THOUGHTS ON KEEPING THE HEART. for participation in the activities and engagements of the living. But, though all this, it is still but an inference, and that a false one, to affirm that he can do nothing. Though spiritually dead, he is yet a living being, endowed with certain capabilities and affections: with mind capable of being enlightened and renewed through the medium of the understanding-to have the whole current of the affections and actions of the life changed to be a new man. Though dead, he is quite capable of doing and being all that God, who is the Father of the spirits of all flesh, calls him to do and to be. Now He calls on him to hear-to attend, that he might understand his message by His beloved Son in understanding and perceiving the evidence of its truth to believe - in believing, to be affected by what the message means and contains-and in being affected, to obey what His requirements areand in obeying to have life through His name, or be saved. "Thus with the heart man believes unto right --- He who made man's heart, knows what it is capable of, and how to address it. Now it so happens, that when speaking of that most vital part, the heart of man, the language of the Spirit, and the language of man, is often at complete variance. The Spirit says by Ezekiel, (chap. xviii. 31) "Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Divines are heard to say, he cannot do any such thing. The Spirit says again, by Peter, (Acts iii. 19) "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out," &c. Many teachers of Christianity say that is altogether out of man's power. And so it comes to pass, under the withering influence of such a strain of teaching, (alas! lamentably prevalent) that the most pointed arguments and exhortations that can be addressed to man, deeply affecting his eternal in-eousness," or justification; and all terests, are all turned aside as by a shield of triple steel, by this contrivance of human invention or, perhaps more properly, this perverted and isolated view of some scriptural expressions thought to countenance this false philosophy. Man being "dead in trespasses and sins," it is said, can no more do anything than the dead in the grave. And again, supposing that he could do something, that something would be to rob God of the glory of saving man by grace, and a-going about to establish our own righteousness. Now it may be sufficient to say, in reply to the first position, that though man be dead, it is in respect that while under sin he is free from righteousness cut off from fellowship with God-"dead," having no participation with the spiritually-minded, which, to be, "is life and peace." Not only free and cut off, but while in that state incapacitated J this according to the riches of divine that benefit from the royal proclamation of mercy. And with regard to the other horn of the dilemma, that man by doing anything, let it be but the act of receiving a benefit after a given manner, is going about to establish his own righteousness, is altogether so antagonistic to the manner of God in addressing his creatures, and so paralyzing to every one that believes it, that none need mistake as to who is its author evidently our adversary the Devil. The consequences of the propagation and belief of this doctrine is manifestly to lay an arrest on every movement of the soul towards God, and throw mankind into a dead sleep, as the event too truly shows. But, instead of man's activity in his own enlightened reformation and obedience to salvation infringing and militating against free grace, it greatly enhances it. And salvation is all the more of grace, because its Author has made it to depend on our own free acceptance, willing subjection, and appreciation. It is even understood by natural men who look into the working of things, that those human charities are the best in the distribution of the benefits of which the activities of the recipients are called for, and employment given them; and thus their slumbering energies made to minister to their own advancement and elevation. This is the true philosophy, because it harmonizes with the plan of heaven. Is there such a thing as a soul saved and brought into newness of life, irrespective of one's own co-operation and activity? Not one. Were it so, then men might be converted sleeping, or even altogether Idead! But the idea is ridiculous. In the salvation of men, God works and man works. God precedes man, provides for him what he cannot do for himself, and directs him in what he has to do; and all of free favor. His apostle, on the great day of Pentecost, after declaring the things concerning the Lord Jesus, and proving his Messiahship, he comes to say in the conclusion, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins," &c. "And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation." This is enough to prove, that even in the affair of turning to God, at the very commencement, man's activities and cooperation are called for. And the whole of his future progress in the Christian life, and final introduction into the heavenly kingdom, is made to depend on man himself co-operating with God: in a word, on the way in which he keeps and manages that sacred enclosure, the heart. J. D. HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS. KEEPING THE HEART.-No. 2. "Keep, keep thine heart with all keeping, for out of it are the issues of life."-SOLOMON. My soul, collect thy thoughts awhile, The merchant has the mart: May have a heaven or hell. For pleasant fruits, or bitter weeds, Care not so much for outward things See that all's right within: May act a hero's part; Who keeps and rules his heart. in religion, the unreasoning propensities and affections of the renewed soul, will sometimes point towards the path of duty, when reason, perverted and prejudiced by a sectarian Christian education, would mislead. love is one of these instinctive principles which prompts spontaneously to Christian union and Christian intercourse with those who are united to Christ. And hence it is, as we formerly observed, that, in all periods of the church, and in the midst of the most unpropitious circumstances, there have been appeals on behalf of Christian union, and the present age of the world is particularly remarked for the strenuous efforts which have been made to accomplish it. But the misfortune is, that the propositions which have been made by the friends of union have been too general and vague, and that they have failed to present that true scriptural basis upon which alone a real union can be effected. While they earnestly deplore the evils, and freely confess the sins of partyism; while they eloquently depict the advantage, and convincingly show the duty of union, they omit to lay down any fixed and definite principles upon which this union can be based. They urge the importance of mutual forbearance; but leave its limits undetermined. They show clearly that there must be some things in Christianity more important than others, and that a union should be formed upon these ; but they unhappily omit to determine what these matters of supreme im As sectarism is one of the most striking proofs of a departure from the gospel, so Christian union is one of the strongest evidences of a return to it. So manifestly inconsistent, indeed, is a state of division, alienation and strife, with Christian precept and Christian feeling, that all the ingenious sophistry employed to justify separatism, has failed to conceal from the truly pious its utter incompatibility with the religion of Christ. Apart even from the plain and repeated injunctions to maintain unity and peace, which the scriptures impose, there are sentiments, sympathies, or, we may say, instincts, in the bosom of the true believer, which afford better lessons, and give him a deeper insight into the real tendencies and purposes of Chris-portance are. They insist, with great tianity, than all the metaphysical subtleties of eclectic theology, or the unholy ardors of an intolerant zeal for the distinguishing tenets of a party. In morals, the instinctive principles of human nature, and the irrepressible suggestions of the heart, are, as it has been well remarked, often surer guides than reasoning, and serve to keep men right, where the latter would lead them astray. And it is no less true, that, propriety, that whatever be the principles of union adopted, they shall be perfectly compatible with the fundamental principle of Protestantismthe right of private judgment, and that every one shall be free to entertain and profess his own opinions; but they make no attempt to distinguish between these common principles of union, and these individual or private opinions. They even go so far as to take the very position which we have ourselves assumed, that whatever renders a man accepted of God, should render him accepted of his brother; or, in other words, that whatever saves men, should unite | them; but they do not agree to state what it is that thus procures acceptance and salvation. Perplexed by the doctrinal details of sectarian standards, they have failed to disentangle essential truth; or, already ranked among the adherents of a party, they have feared to compromise themselves and their associates by a bold return to the original platform of the gospel. "It is written ;" and casts out, by the word of God, even the deaf and dumb spirits, by which so many of the laity are possessed. There is, then, here no ambiguity, nor indefiniteness. We have here no human standard of divine truth. We have no mingling of men's opinions with the revelations of God. The dense mists which, rising from the earth, confounded it with heaven, are dispersed, and the clear line of the horizon now marks with vivid distinctness the boundary between the things of the world, and those which are above. But, as formerly remarked, it is not the wide and varied area which the Bible furnishes, that is proposed as the basis of Christian union. Upon the Bible alone there might, indeed, be formed, as was the case in the origin of the present effort, a most desirable union in the search for truth -a If they have even, as the members of the Evangelical Alliance, ventured so far as to propose certain points of agreement, these have been either so general as to admit all who profess to believe in the divine origin of Christianity; so precise as to be a profitable co-operation in the received only by a part of a single party, or they have been tenets selected on account of their popularity rather than their truth, and adopted from expediency rather than conviction. And all these, too, are doctrines of course the waking dreams of Protes-religious union in a general sense, but tantism—the speculative deductions of human reason--opinions, cherished as the last hope of religion; the very essence of piety, and the only security of morality! It is, however, one of the most striking traits of the present reformatory movement, that, in adopting the scriptures alone as the source of religious knowledge, and in employing the exact language of the inspired writers as the only "form of sound words," it has erected an impassable barrier, and marked out an unmistakeable distinction between faith and opinion, and dissipated the dreamy visions of religious philosophy, by that sun-light of divine truth which reveals the realities of the spiritual life. It resists the demon of speculation and partyism, as the Author of Christianity resisted the prince of demons, by workings of its mines of sacred treasure; and such a union and co-operation must commence and continue any religious reformation that really deserves the title. But it is not mere union that is the object, nor is it even Christian union—a union that is particular and specific, and which rests upon a peculiar basis of its own. A proper progress, therefore, in divine knowledge, necessarily narrows the wide field which the whole Bible exposes to our view, and by marking off the just boundaries of the primitive, patriarchal, and the Jewish institutions, leaves to Christianity its own sufficient and appropriate area. It is then, here, in the view which this reformation presents of Christianity, that its great distinctive feature is to be found. In its conception of the nature of the Christian religion itself, it differs in the most marked and striking manner from all the religious denominations of the day. And it is upon this peculiarity, which is the crown and glory of the present movement, that we desire more especially to fix the earnest attention of the found especially in the apostolic episreader. tles, in which God himself is an It is, as we have shown, the ap-nounced as LOVE; or declared to be proved and universal Protestant custom to make every thing regarded as essential in religion to turn upon particular points of doctrine. Christianity seems to be regarded by all parties as an institution based upon a system of doctrines; a religion consisting of certain essential and determinate points, the reception of which is absolutely indispensable to salvation. Now in direct contrast with all the denominations, we regard Christianity as an institution based upon FACTS, rather than upon DOCTRINES; a religion which consists of PRINCIPLES, rather than of POINTS. Could the religious world be induced to examine with candor our true position, and justly to appreciate the importance of the distinctions we have just stated, it would, we think, be clearly apparent to all, that, upon the ground which we propose alone, can a union ever be effected among Christians, and that no other view of Christianity is just, consistent, or divine. LIGHT; or represented as LIFE—in which Christ is styled "the truth;" "the word ""the way;" "the beginning and the end;" "the author and the finisher of the faith." It would seem as though the inspired writers delighted thus often to present and to contemplate the unity which belongs to Christianity: to show the ease with which the whole may be generalized under a single head; resolved into a solitary principle; concentered upon an individual object; or included in a single expression. And, in showing thus the essential unity of the system, do they not exhibit its admirable adaption to the great purpose of "gathering together all under ONE," and of affording a home of peace and love to every true follower of the Messiah? Certainly this constant tendency to reduce the whole religion to a single item-these beautiful generalizations, or condensations of truth every where recurring, like brilliant foci of light, in the sacred pages, might rebuke and put to shame that prevalent disposition to run into endless detail; to disperse and enfeeble the light of truth; and to multiply unnecessarily the points of Christian faith, by which the Christian_community itself has been dispersed and enfeebled, and its schisms created, multiplied, and continued. When Paul set up the Christian institution at Corinth, he delivered, first of all, as he declares (1 Cor. xv.) the simple facts of the gospel, which, as he alleges, had power to save, if retained in remembrance. When he unfolded to those who received these facts, the nature of the religion of Jesus, he resolved it into its principles of faith, and hope, and love. He The question in religion is not that made known Christ and him crucified of Pilate, "What is truth ?" In alone, as the personal object of these harmony rather with the witness of divine principles, and the only founda- Jesus, the inquiry is, What is the tion which could be laid for the Chris- truth? "To this end," said Jesus, tian church. How simple and how was I born, and for this cause came clear the language every where em- I into the world, that I should bear ployed by the inspired writers to ex-witness to the truth." But the repress this true basis of the Christian faith, and this proper ground of Christian union! How obvious the connection of their usual correlates of testimony and faith-love and obedience, Christ and union! How comprehensive those generalizations, 66 ligious world seem to have sought an answer to the indefinite question of Pilate, instead of hearing the testimony of Jesus. The question with Protestants has ever been, What is true doctrine? and whatever was adjudged to be true, must be made an article of |