The command and the promise.

The Savior's presence.

CHAPTER X.

THE PARTING PROMISE,

OR THE INFLUENCES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

"Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Ar the time of our Savior's crucifixion, any one who should have looked abroad at the condition and character of mankind, would have pronounced the attempt which the twelve disciples were about to make, the most wild and impracticable scheme which the human heart could devise. Jesus knew, when he commanded his followers to engage in such an enterprise, that they would need help. He coupled therefore a promise to his command,-the one as remarkable as the other.

The Savior's presence with his followers assists them in their work, undoubtedly, in several ways. It cheers and sustains them. It gives them guidance and direction in difficulty and doubt; and the feeling that they are always with their leader, enjoying his presence and sympathy, gives devoted and honest Christians a support in difficulty, and trial, and affliction, which nothing else could afford.

But Jesus had often said before, that men, when turned from sin, where turned by influences from above, which influences he was to send down from the Father. We cannot therefore doubt that in this his parting promise, he referred in part at least to the co-operation which he should himself render them, in all their efforts to save souls. The disciples understood this, and the first triumphs of Christianity were, in a simple but beautiful manner, ascribed to him: "And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved.”

Proofs of it.

Saul.

Difficulties of the subject.

Their Master, too, gave the disciples an early and most signal proof that he remembered his promise, and was able to fulfil it, by changing Saul, their bitterest and most powerful foe, to their most devoted and most efficient friend. The apostle always attributed his conversion to the direct interposition of his Savior; and with such proofs as the early Christians thus had, that a divine and unwonted influence was exerted upon human hearts, in connexion with their efforts, they could not but take courage, and press on in a cause, which, without such aid, must have been very soon abandoned.

We have the same evidence now, as I intend to show in this chapter, by a narrative of facts, such as are in substance very common in modern times, and which prove that the enterprise of bringing the world back to God is not a hopeless one. The narrative will show too that the same kind of aid, so indispensable to success in such a cause as this, is still rendered. Before coming to it, however, a few considerations respecting the general subject must first be offered.

There are certainly great difficulties in connexion with the truth that whenever men turn away from their sins and enter God's service, it is through spiritual life which he awakens in the soul. Into these difficulties, we do not now propose to enter. We feel and know that men are free and accountable; the Bible most explicitly states, too, that all holy desires in the human heart come from God. If however, the question is raised how holy feeling can be the spontaneous movement of the moral agent which exercises it, and yet be the gift of God, we may lose ourselves in boundless perplexities, and return from the fruitless pursuits more dissatisfied than ever. The difficulty is, however, in the subject, rather than in the truth; that is, it appertains to a whole field of thought, and not to one particular proposition. It is difficult for us to understand how a being can be created at all, with

Subject obscure.

Plausible reasoning not to be relied upon.

out having his character determined by the act of creation. If the question, what his first moral acts shall be, is determined by any thing, it would seem that it must be by something in his moral constitution, as it was framed by his Maker; and if it is not determined by any thing, it must, one would think, be left a matter of pure accident; and that which is matter of pure accident, cannot be of a moral nature. We might thus, make out a very respectable argument a priori, that a free moral agent cannot be created; as creating power, unless it leaves the moral character a matter of mere accident, must do something to determine it, in which case it would seem that it is itself responsible for the acts which follow.

It will of course be understood that we do not offer this argument as a sound one, but only as plausible reasoning which is not to be relied upon, on account of the obscurity and difficulty of the whole subject. Take for instance the question suggested by the last lines of the preceding paragraph;-can creative power really determine the character of the being it forms, without being itself morally responsible for that character. It is a question which might be disputed by philosophers for ages, without victory on either side. The difficulty is in the subject. Wherever we approach it, all is obscurity and doubt. We cannot trust our reasonings, nor believe our conclusions.

There is no objection, perhaps, to an occasional discussion of such points, by Christians, if it is done with the same feelings with which we should investigate any other difficult question, in metaphysics or philosophy: but we must not bring them into the region of religious feeling and duty, and press upon our fellow Christians the theories which we may ourselves be led to form. What human minds see so imperfectly, they never see alike. On such subjects they cannot agree. What is substance to one, is shadow to another: and a thought

Ambiguity of language.

Facts are plain; the theory obscure.

which, from one point of view, has one set of aspects and relations, from a different one has another, totally diverse. Besides, in the higher regions of metaphysical investigation, words, as a medium of communication, if not as a medium of thought, lose their significancy, and thus even the conceptions which we have, though perhaps clear in the mind, cannot be clearly expressed. In fact, the human intellect, when it roams away into the profound recesses of metaphysical philosophy, can lead on other minds, but a very little way. Intercourse by language very soon fails. We endeavor, by nice definition, and careful etymological discrimination, to lead it on as far as it will go; and it is often long before its growing inadequacy is understood and felt. It must, however, at last be abandoned, and the mind then, if it advances at all, must advance alone and silently. It perceives truths, or at least, it has conceptions which it cannot communicate, and when at last, bewildered in the increasing perplexity of the labyrinth, it gives over, and returns, it can never convey to another mind any precise idea of the point to which it had gone.

Now nearly all the disputes on this subject which have agitated the church, lie in that doubtful region, where the mind can see but dimly, and must report even more dimly than it sees. Language has lost its power, though he who uses it does not perceive its weakness, and hence the discussions are made up almost entirely of explanations and corrections, and definitions of terms, and charges of misunderstanding or misrepresentation. We had better leave the whole ground. Believe what the Bible says, and look at the confirmations of it afforded so abundantly by experience, and leave discussions of theories for a future day.

We come then to the facts in the case, which are, that men will not turn away from sin, and begin, with broken-hearted penitence, to serve God, without his

Moral dependence on God.

Waiting for the Spirit.
You

aid. There is no way of inducing them to do it. can bring clearly before them the obligations which they are under to God, but if they still prefer the world and sin, what more can you do? You can exhibit the moral beauty of gratitude, but if you exhibit it to a heart naturally ungrateful, if such an one should be found, what good would it do? You cannot prove that if a man has received kindness from another he ought to show kindness in return. If the person you address does not perceive it, at once, there is nothing to be said about it; argument would be utterly unavailing. In the same manner, if he sees it, but does not feel it, you cannot alter his heart by reasoning.

There is a mistaken view of man's moral dependence, which in some cases produces one very sad effect. Persons sometimes think that the power to renew them is so completely in their Maker's hands that they must wait for him to exercise it. They seem to have the impression that God will repent for them, and they are looking to him to do it. Now this is very evidently absurd. The Holy Spirit will never repent for you; no, never. From the very nature of things he never can. You must repent yourself, though if you do it, it will be in the exercise of spiritual power supplied from on high.

The absurdity of such passive waiting to be acted upon, may be well illustrated, by some of the miracles of the Savior. A man, for example, comes to Jesus Christ with a withered hand. It hangs lifeless by his side. It is insensible and motionless, a symbol of the moral condition of the human soul when dead in sin. He asks help from the Savior; and what is the reply?" Stretch forth thine hand."

"How can I stretch it forth?

Its utter lifelessness,'

might the poor patient say to the Savior, "is the very reason why I bring it to thee. I cannot stretch it forth unless its life and power are previously restored,”