his own, but 
ev-ery man another'.s welfare." 

Christian love is to be manifested by visiting the 
sick and afflicted. '• Pure religion, and nndefiled, be- 
fore God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless 
and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself un 
spotted from the world." " I was sick, and ye visited 
me," This duty is by many much neglected, though 
the Savior lays so much stress upon its performance 
as even to mention it in the solemn account of those 
actions that will meet his approbation when he ap- 
pears as the Judge of all. Those who are unable to 
feed the hungry, or clothe the naked, may yet visit and 
console the sick and afflicted. Would every disciple 
of Jesus make a point of regularly paying one such 
visit in a fortnight; o-f spending but one half hour in 
that time in consoling, or praying with, and instruct- 
ing the afflicted, how much good would be done ! and 
at how small an expense of time and exertion ! A 
church of one hundred members would thus in a year 
pay two thousand six hundred such benevolent visits. 

The same spirit is to be displayed by refraining from 
whatever might injure a w^eaker Christian's soul, even 
though the thing itself should be harmless. ' When 
ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak 
conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wlierefore, if meat 
make my brother to oifend, I will eat no flesh while 
the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." 

Christian love is to be shown by attending to those 
little offices of kindness which may promote the com- 
fort of others. '• Be pitiful, be courteous." Jesus said, 



CHRISTIAN LOVE. 327 

"Ye call me Master and Lord ; and ye say well ; for 
so I am. If I theiij your Lord and Master, have washed 
your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet, 
yor I have given you an example, that ye should do 
as I have done to you." One of the humbler offices of 
kindness in Judea, where sandals were worn, appears 
to have been washing the feet. Of this kindness the 
blessed Savior set an instructive example, an example 
not designed to inculcate on all his followers that par- 
ticular action, but that spirit of humility and kindness 
which, indulged, will lead to kind offices in a thousand 
varied ways. 

Christian love is to be displayed by honoring and 
esteeming others above ourselves. " Be kindly affec- 
tioned to one another with holy love ; in honor prefer- 
ring one another." " In lowliness of mind, let each 
esteem others better than themselves." 

Christian love is to be manifested by treating poorer 
brethren with as much kind attention as the rich. Eead 
on this subject the Epistle of James, chap. 2 : 1-9. 

Christian love is to be shown when discords arise, 
by attending to the directions which the Lord Jesus 
has given for their removal : " If thy brother shall tres- 
pass against thee, go and tell him his fault between 
thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast 
gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then 
take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of 
two or three witnesses every word may be established. 
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the 
church : but if he neglect to hear the church, let him 
be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." 

§ 4. For the promotion and restoration of harmony 
and peace there is not a more important rule than this in 



328 



WAYS OF D SPLAYING 



the Bibie, and few so little heeded. Were it regarded, 
probably the fire of strife would be speedily extin- 
guished in ninety-nine cases of dissension out of every 
hundred. The prosperity of churches, the honor of 
religion, the peace of individuals, and the comfort of 
families, would all be advanced. But instead of obey- 
ing this plain and positive law, the generality of those 
who profess religion act as if there were no such Jaw 
in the Bible. Some, instead of expostulating in the 
spirit of Christ with an offending friend, complain of 
the real or fancied injury, till the report, with a hun- 
dred exaggerations, spreads through half a town. At 
the same time they greedily drink in every evil report 
respecting the person who has injured them ; to these 
again they give circulation, and thus become a hun- 
dred times more guilty than he whom they make an 
offender for a word, or even for a much more serious 
injury. Thus they injure the cause of religion, and 
load their own souls with sin. For, first, they are guilty 
of rebellion against Christ. He says about an offend- 
ing brother, Go and tell him his fault between thee 
and him ALONE ; instead of that, they tell any body 
or every body except the offender, and thus trample 
under fool the law of God. Were they to plunge into 
idolatry or drunkenness, they could but rebel against 
the Son of God, and they who make light of this so- 
lemn law of his are as truly rebels against him. The 
evil reports they greedily receive are most probably 
in a great degree false, and when they circulate these 
falsehoods they become guilty of scandal and lying. In 
connection with this they are guilty of indulging the 
worst and most hellish passions of the human heart, 
cancor, malice, and resentment : if thev did not in- 



CHRISTIAN LOVE. 329 

dulge these hell-born passions, they would not iend a 
pleased and attentive ear to every idle tale against an 
offending friend ; nor be pleased, if that person had been 
ever so wrong, to publish his shame : they see the mote 
in their brother's eye, but they have a beam in their own. 
Others pursue a different course, but a course of re- 
bellion as real, though not carried to the same extent, 
against the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. In- 
stead of taking the steps with an offending friend 
which he ordains, they sit down with sullen pride, and 
resolve to have no more to do with him. Instead 
of going and telling him his fault in private, and in 
the spirit of Christian affection, they at once treat him 
as "a heathen man and a publican." The rebellion in 
such cases against the authority of the Lord is as 
complete as in the former. Nothing can be more op- 
posite than this law and their conduct. 

This wicked conduct is often rendered still more 
wicked, from the flagrant fact that it is often indulged 
where there is no clear evidence that a brother has 
been an offender, and where perhaps there is nothing 
but vague report; yet instead of inquiring into the 
truth of this report, it is at once assumed to be cor- 
rect, and that course of wickedness commences which 
has now been faintly delineated. 

If you are one that thus trample under foot the au- 
thority of Christ, that pay no attention to his positive 
law on this subject, mock him no longer with the title 
of your Lord and Savior, while you are a real rebel 
against him ; but go and join the ranks to which you 
belong ; the ranks of his enemies, the swearers, the 
drunkards, the liars, the scoffers, the blasphemers; 
28* 



330 WAYS OF DISPLAYING 

they are but rebels, and while you neglect this precept 
when a brother has offended you, you are as really a 
rebel as they, and perhaps a worse enemy ; they are 
open enemies, not traitors in disguise. Rather let me 
say to you, if you have acted the part I have describ- 
ed, deplore your sin. Flee to the blood of sprinkling, 
and resolve that, in this respect, and every other, the 
laws of Christ shall govern you. 

§ 5. Christian love is to be displayed by not rashly 
believing unfavorable reports against brethren and sis- 
ters in the Lord, and by forgiving those who may 
have committed faults, or even been the authors of 
repeated injuries. " Charity thinketh no evil ; hopeth 
all things ; endureth all things.^' " In malice be ye 
children." " And be ye kind one to another, tender- 
hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for 
Christ's sake has forgiven you." " Peter said. Lord, 
how oft shall my brother sin against me and I for- 
give him ? till seven times ? Jesus saith unto him, I say- 
not unto thee, Until seven times; but until seventy- 
limes seven." 

Christian love is to be displayed by hating tale-bear- 
ing, and by endeavors to promote harmony and peace. 
" Let all evil-speaking be put away from you." " Seek 
peace and pursue it." " Have peace one with another." 
" Blessed are the peace-makers : for they shall be called 
the children of God." 

' Christian love is to be shown by a watchful concern 
to give our brethren no cause of offence, and, if we 
have dealt unkindly to any, by speedily seeking recon- 
ciliation. " Confess your faults one to another, and 
pray one for another." " If thou bring thy gift to the 
altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath 



CHRISTIAN LOVE. 331 

aught against thee ; leave there thy gift before the altar, 
and go thy way ; first be reconciled to thy brother, and 
then come and offer thy gift." 

§ 6. Christian love is to be displayed by warning 
brethren of sin, and by friendly reproof. " Thou shalt 
not hate thy brother in thine heart : thou shalt in any 
wise rebuke thy neighbor,and not suffer sin upon him." 
"If thy brother trespass against thee, TELL him his 
fault." '• Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye 
which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit 
of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be 
tempted." 

To reprove sin in fellow-disciples, or in others, is an 
act of sincere friendship, and an important Christian 
duty; but in its discharge much prudence should be 
exercised. Sometimes there is a propriety in openly 
reproving the profane or indecent conversation of 
worldly persons. At other times this may be done 
more effectually by slipping a tract against the sin com- 
mitted into the offender's hand, or by a friendly private 
remark. The errors or faults of an offending friend 
should seldom be publicly reproved. To converse af- 
fectionately with relatives or friends in private, is the 
far more probable way of promoting their welfare. 
Such reproof should ever be administered with kind- 
ness and affection, not with the authority of a superior, 
but with the humility of a fellow-sinner. 

On excuses for neglecting this duty nothing more 
%hall here be said than is contained in a short anec- 
dote. One day a person being with a poor aged Chris- 
tian, and lamenting a want of firmness to reprove the 
abandoned when traveling, had recourse, as an excuse, 
to that passage, " Give not that which is holy unto 



332 WAYS OF DISPLAYING 

dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine." She 
seriously and hastily replied, " O, Sir, keen and just 
reproofs are no pearls. Were you to talk to a blas- 
phemer respecting the love of God shed abroad in the 
heart by the Holy Ghost, and the pleasures of com- 
munion with God, you might cast pearls before swine; 
but not in reproving sin." 

j 7. Christian love is to be manifested by endeavors 
to promote the spiritual welfare of our brethren in the 
Lord. " Let us consider one another, to provoke unto 
love, and to good works : exhort one another daily, 
while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened 
through the deceitfulness of sin." '• Comfort your- 
selves together, and edify one another." 

Christian love and humility are to be displayed by 
receiving with meekness and thankfulness the admo- 
nitions and reproofs of those who wish us well. They 
are our best friends, whose faithfulness points out our 
faults and occasions their correction. They who are 
too proud to listen to reproof, manifest a dreadful want 
of the Christian spirit. " Let the righteous smite me, 
it shall be a kindness." '= Whoso Joveth instruction, 
loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is bru- 
tish. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes : but 
he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise." 

Christian love is to be displayed by fervent prayers 
for the flock of the Lord, and for all mankind. " We 
pray always for you, that our God would fulfill all the 
good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith 
with power." " I exhort therefore, that, first of all, 
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of 
thanks, be made for all men." 
Finally, Christian love to brethren is to be shown by 



-•HRISTIAN LOVE. 333 

avoiding divisions, and cherishing unity of spirit and 
affection. "Be of one mind; live in peace; and the 
God of love and peace shall he with you." " Mark 
them which cause divisions aud offences, contrary to 
the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them." 
§ 8. Cherish the spirit inculcated in these precepts 
by the authority of the Lord Jesus. Thus act, and 
you will live esteemed and beloved ; a comfort to 
others, and a comfort to yourself Thus live, and you 
will enjoy the fairest evidence that you have passed 
from death unto life; and may indulge an animating 
hope that you shall soon join the church triumphant 
in that happier country, where all the truly pious 
"shall meet in Christ, and part no more." 

While it is your incumbent duty thus to manifest 
Christian love to the household of faith, it is also your 
duty, in all those modes which are applicable to the 
situation and circumstances of those who are not the 
friends of the Savior, to manifest benevolence and love 
to them. Thus will you display to those who know it 
not, the influence of real piety. Though exhorted to 
do good, "especially to the household of faith," you 
are also exhorted to do good unto all. 

§ 9. Besides those duties which devolve upon mem- 
bers of the Savior's flock, in reference to their breth- 
ren in the Lord, there are others which more immedi- 
ately respect the ministers of the Gospel and the 
pastors of churches. The duties of those employed in 
the ministry of the Gospel are of the most important 
nature, and connected with the most awful responsi- 
bility. An idle, inactive, unfaithful minister, deserves 
neither respect or affection. But a minister of the Gos- 
pel who zealously endeavors, though with much im- 



334 CHRISTIAN DUTIES TO 

perfection, to discharge the duties of his station, is en- 
titled to the deference, kindness and attention of the 
people to whom he ministers. Nothing can be more 
unchristian than the spirit which some professors of 
the Gospel manifest towards its ministers ; a spirit of 
suspicion and distrust, as if they esteemed them ty- 
rants, anxious to grasp power and sway ; a spirit of 
opposition, which seems bent on thwarting the pro- 
ceedings of those under whose ministry they sit. 

On this subject, as well as others, the word of God 
is the surest guide. You are t-o esteem them highly. 
" We beseech you, brethren, to know them which la- 
bor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and ad- 
monish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love 
for their work's sake." You are to treat their admoni- 
tions and advice with deference and respect ; and so 
far to submit to them as is necessary to enable them 
comfortably to discharge the duties of overseers of the 
flock. " Obey them that have the rule over you, and 
submit yourselves ; for they watch for your souls, as 
they that must give account ; that they may do it with 
joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for 
you." As far as they imitate Christ, it is your duty to 
imitate them. " Remember them which have the rule 
over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God ; 
whose faith follow, considering the end of their con- 
versation ; Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to- 
day, and for ever." 

Though the ministerial character is no shield where 
the conduct is inconsistent with it, yet you are not 
lightly to listen to reports to their disadvantage. 
"Against an elder receive not an accusation, but be- 
fore two or three witnesses." The remarks on the 



MIMSTESS OF THE GOSPEL. 335 

guilt and mischief of evil-speaking apply here with 
double force. In injuring the character of a minister 
of the Gospel, a peculiar injury is done to religion it- 
self. Parents who profess to value religion, and who 
are in the habit of criticising and carping at ministers 
in the hearing of their children, take a ready way to 
train their children for perdition. Children thus taught 
by their parents to despise the ministers of the Gospel, 
will most probably go on in sin till they sink to hell ; 
and may then ascribe their eternal damnation in a 
great degree to the unchristian conduct of their pa- 
rents. 

The members of a Christian church are bound by 
the express commandment of God to contribute ac- 
cording to their ability to the support of their pastor, 
and in doing this discharge a duty acceptable in the 
sight of God. " If we have sown unto you spiritual 
things, is it a great thing if we should reap your car- 
nal things? So hath the Lord ordained, that they 
which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel." 
"Let him that is taught in the word communicate 
unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not de- 
ceived ; God is not mocked j for whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap." "Not because I desire 
a gift ; but I desire fruit that may abound to your ac- 
count." 

The members of churches should pray for their pas- 
tor, and for each other. The importance of such 
prayer is strikingly displayed by the earnest desires 
expressed by the apostle Paul for the prayers of Chris- 
tian brethren. If such an apostle, miraculously con- 
verted, endowed with the gift of tongues and miracles, 
who had been taken up into the third heaven, and to 



336 DUTIES DUE TO MINISTERS. 

whom the Lord had actually said, My grace is suffi- 
cient for thee ; if such an apostle needed the prayers 
of his brethren, and ascribed much to their efficacy, 
how much more do ministers of the Gospel now! 
"Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus 
Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye 
strive together with me in your prayers to God for 
me." " Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of 
the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even 
as it is with you." " Pray for us." 

§ 10. These remarks rest upon the supposition that 
the minister you attend is worthy of your confidence 
and affection. If he be not a man of this description, 
why do you attend on his ministry ? why connect 
yourself with the church to which he ministers ? Your 
spiritual welfare may be so much promoted by the 
ministration of a pious and faithful pastor, that it 
should be in your esteem an object of the first magni- 
tude to enjoy snch ministrations, and to worship, not 
where your fancy may be pleased, but where your 
heart maybe impressed with divine truth ; where your 
growth in grace maybe advanced ; where the preach- 
er in good earnest preaches as for eternity. A Chris- 
tian should esteem such a pastor as one of the best 
friends ; nor should foibles or imperfections alienate 
regard ; for who on earth has no imperfections ? Con- 
sider such a friend as the helper of your faith. Be not 
backward to unfold to him your trials and your con- 
flicts. Treat him as a friend in whom you can con- 
fide ; a friend who is anxious to promote your welfare , 
as an under-shepherd, who watches for your soul. Such 
conduct will tend to your pastor's comfort, and to the 
advancement of your best, your eternal interest. 



MOTIVES TO CHRISTIAN LOVE. S.H? 

§ 11. Many and important are the motives that should 
stimulate you to cherish brotherly love. There is much 
in the character and situation of your Christian friends 
to call this heavenly grace into exercise. They are dear 
to Christ ; are the purchase of his blood ; the objects of 
his care ; his flock ; his friends ; his jewels. Thus dear 
to him, should they not be dear to you? They are 
your fellow-travelers to heaven, with whom you hope 
to spend eternal days. In heaven the family of Jesus 
will mutually love for ever, and should not love reign 
in their hearts through the few dark days of mortal 
life? The sorrows you now-endure they feel ; the foes 
v/ith whom you wrestle they encounter ; the desires 
that glow in your heart animate theirs ; the hopes that 
cheer you encourage them. Now, too, the God you 
love they love ; in the Savior whom you trust they con- 
fide; the blood that cleansed you has cleansed them; 
the Spirit that dwells in you dwells in them; and all 
that enriches you is their portion. You hope hereafter 
to inhabit the same heaven ; to belong to the same fa- 
mily; and, beneath the unclouded luster of the same 
eternal day, to ascribe blessing and honor to the same 
Redeemer. Thus united by renewing grace, united in 
privileges, in trials, in joys and in sorrows, in hopes 
and in prospects, in friends and in inheritance, united 
in bands that are to last for ever, should you not be 
united in heart and affection ? Love and gratitude to 
your exalted Lord also call for love to your fellow- 
pilgrims. He commands his disciples to manifest such 
love, and in the earnestness of his heart prayed that it 
might be displayed by them. John, 13 : 34; 17 : 11-23. 
Will you not devoutly cherish that heavenly grace 
29 



ON MODES OP 



which is the subject of commands so binding, and 
prayers so fervent and divine ? 

If you regard your Redeemer's honor you must 
cherish love. "By this," said he, "shall ail men know 
that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to ano 
ther." So exemplary was the love of the early Chris- 
nans to eacii other, that even their enemies bore tes 
limony to its power, when they said, " See how thesf 
Christians love one another." This love recommended 
their divine religion so much that the apostate emperor 
Julian represented their love to each other as contri- 
buting not a little to spread Christianity. 

If you regard the peace of your own mind you must 
cherish brotherly love. The word of God declares the 
possession of this to be one of the clearest evidences of 
conversion, and its absence to be as dear an evidence 
of a state of sin and death. " We know that we have 
passed from death unto life, because we love the breth- 
ren: he that loveth not his brother abideth in death." 
In short, of such immense importance is this heavenly 
gi-ace, that all the knowledge, gifts, and talents in the 
world are nothing without love. 

§ 12. The religion of the Gospel demands from its 
votaries the active exertion of their different powers, in 
promoting the glory of God and the welfare of man. 
The Lord Jesus represents his disciples as servants, 
whose Master intrusts them with a portion of his pro- 
perty, which during his absence they are to improve. 
All have something intrusted to them to improve. 
While some have five talents, others have two ; but 
they who have the least have one. Yet these talents 
are not their own. He delivered to them his goods. 
The Lord Jesus has intrusted at least one talent, per 



CHRISTIAN USEFULNESS. 



839 



haps many, to your care. Your time, your Sabbaths, 
your means of grace, your property, your opportu- 
nities for usefulness in any way, your health, your 
strength, whatever you possess that can benefit man or 
glorify God, is a talent intrusted to you by the eternal 
Master. They all belong to him. They are but lent to 
you. O reckon all you have the Lord's. Important 
motive for faithfulness ! Impressively important, when 
it is considered how rich a regard heavenly love will 
bestow where even one talent has been sedulously im- 
proved, and how the mere neglect of improving even 
one renders him to whom it was lent a wicked and 
slothful servant. 

§ 13. Many are the modes by which Christians may 
promote the glory of tlieir God and Savior, and the 
eternal interests of their fellow-mortals. Among these 
are the following : 

Conversing seriously and prudently on vital religion 
with those loho are destitute of its blessings. An old 
writer mentions the case of a pious man, who, by his 
zeal in conversing with his neighbors and acquaint- 
ance, in their shops or their fields, had been the instru- 
ment of converting thirty or forty persons. 

Seconding the exertions of Christian ministers, by in- 
ducing friends or neighbors to hear the word of life; 
and by encouraging and directing such as appear sub- 
jects of serious impressions. Incalculable good has thus, 
under the divine blessing, been effected. It is recorded 
of a Baptist church in Yorkshire, that soon after its ori- 
gin, each member, with this view, " made it a point oi 
duty to endeavor to bring one careless sinner under the 
sound of the Gospel, and to use every scriptural method 
to engage him to embrace it. And when the object of his 



340 



ON MODES 



cares had enrolled himself among the followers of 
Christ, he looked about for another wandering sheep, 
that he might endeavor to bring also into the fold of 
the church. Were such a spirit and such conduct ge- 
neral among the friends of Christ, what immense good 
would result from it." 

Some years ago the writer visited a young man who 
left this world in peace and hope. He belonged to a 
family, of which most or all were strangers to religion, 
and he, till within a few years of his happy departure, 
had been so too. A Christian friend frequently invited 
him to the house of prayer. These invitations were 
often slighted, but he at length attended, and listened 
to the word of life ; in short, he became a disciple of 
the Savior; and after a short course in the church be- 
low, was moved, there was full reason to believe, to 
the church triumphant. I know an instance in which 
a young woman sought, in the same way, to promote 
the everlasting benefit of a female acquaintance. Her 
efforts long seemed in vain. She who was the object 
of them promised to comply with her invitations, but 
still delayed. At length, when perhaps a year had 
rolled away without success, she went once more to 
invite her acquaintance, and was so affected by frequent 
disappointment, that she burst into tears. The other 
now yielded ; she went to the house of prayer ; she 
felt the power of divine truth, and became a monu- 
ment of saving mercy. The writer could mention 
other instances— they are many, and were all the dis- 
ciples of Jesus active, would doubtless be many more. 
Another mode of usefulness open to all the disciples 
of the Savior, is that of kindly noticing- and encourag- 
ing persons who become hearers of the Gospel. It is a 



CHRISTIAN USEFULNESS. 341 

frequent case, that persons who have lived without 
God in tiie world, begin to frequent the house of pray- 
er. They need instruction. They are perhaps im- 
pressed, and need encouragement ; but they are ac- 
quainted with no Christian friend. If tlie congregation 
is numerous, the minister may know nothing of them. 
Hence they perhaps pine in despondency, or the little 
spark of holy desire dies for want of some one to fan 
it to a flame; but where the members of a church 
are active, and eager to seize opportunities for doing 
good, such persons will soon be noticed, directed, and 
encouraged. 

The Christian who watches for opportunities of 
doing good, will find many: and some that seem in- 
significant may effect good beyond the most sanguine 
calculations. A considerable Baptist church exists in 
Leicestershire, which owed its origin, in a great degree, 
to a pious remark introduced in a letter on business. 
This impressed the mind of the thoughtless youth to 
whom it was addressed. He embraced religion, and 
opened his house for preaching. Many who had never 
heard the Gospel attended. A comfortable house of 
prayer was erected in this then dark village. Many 
who have worshipped in that house, there is reason to 
believe, now worship in the better house above, and 
others are pursuing the path that leads to eternal peace. 
What cannot God eflfect, by apparently feeble means, 
when Christian zeal directs the conduct of his chil- 
dren ! 

By Icndhifc or giving away religious books and Tracts 
incalculable good may be effected. These apparently 
feeble instruments have been the means of producing 
29* 



342 



MOTIVES FOR PIOUS EXERTIONS. 



most important benefits. A tract given away on the 
road, or dropped by the highway side, has awakened 
a profligate to reflection, and led a child of wrath to 
the Lamb of God for salvation. Few are there among 
the followers of the Savior who might not pursue 
many of these modes of usefulness. 

Sabbath schools open a wide field for the labors of 
Christian philanthropy. And an immense field for 
usefulness is now offered by Bible, Missionary, and 
other benevolent associations. The active collectors 
in those institutions are a most important part of the 
grand moral machine by which God is diffusing the 
Gospel of his Son. 

§ 14. The physician who would snatch a dying pa- 
tient from the grave, must fonn a correct estimate of 
the malignity of his disease ; nor would his benevolence 
be admired, if he pronounced the plague a harmless 
disorder. So in all your schemes for usefulness, bear 
in mind that the objects of your kindness are not be- 
ings slightly tainted with corruption, but wholly cor- 
rupt and depraved. Are you a parent ? you will see 
many charms in your children. Yet remember they 
are as depraved as you feel yourself to be, and as others 
naturally are. A mere moral education may save them 
from grosser sins, but will never save them from eter- 
nal death. Teach them that they are sinners, and lead 
them to the fountain of salvation. Are you employed 
in teaching the children of others ? or is it friends or 
neighbors whose salvation you are anxious to pro- 
mote; still consider they are sinners. You have to 
warm a heart that is cold ; to enlighten a mind that is 
dark. Within that heart there are principles of depra- 
vity opposed to all you wish to inculcate. Need you 



MOTIVES FOR PIOUS EXERTIONS. 343 

be surprised at discpuragement? You may say of every 
object o/your care, Here is an immortal creature, pass- 
ing a few moments on the stage of time, and thence 
going to heaven or hell; already lost; a stranger to 
God, to the Savior, to happiness; blind in mind ; cor- 
rupt in affections. This view should regulate your ex- 
ertions, and should lead you to God for his Spirit to, 
bless them ; but should not discourage, since similar 
exertions have been the means of leading many to 
eternal life. 

§ 15. All the obligations you lie under to the God of 
love, should stimulate your zeal to promote his glory in 
the salvation of your fallen fellow-creatures. Snatched 
yourself from the burning pit, should you not strive to 
snatch others from the flame ? Redeeming love has dis- 
played to us a salvation precious as the blood poured 
out by Jesus upon Calvary— cosily as the wealth of 
heaven which he resigned— free as the air we breathe, 
and lasting as the eternity of God. Redeeming love 
has blessed us for both worlds— given us wealth for 
povehy— comfort for misery— hope for despair— for- 
giveness instead of condemnation— the love of God 
instead of eternal separation from him— and heaven 
instead of hell. But the giver of these mercies bids us 
communicate the tidings of them to others. " Let him 
that heareth say. Come." Can we be truly influenced 
by the love displayed in that Gospel, if we do nx)t labor 
and strive to benefit those who are perishing around us? 
§ 16. Can pity move ? pity must move you here. You 
live in a ruined world— described by God as a world 
dead in, trespasses and sins, even all dead. Could you 
spend an hour in a prison filled with malefactors doom- 
ed to die ? would not the mournful spectacle melt your 



344 MOTIVES FOR PIOUS EXERTIONS. 

heart into compassion, and your eyes into tears ? A 
more mournful spectacle surrounds you — a dead world. 
Millions of rational and immortal beings, all lost, all 
dead ; all hastening to the grave with a sure and steady 
step, and unless taught of God, all hastening to the 
death that never dies; all dead, all doomed to die, and 
all, as sinners, doomed to hell. It is true, heavenly 
mercy discloses a path to life from these regions of 
spiritual death ; but, ah ! how few regard those saving 
dictates ! Excepting only that happy few of the high 
and low, the kings of the earih, and the great men, and 
the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty 
men, and every bond man, and every free man. and 
the bridegroom and the bride, and the ancient and the 
young, are dead to God, and dead to sin. Can you be 
a Christian yourself, if you strive not to snatch some 
of the firebrands from the flame? Can you look at a 
parent or a child, a brother or a sister, a husband or a 
wife, and think this beloved relative is sinking to eter- 
nal death, and not feel anxious to lead them to the 
Savior's fold ? 

§ 17. If love can constrain you to exertion, you must 
be active. Can you, if truly a Christian, contemplate 
the costly sacrifice and nameless agonies of the Son of 
God, and yet remain indifferent to the prosperity of the 
cause for which he died ? Can you behold the Father 
of eternity resigning the Son of his love, in compas- 
sion to you and to man, and yet be careless about the 
conversion of a perishing brother ? Did the Son of 
God sacrifice so much for your eternal happiness, and 
should you not anxiously render to him all the ser- 
vices that you can crowd into a few fleeting, mortal 
days? Do you believe that the Son of God abode in 



MOTIVES FOR PIOUS EXERTIONS. 345 

this vale of pollution, this world of death, for more 
than thirty mournful years ? Do you believe that here 
he encountered every human wo, and all this for you? 
Do you believe this, if you feel little concerned about 
the prosperity of the cause for which he lived and died ? 
The tongue may say "Yes," but a cold heart and in- 
active life more truly answer "No," you believe it not, 
you have but the shadow of belief. Do you believe 
that through sin death and perdition were your righ 
teous doom, but that a divine hand has snatched you 
from the fire— has woven for you a garland of unfad- 
ing glory— has prepared for you an everlasting rest 
beyond the scenes of toilsome life? Can you believe 
this and remain inactive? God forbid that you should 
ever act so base a part; though, alas! it is acted by 
multitudes! 

§ 18. In the value of the deathless soul you should 
find another motive for activity. The poor, vain, gid- 
dy, trifling crowd around you are to live for ever. You 
know their danger, they know it not; you feel the 
worth of a soul, they feel it not. 

Ah, my friend, even you know not the worth of an 
immortal soul ! It doth not yet appear what we shall 
be. Could a ransomed soul appear to us, arrayed in 
the glories of eternity and the charms of heaven, we 
might suppose the happy spirit a high archangel. No, 
it is no archangel ; it is the soul; the soul which once 
inhabited a poor afflicted body, and appeared a worm, 
and no man ; the soul which Satan ruled, but which a 
mightier power snatched from his hand; the soul over 
which angels rejoiced; the soul for which Jesus died; 
and, O, more strange ! the soul which some humble 
Christian's pious cares led to the Savior and to heaven. 



346 MOTIVES FOR PIOUS EXERTIONS. 

If you should be thus successful in but one instance, 
this one would be a rich reward even for the labors of 
the longest life. " He which converteth a sinner from 
the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and 
hide a multitude of sins." How tragical a sight is the 
execution of a criminal ! how much more tragical the 
perdition of a soul ! How great a benefactor would he 
be esteemed who might deliver a sinking nation from 
famine, pestilence, slavery, and the sword 1 but they 
are instruments of effecting much greater good who 
lead only one soul to the Savior of mankind. It is in 
the labors of Christian piety that great events crowd 
upon each other; events, perhaps judged little by the 
world, yet great, because their influence is extensive as 
eternity. A Christian is accosted by a poor beggar- 
poor for time, and poorer for eternity. He gives the 
suppliant a trifle, and adds a Tract: the beggar goes, 
he reads, he feels, his heart is impressed— he feels his 
state, he flees to the Savior for salvation. The event 
is unknown to all the world ; the subject of it lives in 
poverty, and dies like Lazarus. The same day on 
which this Tract is given a mighty battle is fought; 
hundreds of thousands engage in the conflict— the fate 
of nations is decided by its issue. The fame of the 
victors fills the world, and will be handed down to the 
last age of time. Which is the great event ? the battle ? 
Ah, no ! not unless it has more influence on eternity 
than the other. The great event is the poor beggar's 
conversion. That will be remembered when the trum- 
pet of fame is hushed by the archangel's oath that time 
shall be no longer. That will be a subject of gratitude 
and joy, of delight and praise, when the triumphs of 
contending nations are forgotten, and when those na- 



MOTIVES FOli PIOUS EXERTIONS. 34? 

tions themselves are swept into oblivion by the besom 
of destruction. 

§ 19. In addition to all the other powerful motives 
which should stimulate the Christian to activity, there 
is one which the Son of God assigned as a reason for 
his unwearied exertions: " The niglit cometh, in which 
no man can work," the night of death, that will put an 
eternal end to all our labors for the glory of God in 
the salvation of man. The longest summer's day soon 
elapses, and he who toils from its dawn to its close 
soon has to say, My labor is done. So time M'ill soon 
end with those you wish to benefit, and end with you. 
The parent must shortly cease to instruct his child, 
and the child to pray for his parent. The Sabbath 
school teacher must finish his last lesson, and the min- 
ister his last sermon, and every follower of Jesus end 
his last conflict, ofl:"er his last prayer, and finish his last 
attempt to lead poor wandering men to heaven. The 
niglit cometh when no man can work. Endeavor, then, 
to crowd into the little span of life all the benevolent 
actions, all the useful services possible. Have you an 
opportunity for relieving tlie aflflicted, for instructing 
the ignorant, for comforting the mourner? Say not, I 
will improve the next opportunity. You cannot im- 
' prove the next for this ; the next will be a fresh one, 
\ that will require its own improvement. To do good 
twice is better than to do so once. Be active ; be zeal- 
ous ; for the time is short. Think how short is the day 
of labor; how long, how near, the eternity of rest! 
Behold the blood-bought crown which glitters through 
the skies. Hear the voice which says, "Whatsoever 
thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." "They 
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the fir- 



348 TREATMENT OF ENEMIES. 

mament; and they that turn many to righteousness 
as the stars for ever and ever." And O, what is the 
for ever of heaven ! Look to him who became for 
man's welfare a man of sorrows and of toil. Think of 
admission to his presence, and there of meeting some 
snatched by your instrumentality from everlasting 
night, and there of joining with them in the new eter 
nal song of glory to the Lamb. 

Think of all this, and can you be the cold, formal, 
negligent, worthless creature that some professors of 
the Gospel are ? 

TREATMENT OF ENEMIES. 

§ 20. Few are so happy as to pass through this world 
without encounterinoj hostility and enmity. Even the 
blessed Jesus had enemies ; and all the gentle graces 
of his character, all th« harmlessness of his benevolent 
life, all the good effected by his unwearied labors, did 
not prevent his being the object of scorn and malignity, 
hatred and persecution. Perhaps by enemies your 
character may be defamed, and injury and loss heaped 
upon you. Should this ever be the case, then remem- 
ber the instructions of the Bible. The natural feelings 
of your heart may prompt you to indulge resentment ; 
to revile those who revile you, to take pleasure in their 
distresses who take pleasure in yours, or in hearing 
them defamed who have defamed you. But these feel- 
ings are as opposite to those the Christian must cherish 
as hell is to heaven. You are solemnly commanded to 
do no ill to those who may do ill to you. " Say not, I 
will do so to him as he hath done to me : I will render 
to the man according to his work " "Recompense to 
no man evil for evil. Avenge not yourselves, but ra- 



LOVE TO ENEr.nES. ' 849 

ther give place unto wrath." Yon are not only forbid- 
den to injure enemies, but forbidden to take pleasure 
in their afflictions. "Rejoice not when thine enemy 
falleth, lest the Lord see it, and it displease him. 

Inculcating upon you a disposition like his own, the 
God of mercy solemnly and imperiously requires from 
you the forgiveness of injuries and of enemies. The 
Savior teaches you, when praying for forgiveness, to 
declare to God that you forgive. "Forgive us our sins, 
FOR we also forgive every one that is indebted to us." 
He adds, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your 
heavenly Father will also forgive you : but if ye for- 
give not men their trespasses, neither will your hea- 
venly Father forgive your trespasses." The divine 
Savior calls on his disciples not merely to forgive an 
injurer or an enemy, but to requite injuries by benefits, 
evil by good. "I say unto you, Love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, 
and persecute you; that ye may be the children of 
your Father which is in heaven." "Bless them which 
persecute you : bless, and curse not. Therefore, if 
thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him 
drink. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil 
with good." 

§ 2L Exemplifying his divine instruction, the holy 
Jesus, while his enemies were nailing him to the cross, 
prayed for mercy on those murderers: "Father, for- 
give themi; for they know not what they do." His 
first martyr expired with a similar prayer upon his 
lips. The duties here inculcated are at times among 
the most diflicult possible ; yet they must be practiced 
30 



350 FORCHVING INJURIES. 

if you would enjoy the Savior's favor. The proud 
heart must be made to bend, the resentful heart must 
06 brought to forgive, or your religion will prove an 
empty name. You may say, I have been so injured 
that I cannot forgive; but if you cannot you will never 
be forgiven. Besides, it is absurd and wicked, if you 
are a disciple of Jesus, to say, I cannot discharge this 
duty, I cannot comply with this precept. What mere 
nature cannot do, grace can effect, and will effect, in 
the case of every heir of heaven. "My grace," said 
Jesus, "is sufficient for thee." "I can do all things,'^ 
his servant added, "through Christ, that strengtheneth 
me ;" and that grace is still sufficient. If you indulge 
an unforgiving spirit, be candid, be honest, deceive not 
yourself, you cannot deceive your Judge. Say not, I 
cannot forgive, but say, I will not; for be assured, 
while the grace of Christ is sufficient for all who seek 
his aid, if you have enemies whom you do not forgive, 
the reason is not that you cannot, but that you will not. 
Yet remember, unless you do so mortify corruption as 
to forgive every enemy, the decree is gone forth that 
will shut you out of heaven. Eternal truth has said, 
" If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will 
your Father forgive your trespasses." 

Cherish humility, and then it will not be a difficult 
duty to forgive and bless even the bitterest foes. It is 
pride that renders man so prone to resentment, so un- 
willing to forgive. Think what have been your crimes 
against the majesty of heaven I How vast his good- 
ness! how dire your ingratitude! how many your of- 
fences ! yet how rich, how free his forgiving love ! Had 
all the inhabitants of the earth been persecuting you 
with ceaseless cruelty and hatred ; had every moment 



FORGIVING INJURIES. 351 

witnessed fresh injuries inflicted by them, and fresh 
jTiiseries suffered by you ; if considered merely in refe- 
rence to you, the guilt of all the ceaseless, causeless en- 
mity of all those millions, would not have been so great 
as the guilt of your least sin against your gracious but 
much injured God. And does he forgive ten thousand 
talents? Has he for you blotted out sins vast as the 
mountains of the earth, and countless as the stars of 
heaven ? Can you believe this, and indulge resentment 
against a poor fellow-worm that has injured you ? Can 
you think, "I was a traitor doomed to fire, yet my in- 
jured Creator has snatched me from the flame by the 
costly sacrifice of his dear Son ;" can you believe this, 
and cherish resentment against a poor brother mortal, 
whose utmost offences against you bear no more pro- 
portion to those your God has forgiven, than a spark to 
the noon-day sun, or an atom of dust to the vast world 1 
§ 22. Is the person who has injured you a Christian 
brother ? Do you believe, that, notwithstanding the 
conduct you condemn, he is indeed an heir of heaven ? 
Surely then you should cheerfully forgive. Do you 
believe that God forgives him ? that the blood of Jesus 
has washed away his stains ? Do you hope to meet 
him as a friend, where no dissensions arise; where an. 
eternal day will be one day of harmony and love ? Are 
these your hopes ? Ah, what is there by the way that 
should render those at discord here, who hope to be 
friends to all eternity ? Or view the subject of dispute 
as you will, view it from the edge of the grave, or 
from eternity : " I never," says one of the best of un- 
inspired writers, " heard of any that stole his winding 
sheet, or fought for his coffin, or went to law for his 
grave." And when you are thus near eternity, and 



352 christian's conflicts. 

going to wear that last suit, a shroud— in that last 
earthly abode, a grave— how insignificant will those 
things appear, that now, perhaps, divide your affec- 
tions from those you should love as fellow-traveiers to 
the world of peace ! 

But, perhaps, some have wronged you greatly, who 
are utter strangers to the grace of God. Surely you 
should rather view them with pity than with anger. 
think of their deplorable state ! They have souls 
immortal as your own ; but these are perishing in sin. 
The blood of Jesus has washed none of their stains 
away. No hope for eternity is theirs. Your hope 
blooms with immortality; but darkness and despair 
are their probable future portion. They are the ene- 
mies of God; and all before them, in the endless 
world, is weeping, and lamentation, and wo. How pi- 
tiable a condition ! Should you not rather pray for 
them than indulge resentment against poor fellow- 
creatures in so miserable a state? surely they have 
long enough to mourn. If they will seek nothing 
higher, let them enjoy their short-lived triumph. It is 
all they ever can enjoy. Repine not at their prosperity, 
when it is all confined to a few moments, and they have 
to mourn and weep for ever. 



CHRISTIAN CONFLICTS. 353 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ON THE SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS AND SORROWS OF 
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

§ 1. The Christian's path to heaven is a chequered 
path. Many are the sacred pleasures of liie followers 
of the Lamb ; but they have also pains and trials pe- 
culiar to themselves. 

' Much in sorrow, much in wo, 
"Onward, Christians, onward go 
" Fight the fight, and, worn with strife, 
" Steep with tears the bread of life. 
" Onward, Christians, onward go ! 
" Join the war, and face the foe." 

Every disciple of Jesus will find that the Christian life 
is truly a warfare. Would you behold those who have 
no foes without, no foe within ; whom no fears dis- 
tract, no dangers threaten : it must be when you join 
them in the upper world ; and if you ever join them 
there, assisted from above, you must persevere in the 
warfare which they have triumphantly ended. 

"Life is the scene of conflict, not of rest; 
•'Plan's is laborious happiness at best; 
"On this side death his dangers never cease^ 
" His joys are joys of conquest, not of peace." 

§ 2. The spiritual sorrows and conflicts which the 
Christian has to endure are of various kinds. Many 
30* 



354 CHRISTIAN LIFE A WARFARE. 

of his trials proceed from within. He feels the correct- 
ness of the statement made in the word of truth: 
'• The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit 
against the flesh : and tliese are contrary the one to 
the other; so that ye do not the things which ye 
would." By the expression, the flesli, in the Scrip- 
tures, appears frequently to be meant human corrup- 
tion, or those remains of depravity with which the 
believer has to struggle. This is one of the Christian's 
principal enemies. The world occasionally allures by 
its charms, or alarms by its terrors. The assaults of 
Satan take place at times, though not constantly con- 
tinued ; but the flesh is like a body of death, with 
which the Christian is perpetually burdened. The 
Scriptures represent the conquest and destruction of 
this constant enemy as a painful and difficult achieve- 
ment. It is not described as dying by a sudden wound, 
but by a slow and lingering death. "They that are 
Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and 
lusts." The young Christian commencing his course, 
full of joy and hope, may for a while be comparatively 
insensible to the presence of this constant enemy; but 
soon he will find that he has to struggle with an evil 
heart, and has need to crucify the flesh with its affec- 
tions and desires. 

§ 3. In every nation, in every age, this has been the 
experience of the followers of the Lamb. The emi- 
nent martyr, Bradford, on one occasion observed, "0 
Lord ! sometimes methinks I feel it so with me as if 
there were no diff"erence between my heart and the 
wicked. I have as blind a mind as they; as stout, 
stubborn, rebellious, and hard a he-art as they." Henry 
Martyn, so distinguished for piety, wrote in his jour- 



christian's conflicts. 355 

nal, " What a dark atheistical state do I live in ! Alas, 
that this creation should so engross my mind, and the 
Author of it be so slightly and coldly regarded ! 
Amazing patience! he bears with this faithless, foolish 
heart !" Yet he who uttered these complaints, when 
breathing forth the pious feelings of his soul, could 
say, '^Let me praise God for having turned me from 
a life of wo to the enjoyment of peace and hope. The 
work is real. I can no more doubt it than I can doubt 
my existence ; tlie whole current of my desires is al- 
tered — I am walking quite another way, though I am 
incessantly stumbling in that way — 1 had a most 
blessed view of God and divine things. I looked for- 
ward to complete conformity to him, as the great end 
of my existence, and my assurance was full — I said, 
almost with tears, ' Who shall separate us from the 
love of Christ?' This is my bliss, that Christ is all. 
Uphe-ld by him, I can smile at death. O what have I 
to do but labor, and pray, and fast, and watch for 
the salvation of my soul, and those of the heathen 
U'orld ?" 

Similar to the experience of these and other bright 
ornaments of the Christian church, has been that of 
the least distinguished disciples of the Savior. The il- 
literate and uncivilized heathen, when truly brought 
to embrace the Gospel, has felt similar sorrows, and 
uttered similar complaints. A missionary, referring to 
negro converts, wrote, " I was much delighted to hear 
about twenty of them give a simple but affecting ac- 
count of the state of their minds. They seem to labor 
under trials from without and from within — from their 
own country-people, and from the temptations of Sa- 
tan and the struggles of a depraved heart. They speak 



356 christian's conflicts 

strongly as to their good and their bad nearts, the one 
opposing the other, so that they cannot do the things 
the}^ would. One said, "Trouble too niuch live in my 
heart. Me be poor sinner. Me no see, me no feel, till 
God open my heart. Now my heart trouble me too 
ranch. Me think me have two hearts ; one good, one 
bad. Good heart tell me pray — bad heart tell me no 
pray. I try pray God— my bad heart trouble me ; he 
speak : he say, 'No pray : go work.' 

"Another complained, 'My heart too wicked. Me 
can't love Jesus Christ. Me want to love him, but my 
wicked heart won't let me. When I pray, my heart 
tell me, What you pray for? Jesus Christ no hear 
your prayer! You loo bad! May Jesus Christ give 
me a better heart ! for my heart bad past all hearts !' " 

Such is recorded as tlie simple and expressive lan- 
guage of these illiterate disciples of the Savior. 

§ 4. Perhaps the feelings of your heart have often 
resembled theirs. Have you not been cast down, and 
perhaps templed to despair, because of the corruption 
which you felt within? What has been the cause of 
vour sorrow '? 

Perhaps you mourn an evil heart of unbelief. The 
graces that exist in your soul are so opposed and 
weakened by powerful corruptions, that they seem like 
light strugglintr with darkness. In some happy mo- 
ments you think you do trust and will trust the Savior 
with your all ; but these moments too soon depart, and 
you feel as if you had no trust in him. Sometimes you 
are ready to conclude that you do indeed believe on 
the Savior of the lost; but soon you feel faith so weak, 
hope so dull, love so cold, that you doubt whether you 
possess any faith, or hope, or love. You are ready to 



WITH UNBELIEF. 357 

exclaim, Can it be that such a cold dull creature as I 
am believes in the Lord Jesus Christ? Can this be 
the faith to which so much is promised? Do I indeed 
believe that Jesus died for me, and yet love him no 
more? Do I indeed believe that sin is so mischievous, 
and hate it so little ? Do I believe that heaven is so de- 
sirable? why then these cold affections, these languid 
desires ? And do I believe that God will order all things 
for good? whence then my fears? whence my rebel- 
lious will ? Surely I cannot be a believer : If I am, the 
Lord help my unbelief! 

You must not infer that you have no faith because 
faith is weak, or because you feel within you an evil 
heart of unbelief. What servant of God, whose piety 
his word records, did not at some times feel the same? 
Jacob said, " All these things are against me." Job 
wished he had never been born. Asaph repined at the 
prosperity of the ungodly, and was tempted to think a 
pious life vain. David expressed fear that God had cast 
him off for ever. Peter, when ordered by liis Lord to 
walk upon tlie water, through want of faith began to 
sink. " O thou of little faith," said his Lord, " where- 
fore didst thou doubt?" Often had the Savior tore- 
prove the apostles for their unbelief. They had to 
pray, " Lord, increase our faith ;" and he represented 
what they had as hardly equal to a grain of mustard 
seed. If such was the weakness of this grace even in 
the hearts of apostles when their Lord was with them, 
be not cast down in despondency, though you have 
to complain. It is unspeakably desirable for faith to 
strengthen into full assurance : yet there may be a pre- 
cious and saving faith in a heart that feels many of the 
struggles of unbelief, and that clings to the Savior with 



358 VARIOUS CAUSES 

trembling. If you have so much faith as leads you to 
give up earth for heaven, this is genuine ; for " This 
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our 
faith." If you have such faith as renders Christ pre- 
cious to you ; as leads you to love his friends, to walk 
in his ways, and to count all things loss for him ; this 
in his word, in plain and unequivocal language, is de- 
clared to be saving. " To you that believe he is pre- 
cious." If Christ is precious to you, it is plain you be- 
lieve. " We know that we have passed from death 
unto life, because we love the brethren." " Ye are my 
friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." " Verily 
I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, 
or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the 
kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold 
more in this present time, and in the world to come 
life everlasting." 

Nor must you suppose that the Savior is unwilling 
to help you, because you feel the painful struggles oc- 
casioned by an evil heart of unbelief. When the poor 
supplicant, begging relief for his child, exclaimed, 
"Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief ;" did Jesus 
refuse his aid, and say, Subdue that unbelief; then 
come to me, and I will help you ? Far was such con- 
duct from his compassionate heart. Instead of this, 
he answered the supplicant's prayer, and strengthened 
his faith by giving him his request. He is " the same 
yesterday, to-day, and for ever." W^ait then at his 
footstool till he bless. A time will come when unbe- 
lief shall die ; nor shall one of its struggles be felt in 
the happy soul through eternal ages. 

§ 5. Perhaps your soul sinks within you on the re- 
view of former years. Conscience accuses you of thou- . 



OP DESPONDENCY. 359 

sands of crimes, and brings lo remembrance mercies 
abused, Sabbaths broken, sins committed without con- 
cern, iniquity drank in like water, and many long re- 
bellious years employed in rebellion against God. Now 
you think. Can all these crimes be forgiven ? Can one 
who was so long and so zealously employed in the 
service of hell, ever reach heaven ? Can one so sinful, 
so impure as I have been, ever find admission to that 
holy world where nothing that defileth can enter? 

Perhaps your discouragement springs not so much 
from what you were, as from what you are. You feel 
that every grace you have is weak ; that many imper- 
fections and defects adhere to you ; you find in your- 
self much backwardness to good, much proneness 
to evil ; you lament wandering affections and sinful 
inclinations. You are ready to exclaim, I am like no 
one else ; no heart is so hard as mine. I can neither 
repent, nor believe, nor love, nor obey as I ought. I 
am nothing but unworthiness. 

Do some or all these things sink you in depression 7 
Then consider for what did Jesus come. Was it not to 
save the lost 7 Can you be more lost than utterly lost ? 
yet such are those he came to seek and save, and such 
were many that have felt his saving power. See in 
David a murderer pardoned ; in Paul a persecutor and 
blasphemer forgiven and saved. See from the Corin- 
thian church many admitted to heaven that once were 
extortioners, and drunkards, and fornicators, and adul- 
terers, and idolaters, and even guilty of nameless 
abominations. But when the Spirit. brought them to 
repentance, the blood of Jesus blotted out all their 
atrocious crimes, and it could be said to them, " Ye are 
washedj ye are sanctified, ye are justified by the name 



360 CAUSES OF DESPONDENCT. 

of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." You 
are not to seek comfort from the hope that your 
crimes have been small ; bnt from reposing your hope 
on Him whose blood cleanses from all sin. Did the 
servant who sought mercy when he owed ten thou- 
sand talents, meet a refusal because the debt was so 
great ? Did the creditor forgive the debtor who owed 
fifty pence, but refuse to forgive him who owed five 
hundred ? Did he not forgive one as well as the other? 
and he that had most forgiven loved the most. 

" But am I so unworthy ?" It is true you are, and 
the better you know yourself, the deeper will be this 
impression. Not one of your actions ever was holy 
enough to stand the investigation of God's pure and 
searching eye. What worthiness can be expected in a 
criminal condemned deservedly to die? How much 
less can worthiness be expected in a sinner, the wages 
of whose sin is death, eternal death! — Worthiness of 
good in such a case is impossible. They that dre wor- 
thy of hell can be worthy of nothing besides. This 
you, and all, have deserved ; but the gift of God is eter 
nal life through Jesus Christ. If accepted by God, you 
will be accepted in him, the Beloved. If eternal life is 
your portion, you must receive it and enjoy it as the 
gift of God. 

Allow me to inquire, Does not discouragement on 
these grounds savor of a legal spirit ? Is not there stil) 
in your heart a leaning to a righteousness of your 
own ? If you look for forgiveness as an act of grace, 
and salvation as a blessing given to a poor condemned, 
hell-deserving sinner, why these fears ? They seem to 
flow from a self-righteous bias, which would encou- 
rage you to hope at least a little from some worthiness 



rfiARS RESPECTING REPENTANCE. 861 

possessed, or some freedom from grosser crimes; and 
because you do not feel that worthiness and remember 
those crimes, therefore this ground of your hope is 
shaken. Look to Jesus as altogether ruined in your- 
self, and expecting your all in him, and then you need 
not fear. 

§ 6. Perhaps with these painful feelings you con- 
nect the apprehension that your repentance was not 
sufficiently deep. You remember the number of your 
sins, and the fewness of your tears ; the evil of your 
iniquities, and the weakness of your sorrows when be- 
wailing those transgressions. Or you think what 
pangs of penitential grief some have experienced, 
but you have not felt the same; or what joys and 
peace they have found, far surpassing all that you ever 
experienced. Hence you are disposed to conclude, 
Surely I am not a Christian. 

Draw not this conclusion hastily. Some whose con- 
victions and penitence have appeared very deep and 
strong, have soon returned to their wallowing in ini- 
quity; while others, whose impressions were gentle 
as the descent of evening dew, by lives of humble piety 
have afterwards proved that their repentance was real, 
and the change in their hearts the effect of a divine 
hand. God sometimes displays his power in tempests 
and tornadoes, but oftener in the gentle breakings of 
the day. God does not work in all alike. John, and 
James, and Peter, and Matthew hearkened to a gentle 
call, and followed Christ. No terrors alarmed them ; 
and probably the change effected by divine grace in 
their hearts, was as gentle as the opening of a sum- 
mer's morning. But Paul, overwhelmed with terrors, 
31 



362 FEARS KE3PECT1NO REPENTANCE. 

was struck speechless to the earth ; and the jailer felt 
probably as great a commotion in his breast as the 
earthquake which shook the foundations of the prison. 
Repentance must be known, not by the strength of its 
pangs, but by the fruits it produces. The most tor- 
menting pangs of sorrow are not true repentance, if 
they do not inspire the soul with haired of sin, and 
urge it to Jesus for peace and salvation. If your re- 
pentance has been so deep as to fill you with hatred of 
sin; as to lead you to forsake, and watch, and pray 
against sin in all its forms; and as to urge you to flee 
10 the Lord Jesus, and to accept him as your Savior, 
your Lord, and your all, it is genuine, it is saving. 
Do not therefore imagine that others have no grace, 
whose experience has not been a copy of yours; nor 
suppose that you have none, because yours does not 
exactly resemble theirs. If you trust in the same 
blood, if you love the same Savior, if you w^alk in 
the same path, serve the same God, and seek the same 
heaven, depend upon it you have felt the influence of 
the same Spirit ; and though the operation has differ- 
ed, the effect is the same. If you saw a valley, like 
that seen in the vision by Ezekiel, covered with the 
dead, but among the lifeless multitudes a few possess- 
ed of life and vigor; part of which had been raised 
suddenly from death, and the other part so gradually, 
that none could tell when the vital spark was infused ; 
would it be argued that these were not alive, because 
they had risen so imperceptibly into life 1 or would it 
be reasonable for any of these to doubt their pos- 
session of the lif£ they felt, because they could not 
trace its first motions on their frame ? You live in a 
dead world ; and if you feel a spiritual life begun, be 



NVANT OF SPIRITUAL IMPROVEMENT, ibJ 

thankful and rejoice in God, though you should be un- 
able to tell the time when he breathed into you the 
breath of life. To know that you live is unspeakably 
momentous ; but to know when that life began, is of 
much less importance. 

§ 7. Perhaps you lament, that while you wish to be 
different, you feel so little improvement. You try to 
pray with all the earnestness you can ; yet still find a 
cold heart and dead affections. You wish for freedom 
from worldly thoughts when praying; yet still they 
haunt your soul and distract your mind. You gain no 
sensible answer from God, no comfortable sense of his 
love shed abroad in your heart ; but day rolls on after 
day, and week after week, and you are still cold, un- 
happy, and depressed. Perhaps you can say, I have 
sought the Savior, and if I perish, will perish at his 
feet; yet no comfort comes into my soul. I seek the 
rest he promises, but feel none of the delight and 
tranquillity that I have prayed and expected to find. 

Perhaps, in mercy, God for a time withholds the 
blessings, or the sensible enjoyment of the blessings 
you solicit ; yet persevere, and you will obtain them 
The woman of Canaan, that pleaded for her daughter, 
seemed to meet a refusal from even the compassionate 
Jesus. Again she asked, again he seemed to deny ; but 
it was to exercise her faith, and let its strength and 
power appear. God long waited, while you refused to 
listen ; why should you be surprised if he now expect 
you to persevere in imploring blessings before he 
lets you feel that you possess them 7 

Consider, too, that they who have true desires for 
grace, have so much grace as to be blessed. The Lord 
says, " Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst 



364 WANT OF SPIRITUAL COMFORT. 

after righteousness, for they shall be filled." They who 
hunger and thirst after any good, feel their want, and 
experience earnest and painful desire; a desire tha» 
never can be satisfied but with the wished-for blessing 
Give to him that is tormented with hunger or thirst, a 
heap of gold or jewels ; this would not relieve his wants. 
If your desires after spiritual good are those earnest 
restless desires that the possession of a world would 
not satisfy, but that an interest in the Savior would, 
amidst all your conflicts, doubts and fears, you still 
are blessed ; for, " Blessed are they that hunger and 
thirst after righteousness." 

§ 8. Perhaps you mourn the loss of comforts which 
you once enjoyed. There was a time when you were 
cheered with the presence of God. Your soul rejoiced 
in his love. Your heart glowed with love to him. Your 
hopes were bright. You anticipated immortality with 
pleasure. You looked to the Savior with grateful de- 
light, and could say, He loved me, and gave himself 
for me. But now your joy is changed for mourning; 
your day for night ; your light for darkness ; your peace 
and tranquillity for doubt and fear. You fear that God 
has withdrawn from you, and say, " O that I were as 
in months past, as in the days when God preserved 
me ; when his candle shined upon my head, and when 
by his light I walked through darkness." Now, instead 
of possessing cheering comforts, you walk in darkness, 
and have no light. Your heaven is clothed with black- 
ness. The light of God's countenance is withdrawn, 
and he hides his face from you. You fear that you 
have been a self-deceiver. You walk in darkness, and 
your prospects for eternity are full of uncertainty ; you 
know not whither you are traveling, to heaven or hell ; 



WALKING IN DARKNESS. 365 

you are full of fearful apprehensions ; and all that should 
fill your soul with comfort, only tends to increase your 
sorrows. 

Painful as is this condition, all its pains and sorrows 
have been felt by many who now rest in heaven. Many 
a child of light has walked in darkness; many an heir 
of heaven encountered doubts, and fears, and terrors 
by the way. The word of God represents those who 
are the heirs of "an inheritance incorruptible and un- 
defiled, reserved in heaven for" them, as " for a season, 
if need be, in heaviness through manifold temptations;" 
and directs his children how to act in circumstances so 
painful. " Who is among you that feareth the Lord 
tbat obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in 
darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name 
of the Lord, and stay upon his God." 

If thus overwhelmed with spiritual distress, devoutly 
inquire, whence proceeds your sorrow? Why has God 
withdrawn his presence from you ? Why does he per- 
mit you to walk in darkness? Perhaps the cause lies 
in yourself. You have perhaps yielded to some temp- 
tation or indulged in some besetting sin. Hence flows 
your want of peace, your dread of God. Your own 
conscience condemns you. An uneasy conscience has 
perhaps kept you from the throne of grace. If it be 
so, be assured that God is dealing in mercy with you 
to deprive you of spiritual peace. You cannot expect 
that God should become the minister of sin, and en- 
courage you in it, by favoring you as much with spi- 
ritual comforts when, you sin against him, as when you 
watch, and pray, and walk humbly with him. If this 
is the source of your happiness, never expect peace till 
31* 



dOO WALKING- IN DARKNESS, 

the sin which brings your sorrow is forsaken. Would 
you enjoy that blessing, flee from your sin ; exercise 
renewed repentance, apply to the blood of sprinkling, 
and walk humbly and holily with your God. Periiaps, 
if you have not been indulging in what is esteemed 
positively sinful, you have given way to a light and 
thoughtless spirit; have indulged in levity inconsist- 
ent with your profession, or in trifling unworthy of an 
heir of heaven. This is a frequent cause of spiritual 
distress. 

There are, however, many reasons for which God 
may suffer his children for a time to walk in darkness, 
even where they have not been indulging in sin or 
levity. 

§ 9. Perhaps God designs to deepen your humility. 
Thankfulness to God rises highest in the happy days 
of spiritual joy, but humility is ofien strengthened 
most in the dark hours of spiritual distress. Then, 
when the Christian sees utter unworlhiness clinging 
to all he is and he does; then, when he discerns such 
a world of iniquity in his heart, that the siglit surprises 
and alarms his soul; tiien it is that he sinks into the 
depths of self-abasement, and feels that salvation is all 
Df grace. Perhaps you need to sink there, to strip yon 
( f SI iritiial pride, or to wean you from all self-depend- 
ence, and to make you feel your uttev helplessness, 
wretcliedness, and ruin. Something of this the Cjjris- 
tian learns when he is convinced of sin and enters the 
way of religion by receiving tl\e Savior; but this im- 
portant lesson is often taught him more impressively 
in the dark day of spiritual sorrow than it was in the 
hours of his early penitence. 

Or perhaps, by leaving you for a while in darkness, 



AND iTS CAUSES. 367 

God designs to teach you more of the Savior's worth, 
and to cause you to bind the Gospel closer to your 
heart. Perhaps, though you felt so much sorrow for 
sin as led you to Christ, you liave not felt enougii of 
the worth of Christ; but now, while the remembrance 
of former sins distresses you, and you discern in your 
own heart an extent of iniquity before untnought of; 
now you can say, with feelings hitherto unknown by 
you, I am the chief of sinners, but Jesus died for me. 
Perhaps God intends to teach you to prize your mer- 
cies and his presence more. Light is most sweet when 
coming out of darkness; liealih, when rising from the 
bed of pain ; liberty, when escaping from confinement; 
and summer, after a long and dreary winter; so the 
soul learns to prize the presence of God, by being for 
a time denied that joy. A young disciple of Jesu?, who 
had lost mucii of her comfort by giving way to a light 
and trifling spirit, lately observed to the writer, that if 
she could attain what she once enjoyed, and which she 
thought she should never lose, she would not part 
with it again for ten thousand worlds. Perhaps you 
have not valued your mercies enough ; seek them again, 
and when obtained, prize tiiem more, and press onward 
to that happy world where no cloud will ever rise, no 
drooping winter be felt in the soul ; but God's presence 
will be enjoyed through one eternal day. 

Perhaps God permits you to walk in darkness, that 
he may exercise and brighten your graces. Faith and 
love are exercised most in the dark and cloudy day of 
sorrow. To believe when all is pleasing, when peace 
smiles on the soul and comforts bestrew its way, is an 
easy thing ; but to believe when all is dark and dreary, 
when no comfort is felt within, when no light is seen 



368 god's dealings various. 

without—this is the faith that God vahies. To love 
when the soul feels the assurance of God's love, and 
the joys that love imparts, is easy; but to love when 
his presence is withdrawn, when doubts and fears in- 
fest the soul, when hope is languishing, and comforts 
apparently dead — this is love of a stronger, nobler kind. 
God doubtless often exercises his children with spiri- 
tual trials, to call faith and love into exercise. Thus 
they who are in heaviness through manifold tempta- 
tions, are said to be so, " That the trial of their fait'n 
might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at 
the appearance of Jesus Christ." 

§ 10. Be not therefore dismayed if comfort seems 
for a while withdrawn from you. If the cause lies ob- 
viously in your sin, lukewarmness or negligence, seek 
grace to correct it ; but if you cannot find it there, then 
think what may be the intention of the Most High in 
thus trying you, and pray that the design may be fully 
accomplished. The dealings of God in the dispensa- 
tions of his grace often resemble those in the world of 
nature. Look at a harvest field. Behold the waving 
crop ready for the garner. Yet think what variou* 
changes it has undergone. If the year had been all 
winter, the seed would not have grown ; if all summer^ 
it would have been parched up ; if all wet, it would 
have rotted ; if all dry, it would have withered. God 
has given a right proportion of each, and the field is 
white unto the harvest. God, their gracious God, por- 
tions to his children the needful share of health and 
sickness, ease and pain : gives spiritual peace, that they 
may run in the way of his commandments; or with 
draws his presence, and leaves them in darkness, that 
he may lay them low at his feet, or correct them for 



cod's dealings various. 369 

their sins, or kill their corruptions, or exercise their 
graces; and he does all tilings well. 

§ 11. Perhaps you imagine that your want of spiri- 
tual comfort argues that you are destitute of divine 
grace, and that you have always been a deceiver. In- 
deed we should watch against self-deception ; and such 
fears should occasion serious self-examination ; but if, 
after such examination, you find no real reason for in- 
dulging such fears, reject them as the suggestions of 
the wicked one, designed to harass and distress your 
soul. Were you to see a dutiful child, that was always 
concerned to do his father's will, and fearful of dis- 
pleasing him, lamenting bitterly that he did not love 
his father more, and desiring, above all earthly good, a 
stronger affection for his parent ; would you not argue, 
That child loves his father, though he now hardly be- 
lieves it; if he had no love, he would feel no such sor- 
rows, and cherish no such desires? You may apply 
similar reasoning to your own case, or that of any 
child of God who walks in darkness, but who walks 
with God. 

An aged Christian, in much distress of mind, was 
once complaining to a friend of his miserable condi- 
tion; and among other things said, " that which trou- 
bles me most is, that God will be dishonored by my 
fall." His friend hastily catching at this expression, 
used it for the purpose of consoling him : "Art thou 
careful of the honor of God ; an-d dost thou think God 
hath no care of thee, and of thy salvation ? A soul for- 
saken of God cares not what becomes of the honor of 
God. Therefore be of good cheer : if God's heart were 
not towards thee, thine would not be towards God, or 
towards the remembrance of his name." 



370 SOME SORROWS 

§ 12. Perhaps with some or all of these inward con- 
flicts and sorrows you have to encounter outward op- 
position. The world reviles and slanders you, because 
you are no longer conformed to its corruptions. You 
are perhaps represented as a schismatic, an enthusiast, 
or a fanatic ; or as a melancholy creature, going out of 
your senses, because you will follow the dictates of Je- 
sus, and tread where he trod before you. Your regard to 
his precepts is deemed unnecessary prcciseness ; your 
religion is pronounced hypocrisy, and your wisdom 
lolly. Your former associates make you the butt of 
their ridicule. Your nearest relatives oppose your holy 
choice, and are changed into enemies because you 
have embraced the Gospel of Jesus. Perhaps some 
who read these lines may have parents who even 
threaten to disown them, and to cast them helpless on 
the wide world if they adhere to their religion ; or em- 
ployers who will dismiss them from their service if 
they faithfully follow Jesus Christ. This kind of per- 
secution still exists. The carnal mind is as much en- 
mity against God as it was when Nero, or Pliny, or 
Trajan, or Diocletian ravaged with persecution the 
church of God. Sixteen hundred years ago Tertullian 
observed,' " Some are arrived to that pitch of aversion 
to the very name of Christian, that they seem to have 
entered into covenant with hatred, and bargained to 
gratify this passion at the expense of all the sati-fac- 
tions of human life, acquiescing in the grossest of in- 
juries rather than the hated thing of Christian should 
come within their doors. The husband, now cured of 
all his former jealousy by his wife's conversion to 
Christianity, turns her and her new modesty out of 
doors together, choosing to dwell with an adulteress 



A PROOF OF GRACE. S71 

SGonef than a Christian : the father, so tender of the 
unduiiful son in his Gentile state, disinherits liim now 
Avhen he becomes obedient by becomin/7 a Christian: 
ihe master, heretofore so good to his unfaithful slave, 
discards him now upon his fidelity and his religion. 
So that the husband had rather have his wife false, the 
father his son a rebel, the master his servant a rogue, 
than ♦© have them Christians and good : so much is the- 
hatred of our name above all the advantages of virtue 
ilovving from it. Our heavenly Master, and his heaven- 
ly religion, are both unknown, and both condemned, 
without any other consideration but that of the bare 
name of Christian." All this is but a faithful descrip- 
tion of the spirit of many opposers of genuine religion 
in the present age. 

In the midst of trials of this kind you have cause 
for joy rather than sorrow. They are what the holy 
Jesus told his first disciples to expect. " Ye shall be 
liated of ail men for my name's sake ; but he that en- 
durelh to the end shall be saved." " And ye shall be 
betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, 
and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be 
put to death." " A man's foes shall be they of his own 
household." They are what he himself encountered, 
and need we wonder that a world which hated him, 
should hate his followers ? " If they have called the 
Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them 
of his liousehold ?" If they represented him as a glutton, 
a drunkard, and a stirrer of sedition, surely you need 
not be surprised, and should not be pained at any 
scandals they may cast on you ! If friends oppose your 
choice, and deem your wisdom folly, remember his 
brethren at one time did not believe in him, but said 



372 PERSECUTION. 

he was beside himself. If the haters of holiness revile, 
and inock, and injure you, hearken while your Lord 
says, " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated 
me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the 
world would love his own : but because ye are not of 
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, 
therefore the world hateth you." Since he was hated, 
why should it grieve you to be hated by a world that 
hated him ? Why should you mourn at being reviled, 
when he was reviled before you ? Rather rejoice ; and 
if ever disposed to mourn and droop on account of the 
opposition you experience, then hear him saying, 
" Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteous- 
ness' sake ; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed 
are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, 
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for 
my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is 
your reward in heaven : for so persecuted they the pro- 
phets which were before you." 

Thus expect little from the world that hated him , 
but rejoice, that, if you are dead with him, you shall 
also live with him ; if you suffer, you shall also reign 
with him ; if 3^ou confess him on earth, he will also 
confess you before his Father, and before his angels. 
Important period ! How trifling then will appear the 
ridicule of the gay, and the more open enmity of the 
hostile! Then all the trials of faithful piety will end. 
Look therefore to the crown, and you will not tremble 
at the cross. Think of hearing, at the end of life's short 
day, those gladdening words, '-Well done, good and 
faithful servant!" and the enmity and contempt of the 
haters of religion will be as trifling as the chatter! ngs 



SATANIC OPPOSITION. 373 

of a magpie, and will no more prevent your pressing 
on to heaven than the biizzings of an angry fly. 

§ 13. Had the disciples of Jesus no other enemies 
than the flesh and the world to oppose their progress 
to heaven, the Christian life would be in reality a war- 
fare. But the word of God discloses to your view other 
enemies not less formidable. However Unitarians and 
infidels may reject or ridicule the notion o{ satanic op- 
position directed against the growth of piety, no truth 
is revealed in the divine word with more clearness. 
Satan is there described as an active, a busy, and a 
powerful enemy ; " as a roaring lion, seeking whom 
he may devour." This language does not represent 
him as a weak or timid, a supine or careless foe; but 
as a mighty enemy, ready to attack the strongest; a 
watchful enemy, whoever sleeps, not sleeping. The 
Christian is declared to have to maintain a conflict with 
this enemy, and with his associates in guilt and ruin. 
" Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able 
to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle 
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, 
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of 
this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." 
How awful is this statement ! The angels that kept not 
their first estate are the rulers of this dark world. Over 
multitudes they reign with an undisputed sway, and 
exert all their hellish arts to harass and to injure those 
who are translated out of their dark kingdom. The 
followers of Jesus, in pressing on to heaven, have to 
encounter their opposition, and to wrestle with them. 
§ 14. The great end which Satan and his guilty as- 
sociates pursue is the destruction of the immortal soul* 
32 



374 WILES OF SATAN. 

and a principal means by which he advances his hellish 
purposes doubtless is deception. Hence we read of his 
deceiving the nations ; of the depths of Satan ; of the 
wiles of the devil ; and of Satan's devices. Are persons 
brought out of a state of carelessness and presumption, 
they are tempted to think that it is too late for them to 
seek for mercy ; that their sins are too many and great 
to be forgiven ; that their doom is fixed, and that it is 
vain for them to seek for happiness. If these views are 
not sufficient to prevent their following after salvation, 
it is then perhaps suggested to them that they have sin- 
ned the unpardonable sin, and therefore that there can 
be no hope for them ; or they are tempted to build on 
some other foundation instead of that which God has 
laid. Their minds are harassed and tempted to indulge 
unbelief. In prayer a variety of suggestions are power- 
fully injected into the mind, till, distracted and per- 
plexed, the Christian can scarcely pray : then he is 
tempted to think that he had better not pray at all, 
than pray so imperfectly; and if he listens to the 
tempter, Satan gains an advantage over him. 

Is the temptation designed to draw the believer into 
sin? The sin is dressed out in its most alluring colors. 
The advantages, enjoyments and pleasures to be ob- 
tained by compliance are all arrayed before him. The 
bait is presented, but the hook is hidden. It is perhaps 
suggested that the sin is a small one, and may after- 
wards be repented of; or that many pious persons have 
fallen into worse crimes : as Noah, David, and Peter, 
who yet found forgiveness and happiness. Or perhaps 
the soul is tempted by the suggestion that it would not 
actually transgress the divine laws; that so much strict- 
ness as some professors of religion plead for, is unne 



WILES OF SATAN. 275 

cessary preciseness; and thus it is rendered bold in ven- 
turing on temptation, and the next step is transgres- 
sion. Then from sin it is led on to sin; from smaller to 
greater crimes, till peace, and hope, and faith, and hap- 
piness are all sacrificed. Thus Peter fell : he first was 
tempted to a lie; to this another lie was soon added; 
and many hours had not elapsed before perjury and 
profaneness were added to the falsehoods previously 
uttered. So David first indulged unlawful desires for 
Bathsheba; then sunk into adultery ; and to shield her 
and himself from the shame of discovery, proceeded, 
by the sword of the enemy, to murder the man he had 
so deeply injured. Had Peter at first been tempted to 
curse and to swear, or David to murder Uriah, that he 
might gain Bathsheba, probably the tempter's design 
had been frustrated ; but step by step they were drawn 
to the precipice from which they fell. There is no 
device of the devil which the Christian should fear 
more than that of being rendered bold in venturing on 
temptation, and giving way to what may be thought 
smaller sins. 

§ 15. In your warfare with the prince of darkness 
you have no occasion for surprise or alarm at the 
strength, the repetition, or the horrid nature of his sug- 
gestions to temptations. Read the history of our Lord^s 
temptation, and it may furnish you many useful les- 
sons. Satan tempted Jesus — hence you may learn 
that the most pious may expect his assaults. He per- 
severed in tempting Jesus, and when foiled at one 
temptation employed another. Hence it is evident that 
Satan will not easily depart from those whose faith 
and piety he is anxious to destroy. He tempted Jesus 
with the most horrid of temptations, even that of fall- 



376 Christ's temptations. 

ing down and worshiping himself — a devil. Need the 
Christian then be surprised if the enemy, who pre- 
sented a temptation so horrid to his Lord, should ha- 
rass him with suggestions equally dreadful ? His last 
and principal offer to the Savior, was the world — " All 
this will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and wor- 
ship me.'^ This is the most successful of the false, but 
alluring offers that he still employs to keep or draw 
the soul from God. When tempting Jesus, he backed 
his impious suggestions by passages from even the 
word of God, and by wresting the Scriptures. Thus 
the kingdom of Satan is still upheld, and multitudes 
undone for ever. Yet consider that Jesus, though 
tempted even to worship the devil, continued holy, 
harmless, and undefiled. It is not therefore tempta- 
tion, but yielding to temptation, that stains the soul 
with sin. Often are the friends of Jesus distressed 
and perplexed from not regarding this distinction. 
They think they cannot be his followers who have 
such horrid thoughts or temptations as they have. At 
such times they should look to their Lord, and think, 
Am I, or can I be tempted worse than he? Why then 
despond? 

That you may overcome in your warfare, watchful- 
ness is a most momentous Christian duty. The Lord 
Jesus Christ inculcates a watchful spirit. "Take ye 
heed, watch and pray ; for ye know not when the time 
is. I say unto you all, Watch." " Blessed is he that 
watchelh." "Let him that thinketh he standeth take 
heed lest he fall." 

Take unto you the whole armor of God, and you 
will, through Jesus's strength, triumph over the wicked 
one. Jesus persevered and triumphed, and angels came 



TEMPTATIONS OVERCOME. 377 

and ministered unto him. Follow him, and he will 
minister unto your wants ; and when the last tempta- 
tion is over, angels will come and minister to your 
triumphant spirit, and bear it away as a happy con- 
queror to worlds of light. 

Pray much. By prayer you will conquer. Avoid 
idleness. The slothful are peculiarly open to the as- 
saults of the wicked one. With prayer unite reading 
the Scriptures and devout meditation. Above all, en- 
deavor to live under the influence of faith in God and 
Christ in heaven. To communicate your trials and 
temptations to Christian friends, may also assist you in 
overcoming the wicked one. An excellent Puritan wri- 
ter mentions a man who was tempted to blasphemy 
for the long term of twenty years, and kept in almost 
continual terror. He thought there was no man so vile, 
and who had such thoughts as he ; and that if the world 
knew what they were, he should be abhorred as a 
monster. He was often tempted to suicide, principally 
on the ground that it was a pity such a blasphemer as 
he supposed himself should longer live. Buth earing 
the subject of these dreadful suggestions preached up- 
on, and afterwards conversing privately respecting 
them, he was happily delivered from his sorrows. Be 
faithful and persevere. 

§ 16. Amidst all the discouragement and distress of 
your spiritual warfare, never forget that you have a 
faithful " High Priest wlio is passed into the heavens," 
but who knows "how to succor them that are tempted," 
as "he v/as in all points tempted like as" they are, 
"yet without sin." Jesus felt the sting of affliction, the 
assaults of Satan and the sorrows of spiritual desertion. 
32* 



378 Christ's promises. 

In your darkest hour you may approach him and say, 
Blessed Lord, behold me in a case that once was thine 
—harassed by those hellish foes that once harassed 
thee ; but thou hast conquered, and wilt thou not give 
thy poor follower grace and strength to conquer too 1 
Why distrust the gracious Savior ? Are not his pro- 
mises as rich as heavenly love can make them ? as firm 
as eternal truth can fix them? as free as an undone 
world can want? Art thou his servant? He says, 
" Where I am, there shall also my servant be." Art 
thou one of his flock? he declares, " My sheep shall ne- 
ver perish, neither shall any one (neither man nor devil) 
pluck them out of my hand." Or art thou laden with sin 
and full of fears ? he says, " Him that cometh to me I will 
in no wise cast out." " Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It is said 
that when bishop Butler lay on his death-bed, he said to 
his chaplain, " Though I have endeavored to avoid sin 
and please God to the utmost of my power, yet, from 
the consciousness of perpetual infirmities, I am still 
afraid to die."— "My lord," said the chaplain, -'you 
have forgotten that Jesus Christ is a Savior."—" True," 
was the answer ; "but how shall I know that he is a 
Savior for me ?"— " It is written, Him that cometh to 
me I will in no wise cast out."—'' True," said the bi- 
shop ; " and I am surprised that, though I have read 
that Scripture a thousand times over, I never felt its 
virtue till this moment; and now I die happy." 

In your Christian pilgrimage, in your spiritual war- 
fare, forget not that you have a Savior : and let that 
Savior be all your comfort and support. 

§ 17. Think of your heavenly Father's love. Jesus, 
speaking of him, said to his disciples even after they 



ENCOURAGEMENT FROM GOD's LOVE. 379 

had fallen through unbelieving fears, " I ascend unto 
my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." 
Precious declaration ! With such a Father as the bless- 
ed God, why should his penitent, though unworthy 
child despond and fear? Richer mercy you cannot 
need than that which God displays. Promises more 
free you cannot desire. Though one sin allowed to 
reign would undo an immortal soul, yet had a soul 
which comes to God by Christ sins as numerous as the 
drops of morning dew, the blood of Jesus would wash 
them all away. Cannot you trust in God to help you ? 
He bade the sun shine : has he not power to shine into 
your sad heart ? Does he want the inclination ? It can- 
not be that he who gave Christ for you, can be unwil- 
ling, with Christ, to give whatever your wants require. 
Jesus has died. Such has been his infinite pity, that 
through his appointment Jesus has died. O, compre- 
hend but this aright and nothing more will be needed 
to banish thy fears, to raise thy hopes, to subdue thy 
unbelief, to fire and to fill thee with trust and delight 
in thy great, and good, and gracious God. Think of 
him as a Father. Does not a father pity his feeble 
child? If the child lie sick and aflfiicted, unable to 
utter any thing but sobs and groans, will he pity that 
child the less ? God is a Father to those that seek him ; 
a kinder Father than any earthly parent; he knows 
his children's sorrows; he sees their feebleness, and 
knows their frame is dust. He pities them, and hast 
thou been led to seek him, then be assured he pities 
thee. 

§ 18. To animate you in pressing forward to the 
Christian crown, often think of those who, through 
faith and patience, are inheriting the promises. Turn 



380 EXAMPLES OF MARTYRS. 

to the first ages of Christianity. Christians then es- 
teemed it an honor to suffer shame for the name of 
Jesus. They forced their passage to heaven through 
all that is most dreadful ; and sought admission there 
at the expense of all that is most dear. Riches, health, 
ease, pleasure, and life, all were trifles in their esteem. 
Then tormentors were weary of inflicting pain before 
martyrs were weary of bearing it. Their path was no 
smooth and flowery way : sorrows beset its entrance 
and attended its course, and flames and tortures were 
at its end : and yet they trod it. These indeed seem 
like a different race of beings, like creatures of a diffe- 
rent world. Ah, my friend ; there lay the distinction 
between them and many that profess the same Gospel 
now. They were creatures of a different world. They 
lived on earth, to be ready for heaven. Hence they 
trod the path to glory, however thorny, and rejoiced 
in hastening to an early crown. Polycarp, when con- 
demned to martyrdom, was so fearful lest the prayers 
of his friends would prevent the execution of the sen- 
tence, that he begged them to forbear : " I fear," said 
he, " lest your love should injure me." Does one of 
all those martyred myriards now repent ? Did one 
when landing on the heavenly shore ever think, I have 
borne too much for him who bore the cross for me ? 
We need not go so far back to view the patience of the 
saints. Look back a hundred and fifty or two hundred 
years, and see the persecutions endured by those of 
whom the world was not worthy. See dungeons filled 
with their captives, and deserts peopled with their 
exiles. See persecutors hunting out their little haunts ; 
denying them the enjoyment of religious worship even 
in solitary fields or lonely woods. Behold soldiers en- 



PROMISES TO THE FAITHFUL. 381 

tering their assemblies, disturbing their meetings, si- 
lencing their ministers, and dragging hearers and 
preachers to fines, confiscations, and prisons. O be 
not slothful ! though not called to encounter their sor- 
rows, imitate their lives ; cherish their fervent attach- 
ment to the absent Savior; and their fond eagerness 
for a better world. When the world tempts you, and 
Satan suggests. Your hope is vain ; then think of them 
who once had all these trials, and many more ; but who 
overcame through the blood of the Lamb. 

§ 19. When tempted to despond or shrink in the day 
of conflict, then hear your Lord saying. Will you go 
away ; you for whom I died ; to whom I have been a 
shepherd and friend; who have professed so much love 
to me ; who have taken on your soul such solemn vows, 
and sealed them so often at the table of your Lord ; 
will you go away ? You who never found me faith- 
less — and never will — will you go away? will you? 
shall Satan triumph? have you considered the folly? 
have you weighed the sin? have you measured the 
ingratitude of hearkening to the tempter? and will you 
go away ? O do you not reply, Holy Jesus, where 
should I go? If I left thee, where should I find a Sa- 
vior? where go for pardon,, peace, salvation, and eter- 
nal life ? Keep me, and I will not go away. Though 
the tempter's suggestion were true, that my hope is 
vain, yet if I perish, at thy feet will I die ! 

If tempted to give religion up, hear your Lord say- 
ing, " Hold that fast which thou hast, that no one take 
thy crown." All the enemies thou hast been instructed 
to watch against, will try to rob thee of that prize ; but 
hold the beginning of thy confidence fast unto the end. 
Think of the worth of that crown of which they would 



382 PROMISES TO THE FAITHFUL. 

rob thee. Think of the price which was paid, that that 
crown might adorn thy head, thou child of dust I a 
price no less precious than the blood of the Lamb. 
Think of the love that would bestow it on thee ! think 
of the raptures of receiving, and of the heaven of en- 
joying, that thornless crown ! Whatever thou mayest 
lose, or suffer, or fear, or dread, still hold this fast I 
Though it does not yet beam around thy honored head, 
3'et follow Jesus, and it shortly will. Hear him speak- 
ing to thee : " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
give thee a crown of life." No meaner hand than mine 
shall give the glorious boon. Thy Lord's own hand 
will bestow the prize. Fear not lest thou shouldst not 
attain the blessing, for I will give it thee. 

" Be faithful unto death." Thi-s is all ; and come 
when death may, then this crown, not of merit but of 
grace, is thine. This promise was given to those who 
had to pass through persecution. You are not called 
to such trials; be faithful then when encountering far 
lighter opposition; and remember that the spirit of 
martyrs should animate every Christian. If you are 
afraid of being singularly pious ; if you fear a sneer, or 
a laugh, or the words fanatic, enthusiast, or methodist; 
if you shrink from your duty for fear of offending a 
friend or an employer, can you think that such faith 
and fortitude would stand a much severer trial? Can 
you think that you should be faithful unto death, 
amidst taunts and torments ? If this be the case, are 
you faithful now? Does not Jesus say. Whosoever 
shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will 
the Son of man be ashamed ? O watch against a cow 
ardly spirit in religion ! 

It is true, our difficulties are not like those of some 



ENCOURAGEMENT. 383 

who have preceded us. They are less formidabJe j and 
perhaps on that account more dangerous. When at- 
tacked by the enemies they encountered, there re- 
mained no opportunity for parleying with the trial. 
No alternative remained to them but victory or death. 
But the evils we encounter in our spiritual warfare 
seem to demand less decision, and so are often more 
destructive. The warm beams of the sun led the tra- 
veler, in the fable, to throw aside the cloke which the 
rough tempest could not tear from him. 

Look to that crown ! and to him who gives it ! Look 
to those promises that they are inheriting, who in his 
strength have overcome. They felt all your trials ; they 
knew all your sorrows ; they encountered all your dan- 
gers, and struggled with all your enemies j had hearts 
as cold and groveling ; enemies as many and as mighty ; 
fears as painful ; doubts as perplexing, and temptations 
as harassing; but they overcame through the blood of 
the Lamb. Now they are inheriting the promises ; and 
opposition, and danger, and death, and temptation, and 
sin, are things unknown where they repose. A few years 
ago many of them were in the field of warfare, but now 
in the land of victory. Their pilgrimage is ended ; their 
warfare done ; their voyage of life is finished ; they have 
reached the harbor, and landed on " the peaceful shore 
of blest eternity." The crown of life, the rivers of plea- 
sure, the fullness of joy, the house not made with 
hands, the mansions in Jehovah's dwelling, the heaven 
we desire, the eternity that fills our souls with conflict- 
ing hopes, and fears — all, all are theirs. Happy con- 
querors ! happy end of the struggles of a few fleeting 
years! And may you ere long enjoy the same? You 
may. Eternal love has opened to your soul the gate 



384 VICTORY OF OTHERS. 

of heaven. Eternal love would place upon your head 
the crown of life. Your journey is no longer than 
theirs ; your enemies no mightier. Your helps are no 
less. Jesus was their strength ; and he would be yours. 
Your encouragements are no smaller. To them he 
promised immortality, and the crown of life; and he 
would give the same precious gift to you. O blessed 
immortality ! is this the gift of Jesus to a pardoned 
penitent that once deserved the depths of hell? O 
crown of life, of glory ! is it this that his kind hand 
will place on every humble believer's unworthy head? 
Blessed gifts ! blessed recompense for a life of four- 
score years, wholly devoted to his love and service ! 
Of fourscore years ! whose years are those? more than 
probable not yours, not mine. But if they were, four- 
score years or fourscore moments are the same, when 
compared with those boundless, endless oceans of ages 
that eternity contains. O the heights, and depths, and 
lengths of that love which gives, as a free gift to an 
unworthy sinner, that eternal life I Precious encou- 
ragement for following the Lamb, through light or 
darkness, life or death ! Look to him, and look to hea- 
ven, then onward go, till life concludes, and Jesus 
gives the crown 



ON BACKSLIDING. 386 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

ON BACKSLIDING. 

§ 1. Many are the painful spectacles presented in 
this world to the Christian's view, but none more pain- 
ful than to see those, who once promised fair for heaven, 
turning back into perdition. In all ages this sad night 
has been too frequently beheld. Among the twelve 
apostles was a Judas, who betrayed his Lord. Among 
the companions of the blessed Paul was a Demas, who 
forsook him, "having loved this present world." 
Among those to whom he preached the Gospel were 
foolish Galatians, who, as if bewitched, obeyed not 
Christ crucified ; and fallen Corinthians, of whom he 
said, " I fear lest my God will humble me among you, 
and that I shall bewail many which have sinned, and 
have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, 
and lasciviousness which they have committed." 

No new thing then happens to the flock of Jesus, 
when some of whom they once hoped well, forsake 
the Lord. Nor, though it pain, need this discourage 
his sincere disciples. He knows his own, and says of 
them, "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis that 
have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk 
with me in white, for they are worthy." 

§ 2. The causes of backsliding are many and various. 

Probably the prevailing cause is the want of real grace. 

Many profess religion who never possessed it. When 

they fall away the church of Christ sustains no real 

33 



386 '"" CAUSES OF BACKSLIDING. 

loss ; the number traveling to lieaven is not diminish- 
ed; for they were hypocrites or self-deceivers. The 
word of God represents this as a principal cause of 
backsliding. "They went out from us, but they were 
not of us." " He that receiveth the seed into stony 
places, is he that heareth the word, and with joy re- 
ceiveth it : yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth 
for a while." Persons of this description never were 
the children of God. They might seem pleased and 
profited, but the root was always wanting. The fool- 
ish virgins were always different from the wise. They 
had the lamp, but they never had the oil ; no one is 
truly a disciple of Christ who does not at heart for- 
sake all things for him. Many profess religion that 
are never brought to this. They leave some sins, they 
make some sacrifices while their feelings are roused, 
and perhaps they stand for a time ; but when the world 
bids high enough for their services, they renounce re- 
ligion, and return to the ways they professed to for- 
sake. A celebrated statesman used to say that every 
man has his price. However we may disbelieve this 
assertion, we may assert, that every one who profess- 
es religion, without being truly converted to God, has, 
as to this world, his price. For some the world must 
bid higher than for others. The offer of an ungodly, 
but pleasing wife or husband, is a price sufficiently 
high for multitudes ; for this they will forsake their 
profession, and renounce their Lord and christian 
friends. Others want a higher price; but all who have 
not the root of religion within, will only stand their 
ground till the world tempts them with something 
sufficiently valuable, in their esteem, to draw them 
aside. Love to the world is a common cause of back- 



CAUSES OF BACKSLIDING. 387 

sliding. " Demas hath forsaken me," said the apostle 
Paul, "having loved this present world." Anxious 
cares respecting the things of time, and inordinate at- 
tachment to them, occasions others to fall away. " The 
cares of this world," among the lower and middling 
classes of society ; and the " deceitfulness of riches," 
among the wealthy ; " and the lusts of other things en- 
tering in," in all stations, and ranks, and ages, " choke 
the word, and they become unfruitful." The fear of 
man insnares some ; the love of gain entangles others ,• 
and worldly companions and worldly marriages draw 
multitudes away. 

§ 3. Backsliding may properly be distingushed into 
secret and open. The former takes place in the case 
of those who do not openly renounce religion, but 
who no longer feel its vital power, or on whom its 
influence is gradually declining. Such was the case 
of the church at Ephesus, when the Lord Jesus, 
after commending their labors, fidelity and patience, 
added, " Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, 
because thou hast left thy first love." Such also was 
the case of many in the church at Sardis, when the 
Savior said, " I know thy works, that thou hast a name 
that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful and 
strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to 
die." Such also, in a still more deplorable degree, was 
their case at Laodicea, of whom he said, "Because 
thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will 
spue thee out of my mouth. Thou sayest, I am rich, 
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; 
and knowest not that thou art wretched, and misera- 
ble, and poor, and blind, and naked." In none of these 
cases was the form of religion laid aside. But, alas ! its 



388 SECRET BACKSLIDING. 

life was going, or gone. They at Ephesus, who had fall- 
en least, had left their first love. That they had dread- 
fully, though secretly and inwardly fallen, is evident 
from the admonition which the Lord addressed to them. 
They at Sardis had sunk still lower. All was not dead, 
but all was dying. They at Laodicea had sunk the low- 
est, and they were in a kind of middle state between the 
careless worldling and the zealous Christian. Not cold, 
as those who are dead to every religious feeling ; not 
hot, as those who are pressing on to glory ; but like 
lukewarm water, in a middle condition, between the 
cold and the hot. 

As some thus secretly backslide by losing love to 
the Savior and religion, others do so by forsaking him 
as the ground of their hope. The apostle evidently 
represents the Galatians as falling away from Christ : 
" Christ is become of no effect unto you ; whosoever of 
you are justified by the law. ye are fallen from grace." 
The sin of those who are thus addressed, appears to 
have been the uniting the works of the law with 
Christ, as the ground of their dependence. In doing 
so, they are described as getting into a state in which 
they would lose their interest in the Savior, and thus 
in reality fall away from him. 

Secret backsliding is inexpressibly dangerous. Per- 
sons who have thus declined from religion may yet 
maintain its outward forms, frequent the house of 
prayer occasionally, keep up some connection with the 
church of Christ, and feel few or no suspicions respect- 
ing their real state. The Lord describes such as saying 
that they are rich, and have need of nothing ; but de- 
clares that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, 
and blind, and naked. How dreadful is their delusion I 



PROGRESS OF BACKSLIDING. 389 

They Ihink that all is well, when all is ill ; and deem 
all safe for eternity, till they enter that solemn state, 
and find that their religion was delusion, and that they 
are lost for ever ! How needful a duty is self-examina- 
tion ! how needful is it to watch the heart, and to keep 
the heart with all diligence, since out of it are the is- 
sues of life! 

Open backsliding takes place when they who have 
lost the life and power of religion openly forsake their 
adherence to the Savior, and return to the world, to 
folly, and sin. 

§ 4. In both cases backsliding is an inexpressibly 
dreadful evil. No language can describe its mischief, 
and where willful and continued, no words express its 
enormity. 

This dreadful evil is commonly a gradual evil. Few 
are backsliders all at once. Backsliders, in turning 
from God and happiness, commonly go step by step 
till they plunge into final apostacy and eternal perdi- 
tion. First, love to the Savior and religion declines in 
Iheir hearts. As this love lessens, their hatred to sin 
becomes weaker and the world regains its influence. 
Some then give way to a spirit of pride, and vanity, 
and self-importance. Others yield their affections to 
the world. They allow this to be busy with them in 
their closets and in the house of God. By degrees se- 
cret communion with God is neglected. Little delight 
is found in devotion, and private prayer is first occa- 
sionally, and then habitually disregarded. If at the 
head of a family, family worship is dropped. Public du- 
ties are soon neglected. They grow less attentive to4he, 
house of God. Its services are thought long and tedi- 
33* 



390 EFFECTS OF BACKSLIDING. 

ous ; and first one is neglected, and then another. The 
Lord's table is slighted. Social meetings for prayer 
and religious conversation are altogether abandoned. 
Their inclination is turned another way : they had ra- 
ther spend two hours a day in trifling conversation, 
than half an hour a week in seeking spiritual benefit. 
They grow more and more wearied of the strict- 
ness of religion. Their taste for its pleasures gra- 
dually dies. Their Christian friends are forsaken. 
They grow tired of true friends, and pleased with false 
ones: like the Israelites who were pleased with the 
spies, but thought Joshua and Moses their enemies. 
They form new intimacies, or revive old ones with 
those that are strangers to the path of peace. At 
length they become again mere followers of the world, 
and their conduct and deportment are commonly suit- 
ed to their fallen condition. Do Christian friends en- 
deavor to stop them in their progress to destruction ? 
In some a few painful feelings are excited, some half- 
formed resolutions are made ; but all soon vanishes, 
and again they pursue their declining path. Others 
receive with disgust the warnings of Christian friend- 
ship, and go on without perceiving their folly, and in- 
sensible of their guilt. " I do not perceive that I am 
fallen," says the lukewarm professor. Unhappy man ! 
why then do all else perceive it ? Why is your place 
at the house of God st) often empty ? Why are all re- 
ligious exercises with your Christian friends neglected ? 
Why is the table of the Lord slighted ? Why is the 
prosperity of the Savior's cause a matter of no concern 
to you ? Why so different from what you once were? 
""Oh^ replies the self-deceiver, " I am dissatisfied. The 
minister does not preach as he used to do, nor friends 



LETTER TO A BACKSLIDER. 391 

behave as they formerly did." Such are the excuses 
and complaints of many backsliders. Unhappy crea- 
tures ! they are like a man that, having lost his sight, 
finds fault with the sun instead of his eyes, and says 
of that bright luminary at noon-day, " It does not shine 
as it used to do." 

§ 5. On the g2iiU and mischiefs of backsliding the 
writer will insert, with some small alterations, a letter 
written several years ago to a young female who had 
fallen from religion, but of whose restoration there ap- 
peared some flattering, though, alas! delusive hope. 

"My dear Friend, — Allow me, by writing a few lines 
to you, to give you another expression of my anxious 
concern for your eternal welfare ; yes, your eternal 
welfare; for what will long seem worth a single 
thought, except the blessings of eternity ! 

" I would hope that the repentance and grief for 
your conduct, which you expressed on the Sabbath, 
have not again vanished like the morning cloud or the 
early dew. I prayed for you, not merely at that time, 
but often before ; and if you truly return to the paths 
of peace, shall think these prayers answered. 

"And what, Sarah, is now the state of your heart ? 
Is it again thoughtless? again hardened? God forbid! 
and grant that it may be tender, humble and penitent! 
My dear friend, you have need of repentance. I do 
not wish to upbraid you with any thing that is past; 
yet love to your soul makes it needful to say to you — 
You have need of repentance, of deep repentance. 
Surely you must have fallen away far from God. But 
are you penitent? If you are, I would not break the 
bruised reed. Rather would I direct you to the prom- 
ises of your loving, though lately forsaken God. Then 



292 LETTER TO A BACKSLIDER. 

hear him saying in his word, * Return unto me, and I 
will return unto you.' ' Return, ye backsliding chil- 
dren, and I will heal your backslidings.' ' If we confess 
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' 'The 
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all 
sin.' To you these promises are made,- let them not 
be made in vain. Still God is willing to receive you ; 
still Jesus is willing to welcome you. His blood may 
yet cleanse you from your sins, and his kind hand sup- 
port your feeble steps. Behold backsliding Peter. He 
found mercy ; and, gone from this world, joins in the 
songs of the redeemed above. Oh, Sarah, seek the 
Savior's grace afresh : you will not seek in varn r 

* His bleeding heart will make yon room^ 
' His open'd arms will take you in.' 

Yet he would give you peace, give you pardon, give 
you heaven, and join you soon to his redeemed above. 
And does it not melt your heart to think, 'And would 
my injured Savior again receive me? and would my 
forsaken God again welcome meV He would, indeed 
he would. ' And may I sit down with his saints above ? 
and may my happy spirit adore his love, when this 
now healthful body is a lifeless corpse, and this cold 
heart is colder in the grave ? O ! may eternal blessedness 
then be mine?' It may. 'And shall I slight it longer? 
Shall I turn from the way of life ? Shall I forsake my 
kind Redeemer ? Break, O my God ! the hard heart 
that has deceived me, and let it never deceive me 



more i 



"But, my dear friend, while the promises of grace 
should encourage your return; to strengthen your 



BACKSLIDER ENTREATED. 393 

earnestness, you may profitably unite with the motives 
they furnish, the consideration of what you were do- 
inff. You had, I am persuaded, nearly given up reli- 
gion altogether. If you had done so quite, think what 
you would have done. Where would have been your 
hopes, your friends, your comforts, and where, ere 
long, your soul ? In such a state, if turning your eyes 
to heaven, you might have said, There dwells the 
Lord ; once I could say. There dwells my God ; but 
alas! no longer mine. Once he was my friend; but 
now I have made him my enemy. His love was my 
portion ; but it is mine no more. There dwells the Sa- 
vior, once my Savior; but now I have no interest in 
him. Others are happy in his love ; but I have lost 
that happiness: others are safe under his care; but I 
am out of his protection : others have their siqs blotted 
out in his blood ; once I thought mine were ; but I 
have crucified him afresh, and brought a double load 
of guilt upon my own soul. There dwell also his faith- 
ful friends. They toiled and suffered here, but rest in 
heaven ; and once I hoped to partake of their joys ; but 
now that hope is gone. God is my God no longer ; Christ 
is my Savior no longer ; heaven my hoped-for home 
no longer. 

" I do not say, Sarah, that these should be your me- 
lancholy reflections now. I pray that this letter may 
find you returning to God. But they might have been 
so, if you had continued backsliding ; and should be so, 
if you ever fall from Christ. And let the thought of 
the dreadful danger you have been in fill you with 
watchfulness and humility, and lead you to prayer. 
Great has been your danger; for, O ! it is beyond hu- 
man power to describe the evils of backsliding from 



394 DREADFUL GUILT 

the living God. To backslide altogether, is to give tip 
God ; to give up Christ ; to give up hope, comfort, and 
heaven ; to make yourself the slave of Satan ; to pre- 
pare your soul for a miserable eternity ; to throw eter- 
nal life away, and choose eternal death. To backslide, 
is to slight your best friends, and please your worst 
enemy to make heaven mourn, and hell rejoice j to 
act as guilty a part as Satan himself acted ; to treat 
with the basest ingratitude a loving God ; and to tram- 
ple under foot the pains, and groans, and sorrows of a 
dying Savior. To backslide, is to choose devils for 
your companions instead of angels; hell for your 
home instead of heaven ; weeping, wailing, and de- 
spair for your portion, instead of peace and praise. In 
fine, Sarah, to backslide is to act so wicked, so mad, so 
hellish a part, that even devils themselves can scarce- 
ly wish any to act a worse. And had you begun to 
act this part ? God be praised, if you now mourn that 
you did so ! Flee to him, my friend, afresh ! Plead 
with him the promises I have mentioned from his 
word. Praise him that he did not give you over to a 
hardened heart ! and O may you hereafter praise him 
for this in heaven ! 

"Depend upon it, my dear friend, the view now given 
you of the guilt of backsliding is not too strong. The 
word of God represents confirmed backsliders as 'turned 
aside after Satan ;' as ' having damnation, because they 
have cast away their faith ;' as drawing ' back unto per- 
dition ;' as being shut out of the eternal rest ; as crucify- 
ing to themselves the Son of God afresh, and putting 
him to an open shame ; as having trodden under foot 
the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant, 
wherewith they were sanctified^ an unholy thing j as 



OP BACKSLIDING. 395 

doing despite to the Spirit of grace; as falling into the 
hands of the living God, who is to them a consuming 
fire ; as having their latter end worse than the begin- 
ning. For them there remains a certain fearful look- 
ing for of judgment and of fiery indignation, which shall 
devour the adversaries. They are those, who, having 
fallen into the snare of the devil, are taken captive by 
him at his will. What awful descriptions ! how should 
they rouse you ! how alarm you, lest you should turn 
aside again ! To be led captive by Satan— what can be 
worse? Could you see that dreadful enemy dragging 
an unhappy soul to perdition, how would you tremble ! 
yet remember that the backslider, though he see it 
not, is led captive by the devil at his will. Oh, let these 
awful thoughts lead you to watch and to pray ; to look 
into your own heart ; to examine your own state ; to 
distrust yourself; to depend on your Redeemer, and to 
dread the guilt of backsliding more than the wretched- 
ness to which it leads. 

"Again, Sarah, if you have felt the pangs of a 
wounded conscience, seek for peace afresh through 
the blood of the Lamb, and let the unhappy hours you 
have passed, and the tears your fall has occasioned, be 
so many motives with you to return to God and to 
cleave to Christ. Surely you have found that thought- 
lessness and laughter cannot make the backslider's; 
state happy. You know something of this truth ; many- 
others know much of it. I reminded you of a friend 
who told me how happy he was in the ways of God. 
Peace with God made life pleasant. The night and 
the day were alike comfortable" and fear fled far from 
him. But the tempter suggested to him. What need so 
much ado about religion 7 These words, or something 



dyb EVILS OF BACKSLIDING. 

to this effect, run in his mind. At length he yielded , 
he went backward, and the tempter triumphed. And 
now his comforts were gone. He could not lie down at 
night without fear of waking in eternal torments before 
the morning. He found it was a bitter as well as guilty- 
thing to forsake his Redeemer. Learn wisdom, Sarah, 
from your own unhappiness; learn it from that of oth- 
ers. You have been near the edge of a precipice, from 
which many who reach it never return, but fall from 
God to rise no more. O be thankful that you have not 
fallen quite so low ! O be watchful lest you should ! 
O strive ! O pray ! that your repentance be not this 
time what it was a few months back. 

" Should I say more, Sarah ; then again I would ad- 
monish you to look forward to future things. Think 
of your dying bed, of your pulse fluttering, your heart 
failing, your friends bidding you a last farewell, and 
you departing to meet your God. What comfort it will 
give you if you have a Savior then ! What misery it 
will cause you, should you then be found a backslider, 
and then have to think that this friendly warning did 
you no good ! Think yourself standing before your 
Judge. How happy if you meet his smile ! if you find 
his blood has blotted out every sin, and the sin of for- 
saking him among the dreadful list I And, Sarah, this 
happiness will be yours, if you return and cleave to 
him. But, 01 how wretched would you be if you 
should meet his frown, and hear him say, You forsook 
me in yonder burning world— depart — depart for ever ! 
What bitter groans would burst from your heart ! 
What bitter tears, if tears can then be shed, flow from 
your eyes ! How would you wish that you had watched, 
iand prayed, and bore all crosses, and endured all hard- 



BJiCKSLIDER ENTREATED. 397 

ships, and denied all allurements, and even died for 
Jesus rather than have forsaken him ! 

"Go through a churnh-yard, Sarah. Look at its 
graves and think, Here lie the young, the healthy, and 
the st.ong. Here lie those whom the world once 
charmed, and those who for it slighted their immortal 
souls ; and what is the world to them now ? And soon 
shall this youthful and healthful body, like theirs, be 
moldering dust, and soon shall these active limbs be 
common earth. Soon will my eyes be shut upon the 
world, and all its cares and all its pleasures will neither 
pain nor please me in the grave. But then, where will 
be my immortal spirit? That cannot die ; that lives for 
ever. And shall I sell that soul to Satan, and get this 
world only for it? and shall I give up my Savior, and 
throw my hopes away? O, foolish heart, that ever 
thought of doing it ! O, deceived and miserable creature 
that I have been ! for I began to do so. 

" My dear friend, what shall I say more? I mourn 
the thought of seeing you hereafter at the left hand of 
the eternal Judge. I mourn the thought of never meet- 
ing you in the world of peace, to whom I have often 
broken the bread of life. Could I prevent your depar- 
ture, never should you depart. Return to God, and 
peace will again be yours. Return to Jesus, and you 
will yet be happy. But let it be with full purpose of 
heart. Let it be with earnest prayer. Let it be with a 
watchful jealousy lest you should deceive yourself in 
a concern of endless consequence. Learn to live on 
Christ. Depend on him. Look to him. Resist the 
world for a little time, and you shall reach a better. 
Fight the good fight of faith, and you will soon receive 
34 



«>yo BACKSLIDER ADDRESSED. 

the crown of glory. The conflict is short, the rest eter- 
nal. Then, at length, beyond the reach of sin, Satan, 
the world, and a deceitful heart, may you there praise 
the grace which first awakened you— the greater grace 
that brought you back to God. May God grant it ! 
Amen !" 

§ 6. Do I address a backslider ? Probably all that has 
now been said will have no more effect on you than I 
fear it had on her to whom it was originally written, 
and who is since gone to her dread account. Yet shall 
I leave you for ever, and not make one more attempt 
to restore you to the paths of life? Stop then, I be- 
seech you, before the shades of death close round your 
head, before the voice of mercy is withdrawn for ever; 
stop, I beseech you, and a little more consider 3'our 
ways. 

Think of your sin : many are its aggravations. You 
have sinned against the world. You have thrown a 
stumbling-block in the way of the unconverted, and 
exposed th^m and yourself to the wo denounced by 
the Lord Jesus Christ : Wo unto the world because of 
offences; but wo unto that man by whom the offence 
cometh. And are not you that WTCtched creature ! O, 
how awful is it for one that has professed religion, to 
injure the immortal souls of others ! and to assist Satan 
in leading multitudes to perdition ! 

You have sinned against your relatives. If they are 
the disciples of Jesus, how have you blasted their 
hopes respecting you, and hov/ ill requited them for 
all their tenderness, kindness, and care ! If they know 
him not, you have probably hardened them in careless, 
ness and sin, and thus contributed to sink those who 
are dearest to you down to hell. 



backslider's guilt. 399 

You have sinned against yourself. You might have 
been respected and beloved, esteemed and useful in life, 
and have possessed a bright inheritance in heaven ; but, 
alas! how low has your conduct sunk you! how has 
it deprived you of respect and affection in this life, and 
of every cheering hope for the eternal world ! 

You have sinned against your Christian friends. 
You professed to be their friends, yet have acted the 
part of the worst enemies. The world is ready to re- 
proach them without cause ! but you have given the 
world occasion to do so ; and those who pity you, yet 
abhor your conduct and disown you, may share in 
your reproach. 

You have sinned against the Lord Jesus Christ. He 
died to redeem you from sin. Often have you heard of 
his dying love. You professed to ground your hopes 
upon it. But O ! for all his dying love and living care, 
for all his sorrows and his bitter death, what a return 
have you made him ! You have pleased Satan, and 
displeased your Redeemer I have done the will of the 
devil, and injured your gracious Savior, and brought 
reproach upon his holy cause ! 

Think how different is your state now from what it 
was when you solemnly yielded yourself up to your 
Redeemer. Look back to that day. Who would then 
have thought of this ? How will the profession you 
then made rise in the judgment against you! How 
will every opportunity you have had of sitting down 
at the Redeemer's table, every sermon you have heard, 
every warning you have received, aggravate your guilt 
and double your condemnation ! How may the serious 
friends who once were your companions, and the mi- 
nisters who have preached to you the everlasting 



400 backslider's guilt. 

Gospel, appear as witnesses that you once knew the 
ways of God, and then turned back unto perdition! 
They who now pity and pray for you, will then pity 
you no longer, but own that your destruction is just. 

And have all your professions come to this? Did 
you profess religion, but to make yourself more com- 
pletely a chiUi of the devil by forsaking it? Has that 
Redeemer who shed his blood for you deserved no 
better than this at your hands? Do you thus requite 
all his sufferings, all his love, and all his goodness? 
Have you found something more worthy of your love 
than Christ? That should be a treasure indeed, for 
which you sell your own soul to the devil, and re- 
nounce God, and Christ, and hope, and holiness, and 
happiness, and heaven. Will your irreligious compa- 
nions make up to you this dreadful loss? Oh, poor, 
deceived, unhappy creature ! if you go on in your way, 
they who are now your companions in folly will 
soon be your companions in hell ! How will you meet 
your injured and forsaken Redeemer? 

You have sinned against the Holy Spirit. Sin grieves 
and quenches the Spirit. O beware lest he leave you 
to yourself; for then you would be sealed up under 
eternal impenitency of heart. 

You have sinned against God. David mentions this 
as a peculiar aggravation of his iniquity. " Against 
thee, thee only, have I sinned." If your profession was 
sincere, how awfully have you sinned against God! 
Did you not profess that he had, by his Spirit, opened 
your eyes to see your ruined state ? Did you not be- 
lieve that, through his lovp, he gave his Son to die for 
you? and by the workings of his Spirit led you to the 
Savior ? and made you a child of his own, instead of 



backslider's guilt. 401 

an heir of wrath ? And is this your return to your 
merciful Creator? 

Your sin against God is of the most dreadfully hei- 
nous kind. Are you not under the most solemn vows 
to be the Lord's? Should you forget them, God will 
not forget them ; and if you break them, your soul will 
sink under the horrible guilt of lying unto God. How 
many solemn engagements have you made to be the 
Lord's ! How many vows in private, when no eye but 
God's saw you, no ear but God's heard you ! What 
solemn professions before the church and the Lord ! 
—the engagements of your baptism, and those repeated 
again and again at the table of the Lord! Will you 
break all these promises, and become guilty of telling 
not one lie only to God, but many ? How hateful is a 
lie ! all liars shall have their part in the lake that burn- 
eth with fire and brimstone. The Lord Jesus describes 
the devil as the father of lies, and of liars. If lying to 
men is so hateful, what must it be to lie to God ? Of 
this horrible crime you will be guilty, if you forsake 
the way of peace. It may be said at last, You promis- 
ed to be the Lord's ; but, miserable liar ! you broke all 
those promises ; you took the vows of God upon you, 
and then became a poor perjured wretch, by slighting 
all those vows. my fellow-sinner! no lies are so ag- 
gravated as the backslider's lies to God. They are will- 
ful lies ; for he goes willfully from Christ, and will not 
stop, though God and man entreat him to return. They 
are lies whose guilt is heightened by thebase ingratitude 
of forsaking a good God and a gracious Savior j and 
heightened still more by the horrible choice he makes: 
he leaves Christ for the world that crucified his Lord; 
34* 



402 backslider's misery. 

and forsakes God for sin and the devil. I have read 
of a backslider that said, " I will not have salvation- 
nothing for me but hell. Come, O devil, and take me." 

Few speak thus plainly ; but all that willfully forsake 
Jesus make this dreadful choice ; and would they 
speak what in reality they do, each would say, Lord 
Jesus, I renounce thee, I leave thee. Satan, I choose 
thee as my lord. Heaven I forsake. Come, devil, you 
shall be my owner, and hell shall be my home. Like 
Altamont, every backslider may say, " I have been too 
strong for Omnipotence, I have plucked dov/n ruin." 

O, when the Judge comes to pronounce the doom of 
•every liar, what will be their state who have lied to God ! 

Oh, my fellow-sinner ! how can you live with such 
a load of guilt upon you! how can you make a choice 
so horrible ! Does not eternity haunt your guilty 
hours ? eternal damnation gained— eternal salvation 
trampled under foot— eternal despair— eternal enmity 
to God— eternal likeness to the damned— eternal hell- 
ishness acquired ? Oh, dreadful choice ! Perhaps you 
laugh; but will you laugh in misery? Perhaps you 
jest; but will you jest in hell? Perhaps you call that 
place of wo a bugbear ; will you on a dying bed ? Did 
Voltaire? Did Tom Paine? did the unhappy wretch, 
once an infidel, who cried, "O thou blasphemed, yet 
most indulgent Lord God ! hell itself is a refuge, if it 
hide me from thy frown ?" 

listen not to the delusions of unbelief, and the sug- 
gestions of an infernal foe ! Rather seek mercy. Flee 
from the wrath to come. Is not death already clad in 
terrors ? Then turn to him who would take the sting 
of death away. 

Behold your once dying, but now risen Lord ! Shall 



backslider's misery. 403 

all his dying love be lost on you ? Will you reject that 
gracious, heavenly friend ? Behold his dying sorrows, 
his nameless agonies, his torturing cross, his flowing 
blood — and think of the immense eternal love that 
prompted him to bear those sorrovv's for you. Can you 
see this, and yet forsake the Lord who bought you? 
Or think of his kingdom. Think of the meeting of his 
friends, when all his ransomed flock shall meet in hea- 
ven. unhappy creature ! shall your pious friends 
miss you there? Shall your minister see that you are 
absent? Shall those, with whom you have often sat 
down at the Savior's table here, sit down without you 
there? When the little flock that you belonged to are 
landed safely, and those who were baptized, or who 
otherwise professed the Gospel with you, rest above, 
where will you be? and, millions of years beyond the 
day of doom, where will you be? If sorrow could be 
felt in heaven, your Christian friends might mourn 
while they exclaim. Where now is our poor compa- 
nion, our brother or sister, that professed to set out in 
the way to heaven with us, and then, O foolish crea- 
ture ! turned aside ? Where now the thoughtless youth, 
that loved a dying world, and left our Lord ? and where 
all his vain delights? Where now the unhappy girl 
that once promised fair for glory? and where all for 
which she denied her Redeemer, and sold her soul ? 
Ah, had she persevered, how different had been her lot ! 
That hapless soul, which is now overwhelmed with 
eternal night, had then been one of our happy band; 
had then enjoyed the crown that fadeth not away. 

Ah, my friend ! these things are not cunningly de- 
vised fables. The time will come when your Chris- 
tian friends, who cleave to the Savior, will rest in hea- 



404 



backslider's misery. 



veil ; and when, if you return not to him, you and they 
must part for ever. Oh ! if you leave them now, this 
willful parting is the dread forerunner of an eternal 
separation. Now to be parted from the flock of God 
perhaps you feel but little ; but what will it be to be 
parted from it for ever? 

If you would return to the ways of peace, inquire 
seriously, what has been the occasion of your fall? 
and forsake it, though it may cause you as much pain 
as to cut off a right hand. Forsake especially worldly 
associates, or every attempt to return to God will be 
in vain. Begin with religion again, as you began at 
first. Seek salvation through the blood of Jesus. Pray 
much. Frequent divine ordinances. Cherish religious 
conversation : and God will hear your prayers, and 
help your soul, and give you grace to escape from the 
snare of the devil. Then, who will sing of redeeming 
love with a heart so warm as you? All the motives 
that love and gratitude can furnish urge you to return. 
All the motives that can spring from pity to yourself 
urge your immediate return. All the blessings of eter 
nal life invite you back to God. All the sorrows of the 
Savior urge you to flee to him. And all the terrors of 
eternal death should frighten you from the paths of the 
destroyer. 

§ 7. Shall I, by a statement of painful facts that I 
have witnessed, endeavor to offer one motive more for 
your immediately returning to the Savior, who is will- 
ing to have mercy upon you; or for your watching, 
praying, and persevering ? I was once called to see a 
person in much distress of mind, who professed reli- 
gion, but who declared that his conduct had been in- 
consistent with his profession. He spoke of the ex- 



backslider's misery. 405 

treme distress that he then felt, and observing that he 
had been two months in that condition, said that those 
two months seemed lilvc two millions of years. At 
another time he said, " If I possessed it, I would give 
ten thousand millions of worlds to be out of my pre- 
sent misery." Depend upon it, if you forsake the Sa- 
vior, or if you have forsaken him, and return not to 
him, you are hastening to sorrows thus excruciating 
and severe. On another occasion I repeatedly visited a 
young woman who had been a professor of religion, 
but who had fallen, and led a life of carelessness. She 
was confined to a bed of affliction, and apparently near 
the grave. With a countenance full of bitter distress, 
she often spoke of her guilt and folly in such expres- 
sions as the following : " I once knew the way ; I once 
could look at death with comfort ; but now I cannot — 
I fear there is no mercy for me." Unexpectedly her 
illness took a favorable turn ; she would then say, " I 
have suffered much, but not half so much as I deserve 
for my base ingratitude to God." Speaking of her 
views when at the worst, she observed she would have 
given the world to have had her sins forgiven ; and 
said, tliat at that time she saw nothing before her 
but death, and hell along with it I How dismal a pros- 
pect for the day of suffering or dissolution ! Yet if you 
are, or ever become a backslider, what other prospect 
can be yours ! watch and pray. Return to the Sa- 
vior, or cleave to him. So, when your fainting head 
can rise from its pillow no more ; when the blood 
grows cold at your heart, and your spirit is about to 
take its final flight : your prospect may be bright as 
eternal life, and your peace unshaken as the promises 
of Christ. 



^06 ENCOURAGEMENT FROM 



CHAPTER XIX 



CONSOLATIONS AND ENCOUPwAGEMENTS FOR THE 
CHRISTIAN IN HIS SPIRITUAL PILGRIMAGE. 

§ 1. You have now contemplated some of the duties 
Of the Christian life, and some of the trials of the 
Christian warfare ; yet many are the fountains of con 
solation to which the Sacred Scriptures direct the 
thirsty pilgrim's view. For happiness, look to your Re- 
deemer, to your God, and to your home. 

Look to your Redeemer, and listen to the gracious 
words that proceed from his compassionate lips. "Let 
not your heart be troubled ; ye b lieve in God, believe 
also in me. He that loveth me shall be loved of my 
Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself 
to him. If a man love me, he will keep my words ; and 
ray Father will love him, and we will come unto him, 
and make our abode with him. Peace I leave with you' 
my peace I give unto you ; not as the world giveth] 
give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nei- 
ther let it be afraid." " The Father himself loveth you, 
because ye have loved me, and have believed that I 
came out from God." " My sheep hear my voice, and 
I know them, and they follow me : and I give unto 
them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither 
shall any man pluck them out of my hand." 

Perhaps your soul may, at times, be cast down and 
distressed ; but remember, when friends are absent, 
the Lord Jesus is present. The chief Shepherd is for 
ever near you ; and he who laid down his life for you, 
will .loublless make your comfort and welfare his care. 
Let your faith but repose aright upon the Savior's love, 



DIVINE PROMISES. 40''' 

and nothing will seem dark on this side the grave, 
and all appear bright beyond it. If at times you sow 
in sorrow, you will doubtless reap in joy. Hear your 
Lord saying, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.- 
Above all, hear him saying, " My grace is sufficient for 
thee. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the 
world." What more can you desire? Jesus always 
with you — can you then ever indulge distress ? Jesus 
always with you — can you then ever want a counsel- 
lor ? Jesus always with you — can you then ever des- 
pair of final conquest? He who laid down his life for 
you, ever attentive to your welfare — no moment pass- 
ing in which he is absent ; no moment coming when 
he shall leave you, or his helping hand be far away. 
rejoice in these promises ! they are worth more than 
all the world. 

§ 2. Let the consideration of what the Savior is, fill 
your soul with comfort. There is nothing in him to 
render him an object of dread to the suppliant at his 
feet. When the Apostle John saw his glory, beheld 
"his countenance as the sun shining in his strength," 
and " his eyes as a flame of fire," while he heard " his 
voice as the sound of many waters," he fell as dead at 
his Redeemer's feet; but Jesus said, " Fear not ; i am 
the First and the Last : I am he that iiveth and was 
dead." Though he appeared in such tremendous ma- 
esty, his humble follower had no cause for fear; and 
he still remembered what he had borne for man. 
Doubtless the same compassion still dwells in his 
breast. The flight of a few short years changes man ; 
but the revolution of eternal ages will not change the 
compassionate Son of God. Think what tenderness he 
displayed, in a thousand forms, during his short so- 



408 ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE 

journ below. His business was to save. His office, to 
Ileal the broken-hearted. Imperfect friends and bitter 
foes received the tokens of his tender compassion. Be- 
hold the Savior in his intercourse with friends. Sym- 
pathizing with them in their sorrows, he wept at the 
grave of Lazarus. He bore with the dullness and errors 
of his disciples ; and though he corrected their faults, 
treated them with one unvarying flow of kindness. 
When they, who should have watched with him in his 
agony, slept, instead of severely reproving tfcem, he 
tenderly excused their fault, and said, '' The spirit in- 
deed is willing, but the flesh is weak." When Peter 
denied him, and afterwards repented, he still owned 
him as a brother, and said, when sending a message to 
him and the other disciples, that had so lately been fu- 
gitives in the hour of his sorrow, " Go, tell my breth- 
ren that they go into Galilee, and there shall thev 
see me." When Thomas, after his resurrection, said, 
" Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, 
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and 
thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe," 
he gratified his unreasonable scruples; and said to 
Thomas, " Be not faithless, but believing." Even when 
he severely rebuked the dreadful lukewarmness of his 
professed friends at Laodicea, he did not conclude the 
solemn warning without expressing affection for them. 
" As many as I love I rebuke and chasten ; be zealous, 
therefore, and repent." To the sons and daughters of 
affliction, who sought his aid, he ever showed tender- 
ness and love. The centurion besought him to heal 
his servant, and Jesus said, " I will come and heal him." 
Jairus, worshiping him, said, "My daugh'.er is even 
now dead j but come, and lay thy hands on her, and 



savior's corvIPASSIo^^ 409 

she slmll live." Attentive to the cry of .sorrow, Jesus 
arose and went. The leper said, " Lord, if thou wilt 
thou canst make me clean." Jesus answered, " I will ; 
be ihou clean.'' Blind Barlimeus cried, " Thou Son of 
David, have mercy on me." The disciples, less com- 
passionate than their Lord, rebuked the importunate 
??ufferer; but Jesus said unto him, " Receive thy sight; 
ihy faith hath saved thee." The widow of Canaan im- 
plored his help for her afflicted daughter. At first he 
seemed to hesitate; but only hesitated to prove her 
faith ; and then said to her, '• O woman, great is thy 
faith ; be it unto tliee even as thou wilt." Often unso- 
licited he bestowed his aid. Thus to him, who lay by 
the pool of Bethesda, he said, " Rise, take up thy bed, 
and walk." When he met the widow who mourned 
the loss of her only son, he said, "Weep not;" and 
with a voice powerful as that which shall at length 
awaken all the dead, he said, to the lamented object of 
her affection, that lay stretched lifeless on the bier 
" Young man, I say unto thee, arise." Even the poor 
guilty adulteress, that was conveyed into his presence, 
experienced his mercy. When Jesus said to her, '' Hath 
no man condemned thee ?" and she said, " No man 
Lord :" he said, " Neither do I condemn thee ; go, and 
sin no more." The tenderness of Jesus was strongly 
displayed even to his bitterest foes. He wept over im • 
penitent Jerusalem; shed tears at the misery of those 
who were about to shed his blood. He prayed for his 
murderers, and desired their life who wrought his 
death ; their happiness who loaded him with wo. Not 
in an hour of cool reflection, before or after his dread- 
ful sorrows, but in the midst of those sufferings, he 
35 



41Q IINCOURAGEI'lEIiT FRO>M THE 

prayed, " Father, forgive Ihem ; for they know not whal 
they do." And after his resurrection, breathing forth 
the same unconquered tenderness, he directed the 
tidings of mercy to be proclaimed first to his murder- 
ers; and commanded .his apostles to begin publishing 
forgiveness at Jerusalem. The tenderness thus dis- 
played in his conduct is represented as essential to his 
character. While, as a Shepherd, he feeds all his flock, 
he shows peculiar compassion to the weak. It is said, 
" He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry 
them in his bosom ! and shall gently lead those that 
are with young." How safe is the lamb on the shep- 
herd's arm ! or folded within the shepherd's bosom ! 
How happy their lot whom Jesus gently leads in secu- 
rity and comfort on to heaven, the fold where all his 
flock will meet ! " The bruised reed he will not break, 
and the smoking flax he will not quench." Weak as a 
reed, might be a proverb for weakness : but a bruised 
reed is still weaker : yet those, who are thus weak, will 
he not reject, but support : and where grace is like a 
little spark, he Avill not despise or quench that spark; 
but will fan it to a flame. 

§ 3. All the tenderness the Savior ever displayed still 
governs in his breast. He is not less compassionate be- 
cause removed to his eternal throne ; nor less interested 
in the welfare of his flock, because he has left the wil- 
derness where they sojourn. In the most expressive 
language he represented his interest in their happiness, 
his feeling for them, when, stopping Saul in his perse- 
cuting career, he said, '* Saul, Saul! why persecutest 
thou ME 7" Thee, Lord ! were not thy sorrows ended ; 
wast thou not far above the reach of his mighty malice 
and his cruel hand ! Thou wast ; but still didst say. 



savior's tenderness. . 411 

' Why persecutest thou ME?" Thy flock was perse- 
cuted ; and injury done to them, was done to thee. 
The head in heaven felt with the members suffering 
upon earth. 

Conformably with this representation, it is elsewhere 
declared, that he nourisheth and cherisheth the church: 
" For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of 
his bones." How gracious a representation ! Man na- 
turally feels interested in the welfare cf his body ; and 
anxious to supply it with food, to shield it from harm, 
to guard it from pain, and to minister to its comfort and 
welfare. This care to nourish and cherish tiie body, is 
declared to be like that care which the Lord Jesus en- 
tertains to nourish and cherish his flock, and to be but 
an imitation of his care. With more than the fondness 
of a parent bird fostering her young; with more than 
the tenderness of a nurse cherishing her infant charge ; 
with more than the afi'ection of a mother fondling her 
tender offspring ; with a love powerful as that self-love 
which prompts man to feel for his own body, does the 
Lord Jesus feel for his church ; and tend, and watch, 
and cherish, and feed, and bless his flock. 

Think of him, whose love fills heaven with happi- 
ness; whose dying sorrows have procured immortal 
life for countless multitudes ; whose compassion shines 
like the noon-day sun, but has no setting beam; 
and can you distrust such tenderness, or droop be- 
neath the noon-day warmth of such compassion 1 Is 
he so kind, why do you not rejoice incessantly in 
him ? Surely when you droop in sadness, he might 
say, "0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou 
doubt? didst thou find in thy Redeemer aught to occa- 
sion thy fears ? Dost thou see any want of love in him 5 



412 ENCOURAGEMENT PROM THE 

any want of richness in his grace, or of freeness in his 
promises ?" O look more to him for peace ! Say of this 
compassionate Jesus, Ke is God my Savior; of this 
lender yet Ahiiighty Shepherd, He is my Shepherd; 
and you may adii. " I shall not Avant. He maketh me 
to lie down in green pastures : he leadeth me beside the 
still waters. Yea, though I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for thou art 
with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." 

§ 4. The disciples of Jesus are also taught to view 
him as their intercessor ; and hence should flow into 
their souls that " peace which passeth all understand- 
ing." The Most High has not revealed the mode of the 
Savior's intercession for his flock; but has fully as- 
serted its reality. Christ " is even at the right hand of 
God, who also maketh intercession for us." " If any 
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
Christ the righteous." " He is able to save them to the 
uttermost that come unto God by him ; seeing he ever 
liveth to make intercession for them." '• We have a 
great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus 
the Son of God. Let us therefore come boldly unto 
the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and 
find grace to help in time of need." 

To intercede, is to present petitions in behalf of ano- 
ther. To act as an advocate, is to plead another's cause, 
and attend to his interests. This the Lord .Tesus Christ 
is declared to do for his disciples. He intercedes in 
their behalf; he pleads as their advocate ; and so pre- 
valent is his intercession, and of such immense mo- 
ment in advancing their salvation, that on his ever liv- 
ing to inlercede, is grounded his ability for ever to save ; 
and because he acts as their High Priest in heaven, his 



savior's intercession. 413 

disciples are exhorted to go boldly to the throne of 
grace, and to hold their profession fast. 

Look to Jesns as your advocate. What efficacy must 
his intercession impart to the sighs and lispings of his 
weakest follower ! Think of him as the Son of God^ 
the brightness of his Father's glory : and can he plead 
your cause in vain? or can it fail when trusted in his 
hands? His intercession has availed for multitudes, 
which no man can number. Go then, O go to him! 
He loved thee as angels cannot love, and feels for thee 
as angels cannot feel. They know not what it is to 
sigh, to sorrow, and to weep: but he, for thee, has felt 
all this. They know not what it is to hunger and thirst, 
to be wear}' and faint, to be persecuted and scorned, to 
pray in sadness and to die in wo; but he, Avho is thy 
intercessor, knows all this ; for he has felt it all. And 
since he ''himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is 
able to succor them that are tempted." Tell him of thy 
sorrows — he once had sorrow. Tell him of thy ene- 
mies — he once had enemies. Unfold to him all the 
secret sadness of thy heart — he once felt the bitterness 
of wo. When weak, ask his grace to strengthen thee; 
when troubled, implore his smile to cheer ; when fallen, 
beg his strength to raise thee. In darkness look to him ; 
and when thy poor defective prayers are but the moan- 
ings of a broken heart, still look to him, who lives to 
plead thy cause. Solace thy soul, by thinking what an 
intercessor thou hast— an intercessor for ever the same. 
Let faith display him to thee as exalted in eternal day; 
yet think that among the praises of the blest he hears 
the lispings of thy feeble voice. He is thy advocate 
with his Father and thy Father. Thou mayst go to 



414 



BLESSINGS FROM THE 



him and say, Blessed Jesus ! angels praise and saints 
adore thee. They are as holy as they are happy; but 
I, thy poor disciple, have many sorrows, and'all I do 
deserves thy frown. So much unbelief mingles with 
my faith; so much coldness with mylove;"so much 
languor with my hope; so much imperfection with all 
my services; so many wandering imaginations even 
with my most solemn prayers ; that if thou dost not 
help me I must sink, and die. If thou dost not plead 
for me, I must give up every hope ; but thou wilt plead 
for me. Thou art my intercessor, and in thee let me 
find my everlasting all ; and cold as is this heart, does 
it not wish, and pray, and long to love tliee ? and weak 
as is this faith, does it not fix upon thee, and still turn 
to thee? and dim as is this hope, yet thou knowest 
this glimmering, trembling hope would not fix on any 
thing but tiiee ; nor would I be without this hope for 
all the works thy hands have made. But let this hope 
brighten ; and plead thou for me ; and take into thy 
care my everlasting concern ; and let me rejoice in 
thee, as my advocate and eternal friend, and then thy 
will be done for every thing besides ! 

§ 5. The Christian is represented as the peculiar pro- 
perly of Christ. " Wliether we live, we live unto the 
Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord ; whe- 
ther we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's;" and 
his through the purchase of his blood, " bought with 
a price" inestimable. The thought is delightful—" We 
are the Lord's." What more can the soul desire to se- 
cure its happiness? Whether we live, we are the 
Lord's— then all his dealings must be meant in mercy, 
and all must end in good. Whether we die, we are 
the Lord's— then ail must be well in t)ie world unseen. 



savior's friendship. 415 

The Christian may say, '• I know not where heaven is ; 
but Jesus knows, and I am his. When soul and body 
part, my spirit v/iil be a stranger to the wondrous path 
that conducts the righteous to the presence of their 
God ; but Jesus knows the way, and I am his. What- 
ever srenes may open on my view, how solemn soever 
the realities that await me when I enter eternity, this 
one thing assures me that all must be right— " Whe- 
ther we live or die, we are the Lord's." " We are the 
Lord-s"— delightful words— sweet as the harmony of 
heaven. A thousand and a thousand times might the 
charming declaration be repeated, and yet not all its 
power be felt, nor all its value comprehended. We are 
the Lord's— then welcome life ! that we may live to 
him; and welcome death I that we may go to him: 
welcome the services of time ! they are v.'hat he re- 
quires ; and welcome the rest of eternity ! it is what 
he prepares. Welcome the christian warfare! being his 
makes victory certain. W'elcome the battle ! being his 
secures the crown. Welcome health or weakness, life 
or death, time or eternity, earth or heaven ! Let ns 
but hear, " We are the Lord's," and each shall be wel- 
come — all shall be v/elcome. 

§ 6. The Lord Jesus Christ is also declared to be the 
frieiid and brother of his flock. He owns the endear 
ing appellations. '• Ye are my friends, if ye do what 
soever I command you." Hov/ wonderful the love 
which applies such endearing names to those who were 
once so far from God and holiness ! How boundless 
the blessedness of having in Immanuel a brother and 
a friend! All that is valuable in earthly friendships 
and infmitely more, is comprehended in his. The ten- 
dere^t friendships of earth are but a mutual tribute of 



^^6 BLESSINGS FROM THE 



affection, wliere each receives, and each gives. Your 
friends love you because you love them, and your love 
to them is strengthened by their love to you • but O 
how different is his friendship who died for you when 
you were his enemy ! He is an almighty friend. Thp 
dearest relatives below are frail as the flower of the 
fie d ; but he is liable to no decay. When thev have a 
willing heart they often have a feeble hand^and fer- 
vent pi-ayers and unavailing pity is frequently all the 
relief that they can administer to those thev "love the 
best. But his means are not thus limited. When thev 
can only mingle sorrows with our sorrows, he can 
drive those sorrows away. He can cheer when thev 
can only weep. He can infuse into the heart the peace 
which passeth all understanding, and can so strengthen 
the faith of his disciples, in invisible and eternal things 
that they may sometimes seem almost the objects of 
sight, instead of belief; and by such seasons of delight, 
ful intercourse with heaven, he can fill their souls wHh 
strong consolation. All the treasures of wisdom too are 
his. When perplexity and distress beset his friends and 
earthly counselors fail, or stand confounded, he'will 
guide those who look to him for wisdom, in the right 
way, to a city of habitation. Even with respect to tem- 
poral concerns, he can suggest a thought, or fix on the 
heart an impression, which shall influence all the fu- 
ture life, and extend its influence to eternity itself His 
friendship is unchangeable; having loved" his own that 
were in the world, he loved them to the end. Earthly 
friends are often fickle and mutable; but Jesus Christ 
IS the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." No ene- 
mies can lessen his love to his beloved flock; no slan- 
derer pour his venom into the Redeemer's ear His 



i 



savior's FRiENDSHIPi 417 

friendship endures the same through the short sum 
mer of prosperity and the dark winter of adversity ; 
and it endures for ever. When other friends are most 
faithful and affectionate, dear as the light that visits 
our eyes, or as the blood that warms our hearts, such 
is this world, that they often may be absent when 
wanted most. Distance may deprive us of their sym- 
pathy and affection when these are most desirable ; 
but this heavenly friend is ever near. He said, "If a 
man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make 
our abode with him." If Jesus is our friend, we have 
one friend ever at hand to hear the faintest whisper 
that solicits his aid. His friendship is eternal too, and 
this is the crown of all the rest. It lasts for eternity. 
Blessed eternity! It is eternity that will infuse the 
most rapturous delight into the triumphant believer's 
overflowing cup of happiness. It is eternity that will 
form the brightest lay in the triumphant believer's far 
more exceeding weight of heavenly glory : and it is 
eternity that renders the friendship of Jesus Christ so 
immense a blessing, that its worth might be forever 
telling, yet for ever untold. Our most beloved friends 
must die; and we must die; and the fondest earthly 
connections must shortly be dissolved. To mourn for 
the death of those we hold most dear, or to have them 
mourn on account of ours, is what we all are doomed 
to here. " The loss of friends is the sad tribute, I had 
Imost said the sad equivalent, that in these regions of 
death we must pay for loving and being beloved ;" but 
death shall never terminate the friendship of Jesus 
with his humble flock. That sNvcet, that av^'ful word, 
eternitj, makes him ours for ever. The sun which 



418 BLESSINGS FROM 

shines on the dwellings where we live with our be- 
loved friends below; the solid earth on which we tread 
with them ; the stars that shine on our evening walks 
in their company; these, like us, are frail ; and lasting 
as they seem, must come to nothing; but the friend- 
ship of Jesus Christ is stronger and more lasting than 
they. It will flourish in those new heavens wherein 
dwelleth righteousness. Beyond the gulf of death it 
will diffuse immortal good, through ages more nume- 
rous than the drops of summer rain apxd the flakes of 
winter snow, from the creation to this day. The spirits 
of the just made perfect, the goodly company of the 
redeemed can witness that Jesus Christ is an eternal 
friend. Death has long ago taken away their worldly 
possessions, their health, their strength, their time; but 
not their Redeemer ; that perfect and most blessed 
friend, with whom they shall abide to everlasting ages. 
§ 7. Dear is the friendship of Jesus Christ ; blessed 
is it to be his friend ; but his Gospel opens a richer 
treasury of happiness. It represents him as assuming 
a still dearer name than that of friend. He is the bro- 
ther of his flock. When he rose from the grave, he 
said, " Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee. 
Go to Jiiy BRETHREN, and say to them, I ascend unto 
my Father and your Father, unto my God and your 
God." " He is not ashamed to call them brethren." 
As his brethren they are beloved ; but there is a re- 
markable passage, in which he expresses for them an 
affection stronger than that of a brother. He said, 
" Who is my mother? and who are my brethren ? Be- 
hold my mother and my brethren I For whosoever 
shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the 
same is my brother, and sister, and mother." His mean- 



UNION WITH CKRIS"; 



419 



ing evidently was, that every one who does his Fa • 
ther's will, becomes united to himself in the closest re- 
lation; in one so close as singly to obtain as mucJi of 
his affection as a mother, and sister, and brother could 
share among them. 

§ 8. How honorable, how delightful, such a union 
with the Son of God ! How wonderful the compassion 
and grace of the holy Jesus, in bringing into so sa- 
cred a connection those who were once the heirs of 
sin, and wrath, and death ! What raptures should fire 
the soul at the thought of such a connection ! That Je- 
sus, who gave angels and archangels their seats in 
glory, is our friend, our brother, and even more than 
a brother. Their exalted nature he never wore. Never 
did he deign to be called their brother, but he has be- 
come ours. Could we see a host of happy angels, what 
an honor should we deem it to be able to say to them, 
Your Lord is our brother ; he has himself acknowledg- 
ed the relation. O I my fellow pilgrim, rejoice in think- 
ing that he has. He has lived in this land of darkness, 
this field of death, this vale of pollution, and now in 
heaven owns as his brethren all that truly love his 
name. In this low world of sin, misery, and death, the 
divine Jesus seeks friends and brethren that will be 
eternally dear to his heart. Creator, Redeemer, Friend, 
and Brother, all unite in him. 0, truths astonishing, 
yet delightful ! truths surpassing wonder, yet full of 
consolation ! truths, that, had they not come from hea- 
ven, it would have been sin to credit, and which it is 
now sin to disbelieve! O what is mortal praise, or 
mortal love, when offered to that Savior whose conde- 
scending goodness is so vastl Could we offer the 
praise of angels— praises like those which angels offer 



4SQ 



BLESSINGS Of 



would be languid, poor, and cold. Lord, what is ran- 
somed man!" Man, that, when washed in thy blood, 
claims thee as a brother, thou Ruler of the skies! thou 
Lord of heaven ! Happy they who enjoy this sacred 
connection with the adorable Son of cfod ! This, my 
brother, or my sister, is our highest honor. Ah, mon- 
archs ! may the followers of the Lamb exclaim, keep 
your crowns, wear your vain titles, govern your wide 
empires, let us but reign in the presence of Jesus, and 
in heaven itself be known as the blood-bought kindred 
of the Son of God ! 

§ 9. Blessings immense and countless, for time and 
eternity, flow from such a union. If this enriches you, 
and peace and comfort should be your lot, you may 
placidly look forward to a world, where these shall be 
enjoyed in higher perfection through eternal days. If 
sorrow embitter your way, and cloud your sky, you 
may rejoice in your hasty advances to that state, 
where the love of Jesus shall banish every grief. The 
friendship and love of this adorable Savior and bro- 
ther will be the stay of his friends, when rocks crum- 
ble to dust, and mountains tremble to their base ; when 
the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and when 
the fashion of the world, and the world itself, have pass- 
ed away. Sweet will it be to smile amidst that last 
storm, and sweet indeed then to enjoy the brotherly 
love of a divine Savior. 

It is said, that on one occasion a poor aged Chris- 
tian was observed making her scanty meal on bread 
and water, but expressing the warm gratitude of her 
heart, because the Savior was hers. "All this," said 
she, "and Christ too." Rich are the poorest that have 
such a friend : poor are the richest that have not. It is 



UNION WITH CHRIST. 421 

related, that a gentleman one day took an acquaintance 
on the leads of his house, to show him Ihe extent of 
his possessions. "There," said he, waving his hand 
about, " that is my estate." Then pointing to a great 
distance on one side, "Do you see that farm ? That is 
mine." Then pointing to the other side, "Do you see 
that house ? That also belongs to me." His friend said, 
'' Do you see that little village yonder ? There lives a 
poor woman in that village who can say more than all 
this." "What can she say?" "She can sa}^, Christ is 
mine ! And can you say, Christ is mine ? Then indeed 
you should rejoice in the Lord always." O that others 
would seek the treasures of v/hich grace has made you 
an heir ! Whatever be your lot, you should be happy. 
You are so now, and will be so to everlasting years. 
Let sickness come, and blast your youthful days; let 
paleness overspread your countenance, and the last 
enemy be stopping the blood at your heart; yet still 
in Christ you will be happy; happier infinitely in 
pain, and death, with a Savior, than you could be with- 
out him, though health, and life, and the riches of king- 
dom.s were your portion. Think more hov/ many 
blessings are centered in your Savior; and rejoicing in 
your Lord, pursue your way to his presence and abode. 
§ 10. Though the chief work of the Lord Jesus is to 
secure the happiness of his disciples when this mo- 
mentary scene is passed away, yet he kindly desires 
their comfort while it lasts. It is true, to him who 
views eternity, our few hasty years must appear no 
longer than a moment : yet this life, in his sight, like 
a moment, a sigh, or a nothing, must have its peace 
and comfort, and have it too from him. He spoke that 
36 



422 CHRisr'iS gare for 

divinely gracious discourse, recorded in the fourteenth 
and two following chapters of the Gospel of John, that 
he might promote the temporal comfort, as well as the 
spiritual welfare of his disciples. " These things have 
I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace." 
Precious words ! We may hear this gracious Savior 
saying in them, Look, to me, and though you should 
liave little peace besides, in me ye may have peace. 
In that troubled world you shall have tribulations; in 
me a refuge against them all; in me ye shall have 
peace. In that hostile world hatred and persecution 
may befall you; in me you have a shelter from every 
storm, a support in every sorrow; in me ye shall have 
peace. In that transient world you may expect languor 
and disease, changing comforts, dying pleasures, and 
piercing griefs; but through life, through death, on 
earth, in heaven, in me ye shall have unchanging com- 
fort, in me ye may have peace. To promote this peace, 
the Lord Jesus lias given many gracious promises. O 
exercise faith in them ! Consider they are as firm, and 
as t^ure, and as precious, as if you heard the Lord Jesus 
speaking them to you. When pensive and alone, me- 
ditating on the world to come, think you see your Sa- 
vior approach, and hear him say, "Let not your heart 
be troubled. In my Father's house are many mansions. 
I go to prepare a place for you." If oppressed by the 
malignity of men, go from their company, " enter into 
thy closet, and shut thy door ;" there try to realize the 
presence of your Lord, and hear him saying, " If the 
world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it 
hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would 
love his own : but because ye are not of the world, but 
I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world 



HIS disciples' comfort. 423 

haleth you." If encountering sorrow and pain, hear 
him saying, " Ye now have sorrow ; but I will see you 
again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no 
man laketh from you." When wandering among the 
tombs, thinking of dear departed friends, whom you 
must meet no more on earth, and thinking how soon 
the grave must be your home, as it now is theirs, tlien 
hearken to the sweet promises of Jesus : "Where I 
am, there shall also my servant be." " i will come again 
and receive you to myself, that where I am ye may 
be also." O would he, who once sojourned below, again 
descend and utter these and other heart-reviving words, 
where, with your Savior speaking by your side, would 
be the darts of affliction or the sting of death? and 
where would be the victory of the grave ? If the Lord 
had been pointing you to a dwelling in the heavens, 
could you cease to rejoice in the prospect of that hap- 
pier land? Would you not weep as though you wept 
not, and rejoice as though you rejoiced not; and often 
think. It was there, beyond these lower skies, that ho 
taught me to expect my endless home? Or had he been 
warning you to expect hatred or affliction ; yet adding 
that you were his friend, and that you should soon be 
glorified with him, could you mourn much at human 
hatred, or repine at earthly sorrows? Would you not 
rather think. My best, my most unalterable friend, has 
entered within the veil, and I am following apace; wel- 
come then trials, if by trials he will train me for his 
own abode? Jesus will not come from heaven to con- 
verse with you ; he will not visibly commune with you ; 
he will not sit with you in the house of mourning, or 
walk with you among the tombs; yet he is as truly 
with you, as if he were thus to appear. By day, by 



424 BLESSINGS OF THI! 

night, when you walk, or rest, or labor, or sleep, your 
Lord is with you; and his promises are as firm as if 
you heard them from his lips, or as if an angel, com- 
missioned by him, brought them to you from his hea- 
venly throne. 

§ 11. If grace has made this Savior and these pro- 
mises yours, how many blessings do you possess ! It 
is delightful now, with humble, yet cheerful confidence, 
to call Christ ours ; yet if this confidence now diffuses 
through the soul a peace that passeth understanding, 
what is the rapture it will impart when he shall appear 
in the clouds of heaven ! Then, when the sufferer of 
Calvary descends, attended by all the angelic hosts, 
and comes as the " worthy Judge eternal f when the 
sneers of infidelity are hushed in eternal silence; when 
his followers no longer appear a despised, afflicted, 
persecuted train, but, led by him, ascend to heavenly 
thrones; then, Vv'hen the confusion of despairing sin- 
ners, trembling before his awful bar, exceeds, in ter- 
rible disma)^, all that any heart can conceive, as much 
as eternal ruin is worse than temporal wo— then, what 
will be the joy of belonging to him ! And when all 
these solemnities are passed, and vast unbounded eter- 
nity stretches in infinite prospect before the triumphant 
soul— then, what will it be to belong to Jesus ! Here 
imagination must stop; none can conceive the holy 
overwhelming rapture. 

(j 12, Among the innumerable privileges which the 
children of God enjoy, the Scriptures expressly men- 
tion the ministering care of holy an^sls. The word of 
God represents them as strong in power, great in glo- 
ry, and favored with near access to the throne of God. 
It declares, that at times they are employed by their 



JUDGMENT DAY. 



425 



heavenly Father on commissions of judgment; but 
that their more frequent and delightful office is to min- 
ister to the heirs of salvation. So extensively are these 
countless multitudes thus employed, that the Scrip- 
tures say, "Are they not ALL ministering spirits, sent 
forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salva- 
tion ?" They are employed in protecting and uphold- 
ing the children of God. Tlieyministerto them through 
the fleeting span of life; and conduct to rest the tri- 
umphant spirit, when life's last conflict ends. How 
happy they who have such invisible but kind attend- 
ants ! How rich the Savior's love, that employs these 
glorious spirits to minister to the welfare of his feeble 
flock ! How warm sliould be the gratitude, how fer- 
vent the love, how devout the holiness, of that feeble 
flock ! 

Thus animated by your Redeemer's love, and blest 
in his care, pursue your pilgrimage to heaven. M'hen 
you contemplate his lovo, whut is all you can render 
to him. but like the dust of the balance weighed against 
the world ? When you stretch your views to eternal 
life, what is mortal life but the twinkling of an eye? 
And what the sorrows of time but like a drop of grief 
compared with an ocean of delii^ht? 

§ 13. A principal source of hHppiness to the follow- 
ers of the Lamb, is found in their coniieciinn icilh'ihe 
great and blessed God, and in what he is to them. 

Conie, solace thy soul by viewing God, thy God, ar- 
rayed in all his mild attractive glories. He is "the. 
God of all ffi-ace, who hath called us to his eternal 
glory." " The God of all grace !" Precious words ! 
What more comprehensive, what more kind, can a 
36* 



426 



GOD THE FATHER 



wounded soul, a contrite heart, desire ! The God of 
all grace ! How vast must be the treasures of his com- 
passion I how boundless the riches of his love ! Nor 
less boimdless his strange and amazing condescension. 
''He hath called us to his eternal glory by Jesus 
Christ." Where now rise the heights of his love? 
where sink its depths? God, as the God of all grace, 
hath called us, the children of sin and wo, to glory- 
to eternal glory— and O, more amazing still, to his 
eternal glory. What is there in the character of so 
• good, so compassionate, though so great a God, that 
should excite one fear in an humble and contrite heart? 
In a not less attractive light is this great and holy 
God displayed, when his word says, " God, who is 
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he lov- 
ed us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quick- 
ened us together with Christ." How emphatic is 
this language ! Who can ever unfold the wonders of 
grace and goodness it reveals ? God is not only merci- 
ful, but '• rich in mercy ;" not merely kind to man, 
when penitent and pardoned, but "loving with great 
love" poor perishing man, •• even when dead in tres- 
passes and sins." Amazing grace! what grateful of- 
ferings does it not deserve ! what fervent love and 
cheerful confidence should it infuse in every humble 
hea-rt ! The Lord Jesus Christ, in whom dwelt all the 
treasures of wisdom and knowledge, displayed his Fa- 
ther's tenderness in the most impressive and gladden- 
ing manner, when he said to Philip, "Have I been aso 
long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, 
Philip ? he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." 
Whatever else the divine Savior intended to express 
by these words, it is evident they must include the idea 



OF HIS PEOPLE. 427 

that tenderness, compassion and love, like what dwelt 
in hira, dwell in the eternal Father. When Jesus abode 
below, and appeared kind to every mourner, gracious 
to every suppliant, and full of melting love and tender 
pity for all that sought his aid, what humble, penitent, 
or downcast believer could have dreaded him? But 
he says, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. 
Blessed declaration I It is as if he had said, " His com- 
passion is like mine; his tenderness as vast ; his love 
as boundless; his goodness as great." Fear not then, 
my fellow pilgrim ; think what Jesus was, and think, 
thy God is like him. When God represents his own 
Jcind condescension and compassion, he says, "Thus 
saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, 
whose name is Holy ; I dwell in the high and holy 
place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble 
spiritf to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive 
the heart of the contrite ones." Ah, gracious conde- 
scension ! What more than to be revived by God, and 
cheered by his presence, can an humble heart desire ? 
How good is God, who thus encourages your trust in 
him ! How should his immeasurable grace, and rich 
compassion, drive fear, and doubt, and distress away I 
§ 14. Art ihou, my brother or sister, indeed a fol- 
lower of the Lamb ? Then God is more than all thi-s 
to thee, thy Father, Friend and Portion. " The Lord 
is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous 
in mercy. For as the heaven is high above the earth, 
so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As 
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he remov- 
ed our transgressions from us. Like as a father piti- 
eth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that 



428 GOD OUR FATHER, 

we are dust." With what peace should these gracious 
declarations fill the soul. God is a Father — a Father 
in heaven — a Father who knows the frame of his chil- 
dren. He sees its weakness; he perceives the dangers 
to which he is exposed ; the sorrows to which it gives 
birth ; and not only knows, "but remembers" that we 
are dust. Formed from the dust, man fades like a 
flower, perishing before a scorching blast. " His days 
are as grass ; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth ; 
for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the 
place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy 
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon 
them that fear him." Charming contrast ! the frailty- 
and vanity of man render the love of God more glo- 
rious. Man is for a moment ; but the love of God for 
ever. Mortat man, in his best estate on earth, is like a 
withering flower ; but the love of God to ran9l[)med 
man never fades, it endures and shines for ever and 
ever. 

God is the Friend, and Father, and Portion of those 
who belong to the holy Jesus. What nobler happiness 
can an immortal being require? The humble disciple 
of the Savior may exclaim with the Psalmist, "Thou 
art my portion, O Lord." "Thou art my God, and 
I will praise thee; thou art my God, I will eialt 
thee." The followers of the world have their posses- 
sions j riches, honors, profits, pleasure; these are their 
treasure; but thou, the Lord of heaven and earth, art 
n.-'^e. Thou art my God, my Father, and Friend. 
Thou, -."'bom angels venerate, and devils dread ; whose 
smile is life, whose frown is death — thou art my God 
Thou, whose possessions are heaven and earth — whose 
dwelling-place is eternity — whose favor is more to me 



FRIENDj AND PORTION. 429 

than all the world — thou art my God. Thou art ray 
Father too — mine in life — amidst its bustling, changing, 
vexing scenes, thou art my God. In pain and in ease, 
in prosperity and adversity, in sickness or in health, 
thou art my God and Father; and thou wilt be mine 
in death ; and then, in vast eternity, thou wilt be for 
ever mine. 

§ 15. Such an interest as this in the favor and love 
of God, is the greatest blessing^ an immortal creature 
can enjoy. None can conceive how much is contained 
in those gracions words. Friend and Father, when the 
great and blessed God is he to whom they are applied. 
Were the high and low, the rich and poor, of every 
nation under heaven, uniting to minister to our com- 
fort, all would be far outdone by the single blessing — 
God our friend. Were it possible for us to call down 
legions of angels from their starry thrones, to surround 
us with ceaseless care, to wait our commands, to min- 
ister to our welfare, or fetch us supplies of happiness 
from unseen worlds — all would be outdone, far out- 
done by this single blessing, God our friend. Suppose 
that you were endowed with everlasting strength, and 
that the irresistible power and infinite wisdom of the 
great Almighty were bestowed upon you, whom could 
you then fear? what enemies could excite the smallest 
alarm in your peaceful breast? And what could you 
want, when possessed of might sufficient in a moment 
to call men, angels, or a world into being ? Now, though 
we are crushed before the moth, and perish like a leaf, 
yet if God be our friend, we have in some sense om- 
nipotence our own. The eternal God is the refuge of 
his people ; and this almighty power and infinite wis- 
dom are engaged, under the direction of infinite love 



430 BLESSINGS OF GOd's LOVE. 

in their beha]f. How glorious are his works ! how 
much more glorious himself! When we survey the 
spacious earth, the wide-spread heavens, the glowhig 
SUM, the silent sky glitteping with ten thousand stars^ 
how lofty should be our thoughts of him who formed 
them all ! and 0, how high our view of the blessed- 
ness of having God our Friend and Fatlier ! Though 
once he pronounced those good, the time draws nigh 
when he shall delight, in them no more ; but the trea- 
sures of this invaluable blessing will never be exhausted. 
Stupendous God ! though heaven is thy throne, and 
eternity thy dwelling-place, the dust that lies at thy 
feel, the penitent that bows at thy footstool, claims 
thee for his Father, his everlasting Father: and thou 
wilt own the claim : and when the grandeur of this 
world is all forgotten ; when the sun shall be turned 
into darkness, and this creation die, thy love will bless 
eternity, and last unchanged through all its ample 
round. 

The love of God insures every other blessing ; for 
he can do all you want, and more than all you wish. 
The love of earthly friends, when most fervent, is fee- 
ble love. Little is the most, and weak the best, that 
they can do. When pain and sickness cloud your days, 
they cannot bid disease depart and health return; but 
he can ; or else he can make pain better than ease, and 
sickness a greater good than health. If sin and sorrow 
oppress your soul, no earthly friends can take the load 
of guilt away ; nor CaU they comfort the troubled con- 
science, mourning for years of sin and folly; but this 
almighty Father can fill the broken heart with heaven- 
ly peace : he can say, Be of good comfort ; thy sins are 
foi given thee. He can forgive all the guilt that ren 



AFFLICTIONS MERCIES. 431 

ders judgment terrible, and fill your soul with peace 
so sweet, and hope so strong as to quell every fear and 
silence every doubt. And all you want besides he can 
bestow. He can enrich you vi^th plenty, or make loss 
and poverty better blessings than prosperity and wealth. 
He can fill your heart with love, and help you to be- 
lieve, confide, rejoice. And when the solemn hour ar- 
rives in which you must die, even in that momentous 
hour he has power to give all your departing soul will 
need. Then earthly friends, the dearest and the best, 
can only mourn. They cannot drive your fears away ; 
nor can they open the portals of heaven, and say. Come 
in, thou blessed. But God, your kind heavenly Father, 
can do more than this: he can make death better than 
life, and render your last your happiest hour. He can 
banish every gloomy fear, and make death itself wear 
a smile, and seem the messenger of heavenly love 
come to summon you to the abodes of glory. He can 
gladden with immortal hopes j^our dying moments, 
and give you an abundant entrance into his eternal 
kingdom. 

§ 16. Perhaps the scenes through which God leads 
you are scenes of trial ; yet consider, whatever be the 
immediate source of affliction, that trials come from 
God. Even when wicked men are the authors of his 
sufferings, the Christian may say, "They are the sword, 
the hand is thine.'"' That afflictions come from God, is 
the declaration of his word. "When we are judged, 
we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be 
condemned with the world." "If ye endure chasten- 
ing, God dealeth with you as with sons: for what son 
is he whom the 'ather chasteneth not ? But if ye be 
without chastisfcujei-?j whereof all are partakers, then 



432 AFFLICTIONS MERCIES. 

are ye bastards, and not sous." As afflictions thus pro- 
ceed from God, so they are declared to be the effect of 
his love. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: 
be zealous, therefore, and repent." " Whom the Lord 
loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom 
he receiveth." 

If any escape affliction, the children of God are not 
of that number. All whose holy example is displayed 
in the sacred Scriptures, and whose piety shone with 
the brightest lustre, passed along a chequered path to 
"heaven. Job and Joseph, and the patriarchs, Elijah and 
Daniel, and the prophets, Paul and the apostles, were 
trained for glory and happiness in scenes of earthly 
trial. Even Jesus was a man of sorrows, and acquainted 
with grief. Yet in the darkest day of trouble many are 
the sources of Christian consolation. Is God leading 
you through the fire, or the waters of affliction ? think 
of the gracious design he has in view. He chastens 
" for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holi- 
ness." He afflicts you to ripen your soul for that hap- 
pier land, where no affliction is ever felt. He sinks you 
on earth that you may rise in heaven ; and makes you 
sad for a moment here that he may make you happier 
through eternity there. God has various ends to ac- 
complish in the afflictions of his children. Sometimes 
he afflicts them to humble and to purify their souls. 
To keep him humble, Paul was afflicted ; and Job said, 
" When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold;" 
and his word declares, '"'Now, no chastening for the 
present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous : neverthe- 
less, afterward it5ieldeth the peaceable fruit of righte- 
ousness unto them which are exercised thereby." At 
other times the Father of mercies designs to brighten 



AFFLICTIOInS MEuCiES. 433 

their graces, to strengthen their faiih and patience. 
Hence iiis word says, " The trying of your faitli work- 
eth patience." " Now for a season (if need be) ye are 
in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the 
trial of your faith, being much more precious than of 
gold that perisheth, might be found unto praise, and 
honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.'' 
Sometimes God, by alHiction, would lead the affections 
of his children upwards to a better world, while he en- 
ables them to declare, " Our light aflliction, which is 
but for a moment, Avorkcth for us a far more exceed- 
ing and eternal weight of glory ; while we look not at 
the things which are seen, but at the things which are 
not seen." At other times, by chastening them, he 
teaches them to exercise resignation and submission. 
" Tribulation worketh patience." On some occasions 
afflictions are employed to restore wanderers to the 
path of peace. The Psalmist said, " Before I was af- 
flicted I went astray; but now I have kept thy word." 
At others, afflictions make them feel more sensibly the 
vanity of all below, and endear their God and Savior 
to them. Then the language of the Psalmist expresses 
the feelings of the humble, happy soul. " Whom have 
I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth 
that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart fail : 
but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion 
for ever." 

§ 17. While such are God's gracious designs in the 
chastisements his hand inflicts, the Christian has rea- 
son to rejoice, even in afflictions. God promises to sup- 
port his suffering family, and teaches them to contem- 
plate a day when all their afflictions end. All their 



iU 



EN COURAG EMiINT 



trials are under his control, are sent in mercy, and will 
end in good. " We know that all things work together 
for good to them that love God." While they last, he 
promises to his children divine support. " God is our 
refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble : 
therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, 
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of 
the sea." "When my father and my moth^ forsake 
ine, then the Lord will take me up." I, even I, am he 
that comforteth you." " When thou passest through 
the waters, I will be with thee •, and through the ri- 
vers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest 
through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither 
Khali the flame kindle upon thee." " I will never leave 
tliee, nor forsake thee." How precious are these pro- 
mises! What more can be desired than the support 
and presence of our God ! 

Does affliction cloud your sky ? do sorrows over- 
whelm your sinking spirits? yet forget not that God 
is kind. '• He carelh for you." Gracious declaration I 
what words can be more expressive of his tender inte- 
rest in your happiness? " He careth for you." Not' 
only gives you blessings, but cares for your welfare; 
makes your little interests his concern. Surely all must 
be right that so gracious a Friend appoints ! all must 
lend to good that so kind a Father ordains ! " He that 
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us 
all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all 
things?" Did he thus give his best Beloved for you, 
and can you think that he will refuse you any real 
good? Are you oppressed with sickness and pain? 
God could give you health: to give you health would 
be a iillle thing compared with giving you Christ, 



UNDER AFFLICTION. 433 

Surely if he does not give you health, the reason must 
be, he sees it best to appoint you sickness. Are yoti 
poor? God could give you wealth. He gave you 
Christ ; and if he keeps you poor, the cause must be, 
that poverty is best for you. Were riches best, he who 
gave Christ would give you riches. Whatever fancied 
good you may desire, you may argue, If this were real 
good, God would give it me. He who gave Christ, that 
great and precious boon, would not refuse this trifling 
gift, if this would prove a blessing to me. A suffering 
Christian, after a night of pain, observed, " It has been 
a night of great pain, but it was a night appointed me 
by Jesus Christ, and sure it must be a good one that he 
appo-ints." Thus reason respecting your heavenly Fa- 
ther's conduct. Doubt not his love, who gave a Savior. 
Depend on his interest in your happiness through the 
few moments of time, who sent his only begotten Son 
into the world, to make you happy to eternity. 

§ 18. The trials of life will soon conchide. Vain is all 
below the sun, except the blessings of your heavenly 
Father's love. The pleasures of this world pass away. 
The wisdom of this world is fading and dying. The 
head that has often ached in acquiring science, soon 
lies down in the dust, and forgets its vaunted know- 
ledge. Expect not therefore living comforts in a dying 
world. Your trials too are short, for eternity is near. 
In the light of eternity, how insignificant will those 
short trials seem ! Time and sorrow are hastening by, 
eternity and bliss are approaching; and when you 
wake amidst eternal things, how little will seem what 
you enjoyed or suffered here. What will the loss of 
property, or the loss of reputation, signify then ! When, 
ten minutes after death, you look back on this world. 



43i6 AFFLICTIONS SOON ENDED. 

how vain a dream will all the scenes of life appear! 
What poor trifles will its pleasures seem ! what dying 
things its friendships ! what little griefs its heaviest 
woes ! And when ten thousand ages have fled away, 
and you look back on Avhat now seems like a sea of 
trouble, that ocean of affliction will be like the drop of 
a bucket. Formidable as it once seemed, it will then 
appear like nothingness itself. Let the thought of eter- 
nity mingle v.'ilh the trials of time ; and its weightiest 
trials will be felt " as light affliction which is but for a 
moment." And while those momentary trials continue, 
think whither they hasten you. Every day of affliction 
hastens the child of God to the haven of eternal peace. 
As the tossing of a tempest may hurry a shattered ship 
sooner to its harbor than the fairest wind that blows; 
so the rough storm of worldly sorrow, as well as the 
peaceful gale, and perhaps more hastily, may urge the 
Christian to the port where every storm shall cease. 
Keep that peaceful port in view. Faith will soon be 
lost in sight; hope make way for certainty; time and 
its shadows be perhaps almost forgotten amidst the 
glories of eternity. The dark night of life will shortly 
close ; affliction's last tempest be hushed in peace ; and 
the bright morning of eternal day open on the tranquil 
and enraptured soul. Then farewell to chastisement, 
to grief and pain. 

§ 19. Happy are they who enjoy the love and care 
of a gracious Savior, and a heavenly Father ! Happy 
amidst the scenes of time, and happier when quitting 
them for ever ! Their great work is done, their best 
interests are secure. Should even sudden death hurry 
them from health and vigor to the cold tomb, yet they 
are blessed, whose home is in the skies, whose Father 



THE christian's HOME. 437 

is in heaven. When life dpflines, glory will dawn ; and 
the moment that bears them hence will bear them 
home. 

Come, my fellow-pilgrim, let us contemplete that 
home. IIow fair is the prospect ! how bright the eter- 
nal day ! how sweet the peace the hope of that eternal 
day imparts I The Christian is blessed, who, looking 
beyond the shadows of time, can exclaim, "As for me, 
I shall behold thy face in righteousness." " Thou shalt 
guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me 
to glory." Though my path may be rough and thorny, 
thou shalt guide me, and, blessed hope! thou wilt re- 
ceive me — even me, to glory. The world have their 
fading satisfactions and dying pleasures, which must 
vanish when their poor possessors lie down to die ; but 
thou art my Father and my God, and when my flesh 
and heart fail, wilt be the strength of my heart, and my 
portion for ever. For ever ! For ever ! How gladsome 
is the prospect of peace and bliss, where peace and bliss 
must endure for ever! And is this your animating 
hope? Glorious hope! Compared with, this the wealth 
of worlds is poverty. Perhaps your thoughts delighted 
rove over those scenes of never-fading bliss ; but death 
still appears terrible. The dark valley seems so dark, 
that you dread descending into it, though it is the pas- 
sage to eternal day. 

§ 20. Think then of Jesus's power to save, and to 
cheer even the solemn hour of dissolution with a hope 
so full of immortality that death shall be swallowed 
up in victory. He can make pain, sickness and death, 
the way of comfort, the way of life. Not only apostles 
and martyrs, but myriads unknown to the busy world, 
37 



438 SUPPORT IN DEATH. 

cheered by his presencej have passed the gulf of death 
ill peace. I have known one who said, " Blessed be the 
Lord ! the sting of death is gone. I feel that the fear 
of death is taken away. I wish for death. I think 
every day, when it is night, I am a day nearer my 
blessed home." I have heard another humble disciple 
of the Savior say, " The blood of Jesus cleanses from 
all sin, and cleansed me. I hope and trust Jesus Christ 
is my all. He is my supporter and my all. The near- 
er I get to my journey's end, I hope the more comfort 
I find. The nearer I get, the more fear is gone." I 
have known a young follower of the holy Jesus, when 
about to quit this world, declare, that she would not on 
any account change places with her Christian friends; 
thinking her condition so much better than theirs be- 
cause her course was nearer ending. " I am rejoiced," 
said she, " when I think myself worse. I never thought 
I should be so comfortable on a sick bed. I am very 
comfortable. The Lord is my support : I want no other. 
I know that religion is not a vain thing; I have found 
that it is not." I have heard another, when gospel con- 
solation was mentioned to him, observe, "It makes a 
death-bed pleasant:" and heard the same humble, un- 
lettered disciple declare, "I am fixed on Christ: he is 
all my dependence. I believe the Lord is waiting to 
receive me." These expressions, dropped from dying 
lips, were not uttered by apostles or martyrs ; but were 
the testimony of plain and humble Christians to the 
support their gracious Lord imparted. How precious 
such support! Cheered by it, what is death? How its 
terrors dwindle into insignificance! Death thus cheered, 
is indeed the coming of the Savior to call his followers 
home. Th'^ Lord Jesus Christ gave this view of death ; 



SUPPORT IN DEATH. 439 

" I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and pre- 
pare a place for you, I will come again and receive 
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
also." How pleasing a representation of that, solemn 
event ! Death but the coming of a Savior. Then what 
is it to die, but to lean a languishing head on his com- 
passionate arm, and to commit a ransomed spirit to his 
faithful care? Could he personally appear to take his 
followers home, who that loves him would fear to die? 
Ah, could we look into the unseen world, and behold 
his dealings with his humble flock, what sacred peace 
and holy ecstacy would the view inspire! Then we 
might hear him say to ministering angels, " Go fetch 
my follower; let all her trials end; let disease set the 
captive free; let it dissolve the bonds of transient life; 
let the purchase of my blood ascend to me ; and let my 
promise be fulfilled. Where I am shall ye be also." 
Yes, death, to the blood-bought family of God, is the 
coming of Jesus; and it is his presence that has ena- 
bled some to say, "Happy, happy;" and others to ex- 
pire with, "Victory! Victory!" on their dying lips. 
One to breathe out her spirit, saying, "Now I will go 
to my God;" and another to declare, "My Savior has 
sent his messenger for me, and I wish to go to him." 
My fellow-pilgrim, when you read of the supports 
that others have found, look to him who upheld their 
fainting heads, for your support in the last struggles of 
dissolving nature. Cleave to him, and he will not forget 
you in that awful hour; for he is the same yesterday, 
to-day, and for ever. 

" Come now, be his in ev'ry part! 
"Nor give him less than all your heart, 
*'And when the closing scenes prevail, 



440 BLESSIKGS OP 

"When wealth, state, pleasure, all must fail, 

" All that a foolish world admires, 

" Or passion craves, or pride inspires ; 

" At that important hour of need, 

" Jesus shall prove a friend indeed. 

"His hands shall smooth thy dying bed, 

" His arm sustain thy drooping head ; 

" And when the painful struggle 's o'er, 

" And that vain thing, the world, no more, 

" He'll bear his humble friend away 

'• To rapture and eternal day." 

Now raise your eyes, and look beyond the gloomy 
vale of death. The Scriptures teach you, that to the 
believer death is gain. Death is yours. That last ene- 
my, through heavenly love, is constrained to become 
a friend. Death will end your labors and your dan- 
gers; will conclude your trials, and reward your toils; 
will bring the crown of victory, and satisfy your long- 
ing desires for immortality. Of those who sleep in Je- 
sus it is said, "Blessed are the dead which die in the 
Lord." " I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no 
man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peo- 
ple, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the 
Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their 
hands; and cried with aloud voice, saying. Salvation to 
our God, which sitteth Hpon the throne, and unto the 
Lamb. These are they which came out of great tribu- 
lation, and have washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb." Of that abode it i^^ 
said, "And I saw no temple therein : for the Lord God 
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the 
city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to 
shine in it ; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the 
Lamb is the light thereof." " And there shall be no 



THE PIOUS DEAD. 4^11 

more curse: and there shall be no night there: and 
they shall reign for ever and ever." In the sweet pros- 
pect of this inheritance, a dying saint exclaimed, "I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness, v/hioh the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to 
me only, but unto all them also that love his appear- 
ing." Another, who loved his Master, said, "How 
thankful am I for death, as it is the passage through 
which I go to the Lord and Giver of eternal life. These 
afl^Iictions are but for a moment, and then comes an 
eternal weight of glory." 

§ 2L Come, survey that hamper land. It is the bliss- 
ful rest which God prepares for you, if you are his. It 
is the blest abode where saints and angels meet. It is 
the happy place where all the family of Jesus shall see 
him as he is, and in his presence spend eternal ages. 

Think of that happy world as that which God 
prepares. There Jesus declares are many peaceful 
dwellings. He has said, "In my Father's house are 
many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you." 
Those happy mansions God, your gracious Father, for 
his family prepares. This sweet, this cheering fact, 
his own word declares. It is said of Abraham, "He 
looked for a city which hath foundations, whose build- 
er and Maker is God." Of others eminent for piety it 
is said, "They desire a better country, that is, an hea- 
venly : wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their 
God - for he hath prepared for them a city." What 
must that abode be which a God of love provides for 
those he condescends to own ! how rich must be the 
inheritance which God himself prepares! how im- 



442 



christian's happy home. 



mense the love which leads him thus to take delight 
in the happiness of ransomed penitents ! 

In a passage, if possible, still more delightful, it is 
said by the Lord Jesus himself, " Fear not, little flock; 
for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the 
kingdom." Here God appears the Father of the fami- 
ly that is bound for heaven ; and a Father so interested 
in their happiness, that to give them a kingdom above 
is pleasure even to him. Gracious God ! can it be that 
such is thy interest in the happiness of those poor pe- 
nitents thy love has ransomed from eternal death! O 
what heights, and depths, and breadths, and lengths of 
love are thine ! what vileness is ours, if we do not 
love thee with all the grateful fervor of affectionate 
hearts !— Ah, let us repeat the charming words once 
more, " It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the 
kingdom." And will he give that kingdom as the com- 
pletion of his amazing designs of love 7 And is he 
pleased to give you the kingdom ? Ah, what must be 
that heaven which such a God, which such a Father, 
gives, and delights in giving, to those he loves with an 
everlasting love! Surely we may exclaim, O vile un- 
grateful hearts, to love this heavenly Friend no more ! 
O vain deluded minds, to see one attraction in any 
thing beneath the sun, while such a kingdom waits our 
coming I 

That gracious God who thus blesses his humble 
friends, will bless them in the abode his love prepares 
with all the comforts of his presence. Of them, when 
fixed there, his word asserts, " Therefore are they be- 
fore the throne of God, and serve him day and night 
in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall 
dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, nei- 



i 



christian's happy home. 443 

ther thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on 
them, nor anj^ heat. For the Lamb, which is in the 
midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead 
lliem unto living fountains of waters." "Behold, the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with 
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself 
shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall 
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain : for the former things 
are passed away." 

O, happy, happy they, who thus rest in the presence 
of their God ! They have done with the dark services 
of time; and all they love, and all they wish, all that 
a vast eternity requires to make it one blest scene of 
unmingled joy, they lind in God. O, happy end to 
life's short pilgrimage ! happy abode ! Why does not 
every follower of the Lamb, with longing, ardent, rest- 
less desires, wait for that peaceful home? 

§ 22. There too the disciple of Immanuel shall rest 
with him. That gracious friend has said, " If any man 
serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there 
.shall also my servant be : if any man serve me, him 
will my Father honor." "I go to prepare a place for 
you. I will come again, and receive you unto myself; 
that where I am, there ye may be also." Happy state I 
There the declaration of his word will be fulfilled, 
"So shall we ever be with the Lord." Sweet is this 
prospect to them that love their Lord. To be where 
their Redeemer is, is all the anxious heart can crave, 
and all the rising soul can wish. While wandering 
through the wilderness of time, the Christian may feel 
that much which is strange and solemn must open on 



444 dwelli:;g with ohrist. 

the soul when starting forward into vast eternity; but 
to be where the Savior is, this is enough— this must 
be well. 

" My knowledge of that state is small, 
" The eye of faith is dim : 
. " But 'tis enough that Christ knows alL 
" And I shall be with him." 

Cheering prospect ! The Christian may say, I would 
not wander on earth a weary pilgrim through eternal 
days; nor would I find my endless home in some re- 
mote province of my heavenly Father's kingdom. This 
would be banishment to me. Trie heaven I seek, must 
be the heaven where my Redeemer reigns. Not all his 
glowing works can bound the flight of my aspiring 
soul. It presses beyond them all, and seeks a rest more 
glorious than their brilliant fires, more lasting than 
their short duration. When my freed spirit takes its 
last farewell of earth, those golden lamps that glitter 
in the firmament shall not stop its rising flight. They 
are mean, compared with the mansions to which I as- 
pire, those mansions where I may dwell with God. 
They are not my Redeemer's home, but to the world, 
that is, would I ascend. There, blessed .Tesus ! would 
my aspiring spirit fix, and there alone. There it can 
rest for ever. There it can love for ever. There it 
can praise for ever.— My fellow-pilfrim, is not this 
your hope? do you not join in saying, "My Savior, 
the soul thou hast redeemed presses on to thee ; O re- 
ceive it to thine home when its wandering pilgrimage 
on earth concludes?" It is a gladdening tliought that 
he has promised to do this, and has, doubtless, to mil- 
lions that once trod our earth, fulfilled the gracious 



"absent prom the body." 445 

promise, " Where I am, there shall also my servant 
be ;" and he will fulfill it to myriads more. Happy they ! 
while we mourn, they rejoice; they rest while we la- 
bor; praise when we sigh; are secure when dangers 
threaten us. They hear no complaints ; shed no tears ; 
utter no groans. They are in the dwelling of their 
Lord. Blessed change I from the gloomy chamber of 
pain ; from the cottage of poverty ; from the society of 
feeble friends; or the labors of the shop, or the field, 
or the mill. There, absent from the body, they are pre- 
sent with the Lord. 

§ 23. Perhaps you mourn the loss of some, once the 
beloved associates of your days, and fellow-pilgrims in 
the course to heaven. Come then, let us meditate on 
those few sweet words, " Absent from the body and pre- 
sent with the Lord:' These few sweet words describe 
their happiness; and if we follow the holy Jesus, tell 
us what shall soon be ours. When meditating on these 
words, we may confess that the weakness of our faith 
IS in no way more apparent than by our languid de- 
sires after heavenly blessedness, and by our sorrow for 
those who leave time for eternity. We mourn when 
the blessed rejoice; and shed tears for those who will 
never shed them more. We lament a change, with 
which those on whom it has passed are infinitely sa- 
tisfied. We mourn over their beloved remains, as if all 
•we loved in them were there. But the better part has 
fled— the dark coflin does not receive it. The solemn 
grave will never confine it. The beloved spirit, which 
gives animation to the lifeless body, will never become 
an inhabitant of the tomb. '• It is absent from the body 
and present with the Lord." Blessed, thrice blessed! 
38 



446 



MEDITATIONS ON BEING 



change 1 more worthy for ourselves to be welcomed 
with eagerness than beheld with dislike ! more worthy 
for those most dear to us to be reviewed with tears of 
joy and gratitude than remembered with regret. 

"Absent from the body:" the feeble, languishing, 
disordered body. Ah, happy friends, beloved fugitives 
from these vain scenes, mourn for us ; we need not 
mourn for you. The gloomy scenes which strike our 
imaginations with regret, disturb not yours. The dis- 
mal hearse, the narrow coffin, the gloomy grave, affect 
you not. Absent from the body, you are far from these. 
However bitterly we mourn at your funerals, you 
mourn not at your own. These sad scenes call from us- 
increasing grief; from you not a single tear. By you 
they are not seen. Absent from the body, you are ab- 
sent from them. As whatever passes in dwellings where 
we once abode now affects us not, so all the dark insig- 
nia of death, and all that passes round your beloved 
remains, disturbs not your tranquillity, nor lessens 
your delight. 

"Absent from the body." 0! blessed conquerors! 
then are you absent from its pains, and absent from 
its cares. Sickness and languors shall no more afflict 
you; for that feeble dwelling of languors and of pains 
lies far beneath you in the unconscious dust. Care and 
grief will no more intrude upon you. These are all 
forgotten, unless remembered to heighten your hea- 
venly bliss. 

" Absent from the body." In vain then, ye once dear, 
still dear objects, do we sorrow over you. You are not 
here— you are departed. You are not in the dust. 
There rests the forsaken dwelling; but you are not 
there. You are gone. The tomb then does not contain 



" PRESENT WITH THE LORD." 447 

our treasures. Ye are now saints on high, whom we 
lament below. 

" Forgive, ye blest, the tributary tear 
" That mourns your exit from a world like this : 

"Forgive the wish that would have kept you here, 
"And stayed your progress to the seats of bliss. 

" No more confined to darksome realms of night, 
" No more frail tenants pent in mortal clay : 

" Now should we rather hail your glorious flight, 
" And trace your progress to the realms of day." 

Let faith then follow you now, and we will follow 
you ere long. Let faith trace your course to brighter 
worlds. It is true, you are "• absent from the body ;" 
but, O you are " present with the Lord." Though ab- 
sent, you are not lost. Though removed from us, you 
are removed to better society and fairer scenes. 

" Present with the Lord." O, happy conquerors ! 
why then do we mourn your removal from such socie- 
ty as ours — infinitely belter society is yours. It is true, 
you are severed for a time from all the tender names 
of earth ; but " dearer, better friends " exist beyond the 
grave, and those dearer, better friends are yours. 

" Present with the Lord." It is this that must com- 
plete our happiness, and this is yours. The heavenly 
mansions would not be so blest were not our God and 
yours, your Redeemer and ours, there. You see them 
without the thick veil of flesh between. You are not 
in a remote province of the heavenly empire. You 
dwell in the palace itself ; for you are " present with 
the Lord." Happy they who sojourned with the Lord 
of heaven when he dwelt on earth I but, more happy, 



448 MEDITATIONS ON BEING 

far more happy you, who see him in his heavenly tem- 
ple, and see him as he is ! Now can you sound his 
praise in strains to mortal ears unknown ; and now en- 
joy the infinite riches of his love. 

" Present with the Lord." Ye dear departed friends, 
what blest employments, what delights, are yours! 
Eye hath not seen them, ear hath not heard them, 
heart hath not conceived them. Our imaginations trace 
you through the scenes of mortal converse. We see 
you as we saw you once, and regret the pleasing hours 
which you and we once enjoyed— but, O ! why regret 
Ihem ? far better employments engage you than those 
of earth; far better delights are yours than you ever 
found in wandering, in conversing, in resting with us. 

" Worlds would not bribe you back to tread 

" Again life's dreary waste, 
** To see again your sky o'erspread 

" With all the gloomy past." 

" Present with the Lord." Ye dear departed, des- 
tined to outlive a falling world ! ye are not lost 1 Fain 
would we have had you continue longer here ; but why 
continue? What is taken from your time is added to 
your eternity. Our memories tell us of prospects you 
indulged in for earth and time— and these views are 
blasted. Yes, blessed disappointment ! earth is changed 
for heaven, and hopes of transient comfort for the frui- 
tion of unfailing joy. You formed plans for the voyage, 
but God took you to the harbor. You sought tranquilli- 
ty through a few declining days on earth ; but he has 
called you to " rapture and bliss in the skies." You ex 
pected to pass a few more days with beloved friends 



" PRESENT WITH THE LORD." 449 

below ; but he has snatched you hence to join with 
nobler friends above. You bless that friendly wave of 
time, which, while you thought it was bearing you to 
some earthly attainment, landed you in heaven. 

" Present with the Lord." Blessed conquerors, then 
are you safe ! Had you continued longer here, temp- 
\ation might have seduced you, Satan might have over- 
wme you, or pernicious error have led you astray ; but 
10 temptations now seduce you, no enemies assault 
you, no errors now mislead you. 

" Present with the Lord." Ye dear departed, why 
do we mourn your happiness? What was it that you 
prayed for? To be "present with the Lord." What 
was it that you sought? To be "present with the 
Lord." Your prayers are answered, your desires ful- 
filled. And shall we regret this ? The children of this 
world lament not when the labors of their friends are 
concluded, when the voyages and the battles of those 
they love are over. But, alas ! the children of this world 
are wiser than the children of light ! What is it that 
we seek? to what most earnestly aspire ? for what most 
anxiously hope ? To be " present with the Lord." Be- 
loved, lamented friends, is this the summit of our own 
desires? and was this the summit of yours? and yet 
shall we regret your desires gratified ? Rather should 
we congratulate your departure, while our faith pur- 
sues you to your heavenly dwellings. 

" Present with the Lord," but not with us; yet may 
W8 ere long be so with you. You cannot come again 
to us, but we may shortly go to you. Our loss is the 
loss of your beloved society for a little span ; but soon 
will that little span be past. Then we too will leave 
38* 



^yO HEAVENLY REWARD 

our feeble clay-built tabernacles, we too be " absent 
from the body and present with the Lord.''* 
^^ § 24. Admitted to that happy home, and blessed with 
the crown, not of merit, but of grace," the Christian 
will find all his toils and labors amply recompensed. 
Where but one talent has been possessed, and well im- 
proved, the gracious Savior will manifest as much ap- 
probation as he will to those who may have had many, 
but made no more improvement of them. Perhaps, if 
your abilities are small, and your opportunities of do- 
ing good very limited, you may be disposed to antici- 
pate a less share of the Savior's favor than you ima- 
gine will be the happiness of those who have many 
more talents than you. But it is not the number of ta- 
lents you possess, but the improvement of them, which 
the eternal Master notices. Td him who had five talents 
intrusted to him, and who could say, " Behold, I have 
gained beside them five talents morej" his lord said, 
" Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast 
been faithful over a (ew things, I will make thee ruler 
over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord." 
But to him who had made an equal improvement of 
two talents, his lord said, " Well done, good and faith- 
ful servant, thou hast been faithful over a iew things, 
I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou 

* Perhaps there may be a propriety in the writer observing 
that most of this section was written on the evening previous 
to the tuneral of a dear and affectionate, a kind and valuable 
father, John Baxter Pike ; a father to whose care and kind- 
ness he IS unspeakably indebted-a father, who, to promote the 
welfare of his family, struggled hard through a chequered and 
stormy life; and who manifested much peace in the prospect 
ot eternity. 



OF CHRISTIAN LABORS. 451 

into the joy of thy lord." The number of talents pos- 
sessed was different, but the improvement was equal, 
and their lord's expressions of approbation equal. 
Though all that the blest in heaven will enjoy is un- 
deserved, and all flows from heavenly grace, yet the 
Savior does teach us, that he will make that reward 
proportionable to the diligence of his servants. In the 
parable of the ten pounds delivered to ten servants, the 
lord said to him who had made the one pound ten, 
Have thou authority over ten cities; and to him who 
made the one pound hut Jive, he only said, Have thou 
authority over Jive cities. In the great recivoning day, 
and the eternal state, events the most unexpected will 
take place. Even of those admitted to heaven, many 
of the first may be last, and the last first. Many wealthy 
Christians, who were applauded, and eminent in their 
day, may sink far below the poor believer, who toiled 
through life in obscurity and want, but whose piety 
was more fervent, whose heart more liberal, than were 
those of his wealthier brother. The unfamed tenant of 
the cottage will often rise higher in glory than the 
possessors of stately mansions and extensive fame; for 
in many instances his single talent will be found to 
have been better improved than their five, or ten, or 
twenty. 

The pious female, only known in the narrow circle 
of domestic life ; the laborious Sabbath-school teacher, 
all whose energies were employed in training the 
young for heaven, may, in numberless cases, rise far 
above ministers of the Gospel, popular and admired in 
their day, but whose activity in doing good was not 
proportioned to their opportunities; whose more 



452 



DWELLING OF THE SAINTS. 



splendid talents were not improved so well as the hum- 
bler ones of their more pious friends. 

Whatever be your situation, let considerations of this 
kind thus animate you to press forward to eminent 
piety. The Lord will approve of your feeble attempts 
to honor him. If all you can do is little, yet do that 
little, and he will esteem it much. Where nothing 
more can be imparted, "a cup of cold water only," 
given to a disciple, " in the name of a disciple, shall 
in no wise lose its reward." You cannot exert an 
humble endeavor for the Savior's glory, however un- 
successful, that will not meet his approbation. With 
what delight may the Christian exclaim, Compassion- 
ate Savior ! wilt thou, when seated on thy glorious 
throne, own my humble attempts to please thee? Shall 
I share in the honors of thy kingdom, and then be 
welcomed with thy approbation ? Condescending Re 
deemer ! I know I may ; and O let this condescending 
love of thine constrain me to lay at thy feet whatever 
I possess. 

§ 25. Are those your hopes ? O soul-reviving hopes ! 
Such blessings might seem all we want, yet more will 
the Savior's bounty give. To enjoy his presence, to 
be for ever with the Lord, is the height of heavenly 
happiness. But another source of joy, shall be the 
company of all the spirits of the just. The heavenly 
home is described as their abode. In sweet eternal 
union there are joined all the angels of light, and all 
the ransomed heirs of glory. 

" The holy host of saints, that once have known 
*' Each dreary path in life's perplexing maze, 

" There ever circle yon eternal throne 
" With harpings high of inexpressive praise." j 



PIOUS IN HEAVEN. 453 

Of Ihem the word of truth declares, They which 
shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, are 
equal unto the angels, and are the children of God. 
" Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of 
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an in- 
numerable company of angels, and to the spirits of 
just men made perfect." " Thou wast slain, and hast 
redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kin- 
dred, and tongue, and people, and nation." 

What glorious joy will union to this blessed family 
impart! There dwell the great benefactors of man- 
kind, apostles and evangelists, who sacrificed every 
earthly good to lead immortal multitudes to heaven. 
There martyrs, dear to our hearts for their faith and 
patience, rest in eternal repose. There those, the me- 
morials of whose piety has animated ours, all are as- 
sembled ; and shine far brighter in their Father's king- 
dom, than they ever shone on earth. Unnumbered 
millions that never met below, there meet never to 
part. Amidst that goodly company are doubtless found 
a Baxter and a Howe, an Elliot and a Brainerd, a 
Martyn and a Ward, and millions more, perhaps less 
known on earth, but not less happy in heaven. And 
now their piety glows with purer lustre; and all the 
lovely graces that religion produced in their disposi- 
tions and characters, are far more lovely there. O 
glorious happiness, to join that blissful throng! and 
far from all these polluting and sinful scenes, to spend 
eternal day with happy myriads of spotless saints and 
exalted angels ! 

§ 26. But when you contemplate this happiness, 
perhaps the inquiry arises. May I hope there to meet 
the dear companions of my earthly course ? May I 



454 



CHRISTIANS WILL KNOW 



hope there to know and love those valued, pious 
friends, whom I have known and loved upon earth ? 
The Scriptures furnish reasons for believing that the 
happ)^ inhabitants of heaven shall enjoy this addition 
to their happiness. The word of God represents some 
eminent saints, who have left this world, as recognized 
long after their departure hence. Thus the ransomed 
are represented as sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob. Lazarus is described as conveyed to 
Abraham's bosom, and Dives as knowing Lazarus and 
Abraham. And at the time of our Lord's transfigura- 
tion, the distinguished saints who appeared in glory, 
(probably as they appear m heaven,) and who con- 
versed with him, were known to be Moses and Elijah. 
There is no reason for supposing, that while these are 
recognized in the world of glory, it should be alto- 
gether unknown who others are, and whence they 
came. We may rather believe, that as Abraham is 
there known to be that Abraham who once forsook 
his country at God's command, saints of later days 
enjoy the mutual happiness of knowing and being 
known. 

A still more conclusive argument to prove that the 
blest shall be acquainted with each other, arises from 
the language of the apostle Paul, in which he expressed 
his confidence of seeing and recognizing his Christian 
friends. " For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of 
rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our 
Lord Jesus Christ at his coming ?" As he expected in a 
happier state to renew his intimacy with those who 
had been converted under his ministry at Thessalonica, 
they must mutually know him. The apostle does not 
mention this as a privilege peculiar to himself: other 



EACH OTHER IN HEAVEN. 465 

laborers in the Savior's vineyard would, without doubt^ 
enjoy a similar felicity. But if the minister shall recog- 
nize his flock, can we think the pious parent shall be 
unacquainted with the pious child whom he trained 
for heaven ? Can we suppose that brothers and sisters, 
husbands and wives, relatives and friends, much and 
mutually beloved on earth, and helpers of each other 
in the way to glory, shall not renew their friendship 
with each other there ? Important as is the connection 
between the pastor and the flock, these connections, 
when sanctified by grace, are often much more im- 
portant. Here religious intercourse takes place more 
dear and more continued ; prayers as fervent, and more 
frequent, are offered in union. Surely we may believe 
that when the minister meets the people of his charge, 
the flock he has been instrumental in leading on to 
heaven ; Christian relatives and friends, united in bands 
as sacred and as strong, will also renew their friend- 
ship, and find in the society of each other new delight 
infused into the bliss even of eternity. 

It may further be observed, that the comfort which 
the Gospel administers to those who mourn friends 
that sleep in Jesus, appears to be drawn in a great 
measure from the hope of their happy reunion, and 
their eternal dwelling in the presence of their Lord. 
The inspired writer says, " I would not have you to 
be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are 
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have 
no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose 
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God 
bring with him. For the Lord himself shall descend 
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 
angel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in 



45j8 PIOUS FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 

Christ shall rise first : then we which are alive and re- 
main shall be caught up together with them in the 
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we 
ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one ano- 
ther with these words." The heathen sorrowed with- 
out hope, for they had no well founded hope that their 
departed friends had entered a happy immortality; and 
their friends once lost, seemed lost for ever : but if pious 
friends did not meet and recognize each other in hea- 
ven, the Christian would be as much without hope of 
beholding his loved and lost companions, as even the 
heathen themselves ; and if not lost to happiness, they 
would be lost to him : the moment of death would be 
the moment of an eternal separation ; and what had 
become of them would be to him unknown. Surely 
the language of the divine word leads to ideas very dif- 
ferent from this ! It speaivs of these friends being hap- 
py, of their coming with their Lord, and then of them 
and those they left behind being with him for ever. 
Can this imply any thing less than a happy reunion 
in his presence ? 

Have you kindred in the skies ? beloved kindred ! 
they bless the hour that set them free from earth and 
time. Follow their Lord, and you will soon bless that 
hour which lands you on the happy shore, where death- 
divided friends, that meet in Christ, shall never part 
again. There " Adieus and farewells are a sound un- 
known." Happy they who meet in bliss ! Their union 
is not the union of a day : it is a meeting that will never 
be followed by a painful parting. How should the hope 
of it animate those, whom piety unites in death-defy- 
ing bands, to walk with God, to pray and praise toge- 
ther here, as they hope, through everlasting days, to 



HEAVEN AN ENDLESS HOME. 457 

praise their God together there ! O happy meeting '. 
when they meet, no more to share each other's griefs, 
no more to mourn each otlier's woes, no more to grieve 
for each other's defects; but to share in each other's 
joys, to triumph in each other's happiness, and mu- 
tually to behold friends esteemed so dear and amiable 
below, infinitely more amiable, as well as eternally glo- 
rious and happy. 

§ 27. Think too, that all these blessings are /or ever. 
The happiness of that world is everlasting. Tears and 
sorrows, sickness and pain, temptation and danger, sin 
and death, are excluded for ever. There, where all is 
peace and praise, all is peace and praise for ever. O, 
blissful day ! may the Christian think, when I shall see 
my Savior ! when I shall be with him, and be like him. 
Then shall I see, and know, and love, and praise my 
Lord, more and better through eternal days ! Eternal 
days! who shall unfold the meaning of those trans- 
porting words — Eternal days ? O look forward beyond 
the end of time. Let faith assist you to discern the 
state of the just when time shall be no more. Think 
that you see the scenes of eternal judgment finishing. 
The archangel's trumpet has sounded, and is hushed 
in silence, never to sound again ; the ransomed my- 
riads of the blest have heard the gracious sentence of 
their Lord, and received the crown of glory that fa- 
deth not away. All the eventful scenes of life, of death, 
of judgment are concluded; and now behold them — 
where are they — in heaven — around them all is happy. 
Their views, joys, praises, friends, and home eternally 
the same ; their sorrows, cares, and sighings for ever 
fled away. " Violence shall no more be heard in their 
39 



458 



HEAVEN AN ENDLESS HOME. 



land, wasting nor destruction within their borders; 
but they shall call their walls Salvation, and their gates 
Praise. The sun shall be no more their light by day ; 
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto 
them : but the Lord shall be unto them an everlasting 
light, and their God their glory. Their sun shall no 
more go down; neither shall their moon withdraw it- 
self: for the Lord shall be their everlasting light, and the 
days of their mourning shall be ended." Before them 
all is glorious. Before them stretches one immense 
eternal day of bliss. They see no end, they fear no ill. 
How brightly shines the sun of their happiness ! how 
happily glide on the infinite ages of their felicity ! Go 
forward in thought myriads of numberless ages. Ima- 
gine years as countless as the blades of grass that cov- 
er the ground, or as the drops that fill the ocean, to 
have passed away. Then look again at the inhabitants 
of heaven ; their day is still bright. No cloud has dark- 
ened its glory in the immense duration that has pass- 
ed. Their happiness is still undiminished. No transient 
pain has brought a momentary interruption of their 
felicity in all the mighty periods that are gone. 
For no moment, during all those countless ages, has 
the stain of imperfection polluted them. No ruffling 
passion has ever been felt within their peaceful breasts. 
The light of God's countenance has never been with- 
drawn. No foes without, no fears or corruptions with- 
in, have disturbed the sweet composure of their happy 
spirits. Through periods so long, that, compared with 
them, time and all its ages is the twinkling of an eye, 
the unruffled day of heaven has glided blissfully along. 
Nor do they mourn its departure ; eternal day is not 
shortened; eternal felicity is not lessened. The im- 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 



459 



mense and amazing prospect of everlasting life still 
stretches before their view, as bright, as fair, as glad- 
dening, and as long as ever. Happy conquerors ! Ima- 
gination fails, and cannot reach their blessedness, nor 
comprehend what it is to be enjoying heaven. 

The eternal God is their Father, and they are for 
ever with the Lord. But 1 what no heart can con- 
ceive, no imagination comprehend, you, my brother, 
or my sister, may enjoy. Be thou faithful unto death, 
and that eternal day will cheer your soul with infinite 
delight, and raise your raptures to heights of infinite 
felicity; while you look back to the stormy scenes of 
time, to the day of danger and conflict, to the solemni- 
ties of death and judgment, and exult that these are 
for ever finished; that redeeming love has fixed you 
safe in heaven ; and that now vast, boundless, joyful 
eternity, will be to you one long, immense, infinite 
scene of unmingled tranquillity, praise, and pleasure, 
in the presence of God and of the Lamb. O what is 
life in the view of this happiness! What its cares, 
pleasures, pains, but shadows lighter than vanity ! O 
what is redeeeming love, that opens to your soul these 
triumphant prospects ! 

$ 28. Soon will all the glories of the bright scenes 
dawn upon the faithful soul. Though eternal day will 
never end, eternal day will soon begin. When tne 
husbandman commits his seed to the ground, a few 
wintry days revolve, a few bright suns shine, a few 
moons wax and wane, and the harvest comes, and the 
ripened crop is gathered into the garner. So fast 
comes the harvest of eternity. The Christian's hap- 
piest days are hastening him forward to its solemn 
scenes, and the sad and gloomy days of darkness are 



460 HEAVEN TO BE KEPT IN VIEW. 

carrying him as fast to the world where gloomy sea- 
sons and distressing days are unknown for ever. I'he 
Christian's state in this world is like that of a manner 
pursuing a long voyage, yet tending to his native land. 
Month after month, all he beholds is the ocean and 
the sky. When within a day's sail of home, he still 
sees nothing but sea and sky : the unvarying prospect 
is the same as it was months before: yet his situation 
is very different ; then he was far from harbor, now 
a few hours will bring him there. So the Christian 
hastening to heaven, sees no more of that happy home 
than he did when entering his course, yet he is nearer 
every hour. He is drawing apace to the harbor, 
though he sees it not, and in a little while will enter 
there. 

§ 29. If grace has made you a partaker of the hope 
of that felicity, draw comfort from that hope ; antici- 
pate that heaven. When meditation leads your con- 
templations beyond the narrow bounds of time, then 
think. Am I to walk those heavenly fields? Am I to 
dwell in those regions of light? Then what is this 
world to me ? Am I, born as it were but yesterday, 
and hastening to a grave, to live in glory, when sun 
and stars, with all their glory, shall expire ? Am I, un- 
moved, to behold "the wreck of nature and the crush 
of worlds," to see, without regret, the bright lights of 
heaven sink into eternal darkness; and then shall I, 
amid the blest inhabitants of heaven, rejoice that my 
day of glory and happiness will never, never end? 
Then shall I, with all the blood- bought nations of the 
saved, walk in the light of the heavenly city, and dwell 
before the throne of God? Rise then, my soul, rise to 
thy blissful home. There place thy treasures ; there 



THOUGHTS OF HEAVEN. *61 

lav up thy store; there fix thy love; there hope 
lo^ra'se iy Savior and thy Lord; and watt and 
watch, till he shall call thee home. 

Dai y cherish the thoughts of that feUcty, and 
strive and pray, by meditation, to checl. unreasotiable 
auLchment to tWs dying world ; to sU loose to all be- 
ow aT>d to live as one who hopes ere long to ,ve tn 
hclven. Why are not the followers of the Lamb more 
eager for thefr rest7 does the sailor, tossed by storms, 
lonroncemore to reach his home? the chdd des.re 
ZnhoodTthe sick man health 7 the tradestnan pant 
Trlhes? the prisoner for liberty? the condemned 
p rdon. and should not you desire the blessedness 
™, ^eek? is heaven indeed tlte objectof your cho.ce 
^^d voitr wished-for home, why not more eager for 
it" C unreasonable to love a dangerous journey 
more than a peaceful rest? a boisterous ocean more 
Tan tb safe a'nd pleasant harbor! Who loves the s.p 
hat wafts him over raging waters more than the 
country where all who are dearest to htm dwell? Who 
ovTs the horse on which he rides, or the carr.age m 
which he travels, more than the dear home where he 

,n,-e.t refu.^e- the securest rest; and yet how one. 
Ce we mtl^ famtliarity *ith that better cou„.y 
How much ado has God to get us home ! Ah ^U f d 
hearts! to love a journey, a toilsome, a dangerou 
39* 



^62 CONCLUDING ADDRESS. 



journey, more than an everlasting home, whence toils 
and dangers are banished for ever. Watch against this 
dangerous, this guilty fondness for the present state. 
Think much of heaven. If your home is there, your 
heart must be there. You would not think much of the 
affection of a friend who might forget you at the mo- 
ment of parting, and think of you no more till you 
met again. We should not value a person's professed 
fondness for his family or home, who could travel 
days and weeks without thinking of them j nor can 
we think much of their attachment to heaven, who go 
days and weeks without having their thoughts and af- 
fections rising thither. Watch against that too com- 
mon sin, much forgetfulness of a better world. 

§ 30. He who has thus, in the preceding pages, en- 
deavored to help you in your spidiual pilgrimage, is 
now about to lay down his pen; yet before he lays it 
down, probably for ever, let him once more say to you, 
Go onward, looking to Jesus, and keeping God and 
heaven in view. Then, ere long, when summoned 
hence, you may depart in peace, and say, " I have 
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have 
kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to me only^ 
but unto all them also that love his appearing." Fare- 
well, vain world ! Farewell, scenes of transient fond- 
ness and dissolving affection ! Farewell, world of real 
grief, but fancied pleasures ! Farewell, sin, and with 
sin, farewell sorrow ! But welcome, bright and blessed 
immortality ! Welcome the scenes of indissoluble love ! 
Welcome the mansions in my Father's house ! Wel- 
come the kingdom of my redeeming Lord ! the dwell- 



ADDRESS TO THE IRRELIGIOUS. 463 

ing of joy, the crown of glory ! Few and evil have 
been the days of the years of my pilgrimage, but now 
those few and evil days have come to their end ; and I 
enter an eternity, where days, and weeks, and months, 
and years have no place, but all is one eternal day. 
Happy are they, who, being washed in the blood of 
the Lamb, ascend at the end of life's short pilgrimage 
to that endless rest. Happy they, whose blessedness it 
is, that the holy Savior prepares heaven for them, and 
them for heaven. May this be your happiness, who 
have now been reading these pages ! When neglecters 
of the Gospel, in overwhelming sadness, exclaim. The 
harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not 
saved— when those who have slighted the Savior's love 
vainly shrinking from the eternal Judge's wrath, say 
" to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide 
us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and 
from the wrath of the Lamb"— then, and through eter- 
nity, may you, with ransomed millions, unite in the 
sweet and everlasting anthem, " Blessing, and honor, 
and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon 
the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." 

§ 31. Probably some who may glance over the pre- 
ceding pages are destitute of an interest in all the bless- 
ings there described. Is this the case with you, whose 
eyes are now fixed upon this little book? Are you a 
careless profligate? an open scoffer? or an almost 
Christian? If either be the case, let me beseech you 
to reflect on your dreadful condition. Whatever you 
are, if you are not an humble follower of the Savior, 
your state is fearful in the extreme. In those blessings 
that have been described as the Christian's portion, 
you have no share. God is not your reconciled Father; 



464 ADDRESS TO THE IRRELIGI0U9. 

Jesus Christ is not your Shepherd ; heaven is not your 
home. As sure as the Scriptures are true, you are an 
heir of death, a slave of Satan, a child of wrath, an ene- 
my of God, a traveler to hell. Every moment you are 
on the brhik of destruction. There is only the breath 
in your nostrils between you and hell ; and nothing is 
wanted to sink you there but God's command. A cold, 
an accident, or almost any trifle, may be sufficient to 
cut your thread of life, and plunge you in eternal de- 
spair. There is no wide gulf between you and the tor- 
ments of eternal fire, the bowlings of accursed spirits, 
and the horrors of damnation. The place of misery is 
your own place : you are ready for it. Your sins are 
all unpardoned— wrath follows you— hell is waiting to 
receive you. Death, your dread foe, is drawing nigh. 
Your last moment, your last comfort, are approaching. 
In Christ you have no interest. For you his death is 
vain. In heaven you have no inheritance. There is a 
blessed heaven, but not for you. Unhappy creature ! 
you may trifle with this warning, but trifling will not 
alter your condition, or save your ruined soul. You 
may laugh or scoff at fervent piety, but will you laugh 
in the sad world of misery ? When lost for ever ; when 
before you is eternal night ; when millions of years of 
misery will not lessen your wretchedness, nor seas of 
tears efface one guilty stain; when the world is gone, 
and every pleasure gone, and your soul lost, eternally 
lost ; then what will you think of a slighted Savior and 
a neglected Gospel ? 0, my fellow-sinner, think of eter- 
nity ! think of eternal banishment from heaven ! think 
of eternal wailings and despair in hell ! If the Savior's 
love soften not your heart, let his terrors alarm you ! 
Flee from the wrath to come! Ere long, if you had 



ADDRESS TO THE IRRELIGIOUS. 465 

them, you would gladly give millions of worlds for an 
opportunity to flee from endless wrath ; but it will be 
too late then. O pity yourself ! it is not too late now ! 
You may have mercy, will you reject it ? The Savior 
would have compassion upon you, can you have so 
little for yourself as to neglect his great salvation 1 O 
pity an unhappy creature condemned to die ! you are 
that unhappy creature. Seek mercy, while mercy may 
be found ! God Almighty make you so wise and so 
happy. Yet if you will not, if you will continue to 
slight a dying Savior, a gracious God, and your own 
immortal soul, then make the most of your few vain 
delights. They are all you will ever have. Rather re- 
member that perhaps tl»e decree is gone forth already 
against you, Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? 
O have compassion on yourself, and pursue those 
blessings now, which, on the bed of death, at the day 
of judgment, and through vast eternity, you will wish 
to have obtained. May the God of all grace make you 
thus wise and happy I and raise you from the death of 
sin unto the life of righteousness ! Amen. 



EXD. 



